Sucre to Uyuni and La Paz...

Simon decided to stay in Sucre for another week to take advantage of the cheap Spanish lessons on offer while the rest of us headed off to the salt flats via Potosi.

Potosi, only a couple hundred K’s away along some windy sealed roads is a very grey city, definitely no Sucre. We had been spoilt with Sucre and Samaipata before that. We opted for some 20 boliviano accommodation and got straight out of there the next morning. Most people head to Potosí to visit the old silver mines. This was not over appealing to any of us. Granted the conditions are pretty terrible and the small groups of co-operative miners are paid very little, but crawling around in a shitty mine 250m underground does not sound like too much fun. Good move Simon staying in Sucre!

Only another couple hundred K’s to Uyuni, this time on dirt roads with a never-ending amount of road works. It was another 10 hour ride and again all very scenic, very different from the 10 hour ride from La Higuera to Sucre. This area of the Andes is very dry with only a few little valleys with water running through them. You find large herds of alpacas and llamas in these areas all with their colorful ear tags.

Great view of the Salar and Uyuni from the mountains. It is a very vast and barren landscape. Upon closer inspection of Uyuni it looks like a bomb has hit it…it's not a very appealing town, grey, cold and our 20 BOB accommodation was like a little crack den, or at least it turned into one. Our first impressions were to get out on the salt flat ASAP and get out of the town and La Paz bound…only this was easier said than done.

We planned to go out onto the Salar for a two day one night trip on the bikes and camp at Isla de Pescado about 80km from the edge of the salt flat. All the prep was in place including lots of warm gear as it apparently gets as low as -25 degrees Celsius out on the salt. Unfortunately we all, apart from Kate, got a nasty stomach bug. So we spend three days doing stuff all except lots of games of Yaniff and eating ‘rice and flavor’.

We did eventually get out onto the salt, only for a day trip unfortunately but it was still spectacular nonetheless. We rode out to Isla Inkahuasi and back. It was great fun and a ‘must do’ place to see in Bolivia.



So after our troubles with Uyuni we pushed on towards Oruro, and then onto La Paz. The corrugated roads took a toll on Matteo’s bike and a massive crack appeared on the rim about half way thought he dirt section. After a road side coffee and a bit of araldite glue on the rim we proceeded at about 50kms/hr to try and get to the next town and put the bike on a truck for the rest of the way to La Paz. We pulled in to a town called Challapata as it was just getting dark, however although there was plenty of trucks that we could put the bike on for the last 300 or so K’s to La Paz, all the truck drivers appeared drunk as it was Saturday night. So this idea was quickly canned and we moved onto finding somewhere to stay. This town turned out to be one of the strangest places we had ever been in and every hotel in town refused to take us in. with all these troubles we decided to take off towards Oruro, in the freezing cold darkness. It is not recommended to drive at night in Bolivia and we soon found out why. We were forced off the road by trucks and scared shitless by drivers coming up behind us with no lights on. All the drivers appeared drunk or high… a truly frightful night. At about 12pm we pulled into Oruro and treated ourselves a very expensive hotel, glad to have survived.

The next morning after reassessing the rim we thought perhaps if we went slow we could make it all the way to La Paz, however 70kms out the crack was spreading so we pulled over a truck and loaded the bike on to get us to La Paz.

People from La Paz claim it to be the highest capital city in the world, with the airport sitting at 4000m above sea level. The result of this is severe breathlessness every time you climb a flight of stairs or the many hills around town. La Paz was the last destination for David, Kate and Matteo to travel to together. From here the journey separated with Dave booting ahead to get back to Santiago for his 25th of May flight out to Sydney and Kate and Matteo, having an extra month till 21st of June, continuing at a slower pace.

We were unable to order a new rim as the earliest they said they could get the rim in was 30-40 days so we settled for the rim being welded and hoped for the best. It the meantime while the bike was in the shop, Matteo, Simon and Kate took a bus to Rurrenabaque to the Bolivian Amazon. We spent 5 days wildlife watching, swimming with the pink dolphins, piranha fishing, trekking through the jungle and taking boat rides. A truly worthwhile trip. As the bus ride was so traumatic for Kate and Matteo, used to their own transport, took a very easy flight back while Simon, braver than most persisted with the bus.

