Skip to main content

Motoventure Day 19: Puno to Desaguardero

P1050172 (written 11/9 @ 10AM)  Simple easy day yesterday – loaded up the jaumoto and headed towards Desaguardero, the border town between Peru and Bolivia.  Word was that at 8AM on Monday we could start getting stuff down to cross into Bolivia so we wanted to start early.

 

P1050202 The drive was quite uneventful, a simple 150km along a mostly paved road (though it was quite rough for most of it and I had to swerve a lot to avoid potholes).  About two hours out of town I caught up with Rob & Will who were still having problems with their moto and we basically hung out most of the rest of the way – often with me racing ahead to try to get cool photos.

 

P1050229 The coolest thing of the day was spending almost all of it with Lake Titicaca next to us on the left – the scenery was amazing.  At one point we also saw lots of flamingos in a little lake, and overall the drive was quite populated with a constant string of affluent
(compared to the others we've seen) villages on the side of the road.  Lots of cows, sheeps, and alpacas!

 

P1050219 We crashed at a pretty nice hostal in Desaguardero and I spent the afternoon mucking about with my moto to provide better waterproofing for my gear in back (just in case) and reduce some flapping.  I also watched Zombieland and really enjoyed it!

 

 

Today we've been mucking about with the paperwork in Desaguardero – everybody is weighed (the ten teams that are still in it and are here) but we're waiting for one guy to type out everyone's paperwork and he types slow.  So right now we're hoping to get out of Peru around 2PM and have no problems in Bolivia (yeah right) and get to La Paz with ease!

P1050364

One funny(ish) anecdote – I don't have a visa for Bolivia yet, so I asked yesterday if I could go into Bolivia, get the visa, and come back.  The Peruvian border guard said that should be fine, as did the Bolivian border guard.  When I talked to em/immigration at Peru though, the guy said I'd be crazy to try that – the Bolivians would probably hit me with all sorts of stuff to prevent me from leaving.  He recommended I wait, thus I did.

 

Hopefully things come together after this and I get to see the stuff I want and we don't have any more paperwork drama!

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Days 94-98: The Struggle for Beauty

In which Pete nearly loses Red and gives up once again, before crossing an ice field to spend the night with the Bolivian army at Laguna Colorada and returning to Uyuni for supplies.
Post a Comment
Read more

Jury Duty: Not Like TV (or: Longest Post EVER)

Prepare yourself for by far the longest blog post ever – if you’re at all curious about real life jury duty or enjoy all those cop & lawyer shows then give it a go - this recount of the trial and details given for evidence will blow your mind, make you think twice about the effectiveness of our police officers and the impartiality of our juries… Shortly before leaving on my trip in January, I was summoned for DC Grand Jury Duty .  I was able to have it rescheduled to begin on June 7 and made it back to the US only a few days before it was due to start.  After thinking about it I really felt that I would not be comfortable spending 27 days of 8:30AM to 5PM in an “office” for $30 a day, especially with the changes to the economy going on right now – I’d rather enjoy that time. Upon arriving at the courtroom for Grand Jury Duty, I quickly noted that there were over 40 people in the room, considerably more than the number required for the Grand Jury.  Once we were checked in, the c
1 comment
Read more

Days 61-62: The Little Engine that Could… Not?

In which Pete returns to Ruta 40 with a shiny new front wheel, struggles against mysterious engine problems, has an argument with a police officer in the dark, and survives a desert of prickly thorns only to get a flat at Walmart. Day 61 Begin: Santa Rosa, Las Pampas, Argentina @ 10:30AM End: Unknown Location, Ruta 143, Las Pampas, Argentina @ 6:15PM Distance: estimated 350km (218mi), no odometer and GPS datalogger failed I was pretty stoked this morning. Red was shiny and clean, his new front wheel was incredibly stable, swapping out the fat and loud MT40 in back for a normal road tire made him more quiet and docile, and all that ash and gunk was cleaned out of the intake system. The temperature was so warm (upper 50’sF) that I felt free and agile wearing less layers than normal and the wind was blowing straight south while I would be traveling mostly westward – incredible luck that I wouldn’t be traveling straight into the wind the entire day.
Post a Comment
Read more