The route to San Pedro could not have been less boring. The road itself was good tarmac but the scenery was like something from another planet, really varied, interesting and downright spectacular, I just do not have the eloquence to describe it. I never realised there were so many shades of brown in the world.

 we found a tiny mining town in Chile called Spence…how cool

The town of San Pedro de Atacama is a small backpacker’s town full of hostels, tour operators, restaurants and shops, it is a very cute place. Our hostel Casa Campestre was on the outskirts of town and really nice. The people that work there are amazing so helpful and friendly and all speak good English. The kitchen was open so we could make our own food which was good and handy. We camped under some lovely shady trees which were a godsend as San Pedro de Atacama is as hot as hell and being the driest place on the planet is dusty. We stayed at a hostel called Casa Campestra, I can highly recommend this place it is great, it has a couple of rooms and dorms but also great camping places under some lovely shady trees. It is clean, quiet and the kitchen is open for you to do your own cooking which we enjoyed. The best thing are the young Brazilian couple who own the place, jus the nicest people and Ricardo who works there and is just awesome so friendly and helpful.

We ended up spending a few days in San Pedro De Atacama as Joerns bike, his trusty Africa twin, started giving us issues. On the way in to town it just cut out, he waited a few minutes and it started again, it did this two or three times and then rode perfectly to town. We realised that it cut out as we got over 3000m, so put the issue down to altitude. This was not great as we are expecting to ride up to 4500 in Bolivia and Peru. Joern took off the air filter, cleaned it out and did a quick check and all seemed ok. This is when we decided to stay for a few nights and do day trips using the hostel as a base. The first trip begin a test ride up to 4200m to see some lakes, this would also test my fuel consumption at altitude.

yup the tropic of Capricorn 🙂

 Judith the awesome Swiss biker we met

 this little cutie came and sat right next to our bikes

On the way up we met Judith a Swiss biker from Lausanne on a 6 month trip in South America. Judith was riding a DRZ400 and is such a nice lady, so we decided to ride together to the lakes.  The lakes were stunning the bluest blue you could imagine and we also saw a very confident fox on the road that came and sat very close to the bikes to have a good look at us. Judith then carried on to the further lakes but we had to turn back due to my small fuel tank and we wanted to take a detour to the flamingo lake on the way back to town. Well we missed the flamingos we simply just did not see the turn, which was a good thing and Joerns bike cut out again. DAMN when we got to the lakes we were celebrating as the bike had been fine all day and we simply put the previous days issue down to bad fuel or dirt air filter, but no such luck. Also this time the bike cut out every 10 min so we literally  limped it back to base. We had planned on doing a day trip to Bolivia to see the 3  lakes the following day but now Joern had to spend the day working on the bike in the hope that he could fix the problem.

The reason we had decided to do a day trip to Bolivia is that the road from San Pedro to Uyuni is very bad and there are no fuel stations on the way. Plus in Bolivia the petrol is subsidized for Bolivians and the gas station need to fill out forms to sell gas to foreigners (and at 3 times the price) so because of this many gas stations refuse to sell to foreigners. Some locals will if you knock on their door it cannot be guaranteed that they have any. So a day trip to see the lakes and then entering Bolivia from Argentina on a different road to get to the salt plains seemed like a better plan. But first we needed to get the bike fixed. We came up with all sorts of plans As, Bs, Cs and Ds as nothing was going to stop this awesome trip this was just one more hiccup in the road.

Joern spent the morning working on the bike struggling to find the issue until he opened up the carburettor and lo and behold he found a damaged vacuum membrane in the carburettor for the rear cylinder, no friggin way, the exact same issue that gadget had in Puerto Cisnes. We could not believe it, how freaky. This time it was a small tear on the rim and we still had the black gum so Joern managed to fix the tear and we left it overnight to dry, ready to do a test ride the following day. We spent the day chilling, again … we do a lot of chilling on this trip but we are having fun 🙂

Ovalle

Heading north we decided to avoid the motorway and took the scenic secondary roads and once again that was a good choice the scenery was just fantastic.

We decided to stop over in a little town called Ovalle as I was just too tired to carry on. Since it was Sunday everything was closed and we were getting rather desperate to find an open restaurant. I went to ask in a coffee shop which was just closing and bumped into a businessman from Santiago and a couple of colleagues who were also struggling to find an open restaurant. The owner had suggested a place to him and he offered for us to join him. 3 places later we finally found an open Chinese, literally the only place in town servicing food. It was great not only was the food awesome but there was tons of it and when it came time to pay Fernando would not let us give him a cent, how hospitable is that. What a nice and interesting man, he owned a company that does work for the government supplying machinery to small dairy farmers. He had lived in many different countries in the world and it was interesting chatting to him.

Bahai Inglesa

The motorway to Bahia Inglesa is a small one and very scenic so we decided to take that instead of the secondary roads. At one point we both just stopped in awe as the desert turned pink. It took us a few seconds to realise that the entire desert was covered in pink flowers just stunning.

