Accident in Sucre...

29th April
Sucré, Bolivia

(I wrote this before but I thought I´d copy and paste it here..
I have returned to Sucre.
Just enjoyed an `ambulance´ ride after smashing up my bike.
But don´t you worry. I let myself out of hospital and have caught up with a few friends who are helping me out. My right arm, side/back, thigh are quite sore but I think I am ok.
Mind you the drugs are making me a bit tired so I think i will have a lie down. No bones broken, i think it is just muscular..
Hope to get hold of the bike later today. Don´t know how damaged it is, the least I know is that the front tyre isn´t holding air.. hopefully the forks are ok as I hit a rather large rock..
no one else was involved. Bit embarassing really but I will tell you more later. Unless I die of internal bleeding first ,-)
That wasn´t a nice joke.
I like holding people in suspense...
thank God I was close to Sucre and thank God i was wearing all my protective clothing.

30th April

I am feeling much better. The leg is quite fine and I can walk quite well The right side and middle to upper back on the right side gives me a bit of pain - can´t pick up heavy things and bend over withut thinking how.. So, really I am very thankful for the way things have worked out.

I met up with my friend, James, who I went to School with in Buenos Aires back at the hostel I am staying in which was quite fortunate. Today we hooked up with another friend from BA who also speaks a bit more spanish than me to check out the bike...

But for those who want to know I will go back to yesterday and what happened..

I was returning back to Potosí to head up towards La Paz making use of one of the only good roads around when I had a momentary lack of concentration (the only way I can explain it as it all happened so fast) . I just went around a corner and had my eyes off the road (looking at the scenery or the car going the other way.. not sure anymore) when I realised that I had just gone off the edge of the road. Still don´t know how I did it. Problem was I couldn´t quickly turn back onto the road because right at this place the edge of the road was covered with rocks from a rock fall above.
(This photo doesn´t do it justice.. the rock at the end is a good 50cm high with a pointy bit facing this way..)
I was going too quick for this type of terrain (the road was pavement) and I couldn´t do anything about it but hold on an try and stay upright. I bounced over most of it and made to the end but I knew that once I reached the end I was going to fall off. This flashed before me eyes and I knew it. I was going to fall off. Thankfully I made it to the end and the bike took the brunt of the big rock at the end...



Lying on the ground trying to breathe and not being able to move very well wasn´t such a nice experience... Thankfully I was on a busy road and very close (10kms max) from Sucre and many people stopped to help (and stare). There was also a millitary base not far and the Millitary took over and helped. They collected all my gear that was scattered everywhere (my right pannier (bag) exploded on impact..) and got my bike upright. After getting my helmet and jacket off I managed to sit up for a while til I felt a bit faint and lay down again. The military organised a trip for me to the hospital. Lying on the stretcher I was more worried about my gear and my bike and what would happen to it than me....

Anyway in the hospital they checked me over. Didn´t end up taking xrays. Not sure exactly why but the language barrier didn´t help much. I started to feel a bit better and worked out I could stand and walk alright (sore back being the main hindrance to walking.). They gave me a couple injections and I let myself out of the hospital thinking I may as well find a hotel instead. Hospital bills are pretty cheap around here (all up less than 5 dollars..)
Bumped into my friend, James, as soon as I got to my Hotel who has been helping me out.

Which brings me back to the bike...

All is not good here.
The right side of the bike took a real thrashing. The engine bars saved major damage however the right footpeg has sheared off and cosmetically it don´t look too nice..

The forks seem alright which I am glad about but front wheel is not too good.

Two major dents and it might be buckled. I really don´t know if I can fix it (in australia I wouldn´t even bother) or if I will have to work out a way to get another one here from somewhere. It is an unusual size wheel from a bike you can´t get here in Bolivia... plus shops don´t exactly stock bike wheels very often.

So this is my next project.
Never a dull moment.


UPDATE
3 May
My wheel looks round now. Sort of. I am waiting for a new tyre from Santa Cruz. Meant to be here by Monday. I think this might be a temporary fix. Will wait until is back on the bike before i make a final a judgement..

