Last Stop: Buenos Aries

Thursday April 18th, 2013. Buenos Aries Argentina, Amerian Hotel

Saturday night, with Dave safely on the airplane home with his broken arm, the paperwork completed for shipping his bike and a rider arranged to go with us to Buenos Aries, the final four of us decided to celebrate with some good Argentine steak. One of our cab drivers recommended Victors a nice looking place on the main square of Bahia Blanca. Like prompt Norte Americano’s we were waiting for the doors to open at 8:00 PM. I’m never sure about restaurants where we are the only patrons. 

I ordered a traditionally prepared steak, bife lomo. Steak with an egg on top, a slice of roasted red pepper and spinach buried under the ubiquitous papas fritas (french fries) that seem to accompany everything.  

By the time we were done eating, sometime well after 9:00 the restaurant was full and there was a line of people waiting outside. 

Somehow during the few days in Bahia Blanca we started to piece together that people seemed to know who we were. Someone at a pharmacy Keith talked to, someone at the hotel and others said they heard about the Americano’s visiting on moto bikes. Finally we found out from Juan that there was a story about the crash in the local newspaper. We probably got more attention in Bahia Blanca than we did in Pucon.

Sunday morning we made arrangements with Miguel to meet us for an 8:00 departure from the hotel. He arrived with his wife who was excited to meet us, take our pictures, hug and kiss us and wish us “buen viaje”. Somehow I didn’t get any pictures of that but managed to take a picture of the horse cart across the street. 

Our last big day riding, 384 miles through the pampas of Argentina. Moving time 7 hours average moving speed, 60mph, probably a record average speed and distance for the whole trip.

It was a beautiful day of riding, perfect weather in the 70’s with clear skies and relatively light traffic since it was Sunday. 

We had some pretty stiff crosswinds for most of the ride but it didn’t seem to bother us too much. The flag was an indicator of the steady breeze. 

Miguel seemed to enjoy riding with us. 

We arrived in Buenos Aries well before dark and checked into the Holiday Inn near the international airport on the outskirts of town. 

We arranged a room for Miguel, a flight back home the next day and had a nice dinner exchanging motorcycle stories despite our obvious language barrier. Thanks again Miguel! 

This seems like a good stopping point for this post. We’ve been in e-mail contact with Dave, he is home and seems in good spirits despite the fact that he needs additional surgery and will likely loose some range of motion in his arm. Overall not too bad since it could have easily been a much worse outcome. Dave had a blog update today where he discusses the accident and the trip from his view. You can read it HERE.

Next post: Shipping the motorcycles home.

Thanks for following. Donn and Deby 🙂 🙂

The Crash

Saturday April 13, 2013. Bahia Blanca, Argentina. Hotel Argos.

Dave is OK except for his arm which suffered some broken bones. I took this picture about an hour ago at the motorcycle shop Motos Fernandez where Dave stopped to take care of some paperwork before being driven to the airport for his flight home.

The crash happened Thursday about noon on the outskirts of Bahia Blanca, Argentina. I think it will be best to let Dave tell the story in his own words after he is home and rested. You can read his blog HERE. I’ll tell the story of how we managed to take care of Dave and his stuff.

I didn’t see the accident since I was the lead with Deby behind me, Dave in the middle and Keith and Jim were bringing up the rear. We were in relatively light traffic on a clear dry day looking to skirt the city of Bahia Blanca on our way to Buenos Aries. On our way through a roundabout Dave’s pannier made contact with a truck which caused him to loose control and dump in the median.

What happened next was a textbook example of how to do everything correctly at an accident scene. Every motorcycle rider should have first responder training and know what to do in case of an accident. Deby and I took a two day emergency first responder class before we left and we had the added benefit of having Jim along who is a doctor/surgeon. We all jumped into action to protect the scene, do a preliminary evaluation and call for help. Within minutes there was a complete response including police, fire truck and an ambulance to take Dave to a nearby hospital. Dr. Jim followed the ambulance to the hospital leaving Keith, Deby and I to deal with the motorcycle and the police. Thus began an incredible sequence of events where we each worked to get Dave and his motorcycle home.

The police insisted we follow them to the station with the motorcycles, most importantly Dave’s which was to be held for evidence. We determined that Dave’s bike was rideable and after some discussion I was elected to ride it to the station. One of the officers insisted that he was a motocross rider and would ride my motorcycle and lead the way. We didn’t seem to have much choice.  At the station we worked with the main officer who spoke no English. I didn’t catch his name and wish I would have because he seemed to go out of his way to be helpful. He interviewed Keith who was the main witness and asked me a bunch of questions before he let us go. I can’t really explain how we managed to communicate except to say that it was a combination of hand signals, drawings on paper and some use of the Google online translator. Finally, we were allowed to leave but were sternly told that we couldn’t take Dave’s bike or any of his belongings, all of which were being held for evidence.

I programmed the Bahia Blanca Municipal Hospital into my GPS and we went off to check on our Amigo. Dr. Jim was with Dave in the examination room and we were able to briefly go in and say hello. I quickly determined it would be better if we let the professionals do their job and waited in the hallway. Somehow in the division of duties it became my job to call Dave’s insurance company in the US and obtain authorization for treatment. It took awhile but I finally got through to his insurance company and a Spanish speaking doctor who I handed off to one of Dave’s doctors. They spoke for a long while and must have worked something out because they treated Dave and when it was time to leave the hospital they didn’t ask for any money.

With the situation seeming stable for the moment we set about our next task of finding a hotel. The ideal hotel would have been near the hospital but a quick assessment of the neighborhood suggested that we might want to be somewhere else. That’s when we met Pablo. Our normal protocol is to always leave someone watching the bikes when we need to go somewhere and the hospital was no exception judging by the people wandering around and the attention four big adventure bikes were getting. Deby was on guard duty for what ended up being a couple of hours and had extended conversations in Spanglish with all the curious people passing by. One of them was Pablo, who we eventually figured out was there because his mother was in the hospital for some type of surgery. Deby and Pablo had been conversing for at least an hour when I came out and asked about hotels. Pablo had a few suggestions but it was clear he wanted to know what type of hotel we wanted…. mejor mejor I told him using up one of my 15 Spanish words. He got the message and signaled us to follow him. We got on the bikes and followed him a few block on foot to his parked car. From there we followed him about a mile to the main square of town where he parked in front of the Argos Hotel, a modern multistory building with underground parking. Perfect. I thought he would just wave and drive off but no, he parked his car and insisted on going in with us to explain our predicament in Spanish and make sure we were able to get rooms. Amazing. We saw him the next day at the hospital and found out his mother’s surgery went well and she was recovering fine. He wanted to know about Dave’s recovery and how we liked our hotel. I should have got his picture… thanks Pablo!