Bahia Inglesa is a very very small seaside town and as it was out of season it was very quiet, just the way we like it. This time the bikes got the room with a view and our windows faced away from the sea. However the hotel was so nice and the view from the patio was just great. I cannot describe how good the food was in this place we decided to stay for 2 nights to enjoy the seaside and every meal was mouth-watering. We went for long walks on the beach, Joern took some great photos and we just chilled.

   some buzzards on the beach eating a dead seal

enjoying a walk on the beach

 Joern found Luke Skywalkers house

 this time the bikes got the sea view

Antofagasta

The road to Antofagasta was a bit boring so we just got down and did it. We did stop at the hand in the desert sculpture called Mano Del Desierto – Hand of the desert. A huge sculpture of a hand coming out of the sand, pretty damn cool.

 having a break eating peanuts in a ditch

 The hand of the desert, pretty cool

We arrived in Antofagasta in time to get my new rear tire put on. I had found a note on the internet suggesting a road with a few bike places where I could get my tire changed. On arrival we found Fernando in a small shop called crossteam. The mechanic was out and they did not have a machine to change the tire but Fernando said he’s do it no problem for 10000 pesos USD15 and he deserved every penny. Fernando his younger brother  and sister all race motorcross and by the look of the pictures and trophies in the shop he is pretty good. The town is pretty boring and it was a quick stop before heading off to San Pedro De Atacama.

we stopped for lunch in a tiny roadside café and then noticed that it was one of the check points from the Daker in one of the previous races, super cool 🙂

Lorraine Chittock lives in a tiny town called La Ballena just outside of Guaquen

The ride from Santiago is only 2 hours on the motorway but we took the back roads through the mountains and the views and twisties were great. Joern was in his element riding a totally empty twisty road in excellent condition, and the weather was great too.

some nice scenery and twisties for Joern

 we stopped to watch some Gauchos splitting a cattle herd

 interesting cacti along the route

When we turned off into Guaquen the road turned into a dirt track and around a bend you could see Lorraine’s house up on the cliff. What a little gem, it’s hard to describe Lorraine’s place as words just cannot do it justice. The view is stunning and there is nothing nicer than sleeping to the sounds of waves crashing against the rocks overlooked by the house. The house itself is gorgeous; I just wanted to move in and never leave.  It is very peaceful and her dogs are amazing I very nearly left with Boomerang packed into my suitcase. Lorraine is a great host and a very interesting lady to talk to. I think one could spend weeks talking to Lorraine about her life; she is a photographer by trade and has written 6 books.  Her first is about her trip across the Sudanese desert with a camel train. The pictures and the story are just fantastic. This is not something many westerners have done especially a woman.  She also spent 6 years living and travelling in North, Central & South America in a van with 2 dogs that she brought back from Kenya when she lived there.

  some of the local horses in La Ballena that run free in the areas

Lorraine’s house

Boomerang

view from our bedroom

 good conversations on the patio watching the sun set

We had a great time visiting Lorraine and Joern cooked us a good healthy veggie meal. Home cooking yummmmmmmy

Puerto Montt

We had arranged to meet a friend of a friend, Walter Buschmann, in Puerto Montt who could help us with a dry place to work on the bike. Walter then arranged for a college of his, Jorge who had a pickup truck, to meet us at the ferry and pick up my bike and take it the 7kms to Walters company. Once again showing how helpful, generous and hospitable people are the world over.  After dropping he bike Jorge then helped us find a hotel and told us that Walter would come and fetch Joern in the morning on his way to work.

The next day, Joern got his bike and rode up to Puerto Varas to collect a carburettor that Mick from Ride Chile had left for us at a hotel. Carburettor in hand, Joern fetched me and we started fixing my bike. I felt like I was performing heart surgery on my little gadget. The fault was so clear, a torn vacuum membrane in the carburettor. The new membrane fitted perfectly and we eagerly started my bike which just purred, kicked him into 1^st gear and wumpppp he stalled … DAMN hell and all those nasty words. We could not believe it, totally deflated we asked Walter if he knew a good mechanic. He gave us directions to Johnny’s company, Austral Motorsport. Johnny spoke perfect English and said that unfortunately his best mechanic was out with a sick family member and they would be able to help us on Monday. Walter agreed that we could leave the bike at his place until Johnny fetched it on Monday.

Walter and Jorge

 hole in the vacuum membrane

Making the most of a bad situation we decided to stay in Puerto Montt and just do a couple of day trips as miraculously the weather report for the weekend indicated some gorgeous sunny days.

We got up early on Saturday and headed to Puerto Varas and the Osorno Volcano with me riding pillion on Joerns Africa Twin. What an awesome day!

The ride was great, the skies were clear, the roads were excellent and the scenery stunning. The views of the volcano across the Llanquihue lake were just breathtaking. We stopped for coffee at the little roadside café with a view of the volcano and a few pet lamas for company. Man the lamas just make me laugh. Brownie, a teenage lama, was extremely tame but very cheeky and curious and you had to watch your clothes as he nearly took a bite out of Joern jacket while we were having coffee.

We also met two Australian riders, who we first met on the ferry, again. They had hired bikes for 5 weeks to tour Chile, which is clearly a very popular place to tour as I have seen more bikes in travelling in Chile than I have on the entire 3 months prior to entering Chile. I frustratingly cannot for the life of me remember their names 😦 but they were really nice guys and after we stopped and chatted to them on the road they rode ahead of us, but stopped on their way back to say that it was impossible to ride around the lake as the bridge was out and the road closed.

Damn our plans were thwarted, but no problem we simply turned around and went back to Puerto Varas for lunch and then rode on to Frutillar Bajo, where we could get a view of the volcanoes across the lake.  The view of Osorno was well worth the ride, Calbuco was sadly hidden behind some clouds, but we did get a great view of it from the road later in the day when the clouds lifted.

