18/1/2014 Buenos Aires to Esquina
Bright and early to collect the bike from Dakar Motos.Nice bright weather saw me soaked in sweat waving goodbye to Sandra and Javier and on my way to Esquina for my first stop. No chance of rain and temperatures of 42ºc provided a different challenge to frostbite.
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| Posada Hambare |
20/1/2014 Esquina to Formosa
I have been learning Spanish as I go along but I must have got the wrong meaning for bright and early. After an hour standing waiting for someone to check me out I was nice and mellow when they multiplied the number of dollars by the blue exchange rate to give me a 50% increase on the bill. Evidently my Spanish is not so bad as they realised I was a little upset and put matters right and I left in a cloud of dust muttering to myself for the next twenty miles.
400 miles with nothing but the occasional friendly wave from Gouchos .One advantage of being geographically challenged was that not realising the size of Corrientes meant I hadn't worried about riding through in the midday rush hour.
The hotel in Formosa was a resort with a Casino. Nothing Monte Carlo about this place, I guess there are sad people everywhere. The hotel itself was nice but the food was awful.
21/1/2014, Formosa to Tartagal
Early start to beat the heat, luckily not so early that nobody was passing to help me pick the bike up. Climbing aboard an already started bike and not taking care about the gear change lever resulted in a " Suarez " roll , a bruised ego, ( lucky I was not at the main entrance to the hotel ), and a broken indicator. Duly chastened I was on my way for a 500 mile day.
Being a public holiday Tartagal was like a ghost town but in the evening things got lively with everybody out and about in the relative cool of the evening. It was noticeable that the population was a lot less European in appearance and more indigenous, it was also noticeable that once out of the garden spots of Argentina the areas are a lot poorer looking.
I was feeling excited at the prospect of entering Bolivia the next day.
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| Hotel Almuñecar |
Early start but already decidedly warm and by the time I reached the border it was getting nice and hot. Luckily the border formalities were an open air affair, just nice when you are wearing full riding gear with the sun beating down.
To describe the formalities as a shambles is perhaps going a bit far, but not much. We are back to the domain of the touts who really are not needed unless you want to jump the queues. No further comment.
Once out of the chaos of the border the adventure begins.
Stopping to top up my tank before reaching Camiri I discovered tourists pay about 3x the price of locals for fuel, also when I asked the girl pump attendant if the service station had wifi she seemed to find the idea very amusing, yes, this was South America proper at last.
Ever onward and into the town of Camiri trying to locate the hotel.Today was another holiday so the town was very quiet. My GPS was loaded with a free download which while excellent for Argentina and Chile was rather basic for Bolivia and I was looking for the hotel by its co-ordinates. Without fail, each time I stopped to figure out the roads somebody went out of their way to ask where I was looking for. Amazing how you feel good about a place by simple acts of kindness.
The JR Hotel was an example of why well run family hotels are better than five star chains. Comfortable, clean accommodation, give a sh.. factor very high, food simple and good and the owner friendly and interested in his guests, all this and cheap.
23/1/2014 Camiri to Saimapata
Early start, 250 miles to Saimapata to leave the bike and I need to get back to Santa Cruz ( 120 kms) where I had a hotel booked. Having been a bit reticent about visiting Bolivia the further I rode the gladder I became that I was here. The roads got more and more twisty and after the long straight drag through Argentina I started to remember why I enjoy being on my bike. Stopping to fill up I managed to get local rates, maybe it was because I bothered to try to chat with the local youths queueing with their plastic jerrycans or maybe just because the petrol pump attendant couldn't be bothered with the paperwork,anyway this is definitely a friendly place up to now.
Once off the main Santa Cruz highway and onto the old Cochabamba road to Saimapata there was a steady climb and the roads were similar to mountain roads all over the world with hairpins and plenty of good twisties, there were also plenty of potholes to keep you honest and your eyes open.
I managed to find the most challenging route to where I was keeping the bike, it really is a little frightening when you stop to eye up the best line around a sharp hairpin and you start sliding backwards, buttock clenching is a description that seems apt.
Any road up finally made it and the bike is stowed safe and sound ready for the next leg.
Taxi to Santa Cruz 20 USD for 120 kms, I like this place more and more.
24/1/2014 Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz is a fast growing city that is allegedly being financed by the export of a local crop .I think I am honing in on something, it seems that no matter the culture or language, new found disposable income has to be spent on finery, cars and seeing and being seen out and about.We are all the same and aspire to the same things.
It's strange to think that something that is seen by many as something evil can raise the standard of living of whole countries. No doubt there is a lot of concealed misery in illegal trading but it was not evident looking at Santa Cruz's finest who wouldn't have looked out of place on the boulevards of Paris , mind you, when you need a shoehorn to get into a taxi maybe not.
Santa Cruz was a very enjoyable couple of days at the end of a hard ride and I am looking forward to
the next leg.
An interesting addition when leaving the country is one extra step in the process having to pass through a drug search of the hand baggage together with a quick questioning.
25/1/2014 Sao Paulo
Big city of 17 million inhabitants. Number 1 thing to see is the produce market. You don't have to wait for Saturday night to dance and last but not least, if anybody is going for the world cup, the best advice I can offer from this brief visit is " Take plenty of money "
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| MUNICIPAL MARKET |
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| MUNICIPAL MARKET |
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| MUSIC AT THE MUNICIPAL MARKET COMING NEXT IN MARCH 2014 |
