Having worked remotely from hotels in Argentina quite happily, things took a turn for the worst as soon as we entered Bolivia. The main problem was the quality of their roads. Abismal dirt roads and endless diversions over rough terrain took its toll on my Sony Vaio. After the first days riding the screen had blackspots and the disk incurred some minor damage. After the second day - having packed it especially carefully - even was conditions and a hefty crash finally rendeered it useless.
I am now reliant on hotel internet terminals and internet cafes, not that every hotel had Wi-Fi anyway. Both offer appaulingly slow connection speeds, so uploading anything like a 2MB photo can take upto 45 minutes. It's just like to old days of dial-up in the UK. Worse still, I now have to use PCs configured in Spanish and with keyboards so worn you really need touch typing skills, which I don't possess. And, just for the record, nothing works in Bolivia, that's just the way it is out here. All this has seriously slowed me down.
So, as a result of losing the laptop, I still have access to email, but I've had to consolidate several accounts into one place to speed up access. The blog and other web applications are fine, except the limited time I have on public terminals limits what I can upload. I have occasional access to Skype, and of course, I've lost Groove, so my PA has to email everything and any work on files has to be done on a USB Memory Stick before emailing it back, assuming that the PC terminal has Word, etc which most don't ... ping-pong email is becoming frustrating too.
However, the business is still working normally, albeit with more support now from my Virtual PA. I have been offered the use of a laptop by fellow travellers, which I may have to take them up on if I need to use Word or Excel. This could be a lifesaver as buying another laptop out here is frought with problems.
My tips from this week are: use a laptop with a solid state hard drive, make sure it is packed and protected for the conditions, and don't go off-roading with your laptop in your pannier!
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