Deby and I secured two rooms, unloaded our bikes and rode back to the hospital. By this time it became clear that Dave would be spending the night and he requested that we gather up some of his personal belongings from the police. Hmmm, I wondered if his shaving kit and clean underwear would be considered evidence. Keith, Deby and I decided to ride the 5 miles back to the police station and see what we could do.

Mr. Main Policeman was still there and after some discussion he agreed that we could take all of Dave’s belongings which were in a pile on the floor of his office and included one pannier that was torn off the bike, his large tail bag and the contents of the other pannier that had been strewn about in the road when the lid broke off. Not sure how we would transport all that stuff I didn’t want to argue and started carrying stuff out and strapping it on the three bikes.

I thought it might be a good idea to ask about taking the bike, his first answer was no. In the course of spanglish and sign language I found out they may need to keep the bike for several days! Yikes! I told him – no possibilo (adding an “o” seems to help in Spanglish). He looked at me and made a long phone call to someone discussing our situation. After he hung up he typed something into his google translator. It was a terrible translation and I could almost read it better in Spanish. It looked like we could take the bike and the “commissioner” authorized it’s release. Wow, I told him I would be back in ono hora! The three of us rode the 5 miles to the hospital to drop off Dave’s belongings. Keith decided to stay at the hospital and Deby and I had the task of motorcycle retrieval. We rode back to the hotel to drop off my bike and rode two-up on Deby’s bike back to the police station.

Silly me, I thought we would show up and be allowed to just drive away. Not. There was more paperwork to fill out including some kind of release / legal thing in Spanish I had to sign. They made copies of my passport and copied all my information onto the form. I still don’t know what that was about exactly but decided to take the risk. By the time we were done Mr. Main Policemen lightened up and brought up his Facebook page with pictures of him riding motocross races and his bike, it was pretty cool. I thought he sent me a friend request but I never received it… bummer, I would like to send him a thank you.

By the time we were done it was close to 8:00 PM and we rode to the hotel in the dark. I was glad Dave’s turn signals and brake lights all worked even if they pointed in odd directions. I should have checked the headlight, it was on but pointed nearly straight down. We made it safely to the hotel to find Keith and Jim waiting in the hotel lobby. We all sat in the lobby evaluating the day, glad that for the most part Dave was OK and evaluated what needed to be done next. They still had their riding gear on to make one last trip to the hospital to bring Dave his cell phone so he could call his wife. It was dark, getting cold and we were all tired which is why it took us a few minutes to figure out it would be best to leave the bikes parked and take a cab to the hospital. Duh….

Friday April 14, 2013

8:00 AM was the meeting time at the hotel to plan the day’s tasks and divvy up the tasks for the day. Janice had arranged a flight for Dave to leave the next day, Saturday at 2:45 PM. He would fly to Buenos Aries and then catch a flight to Portland via Houston.

Jim and Keith’s morning task was to go through Dave’s belongings making an inventory and make sure we had everything. They then repacked his bags, sorting out what Dave could take on the plane and what we could ship home on the motorcycle. They went through all his paperwork and even bought a multi-sleeve folder to organize everything.

I had been e-mailing with Dakar Motos, the company in Buenos Aries who was helping us ship the bikes home. Sandra, who was helpful beyond belief told me what paperwork we would need to send Dave’s bike home without him. She e-mailed me some forms and told me they needed to be notarized along with notarized copies of Dave’s passport, and vehicle registration. We needed everything in triplicate.

We also needed to find a way to get Dave’s bike to BA, about 400 miles away. We split with Keith and Jim agreeing to meet later at the hotel. Not sure what to do I looked online for a nearby motorcycle shop and found one a few blocks away. Deby and I set off on foot for the shop only to find the building was empty. Not knowing what to do we kept walking down Brown Street. We were in an area where every other shop seemed to be an auto parts store or an auto repair facility. I had a feeling that it would be a likely spot for a motorcycle shop. After about 10 blocks and not finding anything we were about to turn around, I suggested to Deby we try one more block and then give up. Halfway down the block we saw this: 

Moto Fernandez. I looked into the dark windows, was it even open? I saw some motorcycles including a pretty new BMW F800GS. We opened the door and walked in. A sales person greeted us and I started conveying our story in sign language / Spanglish. Neccissito moto to Buenos Aries. Amigo crash… hospitale…. then sign language for a broken arm. Not much progress, but I was told to wait. Eventually the owner, Juan Fernadez came in, he spoke a few more words of English and we managed to get our story across. Finally, he asked us to wait and made a few phone calls. After the last call he conveyed he had good news, a friend of his could ride Dave’s bike to Buenos Aries on Sunday if we would buy him a bus ticket back. Yes! Then he said, solo uno problemo, mi amigo es 72 anos! Would that be a problem? Ha! It only made sense to have another 70+ year old person join us. It felt right so I told him yes and that we would all meet at his shop at 10:00 on Saturday. We couldn’t believe our luck in locating a rider and such a helpful person as Juan Fernandez.

We got back to the hotel in time to have lunch with Jim and Keith. During lunch we sorted out the paperwork we needed, placed everything into the multi-tabbed folder and made notes of what needed to be copied. Our next task was to get all the copies then find a notary on a Friday afternoon that could go to the hospital and watch Dave sign everything. We had 24 hours before Dave needed to be at the airport, his bike couldn’t leave the country without the notarized documents. It seemed doable.

