The computer has died! The little notebook is was relying on to store my pictures and write my blog updates has shit the bed. I´ve only a couple/few more weeks here so I think that´s it for the blog. Short as it was, it was a good time. I´m headed north from Lima here in a day or so to surf northern Peru and maybe cross into Ecuador, we´ll see. I return to the States mid Feb. to get back to work and start planning the trip to drive Kombi home to Fort Collins. See you all soon!
William
viernes, 28 de enero de 2011
sábado, 22 de enero de 2011
Post 22
I suppose I should begin with my apologies again but I have to admit and it’s probably quite obvious that they are not sincere. I would say I’ve meant to update the blog or even feel bad about not updating but I don’t . The last couple of weeks have been full to the brim with experiences beyond my expectations. So with out further ado her goes the longest blog post ever-
I think I left off the last little nugget about tear down the back end of Kombi. That day in Topiza was an eye opener when it came to exactly how Kombi’s heart beat. After 4-5 hours of surgery and a few beers I had the fuel pump, distributer, and fuel line system cleaned and reassembled. As I said in the last post I intended to drink early and often so I could get to bed early for a long day the next day. This didn’t really sort out the way I had planned. After fixing Kombi it was necessary to take a test drive out to the countryside to make sure all was well. So Wiebke(one of the German girls) and I set out down the road with the best of intentions. It was late Friday afternoon and shortly after leaving town I couldn’t help but notice that there we dozens of dudes still working on the road we were meandering through. So it didn’t take much thought to figure out that what better way to get to know the town folk than to pull over and drink the hell out of whatever beer was left in Kombi. So for an hour or so Wiebke and I put a few back with a Bolivian construction crew figuring that whatever info I could glean from these guys just might help me out when I need it most. The best metaphor I could come up with at the time was “building bridges for the future.” Bridges we still had to find and then cross, but without building them in the first place you can’t have either of those things. I’m sure you can see where this is going. Later that night we moseyed into a locals only carnival of sorts on the outskirts of Topiza this is where we found those bridges and crossed them and crossed them back over and over and over again. Low and behold as we’re walking through the drunk area being heckled by wasted Bolivians this dude runs out of one of the tents and grabs me by the arm insisting that I join them at their crowded but hospitable table. After a short conversation of me telling him to let me go and him dragging me into the tent I figured out that not only was he one of the construction workers from the road but he was the only one. Everyone else has left to go to sleep for a 5 am wake-up call. He had intended to do the same but upon seeing me he ordered up another round, I ordered up another round, his buddies ordered up another round, he did, I did ,they did… Sooooo the going to bed early bit didn’t really shake out, the “bridges for the future” bit really did. Willis, myself, Kati, Josh, and a half dozen Bolivian good timers got cocktailed till the police shut the joint down. I really hope Willis made it to the job site on time.
Kati, Josh, Kombi, and myself hit the road sometime around 6 am the next morning for a long day of probably the most beautiful stretch of mountain driving I’ve ever seen in my life. The mountains of south-central Bolivia and stunning to say the least. We mixed in about 200km of dirt/gravel road and 11 hours later we arrived in the town of Potosi, Bolivia, the highest city in the world. Potosi sits at an altitude of about 13500 feet and we topped out on our route at just over 15000 feet. (I should make a side note that the highest elevation Kombi and I have attained was somewhere on the Paso Jama at just over 18000, but I’ve found no way to confirm what the locals were telling me.) Anyway, Kombi purred like a kitten the whole day through all of the altitude, dirt, and hitchhikers we could throw at her. After a night in Potosi we bid farewell to Kati and Josh and I set out for La Paz/Lake Titicaca. We made it about 50 km down the road when Kombi decided she had had enough and this time it was the real deal. Not only would she not restart after letting her cool down she wouldn’t even run going downhill in gear We had big problems. That’s where Walter and Julio come into the picture. After coasting back down the mountain to a small town we had passed through Walter and I spent the next 5 or so hours tearing apart, cleaning, and rebuilding the carburetor and distributor(again). He sincerely attempted to refuse any sort of payment but I insisted on and small amount of money and some beer. We all had a good laugh, shook hands, took photos and hit the damn road.
Since the two days of rebuilding Kombi has been running like a dream. She actually has me think I may attempt to drive her back to Fort Collins next winter. We’ll see.
