Every Time we have done a blog we have apologised for the slackness of the updates, so im not going to do it, stiff bickys we are having too much fun to be bothered updating you lot. No seriously after a hard days ride the last thing you want to do is write a blog. So here I am in Cuzco writing about something that happened almost a month ago, but lucky I have been keeping a diary and notes.

Mike left us off with him arriving into the beautiful little city of Ushuaia. As Mike has said I had crashed and injured my ribs so I decided to catch the bus down to Ushuaia. The Buses in Argentina are great your seat reclines back to 180 degrees you get fed and watered so all in all in wasn’t as nearly as exciting as Mikes trip. I did worry at one stage when I was at the Argentina boarder and the wind was so strong that the bus was moving along the road even with the brakes on. My mind did cross to Mike stuck on the bike on the gravel road some where.

We meet up later that night at the hostel which was really cute and cosy which was good as it was absolutely baltic down there. The next day we took a walk around the city to get our barrings and booked a boat trip along the Beagle Channel (which incidentally is name after the dogs the queen had at the time). The next day was a great day for a boat trip as it was sunny not too cold and absolutely no wind. We went out the island where all the Sea Lions live with all the Cormorants which was pretty cool, then out to the light house and to another island where the local tribes used to live and hunt the Sea Lions. It was a good afternoon trip and as we came back into port the captain let us all have a glass of his famous home brewed beer which was pretty good.

 The picture is of Seal Island. Mike tried to tell me he was like the sea lion with two birds hanging out with him. I had to remind mike I had known him for a sum of almost 18 years and that if the sea lion was like him then the sea lion would find a way to fuck it up with the two birds, most likely talking too much.

The next two pictures are of the light house light house that guides all the ships into the Beagle Channel and safely into the port of Ushuaia and the other is the view of Ushuaia bay as we travel back to port.

Ushuaia turned out to be a great place to relax, as we had pushed really hard to get there in 6 days covering more than 3000kms and rough camping too boot. We met some great people including our Greek / British mate George who we met on the way to Ushuaia. George was doing it on a 1200 BMW GS and had started in Mexico City and had been going about 15 months. I would love to show you a pic of George but again we where too lazy to take the camera out. We had a couple of good nights out with George and two english birds whose names escape me this minute but I can guarantee we had a couple of the local brews for each of you back home.

Mike left the next day to go back to Rio Gallegos where we would meet up then start our trip to El Calafate. I had another day in Ushuaia  I made the most of it and visited Tierra Del Fiego National Park. Below are some Pictures of the Park. The first is the signthat signifies that you have come to the end of Ruta National 3 which is the southern most road in the world

“Oh well time to turn around only 18,000 kms more to go”

Veiw of the Beagle Channel from one of the look outs in Tierra Del Fiego national Park.

The next day I met up with mike in Rio Gallegos. We headed off the El Calafate where the Puerto Moreno Glacier is. There is no other reason to really go to El Calafate other than the glacier but once we got there is was a beautiful little town. We only stayed for 2 nights enough time to see the Glacier and get out as we were on a tight schedule to get back to Santiago. I have to admit after over 3 months of travelling it was nice to be heading north and in the right direction to actually finish our journey.

Its good to see I capture Mike’sgood side.

Its hard to explain the size of the glacier but I can assure you it is bloody massive. 60m High and it goes for 3kms. It’s the only Glacier left still expanding at almost a metre a day. We where very lucky to see a big piece of the glacier sheer off. I can’t explain the noise either. Its always moaning and groaning from the expanding and cracking of the ice.

After El Calafate we made our way back to Rio Gallegos to pick up my bike. My ribs had healed after nearly a week off the bike. We were now starting to head north and the right direction. The next stop was Calleta Olivia for one night. On the way in we bumped into our old mates the Sea lions.

Obligatory shop with the bikes

Photo just to show how flexible I am in front of the Camera

After following the coast for nearly 2 weeks now we headed inland to meet up with Ruta 40 the route made famous by Che Guevara (apparently he was a bit of a homophobe) and the movie about his journey called the motor cycle diaries. Once we met up with Ruta 40 it lived up to its reputation with beautiful scenery. After nearly 2 weeks with Baltic temperatures and out of control winds it was a blessing to be back in the shade of the Andes and surrounded by such beauty.

Mike Showing us that we are on Ruta 40

This is pretty much the view we had all the way to Baraloche

“Oh what happened there mike? Oh you were trying to spray me with mud but dropped your bike insead. Oh dear!!!!”

The area around Baraloche is known as the lake district of Argentina, as you can probably tell from the pictures above. We spent 2 days in Baraloche after being stuck camping in a little town about 200kms away called Esquel. We got stuck there because there was no fuel because of a long weekend. We decided not to risk it and we camped and waited for the fuel to arrive. It rained for 2 days while we were there trust it was not fun.

