COOKING AND BRAAAAPING AROUND THE WORLD: Nick and I do a Che Guevara loop from Sucre

6/26-28/2012

        We grabbed a quick breakfast, loaded up the bikes, and headed out. It took me about 20km to get used to riding a knobby on pavement, figuring out how hard I could push it in turns. The road turned into a packed dirt road and we flew through it. We came up on our turn and a small town where we stopped for lunch. After that the road got a little gnarly, again with this crazy sand and 6-12inch of dusty. Nick called it bull dust don’t know what to call it but crazy to ride in. I was following Nick most of the day because he had the GPS and knew where to go. At one point I was hauling down the road and hit a massive stretch of this deep dusty. All of a sudden my bike slipped out and I went to the left but saved it slammed me to the other side, so hard that all I saw was ground coming I tensed up ready for a good slam to the right. I twisted the bars back and right before impact the bike just caught and stood straight back up at a 90, I kicked back left and saved it holy crap. Sweet a hard packed straight away; I slammed the gas to do a little catch up. All of a sudden I hit another patch of the dust and it sent me into the worst speed wobbles so bad that both of my feet got ripped off. I was going way to fast and knew it was over, I yelled out “come on f*&@ get it!” All of a sudden I did get it and got it back under control and man was I puckered... hahaha the rest of the road was like this no more close calls but crazy sand, dusty, rocky, and a lot of fun. We arrived at a bunch of trucks stopped and made our way to the front of the line. There was a rock slide and they were doing construction it was going to be a two hour wait but should reopen at 6pm. A lot of locals would come up talk to us asking questions and looking at the bike. We sat eating M&M’s and drinking PowerAde and water. When we thought it was getting close, we started to suit up at one point there was 20 plus locals crowding around us just standing real close watching us a few would ask questions but most just stared. As soon as there was an opening we road under the machinery cleaning up and got going into the dark we went. We got to a small town rode around found a hotel with parking for 4 bucks each and dinner for $1.50 each we were stoked.

        We woke up and got on the road quickly, road about another 50km till we hit pavement. We rode for about 5km stopped for a picture and started to go again. Ahhh what the hell my bike wont rev over 6k I pull over and check it out I had burned some oil so I topped it off and headed off still no luck, Nick was pulled over I pulled over and started to think then opened up my air box and pulled my air filter. I had just cleaned and changed the air filter in La Paz 500 dusty miles ago. It was so clogged and heavy I have never seen one like it. I grabbed my crappy back up and through it in, problem solved lets rip. We had breakfast and grabbed gas, SWEET local prices!! 35 cents a liter!!! We took our turn off and headed for the hospital where Che was put on display when he was killed. The road on the map was dirt but in real life it was perfectly paved a little bummer but still a fun road. We pulled into town made it to the museum before they closed and checked it out a wealth of information about him and how he was killed (and graphic pictures of him dead and bleeding out). We headed out of town following the Che route and made our way to town La Higuera. At the last crossroad we were stopped and Nick was asked to go to this ladies house tell her son she was waiting for him. On the way into the town about 20km off the main road, half way there we stopped and Nick asked a kid walking donkeys where this house was he said it was his and then Nick told him to go get his mother he laughed and headed to go get her.. Haha.. We arrived at the town and found the Telecommunications building which was Che’s outpost and someone had turned it into a small hotel so we decided to stay the night. We walked around checked out another museum about Che and saw where and the chair he was shot in. Crazy.

        In the morning I checked my oil it was low again I was burning a lot of oil what the hell Nick said he saw some blue puffs yesterday so I was concerned. I kept having to add oil all day not stoked this is not good. We came into town and I wanted gas but the station was closed, at my regular gas consumption I would make it to the next town. Although I made it with in 15km and she ran out I kicked it on reserve and headed in, I made it 1km from town and she was dead. Crap. Nick came back asking what I was doing standing on the road I looked at him really you jack ass haha I ran out of gas. Haha he gave me some gas and we made it into town. After a little begging we got the shop owner to sell me some gas he gave me ten liters for 50cent a liter I was stoked. We headed back to Sucre only 100km left, as we left the town we took a small road that kind of dead ended but we could see the main road so we road through a rocky bouldering open shot to the road, I bounced off one rock hit a boulder through me sideways uphill I fell back down hill bike laying on a ledge. I grabbed the front tire and slid her around and lifted her up, Nick Took pictures haha. I got on and went to go, front tire was stuck and back slipped out and down I went we picked it up and I gave her hell and made it up and out to the main road. My bike was feeling like crap and I lead all the way back till we stopped at a gas station Nick told me that my bike was kicking straight blue smoke out of it constantly.. NOT STOKED!! The gas attendant told me that there was a out of plate price I said how much and he thought for a little bit and said 8 I wasn’t in the best mood with my bike so I said no he was shocked. I said 5 he said 7 we agreed on 6.5 haha less than a dollar a liter. Nick just sat laughing, but was stoked to save money, since they still wrote the receipt for local price and pocketed the rest. We made it back to town and loaded our bikes into the hotel courtyard. Had dinner with Ian and told our stories, I did a bunch of research and talked to my friend Chad who is a mechanic. I decided I would find a good shop and go tomorrow morning for a compression check.