Bolivia By God

The first Bolivians I encountered were golden. Edgar, his new wife of 1 year and her two kids own a roadside stand that happens to be right beside immigration. It was about 8 o´clock at night and the immigration officer was fast asleep which was fine because I was so ready to do the same. 60 km of Bolivian road was gravel, yet much better than the sand (spanish arena sp.?)encountered earlier backtracking from northern Paraguay. Certainly the regular problems at customs but after I asked him about his president, he even let me unsuccessfully try to connect to internet. This morning, a bus arrived as expected for Paraguay, and glad I had my bike parked in front of my tent. Edgar, his brother, and uncle, kids and wife eventually all came over and we spoke at length about Bolivia and Canada. All my canadian stickers were ready to be thrown in the garbage from my leaking oil container in the cooler, but I used them up on Edgar´s shack. Then, another 60 km to the next town, but the map was again misleading, as I had to retrack 20 km once I hit the pavement to go the opposite direction. I saw the sun was on the wrong side, so I asked two cowboys which way to Villamontes and sure enough wrong way. The massive logs dropped on the highway were not a deterrent or a signal of something wrong, as I had just gone through the worst roads in 7 months. Luckily stopped to take a picture and noticed my side bag had fallen off and was being dragged behind me. Mattress ruined.

Feel genuinely proud of myself for the first time in the journey, as I feel the past 48 hours have tested me beyond my limits, and I got through it in one piece. Very satisfying feeling and again if the journey must end now I would be severely disappointed but happy in my accomplishment.