Heya Vince

Great to hear from you mate.

Thank you for the good wishes, always well received .....now where is our present

Yes we were pretty happy with our mileage although Dan Pederson on his F8 got 56000 so we were pipped at the post, still happy at 46000 on a angry V2.

I like the Tiger 8, if Maya is stuffed when we get home that is the likely replacement, I would be very interested in your non salesman take on the bike and what you feel could be improved etc, would be grateful if you could chime in with that real world info with some mileage

I will write to No 10 so they recognize the fine efforts of their neighbours in supporting the economy

Have fun at the HU meeting dude and most of all enjoy that new ride, I will take the opportunity to say shinny side up while it is new and untorched

Cheers Andi

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

With a fully charged battery the cactus island was in our sights, remembering that Bolivia is the place that holds the most interest to me and we were ACTUALLY here clap:clap... despite one or two small hick-ups with unusual people in the wrong industry :lol3 and the voltage reg issue things were going well.:freaky

It was cold, below zero but fine.



Thinking it would be hard not seeing the island to aim for etc I had butterflies but it soon became apparent very quickly that the 400 vehicles per day that visit the island left a motorway of black tire marks to follow:eek1, even without that you can eye up the mounts in the distance and keep them placed in the same place and go straight, I think it is impossible to get lost out there but apparently people have.:huh



Arriving at the island we had the place to ourselves other than the 300 - 400 other people already there, yes it was like a supermarket carpark.:evil

We also met two guys, a father and son team from Santiago on two F800GS’s, one being a 30 year anniversary ... noice, Maya had someone to talk too:rofl.



We went out on the salar and did our version of goofy pictures which was actually hard work, full credit to those who pull off some cool pics.





Ellen manage to balance May on her head on the centrestand, teh hands kept there just in case Maya fell off but perfect balance was maintained by the meditating mad moto mistress :rofl



Back to the carpark we talked with the reception and ticket lady and she said we could free camp anywhere, finding ourselves a nice spot in the late afternoon sun it was only 8 degs but felt nice in the sun.



Shortly after setting up a young fella came over on a quad and said we had to pay $30 Bolivianos each, we explained the lady said we could camp for free so he ok'ed that and left.

Later that evening a ranger came over and tried to tell us we needed to pay as well so “take two” we explained it again, he was insistent so we said we didn’t understand and that worked well.

On the edge of the salar there are these little ridges due to expansion and contraction, they stand about 100 mm high, they are in a crazy paving patten and quite cool, this is brown with a mix from the mud under.



A photo up a cactus ... prickly buggas



The evening lowers gently over the salar giving us some supreme quiet and stunning colour changes, although the darkness was falling the salar was coming alive for its goodnight transition







Capped off by a small and short fire we warmed ourselves for a while before hitting the bed early



Although ready to do over a bank we chose to sneak under the covers to fend off the cold .... which was not anything like we had prepared ourselves for



After a coolish night the day greeted us with a slight smattering of cloud enough just to take the wanted and welcomed sun to warm things up, nonetheless it was fine.

This is at 9.00am, -1 :evil



As it turns out this was the ugly face of the monster storm that followed us out and up, it knocked out the power in Uyuni for 3 days and turned Uyuni into a sandpit, snow at the southern end of the salar closing the roads and stopping the jeep trips, we got out the day before it all tipped.



Packing up we set to and headed back to Uyuni, our plans forcefully changed by the dying voltage regulator, a quick stop for photos and the lights on for 20 seconds for the famed photo shoot.



No biggy with the reg as Uyuni is a nice place anyway, mission was to wash Maya however she was still pretty clean to be fair with the salar dry as a bone.

All in all the salar was everything I thought it would be, Uyuni I thought was going to be a lot more "mud hut" than it was but have to agree with other travellers Uyuni does not sell itself to be a salar resort but we really enjoyed it all the same pub scraps and all

Potosi is next in line....

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Hi Guys, am back from the HU meet .... super, met up with some really fine people, got some super info, tips etc & it did me hart good. Bloody cold at night though

Oke have the tiger 6 weeks & done 7000 kms to date .. Gawwwd me bum hurts After the HU shing ding went to Romania, Hungary & Slovakia. Drove the transfagarsan pass in Romania, brill

Will give you the real story Andy regarding the tiger, but will do it via your website mail, don't want to get bombarded with this little bugger. But I am happy

Guys have fun keep the rubber side down .... sir Vince knight of the sore bums

Well when you think it can't get worse, it can ,mum suffered a stroke ( mild thankfully ) still getting to the bottom of what happened .Now in Tamworth NSW .did manage to get my ride in to the coast ,before hearing the bad news .thanks for the kind wishes .Regards Noel YDF .

