On the way out of Copacabana I rode over a speed hump and soon afterwards I noticed that the ride was very hard. On stopping I was unable to get the sidestand down so had to find lower ground to put the stand in. On inspection it was clear that the shock was fully compressed and would not extend. The bike was about 4" lower than it should have been. I had to get across a ferry but could not buy a ticket because if I got off the bike then I would not be able to stand it up. A New Zealand backpacker was good enough to find out about tickets and find out where I needed to go.