Back on the road north past La Paz Josh and I set-up to do a DH tour of some trails outside on the town of Sorata, Bolivia. The tour only ran $100 and was worth every penny of it. All in all we were out 13 hours including shuttles, riding, and food logging over 4000m in vert. The trails are mainly old foot paths the locals use to access their farms. It felt great to get a day of shredding in keep my head strait until I can get back in the ocean in a few days. Thoroughly exhausted we headed to the town of Copacabana the following day to relax before we crossed the border back into Peru. That’s where shit gets interesting.
Nowhere in my limited research did anyone or any website tell me that Peru and Bolivia are not friendly with one another at their borders. Not only do they not let each other cross into their respective countries but they don’t let their own people cross back over the border. This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and obviously caught me by surprise. So after bribing the Bolivian border guard to let me leave Bolivia(upon entering the border patrol made a mistake and put the wrong license plate number on my paper work, they were trying to say that Kombi was stolen) and going through all of the immigration to leave Bolivia and enter Peru Kombi was held up at the border and not allowed to enter her home country. At least ten times the older gentleman working the vehicle desk told me I had to reenter Bolivia and drive to the Peru border with Chile if I intended to enter Peru at all. At least ten times I told him that this was impossible. All of this was really intense with him raising his voice at times visibly irritated that anyone with a vehicle from Peru would even attempt to cross this border. I did get a look at the list of vehicles that had crossed for the previous three days and it looked like about 15-20 total cars crossed each day and none of them were Bolivian or Peruvian. After two hours of me refusing to take my paper work back from him, faxes, phone calls, and ultimately another bribe they reluctantly lowered the chains and let Kombi go home. It’s tough to relay the whole scene but it definitely required me to max out whatever Spanish I had in my quiver. One wild ride.
Onward and upward Josh, Kombi, and I drove along the west bank of Lake Titicaca taking in the beauty of the largest lake in South America. Away from Titicaca I found the landscape a touch uninspiring and literally just as I started to comment to Josh that Southeast Peru left a little to be desired we came upon the town of Calapuja Calapuja is most definitely not on the so called “Gringo trail” with maybe a total of one thousand inhabitants it see little to no tourism, but as we drove by that day I spotted a bit of a crowd in a field off the road. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be the local celebration for Carnival with about 150 or so people all in costume ready to dance, sing, and drink the Thursday away. Turns out I’m really into that shit too. The first people we met insisted that we have some beer with them and their “Family.” If you’re familiar with the way Carnival is set-up around the world various groups of people called Schools get together with a common theme and pool their resources to buy all the booze, food, and such for partying. Well here they’re called Families and in this small town there were a total of three Families. For certain we happened on the right one. I knew we had to be in Cusco at 7 am the next morning to pick Big Andrew up at the airport so after about and hour of beers and good times with our new Family Josh and I decided to hit the road for the 6-7 hour drive to Cusco. I made it about 5 km down the road when I pulled Kombi over and started to cuss myself for the ridiculous decision I had just made. How in the hell could I possibly pass up the party that was about to happen in Calapuja in favor of a 7 hour drive to Cusco. As I drove back to the party I was actually mad at myself for being such a fucking American and thinking I had a schedule to stick to and any sort of obligation to anyone outside of Calapuja. The rest is history , the day of Carnival turned into the night of Carnival turned into me crawling out of Kombi sometime in the night and yakking next to the house I was parked in front of. Hours upon hours of drinking room temperature beer and passing around 4 or 5 cups for 25 or so people to drink out of caught up with me. It was so much god damn fun, I can’t even explain it. Dancing the night away with 70+ year old wasted women, everyone having the time of their lives. The band is taking turns drinking and playing music, the dancers(including Josh and I) are drunk and falling in the street. Wasted dudes are coming and going on motorcycles, sometime 2 and 3 guys per moto. Watching any and all social, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic barriers fall by the wayside
That’s it. I’m done. I have to go back to Calapuja……
I think I left off the last little nugget about tear down the back end of Kombi. That day in Topiza was an eye opener when it came to exactly how Kombi’s heart beat. After 4-5 hours of surgery and a few beers I had the fuel pump, distributer, and fuel line system cleaned and reassembled. As I said in the last post I intended to drink early and often so I could get to bed early for a long day the next day. This didn’t really sort out the way I had planned. After fixing Kombi it was necessary to take a test drive out to the countryside to make sure all was well. So Wiebke(one of the German girls) and I set out down the road with the best of intentions. It was late Friday afternoon and shortly after leaving town I couldn’t help but notice that there we dozens of dudes still working on the road we were meandering through. So it didn’t take much thought to figure out that what better way to get to know the town folk than to pull over and drink the hell out of whatever beer was left in Kombi. So for an hour or so Wiebke and I put a few back with a Bolivian construction crew figuring that whatever info I could glean from these guys just might help me out when I need it most. The best metaphor I could come up with at the time was “building bridges for the future.” Bridges we still had to find and then cross, but without building them in the first place you can’t have either of those things. I’m sure you can see where this is going. Later that night we moseyed into a locals only carnival of sorts on the outskirts of Topiza this is where we found those bridges and crossed them and crossed them back over and over and over again. Low and behold as we’re walking through the drunk area being heckled by wasted Bolivians this dude runs out of one of the tents and grabs me by the arm insisting that I join them at their crowded but hospitable table. After a short conversation of me telling him to let me go and him dragging me into the tent I figured out that not only was he one of the construction workers from the road but he was the only one. Everyone else has left to go to sleep for a 5 am wake-up call. He had intended to do the same but upon seeing me he ordered up another round, I ordered up another round, his buddies ordered up another round, he did, I did ,they did… Sooooo the going to bed early bit didn’t really shake out, the “bridges for the future” bit really did. Willis, myself, Kati, Josh, and a half dozen Bolivian good timers got cocktailed till the police shut the joint down. I really hope Willis made it to the job site on time.