Gezz man, when things go bad they go bad then worse, I am really sorry mate, your mum did not need that on top of all the other crap and trying to mend as well.

We nearly went through Tamworth many moons ago but decided to stick coastal so I know where you are at.

Glad you squeezed in a quick mind cleaner before dealing with the stroke.

Again, please wish her well, kiss and hug from ya kiwi brother and sister abroad.

Cheers Andi & Ellen

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Just one

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Ok, one more

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Sucre Part 2 .... The Status Of The Stator

This was the problem (not according to the Uyuni autosparky Bolievian)



One sector nearly burnt out and the rest following on



Finally after lies and put offs our stator is rewound, unfortunately yet again the Bolivians tried to rape us blind on the price asking that dearer than US pricing, again this leaves a shitty feeling that every corner you turn here in Bolivia they just want to **** you over and they don’t even smile dong it.

Three times it went back because it simply did not work, he insisted it did work but would not check it, so we forced him to look at the multi meter and the digital volt meter, he did take it back and did fix it almost so it almost worked but not quite enough power coming out, note max 12 .6 volts, then turn on lights, grips etc and it fell below 12 volts.

In the end we asked for our money back and we will take it elsewhere or something as we blew through another weeks accommodation cost waiting for this wanker to fix his ****ups, stress levels exceeding safe limits we called the touristico Policia.

These guys were just as bad, they are also the anti corruption police who are as corrupt as the rest of the abnormal police force, advice to other travellers is don't rely on these guys to help you out as it will not happen.

Several times we tried to negotiate with the guy to get our money back for the wrong rewinding of the wiring but no, in the end he offered 400 out of 600 because we went to the touristico Policia, in Bolivia if someone ****s something of yours you will only get about half back if you are lucky, both parties pay????? ... which meant we ended up paying twice for his shitty work....WTF:eek1

So after arguing like hell to get any money back and threatening him with the touristico Policia he is now being investigated by the Police because he woudl not give a receipt or any paperwork so he is, for his own arseholism going for a skate that will cost him.

As much as I don't want to see people get nailed he deserves every ounce of shit they throw on him for NOT be helpful, for taking a white face to the cleaners and generally being sub human to deal with.

So, we took that refund and gave it straight to another guy who rewound it, the jobs looks like shit but it works, we will buy a factory one when we can as I do not have trust in this.

Our final days in Sucre, 29 days in total, we spent $140 US on a regulator we didn’t need thanks to the auto sparky in Uyuni who said it was stuffed, we paid $140 US for a courier who couldn’t give a **** and caused us grief getting us our unneeded regulator nearly one week later than promised, the auto sparky in Uyuni also said our stator was good, we spent $90 USD getting raped to get our stator rewound cos it was burnt despite what the Uyuni monkey told us, we spent 29 days in Sucre which we didn’t need to waiting for parts we didn’t need. :huh

All in all a very expensive ****up by relying on PAID professional Bolivians who don’t give a **** and charge equal to and more than US prices ... no wonder the place is in so much shit, without being racist NO more Latinos are going to touch Maya ever again as the bullshit, expense, crap and rework is not worth it.

Be fair to say thus far Bolivia is somewhat of a low point for us and confirmed as the most unfriendly and careless bunch in over two years of travel.:cry, they should be called horses cos they all have long faces.

Finally we get to hit the road, we looked at just bailing out of Bolivia because of the crap but it has been a long time coming for me and being the place of most interest so we will continue and I wave to every long faced Boliviano cos they are not going to stuff this up for me.

Next up ... Icla .... I hope it get better :clap

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Heya Vince

Back in zona wifi now after 10 days in the back blocks.

Yeah the HU meetings are cool, we did one in Cambria USA and really enjoyed ourselves, meet lots going south and going north.

You will never get bombarded with "offtopic" for something I have asked you, we did get your email and very very informative so seriously appreciated.

Great news you like it, always nice to know there are some shortcoming or I would have felt ripped off on the KTM, no perfect bike outa the box mate, they all need some adjustment and personalizing

Keep us posted on the Tiger (welcome to post on here).

Many thanks, sir Naranja wrecker supreme

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Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere