This was the afternoon that we arrived in Bolivia. We stopped for this trout lunch, which was what prevented us from being in the capital La Paz when the police and the military decided to start shooting at each other as a way of resolving their political differences over some new taxes.
This is the truck that hauled Ulf and his bike from Arica to Iquique, where Ulf was able to fix the bike.
These are some people who were staying at the same hotel as us in Iquique. One of the kids wanted to sit on the bike, and I said sure... this was the result.
Aren't they cute? The little bastards can scream deceptively loudly for their size... And what a great idea to put them in a hotel right next to the guest rooms!
This stands randomly in the middle of the Atacama desert, about half a kilometer from the Panamerican Highway. I still have no idea why it is there, who built it, or what the significance is, but I suspect it is the hand of one of those giant arms-outstretched Jesus statues like they have in Rio which is buried underneath Plant of the Apes style.
Yet another portrait of my bike, Santiago. Never realized how handy it was to have other people with you when you want to take a photo... And here you can see the very beginning of the execrable volcanic dust.
I got tired of taking pictures of my motorcycle, so I figured I'd give this a try. If I knew it was going to work I probably would have told myself to say cheese.
This is the Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria) tree. My guidebook ( fucking Lonely Planet) in its typical fashion spills a lot of ink that it could have used on tangential information like where to stay in the region on a speculative theory as to how it got its name - since there are no monkeys in the area, perhaps a 17th century menagerie garden, where the transplanted tree might have been encountered by a monkey that became trapped in its spiky, platelike branches, much like a lobster trap. I think we're thinking about this one way too hard...
More Araucaria trees. They are a species that is native only to a small territory starting in this park and running about 100 km south, in the shadow of the Andes.
This was where I went down trying to cross this stream. The rocks are much bigger than they look like from this photo, I assure you. After it crashed I figured I'd take a photo since I was in no hurry to get back in the stream and start lifting the bike up. I was actually trying to go to the side that I took the photo from, where I was standing on a log bridge. I was trying to figure out how to get on it (and stay on) when I slowed down and the bike went over. Ok guys, nice bridge, now try putting it OVER the water.
This was the result of my repair job. Well, better than nothing...