Kati, Josh, Kombi, and myself hit the road sometime around 6 am the next morning for a long day of probably the most beautiful stretch of mountain driving I’ve ever seen in my life. The mountains of south-central Bolivia and stunning to say the least. We mixed in about 200km of dirt/gravel road and 11 hours later we arrived in the town of Potosi, Bolivia, the highest city in the world. Potosi sits at an altitude of about 13500 feet and we topped out on our route at just over 15000 feet. (I should make a side note that the highest elevation Kombi and I have attained was somewhere on the Paso Jama at just over 18000, but I’ve found no way to confirm what the locals were telling me.) Anyway, Kombi purred like a kitten the whole day through all of the altitude, dirt, and hitchhikers we could throw at her. After a night in Potosi we bid farewell to Kati and Josh and I set out for La Paz/Lake Titicaca. We made it about 50 km down the road when Kombi decided she had had enough and this time it was the real deal. Not only would she not restart after letting her cool down she wouldn’t even run going downhill in gear We had big problems. That’s where Walter and Julio come into the picture. After coasting back down the mountain to a small town we had passed through Walter and I spent the next 5 or so hours tearing apart, cleaning, and rebuilding the carburetor and distributor(again). He sincerely attempted to refuse any sort of payment but I insisted on and small amount of money and some beer. We all had a good laugh, shook hands, took photos and hit the damn road.
Since the two days of rebuilding Kombi has been running like a dream. She actually has me think I may attempt to drive her back to Fort Collins next winter. We’ll see.
Back on the road north past La Paz Josh and I set-up to do a DH tour of some trails outside on the town of Sorata, Bolivia. The tour only ran $100 and was worth every penny of it. All in all we were out 13 hours including shuttles, riding, and food logging over 4000m in vert. The trails are mainly old foot paths the locals use to access their farms. It felt great to get a day of shredding in keep my head strait until I can get back in the ocean in a few days. Thoroughly exhausted we headed to the town of Copacabana the following day to relax before we crossed the border back into Peru. That’s where shit gets interesting.
Nowhere in my limited research did anyone or any website tell me that Peru and Bolivia are not friendly with one another at their borders. Not only do they not let each other cross into their respective countries but they don’t let their own people cross back over the border. This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and obviously caught me by surprise. So after bribing the Bolivian border guard to let me leave Bolivia(upon entering the border patrol made a mistake and put the wrong license plate number on my paper work, they were trying to say that Kombi was stolen) and going through all of the immigration to leave Bolivia and enter Peru Kombi was held up at the border and not allowed to enter her home country. At least ten times the older gentleman working the vehicle desk told me I had to reenter Bolivia and drive to the Peru border with Chile if I intended to enter Peru at all. At least ten times I told him that this was impossible. All of this was really intense with him raising his voice at times visibly irritated that anyone with a vehicle from Peru would even attempt to cross this border. I did get a look at the list of vehicles that had crossed for the previous three days and it looked like about 15-20 total cars crossed each day and none of them were Bolivian or Peruvian. After two hours of me refusing to take my paper work back from him, faxes, phone calls, and ultimately another bribe they reluctantly lowered the chains and let Kombi go home. It’s tough to relay the whole scene but it definitely required me to max out whatever Spanish I had in my quiver. One wild ride.