Baraloche gave us chance to clean the bikes up and fix mikes chain as it was kinked and scraping on the teeth of the cogs. We didn’t completely fix it but we knew it would last us till Santiago. We set off headed for the border with Chile. We crossed without any hassles. There are no photos till we got to Chile as we camped the 2 days ride to Santiago. We arrived safely and smelly to see out Chilean family and stay a week to celebrate Daniels 9^th Birthday.

With our Chilean Family L-R Back (Mike, Mario, Ricardo, Maggy and Me)

L-R Front (Lorraine, Catalin and DAnny)

My laziness has reached new bounds and I’m only now writing the BA blog now. At the very least, I’m consistent.

So, BA. We arrived from Uruguay on the ferry and spent a bit of time with some confused customs officers. Clearly Carnets aren’t too common, but we eventually got the eighty-something required stamps and got the green light. Hostel was pretty easy to find and we were able to park the bikes straight out the front, all pretty straight forward.  Normal routine of getting the bikes locked up, showered, had a look around, etc. The hostel was a great choice -  very impressed by their HR policy.

We quickly met up with the Burra/Adelaide/Melbourne girls again and headed out for Tango lessons (their idea, certainly not mine) Hilarious night, the dancing was dramatically improved  after wine. I nailed it, Dave was ordinary – so the normal pattern continues.

You’d think that being in a city like BA  that we would have taken an absolute bucket load of photos to show you, but they seemed to have been all heavily influenced by booze, so I apologies for the lack (personally blame the Vogel sisters for leading us astray). We had a great night out with Rach & Di’s Argentinian friends. If 3 of the tables around you in the restaurant shhh you, you’re doing something right. I do remember busting a move in some cheesy nightclub and some ungodly hour later on, but not much else. After a good month of taking it easy, BA was a reminder that a hangover at 30 is alot more painful than at 20.

The video (that I promise is coming soon…) should have some footage of BA… Keep an eye out for the world’s greatest mullet on one of the Tango guys. If I’d had a hat on that night, I would have dipped it in his direction. Absolute legend keeping the dream alive.

It was nice to rest up over over a few days and have a bit of a walk around. I got crook for a few days (not booze induced), but Dave did a good chuck of the city solo while I felt sorry for myself.

Apart from seeing the sights and painting the town red, we also needed to use the time in BA to get the bikes serviced and a few changes made. We’d heard online of Dakar Motors, who specialise in RTW bikes, so we rode down there and met Javier. Took a few days, but the bikes got a service and I got a brand new back wheel fitted which gave me a bit more confidence heading into Patagonia given the serious lack of tread on my tyres.

Dave reloads his panniers in the Dakar Motos garage

After a good 10 days and one false start, we kicked off the next leg of the trip; BA – Patagonia – Santiago. From everything that we’d read, the 6000kms  looked very straight and uneventful.  The next few days we had great weather and road, but all in a straight line with nothing to look at but saltbush. For someone with the attention span of a small puppy, it was a battle for me not to fall asleep or drift into oncoming traffic. (For anyone that has driven across  Australia, it rivals the Nalabour or the Hay Plains for entertainment value)

Down til Puerto Madryn  it had been a nice ride, if a little dull at times. That, and the fact that we’d seen each other every fucking day for over 2 months added to the dullness (I now understand what it’s like to be married). As the towns became smaller and even more scarc, it really started to feel like Patagonia. I reckon it was about there that the wind started to be noticeable. Everyday it was a little stronger and we both started noticing it being enough to push the bikes around. It was consistently side on so you’re faced with the prospect of ending up in the dirt or on coming traffic. Fun.

I think the extent of the wind really hit home on the day we pulled over to change into wet weather gear as we headed into a stormfront. We put on our gear for the first time since Brazil, we could see the haze of the on coming rain on the horizon. As we got back on the bikes and headed in to it, the wind seriously picked up and we then realised that it wasn’t rain, but rather the wind blowing the sand blowing so hard across the road it made the sky grey. About half way through a decent gust pushed Dave into the dirt, resulting in him going arse up. Luckily, we weren’t going too quick, so the only damage was  a couple of bruises and a broken mirror.

Nice Argentinian bloke we met heading towards Rio Gallegos.Riding two up with his girlfriend on the back looked no fun with the wind

Lining up for petrol. Southern Argentina proved to be a case of’fill up at opportunity regardless of how many cars where waiting’ they probably know something you don’t. The wind was so strong at this point, sitting stationary on the bikes side-on to the wind was bordering  impossible.

Still a couple of hundred kms from Rio Gallegos, the wind started to get downright dangerous and just sitting on the bikes on the side of the road became impossible (particularly if you’re a short-arse and can’t quite touch the ground). Dave and I decided to kill it for the day and headed back to a campsite we’d passed a few minutes before hand. Coming over a bridge the wind was swirling off the hills and pushing across the road. I remember hitting a section of road where i started on the dividing line in the middle of the road and ended ended inches from the edge. Dave hit the same bit a few moments later and got pushed off the road resulting in him sliding off the bike into the dirt. Watching it in my mirror, it looked bad, but the result was a broken pannier and bruised ribs, which given what could have happened, wasn’t too bad.

