Still in BA. Argentina ...

Well hagin out at a workshop /hostal /campground ... Dakar Motors is really a workshop and anywhere you can find a place to sleep in ok, with the owner . Thier are about 8 others staying here right now a french couple , heading to Aussie , A german heading to South Africa, A swiss guy going to NZ and a few Americans heading north to brasil then upwards home . Two to the americans bikes are down , one has a oil leak which has been very hard to fix on a bmw and ahas already spent 2000 on it to fix it, the other claims someone took off his oil filler cap and it leaked all the oil out , on a KLR . So both are waing to get their bikes repaired . The others are waiting for shipping quotes and or flights for bikes and themselves . 4 of them are doing round the world trips cool.... hmmmm....So I applied for an entry Visa to Brasil... and the told me to come back after 12 noon in 2 days, not before ... so I came back at 2:30pm thinking that will give them some leeway , well it turns out you have to be here between 12-1pm . Otherwise you have to come back the next day haha.. why did they not tell me this!!! So now I guess I have time in the city to continue my blog .. changed tires again went to more of a street tire 50/50 heading into Brasil...you get about 5-6ooo km from a set of tires this trip is my 3rd set ! Changed oil and ready to go again... am wound up, ready to get out of here and head north , I planned on stopping in Florinopolis for some Kitesurfing lessons then up to see the boys , Greg , Lisa, Chris , Frank , Tracy and Frank´s son now Chris in Vitoria ... see yah soon , lets hope for nice weather !!

Wow , the days ride by.....

After a day in San Martin, I headed south to Barriloche , it was so nice ,incredible waters , many lakes and so clear , simular to New Zealand much much larger .Camping and fishing for the next week , staying for free on the river banks . Lots of camping in this area and packpackers .. headed south of Barrailoche about 150km then decided to head Northward to Brasil , Will have to leave far south of Argentina for next year, as their is much more to see and waters to fish . Now i"m in Buenos Aries , applying for a visa into Brasil. Staying at Dakar Motors with a bunch of other Motor bike travellers in a small place. The trip over took 3 days on and off road but so hot and windy... 43c on the bike . I had to stop every 1.5 hrs to water myself off , which was sticking a hose in my suitand letting it go , or laying in a river , people thought i was crazy .... but it saved me big time !! I met a fellow rider whom I had been emailing at a gas stop in the middle of nowhere ... we had been talking for about 2 months and last i heard from him was before newyears.. and we just hapened to be at the same place at the same time ... kinda strange how that works out , he is headed south , I am headed north ..... small world, we exchanged stories and went on our own ways! cheers from B.A.

Back in Argentina !

I decided to head back to Argentina instead of heading to Puerto Monte, left Pucon after a nice night drinking wine with a bunch of Mountain guides , good music and lots of wine at the hostel !
Headed east around the back to the Volcano and was rewarded with some nice riding on 4x4 tracks . Camped beside a lake and watched the sunset and had a fire . A good way to enjoy life .... today was rain all day as I headed for a ferry , which crosses a lake called ? Towards San Martin , in Argentina ... this place is simular to Pucon , like a mini Banff and Jasper nice but expensive and lots of Tourists ... oh well that s me included . cheers

Wipe out ! No skin off my Ass !!

Well , after a great couple of days getting my bike up to speed again ...new brakes , oil change, chain oiled air cleaner cleaned ,we went and watched part of the Dakar rally it was good ! I want to do it now !!!
I left nick´s house and headed south on the Toll hwy , about 1 hr into the ride it was getting windy from the sea breeze and I was getting buffeted around , I was going down the hill behind a rock bluff and I was like holy shit these are crazy winds here ..... ahhhhh my front tire had blown out, I got big time front wobble, thought i´d got it under control a few times trying to slow down and pull over .... then I was on my ass sliding down the highway watching my bike hit the guard rail and slide across the highway into the ditch. ! I finally came to a stop after a few rolls and stood up and went a picked up my bike .. holly shit that was fast ! Lucky for me ... i´m still alive !! hahahah and no skin off my ass , my suit and gloves saved me ! A few people stopped and helped me and I got the bike loaded up in a truck and taken to a tire shop to get the tire repaired. 2 hrs later , back on the road ! Yes, my bike is looking now like it is on a trip !!!!
The fairing is wired together and my suit has holes all over it , it´s ragged ! So now i´m in Pucon in the lakes district simular to banff - going to get some fishing supplies and go fishing and head further south to camp and enjoy the nature out here. It is really nice in this area , just like home ! cheers

La Serena , Chile at Nick's and Anna Marie's house ...

Yeh , I made it on the 8th in time for the Dakar rally . Which I was racing to catch but found out it is not untill the 11th . Nick and his wife , have a new house and a new little baby boy ! 1 month old... I wonder who the father is ? Sitting by the swimming pool having a beer in his backyard and watching the sunset over the ocean . I acutally never made it to his house the night I left Customs in Chile the tire went flat and it was just too dark to ride about 10:30 before I found a campsite . The campsite charged me a whopping 1$ for staying the night ... good value !
Took the bike in for a service today , new chain , new sprocket, new brakes pads front and back , oil change and a cleaning.... don't know how much it all cost haven't figuerd out the exchange rate yet. Everyweek a new currancy and new rates and trying to figure out how much everthing is worth , keeps you on your toes .. Bike is running great again will catch the Dakar rally on Sunday it is 2 hrs south of here so I will leave nick's and ride south towards Santiago and monday should put me in the big city to get my Visa for Brasil ... time is ticking down i don't really know if i will make it all the way south , it is such a long way still and these 500km days are taking their toll on me... chow !