Onward and upward Josh, Kombi, and I drove along the west bank of Lake Titicaca taking in the beauty of the largest lake in South America. Away from Titicaca I found the landscape a touch uninspiring and literally just as I started to comment to Josh that Southeast Peru left a little to be desired we came upon the town of Calapuja Calapuja is most definitely not on the so called “Gringo trail” with maybe a total of one thousand inhabitants it see little to no tourism, but as we drove by that day I spotted a bit of a crowd in a field off the road. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be the local celebration for Carnival with about 150 or so people all in costume ready to dance, sing, and drink the Thursday away. Turns out I’m really into that shit too. The first people we met insisted that we have some beer with them and their “Family.” If you’re familiar with the way Carnival is set-up around the world various groups of people called Schools get together with a common theme and pool their resources to buy all the booze, food, and such for partying. Well here they’re called Families and in this small town there were a total of three Families. For certain we happened on the right one. I knew we had to be in Cusco at 7 am the next morning to pick Big Andrew up at the airport so after about and hour of beers and good times with our new Family Josh and I decided to hit the road for the 6-7 hour drive to Cusco. I made it about 5 km down the road when I pulled Kombi over and started to cuss myself for the ridiculous decision I had just made. How in the hell could I possibly pass up the party that was about to happen in Calapuja in favor of a 7 hour drive to Cusco. As I drove back to the party I was actually mad at myself for being such a fucking American and thinking I had a schedule to stick to and any sort of obligation to anyone outside of Calapuja. The rest is history , the day of Carnival turned into the night of Carnival turned into me crawling out of Kombi sometime in the night and yakking next to the house I was parked in front of. Hours upon hours of drinking room temperature beer and passing around 4 or 5 cups for 25 or so people to drink out of caught up with me. It was so much god damn fun, I can’t even explain it. Dancing the night away with 70+ year old wasted women, everyone having the time of their lives. The band is taking turns drinking and playing music, the dancers(including Josh and I) are drunk and falling in the street. Wasted dudes are coming and going on motorcycles, sometime 2 and 3 guys per moto. Watching any and all social, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic barriers fall by the wayside
That’s it. I’m done. I have to go back to Calapuja……
viernes, 14 de enero de 2011
Argentina, Bolivia and beyond
For those of you keeping up with this blog, which there may be a couple/few of you, my apologies for not updating for some time now.
A lot has happened over the past week or so that has kept me busy enough and more or less away from the internet enough not to post. So I think it has been a week or so since I posted anything and since then I’ve been up to Paraguay for a few days and back to Argentina again, worked my way back to the mountain s and up and over some passes on my way to Bolivia which is where I am now. On my way I’ve picked up a few travelers one of which is my buddy from school, Josh, and the others are a couple of German gals that are on break from doing social work in Bolivia. All in all Kombi has seemed to be in steady decline this time through the Andes. So today is the day that I dismantle the back end of the engine and try to figure out what is causing a fuel mixture/over heating problem. We’ll see how that goes.
I feel like there is just too much information to write down in a post with regard to the ins and outs of the past week but suffice to say that it has been great and I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of people and share a bunch of beers. Maybe I’ll get some motivation to type this evening. Since the Andes in Bolivia are giving Kombi a run for her money I'm going to try and get some cool weather. Kombi, Josh, Kati, and myself head out for Potosi at 3-4 tomorrow morning so I better get drinking soon so I can get to bed early. From Bolivia with love-
Kombi and Mitch
Oh and I may rethink titling this blog- Kombi vs. Andy: Payback
No pictures this time, the connection here is terrible, but there's a few on Facebook.
A lot has happened over the past week or so that has kept me busy enough and more or less away from the internet enough not to post. So I think it has been a week or so since I posted anything and since then I’ve been up to Paraguay for a few days and back to Argentina again, worked my way back to the mountain s and up and over some passes on my way to Bolivia which is where I am now. On my way I’ve picked up a few travelers one of which is my buddy from school, Josh, and the others are a couple of German gals that are on break from doing social work in Bolivia. All in all Kombi has seemed to be in steady decline this time through the Andes. So today is the day that I dismantle the back end of the engine and try to figure out what is causing a fuel mixture/over heating problem. We’ll see how that goes.
