Los Motos

The streets of Montero are full of men in vests riding motorcycles. I think this is more of a Montero thing than a Bolivia thing. For 2 bolivianos you can go any where you want to in Montero on the back of a motorcycle. Here are a couple facts about motos:

for every 1 car in Montero there are 47 motos

each time you ride on a moto you decrease your life expectancy by a zillion percent

there is a 100 percent chance that if you are white and female, you will get asked out by the moto driver

My first moto experience involved getting a ride from the plaza out to the orphanage...which is in the middle of nowhere. It reminded me of a time in high school when I was driving a 4 wheeler in the sand dunes with Landon Mathews and I went too fast up a sandy dune (I am lacking on english vocab right now). He pluncked off the back and got a face full of sand. I was trying so hard to stay on the back of the moto on the way to orphanage. We had to go on a busy road for a while mixed in with cars, trucks full of sugar cane, and large buses loaded with passengers. The driver asked me if I had ever ridden on a moto before, he must have known I was a first timer by the way I gripped his shoulder. Looking around at other moto passengers, I realized that they almost NEVER touched the moto driver, they grip the bars on the back. I quickly corrected my passenger style, but it didn't help, I still got a very firm and persistant invitation to dinner with the driver.

Thanks for reading this moto message from Montero.