New Clothes, New Mount, New Language

Days 196-199

It came to our attention recently that when we get to Rio for carnival we will want to have some clothes that aren't completely travel-weary. This is how the shopping spree in Buenos Aires started. Having found way more nice, cheap, original clothes than we could ever justify buying, and Emily having bought most of them anyway, we needed a new bag to put them in. Unfortunately that left room for a splurge at the antiques and artisan markets. We then picked up the motorbikes from their service along with a huge bill and so once we'd booked the rather pricey ferry to Colonia in Uruguay we were really done – Buenos Aires has to have been the most expensive city stop for us so far.

Buenos Aires isn't just one big shopping centre though, it's also the birthplace of Tango (the dance, not the drink) and as well as there being lots of Tango shows, mainly for tourists, there are lots of “melongas” (music and dance nights) for the locals. After being inspired by a show one night, the next day we had some bad luck trying to get to a class and melonga in a dancehall, but happened across a small open air melonga in a plaza and really wished we knew how to join in!

Days 200-202

Our entry into Uruguay was rather relaxed - they waved us straight through off the one-hour ferry from BA to beautiful colonial Colonia, so we had to go back to hunt down the customs office... which turned out to be the back of the custom guy's car. It was air-conditioned though so we weren't complaining!

From the coast we rode inland into the heart of Uruguay – cowboy country. Driving in southern South America we'd passed loads of estancias: ranches that cover much of the land, many of which have adopted a bit of ecotourism alongside the farming. Since we were soon to be leaving them behind as we got into the more populous areas of Brazil we figured we really should pay one a visit. All we wanted was a horse ride but we decided to go all the way and so stayed at San Pedro de Timote, a beautiful old place with numerous buildings (including its own stand-alone chapel), lovely rolling grounds, and lots of communal areas for relaxing and playing games, including no less than three swimming pools. Obviously we made full use of the facilities and after a day of horse riding, visitng a nearby cheese factory, tennis, table tennis, table football and swimming we were pretty sore (we haven't done much except sit on the bikes recently!) but managed to console ourselves with the fantastic buffet and a nice bottle of red.

Days 203-204

From the estancia we rode to the Brazilian border feeling quite excited about reaching the last country on our trip. We did all the border work in Uruguay no problem and rode into Brazil expecting to see some signs of border control but there were none. We managed to find the police station where immigration is done but even they didn't seem to know where customs was. After a lot of complicated asking around we eventually tracked it down and our suspicions that not many motorbikes come through this way were confirmed when both the receptionist and the security guard asked to have their photos taken with us! We were then taken to a nice comfy office to do the paperwork with a man who spoke neither Spanish nor English, just Portuguese. We do not speak Portuguese, but we were all pretty good at Pictionary and this helped the process immensely. While the officer was finishing off the paperwork we decided to make a start on working out this new language. And quickly gave up. It looks like Spanish so we can understand a lot of the written word but it sounds like dutch (the double variety) and even having read the little language guide in our guidebook we have no idea how to pronounce it. Apparently “restaurante” is pronounced hess-to-roch. Enough said.

A lack of ability to communicate continued to be the main theme of our first few days in Brazil. Everything from filling up with petrol to getting directions to ordering food is proving to be quite a challenge, but fortunately the Brazilians are a nice enough bunch. And being on two big motorbikes and answering “Alaska” to the second question everybody asks (“England” is the answer to the first) is continuing our celebrity status, so people do like to get involved. Generally that's a good thing, and we don't mind the odd photo being taken of us by petrol attendants etc, but it was a bit much when someone took a video of us with his mobile phone whilst overtaking us on the motorway!

A New Direction

Days 185 – 187

Our last act before leaving Ushuaia was to throw a stone that we collected from the Arctic Ocean back in to the sea. Actually we think Ric may have missed the sea, but reckon it'll get washed in at high tide! Then began the long journey north on Ruta 3 – quite possibly the most boring road. In the world.

As well as being very boring, we knew Ruta 3 would also be fast, and that we'd be covering a lot of miles in a short time – a task that Emily's rear tyre was certainly not up to. We'd looked for a new one before we got to Ushuaia in the Chilean city of Punta Arenas and, after trekking round about ten shops, each one recommending the next, had come across a mechanic that we'd heard of on our travels who knew how to get hold of tyres for big bikes (though he doesn't keep any in stock). He told us that we could get one in Rio Gallegos on our way back up through Argentina, and so, after riding through Chile for the fifth and final time to get out of Tierra del Fuego we arrived in the city with high hopes. We found the motorbike shop and indeed they even had a selection of tyres for us to choose from. As it was so well stocked we also asked about a new rear sprocket. We had sprockets waiting for us in Buenes Aires which Jacquie kindly brought back from England for us, but the old one was really on its last legs. We guessed they wouldn't have the right one for Emily's bike as not even BMW has that one, but thought it was worth a try. They didn't, and we were ready to drop the matter, but then they took a look at the bike and realised the gravity of the situation. They were very concerned that the sprocket wouldn't make it to BA and didn't want to let us continue as we were, so they started searching their sprocket pile all over again, this time to find something that could be machined to fit. It was a tricky decision – the sprocket had done 24,000 miles and had only 2,000 miles to go, but we decided that the risk of having an accident and being stranded in the middle of nowhere was too high, so when they found something that would work we went for it. The new sprocket has a couple more teeth which means Emily's bike has 5% better acceleration – woohoo! – but uses a bit more fuel (though still not as much as Ric's bike...).

