Obstacles along Santa Cruz

The best moment in Samaipata is with Camilio’s family. We stayed in their guest house of only 4 rooms and we are the only guest. There is a living room where the family watched TV and sit around. Every night we would sit there and I would drink Bolivian wine with Camilio and his wife while the kids and Sam watched TV. I was able to communicate with Camilio because he spoke little English and I spoke little Spanish. The 3 kids were wonderful and memorable. How I wish I had kid that grown up and very pleasant.

Leaving Samaipata is sad as the family is so nice but we have to move on to Santa Cruz. Travelers warned us about the road to Santa Cruz and it gets more dangerous when entering the city itself.

Obstacle #1

Road blockage was done by felling a tree cut by the protester. I stopped and recce the road of advancement. Only way is to squeeze Hope Too under the fallen tree where it formed a low triangle hole. As I walked back to Sam and Hope Too, I heard cracking sound from above. There were about 10 people on top of the hill along the road and they had managed to crack a stone, size of 4 cars and made it fall onto the road to form road blocks. At the moment of falling, there are civilians walking on foot along the road and they ran as fast as they could. I was worried. Making the execution fast, I rode to the triangle hole, unpacked all the panniers and squeeze thro. Hope Too’s new windscreen is too tall for the triangle hole and I try to push the plastic thro the obstacle, meanwhile watching for the people above. We do not want to crush by the fallen rocks.

While squeezing thro, there were too much unexpected branches from the fallen tree holding on to Hope Too and we are unable to push thro. It slanted sideway causing the whole weight leaning on me while I was standing on a lower ground. Sam was behind trying to push Hope Too but got scratched by the tree trunk. Constantly we were watching the protesters above. A man, half drunk, came to help us to push over and we succeed. We thanked the man and rushed to gather our panniers and bags, installed them and zoomed off. After 2 minutes of riding I stopped and attended to Sam’s bruises.

Obstacle #2

As we were approaching the state boundary, buses were queuing up along the road. I knew it would be another road block set by the protesters. There is only a bridge linking the roads together and there are 2 trucks, about size of 40feet container trucks, parked across the road on each side of the bridge. Only pedestrians and bicycle could go through. Hope Too was slightly obese so we took off the side and top pannier to squeeze thro. That was an easy one.

Obstacle #3
Riding along the road parked with cars and trucks along, counting up to about 100 in numbers, we reached the ‘king’ of the blockages. The road was busy as there were many people walking because there isn’t any vehicle able to pass thro. The protesters set up soil, oil barriers and wood for the blockage. I walked nearer to view the obstacle. The only route for Hope Too was blocked by a very long piece of log lying across. All I need to do is to move the log about 2 feet away from the current position for the path I wanted. I squat down, held the end of the log with 2 hands and tried very hard but it was too heavy for me. While I was trying to move the log, the protester at the other side of the road stood up and shouted at me. Oh no… they are walking towards me. It doesn’t smell nice. One of the local advised me not to cross or move the obstacle then he showed me action of stone throwing and boxing. I walked to the protesters, waving at them, showing them my Chinese face, asking for permission to pass but unsuccessful.

It was about 1300hrs and we were hungry for lunch. We are stucked along with the 100 vehicles along the road. I decided to ride back till the bridge to see if there is any chance of side road but: negative. We stopped to check our ‘tourist’ map and GPS for any trails to flank the obstacle but: negative. Some locals advised us to use the left path available that travel along the river. Some advised us to use the right path that skirt thro the mountains. The left path seems reasonable as the river is flowing to my objective but the road is awful. If we use this route, we are bounded by the area between the river and the main highway, which choice of road would be lesser in this area. The right path seems going into the mountains and we took it.

Mountains after mountains, hoping the road will turn into the correct direction, it seems that we are traveling backwards and drifting further from the objective (from my GPS). I tell kept telling myself that after the end of this hill the road will be turning eastwards but negative. We were hungry and water supply was limited to 500ml in our drinking bag. The village road is narrow like jungle trail often lifeless. After 3 hours of village dirt road we reach a closed gate thinking that we would need to u-turn all the way back to the bridge 3 hours away to use the river road. Sam came down and unlocks the gate. There was a truck approaching in the opposite direction. We asked the driver “Santa Cruz this way? Yes?” and he replied with a nod and told me to turn right in the next junction. Phew… we are in the correct track and looking at my GPS, the road has already started to go east bound. We stopped to have lunch by eating OREO BISCUIT. I did not eat much because the biscuit would make me thirstier.

