A PATH THROUGH THE JUNGLE

Let me first explain why there are no pictures with this report. As I mentioned in the previous post, there was a problem with a virus on my camera memory card - which I eventually had sorted out today. Subsequently, while I was out of my (locked) room, the camera card together with 2 other storage cards disappeared from the room - all the thousands of pics I´d taken in South America gone! Anyway, let me start where I left off last time. At the Bolivian border I got a nasty surprise, I had to pay 50 US Dollars for a 30-day visa. At least Bolivia is a lot cheaper than Brasil, and I found a crumby room where I lay for a couple of days trying to recover from flu. When I eventually got on the road, I found it to be a pleasantly quiet newly-paved road (and mostly quite flat compared to the previous month´s roller-coaster). There was only one section about 200 km before the city of Santa Cruz where construction was still in progress. So I´ve been in Santa Cruz for a couple of days, resting and trying to recover from the flu which I´ve been unable to shake off. So far Bolivia seems to be rather out of place in South America - it reminds me a lot of certain African countries, or even some of the poorer East Asian places such as Laos. I´ll leave here tomorrow morning, heading for the big hills of the Andes once more. Needless to say, I´m very disappointed at the loss of all those photo´s. I did report the incident to the tourist police, but I doubt if that will do any good (the language gap was a problem, they didn´t even have a vehicle and would need to take a taxi to the hotel and investigate). Daily distances cycled since my last report have been:- Quijarro 11 km; El Carmen 108 km; Robore 143 km; Chochis 46 km; San Jose De Chiquitos 97 km; Tintas bush camp 130 km; Pailon 99 km; and Santa Cruz 69 km. The total distance cycled so far in South America is 11 497 km. The total so far on this trip is 77 984 km.