Calbuco

Osorno

 view from Frutillar Bajo

We had such an awesome day that all frustration due to my broken bike was forgotten.

The following day we could not decide exactly what to do as there were quite a few options. So we decided to do the same thing again … well not quite. We rode up to Puerto Varas and over the bridge we could not cross the previous day and straight up to a national park called Petrohue. There we went for a short hike and a look at the very pretty small waterfall. Thereafter we completed our round the lake trip which we could not do the previous day and got a closer look at Osorno. Another great day on the bike 🙂

I could hardly sleep on Sunday night being seriously nervous about the diagnosis on my bike, which turned out to be very simple. Sometimes things are just strange, we had to have 2 problems at the same time both of which have the same symptoms, the carburettor membrane failure and the side stand kill switch failure. We had thought about it on Friday night that perhaps the side stand switch was also faulty but since it was bucketing down and Walter had already closed up shop and left for the weekend we decided to just leave it for the mechanic. 30 minutes later the bike was running again … if only we had thought about that when it did not run after we fixed the carburettor, but we were so deflated we just could not see the wood for the trees, and we probably would not have had such a  fantastic weekend doing the mini day trips, so it was all good in the end.

On Tuesday we headed off with sunshine in our hearts … sadly not in the skies but we were so happy to be on the road and heading north we ignored the rain which lasted all 500kms. I was just ecstatic to be riding my gadget again that the kms just flew by. We stuck to the motorway which is boring but we just wanted to get to warm dry weather after day and days or riding in the cold and rain. Soaking wet we arrived in Los Angeles and found a hostel for the night.

Santiago

Wednesday was another long 500km motorway day but at least a dry one 🙂 🙂 🙂 and we arrived at Hostel Casa Matte in great spirits and looking forward to seeing what Santiago had to offer.  Christian and his wife Francisca own the most stunning hostel, it feels more like home than a hostel and is a bike friendly place as Christian is a serious biker himself.  I just fell in love with their house it is an old renovated 4 story building with gorgeous high ceilings and wooden floors, amazing views from the rooftop terrace and some really funky and beautiful decorations including the 1976 Yamaha XT in the lounge. There are a number of bikers at the hostel at the moment, all really nice and friendly as travelling bikers usually are.  2 bikers from Argentina, 2 from Chile and a Japanese lady called Mai. Mai has resigned from her job, bought a great little XT200 and is heading down to Ushuaia next week, how awesome is that.

 Mai, Christians dad, Christian, Francisca and me

On Thursday (and no surprises here) we spent the day at the mechanic fixing my bike again, this time the front wheel. For a few days now whenever I went around a corner I could feel the slightest tiny vibration of the wheel. I started to think that I was just being paranoid as I do get paranoid with my bike but it was, to me, just so obvious. I checked the front wheel and could not see/feel anything but when Joern checked he said he could feel a slight grinding resistance when shaking the wheel. I decided to play it safe and take the bike to a mechanic. Johnny Mottos (real name Ruben) might just be the best mechanic on the planet. Well, mechanic / entertainer. This guy has no webpage, does no advertising, his shop doesn’t even have a sign and yet business is booming.

Louis, Johnny and me

When he first looked at the wheel he said he could not see anything wrong, but then he took the wheel bearings out. The one spun smoothly with no issues but the second had a distinctive grinding rough sound/ feeling. Voila I was not just being paranoid the wheel was faulty. We spent the whole day at Johnny’s place while he replaced the bearings and got a machinist to straighten the axel which had the slightest bend to it. Johnny was so thorough I was really pleased . He also greased the steering column, and replaced the fork oil. I had not even realised how spongy my forks had become as it is such a gradual change but now they feel like new. We also had a BBQ (called Parilla in Chile) lunch with Johnny and his friends during which time  Johnny entertained us with some dancing … it was a good laugh and a very good day. Johnny does not speak English but one of his friends Louis who does was there and did the necessary technical translation for us. Louis is a really nice guy and  runs a bike accessories shop called Ru7austRal, he rides a KTM and has the cutest dog which rides with him in a special dog carrier case which is strapped to the back of his bike.

Since we spent an entertaining day with Johnny we decide to stay in Santiago another day so that we could go and visit Mick the Danish guy from Ride Chile, find a post office, do our washing and get to see some of Santiago.

view from the roof terrace at Casa Matte Breakfast on the terrace

I was dead keen to head north to go visit Lorraine Chittock who lives 2 hours north of Santiago in but could not miss this opportunity of seeing Santiago so had to delay our visit by a day.

 Joern making friends with another gas station dog

Coyhaique

The 217km ride to Coyhaique went without incident but sadly with lots of rain, and it was very cold. One phenomena we experienced over the last couple of days was riding in the rain when there was not a cloud above, behind or in front of you, but on the horizon. It is really quite comical but the wind is so strong that it blows the rain for miles.

We took a lunch break at the cutest little restaurant located in 2 hippy style busses, followed by more rain on the road. So cold and wet we decided to call it a short day in Coyhaique which is a very nice little town. I have to say the small Chilean towns in Patagonia are very cute and much nicer than those in Argentina.

We later found out from a Dutch backpacking couple that it snowed in Coyhaique the day after we left. They were in a bus which could not get through and had to change busses to one with snow chains … what a stroke of luck that we left when we did.

we found some pretty large interesting plants on the road to Coyhaique

 stunning Chile

Making good use of two old broken down busses.