Days 188 – 192

To get an idea of Ruta 3, picture a long straight road over flat terrain. Imagine just shrubs and grasses on either side, as far as you can see, without a tree, river, lake, hill or any other landmark in sight. Now add a 40-60mph constant crosswind. Apart from a few more guanacos and nandus there is really nothing to break the tedium on the road as you're motoring along at a raked angle to fend off the wind. So to give ourselves a few breaks we made some diversions off the highway, figuring the extra few hundred miles was worth it.

We took a boat trip from Puerto Deseado to nearby “Penguin Island” – the only place outside the Falkland Islands (or Islas Malvinas to all Argentinians; a topic of conversation we tried to avoid) where you can see the very funky Rockhopper penguins, along with the usual Magellanic penguins, sea lions, elephant seals (enormous blubbery things weighing up to 5 tons!) and lots of sea birds that can be seen all along the Patagonian coastline. Ric also spotted some Commerson's dolphins (black and white ones) from the boat (Emily just saw a splash) and we were both lucky enough to spot a whale despite it being totally out of season for them.

The next side trip was to see a petrified forest. We'd passed signs to a few of these along the way but this was the first we actually managed to visit. It was a bit unusual in that it wasn't a standing forest but a whole load of washed up tree trunks: the rivers that washed them up were long gone, and the wood had since been petrified. Of course we didn't even consider putting any petrified wood chips in our pockets, so we weren't at all concerned when the park ranger made us empty them out at the end. (!)

The final detour was to Peninsular Valdez to see a bit more wildlife. Again we were lucky enough to see a rare sight for the time of year – Orcas! They swam by just past the shore full of sea lions that we were watching from. Much to Ric's disappointment, though, we didn't see any beach themselves to try to catch the sea lion pups.

Days 193-195

The push north continued to Buenos Aires with a couple of beach stops, one to view masses of parrots, the other to view masses (and we mean masses) of people in Argentina's favourite beach destination Mar del Plata. Think Brighton on the hottest day of the year in England, then triple it and you're still not even starting to get close.

Our journey up from Ushuaia has taken us from cold and rainy to hot and sunny – a change we like. We've also suddenly got lots of time for the rest of our trip up to Rio, since we haven't needed too much of our 'emergency time' thus far, so we're looking forward to a relaxed next few weeks!

The End Of The World, As We Know It

Days 179-181

After a few days on Ruta 40 the gravel finally gave way to tarmac, and we celebrated with a walk around the spectacular Fitz Roy range. Mount Fitz Roy itself is covered in clouds so much of the time that it was thought to be a volcano giving off smoke (the nearest town is named “Smoking Mountain” in the local language) so we were really lucky to have a bright sunny day affording us fantastic views of the mountains and glaciers.

From Fitz Roy we headed to nearby El Calafate, the base for the mighty Perito Moreno Glacier. This glacier is enormous (the fourth largest body of fresh water in the world, apparently) and great fun to watch - the face of the glacier is changing all the time as bits crack off and land with a reverberating crash into the lake beneath. As far as glaciers go it's really fast-moving at 2m per day, and you can get really close from the viewing platforms on land and by boat on the lake.

Since we hit Ruta 40 we've been meeting a lot more bikers and El Calafate was no exception – four other long-distance biking parties were at our campsite (including two Triumphs both with sidecars, travelling separately) and we had a good time sharing stories and tips for the road. The increased volume of motorcycle adventurers does make our trip feel a bit normal at times, though!

Days 182-183

Break over, we hit the road again and crossed back into Chile, with soaring condors offering a new distraction from the familiar side winds. Controversially we decided against going to the acclaimed Torres Del Paine national park due to time shortage, the price tag, and Ric's newly dodgy knee (acquired on the Fitz Roy trek – he's getting old, you know). One for next time, perhaps; it looked beautiful from a distance.

Instead we travelled straight to the ferry terminus of Punto Arenas in order to cross the Straights of Magallen and get onto Tierra del Fuego the following day. On the ferry we met yet more bikers, a group of Italians who we'd heard about from our German friends, but we left them for dust when we left the ferry – literally: a very dusty road led us back to Argentina and to the tarmac of Ruta 3 which we road all the way to Ushuaia. Yes, that's Ushuaia – the southernmost city in the world!

Day 184

The actual end of the road is a bit beyond Ushuaia in Tierra Del Fuego national park, so on day 184, six months to the day since we landed in Alaska, we hopped on the bikes and did the short journey to the end of the world, “Fin Del Mundo” as it's called here.