With a binder full of copies of various documents including assignment of responsibility, and releases Deby and I hiked to the hospital so see if we could find a notary. At the hospital there was a most helpful intern named Katerina? She called a notary that she knew and had a long conversation in Spanish, the answer was no. According to her, all the notaries in the city were in a meeting all afternoon and even if there was one available they couldn’t notarize one of the documents because it was in Spanish and Dave didn’t speak Spanish. What? Dave tried to convince her, in Spanish, that indeed he did understand Spanish and what the document said. She would’t budge. In frustration I checked on my GPS and saw that we were not far from a courthouse and some municipal buildings. Deby volunteered to walk around and see if she could find a notary. She came back a while later with the name an number of someone that didn’t pan out. We were running out of options, it was late on Friday and Dave would be released at 10:00 AM the next day in time to to the to airport for his flight. The best idea had was for Dave to sign the forms, forget the notary, go to Buenos Aries and hope for the best.

Did I mention that it was Dave’s right arm that was broke? Signing with his right hand was out of the question, could he sign with his left? Dave wanted to try so I gave him my notebook to practice on. It wasn’t pretty. 

Ok, forget that idea. Dejected and out if ideas we went back to the hotel.

Saturday April 13, 2013

Our 8:00 breakfast meeting was somber. We had no solution to the notary problem and had resolved to take our chances without one. Keith and Jim had Dave’s belongings sorted and packed for the plane and were going to go to the hospital to get Dave out by his 10:00 AM release time. Deby and I agreed to go to Motos Fernadez for our arranged meeting with our 72 year old rider, Miguel. I would ride Dave’s bike to Juan’s shop because he wanted his mechanic to look over the bike and make sure it was roadworthy. Good idea.

We got there at 10:00 and Juan’s mechanic set about checking over Dave’s bike and gluing some of the plastic back in place. While we were waiting for Miguel I casually asked Juan if he knew a notary and explained the problem. Yes! No problem! In an instant he was on the phone with his notary when he looked at me and said it’s not possible. What? Why? He explained that a notary in Bahia Blanca is not recognized in Buenos Aires. I recommended he call Saundra at Dakar Motos in Buenos Aries which he did and had an extended conversation. I have absolutely no idea what they said to each other but in my mind Saundra said that it’s a bunch of Bu!!$hit and just sign the documents. I couldn’t agree more, any signature was better than nothing.

Ok, the deal was on, Juan’s notary would meet Dave and sign the papers, it was 10:30 AM. We were at the motorcycle shop that is probably 7 miles from the hospital and Dave was scheduled to be released at 10:00. How could I get a message to Dave to come to Juan’s shop? Did he already leave the hospital? Were they on their way to the airport for an early check in? Maybe they found a notary at the hospital? I took a chance and asked Juan to call the hospital and ask for the Americano in room 4. Somehow it worked.

Dave, Keith and Jim all struck out finding a notary and decided to forget it and leave for the airport when an orderly came in to tell Dave he had a phone call. Dave got on the phone with Juan and was amazed to hear at the last minute a notary had been arranged if he could take a taxi to Juan’s shop. By 11:30 the taxi showed up with Keith, Jim and Dave. The timing was perfect, only a few minutes earlier Miguel, the person who would be riding Dave’s bike to BA arrived. Everyone got to meet among great excitement.

Left to right, Dave, Juan and Miguel

Miguel and Dave…. now how fast will this thing go?

Just now as I’m typing this I got an e-mail from Jim that they met the notary, got everything signed, found a pharmacy to fill his prescriptions and successfully got Dave to the airport to board the plane.

Everything is thanks to Juan Fernandez, he drove Dave and Jim to the notary and the airport and went out of his way to help make everything work.  I know that Juan was missing his son’s basketball game and spending a big part of his Saturday to help complete strangers. Unreal! A huge Thank You to Juan Fernandez!

So, tonight we will celebrate with a nice dinner and then get ready for a long ride in the morning. Is Dave’s bike really roadworthy enough to go 400 miles at high speeds? Will all the paperwork be correct for customs? I hope so. I look forward to hearing from Dave when he get’s back.

That’s all for now. The adventure continues…..

Donn and Deby 🙂 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pointing East

Monday April 8, 2013. San Martin de los Andes, Argentina Hotel Patagonia Plaza

As I mentioned in my last post it rained all day Friday in Pucon so we delayed our exit for a day and spent the day catching up on laundry, e-mails, route planning and napping. I managed one picture out the hotel window, nothing but rain all day.

We spent time with Keith, Dave and Jim trying to decide on a route to Buenos Aries. Keith is having trouble with his front shocks and wisely decided that he should stick to pavement. We looked at routes south and nothing really caught Deby or my interest so we essentially decided to stay another night near Pucon and ride into Argentina via the  dirt road and on a 1.5 hour ferry ride that Michael took the day before. Dave, Keith and Jim decided to ride south with plans to meet us Tuesday on the Argentina side.

On Saturday we made the grueling 30KM ride to the Hotel y Termas Huife Resort

It took us all of a half hour to ride the nice paved road to the resort. I was wondering why we didn’t go a day earlier. It was a little out of our normal price range but we justified it by calling it an anniversary/birthday gift and made up our minds to enjoy the stay. Adventure riding on motorcycles can be tough but we managed to have a relaxing day soaking in the therapeutic hot springs an enjoying the fine dining.

When we pulled into the parking spot for our room we parked next to a BMW R1200 with Chile plates. Later at dinner we met the couple on the bike, Edwardo and Francine. Francine spoke very good English so we struck up a conversation about motorcycle travel and the best routes in the area. We found out that they met Michael two days before at the ferry, small world.They originally had plans to return to their home in Santiago on the Chilean side of the mountains but after talking they decided they liked San Martin so much they wanted to go back. They even knew a “shortcut” through the mountains on a gravel road that would get us to the ferry sooner. Hey, why not! So we made plans to leave the Huife hot springs at 9:00 for San Martin.

We didn’t have reservations for the ferry that Michael recommended but Edwardo and Francine seemed confident we wouldn’t have a problem on a Sunday morning during the off season so off we rode on a cool fall day.

Remember this picture of Volcan Villarrica I took a few days earlier?

Here’s what it looked like Sunday morning after a day of rain in Pucon. 

Plenty of new snow in the mountains, fall was in the air. It was a great day of riding, we returned to Pucon, then west to Villarrica before we turned southeast towards the mountains. The road immediately turned to gravel and stayed that way for the next 90 miles through the Andes. 