One of the many Gauchos (cowboys) we saw along the route

Puerto Cisnes

Next stop La Juanta, we were planning another short, chilly and wet day which turned out to be a lot shorter than we expected. 160kms out of Coyhaique we stopped to take a break from the constant rain. At this time of year there is just no end to the rain in this part of Chile, it is incredible it doesn’t stop for a minute. With fresh dry gloves from my panniers I started my bike, kicked it into 1st gear only for it to promptly die, it just simply went uummppp. Hmmm I tried it a couple of times but with no luck. There was clearly a serious problem. It seemed as if the bike had no fuel which was not the case. We were stuck just totally and utterly stuck in the middle of nowhere in the rain 😦

even the most miserable cold wet day can be beautiful

my shelter from the rain for the hours I waited for Joern to return

 picture from the shelter

We decided that Joern needed to go back to the last town we passed about 25kms back and find a truck to fetch my bike. We were hoping there’d be a mechanic and hotel there as well but that was really wishful thinking as it was a very small town. I stayed with the bike amusing myself by putting it back together, we’d take it apart to try finding the issue thinking it may be a blocked air filter. We suspected that it was not getting fuel but thought the issues could also be lack of air, this however was not the case. After putting the bike back together and watching the rain fall the sun came out for about an hour and I almost ran out of the shelter to make the most of it, walking up and down the road balancing on the curb for fun.

3.5 hours later Joern returned followed by a pickup truck. He’s had quite an ordeal trying to find a mechanic who knew nothing, a hotel that was more a hole than hotel. He finally managed, with the help of a very nice Argentinean guy he met who had lived in Germany and spoke German and Spanish, to get someone to come up and fetch the bike. However the agreement was to take it to another town about 35kms north where they thought there was a mechanic.

 sunset in Puerto Cisnes

We finally arrived in Puerto Cisnes at 7pm and found the cutest little cottage to rent for the night. The next day we went in search of a mechanic but to no avail. There were a couple of motorcar mechanics but no bike mechanics. We had pushed the bike a couple of kms to one man who said he was a mechanic but knew less than Joern so Joern took it out and started pushing it back to the cottage. On his way back a guy stopped and asked in very good English if he needed help. Louis was another awesome helpful person and just a downright nice guy with a lovely family. Joern explained the situation to him and said that all we need is a dry place to work in so that Joern could take the carburettor off and find out the reason why the bike is not getting any fuel. Louis immediately offered us his garage. preparing to go out in the freezing rain

Unfortunately the fault was a torn Carburettor vacuum membrane, damn. After I googled how to temporary fix this vacuum membrane we bought the right sealant and fixed the tear, however to no avail as it did not hold and we were back to square one. We needed a new one, no doubt about it. I frantically emailed bike shops and rental agencies trying to find someone with KLR spare parts. Enter Mike from Ride-Chile a Danish guy (good people the Danes, I have yet to meet one I don’t like)  Mike runs a motorbike tour and rental company out of Santiago. To cut a long story short he has an old KLR which he used for spare parts and was willing to sell me the carb. He was also driving down to Puerto Verde 21kms north of Puerto Montt on Thursday to fetch some bikes and said he’s bring the Carb down for us. What a stroke of luck since we were booked on a ferry from Puerto Cisnes to Puerto Montt on Wednesday at 12:00 arriving at 19:00 on Thursday. We agreed for Mike to leave the carb at his hotel after he left and we’d ride up on Joerns bike on Friday and fetch it. With any luck I’d be back on the road on Saturday.

Although the delay and the constant rain were getting us down we made the most of it by enjoying the little town and lovely little cottage we were in, cooking our own food and having more space than any hotel room could offer, so we strung up the washing and had a few good laughs.

our cute little cottage

 make some slop

 the slop – didn’t taste half bad though 🙂

Puerto Montt Ferry

After my ordeal with the ferries in Brazil I could not believe that once again I needed to take an overnight ferry. Really not looking forward to it we pushed my bike onto the Jacaf which to my pleasant surprise was a very large modern sturdy ferry. Even when the seas got a little rougher and the ferry bucked and rolled it was not nearly as bad as the ferry I took out of Macapa so although I felt a tiny bit queasy it was fine.  The ferry was clean and modern the real bummer was that there were no cabins just seats (like economy class plane seats), and although they were quite comfortable, for 33 hours a cabin would have been AWESOME. The good news was that the ferry was nearly empty so we both had 3 seats to ourselves and could stretch out and sleep. It also made a huge difference to have Joern with me as he keeps me amused… he is a funny guy

 The ferry

 stuck in this space for 34 hours

I eventually took a sleeping tablet and knocked myself out, best way to not got mad.

