Wednesday, November 30, 2011


Like I said, not much happening in this video just general feel for the situation and in last minutes you can hear cops shooting the tear gas

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Back to Puno Peru

The day started just like most days on my trip, get up, pack up, eat something and leave. The street traffic was heavy as usual in any big city I guess, but I'm getting better on riding in it so I got the the highway out downtown La paz just fine. About half way through I noticed few mini buses going against the traffic flow what the?, a minute later more cars coming right at me. At first I thought that maybe I'm at the wrong side but than both sides had the same thing happening, hmm maybe an accident?.
I got closer to the top of the mountain when I noticed tons of smoke on top of the hill and many people running back down, what the heck is happening?!. I was still making my way through when I started to feel a heavy fumes scratching my throat and seconds later my eyes were burning like hell, o shit it was tear gas and allot of it. I stop immediately to catch my breath and just as quick I rode back down the hill to get away from it. Come to find out it was a students protesting and the whole hell broke loose, the riot cops were everywhere shooting the tear gas into the air. I recorded a short video from the safe distance but I didn't catch much in it. Few minutes later I was told to start going up the hill as it was safe to pass now, I stopped briefly to pull my other camera for good shots but I was told to keep on moving so I only have some pictures done with the hand held. The protest was pretty much done at this time and the only thing that was left is allot of people everywhere and tons of debris on the road. I slowly made my way out the city and finally puled over for some soft drink and few pills to kill my headache. Good times :).
Link to news on that

Traffic going down hill
We were told that its ok to go back up

Its obvious what happen here
The news crew with police protection
More stuff on the road
I can still feel the tear gas here

Lots of riot police
Burning tires on the road


It took me about 3 hours to get through that, the rest of the way to the border was easy as was the crossing it self. I meet a traveler from Colombia on the border so we had a quick chat and I told hime about the whole ordeal and to be careful. Made it to Puno before the dark and tomorrow I will start making my may to Cuzco. I will post the video when it finish uploading to youtube slow internet here .
Border is across the water
Good luck bud, I hope you made it to the city just fine :)
 Cheers

Monday, November 28, 2011

Peru Puno to Bolivia La Paz

OK lets see: from New York US to La Paz Bolivia = 70 days and just about 13000 miles, not to bad :)

I left Puno early in the morning and followed the Titicaca lake all the way to the border, it was a nice ride, the weather was good and I'm getting use to the altitude. On one of the view points of the lake I come up on a bus full of tourists, those were the people from Poland that I saw in Nazca and this time my bike was more of a attraction than the lake its self lol.

Border info.
Leaving Peru: Stamp out your passport in the building on the left side and just before the gate you have to go to Aduana office on the right, they will take back part of your registration form and stamp the one half that you get to keep for police check point.
At the police station (next door) the guy was trying to get me for 20bucks telling me that I need to buy some other form of insurance but I stood my ground saying that when I entered the country they told me that this is all I need, so the guy let me go and I was good to go.

Entering Bolivia: at the immigration office go to first window where the guy checks your passport and give you a form to fill up (easy and in English) than off to window 2 where you get visa stamp in (with Polish passport is free for 30days). than you need to get copies of you title, registration, passport both with picture and visa stamp and drivers license. With the copies go to aduana office where they will input all data to the computer and print one form for you.
With that for you go to the police office where they will check your passport and stamp that form, now I got screwed here as the guy asked for 50 Bolivianos as it should be 7, well I didn't knew any better but what you gonna do (f...k them)
once you leave the town there will be one more police check point where for another 7 bolivianos they will enter you into the book and stamp the form again.

Don't go into Bolivia on empty tank as you won't find any gas until you get to La Paz, I guess there is some crap happening with transport and faulty machinery at the oil companies or something like that.
I got to La Paz and found a hotel for a half way decent price to stay over night and next day I will look for a place to leave my stuff for few weeks as I'll travel back into Peru.


At the lake
the bus with tourists from Poland

Last speed bump before the border
it was Sunday so I had get copies done at the Peru side, my bike is already in Bolivia
Riding in Bolivia
Getting into La Paz
View from my hotel
In the morning I check out few Hostels in the La Paz downtown and found a decent one for a very good price and they will keep my stuff here until I come back, cool

The fun traffic in the downtown


My bike is parked inside the Hostel, it will be fun in the morning
to get up those two steps on the right they are about 8 -10" tall each

Taking my stuff apart, I can't wait to ride the light bike again


Just some friendly tips

OK back to Peru tomorrow morning, cheers

Peru Tacna to Puno

In general I like to try all kind of local foods but for past few days was nothing but chicken, so when I found a great burger place here in Tacna I jumped on it like I never seen food before, and o boy that was great :).
The hostel I stayed at was nice and quiet place so I had a decent night of sleep and because for a change I didn't had to far to go this day I was taking it easy in the morning. After the usual continental breakfast I started packing my bike when the hostels owner stop by and started asking me about the trip and where I'm going next, so I showed to him on my gps the road I want it to take today. Well his quick answer for me was to skip that part and go through Puno instead as this road is very bad, normally I would like to find out for my self but because I'm on schedule I had no choice but to take his advise.
So long story short I had ride back 100miles to previous town and take the road through the mountains, naturally I was not happy about it but my mood changed when I got to the mountain road, that was a great ride with awesome views.

Yea I know, more desert :)
The first 100 miles went quick, I had to stop in aduana office but the was just formality and few stamps later I was back on the road. I had to fill up in first town as I knew that there will be nothing all the way to Puno and as I pulled into the gas station guess who I run into? It was Dave and Dough with his wife taking their break, this time they were heading for Chile and skipping Bolivia all together. Well its their choice and I wish them best of luck, so after short chat we went our separate ways.

This was one fun ride, the road was very twisty at times and going over beautiful mountains.
4635m its the highest so far for me

Few speed bumps along the way, like those guys :P
or those
it started to snow a little so I had to gear up

The scenery changed on the other side
More speed bumps

and finally got to Puno where I stayed for the night

Found a hostel that the only good thing about it was its price, o well it is what it is , OK La Paz coming soon

cheers

Peru Camana to Tacna

I was trying to come up with the best way to get to La Paz and not ride next to Titicaca lake as I will be there soon anyway, so the choice was to get to Tacna stay overnight and take rt36 up through the parks.
Well guess what? more desert riding lol so here are some pictures from that day

the views were nice :)
Lots of straights
Yay few turns coming up
Lot of army stations here
and my room, this all indoors
Well the plan of taking a rt36 was a bust so I had turn around, again lol
I will update more later on
cheers