Mika had kindly told us of a good hostel so we went straight there and he was right, good moto parking, reasonable price and ok wifi and a record breaking fourth hostel in a row without Police back up, I really feel we are getting old and loosing our criminal touch.
Mika had also told us of an amigo who is just 5 minutes walk from the hostel, moto rider and very nice guy, also willing able to help travellers too, onya Mika, very nice guy indeed, so we contacted Gustavo as we needed some help to get sorted out, Gustavo has owns Auto Clinic and runs his own mechanical shop.
Our voltage regulator was on its way so we had a few spare days in between.
As it happened timing wise the national series moto x was on and only 14 km from where we were staying, Gustavo (Mikas friend) is THE man, very well known in the moto circles and very well respected.
The Friday afternoon we went out and watch practice, some good riding going on, we only went for an hour and just as well as the weather caved in and started raining and got very very cold very quickly.
Fast forward to Sunday, the national champs, this event not being held here since 2002 it was making a real noise.
The place was packed with spectators and the entries FULL with riders from all over Bolivia.
Now as a moto rider of 35 years, done moto X, enduro, flat tracking, trials, motard and track racing I watched these young fellas in awe, there is some serious talent here well and truly fit for the international circuit.
Any some upcoming talent
Of course they also had there their own Bolivian Dakar riders as well to pump the atmosphere .... it worked!!!
The only thing I didn’t like was their “no red flag” rule as a rider went down and hard and proceeded to get run over 7 times but his competitors, the first two leading the charge to stop more carnage was me (in the brown hat and Klim gear)and Gustavo.
Here is the vid
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater
To be honest the race marshal girls were bloody useless, it was by the luck of moto gods he did not even suffer a broken bone, he will have been very saw the next day.
As it happened to be a long weekend and the President was in town (to meet us but we were too busy with the moto X) the streets were all closed in centro and lined with literally thousands of people making getting anywhere a mission and a half.
The Parades, brightly dressed and nice to watch at least for some of them.
We did find one girl who had a huge smile on her face which warmed our day as the majority were very long faced ... with our knowledge of the place know we suspect she does not live here
These guys were flexible
Fast forward a week and a half of waiting our parts had arrived in La Paz, then in true Boliviano style the blockades and strikes kept our parts away for another week which was a pissoff, Sucre is a nice place to stay ...but.
The Mayan
On pulling the alternator cover off to replace a small oil seal we then discovered that the stator (the electrical charging part for you non petrolheads) was 1/4 toast with one sector pretty much burnt out, this had to be rewound here in Sucre.
We are not sure if the voltage reg failed causing the stator to go or vice versa, either way we now have a fairly new battery, voltage reg and rewound stator so hoping all is good form here on in.
All issues are known to happen over time and comes with wear, tear, mileage and being used in anger so not really a biggy in the scheme of things, the only aspect being a biggy is the bloody strikes and blockades that the Bolivians seem to live for, if they targeted that energy to helping themselves go forward the whole place would be way way better off.
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