my amusing husband … and the not so amusing couple in the background

There were also a couple of other things that kept me amused on the voyage. There was a young married couple with a beautiful baby boy (about 2 years old) on board along with the mother of the girl. She turned out to be quite a batty woman who had long rather loud conversations with herself, her daughter and son in law and any passenger that looked her way. She was also quite a grumpy old thing and sat on the opposite end of the boat and just shouted across to her daughter and son in law. Who at one point had a screaming match right on the boat much to everyone’s amusement and shushes. The old lady and daughter seemed to tag team against the poor guy and he really got it in the neck. Since we could not speak Spanish we had no idea what he did but I would have felt sorry for him if they had not been so damn loud playing computer games and talking in loud voices and just disturbing everyone for the whole voyage. I was so glad when they got off the ferry in Quellon at midnight meaning that we all had a peaceful sleep. The other things that kept me amused were the beautiful Patagonian Fjords, sadly it rained but we did seem to hit the eye of the storm at some point and had a couple of hours of sunlight and spectacular views, while seeing black clouds in a circle all along the horizon, quite interesting. Sailing through them was less interesting but as I mentioned the ferry was modern and very sturdy so I coped and only got a little green but took some sea sickness drugs. The best sightings on the trip were the seals, we had 3 different sightings of seals and that was nice as they were so close to the boat. Unfortunately not at a time when either of us had our cameras at hand. So the ferry trip was not altogether bad, but if I had a choice I’d FAR FAR rather be riding my bike, even in the rain.

Off loading some passengers mid voyage. This was an interesting sight. The boat did not dock, they simply let down the ramp and the passengers boarded a small boat which took them to one of the islands.

The beautiful Patagonian Fjords

When the ferry docked at one small town I spent the time watching this gorgeous dog. He greeted every person who left the ferry. It looked to me as if he was waiting for someone specific and when the person did not arrive he watched the ferry leave and seemed to walk away quite forlorn.

The small town of Melinka where we docked to load & off-load passengers and cargo

We bordered the ferry in Puerto Cisnes at 10am on Wednesday morning and disembarked at 8pm on Thursday evening in Puerto Montt, 34 hours later … I never want to see a ferry again, EVER

Los Antiquos

I left Comodoro Rivadavia feeling very relieved that I now had temporary import papers. We needed to ride 420kms to Los Antiquos but had no idea that they would be one of the toughest 420kms to ride. The road was long and boring but we were quite happy to ride it until we got bombarded by the wind.  Unless you experience the Patagonian wind yourself you will not be able to image what it is like. At one point I was pulling my right handlebar with all my strength against the wind just to keep the bike in a straight line. I wish I could have taken a picture of Joern in front of me but I could not let go on the handle bars in order to do so as riding with one hand in that wind was impossible. His bike was practically at a 30^o angle, it was almost comical. Joern later told me he had seriously considered hanging off racing style to see if he could get his knee down while going in a straight line. Would probably be some kind of record.

I have heard of people getting blown off their bikes in the Patagonian wind and now I understand how this is possible. We needed to stop almost every 50/80kms as my neck and back started really aching (we usually ride at least 150kms before a short break) The day seemed to last forever but we finally arrived in Los Antiguos at 5pm exhausted.

beautiful beaches south of Comodoro Rivadavia

  not the first shredded Argentinian flag we saw due to the high winds

 I just love the things you see on the road 🙂

 trying to capture how crazy the wind is

  This place has it’s own desolate beauty I think it is the vast open space that appeals to me.

Puerto Rio Tranquilo

We headed to Puerto Rio Tranquilo not to early as the border only opens at 8am but we were the first people there. The crossing was simple, the people were very nice and friendly and we did both borders in less than 1.5 hours, the only thing that took a little time was the fact that on the Chilean side the customs officers were training a couple of new recruits and they very thoroughly checked our bikes / panniers and luggage. We had two options from Chile Chico, one was to take the ferry across the lake and the other was to ride around it. After meeting a bunch of 6 bikers on the way who told us, that due to the state of the raod  they had 6 punctures and had taken 9 hours to do the 165km ride from Puerto Rio Tranquilo to Chile Chico, we really did consider the ferry, but decided against it and were glad we did.

Chilly in chilly Chile

The road was okay, just a normal dirt road but with a lot of rocks and sharp stones which could cause a lot of problems. I suspect it was a bit of testoteron induced racing among boys and the fact that they were on rented bikes and had a support vehicle, that caused the many punctures.

We employed the tortoise and the hare principle, slow is fast, and it worked. We rode between 40 and 60km/h depending on the road surface and stopped to take a lot of pictures. Boy were we glad we did not take the ferry as I’d have hated to miss those views. The only incident we had the whole day was being blown off the bikes by the wind. The wind was just phenomenal and at one point where the road was cut between two rock faces which acted like a perfect wind tunnel, we came off.

I came around the corner and was hit full force by the most vicious wind I have ever felt, I could just not keep my bike upright and before I even knew what had happened I was on the ground. I was fine and jumped off the bike and turned around to warn Joern only to see exactly the same thing happened to him. We then tried getting the bikes up and found it impossible against the wind, it was just nuts. Both of us together couldn’t even pick my little bike up against the gale force winds we were fighting against. Eventually a car came along and the very nice man stopped to help us with my bike. We then started, all 3 of us, on Joerns larger bike and quickly ran out of steam. The poor man indicated that he could not stay and help as he had to be somewhere urgently and so left. We took a few deep breaths and calmly assessed the situation. I put a couple of large rocks under Joerns right side pannier a she lifted it a few inches, the thinking behind that was just to try and inch the bike up a little to get a better angle. Just then my bike crashed to the ground again even thought I thought I had manoeuvred it to a better angle against the wind. A second car pulled up and a very kind older gentleman got out, almost having his door ripped off by the wind while doing so.

We first got my bike up and Joern rode it the 100meters out of the wind tunnel where it stood as solid as a rock with no further issues. The 3 of us then tackled Joerns bike and got that up as well. When the man got back in his car he did so from the passenger side, against the cliff face so slightly sheltered, with both his wife and me holding the door steady.