Heading to La Serena, Chile.

Days go by quickly when riding and not knowing or caring what day it is or what time it is , you just ride, eat sleep and talk to yourself well sort of ... at least think alot about stuff , not always really important just stuff ! It started to get really hot 35c -40c and very dry desert like southern California , kinda boring and straight roads , had to stop a few times to sleep or nap , was falling asleep while riding in the heat . Not good ! But in Argentina you have rest stops and Gas stations which are very simular to Canadian ones . One stop shopping ! Ok last day before heading into La Serena was to cross a 4800m pass, no problem !! Customs was easy , leaving Argentina great roads mix of on and off road and very dry , wound my way higher and higher. Looking out for the Condor ! Amazing ride up to the pass Agua Negro , it just kept going higher and getting colder and windy. Nice photos which will be posted today !! Promise ! This ride really blew me away like nothing I have rode yet , I felt drunk and tingly at the top... stopped for photo's and down the other side toward Chile . I made it to customs at 7pm and found I had lost my License plate and also was getting a flat tire on the front. Well about 1.5 hrs later I finised , I found most of the customs offices down here are staffed by men usually police which usually suck at office work, typing and filling forms out . Most were finger plucking the keys and phoning others to find out how to to do something . It took them about 40 minutes and 4 guys to find out first how to fill out the form and then print it .... oh well . Left customs at dark again and rode an other hour towards civilization , stopping to pump my front tire up with a hand pump every 30km ! Very tired and dirty and hungry !

Wow .....

Well, what a day and 3900meters makes.... I decended into the east side of Bolivia, I guess they call that the Amazon side or next to Paraguay. The decent was incredible and scenery excellent , most of it was gravel single lane and very curvy into the jungle like bush. Millions of butteryfly's were everywhere for the next 200km towards the Argentine Border . I arrived at the border called Yacuiba! I went pretty easy only about 1 hrs to clear while some were saying they waited for already 2 hrs . By the time I cleared it was about 6pm and I headed south for a hotel , bordertowns tend to suck and aren't very nice. Usually dirty , busy and a lot of stange people wanting to enter and leave , like myself ! Another 13 hrs day riding and so tired !! 550km day !
The next few days were spent riding in a varity of farm land, bush and desert , depending on how close to the mountians you were at thje time. I found an excellent area Between Salta and Cafayate, again incredible scenery , vineyards , lakes and rivers simular to the Okanogon area . It also hade some canyons simular to Zion park in the USA , brilliante red colors in the evening and lots of tourists in the town of Cafayate itself . I ended up eating in town and riding into the canyon to set up my tent . It seems like riding into Argentina from Bolivia is like going from Mexico into the USA, things are just well normal ...

Heading out of Bolivia !

Well new years in La Paz was boring, boring, boring ! I walked arounf looking for a place to have a beer and found nothing , no pubs or bars to be seen. I guess they dont drink here ! Well i saved myself a hangover ! Got up the next day and the Garage where i parked my bike was locked and i could not get my bike out all day as well as a few other mad car owners . The number listed on the door would not answer.. haha good new years joke ! Well all the busses leaving the city were also closed as well as the main bus station itself... trapped in boring La paz wtih other travellers ! Went to see the movie Australia, don´t do it, it is terrible ! More hollywood crap ! Traveled over to city called Potasi in the south 500km away made good time untill I hit the pass at 4pm , went up too 4200m and of course it was raining which turned to hail 2 "worth , Visability was crap my visor always fogs over and their was lightning all around ! ahhha very tense for about 1 hr. Made it to Potasi at dark , found a Hotel with a sauna to defrost ! I took about 2 hrs to warm up again !! Today the 3rd, i´ve decided to head over to the east to warm up drop altitude and head south for Argentia . Tonight i´m is a small town called Paddilla , 3 hrs south of the capital Sucre ... yahooo always fun and good riding .... chow

Feliz anos ! 09

Well, it is a new year ... happy new year everyone ! well where was i last ... oh yeah, I did not make it to Cuzco untill the 27th in the evening , and of course it was raining hard and trying to find a hotel at christmas at night in a new confusing city, which also has parking for bikes is well ... I got really wet . And spent more money than I should have, 50 usd for a 4 star hotel . I was tired and wet and they had parking for me in the hotel ! Most of these place also include breakfast so... I can fill up before I ride and don´t eat again untill supper. The next day I spent riding and looking at some ruins and a paragliding site , which was cool , I wish I had a wing with me ! I rode towards the Inca trail and to a town at the end of the road, called ? which leads to Matchu pithcu.
Anyways you can catch a train from here to Matchu Pithcu town , which is really cool. I spent the 29th at Matchu Pithcu , it was amazing and stunning ! Some nice hikes up here as well . I missed my train ride back , no watch it had been stolen from my hotel room by someone and I misread my ticket it was on 24 hr clock and showed 15 minutes too late. Shit I had to pay again and it is not cheap ! Oh well, I won´t eat for a few days to make it up !
From here I rode to Lake Titikaka in the south of Peru , the bike was running rough , carb need cleaning again . I went thru heavy rain again and never was below 3300meters all day so it was a bit chilly . The ride was nice but my bike is sick , no power and cutting out .
Made it to a comfy hotel and went on a boat ride to the lake to visit the floating village, where 2000 people live on floating islands and have everything made of reeds , pretty cool as well . Crossed the border on the 31st into Bolivia no hassles but had to pay a small bribe fee the the cops and this border is very confusing and not really any signage but ... i´m in Bolivia now !