Before leaving La Paz, we did the ‘Death Road’, a 30kms mountainous track, only one lane width, considered the world’s most dangerous road. It used to be the main road from La Paz to Coroico before they built a new tarmac road and apparently about 200 people used to die on it every year, including several tourists. The road is actually one of the most beautiful roads we have done. With stunning drop offs , waterfalls on the sides of the mountains and spectacular views. However this road was done on a very wobbly rear rim on the bike as after the welding the tyre came back completely unbalanced and not so round.

Into Bolivia - Corumba to Sucre....

We made it across the border from Brazil to Bolivia safely, saying goodbye to all the Brazilian paperwork but hello to the bribing culture of Bolivia! The border officer in Bolivia happily told us that the computer system would not work on saturday but with a small fee he would manage to turn the computer on the get our motorbike visas organised, so with that we were on our way to do the 525kms to Santa Cruz.


The first leg of the journey was on the best sealed roads we could ever dream of but this quickly changed about 12kms after a lovely old Jesuit Mission town called San Jose.


The dirt road offered every imaginable off road condition, from mud, rocks, sand and bull dust. About 100kms from Santa Cruz in the worst bull dust any of us had seen Dave unfortunately came off his bike. No injuries sustained to Dave luckily but the pannier frames took a hammering and needed some welding done in Santa Cruz.
The good thing that came as a result of this tough road was that Matteo finally came up with a name for his bike... ´Roberta´. Named after a tough old horse he had in Kenya growing up, and also cause she is tad like Roberta out of the Australian TV series Underbelly, tough and obnoxious...not a bad name for a KLR650.

All of us were tired and worn out as we finally completed the 350kms of road in 10 hours, and rolled into Santa Cruz in darkness, something none of us were comfortable with. Luckily a great guy, Juan, on an Africa Twin drove up to us and escorted us through all the hectic traffic. The kindness of people whilst we have been travelling has never ceased to amaze us.

We stayed at a hostel called Jodanga in Santa Cruz which was very accommodating of the bikes, and was a great place for R and R. We spent 4 nights in Santa Cruz whilst we saw the sights of the town and made the repairs needed to the bikes and some new tyres for Roberta. We were all amazed with the westernised items you can get in Bolivia as there is a very good importing culture, so the bikes were easily serviced with all the brands we wanted.

From Santa Cruz we went to a little town full of ex pats called Samaipata. It was a very scenic 120kms drive, however we joined a lot of traffic heading from Santa Cruz to the little town for the Easter weekend. Samiapata will be remembered for the great food, a fantastic animal refuge and a truly beautiful day hike in Amboro National Park.


We were recommended a road called 'Ruta del Che' to take to get to the capital of Bolivia Sucre (although this is hard to confirm as people from Sucre think it is the capital, and the people from La Paz think La Paz is the capital... strange to say the least )


The Ruta Del Che is in significant in the history of Che Guevara as it was the area where he and his men hid in the mountains and tried to start a revolution in Bolivia against the military dictator. Two towns along the mountainous passes are of great importance. Valle Grande where there is a small museum with some photos and his clothes and La Higuera were he was shot at the local school.

In the little town there is a small shop owned by a lady who claimed to have smuggled food to Che when he was hiding in the mountains. She made us a fantastic lunch and we had a great bottle of warm beer. We also spent the night at La Higuera at a beautiful posada called Casa de Telegrafista.


The next morning it was only 280km to Sucre but all of it was dirt bar 70kms but most of climbing and descending like the previous day. The scenery was amazing from dense greenery to cactus ridden, spaghetti western style landscape. We rolled into Sucre, once again in the dark and found a great hostel with safe parking for the bikes called Wasi Masi.

Sucre is a really beautiful center of town that is UNESCO world heritage listed. We spent 4 days relaxing and enjoying the sights of the town. The highlight has to be the mirrador cafe where we spent hours lazing in the sun, playing cards and eating amazing food. Not a bad way to spend some time. Motoservi, a really nice moto shop fabricated a 15mm aluminium spacer for Roberta's rear shock to stiffen it up a tad. They did a great job on the lathe. The next stop was Salar de Uyuni, the world’s highest salt flat.

Corumba and the Pantanal...

