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**Note that there is some partial nudity in the last picture. This picture was created for you, AT. You were right about the scarf..... it does get cold up here in the *Altiplano*.**
The Good, the bad and the salty. For those of you who do not know, AT and his better half, Grace, completed a similar trip from San Diego to Buenos Aires a few years back; it was spending a few hours talking with AT in his VW van about the trip that got me really thinking about embarking on my own motorcycle journey. After reading a few other blogs, Bolivia and its *Salar de Uyuni* (the largest salt flat on earth) became one of my top destinations for the trip. In many of the blogs, Bolivia and its rawness, was where most people and their motorcycles were tested. Whether battling the altitude, cold or motorcycle failures, Bolivia is an adventure in and of itself.
The road from Potosi to Uyuni was THE best road in Bolivia. The trip was short and we took our time taking photos and even caught a few flamingos catching a bite in a local watering hole. We found a nice hotel with fantastic parking and got settled in and started planning our trip to the *Salar de Uyuni*. The Salar is a huge tourist attraction and there are many outfitters, with "Tim Giesa" Land Cruisers, who take tourists on 3-day tours through the salt flats to the Chilean border. Our plan was to ride the motorcycles out into the salt flat, take a few pictures and have a picnic before returning to Uyuni. Due to the scale and relative flatness of the Salar, many people take goofy perspective photos. This is something I had been thinking about a lot and it wasn't until Tim and Susie Giesa gave me the WSU flag that the ideal photo came to me.....recreate the moon landing (thanks T&S!) and of course AT's photo. The Salar was truly a surreal experience.
Back in Uyuni, while fiddling around with the motorcycle, I ran into several cyclists who have been traveling through Argentina and Chile on their way north. There was a French family of three, another young couple from France and one wild Italian. The younger couple and the Italian had just completed 2 day ride through the Salar and the family was getting ready to ride north through the salt flat. We sat around and drank some beer and wine and shared stories about each other's travels. The young French couple had a story similar to ours; work for several years, sell everything and hit the road. Lucas, the Italian, will be traveling from Argentina to Colombia and maybe further. And it's pretty amazing that the 13yr old gets to travel the world at that age. All in all good people and good travelers. So they were the good, you've heard about the bad police and the pictures should speak for the salty.
Originally we planned to only stay for 2 nights, but while doing some routine maintenance and inspection on the motos we noticed Melissa's back brakes were almost completely worn out and the only spare brake pads we had only fit my new generation KLR. We ended up wandering around the city for a while asking if there was a repair shop who could install a replacement pad on the existing plate. But since it was a Sunday, most shops were closed. The next day we located a shop and for the low low price of $4 we had a new pad installed and she is now ready to shread some dirt. That's right, dirt. The next town on our list is Tupiza and the road between Uyuni and Tupiza is about 200km (120miles) of dirt, washboard and sand. Melissa will soon be 150% badass!