Today a great thing happened, I sold the bike 'Catch ya never'. I spent three days in my hotel room waiting for the buyer (Andrew) to arrive. I had a mild case of food poisoning; which was unfortunate as I'm finally in a country which has very good food. I attribute it to Bolivia, somehow it's always Bolivia. The time spent locked in the room wasn't as unenjoyable as one would expect. After all I regularly do that exact thing for enjoyment, when I am back home. I rested and frequented the bathroom, I spent sometime cleaning and preparing the bike. Andrew is from Sydney and plans to ride from Patagonia all the way to Alaska (potentially). He's a little older and most likely a little wiser than me. We had a good catch up and I explained the highs and lows, potential pitfalls and what he can expect on a long motorbike adventure. The next morning he came for a test ride and when he returned he informed me it was a done deal. With an immense weight lifted off my shoulders, I headed off to enjoy the last few weeks of my motorbike adventure. As is expected there were some issues with the bike (something in glad that Andrew didn't notice). The backfiring issue had started again, what I assumed was to do with the change in altitude and the carburettor. I made it 300 kms to the next major town and I stopped at the first hotel I saw that was close to a mechanic. I had made my mind up as I was riding, there would be no way I would hand the bike over if it is not operating perfectly. The troubles I have had and the near mental breakdown I've experienced definitely persuaded me to this realisation. The hotel looked considerably out of my price range, but I thought 'fuck it, you can celebrate'. Persuaded once again I booked a room in the three star hotel. With the black market on money exchange (Argentinians love the US Dollar, because there country has been in a constant state of default for many years) everything works out exceptionally well priced. Three star hotel, total cost $25.00 per night. Whereas the room was a pleasant surprise, the mechanic was actually closed for maintenance (funnily enough). I decided to head to the next town, get there early enough and work on the bike. I left pretty late the next morning. I have been continually tired (to exhaustion), which I attribute to still trying to overcome the food poisoning thing. When I made the next town everything was shut, I thought 'Fuck me they're not having ANOTHER holiday'. I pulled out the lonely planet to try and find some information on the area. The first sentence 'You are in siesta country, everything shuts down from noon to 5:00pm'. This turned out to be a pleasant surprise, I found a place (another cheap luxury hotel) and tucked in for my own siesta. The reason that it is siesta country, is due to it being in area that is constantly hot. Really, stupidly hot. Another reason for the constant state of lethargy. When I awoke I rode for a while to find a decent looking mechanic. The same language barrier was there, but I had dealt with it many times before and had worked on the specific problem before as well. So without much more than a 'Put, put, put' while pointing at the exhaust, we were underway. It turns out that the issue was a seal on the exhaust, something that had been 'fixed' in Peru. We gave the carburettor a clean as well for good measure. It's now 11:13 pm and I'm sitting in a packed restaurant waiting for dinner. Ever since I sold the bike I have felt amazing, the extreme swings in emotions appear to have disappeared. As was apparent when I noticed the problem with the bike and didn't resort to screaming profanities at the passing landscape. I have a few weeks and a couple more countries to see, I look forward to spending the time getting back to the analysis of where I am and less on how I'm feeling.