After a night camping (including wine for medicinal purposes), a patch job on the pannier and a nice steady ride in, we made it to the most southern part of Argentina, just before we needed to cross the river and into the Chilean section of Tierra del Fuego. It was a nice feeling to have the major part finished and be in the heart of Patagonia. With sore ribs, Dave made the call to catch the bus to Ushuaia and back. I was going to call him a fanny in this bit, but he did look sore and it was a good idea to rest up. I was also going to write something about not being at all concerned about doing the 1500km round trip solo, but it would be a blatant lie. the  forecast for next few included rain and wind up to 100kms an hour, so I will admit to pooing my pants a little at the prospect of coming off the bike in spectacular fashion as some point in the not too distant future.

The following morning we parted way (remarkably, no tears) and I headed for the border. . I timed getting it perfectly so that it was exacting the same time as every single fucking person currently visiting Argentina and Chile. The line up was snaking around the room and ended up in the centre of the room, so trying to figure out where ended was comical. (so it had a similar structure to Australian Customs)  5 hours later, I walked out with lots of stamped pieces of paper and looking forward to getting back on the bike. After holding them out and saying “si, si, Ushuasia… okay?” to alot of seemingly important people , I was back in Chile!

It didn’t take long to get to the line up for the ferry. If you watch the video, you’ll see some footage of the ferry coming across the water, the wind was so bad at that point I couldn’t film and hold the bike up at the same time. I guessing that the ferry was cancelled because of the wind, because after 3 hours I was still sitting there. Luckily, I had about 16 layers of clothing on and a book, so it wasn’t too painful. A reallty nice Argentinian family even took pity on me and invited me to sit in their car and have a coffee and a bit of cake. Score.

Some of the line up for the ferry.

Patagonia is windy. No shit.

By the time I got on the other side I reckon it was about 7pm. At this stage, I wasn’t quite sure of the route because the GPS was telling me one way and the map was saying another. I employed the old theory of when you don’t know what to do just follow everybody else and followed the cars off the ferry. The wind by this stage was in full swing, but I felt like I was doing okay and keeping the speed up. You know that moment were you think, ‘fuck it, it’s not that bad, I can go a little faster’? Well,  I have never shat myself so much as when I was riding dead straight but on such a lean that i scraped the foot peg on the road, the bike kicked in the other direction onto the other side of the road.  I may have made a very, very un-masculine noise and needed to pull over and had a little chat to myself at that point.

About 100kms in, I found out why the GPS wanted me to take a different route as the road turned into gravel. I’m really sorry there is no video or photos to show the view. I took it nice and slow as it was dusk and full of on coming trucns. I quickly lost all the cars, but it a stoke of good luck, for whatever reason, the wind and the rain started to recede and the riding became really enjoyable. The views began to be great and within an hour an amazing valley opened up with a sunset background it was well worth being a little cold and wet.

When the weather improved!

I was supposed to make it to Rio Grande, but by 10pm I was truly knackered, so I found a reasonable spot on the side of the road and put up the first rough camp of the trip. Getting ready for bed was pretty easy, I got my boots & helmet off and climbed fully clothed into my sleeping bag, gloves and all and pulled the cord til only one nostril was exposed (it was a little cold)

The next day was still cold, but the wind has backed off and the sun was shining. Had a really nice ride to the Argentinian border and was in and out within 30mins. Back on proper roads, the ride into Ushuaia was just good fun and I had a great day, the pictures honestly don’t do it justice.

That day’s ride made all little dramas seem insignificant and well worth it (sorry, that just got deep!). Would have been nice to have Dave there, but such is life. Found the hostel without too much hassle after that and was able to shower and rest and have a well earned beer by the time Dave walked through the door.

Ushuaia was amazing, truly amazing, but I’ll give Dave the opportunity to describe that in the next blog.

Mike

Hi Everyone let me begin by apologising again for the lack of Blogs but we have been out enjoying ourselves rather than sitting a hostel writing a blog. Also Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all lets hope it will be a great year which i am sure it will, because even a bad day on the road beats a good day in the office. So where we left you last time was we had just arrived in Rio. Rio even though it is half the size of Sao Paulo it took us twice as long to get into. We hit traffic about 40km out of Central Rio and it didn’t let up for some 20kms. So as we inched our way to Copacabana where our hostel was for the 4 nights we took in some of the sights of Rio. Like all good Brazilian cities Rio is wedged between the sea and a mountain where they try to jam 7-8 million people in a small area. Rio is intense to say the least and that included the traffic, which combined with torrential rain which had followed us since Christmas eve made the entry into Rio a small nightmare.

We eventually made it to our hostel, but when we got there we where staying on a street that had a massive vertical incline on it making parking the bikes a small nightmare. Also the hostel had told us that it was located in a secure compound which is guarded, but when we arrived at the “Secure compound” we were let straight in with out any questioning or even a side ways glance. So we after a conference with the hostel staff we decided to pay 2 guys to look after the bike since they had already offered at a price of course. The problem of refusing to pay them though usually ends up in them making a phone call and then you finding your bike missing. So we thought the $75 reales for 4 days for 2 bikes was quite reasonable, and they where true to there word because when ever we came home even on NYE at 4am there was one of them watching over the bike. Thanks guys for taking care of our bikes.