We waited for a group of tourists to leave before getting our bikes in front of the official sign, at which point of course another big group of tourists arrived. They were very obliging and took our photo for us, and then, obviously realising how cool we looked, a few people asked if they could pose with our bikes. Naturally we agreed and a few people had a go, but while we were being distracted by other people asking us about the trip a rather vertically challenged lady with, presumably, very little knowledge of gravity clambered onto Ric's bike and sat straight up on it. With no hope of touching the ground on either side to hold the bike steady it was only a moment before the bike fell off the side stand and onto the ground. The fun was over for the tourists – we had the bikes out of there quick smart! (The lady and the bike were fine, just a bit of dirt on the former, and a slightly more misshapen pannier on the latter.)

So now we've made it all the way from Alaska to Ushuaia it should be an easy hop, skip and a jump to get back up to Rio de Janeiro for carnival in around five weeks time. Emily's reinforced pannier rack is still going strong with only a tiny bit more dirt road to go, but we do need a new tyre reasonably urgently now, the Garmin GPS has suddenly become very temperamental, and we can't pick up Emily's new sprockets until Buenos Aires. Watch this space!

New Year, New Challenges

Days 171-172

We were sad to say goodbye to Jill as she drove off in her transfer to the airport but knew we had to gear up for the next part of our trip – getting to the bottom of South America! We rode back into Argentina (crossing between Chile and Argentina will be an ongoing theme all the way down) and down “seven lakes road” - a beautiful stretch featuring at least seven lakes which were only marred by a little bit of rain. We continued south to the winter ski resort of Bariloche where we tried to stop for the day but found the first few hostels full and were a little put off by rain, so just bought the obligatory chocolate from the one of a multitude of chocolatiers and carried on to the smaller and more chilled out town of El Bolson. One good reason for stopping there was the market the following day where only handmade goods are allowed. The list of things that Emily would have bought had Ric allowed them on the bike (this list started with a coffee table in Valparaiso) grew dramatically but we escaped with only a new ring and a few yummy empanadas to weigh us down.


Days 173-175

From the Argentinian Lake District we breached the official border to Patagonia and crossed back into Chile, so that we could ride the Carretera Austral – the road that Pinochet carved out to connect Southern Chile, famed for it's beauty (and it's rough surface as it remains mostly unpaved). And it was indeed beautiful: lush green woodland and pastureland backed by dramatic snowy mountains and dotted throughout with tranquil lakes and rushing rivers. It was most beautiful, though, when the clouds weren't obscuring the view, which unfortunately was less often than we'd hoped. Emily recalled that she learned in geography lessons at school that Chile has a similar climate to England. Arriving to Chile in the middle of the desert we were slightly dubious of this assertion, but after experiencing mid-summer in the lake district and further south we understand better – we had rain most days and temperatures ranging from 10 to 15 C, so it really does feel like home!

While riding on the Carretera Austral on the second day we saw some motorbikes pulled over at the roadside taking some photos and decided to stop for a quick chat. As we pulled up we realised it was none other than the German couple Christoph and Silke who we met in Peru! We had kept in touch with them but had thought they would be ahead of us on this stretch. We rode with them this day and the next, New Year's Eve, when we found a beautiful and inexpensive cabana on the lakeshore of Lago General Carrera to spend the evening. A trip to the “supermarket” in the very small town revealed we should have planned a bit ahead, but we cobbled together a very nice meal, improved by good pisco sours, nice wine, and cheapy bubbly to bring in the New Year!

Days 176-178

On New Year's Day morning we all went on a boat trip out on the lake to look at some marble caves, and then after a lengthy breakfast (we cooked pancakes as there was no bread in town!) we set off, parting ways 100km down the road. We skirted round the lake in lovely weather and crossed back into Argentina.

Once over the border we rejoined Ruta 40, another famed road, about half paved, with vast distances of empty Patagonian wilderness, lots of gravel, and hellish winds, and of which our guidebook says “Just be thankful you didn't set out on a bike or motorcycle.” Hmm. The riding conditions really aren't great: you're riding in a thin tyre track which has gravel piled up on each side – the wind blows and blows, trying to push you into the gravel bank on one side and then the one on the other. The wind also reduces the range of both bikes and the gas stations are pretty spread out. Added to this there's always the risk that you'll arrive at a fuel stop to find no fuel... as we did in middle-of-nowhere gas stop Bajo Caracoles. “The tanker didn't come” explained the attendant, “We think it might come tomorrow night”. Thankfully, however, some Germans with a big spare fuel tank who were camping next to us helped us out, otherwise we might still be there waiting.

We spread the love the following day when we found some guys with KTMs on the side of the road. One of them had a broken chain and they didn't have all the tools they needed to fix it, so Ric's “ridiculously oversized” (according to Emily) tool bag saved the day.

The road wasn't all just wind and gravel, though. As well as stopping at some interesting 9,000 year old cave art, we also saw some funky wildlife: guanacos (llama-like deer), nandus (emu-like birds) and even a small armadillo all crossed the road in front of us.