The rains from the previous days was enough to keep the dust down but the road was not too muddy. 

Our tour guides were fantastic although I couldn’t exactly figure out how someone could ride an R1200 (not GS) with Tourance street tires with two people full out on gravel roads hitting 50 to 60 MPH and still waiting for us at the turn offs. Edwardo was a rock star on that bike, we later learned he had a lifetime of experience riding enduros. Fun.

We arrived at the Puerto Fuy ferry dock almost exactly at noon which is what was recommended for the 1:00 ferry, the only one that goes east all day. This ferry is part of highway 203 route to Huahum Pass into Argentina and transverses Pirihueico Lake. We made it on with room to spare. As usual, Deby picked up most of the flinging mud being in the rear. 

Edwardo and Francine with Deby and the bikes on the ferry. 

It was a long ride on a beautiful lake, I only counted three houses along the whole route that must only be accessible by boat. 

It reminded me a little of some of the lakes in the North Cascades of Washington State. 

A crazy thing happens when the boat docks at the eastern shore, it’s only 9KM to the Argentina border on a gravel road and everyone wants to be the first on there to get in line. Of course, Edwardo and Francine were first and left us in the dust. We hauled A$$ and were third behind a pickup truck that was determined to beat us. Seriously, we were easily doing 60mph on loose gravel trying to keep up. Deby called it Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

It was not problem getting across, probably the fastest border crossing yet. I loved the remote crossing in the middle of nowhere on a gravel road. 

We still had more gravel to go before our destination, I think Edwardo slowed down a little for us so it was about 5:00 when we arrived in San Martin. We stopped at this scenic overlook of the city where they took our picture. 

Here is a closeup of the city over our shoulders, a major ski resort town nestled in the mountains next to a lake. When we got into town they had a favorite hotel picked out and even negotiated a discount rate which was pretty reasonable for a 4 star hotel. I like those guys, they know how to travel!

On Monday, Deby and I decided to spend a day exploring San Martin. Too often we arrive at these fantastic cities and check into a nice hotel only to get up early to leave the next day. Edwardo and Francine tried to persuade us to ride with them north on some more dirt tracks, it was really tempting but for some reason I was ready for a day off. Wait… didn’t I just spend a day at a hot-springs resort? Hmmm, must be getting tired. Reluctantly we said goodbye to our new friends. 

Instead of beating ourselves up on dirt roads we explored the town, took care of exchanging some money, washed some clothes, did a little shopping and since it was a beautiful, sunny fall day we packed a lunch and rode into the mountains for a short hike and picnic. For variety, Deby decided to ride on the back of my bike. Instantly she remembered why she likes riding her own motorcycle. Here was her view. 

It was a fun ride. 

We found a nice picnic spot. 

Overlooking a beautiful valley full of fall colors. 

A nice spot for a short siesta. 

Before we rode back on a nice paved twisty road. 

We came across some local wildlife. 

Beautiful fall colors…. it’s weird having fall in April. 

The road winds around the lake before dropping into San Martin, seen in the distance. 

Back in town we went for a walk and saw these birds in a park. We’ve been seeing flocks of parrots and I finally got a picture of one. 

We saw a lot of these birds that look like small hawks but walk around on the ground. Not sure exactly what they are but they were pretty cool. 

And finally, we had been seeing a lot of these birds that seemed like a shore bird but were walking on the grass picking out worms. None of these birds seemed to spooked of me getting close with my cheezy little camera to take their picture. 

Tomorrow we leave for Neuquen where we plan on meeting, Dave, Keith and Jim to finish our journey to Buenos Aries. Michael, who is now our advance scout, sent us the following describing the city:

“Much easier riding but boring, ended up in Neuquen which is a large but not pretty city, plus dust storm going that night, crappy old hotels but they have a WalMart! “

Most people we’ve meet wince when we tell them we’re riding east to Buenos Aries. Really? They ask, where are you going to stop along the way?

The adventure continues…. at least for another 12 days.

Donn and Deby 🙂 🙂

Check out Dave’s blog about his last few days HERE.

 

Into Pucon

Friday April 5, 2013, Pucon, Chile

Finally, with the original six MotoRaiders back together, we assembled on the day before Easter to continue our journey south to Pucon, Chile. I came out to a flat rear tire on my bike… not a good way to start the day. I couldn’t find any explanation for the flat so discouraged I just pumped it up and rode off.

The route from Los Andes to our destination for the day, Curico, was on a four lane interstate highway called ruta 5. We called it I-5 since in all respects it was the same as our interstate 5 except for the additions of toll booths every 50 or so miles. The 182 miles was so boring I didn’t even take any pictures. Because of the holiday we had reservations at what ended up being a nondescript but adequate hotel near the center of Curico. We learned that the main holiday is celebrated on Saturday and all the restaurants and most businesses were closed so we found an open supermercado and bought provisions for a dinner of sandwiches in the hotel lobby.

At the hotel I checked my tire and it was slowly loosing air so I set up shop in the parking lot and replaced the tube with a new one I had been carrying for the past 14,000 miles. The tube had a small hole but I couldn’t find any protrusions through the tire. One of those mysteries of motorcycle travel.

Easter Sunday we loaded up under overcast skies. 

We were all tired of the boring interstate so we decided on a route west that took us along the Chilean coast line. Fall was in the air, the terrain, the trees turning colors and the overcast, damp weather made us all a little homesick for the Pacific Northwest. 

The rocky coastline near Constitucion reminded us of the Oregon coast. 

This rock was a bird rookery, full of birds and white from bird droppings. We stopped and climbed around for a while. 

The fog, coastline and temperatures were just like the Oregon coast. 

A short ways later the pavement ended and we rode for a dozen or so miles on nice graded gravel. I felt like I was riding in the North Cascades. Except for these good ol boys. 

Bringing a load of potatoes into town. 

We found a nice little resort type hotel on a small inlet just outside the town of Buchupureo, Chile. A town so small there is not even a Wikipedia entry for it. Here is a picture I took from the deck of our cabana. 

We were glad to wake up on Monday to some clear sky. 

Monday we rode 170 miles along the coast to the small town of Canete. We arrived early enough to have time to walk about town. It was nice enough but nothing special. Monday was Jim’s birthday so Deby located a cake and we had a nice dinner to celebrate in the hotel restaurant.