Potosí, Bolivia

Here a bunch of pics from what I have seen/done lately.
You get lots of markets like these in Bolivia where you can buy absolutely anything from a stall selling just diodorants to TVs to plastic buckets.A side street in Potosí

An electric element in the shower head... Hmmm
Not to mention the bare electrical connections..

Part of a huge machine that used to be used for flattening ingots to mint coins.. It was run by donkeys or mules.

I really liked Potosí. It is an interesting town to walk around and admire all the colonial architecture. Potosí has the honour of being the highest city in the world at 4060m. You do notice this as you walk around and your lungs try to find more air that isn´t there. Mind you on the last morning I was there I witnessed some sort of marathon with lots of people running up and down the streets and while you could see them panting away there is no way I could have done that. I enjoyed Potosí for it´s history. Next to it is a mountain which has been mined since the 1500s for silver. More silver has come from here than any other place in the world. It literally kept the Spanish economy alive for over 200 years. Millions of indigenous and african slaves worked and died in the mines in apalling conditions. Potosí was bigger and richer than London many years ago. You sort of wonder what happened to all the money (Well Spain took it all but what then??)... I took a tour down one of the mines still operating today to check it out.

The miner´s market where you buy coca leaves, cigarillos and dynamite..Coca leaves.. Popular with miners (and locals), supposedly helps combat the altitude. I chewed a few leaves for fun, don´t know if it made any difference. The present Bolivian president, Moralés, is known (among other things) for the saying Coca leaves yes, Cocaine no. Don´t know how hard it is going to be to realistically separate the two with Cocaine still being one of the biggest income earners in Bolivia.That is 96% alcohol!!! -At just over a dollar a bottle. Talk about burning the insides out. It was rotten. Smelt like White Spirits. Excluding the conditions in the mines no wonder the miner´s here don´t have a long life span..One if the many entrances into the mine. Often wet and/or dusty.Climbed down and up a couple crazy ladders. They are held in place by two bent over nails or a piece of bicycle tubing..Not even a ladder here. The workers need to climb the knotted rope you see in the bottom right corner at the end of their shift to get out.A piece of the famous silver ore. While the vein of ore is nowhere as rich as years before the price of silver keeps all worthwile.Tio, the god/devil they serve to keep them safe. Originated from the time when the Spainards made the locals and slaves work in the mine. Since the Spaiñards wouldn´t go down there themselves they spoke about a `being´ in the mountain who was checking up on them, blessing or punishing them depending on how hard they worked. The story grew from there and is still alive today..

After Potosí took the road to Sucré. For Bolivia it was a fantastic bit of tarmac. If I lived out here I´d own a sportsbike just to do this 160km long road at least once a week..

Brilliant.

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

23 April



Bad experiences always seems to make the best stories.



The other day would have to be one of the best and worst days I have had on my trip. It all the started the day before after I had entered Bolivia. I ended up taking the ´pavement´ road from Chile into Bolivia ending in the frontier town of Pisiga. This is to the North of both the Salar Coipasa and Uyuni. Salar de Uyuni, by the way is the world´s largest salt lake in the world, positioned about 3600m above sea level. The locals told of a shortcut to Llica on the western bank of the Salar which cut through Salar de Coipasa which I did. It was a bit wet in places and the bike started to grow a nice covering of salt. I met an Italian tour group in the middle of nowhere who fed me lunch - even got dessert!! From there I continued onward to Llica. The tracks (can´t call them roads) ranged from floundering in sand to bashing the bottom of the bike on rocks. Just before I got to Llica I met a local who strongly recommended me to go to Salinas de Garci-Mendoza, which was really out of my way. I got the impression that there were some awesome ruins there worth seeing (he kept mentioning Machupichu). Well, in true style, I changed plans and headed to Salinas. Nice little town to the North of the Salar Uyuni. Definitely very few tourists seem to make it this way. However I don´t think it is going to stay this way for long....