So after settling in we went looking for our Aussie friends Rachael, Diane and Kerryn. Rachael and Diane are old friends from Adelaide and Kerryn is there kiwi friend who was travelling with them through South America. So we headed straight out for a feed and a few drinks but we didn’t go to hard as we knew the next couple of days would be rather large. The next day we headed for the Sugar Loaf which is a massive look our which gives you 360 degree veiws of Rio. You catch a cable car to the top then you proceed to jostle for position so you can get the obligatory shot of Rio. The weather was so bad in Rio for the entire 4 days we where there we could not get a shot of Christ the Redeemer.

That night there was a street party in Lapa this was to celebrate that NYE was 1 day away it seems that Brazilians will put a street party on for any old reason, im liking them already. Lapa was insane with thousands of people dancing in the street trying to get into samba club. There was a seedy eliminate to this street party though as we sore many fights and also there were copious amounts of little children roaming the streets looking for their opportunity to snatch anything you are not watching. Unfortunately a friend of ours Carolina who we met at the hostel (Carolina was from Poland) got here camera snatched from her hand in quite a violent way which put a bit of a bummer on the night so we decided to call it a night and save our energy for NYE.

The next day consisted of not a lot as we sat on copacabana beach and drank our Caiprinha’s and watched the scenery go bye. Now we have all seen the Brazilian bikinis that the women where and yes they are beautiful but its not only the 18-40 year olds that wear them but also the 50 and 60 year olds wear them also which is less flattering i can tell you. The party for new years eve on copacabana was starting at 6pm but we thought we would hang out at the hostel and have a few drinks that the hostel was putting on for us then go down the beach for the fireworks and then the David Guetta Concert. So slightly fuelled with beer and vodka jelly shots we made our way to the beach with the rest of Rio it would seem. Some people said there where 3 million people on the beach and in surrounding streets that night and i tend to believe them. It took us a good hour to walk about 500 metres and to finally find a spot we could almost comfortable watch the fireworks.

The fire works display was amazing (we will have another video soon which has some great shots) and then David Guetta started and the crowd erupted. The dancing was intense as was the crowd, but we had a great time partying with a group of locals who lets us have lay backs of their homemade creme de menthe and what ever else they where drinking. We had a great time but decided to call it a night at about 4am. This was the most in sane and intense experience i had ever been involved in. I did not see one policeman all night not 1 secruity guard and definately no toilets. It was a strange experience and one i will never forget and probably never repeat. Lets say i ticked the box and bought the t-shirt. New years day was spent recovering at the hostels watching DVD’s as the rain had decided to really come down. We were all leaving for Paraty the next day which i was really looking forward to after the insane experience that is Rio.

We got back up and sent the girls on at 10:30 to the bus station as they were meeting us there. It took us 2 hours to get out of Rio again in the rain, but we were finally off. About half an hour out of Paraty Mike and I got separated. Mike stopped to wait for me, but i managed to slip past him. When he hadn’t seen me for 30 minutes he double back to the last place he had seen me which was about 20km away. Mean while i kept riding on thinking Mike was in front of me when i finally arrived at the Hostel and Mikes bike was not there i did start to panic. I checked in for both of us and unpacked i was about to get the computer out to write a message on Facebook for him when i herd the bike pull up. It seems in the time Mike was turning around i had slipped by him. Oh well all is well that ends well. We made really good time even beating the bus the girls took. Paraty was just what i needed after 4 intense days in Rio. It reminded me of far north Queensland quite hilly but with beautiful water and heap of islands to explore not that far off the coast. This is exactly what we did. We went island hopping the next day where they stopping at three beautiful beached jumping off the boat to swim to shore and just generally relaxing eating and drinking. We had a great time in Paraty just relaxing and hanging out with the girls. We went out for our final dinner with them and had a few to many. So we decided to go to the local bar and keep drinking. We finally got home at 4am. We where leaving the next day but Mike and I got up with such a hang over that we decided we like Paraty too much to leave and we would stay one more day. Saying good bye to the girls was sad it was so nice to hang out with some familar faces from back home, also it gave me someone else other than Mike to talk too.

So we left Paraty headed for Florinopolis. It took us 2 days to get there as we stopped again in Santos at our Christmas hostel but they had no avaliability but they let us camp in the garden which was cool. We then stopped again in Curitiba again before making our way to Florinopolis. The ride to florinopolis was easy but nice and scenic riding along the coast the whole way. We didnt stay in florinopolis which is like the surfers paradise of Brazil but stay 50kms away in a little town called Barra De Lagoa, which was small with great beaches great resturants and a great hostel. Gustavo the owner was young like us and we had beer and BBQ all night with him and other from the hostel the first night. We meet a really nice brazilian women who was staying there with her 2 children. She offered  her place to Michael and I in a town just outside Puerto Alegre which is where our next stopped was. We really did just relax in Florinopolis just relaxing on the beach eating and drinking. We where in a nother little town called Lagoa to get some money out so the bikes where parked near the bank. When we got back to the hostel we had an email from an American guy who know lives in Brazil saying he looked up our site and really liked what we where doing and did we want to meet up. So on our last night we met up with Dave and had some dinner. Dave had been in Brazil for 4 years but goes back state side for winter. He really is living the dream.

