Earlier in the year I signed up for a tour of the Andes, Altiplano in Bolivia and Peru with RideAdv which is a long-time bucket list thing for me. Two weeks riding from La Paz, Bolivia ending up in Arequipa, Peru.
Unfortunately, in June President Paz declared a state of emergency in Bolivia after a series of roadblocks and protests, many of which turned violent. The SoE is for an initial ninety days so unsurprisingly RideAdv couldn't risk taking us into Bolivia which was hugely disappointing as I was really looking forward to riding the Camino de la Muerte, and seeing the salt flats at Uyuni. In fairness to them they offered to reschedule for next year and also offered a full refund, but neither appealed to me for various reasons so I opted to carry on with a modified trip in Peru. There are still many highlights on this trip and I hope to post pictures of most of those in this report.
Back in January I had sorted my international driving permits still with the expectation of riding in Bolivia, then just a few weeks ago I got all my vaccinations done at our local clinic. It was at this point that it started to get real in my mind.
At 5am tomorrow I take the bus from Newry to Dublin airport from where I will fly to Frankfurt then on to Bogota where I will stay on Friday night. Saturday morning I'll take a flight to Lima then on to Arequipa to meet the rest of the group. As far as I know there are just six of us on five bikes, starting and finishing in Arequipa which was originally our end point. I think I'll be riding a NX500 Honda on this trip. I could have had a GS or an Africa Twin but the extra charges for a higher spec bike didn't seem worth it to me. Time will tell if that was the correct decision.
I'll update this thread as I go along.
Unfortunately, in June President Paz declared a state of emergency in Bolivia after a series of roadblocks and protests, many of which turned violent. The SoE is for an initial ninety days so unsurprisingly RideAdv couldn't risk taking us into Bolivia which was hugely disappointing as I was really looking forward to riding the Camino de la Muerte, and seeing the salt flats at Uyuni. In fairness to them they offered to reschedule for next year and also offered a full refund, but neither appealed to me for various reasons so I opted to carry on with a modified trip in Peru. There are still many highlights on this trip and I hope to post pictures of most of those in this report.
Back in January I had sorted my international driving permits still with the expectation of riding in Bolivia, then just a few weeks ago I got all my vaccinations done at our local clinic. It was at this point that it started to get real in my mind.
At 5am tomorrow I take the bus from Newry to Dublin airport from where I will fly to Frankfurt then on to Bogota where I will stay on Friday night. Saturday morning I'll take a flight to Lima then on to Arequipa to meet the rest of the group. As far as I know there are just six of us on five bikes, starting and finishing in Arequipa which was originally our end point. I think I'll be riding a NX500 Honda on this trip. I could have had a GS or an Africa Twin but the extra charges for a higher spec bike didn't seem worth it to me. Time will tell if that was the correct decision.
I'll update this thread as I go along.
