Heya Noel ... yeah I shoulda given him the same respect he showed me which was none, that authorizes a beating straight away. :thumbup1:

I am a firm believer in eye for an eye, I must be getting soft in my old age :rolleyes2:

Will make sure Ellen gets her say .... she normal write for the Chinese mags and I on this one but we can balance it more :clap:

Sign

David Tua :innocent:

Heya Roger

Yeah still going, aiming to head home this time next yearish give or take ... unless we win lotto.

Mr.whippie, should blended him to icecream, I was more annoyed that he went for Pau on her bike so he showed no respect for a chickie on a bike.

Didn't wonna cause trouble, just wanted to get through which we did with a little self defense where no one died :thumbup1:

Cheers Andi

Copacabana
 

The fun begins...

Kicking around for a few days we had a brief taste of Bolivia, probably not the best start in a touristy town as the locals don't seem to like white faces.

None the less we found a hostal with good parking and a nice coffee place to play gringo in.

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Ellen and (Pauls girlfriend) Pau at a cafe

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Paul and I chewing the fat

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Taking the boat ride we were supposed to have been taken to the northern tip of Isla De Sol so we could walk back the length of the island but halfway there the boat operators so no they were not going ???? WTF we paid for that, no was answer even though it was ticked on our ticket.

The times they stated on the schedule for the day resembled nothing like what actually happens, the boat has two motors and they only ran one so they didn’t us too much fuel but then we took twice as long ???? WTF

Also the engine was on about 1/4 throttle at most and people on the boat were saying WTF is it with these guys.

Titicaca Tours, NOT recommended by any stretch.

Also we were told our ticket was all inclusive ... until we landed on the island and they wanted $5 Bolivianos each to land, then on Isla De La Luna where they want $10 Bolivianos.

While the day was not a write-off our intended hike and so on was completely changed by them for no apparent reason, the others on the boat full spanish speaking (Argies and Chileans) were also wondering why but no explanation was offered.....welcome to Bolivia!!

Some touristy boats in the water

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Ellen taking a swim at 4000 meters

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While in Copacabana we meet some other overlanders with a weapon of a kickarse truck

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I hope Bolivia internal gets better, for me Bolivia has been the country of most interest however at this point .... well the people are certainly not making it with enthusiasm.

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So far the Bolivian people don’t want to deal with you (us), can’t be bothered and will lie to your face but they want our money, they are all carrying long faces and always when you look at them they look back like you owe them something.

Their first attempt at anything is to fleece you of money and they have no issue doing it, when questioning their price they get anti ... even when they know it is way over the top.

Hmmm, this is gonna be fun.

Now for the good bit, there is a cafe called km zero, now the guys who own it are moto heads and were very helpful, funny thing is he said Bolivians will only be friendly to you are carnival.....rest of the time nup .... interesting.

Their family owned cafe

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Brothers GS which was the initial drawcard for us going in to check it out, same cafe above with good coffee

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This was bizarre too, blessing their vehicles at the church with beer, drinking the beer then driving off drunk ... not sure that is my gig :huh

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Copacabana To Tacna
 

After our few day taste of Bolivia we headed back into Peru with Tacna in sights in the hope of finding a new battery for Maya, while our battery is not dead yet we have had warnings with little cranking time meaning its reserve capacity is dying. :eek1

To avoid more road blocks and punch ups we took a shortcut across the desert which led us to and unexpected tarseal race track before turning into a real proper shingle back road, no sleep along the way for me today.:D

The road was interesting, mum nature threw in a couple of twisters dancing on the desert and having a race which was kinda cool.

Part way along there are some stunning coloured mountains with orange that looked straight out of the KTM factory, not sure what minerals the base is but the colours were very cool.

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The elevation changes saw us up and down like a yoyo and we crested out at 4800 meters (15750 ft) in a very sandy part which required throttle and caution ..... it was as soft as an undercooked cake and some having a crust on it masking the soggy bit underneath.

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The sandpit finally finished only to turn into a rock garden, nice change just lumpy but soon enough we were back onto a rutted sandpit ..... can’t win today... what happened to a good old fashioned shingle road!!:rofl

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The occasional clump of greenery .... looked out of place

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Back to a soggy sandpit bulldust style track

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Nearing the end of the sandpit/offroad section I was getting tired, Maya was obviously getting tired too and decided to lay down for a rest, she is a heavy tart with house and contents on board and a handful on this stuff.

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A local taking a shine to us with a true blue Peruvian moto wave. :wave:wave

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Righting the stricken ship we made it to tarseal and headed for Tacna with the final part of the ride quite relaxing.

