We had everything organised the night before, SENA Bluetooth’s charged, alarm set, bike clothes out and ready to throw on and food supplies packed on the bike. After having an enjoyable last evening cooking some beef ribs on the BBQ at Colibri Camping Eco Lodge we decided to have an early night in preparation for our early start the next day, leaving our campsite through La Paz and heading to Copacabana. We knew about some crazy road blocks that had been going on for the last couple of days around La Paz, the small town of Mallasa were we were staying and on the way out to Copacabana so the plan was to get an early start ride through the Peru border and then back into Bolivia, to avoid all the blocks. Unfortunately, the morning didn’t go as planned……… ☹
Firstly, the alarm didn’t go off so we slept in. Waking at 6.15am instead of 4.30am we got up in a daze, threw our clothes on and packed up our campsite. Well David started the packing as I needed a strong coffee to get me going ????!! I do have to say that we have packing up our campsite down pat, only taking us an hour and fifteen minutes. I know it sounds like a bit of time but we have the tent (and it’s a big tent), the panner bags, which need to be packed in a certain way so everything fits and then carefully put into the panners on the bike and then of course there is our sleeping mats, sleeping bags, liners, pillows, clothes bag, wet weather gear bag and our runners. So, as you can see we have allot to pack… Anyway, we eventually left at 7.30am still trying to wake up when we hit our first road block for the day, Mallasa. We literally had to take both panners off the bike to get through, turn the engine off the bike as the protest had already begun and push the bike through. Well I did the pushing while David steered the bike through communicating through Bluetooth as to where to go and then I went back for the panners which were sitting in the middle of the road. I’ve never seen anything like it, people everywhere, cars and mini vans parked strategically in a zigzag pattern across the road so no one could get past. We eventually made it through trying not to hit any of the cars and people in our way, put the bike back together and rod on thinking holly molly…..
Then we hit La Paz – peak hour!!! It took us two hours to get through La Paz what with certain roads being blocked off, road works being done heading up to El Alto and all the million and one cars, buses, mini vans and people going by their normal day-to-day business wheeling food carts across the road. It was a nightmare riding around and around trying to find an unblocked road we could take that would take us out of La Paz. I could feel David’s temper rise by the minute. He was concentrating so hard and doing a great job as this place can get extremely hectic. It was one of those moments where through the Bluetooth in our helmets David was swearing-in frustration at the situation and I just kept very quiet.
When we finally left La Paz there was a sigh of relief from both of us as we rod along the open roads towards Peru. We hit the Peru border around 11.00am (got a little lost trying to find it) and proceeded to go through the motions as you do at a border crossing with a motorbike. Our paperwork, passports and all the bike papers. It seemed easy at first going through the Bolivian side then when we rod over the bridge to the Peru border things got a little more interesting. Unbeknownst to us the Bolivian paperwork had not been completed properly so we had to go back over the bridge to the Bolivian border and finish things off. How frustrating! *Note to self – check all paperwork is completed once it is handed back from all border crossing officers. Then back to the Peru border we went with all the correct paperwork signed, stamped and completed. Peru customs where fantastic, helping us out with what to do and where to go. We had finished all the paperwork and where just about to get on the bike and leave when a dodgy Peru police officer gave us a ticket for five Bolivianos and told us we had to pay fifteen Bolivianos for I have no idea what?? We reacted like typical annoyed Aussies and told him we were not paying fifteen Bolivianos when the ticket was only for five and asked him what it was for. He wouldn’t tell us and started getting a little annoyed with us so we proceeded to go and see our new friend in customs to find out what it was all about. Turns out he thought we were silly “gringos” and tried to rip us off, so we paid the five Bolivianos and left… quickly….
The small amount of country side we saw of Peru was beautiful and the people waving to us on the side of the road was lovely. It was a nice feeling after the crazy day we were having so far. Going back through Bolivia was a breeze, we had it completely sussed out by now, though we did get a few strange looks from the Bolivian border officers as our passports had been stamped for the third time that day. ???? It was 2.00pm now and we were getting hungry and tired. Leaving in such a rush that morning we had skipped breakfast. Ridding back into Bolivia we were pleased that all the border crossings were done for the day and we hoped that it wasn’t all for nothing.
When we arrived in Copacabana it was close to 4.00pm, what a day!!! We found a lovely hostel, hostaljoshua.blogspot.pe/ through iOverlander to stay not too far from Lake Titicaca and only charging thirty Bolivianos (4.30 AUD) a night for both of us. We were happy. We set up camp, put the bike to bed and went for a very well-earned vino tinto and cervesa up the street. ????