We were leaving bound for Michelle’s house in Novo Hamburgo which is 40kms out of Puerto Alegre. The ride started off as normal but then mike and i got sperarated. Mike took off in front and was maybe 10-15 mins in front of me. Mean while i stopped the bike to go to the little boys room. Mike was up a head and a car pulled him over to say that did he have a friend with the same bike back a little bit. Mike said yes and he told him I was stopped with a problem. Mike then decided to turn around and look for me. Mean time i was back on my bike and a managed to slip past him again and i continued on thinking mike was in front of me. Mike went back 1ookms to the last place he saw me but in the meantime he got stuck in traffic and i continued on thinking mike would just met me at Michelle’s House. i was cruzing makeing really good time. I arrived at the GPS location at around 5 but of course it was wring. I circled around the street remembering our other times it had been wrong. I ended up ringing Michelle’s and she found me and i followed her to her house no mike. I unpacked showered had some dinner posted on facebook to mike but no reply. To say i was getting worried was a little understatement. I was already thinking of the phone i was going to have to make to Mikes parents to say i had lost him. Michelle and I decided we would cirlce the streets looking for mike. We did this till midnight but no luck. We headed back to michelles place to check emails and facebook but nothing. To say i had a sleepless night was kind. I woke early check email and facebook again, but nothing i was now putting in a plan to go to the police after 24 hours and still dreeding that phone call, but then mike popped up in facebook. Long story short. We got to our destination to find the GPS was wrong but it was 9pm by this time. He must of just missed me and michelle by minutes. He took of to find a hotel, which he did but no internet. he rode around till11pm looking for internet but decided to call it a night and wait till morning. So we met up on the rode some 100km closer to the Uruguay boarder. About 100km form Rio Grande which was our destination for the night i blew a back tyre. There was a car overtaking in the opposite direction. I was looking at thinking it was going to move back into the other lane but it kept getting closer and closer. At the last moment i swerved off the rode to avoid a head on collision but hit a bump that severed my valve on the back tyre, no repairing that bad boy. Luckly for us this is Brazil with a tyre repair place every 5kms or so. We only had to limp the bike about 700m to the tyre repair shop.

This is where it gets funny and surreal. The owner didnt speak english well that was a given, we dont speak portuguese, but to make it funnier he was deaf so we that threw a spanner in the works also. So with the international language of sherades we got the message across. I needed a knew tube and tyre which he didnt have. He took me for a drive to the nearest town. Where we found a tyre and tube which was very lucky as there are not many bikes our size here in South America especially in a small town. We were back on the rode in 2 hours no problems. That night we stayed in Rio Grande which is a real tranist town and not very eventful. We left the next day headed for the Uruguay boarder and Punta Del Diablo.

About 50kms from the Uruaguay boarder we met another biker Julian from Argentina who was on the home stretch of his journey. Julian was travelling alone so we rode along with us to break the monotomy and we crossed the boarder together. Julian was tavelling on a BMW 650. We crossed the boader no problems but had to use the Carnet for the first time. We got to punta Del Diablo which reminds me of some of the Country towns on the west coast of australia. No roads just fishing shacks and a pub. It was a really cool place with nice beaches. We where only staying one night tough and we where headed for Montevideo the next day. Montevideo was only 300kms away so it was a really easy ride. We only planned to stay in Montevideo for 3 nights but we could not get a ferry to buenos airies until the wednesday so we stayed 5 days. Monevideo is a really nice city about 1 million people nice beaches. We really just hang out and relaxed. We met some really nice people in Montevideo a nice couple from England and 2 sisters from England. We tended to all eat dinner every night just relaxing seeing who could find the cheapest biggest bottle of drinkable red wine. I think mike and i won by the way.

We got a surprise as we heard from the girls again and they where in Buenos Airies at the end of their trip so we would see them again. We did some organinsing to stay down the Road from them when we arrived in BA, but before that we had to get on a ferry. This was a pretty painless exercise. So we spent 3 hours catching up on our favourite TV shows and wainting to get to BA. After a little confusion at customs at the port in BA where they knew less than us about the Carnet we got through and we finally arrived in Buenos Airies.

More to come about BA later thanks for reading and look out for our next video.

Cheers

Dave

Apologies for the lack of blogs, just laziness, but I’m happy to blame Dave though if there’s a need for someone to take the fall.