Tuesday was the day we would finally make it to Pucon, Chile. The sister city of Lake Oswego, Oregon that was the destination of Dave and Keith’s ride 50 years ago.

We rode in more fall like weather and it was easy to see how southern Chile could be compared with Oregon. 

About 3:00 we rolled into town. 

It was fantastic for Dave and Keith to return after 50 years. What was a small town with dirt roads 50 years ago was now a thriving tourist destination. I told them that they should take credit for starting the tourist boom since they were probably the first American tourists to visit this out of the way town.

Here are some then and now pictures I stole from Dave’s blog post (you can check out his post HERE).

Then: 

Now: 

Then: 

Now: 

We saw a lot of things named “Oregon”. 

We learned that Oregon Pine seedlings were imported 40 to 50 years ago and are now used for most of the wood post and beam structures. Wow, what a connection!

The city is overshadowed by the towering, active volcano Villacarra

Dave and Keith said it was cloudy the whole time they were here 50 years ago and they never saw the mountain. This was the only day we were to see it as well. That’s smoke from the top of the volcano…..

Being in the shadow of an active volcano the city has a system of lights to give the safety status of the mountain. 

Hey … why don’t we have this in Seattle for Mt Rainier or Mt St. Helens?

On Wednesday we went out for a little ride around the area. Checked out the beach. 

Hiked to some waterfalls. Which included more riding on dirt roads…. the dirtiest person had the most fun? 

Keith and Dave were having a blast! 

Reaching Pucon meant the trip was winding down for all of us. Over the past few days we’ve been busy making preparations to have the motorcycles shipped home from Buenos Aries and we all booked our airline tickets home. Michael made his reservations to leave a week before the rest of us and Wednesday was his last night with us before he set off on his own for the east. We all went out for a final dinner with all six of us. Michael had a large piece of Lasagna! 

We had planned to leave Friday but checked the weather forecast and the prediction was for heavy rain and then a week of sun. As I type this it’s dumping rain out the hotel window, another reminder of home. Tomorrow we make our way across the Andes, into Argentina towards Buenos Aries. We haven’t exactly decided on the route as there are many choices and we may actually split up for a couple of days with Deby and I going on some gravel roads and checking out a hot springs resort along the way.

Still having fun!

Donn and Deby 🙂 🙂

 

 

Into Chile – the longest crossing yet!

Wednesday April 3, 2013, Pucon Chile, Hotel Vientos del Sur

Has it been a week already? Geesh, I must be getting lazy in my blogging duties. We’ve had some great days riding and a couple of adventures along the way. I left off last Tuesday in Cafayate Argentena where we spent an extra day catching up on laundry, some bike chores and a day of rest. Wednesday morning, Deby, Michael and I saddled up our steeds to ride south. Dave, Keith and Jim were still a day or two ahead of us and we were hoping to get in a few miles to eventually catch them before Pucon. We were in the middle of Holy Week in Argentina, which is a major holiday and we heard from our advance scouts, that hotels were full in every city. With that in mind we made reservations at a casa in Chilecito, Argentina. According to my GPS we rode exactly 300 miles between hotels. I realize now that I only took a few pictures from the day. Here’s one from a beverage stop at a small town. 

We had a room booked at the Cabana la Martina which was a short distance from El Centro. It was a nice country stay in a stand alone cottage with a full kitchen and two bedrooms, perfect. Instead of making the ride into town to look for a restaurant, Michael and I went to a nearby supermarket and bought provisions for dinner and breakfast. We dined under the stars at a picnic table on the grounds. We bought fresh bread and sliced ham and cheese from the deli to make sandwiches with a side of potato chips.

For breakfast, (because Ethan wants to know), we had yogurt with granola, bananas and coffee. A perfect way to launch the day. Interesting thing, yogurt comes in a plastic bag here and is really thin. Perfect to be used on cereal. 

Thursday we continued south towards our destination of San Juan. Again, we went online to try to make reservations and everything was full. We finally booked what I thought was two rooms at the San Juan Hostel. Wrong.

The ride towards San Juan started out great, winding through some red mountains. 

It wasn’t long before the pavement ended. 

I don’t know why, but it was fun riding on red dirt. 

As usual, the road was cut into the side of the steep mountain. 

I’m glad it wasn’t raining because it would have been slick. 

Somehow after this we lost Michael. When it’s the three of us we don’t always ride within sight of each other and he had the information on the hostel reservations so we weren’t worried until we arrived in San Juan and there was no sign of him. While we were waiting I went to check into the hostel…. hmmm, not two rooms as I thought but two upper bunks in a small room with about eight bunk beds. That wasn’t going to work.

The person running the hostel spoke decent English and was nice enough to make a few phone calls. Even though all the hotels were full he found us a private room in a hostel down the street. It had a shared bathroom but Deby and I could have our own room for $35.00 USD. We jumped at that and left a message that if another biker showed up to send him down the street.

We got unpacked and the first thing I did was fire up my laptop to check Michael’s SPOT. Sure enough he had just set off a “check in” from the main square of San Juan. I grabbed my helmet to go find him and as I walked out saw Michael standing next to my motorcycle. That was easy!

The next day was Good Friday. We had a message from Jim, Dave and Keith that they planned to be in Vina del Mar just on the outside of Santiago, Chile. Concerned about finding a hotel on Good Friday I went online and booked rooms for the three of us in Valparaiso which is close to Vina del Mar. We checked the miles and it was about 350 miles and included a border crossing, yikes! The previous crossing into Chile from Peru was easy and only took about a half hour so we hoped that would be the case again and headed south to the Paso Los Libertadores crossing between Mendoza, Argentina and Santiago, Chile. You can click on the link to read about it.

We got an early start and made some really good time including a fast bypass around Mendoza where we turned west into the mountains. Beautiful weather and great stretches of road greeted our day. 

By 1:30 in the afternoon we had gone almost 200 miles and came to a small mountain resort town of Uspallata, only about 50 miles from the border, we were feeling pretty good about completing the last 100 miles into Santiago and catching up with the rest of the group. Just as we were leaving town I saw three big motorcycles coming towards us, hey, that looks like Dave! Then Jim and Keith! What were they doing going the wrong way? We stopped and had a small reunion on the side of the road, we hadn’t seen them for a few weeks ever since we split so we could hike Machu Picchu in Peru. They had turned around because a gas stop on their GPS didn’t exist and they needed to return to Uspallata to get gas. Glad to be back together we agreed to wait at the border for them.

