Saturday, August 13, 2011

Can I really do this? More regular blogging??

I'm pretty good at avoiding writing blog posts, and then in one big hit trying to recount countless amazing experiences and cramming them all into one mammoth post. So I'm going to try and change tact... from long
recounts, to shorter bursts of travel thoughts, experiences and tales.

It'll still be of the musing, rambling type of post, but hopefully it will give more of a day to day feel of how and where I'm travelling.

Tonight I find myself in La Higuera, the town were Che Guevara was captured and then executed on the 9 October 1967 (nonethess in their local school building). It's not a place we had really planned to come to, but on being here it makes you realise the passions of people, and those who keep the story alive. Often they are foreigners - and especially here in South America, there seems to be many French who have relocated and settled for various reasons. I really admire these people - from what they've told me settling, being accepted and successfully running a business here is difficult.

Today's the second day of being back on the road - yesterday Philipe and I started out from Sucre, and after making it past Tarabuco we were screeched to a halt at a road blockage. We thought it would be a 10
minute wait or so, but having a near physical altercation with a Bolivian woman about taking a photo, we found out that the road was in fact closed from 7am to 6.30pm every day for roadworks, and we could
only pass from 6.30pm to 7am. Bit of a shock that - especially as it put to a stop our first day being back on the road.

We did the sensible thing and turned back to Tarabuco and instead got up super early and made it before 7am. That turned into a 10 hr travelling day, and at that near desperate moment we found a campsite hidden from the road with the company of numerous bitey flyey type things.

Travelling with Philipe in his sidecar is definitely a different experience - if I thought I got lots of looks travelling loaded up as a solo woman, me and my bike were seriously feeling left out by all the looks that Philipe gets. I guess motorbikes are pretty much everywhere - and sidecars definitely not. The speed at which a crowd of boys and men (and some women) gather around him when we stop is amazing!
So the last 2 days have been quite some amazing scenery - from very dry open rolling hills around Sucre, to red rock pinnacle formations as we lowered in altitude, to blue lagoons seeping their way out of a seemingly desert landscape as we neared La Higuera.

I'm really enjoying being back on the bike - catching smells in the air, practicing riding standing up in dirt and sandy patches, rolling into towns for a cold sparkly drink and just enjoying moving again.

Going onto Samaipata tomorrow - from what people have said and what I've read in the lonely planet, sounds like a place we'll probably chill and explore for a couple of days. The route over the next month is slowly coming together - in early October my parents are coming to Peru so it's a good kick up the backside to get moving again. It stresses me out though - after my somewhat aimless rambling and no time pressure to travel, now having to be somewhere at a certain point is making me realise how much there is to do and just so little time! Yes I know - people go around the world twice in the time I've taken to get through Argentina and CHile, but I just can't seem to move much faster.

PS. there's a horse at our campsite - just had wonderful time chatting to him under a full moon - he / she / the horse had a very soft coat, and kept on sniffing my clothes (might have had something to do with the
orange I'd just eaten). I had caught the horse napping standing up - but he was chilled and seemed happy to have me scratching his ears and patting, well his left side of his face. A lovely interlude on a warm winter evening.

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