What a crazy situation.

The windy mishap over, we continued without incident, just a little rain and some very cold weather. We arrived in Puerto Rio Tranquilo absolutely starving at 3:30pm and freezing cold. A chicken schnitzel, hot cup of coffee later and I was ready to start again. But we didn’t, instead we checked into a very cute hostel run by a delightful couple and with the best fireplace ever in the lounge where I spent the evening blogging.

  stunning stunning Chile. These views just takemy breath away (and I live in Switzerland)

Leaving Buenos Aires I had mixed feeling, I was very excited about getting back on the road but really like Buenos Aires and could easily have stayed for another week, there is so much to see and do there. We had a long way to ride South to Patagonia and across to Chile. We sadly decided not to go all the way to Ushuaia as we just felt that we did not have time ad the last thing we want to do is stress on our honeymoon. So we decided to ride as far as Comodoro Rivadavia, along the coast and then cut across to Chile.

some long boring roads and yet just so awesome to be back on Gadget

 the post apocalyptic looking gas station next to our lunch stop

Our first stop was Mar Del Plata a nice but very touristy seaside town. The ride was great, yes long boring roads but it you can’t cope with that you are not an adventure biker. Interesting twisties and great scenery is one thing but when you are crossing a continent you really do spend hundred, no thousands of kms on long straight boring roads and I enjoy them. It’s kind of meditative. It was relay nice to see Joern either in front of me or in my rear view mirror. It just makes it fun and we travel well together, we have the same outlook, pace and endurance. Mar Del Plata is 415kms from Buenos Aires and it was easy and just GREAT to be back on the bike, we arrived just after 4pm so had a good few hours to explore.

Bahia Blanca was another 464 easy kms from Mar Del Plata. We got up late so only arrived just before 6pm and as we pulled into a petrol station my clutch cable broke. Talk about good timing. In Buenos Aires I had taken my bike to a Honda dealer to get a full big service done as Gadget had done 21000kms from Bogata and although I’d done small things and had the oil changed etc it was time for a big service. A few days before BA the clutch had started sticking so I had decided to swap it out with a new one I was carrying and thought I’d keep the old one as the spare. Dumb idea and a perfect example of not fixing something unless it is broken. I should have just had it oiled. The mechanic had routed the new cable alongside the steering column but close to the steering lock. So every time I turned the handle bars the cable was pinched but not noticeable at all. It only took 2 days for the steering lock to grind right through the cable but fortunately just as we arrived in a city.  It took Joern 10 minutes to oil the old one and replace the new now broken one with it … I knew there was a good reason to invite him on my trip 😉 We also double checked and his spare clutch cable for his Africa Twin will fit my bike perfectly so we still have a spare cable in case.

 these cute cows were so inquisitive, when we stopped to take pictures they all ran up to the fence to look at us

Patagonia 🙂

 you see the strangest things on the road

Next stop Las Grutas 430kms further south, another easy day but WINDY wow the wind down here is incredible, but we have been very lucky with great weather and only one small 30 minute shower. It is also a lot cooler down here but after 40/42^oC in Brazil I am enjoying the cool riding weather. Las Grutas is a lovely seaside town, small and just stunning. We spoilt ourselves with a beach side hotel and 5 minutes after we arrived were in the pool.

roughing it in Patagonia

  I fell in love with this scruffy dog on the beach and wanted to pack him in one of my panniers and take him home .. I am not sure what his owners would have thought about that though

 The Patagonian parrots who nest in caves all along the sea wall, just hundreds of them

Up to this point one of the things that had been on my mind a lot was my lack of temporary import tables. When I arrived in Argentina I was not given any temporary import papers. I did ask at the border for papers and was told ‘’no documents go’’ It was one of the easiest border crossings ever and since you don’t get import papers in Brazil I thought this was just the same process. But I was wrong. When Joern arrived he got papers and Sandra from Dakar motors who helped him with the import told him to make sure he did not lose his papers. He assumed I had papers and I assumed that like me he didn’t. He did mention it the day before we got married and I said oh I don’t have those and just put it completely out of my mind … I had better things to think about. On our way down south I remembered our conversation and started to get concerned. I researched the situation on the web and it seems I definitely needed them and some mistake was made at the border. So I started to get worried and we decided to stop over in Comodoro Rivadavia as it is a port city with a customs office. We decided that the best action would be to go to the customs and explain the situation.

Comodoro Rivadavia is 670kms from Las Grutas so it was a long hard ride and extremely windy, by the time I got in my neck was cramped from trying to keep my head up against the wind, sadly this happens when you don’t have a windshield. Other than that it was okay though just not at all bad with a perfect road and some slightly more interesting scenery. We checked into the hotel and got everything ready to go to the customs office in the morning.

  just an ordinary road in Comodoro Rivadavia but I liked the houses

the coastline at Comodoro Rivadavia

Other than the wind one more thing I can say about Patagonia is that it is expensive DAMN Argentina is MUCH more expensive than Brazil and the further south you go the more expensive accommodation gets, no wonder people camp more here than anywhere else, which we’ll be doing as well. The place is stunning though and the people very nice. I had prepared a letter in Spanish thanks to my friend Ric in Switzerland, and we had the address in hand. I was worried as I hate dealing with bureaucracy especially foreign country bureaucracy when you don’t speak the language. I had no idea what the customs people would do or how long it would take. They could have refused to help and told me I needed to go back to Iguaçu or Buenos Aires or (as had been suggested on the internet) impound my bike. SO I was Nervous.

