Bolivia at Last

We have finally made it into Bolivia.  After more paperwork to sign on Tuesday morning 10 of the final remaining teams sped towards the border through a lot of trucks that were parked all over the place in the road up the border.  Spirits were good and there was a lot of racing and fooling around.  We burst one of ´Famous last words´fuel tanks with a beautiful side swipe, spraying fuel all over the road.  They had to stop and  throw the fuel tank over the hedge before the whole place ignitied.  After we crossed the border with our old time convoyeer team mates ´famous last words´ and new convoyeer danny from ´633 squadron´ we stopped at a place that is a world heritiage site called Tawanaku (old incan ruins), although i think they may be using some creitivity, as some of the things are made of mud which isn´t known for lasting intact for 100´s of years.   We raced on to El Alto in which the traffic was dangerously class, roads that are 3/4 car widths wide, but with no marked lanes, cars were going everywhere, it was like a real life computer game, so much fun!   The final stage of our mission was into La Paz that is the highest seat of government in the world at 14000ft ish.  The roads into La Paz were sweeping downhill curves and very very fast.  We set our new personal speed record in the mototaxis at 78km/hr, a fine way to finish this adventure.  We were going to head to the salt plains and had booked our flights to asuncion for friday night because of this, but because of the delays this is now too far away which is dissapointing, but its been a class experience anyway, and we´ve stayed alive and with no visits to the hospital, which is a bonus!

The Border

The Peruvian Beaurocratic system sucks.  We spent all day monday waiting for some pieces of paper to be signed to allow us to cross into Bolivia.  Most of the day was actually good fun except when we realised that we wern´t going to make it.  As we waited for the paperwork we drank some cerveza and Danny  (633 squadron) dressed as a giant bunny rabbit to go to the immergration office.  We suggested to the American teams that it might be an idea to launch ´Operation Peruvian Freedom´ to encourage the Peruvian authorities to speed up the paperwork, but as Peru doesn´t have a large oil resource they wern´t interested.  At one point we had decided to run the border as we had the Bolvian paperwork and we knew if we could make it through the Peruvian side to the Bolivian side we would be ok.  Unfortunatly the officials guessed what we were up to and locked us in a truck compound untill we paid some more made up taxes.

Asuncion Bound

Started in County Down, loaded up and truckin' a'we gonna do what Honda say can't be done We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there We´re Asuncion bound just watch us run ......

Like a Phoenix

Ok, we´ve decided to give it one more go, we´ve got all the necessary paperwork and we´re going to cross into Bolivia Monday and see how far we can get before we eventually have to ditch the mototaxi and either get back to La Paz and fly to Asuncion, or get a bus to Asuncion from wherever we end up.  There is going to be some seriously hardcore night driving if we want to make the salt plains in Bolivia and stand any sort of chance of making it back to Asuncion in time.  In a totally unrelated post, i´ve been getting a really bad cough so if you don´t see me in work for a few days after we´re due back it´ll probably be because of it!

Its all Over

Nobody said it was going to be easy, nobody said it was going to be so hard.

We have the devistating news that the peruvian athorities have changed the paperwork requiremnents for us to enter bolvia with our mototaxi and so the earliest we could get into bolvia is Monday which isn´t feasible for us to make asuncion.  We are going to have to pull out, which is completly gutting.

As this is our last session on the mototaxi, i would like to thank everyone who has donated, you have really helped to make a difference and i am sorry we couldn´t make it to the finish.

Despite all the crazy, crazy roads, being constantly tired, smelling of petrol all the time, staying in some really dodgy areas, having 3 crashes, having the brakes fail twice for differnt reasons, being cut and bruised all over, having my arm in a sling for a day, having  4.30 starts, having really long days, and not being allowed to finish because of paperwork, desipte all this, this adventure has been absoultly amazing and i would do it again in a second, the people we´ve met, the friends we made, the awesome views we´ve seen and the waves and confused expressions we get from everyone we pass looking at the crazy gringos sale by in our mototaxi, all of this has made it a awesome experience, and i can´t wait untill the next one, anyone fancy driving across india in a tuc tuc? (Richshaw Run 2010)

All in Vain

Yesterday we had started with our traditional 4.30 start and headed out from Cusco with our travelling buddies ´famous last words´. The scenery changed dramatically, instead of twisting scary death roads that we were used to the Altiplano is completly flat (and really really high, over 4300m (14000ft ish) at the highest point.  The scenery was stunning, nothing as far as the eye could see surrounded by  a ridge of mountains in the distance.  We made really good progress as the road was straight and boringly flat, we covered 408km in the day which is our record and rolled into Puno about 6pm ish.  We needed to find the hotel of the adventurists, but were completly lost so we decided to get a taxi and follow it.  Steve is the only one who speaks spanish so we put him in charge.  Instead of a taxi or even a mototaxi he got a man riding a bike with a trolley in front.  This was stupidly hallarious as we followed him around the streets in our mototaxis at walking pace.  It got even stupidier when we got to a hill and the guy had to get out and push.  It got funnier still when we realised that he wasn´t going to the hotel but was doing a tour of the city, after that we gave up and asked directions.

Cusco Baby!

We arrived in Cusco today with ´famous last words´ and ´Hombre Lobo´, roads are dissapointingly easy today, there are big drops, but the roads are made of tar and there is even crash barriers in places.  I miss the crazy dirt death roads that keep you afraid all day and make you have crazy dreams.

It looks like we arn´t going to make it to Asuncion, we´ve spent too much time on the fun roads crashing and getting lost and my busted shoulder means that we cant do much serious night driving. We are deciding where to ditch the mototaxi which is gutting, it may have to be Puno depending on paperwork issues but hopefully we can push into bolivia and beyond.