I feel like there is just too much information to write down in a post with regard to the ins and outs of the past week but suffice to say that it has been great and I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of people and share a bunch of beers. Maybe I’ll get some motivation to type this evening. Since the Andes in Bolivia are giving Kombi a run for her money I'm going to try and get some cool weather. Kombi, Josh, Kati, and myself head out for Potosi at 3-4 tomorrow morning so I better get drinking soon so I can get to bed early. From Bolivia with love-
Kombi and Mitch
Oh and I may rethink titling this blog- Kombi vs. Andy: Payback
No pictures this time, the connection here is terrible, but there's a few on Facebook.
viernes, 7 de enero de 2011
Plains of Argentina and the Border
Just a quick update with some pictures for you guys. I've been on the plains of Argentina for the past few days and surprisingly it seems this terrain is worse for Kombi than the mountains were. It is really F'ing hot here, to the point that Kombi is trying to overheat pretty much right away and I'm having to limit my speed to about 60 kph to keep it in check. So after I pick Josh up I think we may head for Bolivia and some cooler temperatures. Who knows, we'll have to decide that tomorrow. As for now I crossed into Paraguay today. This border was a little more interesting than the previous two and i found out as I tried to cross that I needed a visa which had to be bought at the consulate in the town I had just come from. Long story short I slid in just before they closed and sorted it out. All in all it took about 3 hours and a couple of beers to get the job done. So far Asuncion is beautiful but I just got here and need to check it out a bit. Here's some pics of the border, a dude I drank a beer with, another beer stop, and a definite FAIL. Later guys
jueves, 6 de enero de 2011
Dakar in Perico
I said it on face book but I may as well follow it up here. There are a couple/few ways to watch a rally race. One is to go out on the coarse somewhere and watch as each moto, car, or truck rips by and cheer them on from there. The other is to join the masses that gather at the finish of the stage to cheer all the drivers in. I chose the later of the two, and by masses I mean over 150,000 people ready to have a rip roaring good time. I spent the better part of the day trying to get a good position for viewing the melee but after a bit figured to hell with it and went to Kombi to get a beer and some water. After a couple I figured it was worth one more shot at getting a spot . People had been gathering for over 6 hours at this point and only support vehicles(of which there are hundreds) had come in so far. I’m pretty sure most of the spectators had no idea the difference between a support vehicle and an actual race vehicle. They gave each and every vehicle with a sticker of any sort on it what so ever a hero’s welcome to the finish area. The police did there best to restrain the crowd but over the coarse of the day they were worn down and eventually just gave up. I happened to be on the bridge just before the finish at the very moment the police gave in and with a full 24oz beer, a camera, and a smile I nestled into arguably the best seat in the house, directly over the road into the finish. With no police restraint the first moto riders were completely mauled by the crowd. To the point that it was definitely dangerous, but at the same time (from my vantage point) really entertaining. Exhausted, dirty moto riders being molested by drunk, fiesta crazed locals, GREAT! I rattled off a bunch of picture for a couple of hours then resigned to the fact that a really big party was about to happen . Kombi was parked right in the heart of the action so after hanging a couple of flags on her(Chile/Argentina) I posted up with a bottle of wine and proceeded to get to know the town folk. After a couple hours of socializing, wining it up, and taking pictures with people/families I decided to catch a few hours of sleep before the party started again.
I crawled out of Kombi at 4:45 in the morning to see a few thousand people still going strong and ready to cheer the drivers on as the rolled out on stage 4 of the Dakar. What an amazing deal these people have managed to pull off. This is the first time the Dakar has ever come to the town of Perico and they certainly made the most of it. With 150,000 they set the bar for the most spectators yet this year! After a solid downpour settled in around 6am I retreated to Kombi to get a couple more hours of sleep. I got it together at 9 or so this morning then set out for Corrientes, Argentina and eventually Asuncion, Paraguay. The plains of Argentina are enormous and beautiful if not redundant. It reminded me a lot of something like combining Virginia with Nebraska.. . At 45mph. But Kombi is running like a dream these days, I gotta thank my blessing for that.
I’m picking my buddy Josh from Alaska up at the airport in Asuncion in a couple of days so it will be a bit of a change of pace having a co-pilot. I’m looking forward to it. I wanted to be alone and I’ve definitely had plenty of that. Time to mix it up for 10 or so days.
I crawled out of Kombi at 4:45 in the morning to see a few thousand people still going strong and ready to cheer the drivers on as the rolled out on stage 4 of the Dakar. What an amazing deal these people have managed to pull off. This is the first time the Dakar has ever come to the town of Perico and they certainly made the most of it. With 150,000 they set the bar for the most spectators yet this year! After a solid downpour settled in around 6am I retreated to Kombi to get a couple more hours of sleep. I got it together at 9 or so this morning then set out for Corrientes, Argentina and eventually Asuncion, Paraguay. The plains of Argentina are enormous and beautiful if not redundant. It reminded me a lot of something like combining Virginia with Nebraska.. . At 45mph. But Kombi is running like a dream these days, I gotta thank my blessing for that.