It was about 4pm after biscuit lunch and I start Hope Too. When I pressed the starter ignition, the battery gone off!

As Homer Simpson always yelled: dooghhhhhh!!!!!!

We are in the village, like a jungle without supplies. We are hungry and there is no sign of life here. 2 more hours to sunset and Hope Too ran out of battery!!!!!!!!



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I patiently listen to the problem again by switching on and off the keys and try to start. It seems that the new starter relay that I had replaced in Pakistan is not clicking. Then I check if there is any lose connections. I realized that whenever I try to crank Hope Too, the positive connector of the battery had some sparks. Then I took out the connector and saw some corrosion. Taking it out and cleaned it, Hope Too re-live again.
We rode for half hour and finally we reached perfect asphalted road. We are in the new state now and this state, Santa Cruz is a rich one. The road is flawless and Hope Too was able to cruise at 110km/hr.

When we reached the town, it seems like we have entered a new world. Everything was in order. Shops everywhere. Expensive cars and big motorbike. Hope Too was little bit shy here because he’s quite dirty when the other cars and bike stopped before the traffic lights, turning their head to see why this dirty buffalo is doing in our town. Life is normal here for everybody, unlike what we hear from people telling us about the situation when we are in Samaipata. The news is always very discouraging but check it out, use yahoo news and search under Latin America, Bolivia is under the top most topic this few weeks.

From Samaipata to Santa Cruz the distance on map was 121km and it is all good asphalt. On paper we should reach the destination the most 2 hours if we are traveling at 60km/hr BUT we used 6 hours and total of 210km to reach Santa Cruz.

Now we had withdraw money from the bank, get our camera repaired, Brazil visa clarified, our clothing washed, Hope Too had his engine oil change and both of us had a good rest, it all happen in this town named Santa Cruz, it think it means Saint Cross in English.

life is so...

after 9 and half months, we start to see, understand about the past, present and future.
i have a happy go lucky life when i was young. during the teenage year, i was abit rebelious. went to polytechnic but did not study well. things started to go "real" when i entered the national service in 9th june 1999.
all of the Charlie Company enlistees (200) were either A-level or Diploma holders. i was one among the 4 that does not have the qualification. i strived hard to be a best recuit in order to get me into OCS (officer cadet school). things went wrong. i was not chosen dispite of my performance. looking at those that did worst, did sabotage, did no pull-ups, did no understand a thing about military, they are chosen to be in OCS. i was dissappointed.

after NS, i was very serious about my work, unlike in my poly days where i treated daily life like luck. i knew the work is my future. work mates join and quit the company. i was one of them in the end. through out my journey in this company, i worked real hard. there is always something pulling my leg for the next step in the company. as promised by the management, they wanted to put me on the next department where they knew that i am strongly intrested in but i waited and waited for almost 5 years, nothing happened. maybe, working for a relative is hard as they see you as a junior, forever in their eyes as they had seen me since my birth. what ever i did was not correct. what ever i did they have something to say. what ever i did and others did and i am in the wrong! what makes an apprciation of our presence in a company is the pay. i had "side info" about everybody"s pay in the company. those that joint later but had a certificate in the field had a higher pay regardless of performance. i the eye of the management, as long as the worker didnt give them any trouble is a good worker and the management need not have the worker to do extra for the company.
maybe i was like a bull, working hard but not working smart.
i remembered on my last day, i had alot to say to everybody including the management, to say thank you but im "blank" to everybody. i rode my bike off with tears in my eyes saying a hard goodbye in my heart when the wheel roll off the gate. i had put in so much love and effort for this relationship to work but i wasnt appricated.
pay:
2001 dec $1200
2002 feb $1400
2002 july $1500
2004 june $1850
2006 july $2010
2006 august $0.00 -*-*-*- i left the company.
seeing my work mates, had joined later had more pay, more incentive, company car and position upgraded, i became suspecious about myself.
is there something wrong with me? well, i must say that this company is a perfect company to work as i have the best work mates, good teaching superiors/managers and customers became good friend of mine. so, its my problem (they think), not the company.
i am not blaming anybody.
i am not pointing fingers.
i am not jelous.
i am just not being apprciated.

sometimes i when i am traveling, i email back to singapore to friends enquire about hows the company. i try to contact people in the company but they seems ignoring my mail. is the management cutting their contact with me? why?
is it because my dad still owe the management SGD$80000.00?

i dont care! i dont think that my boss is that kind of person that put family issues into work.



im real upset.

