What's the most essential requirement of a 13,000 mile motorcycle trip that includes a route through Bolivia? Sunscreen? A Motorcycle? Cliff Bars? Tires? NO! It's gasoline. Why is gasoline the most important? Because if you forget any of the other items you can get them along the way. Apparently, Bolivia has run out of gas, not an isolated occurrence from what I understand. Why have they run out of gas? Because the government has taken over the industry (profits and all) and government efficiency, is well...not. I know, so big deal, they ran out of gas for a day, not the end of the world. Well since Bolivia is mostly comprised of deserts and salt flats, it can be a huge deal, especially since it quite cold at 13,000 feet.
Today I attempted to drive south to Uyumi. after stopping at about 15 empty gas stations, I finally found one with gas, rejoice? Not so fast. They would not sell me any as I did not have a Bolivian licence plate. Where they being just unfriendly to out-of-towners (or country-ers in this case)? Yes, but there was more, apparently there is government paperwork (and a 300 percent price increase) that needs to be filled out when putting gasoline in a vehicle that is not registered in Bolivia, and the attendants do not care to do it. so they flat out refuse or come up with lame excuses not too (we are out of the paperwork, etc.), besides, there were dozens of cars queued up behind me, and they could sell to them, so why bother. The thought of just keeping the bike there and refusing to move it did come to mind, but those queued up cars had drivers who had already started to honk, ... and yell, and since the next step in the escalating situation was for objects to come flying my way, I bowed out and took off. I was in a real bind by this point, according to the on-board computer, I had 100 km of range remaining, and my destination was 120 km away, La Paz was 105 km behind me. What to do? I went for the shorter walk and headed back to La Paz. I tucked in below the windscreen of the bike to reduce drag, set the bike at 55 mph and started off to La Paz, Thankfully the City is in a very, very deep valley, and I was able to roll back into the hotel with 4 miles of range remaining. Talked to the hotel manager, and he sent his desk clerk with me to the closest station, and he negotiated a full tank of gas for the bike. I ended up paying the international rate of $5.50 a gallon for 84 octane (only gas available), which I was all too happy to do, breathed my sigh of relief, and headed back to the hotel.
So I need to figure out my next step. Do I go to my original destination? Find the shortest route to Argentina and get out of Bolivia? Or, head north to Peru, where gas and octane levels are plentiful, and work my way around Bolivia by cutting through Chile and across Argentina? Not sure, but this is what adventures are all about I guess. These are the situations that make good stories in a bar back home, but kinda suck when they are occurring. As I heard many-a-time in Afghanistan, EMBRACE THE SUCK!
Trip Summary
Today's Leg: 122 miles (197 km)
Total Distance Traveled: 10,109 miles (16,751 km)
Total Borders Crossed: 11
Total Countries Visited: 12
Total Times Stopped by the Police/Tickets Issued: 16/0
Shaken Down by the Police/Total Times Paid: 5/1
Visits to a Holding Cell: 1
Countries Following this Blog: 32
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