Well how silly was I, expecting the usual apathy and by the book attitude you often get from these places we were blown away by the positive attitude from the people at the customs office in Comodoro Rivadavia. All we had was a note translated to spanish via mail by Ricardo back home. Took them 2 minutes to find Luciana who spoke english to help us. Two others started phoning collegues at other offices. Then Marianna who spent 4 years in the US and spoke perfect english informed us, that we had to go to another office, but she would go with us and help. She left the office in her car with us following and took us to Silvia in a little booth on the docks and explained the situation. Sylvia nodded a lot, took a sip of mate and then told us to pick up the paper we needed at 1400. They even wrote a note to the guards at the entry to let us back in. At 1350 we were back and was handed the exact document needed. No fuss, no fee just have a nice day and enjoy your trip. Wow, thanks girls, you are awesome

 outside the small office at the docks with Mariana

Special Thanks to Mariana, Silvia, Luciana and all the ladies and gentlemen in the customs offices in Comodoro Rivadavia. What I loved about these ladies and gentlemen is that they just took it like another day in the office, even being quite surprised when we turned up with a cake to say Thanks. However they have no idea what a huge impact this act of kindness has on a traveller.

The week is Buenos Aires was pretty amazing mostly because I got married.

After Joern arrived at 5 am on the 30^th we spent the day just chilling and walking around the week was spent sightseeing in Buenos Ares and sort out wedding stuff. It is seriously complicated to get married here as a foreigner but it is at least quick. We had to submit a ton of signed documents and have a blood test for Syphilis, no I have no idea why but what can I say… at least I now know that neither Joern nor I have syphilis 🙂

If you do have to spend a week in a big city then Buenos Aires is a great choice. I like this city, it has a good vibe a TON of FANTASTIC restaurants, lots to see and do and we just enjoyed every minute of it.

We did do the Argentinean experience meal which was great fun you learn to make your own empanadas and quite a lot about Argentina tradition and you meet other fun foreigners. We had a really good night

The highlight of the week was obviously the wedding. I hate weddings. I am okay going to weddings of friends and family because you are there to celebrate their happiness and if they are happy it is great to be a part of it. I just cannot face having a wedding myself, it is not the marriage part that I can’t do but the wedding is just not me. Fortunately I have a husband who feels the same way so it was an easy choise to have a simple wedding in Buenos Aires. After Joern asked me to marry him back in July we stated to discuss weddings and he suggested we get married on our South America trip. Joern will be travelling with me for 2 months which is all the leave he could get.  We were going to try get married at lake Titicaca but nothing seem to work out as it take up to 6 months for foreigners to get the right paper work. So Joern started looking at other options and found out that we could do everything in one week in Buenos Aires, perfect.  He got in touch with a fantastic wedding planner Leti who could sort out all the legal stuff for us foreigners and walk us step by step through the process. Since the process is so complicated we could not have done it without her.  She also arranged the official translator, two required witnesses, the lady who did my hair and makeup and the photographer (the only real wedding stuff)

 no wedding is complete without duct tap

When I got to Buenos Aires I started looking for a dress, shoes and rings. Since Joerns dad was a jeweller in Denmark we decided it was fitting to get a very close friends of Joerns family to make our rings. Since this could not be done before the wedding we got temporary one… silver lord of the rings rings … I promise I did take my wedding serisouly but I just got uch a kick out of these rigns. Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. Translated, the words mean: One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. Call me a geek but I just love the fact that we have ”Lord of the rings” rings and even when I have my final ring I will still always wear this one.

The only really bridy thing I did was have someone to do my hair and makeup, since Joern is so awesome and put such an effort into sorting out the wedding I wanted to look the best I could for him.  We also had a photographer because we wanted really special pictures of the special day.

5^th November 2015

The day could not have been more easy or simple. I grabbed a small bunch of flowers from a street flower seller and duct taped them into a bouquet… I mean no biker should get married without duct tape. I had my hair and makeup done, put on my dress and we hopped a cab to the registry office. There we had to wait and wait our turn which was rather frustrating since its bad enough having a wedding and I just wanted to be married. I did at one point comment ‘’lets get this bloody thing done’’ Finally they called our name and we went into the room with the registrar, two witnesses, translator and Leti.  The registrar did all the formal stuff and then just said he wanted to say a few rods to us. He told us that marriage meant a partnership and that we must always support each other through good and bad times. That we must be there for each other and always remain friends etc. It was really really nice and I could honestly not have wanted a different registrar, even though he spoke in Spanish and the translator translated for us, it felt very special.  We then signed more documents, exchanged rings and we were done. Walking out of the registry office to a shower of rice which was just fun.

We then spent a few hours in the rose garden with the photographer. WOW he really did a fantastic job. I hate this kind of thing, a photo session is my worst nightmare but Emiliano made it painless and easy, plus the photos turned out fantastic. Finally the wedding was over and we could settle down to a takeout veggie meal from the restaurant across the way from the hotel, man we really are cheap and easy. We did however go out for a lovely romantic dinner for two at a great Argentinean restaurant.