The next day I went to find the Ruinas. They were close by at Alpaya. I found a Spanish Speaking guide who showed me around. The ruins were huge and I was told they dated back 3000 BC (maybe, definitely precolumbian) and some 500000 people lived in this area. I believe it. He showed me the stone houses the people lived in and how they had to crawl through a small opening halfway up. He showed all these mummified remains and opened graves, a little macabre but truly facinating. He showed me where they stored their food in cold storage, how they farmed both plants and animals. I saw plenty of pottery fragments still scattered about. I saw all the stone walls, the river running through the valley, the pathways and in the total peace and quiet tried to imagine a thriving society. And I had the whole place to myself.

But things are a changing around here. Signposts are being erected and accomodation is being built at the bottom for the tourists who will come here once the word gets out. I bet this place is going to become really popular. I wonder what it is going to do to the little towns around it??



Well that part of my day was one of my finest moments, the rest of the day turned into a bit of a nightmare. I really thought it was the end.

With my ´detailed´ map I headed off for Uyuni. I tried to take a few short cuts across part of the Salar, since the Salar is smooth and roads are not.. All was good until I hit a patch of mud and promptly fell off with the bike sliding in front of me. No major damage but I took things a little easier from there.

Well eventually I did find a sign that said Salar de Uyuni and off I went down that road. It did seem a bit strange because it was heading East not South but I kept going. And then there was the Salar before me and it looked like it was wet. What a perfect mirage (I thought). But. It was not a mirage at all as the road disappeared into salty water. There was no way I was going that way and anyway it was heading in the wrong direction. And then I made a decision. I thought I knew where I was and thought that just around ´that´ peninsular to the South was the bit I rode yesterday (all very dry). All I had to do was cross a bit of water, hug the `coast´ and find dry ground.

Well, I was wrong. Very wrong. And it almost cost me the rest of the trip. As I went I realised I had to ride in the water a bit but the water was getting deeper. I was thinking how corrosive the salt would be for my bike and decided to try head up onto the salt bank to the edge. Unfortunately the Salt bank was soft and I didn´t ride up but rather right into it. The bike was well and truly stuck. Stuck in the most corrosive enviroment I could think of. I was far away from any road or any civilisation. There was nobody to help me.
I hit the wall of despair.
I checked around the corner, just for kicks, sinking over a metre into the salt in places, and what I saw was amazing. Unfortunately it wasn´t dry at all but the water spread right to the horizon. Actually you couldn´t see the horizon but you knew it was there by the reflection of the clouds. The whole place was so painfully beautiful but I was stuck.
However, feeling sorry for yourself doesn´t get much done. It took a couple frantic hours to dig my bike out of the salt using my small 1 litre billy can. I let the tires down and rode the bike back into the water where the ground was hard and gingerly turned it around and headed back to safety.

Ended up returning to Salinas as it was too late in the day and I wouldn´t have enough fuel. Cleaned the bike and after finding the right way headed across the dry part of the Salar to Uyuni the following day.


In between dropping the bike and getting it well and truly stuck I was thinking to myself how nothing happens by chance... We are so small. We think we have everything under control. We are king. But we are not. We are in God´s hands. We need to/ I need to/ always remember my Creator, that I am His child and I need to put my trust in Him. Doesn´t mean my life will always be smooth but it does me that I can always be at rest. "That I am not my own but belong to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ, who has bought me with His precious blood......" (LD1)
Trust, not always easy but definitely the most fulfilling. May God always lead and may I always follow.

Iquique

April 18th

Today I checked out the tax free zone here in Iquique. It is huge and you can buy almost anything here. I managed to pick up a new camera. I ended buying almost the same one as the one I bought before except it is the updated model so I now have a slightly ´better´ camera.

The ride to Iquique was great. The Atacama desert is all that. Very dry but more mountainous, unlike the deserts in Australia. Dropping off the plateau to the sea was a nice set of perfect curves (I´m talkn about roads here..) as was the ride up the coast to Iquique. A bit like the Great Ocean Road but then with no vegetation and hardly any cars. Perfect. It has been great to be near the ocean again too.

Tomorrow I plan to head off into the sticks and find a way into Bolivia. One map I have shows a Border Crossing that looks good but the other map I have doesn´t show it. Might just ride there and check it out...