Back to the trip, following 4 days rest at Iguassu, we’d allocated an entire day to get across the border and start the Brazilian leg of our trip. Process was super easy and we were across in a few minutes and heading into Foz Do Iguacu. Our GPS played the same trick again and the hostel was no where to be seen. After a couple of laps of the street, some random guy on a bike rocked up and lead us to the the same street, just on the other side of the highway. Either the people through out South America are overly generous and out-going to strangers or we look so helpless that people everywhere are continually taking pity on us.

Due to some issues booking hostels, decided to push and do 1,100kms in 2 days. With the trucks and small towns it took 9hours each day, but the roads were pretty good and the scenery started to make the whole thing rather quaint. Bikes felt good and my arse wasn’t hurting as much (this may have been due to my eye, my hand & ego still throbbing).

Included a lot of this under us…

End of the second day ended with a cool little ferry across the bay into Santos

Beers on Christmas Eve

Christmas day on the beach… Weather wasn’t too flash, but food and beers made up for it

Dave’s new mate… Spent a couple of hours speaking the international language of hand signals with a nice family on Christmas day, Dave even jagged a new soccer top out of it.

Boxing day, pissing rain heading back into the mountains – my happy face will tell you how much I enjoy riding in the rain

Fog and trucks, mountain climb just out of Sao Paulo

Very random find of Campos Do Jordao between Sao Paulo and Rio… This little town was all European, liked it so much, we stayed for 3 days.

Main street

Dave with a small problem – We tried a little off-roading up in the surrounding mountains with limited success. I laughed a little, then dropped his bike trying to help (sorry bud)

Coming into Rio. More mountains (and more rain)

Rio!!!

I might leave that story to Dave…. Next blog will be soon and much better written I’m sure cos it won’t be me doing it… Hope you all had a crackin christmas and NYE.

Mike

This is not my proudest moment, but extremely funny for Dave. About 4am last night mid frantic dream I decided to roll over to the other side of my bed and may had forgotten for a brief moment that I wasn’t in fact at home, but indeed in an Argentinian Hostel. I proceed to roll head first off the top bunk into the floor below.  Check out the absolute screamer of a gash I woke up with… 2 stitches at the local GP, I’m currently trying to come up with some elaborate story of how I was fighting off 20 blokes, saving a baby, and resorting world peace, cos “I fell off the bed” really doesn’t impress the ladies… I realise that I will cope a while lot of shit for this, so any sympathy is greatly appreciated. Thanks Dave for being my Florence Nightingale, if only you were a little prettier I’d pash you for sure

I reckon I’ll be wearing my helmet to bed from now on…

Mike

Sorry it has been a while since the last post but we have been pushing hard to get to Iguazu Falls so that we can begin our journey to Rio de Janeiro for New Years Eve. So i will update you all now on what has been happening the last few days.

So after a spectacular day in the Andes where everything that could go wrong did go wrong, we arrived in Mendoza. The first day in Mendoza was pretty uneventful. We looked around the city and had some lunch, we made out we were locals and had a siesta (I tell you the Argentina’s have it all sorted with when it comes to life style). It was going to be my 30th birthday the next day so we thought we would email a winery that i used to sell at the Stag Hotel. We got a reply back saying that they would love to host us for lunch the next day and for a full tasting of their wines.

We Caught a taxi the next day out to Casa Argento and we were faced with a beautiful Italian style villa with beautiful manicured grounds. Paula and Augustina were great hosts as they showed and tasted Argento’s list with us. It was then time for lunch and we had Empanads and Salad with a Bottle of Argento finest torrentes absolutely delicious.

After going back to the Hostel and having another siesta we decided to go out to dinner to a beautiful little resturant in plaza italia called florentina. We had a beautiful big Rib Eye Steak one of the best i have had. We then went out to the suburbs and had drinks with Mario’s Friends that live in Mendoza. I have to say it was a great birthday and i would not have wanted to spend it any other way except to have all my friends and family there.

After a couple more days in Mendoza relaxing and looking over the bikes it was time to set off again. The next stop was only 250kms away in San Luis. It was a hot day about 37 degrees and we had to stop about every 100kms to drink water and to rest. We were making good time though and we arrived in San Luis about 4pm in the afternoon. It had got so Hot I felt very dehydrated and had to go out to get some water before i passed out.

San Luis is a medium sized town of about 200,000 people and as it was a Saturday Night we went to the plaza San Martin where it seemed the rest of the city was as well. To tell you a little about Argentina, they live a great lifestyle getting up for work at about 8am and working through till about 1pm. They then have a big lunch and then Siesta till about 5pm, when everything opens up again till about 9pm then they all go to the Central Plaza where they have dinner and coffee at about 10-11pm. Its a great lifestyle and one Mike and I are really getting into.

The Next Day we were off to Cordoba. Cordoba is about 480kms away and it was going to take us about 6 hours with refueling and breaks. We had a really good ride except for about a 100km stretch of road which was really bad and we had to reduce our speed to about 60kms/hr. We got into Cordoba about 7pm and went straight to the Hostel. After lubing the chain and then unpacking we went out for dinner. A storm has been following us all day and finally caught up with us once we sat down for dinner.

