The Big Trip 2

We finally made it onto the Salar and what an amazing experience, like riding on snow as hard as concrete and flat as far as the eye can see. Probably the only place on earth where you can ride with your eyes closed for a minute or two, exhilarating! The hotel where we stayed in Uyuni is a real meeting point for motorcycle travellers preparing for, or recovering from, a trip onto the Salar. Almost every day a new bike or two appears and sure enough the next morning there was another bike parked in the courtyard.

It took 4 days in all, from the morning the postman delivered the parts, to restarting the bike after taking the engine apart, having the cylinder redrilled and putting all back together.Demonstrators were out on the streets and roads into La Paz were blocked by protesting campesinos. Away from Plaza de San Francisco, where protesters were rallying, the city centre was quite, more so than usual.

We climbed steeply out of the valley and soon found ourselves at 4000m. The XT was not amused and started spluttering again, we took the cover off the air intake and that helped. With not too many forms to fill in and plenty of people ready to point us in the right direction.
Entering Peru was easier than leaving Chile, but we were used to that by now, the Chileans seem reluctant to let you leave, wonder why?

As I watched however, the sun soon disappeared and the black clouds came my way. It didn't rain, it hailed, long and hard, my bike wasn't much protection and I was huddled next to it wearing all my kit, helmet included.We had climbed back up to around 4000m and the landscape was bleak, a lake or two, with a flamingo here and there, broke the monotony of grass and rocks. The sun shone but in the distance dark grey clouds threatened. It was here that my bike decided it didn’t want to play anymore! It just died out, as if from lack of fuel.

There were a couple of tunnels carved out of the rock, one at least 500m long and curved, a little scary in the dusty blackness, luckily there were no buses coming in the other direction! The road through the canyon towards Cabanaconde hugged the side of the valley, red cliffs to our left, the river to our right.

There were rocks littering the road as we approached one of the toll stations and a large crowd was gathered around a truck on the other side.
A bloqueo or roadblock!
Oururo behind us, we took the long way round to Sucre, as we had been told the more direct route was much tougher, 300kms of hard dirt. As we approached the small town of Challapata however, we began to think that maybe the direct route would have been faster. There were rocks littering the road as we approached one of the toll stations and a large crowd was gathered around a truck on the other side.

The road for the first 50kms, was really narrow in places and we wondered if we had missed a turn-off. After the village of Molinos the road widened and passed through valleys filled with spectacular rock formations.Tupiza was a small town, we found only one hotel with parking, so it wasn't surprising to find a couple of bikes already there. The Africa Twins belonged to Claudio and Eduardo, from Santiago, on a 2 week holiday, heading towards Uyuni and the Salar.

The next morning we took it easy, only 150kms to Mendoza and I thought we would be there for lunch. The Argentine police however had other ideas.The air was full of dust and we couldn’t see the mountains surrounding us, so decided to give Valle de la Lunar a miss and ride on towards Mendoza. We took a wrong turn in the village of Huaca and ended up on dirt. It wasn’t too bad and the small river crossings cooled us and the bikes down. We were soon back on tarmac, but it was so potholed, the dirt was preferable.

There were more potholes than tarmac in fact and riding in the gravel that lay at the sides of the road was preferable to the rim-wrecking road surface. We took our time leaving Cajón Grande, but we were still quickly back onto the Ruta 40, which according to our information, was paved but with lots of potholes. There were more potholes than tarmac in fact and riding in the gravel that lay at the sides of the road was preferable to the rim-wrecking road surface.

The constant stop-go, stop-go was frustrating, the bikes began to overheat and so did we. Stopped at the side of the road for a break hoping we were not in a dodgy area.Riding dirt roads is all about confidence, it took me 15 hard months and numerous crashes to work that one out!! The last dirt road of the trip was probably the easiest for me, although I probably would have not have thought so a year ago.

One bus came so close behind me, that I couldn't see the driver, just the big Mercedes star on the front of the radiator. Unfortunately, Arno had taken his 'Bolivian security' a machete, off the bike, so we had to settle with the usual hand gesturesSandra and Javier are the HU community in Buenos Aires and go out of their way to make sure any travellers that arrive there are well taken care of.

the paperwork was done and dusted in a few minutes and it was time to get the bikes to the harbour.

MOTOQUEROS - THE NEW BOOK

Here it is, the book to accompany the trip!Here it is, the book to accompany the trip!

Written by Arno, with contributions from Sian and others, this book is in German, and follows our 18 month trip of 55,000kms, from the beaches of California to the most southerly city in the world. As we ride down Central America, past Mayan ruins and steaming volcanoes, read how we then cross into South America, battle through the endless Pampa in Patagonia, along the Altiplano to the heart of the Inca kingdom, ending after 18 months in the city of tango.