"On the Trail"

The Journals from the Road

Sunday, December 31, 2001: Crossing into the New Year - Puno, Peru to Copacabana, Bolivia

Today was a long day, but I decided to do it in order to be with some friends (albiet very new friends) during the new year celebrations. Tad was still laid up in Cusco recovering from parasite problems so there was no need for me to stay in Puno.

It rained all night (as usual) until 8:00am which is when I hit the road. First I said a short good-bye to all my international friends who all wished me a good long ride to Copacabana (about 150km).

By the way, I heard later on that in Lake Titicaca, a boat loaded with rich Greek people sank outside of the island that we visited. Fortunately no one was hurt.

My ride was presented with different scenery which reminded me of Northern Ontario with the lakeside, undulating highway, trees and rugged and rocky terrain. Unfortunately the road was rough and wore me down a bit. Today I hit 3298 miles on my bike for this trip (not including several unloaded side trips), which means that this is officially my longest bicycle tour. Yahoo! My longest before this was the west coast of the United States (in 1993) from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico.

I was told my Peter (a Canadian hiker from Toronto that joined our little international group) that the border crossing closed at 4:00pm. I forgot about this until I was somewhere on the road. I did not have the steam to ride fast, so I decided that at 3:00pm I would grab a bus or hitchhike if I was too far from the border. So I did, I jumped on a micro bus for 2 soles because I calculated that I had 35km to go with only one hour left. I shared the bread that I had with many of the other Ayamara riders - one of whom declined the offer. The road (which I did not ride) was very smooth and the border was only 22 km from where I jumped on the bus. The border did not close at 4:00pm, so my self imposed and misguided pressure was unnecessary. Oh well, that´s life.

The border crossing was very smooth and I was given 30 days allowance to visit Bolivia. I was surprised to see no big ¨Welcome to Bolivia¨ sign. I changed some of my Peruvian soles to Bolivian bolivianos at 1.80 bolivianos per sol. I heard back in Peru that the exchange was supposed to be 2 bs per sol so I only changed a bit of my cash hoping to find a better rate later. I did not, in fact the best rate that I could find in Copacabana was 1.75 bs per sol.

The ten kilometers from the border to Copacabana was dirt and quite rough. Suspension would have helped a lot. Fortunately there were dry spots that I could negotiate. Sven from Norway, who took a bus in earlier in the day said that their bus almost slide off the road because of the slope and the slippery mud.

The town of Copacabana was bustling with locals and gringos. Jeremie left me a message as to where they were staying for the night so I found him and the rest of the gang at the Aransaya Hostal. They had an extra bed in their room for me (for 15 bs), so we had five in our room. I had a pasta and meat dinner and then a sleep and a shower, while the others had a nice meal in another closeby restaurant. I met up with them at 10:30. They had a postre (dessert) of bananas and rum waiting for me. What a nice surprise.

We spent most of the rainy night at the 2001 new years blast at what I think is called a rave bar. It was fun to bond closer with the guys. They all helped me out in the dim light. I was thankful to be with Jeremie, Svein, Tony, Phillipe, Peter and Megan. It was also cool to be greeted by a Belgium couple that I met back in Cusco. I wondered how Tad was doing back in Cusco. After several drinks and some dances, Peter helped me back to the hostal and I finally went to bed at 4:30am while the others kept on partying!

-Happy New Year, thank you for your support and encouragement as Peacebike enters its third calendar year with bright hopes of continuing to connect the children of the world!
-Frank Pollari

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