Samaipata

Che's companios, KIA.

Few days of hard work, at last we reached Vallegrande, the nearest town where Che was murdered in 1960s by the Bolivian Anti Guerrilla Police trained by the CIA. It was this little village which we estimated less then 50 people. He was setting up a clinic there. The village is about 60km, 2 hours away from Vallegrande where we were staying. I could feel the tough battle in such terrain condition.

the real Ernesto "Che" in a candide camera with the local before the attack in the village.

it was in this small and simple school that Che settled.

In Vallegrande, we met a Chinese man from Fujian, China that came here to set up a local restaurant. The first day we visited this restaurant at a non lunch time, we already suspect that only Chinese would open door for business while other restaurant would have their afternoon nap or resting for dinner. He was selling local food that suits the local taste but spiced up with the Chinese cooking filled with little but important ingredients. Mr Ho was a happy man here.

Mr Ho's son came here to help his business for 4 years. they had not refreshed on speaking Mandrain for many years. our appearance was a surprise to the. Does he looked like one of an actor in the show "Kung Fu" by Stephen Chow? the one that show backside...

From Vallegrande, our next destination was Samaipata. the road was good and we are prepared for the unexpected road blocks made by the potesters. surprisingly the pile of block were still there but unmanned. trucks had run over it thus making the road usable. it was again asphalted road and Hope Too was able to cruise along the winding road.

Just after half hour after our lunch along the smooth road, we saw buses, trucks and cars jammed on the other side of the hill. ‘Oh, could it be another road block?’ as we approached nearer, it was a landslide. as usual, I would stop, Sam with Hope Too and I do terrain appreciation. the pile of rocks were too hugh, almost the size of a Subaru viki. by the side nearer to the slope of the valley, it was covered by smaller stones and might be passable with Hope Too. the only danger was Hope Too and I would fall into the valley on our right side while ‘climbing’ through the pile of stones. I unloaded the 2 big aluminium panniers and clear the stone way. the locals were so nice that they made a way for me, using their bare hands to clear away the rocks. I rammed through easily with the help of the locals and Sam behind me pushing. Safe! they clapped their hands while I install the panniers ready to go. Looking back, they are still jammed by the pile of stones. I went back, helping in all ways, clearing the stones for them like what they have done for us until a car could cross the obstacle. I felt that they are able to manage the condition and there we go again!

Samaipata was a peaceful but touristic town. we are staying in a hostel of 4 rooms managed by a family. Camilio was only 28 years old and had 3 pretty daughters, aged 9, 8 and 1. He and his wife is managing this hostel and occationally would bring tour to the local sights. The eldest daughter, Alexandra, pronounced as ‘ali-han-da’ in Spanish, was very matured. she was able to help us in all our need and accompany us to dinner. her dining etiquette was definated better then us. thumbs up and new friend made!

the sunday market in Samaipata, as we like to look and feel people! can you see a 'sister' in the picture? they are very friendly!

we visited El Fuerte, a UNESCO site. again, it was old rock. frankly speaking, we are not very fond of such things but we found that the ants and plants here are nice!

we are shortage of money here. last ATM withdrawal was one week ago. there’s a bank here that is able to use our AMEX, VISA electrons, Masters or what ever card to withdraw local currency but charge a 5% commission. we are ok with that but the bank here seems not to recognized any of our card from Singapore. We used the AMEX, Citibank’s visa electrons (debit) and DBS master debit. NON WORK!!! then we saw a Caucasian couple sitting easily with their VISA card and able to withdraw cash with the bank! What is happening to Singapore’s bank? isn’t Singapore going to be a financial hub? we always had problem with the Singapore’s bank card, it doesn’t seems working here. The bank only change US dollars base on cash and we are keeping the US$40 for emergency. Still holding to some hundreds of Brazilian reals and Argentina Peso, no body wants them.