The time stamps on my GPS and camera documented the rest. It wasn’t long after Uspallata that traffic came to a halt, it was 2:00 PM. As far as we could see down the mountain road cars were stopped. Thinking it was a construction delay (part of it was) we did what is common for motorcycles to do in Central and South America, we rode past all the parked cars. I’m not sure but I think we rode for at least 2 miles and passed hundreds of parked cars. I was starting to feel a little guilty. Eventually we came to the entrance to a long tunnel between countries. That must be it. We “filtered” to the front of the line where  the cars were stopped at a toll booth. No cars were passing through. I somehow managed to ask and determined that there was no toll for motorcycles and we would just have to wait for the tunnel to open in one hour. I wasn’t sure why it was closed but went back to the bikes to report to Deby and Michael. When I got there Jim, Keith and Dave were in line with us. They too had passed the line of cars and parked near the front with us. The hour went quickly as we got caught up on three weeks of riding stories. Eventually the tunnel opened and we went through. On the far side as we exited the tunnel traffic was stopped again. What? I looked ahead and as far as I could see down the twisty mountain road cars were stopped. They were only letting so many cars through the tunnel at a time so cars wouldn’t be stuck idling in the tunnel. We came to a snow shed that was probably a half mile long and was full of stopped cars. Somehow after we passed cars on the shoulder and rode to the entrance an official person moved a cone and told us to ride on a gravel road along the side of the tunnel. Wow! We must have passed another hundred or so cars!

Here you can see the snow shed way in the background, it was full of cars. 

This next picture was taken at 4:48PM. 

After the shed we were within sight of the border crossing but as we got closer there were police patrols watching for people cutting into line. I fell back and let Keith take the lead. When the police stopped him I pulled in behind a car to watch the outcome. Sure enough, Keith and Jim were being turned around. Surely they wouldn’t be sent back the many miles through the tunnel? The came back to me and tucked in with us thanks to an understanding driver behind us. We resigned ourselves to sitting out the final mile in line as the clock ticked towards sunset.

By 5:15PM we were a little closer. 

Since we had plenty of time to discuss the situation with the travelers around us we learned that on the Argentina side there was road construction and they only let traffic go West from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM and East during the nighttime hours. Holy cow! It was nearly 6:00 PM and we were barely moving towards the border.

This picture was taken at 6:44 PM, we were almost cleared to enter Chile. 

The border crossing is at 10,400 feet, it was getting dark, cold and we had prepaid hotel rooms in a city 150 miles away. Just before 7:00 we were set free by Auduana and Michael, Deby and I raced down the mountain to try to get through Santiago into Valparaiso, in the dark before we dropped from exhaustion. Dave Keith and Jim didn’t actually make reservations anywhere so they were going to ride and hope they found a place to stay in the peak of of the holiday week.

We made it about 40 miles when we came to the town of Los Andes and saw a nice looking hotel on the right. We rode past it and then I stopped. After a brief pow wow we decided to turn around and see if by chance they had any rooms. I was in the lobby negotiating our fate when our three amigos pulled into the parking lot. Great minds think alike.

Yes, they had rooms, we were in. We settled into our rooms and then met in the hotel restaurant, together again finally, and spent what was left of the evening swapping tales and catching up.

I’m sure most of the cars we passed never made it across the pass that evening, we barely did. Perhaps that is why the hotel had rooms? We’ll never know, but I was glad to eat the non-refundable charge for the Valparaiso hotel.

Next…. the final stretch into Pucon, the destination city for Keith and Dave’s trip 50 years ago.

 

Peru to Chile into Argentina

Tuesday March 26, 2013, Cafayate, Argentina.

Whew, need to cover some ground here so hold on…..

Wednesday March 20th, 237 miles from Arequipa to Tacna in order to setup for a Thursday border crossing into Chile. We rode through some of the most amazing desert topography I’ve been in. 

Long straight sections. 

Into beautifully colored hills. My wimpy camera didn’t come close to capturing the feel of this place. At times I felt like we were riding on Mars. 

Thursday the 21st, we rode the short distance to the Chile border and actually had a pretty easy crossing. The country may have changed but the topology was very similar. The main difference was that we were within site of the ocean most of the time. 

With long stretches between gas stops we had to carefully manage our fuel. Michael ran into a problem because the attendant didn’t fill his tank completely at one of the stops. Good thing we carry a couple of extra gallons. 

Again, more amazing scenery. Words or pictures really can’t capture it, well, at least mine. I would highly recommend this route. 

After 235 miles for the day, we found a place in the unique city of Iquique, Chile. I added it to my list of large resort cities I’ve never heard of. Interesting place, huge high rises and expensive hotel rates to go with them.

Friday the 22nd marked the 33rd wedding anniversary for me and Deby. We rode 144 miles from Iquique to Tocopilla Chile where we happened on a pretty nice hotel, the hotel Bahai. More riding along the Chilean coast which was bigger than life.

We stopped to take a picture of this small fishing village, the white stuff is salt.

Long lengths of road and mountains. 

We celebrated with some happy anniversary wine thanks to Michael. 

Saturday the 23rd we turned east into the mountains in preparation for a Sunday border crossing into Argentina. The route for the day took us from Tocopilla 172 miles, to the tourist town of San Pedro.  A large section of the trip followed a power line corridor into the mountains. 

Then more long straight sections. 

Before we came into the foothills of the Andes. 

For some reason we had advance warning that the hotels in San Pedro might be full so we made online reservations at the Casa Don Estaban Rural. The problem was that the road to the hotel was closed due to construction. In our effort to find a detour we ended up on a loose gravel road in someones back yard. While negotiating a U-turn, Deby’s front wheel slipped out and the bike fell on Deby’s ankle. Just then a person from the hotel appeared, I think he heard the commotion and knowing some motorcycle riders were looking for his hotel came over to help. We were within eyesight of the hotel but it was a long drive around several blocks to get to it. He drove around with his car lead us. We lifted the bike off Deby but it looked like she had a sprained ankle so she rode in car and we took turns shuttling the bikes to the hotel.