Now to get our mission on track we checked out the autoparts and moto area of Tacna, every supplier, tienda and workshop said no go for Yuasa, only Koyo or Toyo which I have not had good luck with so we passed, the rest of the avo spent enjoying Tacna central which might have included ice-creams and coffees ... as ya do when in a big town.

Ellen spotted this thinking it was funny ... in engrish it is anyway :evil

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Next stop, Chile, looking forward to that hearing the drivers are totally different and even respectful!!!:clap.

Tacna To Arica To Putre
 

Two countries, one border ... WOH HOH new territory :clap

35 km to the border, easy run down, arriving at the border was very hot burning sun with the line up way outside the covered area, hats on no worries, locals shading themselves with their immigration paperwork.

Wasn’t long and we were on our way through the process, border inspection this time including baggage scan and visual check of panniers, we had half a block of cheese with us, either throw it or eat it was the instruction, eat it won. :D

We parked Maya further in the depths of the Chilean side and carried on with our TVIP, the border guards not saying anything more about our cheese so we took what was left, not sure why the drama cos it is the same clump of land.:huh

We met some nice guys starting a tour that day, all of F800’s and GS1200LC, one guy said to his mates wow the real deal pointing at us and our bike (all covered in shit, dust, oil and mud) and on exiting the aduana/customs they saluted as we rode past, that was humbling for us but the reality is they were at the same border on bikes doing it, respect to them too.:clap:clap .... we too started clean and green nearly two years ago.

Finally through with all paperwork in order and waves and salutes Wallace and Grommit ride off into the Chilean afternoon complete with cheese. :wink: :rofl

Arica, need money, fuel and lunch, supermarket, perfect place to suss out new pricing for food etc.

With getting lunch sorted we sat outside the supermarket in the shadows, we must have looked poor as a girl with Gatorade drink kindly gave us a bottle, welcome to Chile and a warm welcome it was too.:clap

Putre, 3800 meters high, and in the middle of nowhere ...well somewhere.

Our first taste of welcome to Chile accommodation prices .... bit of a shock:eek1:eek1, luckily we had rekitted with camping gear in Peru so our renewed approach to saving our budget and enjoying our outdoor experience starts right here and now, the local football field providing home for the night, epic sky TV and a frost to match with white fluff on Maya in the morning.

Our site came complete with log for sitting on :clap ... don't need no poofy chairs :rofl, now we are distanctly colour coordinated with Maya and teh tent, blame Doite it is there colour :evil

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Putre To Iquique
 

This was our treat to lure us in....huge volcanic pots laced in snow :clap

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National parks creating interest we headed towards the Bolivian border turning off right at the lineup out into no mans land and it did not let us down, a huge expanse of nothing and no one.

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With our volcano luck continuing one was turning it on for us having a small spit

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Even with tanking up with 5 liters for a buffer Maya uses more fuel at 4500 meters so I was being quiet on the throttle cruising along the gravel road and negotiating sandpits which had fall off written all over them.

This was the norm for 100s km :eek1

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The Salar which turned into our turning point

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Getting past the Salar we decided to hook out and head coastal as it was looking like our gas would not see us through to the far end and out, being stuck at 4500 meters in no mans land with no petrol didn’t seem an attractive option.

Mrs.Garmin came in handy at this point with indicative mileage until we start pushing and our road taking us through a monster rock garden about 40 km long including the Murphy sandpits hiding the Murphy rocks of which a few tried to steal our front wheel ... entertaining. :rofl

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The track started resembling a road again rather than a rocky sandpit :clap

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Soon enough we hit tarseal again which was nice and unexpected, all roads lead to the 5 which is the main drag, seeing the mileage we had already done we cruised down the main drag only to find the was no gas stations for about 250 km ... oh no. :eek1:eek1:eek1

As darkness decided to turn up we decided to pull off the main drag and went desert a few hundred meters to wild camp again.

Our camp site (in the morning sun)

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Now sometimes you find we bonuses unexpectedly, this morning was one,we had talked about a small vestibule footprint using polythene ..... c h e c k i t out b r o :lol3 we cut a nice wee triangle out ... fits perfectly :evil

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Iquique, fuel, mission for the day .... not push Maya :D, nearest gas station going to be a squeeze to get there, fast (slow) forward to gas station with 460 km on the tank the orange light just on we had 70 km to go, filling up the rear tank and still running on the main we decide to see just how far we could go if needed, this netted a total of 560 km with a sniff to spare meaning Maya was running at 5.3 liters per 100 km including 250 km on gravel etc.

Mission accomplished by the skin of our teeth, even the 950 can come through by buttoning off if needed ... thankfully.

Iquique To San Pedro De Atacama
 

Coastal, looked interesting, road 1 ... not much down there other than dozens of beaches full of small settlements.