Out of instinct, I suddenly reminded myself that I still had 100euros hidden in my sole of my boots. I would try it with the german tour operator and they accepted it! Michael Blendinger, a biologist, organize eco tour with his wife. though we did not take up their tour, his wife Gabri was kind enough to help us. http://www.discoveringbolivia.com/

we would be packing up and get ready for tomorrow, the crucial part of our Bolivia journey: SANTA CRUZ. Many travelers are stucked in Samiapata because there isn’t any transport to the other town at current situation. Many warn us about going to Santa Cruz. I had to go there because my Brazilian visa was not made clear about expiry date. secondly we had to withdraw money from ATM to survive the last 600km to Brazil, with would take us about 3-6 days to complete.

Just had a clean up on Hope Too’s chain and tyres from the dirt. His rear tyre suffered from many cuts from the stones along the road. some were stucked inside the rubber and we leave it. the spocks of the tyre were lose. I put Hope Too on double stand and shake the tyre with both hands, hearing lots of noise. I tighten each lose spocks and made the wheel run freely on first gear. it is not straight. the tyre seems deformed.

issues:
1) have not change engine oil since in Germany
2) piston ring suspected to worn off
3) Deformed tyres, might caused by wheel bearing or spocks
4) Santa Cruz’s stability for traveller’s safety

will keep you guys updated when we reached Santa Cruz.

happy Mid Autumn festival! does the moon seems rounder in Singapore?

...

i type so many things on the blog y blogspot never publish for me???

testing testing testing...

3 days on the road

Bolivia, Vallegrande:
S 18deg 29.407´
W064deg 06.346´











the dino foot prints in Sucre.

after leaving the comfortable place in Sucre on 8 september, saying goodbye to our riding companion Peer. he stayed in sucre for spanish lessons. 70km north is a perfect road but ended up the same again, rocky roads. managed to travel for 5 hrs and stopped at a town name Aiquilo. nice hostel with proper bike parking, just outside the doorstep. clean and neat! S$5 per person per night.this is the perfect lodging we are looking for

our destination, Vallegrande then Santa Cruz (EAST).

too far away for a single day ride from Sucre as we do not know where will be the next sleeping place and also, the road condition will always be a surprise!

9 september, set out from the clean hostel and 5 minutes of riding, we met a junction. there is a short cut to santa cruz, told by the man along the toll way. i saw the road, it was dirt road and on the map its about 150km to the next town, which means that we could just travel 10hrs on this road to an unknown place. the "long cut" as describe by the man was ´alsphato ´! sounds good, we took the longer route.

road at each province is not the same quality. there it marks another boundary.

not very convicing... for the past 7 hrs we only travel 5km of alsphate road. the rest of the road (190km) will burst your beer bottle when u take out for a chill after riding. restless, tired (our butt). i got stung by a bee, i think its a bee on my right wrist. he came into my sleeve, want to take a rest on my body and yet gave me a sting. i felt sharp pain and grab it, crushing its body so i didnt know what stung me. till now its swollen and hurt.

the rocky road winds into the mountain and it was only 2800m above sea level. we are soon entering a cloud. it became a fog. i saw the landscape change. not the road but the greens along the road. instead of grass, it was moss. the trees were leaf-less and the whole structure were filled with hairs and moss. then there were crosses along the road. i guess some people had died here. it become very errie at 2pm where we cannot see any sunlight. it seems that we are transforming into a 3rd dimention. the road seems the same as it turns and turns. luckly i had a gps, knowing we are not repeating the same road. the whole peace of "cloud road" is like the lord of the ring, transiting thro a strange place and then will reach a new world.

in deed, it turned out to be a new world. there was the town of Catalinas. it should be a good town to stay overnight as it is already 430pm and i saw on the map, the town is link with a river, which means it should be a more wealthy town.

yes... proper lodging in the town but we found the cheapest and safest one. the elderly owner is very funny.

although we do not speak each others language but we are able to make joke with one another.

we are getting nearer to santa cruz.

10 september

just out of the town, finally asphate road!!! we cruise for 50km and came by 2 buses blocking the road. Hope Too managed to squeeze thro and i saw 50 buses stopping along the road, with people sleeping under the bus, camping by the side of the road. the situation does not smells better when we get near to Santa Cruz. they are on strike or they have been stopped.

along the way, there came a big pile of soil and debrits blocking the road. yes, it is a human road block. the potester are not happy with the politics and stopped vehicle coming into santa cruz, or going out. i took out the side pannier of Hope Too and scrambled through the sharp little hill hearing a scratch on the skid plate. going back to collect the panniers and happily we go on the asphalted road again.

