ADVENTUREToday is Bolivian Independence

Day and the entire town is partying.After dinner, the Caravana partici-pates in a big parade with brassbands, military personnel and schoolkids. Thousands of spectators line thestreets and cheer wildly, especially forthe quads and dirt bikes. It's so differ-ent from the U.S., it all seems like adream.THURSDAy,WEEK2

Because the support trucks are stillstuck out on the trail, we decide totake a day off from travel and give the

dirt roads a chance to dry out a bit. Igo shopping and take a nap. Despitehaving covered 550 miles on the ES,I'm not sore at all and eager to getback out on the trails. The bike riders,on the other hand, all complain ofsore forearms from fighting the mudand trying to keep the two-wheelersupright.FRIDAY

Today it rains again, the trails getmuddier and the two-wheelers arereally hating it. We pass a truck thathas crashed off a bridge. The occu-pants have left, but not withoutkilling a huge anaconda snake thatwas unfortunate enough to come

snooping around the wreckage.I arrive at our destination for the

evening at 6 p.m., now having coveredalmost 700 miles. All of the bike ridershave dropped their two-wheelersmany times in the slick mud andmany of them don't arrive until 2 a.m.Now, the support trucks have nochance of catching up and are put ona river barge to meet us in the nexttown.

This year's Caravana was scheduledfor a time when it would be least like-ly to rain. With not one, but tvvo total-ly unexpected downpours, we wereforced to shorten the tour by 200miles and miss out on some spectac-ular country, including checking outreal Amazonian Indian villages.Everything was new and exiting tome, so I was happy to go wherever thetour happened to take us.SAIURDAY

Today we took another day off fromtravel, hoping the support truckwould arrive and the roads would dryout. After a two-hour cruise dov,rn anearby river that joins the Amazon inBrazil, we had an incredible fish din-ner at an open-air restaurant right onthe river. This magazine editing job isrough, but somebody's gotta do it.SUNDAY

Because ofthe rains, the new rout-ing was not over tighter trails as I hadhoped, but more of the wide-opendirt freeways. For four solid hours,stopping only for fuel, I held the ESwide open. I tried everything to restmy right hand throttle thumb. I d facemy palm upright and push in thethumb lever with the heel of myhand. I d reach around the front ofthe grip and grab the lever with myfingers. Then there was the mentalfatigue. At least I had a beautifulscenery to look at.

As darkness fell, the bugs and batscame out-a veritable blizzard ofbugs-hitting my goggles, and slam-ming into my chest. Some kind ofstinging critter got inside my gogglesand did its thing under my left eye,causing it to swell up.

I made a final stop to dump inmore gas from my extra containersand discovered the ES would notdownshift from fifth until it hadcooled. Needless to say, the machinewas pretty hot from being riddenwide open for three hours and thatprobably played a part.

AII alone in the darkness andamidst a swarm of bugs, I wonderedwhat kind of larger critters might behiding in jungle just a few feet awayand sizing me up for a possible snack.

Thankfully, the ES can be pull-start-ed in any gear and Honda supplies amanual backup shifter. I later found

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ADVENTUREout from Honda that some ESs hadwiring harness problems causinginconsistent shifting. However, all theaffected units had been tracked downbefore leaving the factory. We'll solvethe mystery next month in our long-term ES evaluation.MONDAY

Because today, the last day, wouldbe almost 200 miles of wide-open rid-ing, half of it on pavement, I decidedto install the Motion Pro twist throttleI d brought along. Unfortunately, bythe time I d gotten dressed andloaded up the ESs racks, there was notime left to do anything but put onmy helmet and go.

As the day wore on, I became moreand more convinced my thumbwould never make it. In desperation, Irigged up a cruise control: a bungeecord from the front rack to the thumblever. Only because the paved roadwas so wide open and it would havebeen safe to go 30 mph faster thanthe ES was capable, I felt somewhatconfident in the set up. However, notelhat. AW Actior? does not endorse thispractice!

With my left thumb poised over thekill switch and my right thumb readyto flip the bungee off the thumb lever,I cruise-controlled my way down theBolivian highway toward our finaldestination. A police escort led us thelast 12 miles of the journey.

In downtown Santa Cruz, it took awhile for it to sink in that theCaravana was really over-ten daysand 1096 miles from our start in LaPaz. \.4rhew! I said goodbye to my rid-ing pals, said goodbye to my HondaES pal and hitched a ride to the plushGran Hotel Santa Cruz. There, Iopened a Pacena beer, soaked in thetub, wolfed down a salad and col-lapsed in the nice big bed.

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You can't go into the Bolivian back-country expecting things to be alwayseasy. There are no McDonald's. Youcan't drink unboiled tap water or useice cubes made from it. You can't eveneat food washed in it. Not everyonespeaks English. Green vegetables arenowhere to be found. Little things youwould normally take for grantedbecome very important: dry clothes,an extra bungee cord, a piece ofplas-tic to cover your gear bag.

Was the Caravana difficult? Yes, attimes. Was it fatiguing? Yes. Was itfrustrating? Yes, a few times. Would Ido it again? Yes-without a secondthought. I like challenges. It was thetrip of lifetime. E

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