We managed to find a cool little place and had the cove to ourselves, again sky TV this time no frost ... things were looking up.

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Sky TV closing in providing a cool backdrop for the thousands of birds and the dodgy Mayan hiding in the shadows :D

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Heading down to San Pedro was a long hot and not very inspiring straight tar ride but the rewards were nice arriving in San Pedro, we managed to bag a room for reasonable cost so after 3 nights bush camping it was nice to have a sit on toilet, hot shower and a pillow.

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The last leg into San Pedro with cool formations

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San Pedro De Atacama To Salta
 

Between San Pedro and the border we found ourselves in some OMG moments being out in the middle of stunning starkness, one just has to stop and take it in.

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A jump for joy at the stunning setting we had be handed to enjoy.... just bloody awesome :clap:clap

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Live action show of or surroundings

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In Sana Pedro there was a number of adventure motorcycle travellers mainly on BMW F800s some we did not catch up with until the following day.

Stopping at the famous Chilean sign TMK sticker proudly joined the many others who had passed this point, at this time we were inundated with Brazilian riders on KTMs and BMWs, the single biggest gathering of other adventure riders on our trip so far in 23 months.

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Hitting the border with the boys we were behind two bus loads of gringos so it was like a cattleyard in the customs.

Wasn’t long and we were formally in Argentina heading down toward greenery, destination Purmamarca.

This greeted us along the way, a new car delivery truck that had gone AWOL :eek1

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Not sure if the driver lived or died, check out the cab :huh

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Brazilian boyz passing us, we are going to catch up with them in Brazil, great guys!!!:clap

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Salar Grande, no Bolivian in size but spectacularly bright white

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Not even half an hour down the road from the previous truck crash .... this :huh

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Camping in a camping ground turned out to be a mistake with Argentinians cranking up the sounds from about midnight, they don’t consider anyone else at all on and the neighbouring dogs chiming in pretty much all night so sleep was sparse. :cry

The saving grace, colours around this town here are nothing short of amazing and the name is 7 colours which is easy to see why.

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Now in stark contrast within less than a day we rode down RN9 which is 4 meters wide and narrower at points, more like golf cart race track nestled in rain forest.

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With Salta in our sights we headed down to get some paperwork sorted by way of insurance etc, we checked out prices for front tire .... fark .... $250 USD for the same thing that is $50 USD in Peru.... I think ours will last a little longer. :clap

Your photographs are stunning !!!

Heya TM1-SS, thank you for your props man...awesome. :clap:

We have two photos that have made the final 25 so if you think they are worthy please swing us a vote, our are numbers 11 & 12

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-winners-75142

The $100 cheque is in the mail :eek3:

Amazing photos and yarn Andi & Ellen. I caught up with Dillon (Legend) at Zen Moto who helped get my 950 Adv S sorted, just out of interest did you ever get any joy out of the oxygen thief who sold you the SE ?

Great job on the pics and journals amigos. Buen suerte!

Heya Drwnite, thanks for the props.

Yeah Dillon is a bloody good guy and fussy with his work, he did a superb job of getting Maya sorted, we are due a valve check now and I would love to hand the bike to him knowing it would be done 100 % correct.

The oxygen thief went to ground, we called, emailed, pmed and nothing, I used another email account and contacted him about his Kawasaki for sale and he responded straight away so I know he got the other contacts.

Nothing in the end, full extent of spending $2500 USD to mop up the mess and lies by him which still hurts and it has shortened our budget by about 40 days, if I ever catch him I will kill him.

Flip side and positive note at 45500 km she is going well and treating us right, opening her up next week for valve check etc so x fingers all is good.

Cheers man

Heya strikingviking, cheers for the props, we are enjoying writing and the pics.

Zen Moto - Dillon
 

Yep I'd have to agree, Dillon went to length in sorting my 950 S to the point where he gave me parts off his own bike to get me on the road faster rather than wait for ordered parts, salt of the earth kinda bloke.

I was on a mission heading south and hopefully catching up with you mob, Neda & Gene (lightcycle) and others on my 12 month tour but.........

It seems the oxygen thief is obviously related to the retard who rented my home, another marked to be removed from the gene pool! I got robbed blind, they left such a mess its taken me 2 months to rectify and I'm still not done! Not to mention the cost of returning form the Copper Canyon, having to buy a car drive from Melbourne to Darwin ect ect ect. The bill is enormous, consider yourself lucky you got off relatively light!

However the joint will be on the market soon and I'll pick up where I left off. Might even go the SE next lap ! I'll just have to live through threads like yours and the like, keep up the good work and enjoy, Cheers Dave.