Bolivia Border Crossing

18 January 2012

35 Miles

Juliaca to Puno, Peru (on the shores of Lake Titicaca)

Short day today only rode 35 miles. We arrived in Puno, Peru on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. 12,500ft. The sun is strong when it is out and it is cold when it is not.

We spent 3 days in Puno. Not because we loved the lake but Paul and I took turns being sick. Fun stuff.

21 January 2012

95 miles

Juliaca to Desaguadero (Border of Peru & Bolivia)

Physically we are in Desaguadero Peru.

Legally???? NOWHERE. Illegally in Peru and not able to leave and we can see Bolivia across the river. Oh Man!

What a CRAZY day today! Leaving Peru headed for Bolivia. I think we have over stayed our welcome in Peru. Headed south towards Bolivia on the Pan-American Highway we finally get stopped by the Police and there is no way around them this time for they are standing in the middle of the road forcing us over. After much time pretending not to know what is going on we finally got busted with no insurance. A major ticket in Peru according to them. They could impound our motorcycles or we could pay $165.00 each for the ticket. They were willing to settle on us paying $100. I told them $20 each they finally accepted, shook our hands, smiled and wished us a happy Journey. They are thieves in uniform.

Later down the road there is a toll booth (motos in Peru do not have to pay at the booths) Paul goes around the gate and the alarm goes off. I go around the right side. They charged Paul for both bikes and the Police said that was not all. They asked for his ID told him to ride forward and go get me and bring me back, for I had pulled over up ahead. Paul got on his bike and we took off together, one drivers license lost to the police. We have more.  It’s a small price to pay to avoid MORE bribes.

We are ready to get out of Peru now after being sick for days, we are still not feeling well and now the Police are messing with us for the first time here. Our paperwork for the Motorcycles is expired due to us storing the motos in Peru for 6 months. Everybody we talked to said this is Peru and it will maybe cost us a  fine or a little bribe but not a problem. Or we could just go cross at a small “unmanned” border and blow through. We decided to do it the more legal way.

So now we are headed toward the border with expired paperwork not knowing how everything is going to play out. We arrived at the Border and our passports get stamped out. WE are now legally out of the country. Time to cross the street and get our bikes out. I give the man the paperwork he starts putting the info in the computer and then wait... “it says that you were to be out in June 2011 it is now January 2012”..

“oh yes the motos. have been in storage and we had to return to the U.S.A see my passport”

After going back and forth for a while, in my broken Spanish, I can tell he actually wants to help a little and just get me out of there…but stupid computers..it will not let him proceed. there is nothing he can do. Him being a straight officer will not take a bribe. He said there are eyes everywhere here watching him. (I have to give him credit he wants his job) He tells us (through a couple translating for us that happened to be there) that he is not supposed to let us leave and is supposed confiscate our bikes. OR we can ride back to another border and he will pretend he never saw us. But we can not cross at this border. After a couple of tears from me (they do not like to see ladies cry) another officer told us of a small border back 40 miles that if we cross in the morning the man guarding it will still be asleep. But we have to cross the next morning for rain was moving in and it was getting dark. So after much contemplation  we decided to stay in Peru, Illegally, for the night and make a run for it in the morning.

22 January 2012

71 miles (half dirt and mud)

We woke up early in the morning put our rain gear on, because of course it is going to rain and head for another border. On the map it was only 40 Km away, it is a old map and not very clear. Luckily Paul google earthed the route and knew where to go (kind of). Down a dirt road for a while and of course it does start raining which turns the dirt to mud,  slick as hell. Perfect setting when you are an outlaw running a border. It was further than thought, but at last we come to the border and there is nobody around but a couple of locals. Riding tight together cruising fast. There is a chain across the road which looks like it is lying on the ground, just like the last one. Nope. It is connected and  half a foot off the ground. We  lock up the brakes and start sliding.  Paul decides he can make it over the chain. Full throttle he makes it. I am tight behind him a little to the right and I have to go for it  too. Am I going to make it? Am I going to get pulled off my bike? Full throttle now. The chain has bounced up from Paul hitting it. The chain bounces up cracks my blinker, then cracks my windshield, slides up the windshield skips off my helmet and we are both still up and riding. We made it! We are in Bolivia! (Illegally)Now we need to become legal here. We have to ride to the next border town with an immigration office. We make it and there is a long line of people waiting. Americans have to pay $135.00 for a Bolivian visa. We must be the only American there because we get to skip the line and go right inside and they start processing our paperwork. All is going good until “wait you were stamped out of Peru yesterday, where have you been?”

“We crossed at Unicachi and there is nothing there, we had to camp out and come here first thing this morning.”

“You crossed at Unicachi and camped out? This is a problem. You are not supposed to cross there.”  He says laughing and stamping our passports into Bolivia. These were the nicest immigration officers we have ever seen.  One is playing the guitar,while they both laugh at us saying”Unicachi, Unicachi”

He then makes sure we go next door and get our motorcycles checked in. We do with little problem, Having to explain again why we came from the opposite direction.

We are now in Bolivia and legal. What a crazy, scary rush. One that gets your adrenaline pumping for sure and it feels good to have it behind us and laugh now. We can NEVER bring our bikes back to Peru. So We are not the outlaws it’s our Motorcycles. What a difference a day makes.

We are in Copacabana, Bolivia still on Lake Titicaca relaxing for a couple of days and being thankful for our luck and adventures..Flamingos at 14500ft??

 

The Boarder we could not get across!

 

The Bikes we almost had to use to continue our journey south.

 

Finally all is good in Bolivia at lake Titicaca.