Paso de Jama

Well, I am back in Chile. Right now I am in San Pedro de Atacama. Today I went over the Jama Pass from Punamarca in Argentina. The Jama Pass is 4600m high which is now the highest I have ever been on my motorcycle (actually that is quite a bit higher than any mountain I have climbed too.) The road was stunning as I have come to expect around here. It was pretty cold up the top on the altiplanos with ice on the side of the road in some places. I didn´t really notice the thinner air but it wasn´t like I was climbing a mountain...

I passed a traffic accident on the way. A truck carrying about 10 cars must have lost its brakes as it flipped onto its side and crashed into a corner on a hairpin bend. The whole truck was well and truly crushed with a few cars flung out the back. I don´t think any other cars were involved but it looked very messy. I didn´t stop because I didn´t think I´d be much use and nosy spectators aren´t needed. Makes you remember your mortality...

I´ve a had a slight change of plans. The reason I am not too proud of...
The other day in Salta I lost my camera. Now, this is the second camera on this trip. After writing on this blog last time and uploading a few photos I got distracted after printing off a few documents and talking to a friend. The camera was still connected but out of sight - and thus out of mind. I left the internet cafe and went out for dinner with another friend and didn´t miss my camera til on my way back to my Hostal. Needless to say when I returned to the Cafe it was gone. So I lost my camera and about half my photos. Idiot. That is all I can say about that..
Soooo, I need to get another camera. The prices in Salta were too much but I have found out that there is a place in Chile at the port of Iquique that has a tax free zone - cheap(er) electrical goods. This is out of my way but on the bright side I get to see more of the Atacama desert. I am now thinking of entering Bolivia further north than I first planned but still plan to get to the Salar at Uyuni. Just need to do a bit of research on which road to take into Bolivia.

Northwest Argentina

April 14 I am in Salta at the moment in Northwest Argentina, waiting. Waiting for the weather to change. It is cold and wet even though I am nearly level with the tropic of Capricorn. Salta is a bit of a base for back packers. It is ok. I have enjoyed the good restaurants but I have had enough. I just want to get away. I hope to cross back over into Chile to San Pedro de Atacama. To do this I need to cross the Andes again and this time the altitude is around 4200m. If it is cold down here I can only imagine how cold it would be up there. So there I was today just sort of moping about, treating myself to a good steak to cheer me up when in walks me mate Phil. I met Phil a few days before. He has been travelling on and off for the last ten years or so, a wealth of information and a top bloke. He decided not to ride today as well (he is going south) so we sat around and chewed the fat, drank coffee and caught a movie - basically just killed a bit of time. Phil gave me a map the other day of Bolivia and a bit of info on the road ahead. It sounds like the roads out there are the roughest in all of South America. Bike breaking roads. Phil reckons he doesn´t want to do them again...

BUT, I still want to try. Maybe if the salt flats aren´t dry enough I will go a different way. Salt and water and bikes aren´t a good combination.

Travelling north through Argentina has been anything but short of amazing. The ever changing scenery has been mind boggling time and time again. I think the North is as beautiful as the South. Maybe more beautiful. Multicoloured rocks, green valleys, dry valleys, cacti, old ruins, awesome windy bike roads through gorges, wineries, old churches, old spanish architecture, mud brick houses, huge eagles, ancient rock paintings, indigenous artesans, and many friendly people.

Some good wines (Torrentés for one) but I have been spoilt with the wines from the South West (Australia).These ruins at Quilmes predate the Incas...

If you need to walk around in the ´bush´out here at night to take a pee I think a torch would come in handy...

Finding these rock paintings was a bit of an achievement since the directions I had were wrong. I found them late in the afternoon and had the whole site to myself. It was a surreal experience lying on my back staring at the rock ceiling trying to work out the meanings of all the different pictures and symbols, trying to imagine a life so foreign to ours today. Sitting in the cave watching the sun go down was a beautiful and tranquil scene - unchanged for thousands of years, great until I realised I still needed to travel a few more hours on the bike...Humitas... derived from corn. Tasted alright. Very popular in Bolivia so I´d better get used to it..

Argentinos love to sing and dance and do it pretty well too.

Small section of roa between Cafyate and Salta. Bit shaky and poor quality once again...