Back at the hotel we immediately applied the first aide we learned in our class, RICE, Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Oh, and beer. 

We expected the worst, perhaps her ankle would swell, turn black and blue and she wouldn’t be able to ride for a few days. Later in the evening the proprietress came over. She knew no English and we only had a couple of words of Spanish but she managed to convey she was a “medico” and specialized in natural medicine. With permission she treated Deby’s leg. 

She made a concoction of this plant. 

Soaked a cloth in the fluid and wrapped Deby’s leg with it. She told us to then wrap it with an Ace bandage and leave it on all night.

Sunday the 24th we woke up wondering if we would be able to ride. To our amazement and the credit of natural medicine Deby’s ankle looked great with only a little swelling. On  with the boots and off we went headed for the Argentina border.

The Argentinian border crossing was one of the easiest we had for the whole trip. We had been clued in by our riding partners, who were a few days ahead of us that we needed to print an online form with a barcode to show at the remote border. We also found out that we needed to check out of Chile 100 miles from the border at a small office in San Pedro. We lucked out and had all our paperwork correct and managed to get across the border in record time, less than about 45 minutes.

More desert riding. 

Michael rounding a corner. 

We came to a Salar and met 6 other adventure riders. We had a great time hanging out and taking pictures. They were from Buenos Aries and were using their vacation to ride the area. We knew we were coming into a great riding area by the huge increase in motorcycles we started coming across. 

We decided to ride together down one of the best canyons I’ve been in. 

About 4:30 we all stopped in the town of Purmamarca. We didn’t realize it was one of the top tourist stops in Argentina, once we stopped and saw how beautiful the town was with the colorful mountains surrounding it we decided to spend the night. 

I didn’t take this picture but you can see the town with the hills behind it. Total miles for the day was 259 fantastic miles.

Monday the 25th we rode south towards Salta and on to our final destination, the town of Cafeyate. A tourist destination on the famed ruta 40 in the heart of the Argentina wine region.

Along the way we saw signs for a hot springs so we took a short detour for a soak. When we parked the bikes we had the first signs of fall. 

South on highway 9 was some of the most twisty road we’ve been on this whole trip. 

After Salta we came across this stop with close to 10 adventure motorcycles parked. We had to stop for a break. It was a group of riders from Uruguay and Buenos Aries who were up riding for a week. During our stop at least a dozen other motorcycles rode by. We knew we were in one of the best riding area in Argentina. 

After lunch we continued south into the Quebrada (Canyon) de Cafayate.  Lonely Planet describes it as a “Martian-like” landscape. We didn’t expect to be totally awed by this fantastic place. It was like riding through the Grand Canyon. My pictures just don’t do it justice. 

Some more pictures are HERE.

We rolled into Cafayate and were lucky to find a room in the mostly full touristy town. This morning we woke up and decided we needed a day for recharging batteries, doing laundry, and wine tasting so it was a day off from riding.

Tomorrow we ride south on the famous ruta 40 and hope to catch up with our amigos who are only a couple of hundred miles ahead.

To see more of my Peru Pictures click HERE.

To see more Chile pictures click HERE.

Argentina Pictures are HERE.

So far Argentina has been the most amazing, I might say it’s my favorite so far but that may be because we’ve just had three days of the most incredible riding ever.

Thanks for following, we love the comments and e-mails!

Donn and Deby 🙂 🙂

 

 

Deby’s Birthday Ride

Saturday March 23, 2013, Tocopilla, Chile, Hotel Bahia

Tuesday was Deby’s birthday and the plan for the day was to ride Colca Canyon to check out the deepest canyon in the world and take a chance on seeing the soaring condors. We ended up in Chivay, Peru the night before after a long ride from Puno. We  rode into Chivay well after dark with all three bikes almost out of gas even after we exhausted our extra gas we carry. The last 10 miles were on a twisty mountain road in the dark. I did manage a couple of pictures.

We stopped here to add the extra fuel because we were almost out, the weather was threatening, we were heading into the mountains and it was getting dark. 

We climbed to well over 15,000 feet as the sun was setting behind the clouds. The color in the sky was fantastic. 

Here is my GPS, “driving on road”, notice the fuel light is on? That means less than one gallon left. It’s dark, it’s cold, we are almost out of gas, we are above 15,000 feet and soon it starts to hail. 

From about 10 miles out we came around a bend and saw the city lights below us. We dropped in the dark down the twisty road into town to find a hotel for the night.

The next day, Deby’s birthday started with morning (instant) coffee served in bed.

Before long we were on the gravel road riding towards the canyon, the weather was perfect, clear skies and cool temperatures at our 12,000 foot elevation.

Who me? Getting older?

Living on the edge. 

Looking for condors, we were so high that they soar below our level. 

A truly impressively deep canyon. 

It wasn’t long before we got a glimpse of one of the giant birds. Evidently the best time to view the condors is at sunrise when they drop from the cliffs in search of prey. We considered an early ride for the best viewing but Deby was having nothing to do with getting up at 4:00 AM on her birthday. I wasn’t about to argue. 

There were some local women selling snacks to the tourists, since the prime viewing time was over we were about the only ones there so they were standing around looking pretty bored. They let me take a picture since we bought some over priced candy and nuts. 

Birthday girl.

Local donkeys came out to pose for us. 

According to the map we could have continued through the canyon to the south but it was unclear if it was really a road or a cow path. We decided to turn around and re-ride the excellent gravel road back to Chivay and then back up the twisty road we took at night to see what it looked like during the day.

Here is a picture of that road looking back towards Chivay during the day. 

You can see Chivay in the distance. 

South of Chivay the road climbs and climbs until we hit the summit at 15,800 feet. A new altitude record for me on a motorcycle. Probably the highest I’ve ever been anytime other than an airplane. I was glad that we had been over 10,000 feet everyday for the past week and actually felt pretty good in the thin air, just slightly euphoric.

At the summit there were rocks everywhere. It is evidently a tradition that visitors leave behind a little rock stack monument. Deby was thrilled, rocks on her birthday. 

Michael and I prepared a special birthday lunch for Deby, we celebrated at the summit with leftover pizza, M&M’s and beer. 

