Riding in the new year !

I ended up leaving Punte de Este on about the 6th and heading to a guy's house who I had met throught the bike shop and Fernando. Fernado if you read this thank you very much for your hospitality and the use of your shop and for puting up with me for the time I was with you and storing my bike for a year , much appreciated . I ended up going over to Benos Aries for a day , to pick up my Corbin seat which I had left in Mendoza, thanks Areil and Pablo for arranging the seat to get to BA for me . It is 2 inches lower and way more comfortable for riding solo and being able to touch the ground when you stop or get on or off the bike .

I ended up missing the ferry to get back to herbert's place in the country but it was great because I ended up enjoying the city of Colonia and the old part is a Unesco world heritage site and meeting some guys on the ferry on the way over and drinking beer untill 3 am. Herbert is a german guy who was in canada for 25 years and now is living the dream in Uruguay and also rides a vulcan 900. I am trying to talk him into riding his bike south to Ushuia this year ....well see !

Life is short and you have to reach out and take it all in ! Dreams should become reality ....

After leaving herbert's who was also a great host , I headed north along the coast toward Punte del diablo a cool little very busy tourist beach , unfortunatly everthing was booked solid , I would have liked to spend a few days on the beach .

I headed to Chuy border crossing and made the crossing at about 3pm and rode for another 3-4 hrs north to Rio grande .

The next day caught the ferry over the spit to ?? BR101 and rode up a skinny piece of land toward Porto Alegre and ended up in Soa Leapoldo in the evening .

The following day I road towards Sipiranga a small nice city where they have a great paragliding site and ended up getting in a sledder it was overcast and no one else was flying .Pilots do have to work down here so their is not much happening during the week.

Now I am south and west of Porto Alegre after the locals talked me into driving 300km the this new spot called Cacapava . It ended up being a very cool place for flying and cheaper hotels and food as well as you move away from the coast . The local boys treated me very well showing me the sites and giving me rides to and from launch . Friday was a small tour around the area on my new wing and harness , as it was starting to overdevelop. Saturday was great and I flew solo for about 4 hrs hoping I was going in the right direction. The plan was for everyone to take off and fly together well only 5 out of 20 pilots ended up getting away from the hill as I learned later.

So I guess I am lucky , I was forth for the distance this day 1 of the locals set a new site record of 303km , home town advantage and I would have not go where he did, not with the desolate county out here and limited portuguese language. still I had a great day and flew over 120km , and good way to break in the new gear and not flying for months ... lets get it on ! Day 3 here was blowing over the back and strong and only 2 pilots flew , now am wriitn this in my hotel room ready to sleep amd head north again to Sipiranga again to fly and watch the national hang champs .... and finally caught up with my blog yahooo ...cheers

It's about time ... for an update !!

I'm on the road north ....or so i thought . Well i do feel like i'm confessing my sins when it takes so long to blog , and i'm not so much into this electronic world yet. or am I ???

Anyways I left Canada for Uruguay on Dec 30th which means I arrive in Monte video at 1200 on New years eve 6 hrs before new years in Canada. Unfortunatly it was very uneventful as I was still in the airpost exchanging money and trying to arrange a ride to my hotel , but the fire works looked impressive as that is the big thing down here on New years !

The next day everthing was closed ,, not even the buses run, I had a hard time finding food everything is closed . The next 4-5 days or was it 6 was spent working on the bike at the Kawi dealer in La Barra , it seems the idiots in Canada gave me the wrong part... it was the front sprocket and I had taken it all apart I ended up spending 2 extra days trying to get a sprocket fpr my bike .

It is very expensive and super busy in this area during x mas, as it is a dream area for the rich and famous , the Monte Carlo of the south. The hostel was 50.00us a night for 4 people in a room ! It was crazy, tons of young people wanting to party all night long , dico opens at 1-2am and goes untill 7am , of course my roomates would sleep all day eat at 9pm then go out at 2am and come home at 3-7am and start snoring ... fun ! I'm glad to be out on the rooad !