Cordoba is Argentina’s second biggest city with about 1.5 million people. Its a pretty city and is also famous for as Che Guevara lived there for sometime, it would have been nice to stay and see the city more but we are trying to push hard to meet our friends in Rio for NYE so we were off again the next day.

We were headed for Santa Fe today which is about 350km away. We are staying with a friend Lucia Riviero who is a friend of our best mates Shane from when he lived in Argentina for an exchange program. We were having a great ride and making good time. as we approached Santa Fe the GPS redirected us to Santa Tome instead and after speaking to one of the locals who kindly advised us as gringos we should not be there we were back on the road to Santa Fe only 5 km down the road. As this point i have to point out it is starting to get late and our phones are not working. This time not only did the GPS redirect us but also some of Santa Fe’s finest Police officers as there was a Football Game on. We were doing laps around the football stadium trying to find Lucia House, when Mikes Clutch Cable went. To say Mike and I where in a mild state of panic was an understatement, but after some consultation and a few deep breathes we borrowed a guys phone and rang Lucia to get correct directions. It was decided that i would go to Lucias and dumped all my stuff and then come back for Mike. I eventually found Lucia place unpacked and then went back for Mike. I had numerous problems again trying to locate the intersection where mike was stranded, when the Police pulled me over and proceeded to tell me that i should get out of this area before night fall. I pushed on looking for mike when a lovely couple pulled me over and also proceded to tell me that i should get out of the area before night time which was approaching really quickly. It wasnt until the third car pulled me over and told me that i should get out that i started to think that maybe i should get out as it might be a little dangerous. I eventually found the intersection that mike was supposed to be at but no mike and no bike. But then Mike pulls up behind me with bike fixed as a nice guy took mike to a mechanic just down the road where they put a new clutch cable on and we were off again.

We had a great time in Santa Fe with Lucia but after a couple of days rest and rejuvenation it was time to push on again as Igauzu was calling. Then next stop was the boarder town of Posa de los libres some 450km away. We were booked in for one night in a highway motel as there was no hostel in the town. We though this would be good as we could leave early in the morning and be right on the highway out of town. But we needed money in the morning and out of the 4 ATM’s only one one had money, but we eventually got money out and we were on the road headed for Posadas which is about 350km away. Posadas is a beautiful city situated right on the River Uraguay and the hostel we stayed in Vuela Pez was amazing. Overlooking the river with a cute little bar and pool. We met some great people from Portugual, Norway and the UK. After a nice dinner at a riverside cafe it was bed early as we were making our way to Igauzu in the morning.

Puerto Iguazu is about 350km from Posadas. It is on the Argentina side of the Falls and we are planning to stay 4 nights as i have to organize my Visa for Brazil here. We arrived at our Hostel on Friday night where we met an Australian guy Les who was traveling by himself  so we had a few beers and went for pizza but we didn’t want to be too late as we were heading for the falls in the morning. We woke up early to be out at Iguazu Falls at 8am when the gates opened. We went on a jet boat which too us right into to the falls absolutely saturating us. The falls are just beautiful and are huge. The shear amount of water that falls over the falls it just staggering. We spent the entire day walking around and being mesmerized by mother natures awesome beauty.

After getting back to the Hostel and having our Siesta (of course) we meet 2 dutch girls and and dutch guy who has just arrived so we all decided to go out for dinner and a few drinks. We had a great time with great people. Today we are just relaxing, email updating facebook and the blog, we have done a couple of things to the bike tightened all the srews that come loose on the road, checked oil which has been good so far (we are plannning on changing the oil and oil filter in Rio which will be after doing about 4000kms). Tomorrow i am off to Brazilian Consulate to organise Visa, we have some planning to do for our route to Rio then on wednesday we are off again make our way to Rio de Janiero to meet Rach, Diane and their friend for NYE cant wait.

Dave

Traveled – 400kms, 12 hours

Dropped the bike – Dave 1, Mick 2 (one into some poor bugger’s car)

Stopped the police – Dave 1, Mick 0

Broken gear – both helmets, 1 phone

One hail storm, one electrical storm, one mud slide.

18 months of planning and 3 weeks in Santiago waiting on the bikes to get through all the red tape, the trip begins. Well, it begins for about 100 metres before Dave’s battery dies. We pull off the panniers, racks and seat. Luckily, the amazing family we’ve been staying with for the last 3 weeks get out of bed at 7am on a Sunday to jump the battery with their car (and even chuck us the cables in case it happens again… Just good people)

An hour late, but we got going about 8am and that sweet feeling of finally beginning the trip… That feeling died a little when Dave ran out of petrol. . No worries, petrol station was only a few minutes away. Not going to lie, it was pretty funny watching Dave push a 300kg bike up the very first road, the poor bugger was sweating at a new level by the time he got there.

Petrol in the tank, but it turns out that Dave’s battery was knackered again. We’d been worried about my battery the day before and decided that we’d best buy another. So we weren’t even out of the 1st neighborhood and the 1st problem. Ricardo & Mario (the 2 people who had helped us out for the last 3 weeks) came to the rescue and it was an easy decision, don’t risk getting into trouble in the middle of the Andes, lets buy a new battery.