I’m picking my buddy Josh from Alaska up at the airport in Asuncion in a couple of days so it will be a bit of a change of pace having a co-pilot. I’m looking forward to it. I wanted to be alone and I’ve definitely had plenty of that. Time to mix it up for 10 or so days.
lunes, 3 de enero de 2011
Great God!
So I'm not really sure where to start on this one but I suppose I'll just get right into the meat of it. I celebrated New Years in style in San Pedro then had one of the best new years on record the following day. Hung over and feeling it I still managed to get a great mountain shred in and take in some more of the stunning beauty that makes up the Atacama.
After a good nights rest I set sail for Argentina and the town of San Salvador de Jujuy. I was told that by car it takes about 7 hours and by bus it takes 10 so I figured I was somewhere behind the bus at about 12 or so. I was sorely mistaken. 18 hours later I arrived in Jujuy thoroughly "Kombi'd" out. I knew going into this day(s) it was going to be the most difficult we'd faced thus far and possibly the toughest of the entire trip. I was not, however prepared for the fact that Kombi simply will not run above 15,000 feet and the fact that the majority of our route was above 12,000. This made for an incredibly slow pace and frequent, very frequent stops due to over heating. Over all we cover about 400km in about 18 hours(just over 20km/hr average). That doesn't include the night I spent on a mountain pass after Kombi said "enough already". We woke up to sub-30 degree temps at about 6 am this morning and there again she didn't want to start. All in all she really knew what she was doing. If she hadn't have stopped I would have missed argueably the most beautiful sunrise I've seen in my life and definitely the most amazing auto decent I've ever bared witness to. Highlights from this leg of the trip included being towed up the Paso de Jama by a semi, seeing wild lamas and flamingos, and the feeling of triumph and relief as we descended to something resembling sea level. Kombi is happy and running great now that we're back in her element and my O my has the scenery changed. I'll post a bunch of pics on facebook and a few here(again facebook is much faster). When I see all of you I'll have to relay more detail. There is something about the last two days that stands out and is really difficult to put into "post" form. Maybe I'm just a shitty writer... got it
We did it, Kombi and I conqured the Andes for round one. It wasn't easy and we certainly didn't do it alone, but we did it. Time to relax and get the Stoke up for the Dakar Rally tomorrow and the next day. Cheers!
Role
Here's some pics of being towed, the beauty of the Andes, how different the terrain is, and just how slow Kombi and I were going at times.
After a good nights rest I set sail for Argentina and the town of San Salvador de Jujuy. I was told that by car it takes about 7 hours and by bus it takes 10 so I figured I was somewhere behind the bus at about 12 or so. I was sorely mistaken. 18 hours later I arrived in Jujuy thoroughly "Kombi'd" out. I knew going into this day(s) it was going to be the most difficult we'd faced thus far and possibly the toughest of the entire trip. I was not, however prepared for the fact that Kombi simply will not run above 15,000 feet and the fact that the majority of our route was above 12,000. This made for an incredibly slow pace and frequent, very frequent stops due to over heating. Over all we cover about 400km in about 18 hours(just over 20km/hr average). That doesn't include the night I spent on a mountain pass after Kombi said "enough already". We woke up to sub-30 degree temps at about 6 am this morning and there again she didn't want to start. All in all she really knew what she was doing. If she hadn't have stopped I would have missed argueably the most beautiful sunrise I've seen in my life and definitely the most amazing auto decent I've ever bared witness to. Highlights from this leg of the trip included being towed up the Paso de Jama by a semi, seeing wild lamas and flamingos, and the feeling of triumph and relief as we descended to something resembling sea level. Kombi is happy and running great now that we're back in her element and my O my has the scenery changed. I'll post a bunch of pics on facebook and a few here(again facebook is much faster). When I see all of you I'll have to relay more detail. There is something about the last two days that stands out and is really difficult to put into "post" form. Maybe I'm just a shitty writer... got it
We did it, Kombi and I conqured the Andes for round one. It wasn't easy and we certainly didn't do it alone, but we did it. Time to relax and get the Stoke up for the Dakar Rally tomorrow and the next day. Cheers!
Role
Here's some pics of being towed, the beauty of the Andes, how different the terrain is, and just how slow Kombi and I were going at times.
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