5 minutes later, same situation happened. this time 2 of this sharp little mountain. i had to go down to the side of the road and detour through the people "camping" along the road.

why are they doing this? situation not right.

we have reached Vallegrande, the place where Che Guevera was murdered. we are going to visit this site tomorrow. there is no atm, no bank, no money changer here in this outback town. we are left with some boliviano dollars worth S$50.00 and some US$. hope to survive for 4 days before santa cruz. luckily Hope Too did not give us any problem. he still has half tankful of petrol... supposingly

Potosi to Sucre

doesn´t the market in Bolivia looks like the market in Singapore in the 1970´s or 1980´s? like the Queenstown market? we felt so homely here where we have breakfast with the local almost every morning.

We left the 4088 meters above sea level Potosi
(4D lovers take note of this number 4088). It is the highest city in the world. It used to be one of the richest city in S.A. because it has natural silver mine but the Spanish had made advantages of it during the conquest. Hope Too doesnt need any jet resetting due to the thin air ratio to burn with the carbrettor. Instead, Sam and I were breathless after walking for 5 minutes. believe me, really breathless! the local use Coca leaves to chew, not Cocaine. Coca leaves are only legal here in Bolivia.











suprisingly, road from Potosi to Sucre is 150km and we only took 3hrs! it was real tarmac road again! in Sucre, the building is so much european style. Heard that it was one of the UNESCO heritage city.
Hope Too was about to change his engine oil, perhaps when we reach Santa Cruz to get it done.

Road from Uyuni to Potosi.

I lost balance when i stopped completely to get a photo taken. the ground was uneven and we fell to the left side. Hope Too is really a fat and heavy baffolo where we have problem lifting him up!







local women looking at the strange old baffolo.

We would like to thank Derek Yap of Camphora Pte Ltd. Generous support in our journey again of SGD$1000.00. Not only by cash sponsor, Derek had made equipment contribution in our journey like our flees and wind breaker which are of top quality.


Not forgetting Mr Tay Chiow Chee of Tampines, which get to know us only through the blog. His monthly contribution to us had made our heart growing stronger, knowing someone is helping in our trip constantly!


thanks my fellow Singaporeans!

got my hair cut for S$2.00 at Potosi.

we are touched.

dear friends. suddenly we had so many friends looking at our blog. we felt encouraged. thank you everybody. We are at Bolivia. Might be the first singaporean to travel on bike on this route here. also, we might be the first round the world biker to lost the bike before the trip and still manage to start within 2 months. refer to my posting in 2007. about sponsorship: before my bike was lost we had sufficent fund for the trip and would not want any publicity. my 2 years effort Africa Twin (AKA Hope) was stolen with important equipments 2 months before the big day. our funding was much tight then. we 60 letters out to all the singapore listing company, top 10 singapore brand to seek for "backup funds" or equipment supply with the help of some publicity. only 4 reply which are negative. i guess it´s too short time for the sponsor to react.
we hope to update more on the blog if we can find internet.

http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/singaporeseen/viewContent.jsp?commentPageNo=1&id=33003#comment

Atwin: i have found out something about the long way round and long way down stuff. the truth is that they..... .... many globe riders told me this. email me to know the truth. sponsor? i got many sponsor along the way espicially in pakistan, iran, turkey and some parts of europe. they gave us food, lodging and friendship. this is the kind of trip and people we want to meet. not about seeing the 7 wonder of the world. we love to see and understand about human. we also enjoy food and beer! of course not forgetting the lovely landscape, trees, flowers and animals.


Ivan: thanks for dropping by. hows NPCB folks?

rekraine, fauzie33,WT, Dreamscometrue,pearson,SGnetizen,Fitri: thanks for reading my blog. when we go back we would like to help more fellow singaporeans to able to travel like us, regardless of trouble. we are going to Columbia! it´s now or never. about sponsors, we have ´seen through´. let fate decide about extra $. must fight for what i want.

thank you for your time.

we reached Potosi

after leaving the electricity-less town of uyuni, we we are now at potosi. roads are slightly better. less strips but still, in Bolivia, its a big natural enduro race track. no wonder the Dakar riders dont come here, too tough for them.

Hours on the road = 6
Distance covered = 200km
Puncture = 0
Pimples = 2!!!!
Fall = 1 ( fell down when i made a stop. stupid)
s 19deg 35.418´
W065deg 45.302´