2 hours later, no luck, we couldn’t find the right one, mainly due to the fact that it was a Sunday morning.  I did manage to have several hand signal conversations with random stranglers walking past our stranded bikes… What is it about blokes in their 40′s that makes them love to stand around looking at machines? We ended up driving into the main part of Santiago, finding 1 shop open and getting a win, the right battery!  It was too late to leave by that stage, so we put it off for one more day. Again, without the help of Mario, we’d have been well and truly rooted. We have had a series of problems from day one, but they were relatively easy because of Mario, Ricardo and his family.

So after 1 false start, we got away by 8am on the Monday morning and hit the morning peak hour. Took an hour or so of stop/start, but I was expecting worse and it was good just to be on the bike. Through Maipu and out to the freeways, we’d mic’d up so we could talk, but one wrong exit and trying to get off a ring road and I lost Dave. Of course we hadn’t thought about what to do if that happened, but after an hour I saw his black KLR pulling away from a toll booth and the mics kicked back in.

The road to Los Andes was really nice, slowly climbing upwards. Reminded me of the foothills around Adelaide. We got into Los Andes in decent time, weather was good and even had a nice guy come up for a chat while we stopped for coffee.The biggest  problem we soon realised was that the bikes are so heavy with the panniers that getting of the fucking thing is a small feat – requiring some type of engineering degree and reasonably sized step ladder. If the ground wasn’t angled right the bikes wanted to tip over. No problem though, both feeling pretty good at this stage and sure to figure it out.

Bout half an hour out of the town we hit the famous switch backs. Not going to lie, was pooing my pants a little. First day, bikes are way too flicking heavy and we’ve never really ridden them fully loaded (I do realize it would have been a good idea to practice a little before we left, but hey). 30 switchbacks with 3 cars up your arse and endless trucks flying down in the opposite direction is intense.Got through no worries and a little relived that neither of us stalled coming out of those corners, I have no idea how we would have got the bike back up.

Finally reached the first stop for Argentina. I barely speak English, let alone Spanish, so this was always going to be interesting… The biggest problem was  firstly getting off the bike. I had a great idea though, once i was off I’d just take out the pannier bag from one side and keep all the weight on the stand, brilliant… Wrong bag Michael… So, entire bike goes crashing over, paperwork flying everywhere and some random bloke had got sick of wait for us and had pulled his car up along side – my crash bars left a lovely scratch down the door. All I could do was stand there looking stupid with that “yeah, sorry bout that” look.

I think it was out of pity, but the officer finally let us through. Got to Argentinian customs and went through pretty easy. Even met a couple of other bikers and had a few photos with random tourist (I think we stand out a little)

Stopped about an hour into Argentina and took the photo above. It’s over 3kms up, so I was feeling it after a few hours. A quick coffee and a muesli bar, we were off again. Until this point the weather had been perfect… Look in the left corner of this photo and you can see the very tip of a HUGE hail and electrical storm. About 10 minutes after this photo, it all really went pear shaped. The rain was so bad, we had to stop, just couldn’t see… 5  minutes later more it started hailing badly. The bike were in a little river of mud, there was so much hail that the seat was covered in ice. At that moment Dave’s helmet also decides to break. Fun times.

We waited about 45 minutes just getting soaked. the look on Dave’s face said what I was thinking, why are we doing this again? When there was no possibility that we could get more wet, the hail stopped and the rain backed off (the trucks flying past where nice enough to compensate for that by splashing water, mud and crap all over us), we started again.
About 10 minutes down the road we hit a line up of cars. the rain had caused a decent mud slide across the road, a truck was bogged and there was a whole lot of people standing around not doing alot (it actually looked a lot like road works at home) Some cars got sick of waiting and went for it, so we did too. About half way across the mud the car in front of me stopped and my heart was in my throat as the bike started to slip from under me… All I could see was me going arse up and Dave following suit right over the top of me on day one. Luckily I got some traction and we made it through.

The next 5 hours resembled that scene from Dumb & Dumber when they’re riding the scooter and there’s icicles from their snot. We had to sit on 40 kms an hour because of the wind and the rain so so bad. We finally got out of the Andes and into Mendoza and found the place we were staying at. It sounds like a whole lot of bad stuff, but it was a good day, just super intense and long. I was pretty stoked to see the end of it – surely it get easier from here!

Finally got to the hostel and had a new burst of energy, day one was huge, but we’d made it. Mario had organised the hostel through a friend and they were great. A couple of planks of wood and with the panniers off, we drove the bikes up the front steps and through reception. I have never wanted a hot shower so badly… If it was possible to make love to it I think I would have tried… Dave and I headed out into Mendoza and had a great steak and a few beers and had the cliche “what a day” moment…

We’ve had a couple of days in Mendoza now and we’re hoping to get going towards Sante Fe on Saturday morning.
Sorry for the lack of pictures – we had some camera issues… Less writing, more pictures next time.

Mike