A little moisture to settle the dust.

Feb 28 Villamontes to Yacuiba

The website is correct and we wake in the middle of the night to sound of water running off the roof and splashing down on the concrete courtyard, I sneak out to check the bikes and try to cover them but all I could find was our umbrella. The website also said that at 8am the rain would stop and sure enough it did. They are not as precise at home predicting the weather that is for sure.

Almost tipped over in the soft soil.

Good thing though because we were not looking forward to riding in a monsoon, especially since Brenda lost here rain pants some time ago. We suit up the best we can and head out, for the most part the rain has stopped and we are riding in a light mist at best. A few miles south of town the pavement is dry but the clouds are still threatening. The distance from Villamontes to Yacuiba is only 100km so it is an expected short day anyway, but short does not mean boring. The road has sections where the shoulder is  covered with corn. This results in all sorts of activity. Sometimes there are people sweeping up the corn and putting it into sacks or pails or whatever they have. Other spots become feed troughs for the livestock in the area and there are goats, sheep, cows, chickens, and pigs on the road eating the spilled corn. All this livestock must be approached cautiously as they may become spooked by traffic and run in front of us. Progress is slow but safe and we make it past the 20km section of chaos without incident. We are not sure how so much corn would get spilled without notice by the truck-driver.

These make lousy speed bumps.

The town is not very big at first glance so most everything is within a few blocks of the central square. This is a normal border city with lots of shopping available for the more expensive neighboring countries to take advantage of. Store after store of shoes, clothes, toys, electronics, and everything else you can think of. Window shopping is about all we can do for a couple of hours before the restaurants open for dinner service.

Leather tach and belts.

We find out that Yacuiba once resided in Argentina but at some point in time it became part of Bolivia. I am not sure how I would react if one day I was a Argentine citizen and then some politicians decided that the border should be on the other side of town and now I am a Bolivian. I do not think that news would  go over very well.

Our parkade for the hotel is at the back of the hotel and access is via the shopping mall hallway, which of course means that we have to wait until after the shops close to wheel the bikes in for the night. It is Saturday night so the stores are open a little late and we finally get them tucked away at 11pm. The parking is semi covered, by that I mean the roof canopy has many holes in it, so the bikes are partially protected from the impending rain.

Mar 1 Yacuiba to S.S. de Jujuy

The rain has stopped like clockwork, just as predicted by the weather channel and by the time we finish our morning errands it is starting to get sunny and hot. One more stop before the border is to top up with fuel. The gas station is our last, well second last, exposure to the systems of Bolivia. The gas station access is between tow one way streets, the direction that we are heading only provides access to the natural gas pumps so we have to circle around to access the gasoline pumps. This should be no big deal as there is a turnaround and a cross street to provide access, the catch is the access street is a one way in the opposite direction so we essentially need to go against traffic for about 40ft. It is still early in the morning and there is no traffic but I stop and make sure there is nobody coming before I proceed with this maneuver. Before I can get going a military officer walks up and directs me that we must go all the way around the block  to access the station, before I can relay the info to Brenda she wheels up the street and pulls into the station, the soldier did not like this and asked for her passport to record the infraction. I got off my bike and pushed it through the station to the back of the line beside Brenda, he did not like that much either but there was no infraction so he just huffed off with Brenda’s documents as we waited to fill our bikes. It seemed to be taking him a while so Brenda went to ask for her papers back, no infraction attached so that was good, we are just not sure why he wanted to record her passport number. We get a deal at the pump by only paying the local price of $3.87BOL, good timing as we filled both bikes and the two Copec jerry cans that we have been packing around.

From the gas station it is only a few blocks to the border, there are a few money changers so I exchange the last of my Bolivian money for US dollars. The next step is across the street to the Cabillero’s check point to register the bikes in a journal and get a piece of paper to show to the migration and aduana people. Step two is another 100meters up the road at the border control facilities. They have the Bolivian and Argentina people in one building so the process is straight forward but slow all the same. They have trouble processing our papers because our reciprocity fee paperwork and our documents have different numbers now that we have new passports. They finally get it figured out then we are cleared to pull the bikes forward into the Agricultural inspection area, this is usually when they ask about fruits or veggies then tell us to proceed. This time they want to scan all our luggage which means stripping the bikes, five seconds through the scanner, then repacking the bikes. This happened at the Chile border with Peru as well, not a big deal but I make out that it is in hopes that they wave the requirement. No luck this time and we have to strip the bikes.

After the border it is smooth sailing into San Salvador de Jujuy, just one military checkpoint where we actually got stopped, usually they just waive us through. I think the English speaking officer just wanted to chat as they did not ask for paperwork, just some general conversation about our trip and Canada.

The highway is paved all the way and flanked on both sides by lush green vegetation, small yardsites, and the occasional clear view of the mountains. The vegetation is quite tall so the view is limited. Even though it is overcast it is still in the high 20’s with the added humidity it is a warm and clammy day, by the time we roll into Jujuy we are both soaked in sweat and ready to get off the bikes. The streets are nearly deserted as it is Sunday afternoon and most of the stores in the central area are closed, this is convenient for us as it makes navigation very easy.