Also were 9th in the charity total raised, so thanks to everyone who has sponsored us and to those who haven´t can you email Kate Mckeand at operation smile ([[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]))  explain why you need to spend your money on sky tv and coca cola rather than giving kids in the developing world a better chance in life.

Its safe now!

Ok, we´ve not updated properly in ages but its becaise we wanted to wait till we got to the safety of abalnacy and its tarmaced roads before we updated. Its all easy from here on in so no need to worry about the stuff below

 

Official Launch day.

 

This was great crack with 633 squadron leading the charge in the opening cermony where the mayor gave us a badge and a cool send off. After this we waited around the filed for our mototaxis to arrive on a truck which took ages to arrive, spirits were down. It eventally arrived but they were only half built so we started putting them together and as one person put it, it was like a gaint version of scrap heap challange.  The banter was good and by the time we finished putting them together everyone was in good spirits, admittley slightly worried that the machines we built may not last the distance!

 

Actual Launch day for us (Saturady)

 

We took off in a convoy of 7 other teams, the first part was uphill and very slow, but the next downhill section was awesome crack with ´Peruvian marching pair´and us pulling off all sorts of cheeky manouvers. This was emense fun and if given the option of doing that section of road again in a mototaxi or in a ferrai, i would choose the motoaxi every time (sorry richardo). It started to get more serious when the sheer cliff drops in the dust road started to appear. The roads are crazy, completly mad, we´re talking 2500ft drops at some points, on blind bends, on dirt roads, super narrow, with busses and trucks coming the other way, in a mototaxi, with no bike experience.   We heard a ping and we stopped the bike only to find out that the nut holding our back brakes together had come off, which isn´t fantastic.  Having no spare nuts we took the one off the brake balance thing and taped it up with the ever reliable electrical tape.

Crash no.1 The first one was at a point of 80-100ft drops where andy lost control and was heading towards the cliff, i was on the right side (cliff side) of the mototaxi and dived through the beautifully fgw branded door on the other side of the mototaxi before we went over the cliff, the mototaxi ran over my leg, and i messed up my arms and legs reasonaly badly with cut and grazes , helmet protected my face and i only got a bust lip (cheers for the helmet guys!), the mototaxi got more balance because i had got from the cliff side and andy was able to hold on to it and steer it round the corner (by a matter of mm judging by the tire marks). i got patched up by some vets in our party (The magnificiant tricycle of destiny) and decided that i wasn´t driving again to the next day,

Crash no.2

Then the roads got seriously bad and there was 2500ft drops (blovian road of death style-got some beutiful videos), andy freaked out and crashed into the mountain, andy bust his hand but the mototaxi was ok (few scrathces and the indicators are bust) , after 2 accidents in 2 miles i was back in control with a dodgy knee but with awesome driving skill. It was actually a relief to see the 100ft drops again and i was taking the roads flat in 5th.  The light stared fading and we were still on the mountain so we really had to push to get off it before it got dark.  We were completly lost and it was pitch black and we were in the middle of nowhere, we decided to stop and pitch a tent but then a load of dogs ran up and started barking so we decided to push on to safety.

We finally got in to Ayacucho at 8ish in the dark and ready for sleep.

 

Sunday was a bit of a write off, we spent the day fixing the bikes for high altitude, mountain terrian, adding differnt sized spockets and different spark plugs etc. (really woth it the extra torque is class even if we lose a bit of top end speed)

Monday

Crash No.3

the day started well with high but safeish roads, there were big drops but it was rolling drops rather than sheer. we got to the peak of the mountain and thats where the games begun. we travelled 30km down hill in swizz alps type roads and there was only one hundred meter strech of flat which was where the pin holding our brake cable snapped (we fixed this in a very safe way by using a keyring to hold it together), if it was anywhere else we would have been dead, oh how we laughed! we stopped laughing however when accident 3 happened, my fault this time, there was gravel switchbacks and there was 2 grooves where the tyres of the cars were, we however are a 3 wheeler, which is not the best for this, and i skidded on this and hit the cliff wall, spinning me down the road and wrecking my shoulder muscle. Team Karma Kola stopped to help us and i travelled with Sarah off the dangerous bit of the road so we could stop and look at it properly.  Rachel (Famous last words) put my arm into a sling for the day (still cant drive as yet, hopefully by friday) but nothing is broken, apparently 5 other mototaxiers have had bad crashes on the road with two hospitilised so maybe i´ve got off lightly.

Tuesday

Tuesday strated really well and we made good progress to Andahuaylas, but then we took the wrong road and we had loads of diffent locals telling us the best way to go. After a load of attempts, including chain brakages and getting stuck behind a van that had got stuck in a drainage ditch ,we finally gave up and decided to sleep in a hotel/barn in a ghost town that promised cable tv, hot water and pizza but delivered on none of its promises.  

Wednesday

Today we made decent progesss over very rough terrain (some of the roads wern´t finished) but we finally got into Abancay with our Kewi and American convoyeers. The funniest moment of the day came when some random old woman kept talking to us in some local dialect.  She then dragged andy into a shop.  He presumed she owned it and was looking him to buy something, which he did.  She didn´t own the shop and then blocked the doorway and wouldn´t let him leave as we looked on laughing and eating sandwiches.

Tomorrow like every day is going to be long, but for the first time in ages we dont have a good chance of dieing as its main roads.

Also my phone is now broke after too many accidents so dont bother texting me.

 

 

Were finally off

Really quick update, Our start was delayed until yesterday, made Ayanuco 276km on our mototaxi on *interesting* roads, were not attempting to do too much today, prob 120km, its just too insanley dangerous.  Going to take 2 days to get to abalnacy and thats where the roads get a bit better so we can push.  Went to over 12000 ft yesterday, will update properly with all the scarey and fun stuff when we get to cusco and the fear ends!