Beer at 15,800 feet? Hmmmm, it must have been the altitude that made us think that was a good idea but it actually worked out OK and added to the birthday, altitude record experience. 

We were all pretty happy.

Deby was pretty happy. 

The summit was pretty desolate. 

Until you turn around and see some hardy locals trying to sell a few things to the tourists. I’m pretty sure they are there for the occasional tourist buses that stop on their way to the canyon. 

Rocks everywhere, a great birthday for Deby. 

Eventually we had to leave to make our way to Arequipa. The elevation stayed high but the road straightened in the high Altiplano of Peru. 

The views were stunning. 

After a few hours of incredible riding we ended up in Arequipa. We had the name of a hotel we found in a tour book so per our usual procedure, we rode to el centro and asked directions. Michael has this new thing about always asking the cute traffic cops. In Peru they are all women with guns in white holsters. 

Deby and I waited while they went out of their way to help Michael with directions. 

The downtown square in Arequipa is fantastic, made of the local white volcanic stone, it’s known as the White City. I could see coming back and spending some time here. 

We eventually found the hotel and guess what…. it was full. Really? Fortunately, they had a recommendation of a place not far away. The hotel called ahead and verified they had room and gave us directions. That is how we ended up here. 

The La Casa de Margott hostel. For parking we drove up the curb, into the lobby and parked in a hallway. 

We’ve stayed at enough hotels, hostels, hostelerias and other places to know that we never know what to expect when we open the door to our room. This place was totally unexpected. Who would have thought that on Deby’s birthday, the woman who loves everything that has to do with stones and rocks that our room would be completely made of brick and block.

Wow.

After checking in we went for a walk about town, had dinner at a nice restaurant and called it a day. 

Deby said it was one of her best birthdays ever. I couldn’t think of one that even came close to this one. In one day we saw the deepest canyon in the world, rode to the highest road we’ve ever been on and slept in a stone hotel room in Peru. Yes, unforgettable indeed.

Donn and Deby 🙂 🙂

Machu Picchu – The Final Ascent

Wednesday March 20, 2013, Arequipa, Peru. La Casa de Margott Hostal

Yesterday was Deby’s birthday so instead of blogging we had fun strolling around the square in Arequipa and a nice dinner. I took this picture outside the restaurant, we didn’t try this featured dish. 

Back to Machu Picchu…..

Here is the day 4 elevation plot. 

The day started with a steep climb called the “Gringo Killer”.

At the top of the “killer” is the famous Sun Gate which his high above Machu Picchu, It is at this point where all the famous pictures of the site come from.

The sun gate. 

Here is what it is supposed to look like. 

All we saw was fog so after a brief rest we continued to the site walking in the fog.

After almost 4 days of hiking, we arrived. I thought we earned our visit to this historic site. We were greeted by crowds of people who rode the bus and probably slept in a nice bed the night before. I’m sure none of them stunk as bad as we did. 

Ahhh, finally the site came into view. 

A city made of stone! Deby was in heaven.

Deby and Dee Dee, Rock Stars!

An amazing place. 

Here is a picture of what they call the sun dial. There is some controversy about it’s real purpose but it is a rock that sticks up near the highest point of the site. A lot of people believe this is the vortex for all the mystical energy that envelops Machu Picchu. I didn’t feel any energy but my camera battery was almost dead after four days so I held it near the rock and it seemed to charge enough for me to take a few more pictures.

I have many more pictures HERE.

Note: Today we will cross the border into Chile. I’ve been having some technical difficulties with the blog so it’s slowing me down with posts. I think I’m getting it worked out so hopefully I can get caught up. We had the best day riding on Deby’s birthday and it will make a fun post.

Thanks for following our adventure,

Donn and Deby 🙂 🙂

Machu Picchu Part 2

Sunday March 12, 2013, Puno, Peru. Hotel Hacienda Plaza de Armas

Today we were back on the bikes after a week off. It felt good to be on the road again, we rode south from Cusco to Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. Puno is at 12,500 feet msl, good thing I’m getting a little used to the elevation. I don’t feel sick at all but just a wee bit woosie so if this blog entry gets a little off track you know why.

The following is from Wikipedia, you can read more HERE.

“It is often called the highest navigable lake in the world, with a surface elevation of 3,812 m (12,507 ft).[4][5] Although this refers to navigation by large boats, it’s generally considered to mean commercial craft. At least two dozen bodies of water around the world are at higher elevations, but all are much smaller and shallower.”

Now, back to day two on the Inca trail.

Below is the elevation plot for day two. Climbed roughly 4,000 feet in about 4 miles to the peak of almost 14,000 feet, which is called Dead Women’s Pass.

The locals watched us as we cheerfully started our day. 

No worries, the bridge looks safe. 

Up we go, stopping only to let the porters pass. We were glad every time the came along. 

I only look tired. 

We got our first glimpse of the formidable Dead Woman’s Pass. 

We were heading right for the saddle of the pass. Here’s a butt shot…. not sure why.

Climbing and climbing…..

Getting closer.

Eventually we make it! Here is the group shot to prove it. Our guide Richard is in the center.

Looking back…

Little did we know that we were crossing from the dry side of the mountain into the rainy side. Time for the rain gear!

And the climb down..

Soon the rain ended and we continued on.When we arrived at our lunch stop hot spaghetti was waiting for us. 

Back on the trail it wasn’t long before we were at our campsite for the night.

The clouds and views from our campsite were magical.

We ate another meal in the mess tent and settled into our tents for another great nights sleep.

————————————————————————————

Day Three

The elevation plot for the day is below, a climb right at the beginning and then mild terrain.

First we go up….

Then down…

Over a few bridges. 

The fog came and went all day. 

At times the trail went into some short tunnels formed by fallen rock. 

The trail leading into the fog. 

Inca ruins along the way. 

Local fauna along the trail. 

As we descended, the terrain became more jungle like.  

We arrived at our last camp before reaching Machu Picchu, dinner was excellent as usual. 

Since the porters would be leaving us in the morning we got the group together for a group shot. It took six people to guide the four of us on the trek. These guys were great. 

I’ll save the final visit to Machu Picchu for the next post. Stay tuned.

Donn and Deby 🙂 🙂