Our final destination in Brazil before heading into the much anticipated Bolivia was the border town named Corumba. From here we where able to sort out a few last minute things with the bikes and also head out a night out into the Pantanal. The Pantanal is the largest wetland area in the world, and is home to a massive variety of flora and fauna which definitely spoilt us during our visit.




We all opted for the much cheaper option of sleeping in hammocks, rather than the air-conditioned hotel rooms during our stay in the Pantanal. Good meals where also included in the price as well as a variety of tours, with horse riding and jeep tours being our preference. Both where good fun and we where able to see a nice variety animals. One of the main highlights was a friendly Toucan which came and shared breakfast with us in the morning around the campsite.





Corumba itself wasn´t too exciting, so after getting the bikes all sorted we took of for the border and the nearby Bolivian town of Puerto Suárez. Here Simon and Blair would again split from us too catch the train to Santa Cruz and we hit the road with the aim of reaching Santa Cruz within a couple of days...depending on the road conditions...but at this stage we were all very excited about the prospect of a new country, with new cultures and the fact that we no longer had to worry about speaking Portuguese.

Bonito and the muddy road there...

It took us three days to reach Bonito after leaving Brasilia. This was mostly due too a section of road about half way through our journey. The relentless rain fall this night before we hit the road had caused the dirt road to turn in to a nice slippery, muddy one. And seeing as though we were still running with our mostly road tyres on it made our task even harder. Dave had picked up his new set of more knobbly tyres two days earlier in Brasilia but was carrying them until the Bolivian border before putting them on (too get the most out of the existing tyres). But he soon found himself and the bike lying sideways on the mud twice in one hour, and both times braking off the panniers cam locks. Its quite frustrating seeing these nice off road tyres strapped to the bike when all you want is for them to be around the wheels. Good fun none the less.



Apart from the muddy road, we made it to Bonito too meet up with Simon and Blair without too many other hassles. Bonito is a lovely small town with one main commercial street. Very similar to other tourist town we have been too, meaning that there are lots of nice restaurants, bars, and Internet cafes. But what make Bonito so special is not the things found in the town is whats around that pulls in the points.






There are a number of freshwater rivers, with the clarity of a glass of mineral water in which you can snorkel. There are a huge number of fish which surround you as you drift effortlessly down stream. Such an amazing experience. It is so strange to think that we are in the middle of all this farming land and here we are going snorkeling in water which would rival that found somewhere like Fiji or Samoa.






Next stop is Corumba and the Bolivian frontier!

The Future City...

Brazil´s capital, Brasilia is a city full of stunning architecture. The city itself is only 50 years old and was designed by the Brazilian architect Lucio Costa. The whole city is base on the layout of an aeroplane, with a main central spine and too sweeping wings, and every sector of the plan has is purpose. There is a sector for banking, one for electronics etc etc. There are no street names, instead a numbering system has been put in place..at times this does get rather confusing, but there is logic behind it.





On of the main reasons for us visiting Brasilia was to see the architecture, in particular the work done by the famous Oscar Niemeyer, a Brazilian modernist architect who turned 100 this year! His work is very monumental, at times puzzling, but many ideals that he has within his buildings are still influential with today's designers. The vast open spaces around his buildings and the futuristic designs make it seem like you are walking around a movie set for the next Star Wars film.



We were all looked after unbelievably well by Margi and Gerard Moss who put us up in there home for the 4 days we were there. I think that we all appreciated some home comforts, and some time to relax. Thanks again guys. Margi and Matteo´s mum Daphne when to school together back when they where living in Kenya and when she heard that we would be travelling through central Brazil Margi kindly offered to have us stay. Both Margi and Gerard have travelled all over the world and have visited over 100 countries, so they had some great travel stories and tips to give us for the rest of our travels. Margi and Gerard are no strangers to adventures, having travelled around the world together in a single engine plane, and Gerard until recently held the world record for the most economical flight around the world, done on a glider with a small single engine to use when needed.



Apart from seeing all the buildings that were on offer, we did have some time to do a bit of work on the bikes. After Dave picked up a new set of Tyres (50/50 tread ready for the ruff stuff in Bolivia) and both the bikes had an oil, oil filter, and spark plug change, we went over the bikes looking for any loose nuts and bolts..its surprising how often things can rattle loose.

A must see destination recommended by Margi and Gerard was a small town called Bonito, and after having a look at a few of their pictures we all soon agreed that that was to be our next port of call.