I cannot thank Leti from Fabulous weddings enough for helping us put this all together so painlessly. I must also thank Karin for doing an awesome makeup and hair job on this biker chick, plus  Jordana and Juana for being our witnesses and Margarita our translator for being there at our wedding.  I especially need to thank Emiliano for taking the most amazing photos I hardy recognise myself, he truly did a great job.

 The wedding party; Jordana and Juana our two witnesses. Joern and me. Margarita the translator and Leti the wedding planner.

 The photographer Emiliano, Leti and me

This honestly was my kind of wedding. We will have a celebratory party back in Switzerland in a year’s time on our first anniversary.

After leaving Iguaçu I hit the Brazilian / Argentina border and it was the easiest border crossing to date. On the Brazilian side it took about 5 minutes to get my passport stamped, no bike formalities. On the Argentinean side I rode up to the booth, I did not even need to get off my bike the lady asked for my passport and bike documents. She then filled some stuff in on the computer, I did not need to fill in or sign any documents. Once finished I asked her is that it and she said sure just stop at the customs officer. The customs officer just asked me if I had insurance for Argentina I said no and so she gave the name of the insurance company and said I can get it in the next town. ALL this while I am still sitting on the bike. DAMN easy man.

Unfortunately the insurance company in the town could not do insurance for a foreign bike so sent me to another company, but they were closed. So I decided I had to risk it until I got to a larger town.

About 100kms after the border crossing I was riding along and this ox pulled up next to me, the guy hooted and waved me down. I waved back but though hell no way am I stopping. He pulled on the other side of me and gave me a thumbs up and motioned me to pull over, so I thought ok some biker who wants to say hi so I pulled over. He stopped and started speaking to me in German Awesome, I immediately realised that he had recognised the Zurich number plate.

Vreni and Carlos

To cut a long story short Carlos is Argentinean but lived in Switzerland for 30 years, his wife Vreni was born in Argentina but from Swiss parents. All 4 of their kids and 5 grandkids live in Switzerland.  When Carlos retired he returned to Argentina with Vreni, but visit Switzerland every year. They live in a small village in north Argentina and it is full of Swiss and German people.

Carlos asked me please to come home with him to meet his wife so I said yes since the chance to hear & speak German for an afternoon with such nice people was just too tempting. Carlos called Vreni and just said ‘’mama get the spaghetti on we have a visitor for lunch’’. Needless to say I spent the next 3 hours speaking German and eating spaghetti it was FANTASTIC 🙂 What a lovely couple and what a yummy home cooked meal.

Carlos is also a biker and we then rode through his little village together and back to a town called Puerto Rico to get my bike insurance as Carlos knew exactly where to get it done. SUPER insured up off I went thanking Carlos for his help and wonderful hospitality.

I spent a night in Posada another in Colon and finally arrived in Buenos Aires. The riding in Argentina was easy the roads were great. The birdlife along the way was also excellent I cannot believe how many birds of prey I saw over those few hundred kms. The last day of riding was a wet one but fortunately I only had 350kms to ride, arriving in Buenos Aires very cold and wet but a hot shower later and I could feel my feet again.

 final stretch through Argentina to Buenos Aires

I could not believe I was finally in Buenos Aires and when Joern arrived at 5am on Saturday morning I was the happiest women in the world. We’ll be spending a week in Buenos Aires sorting out bikes and then we head south.

Porangatu

 Day 4 to Porangatu

Frajola had arranged for me to stay in Porangatu with another biking couple Junior and Marcia. The ride there was easy and I had their address setup in GPS. About 10kms outside the city I passed a police block, there are many of these in Brazil but had never been stopped not once, until this day. A policeman stepped into the road and waved me down, I was surprised but pulled over. There was a biker standing next to him and I assumed he had been pulled over as well. The office said something which I did not understand and the biker said ‘’documents, documents’’ as I was about to reach for my passport still very confused I noticed the name Junior on the bikers patch. J man oh man they really had me going I can only image the look on my face. We had a good laugh at that, the officer is friend of Juniors and helped him play the joke on me.

 Junior and Marcia what a lovely couple

 Juniors Mascot, I just love it 🙂

Although Junior and Marcia do not speak English and I do not speak Portuguese with Google translate, the few words I recognized, hand gestures and expressions we managed to communicate and had a wonderful evening. I was exhausted and really felt the need to just chill and have an evening in and that is exactly what Junior and Marcia did for me, they made me feel completely at home, it was wonderful. Great company, excellent food (home cooked meal of the fish Junior had caught, which we ate outside on their huge patio), great music (we listed to good old classic 80s music bringing back some fantastic childhood memories for us plus of course queen and guns and roses) what a great evening I could not have asked for a better evening. One of the things I just loved was Juniors mascot, the gorilla just perfect.

I had an early night and slept very well and late so headed off to Trindade at about 9am.

Trindade (Goiânia)

    Day 5 to Trindade

The trip to Trindade went really well, I was back in the riding groove and just enjoyed every minute of it. It was still a long boring road but I love it. I also realised that unless you are happy in your own head you cannot be an adventure biker. This is not a criticism as not many people enjoy true adventure biking, they prefer to be on a tour in a group of just do short day / week trips, which is fine it’s all just different strokes for different folks. When I get in the zone I just love it and can ride for hundreds of kms alone and content. This is how I felt on the ride to Trindade and was really glad to have my old self back again 🙂

 Ediberto, Nubia, me and Jean Paul

I arrived in Trindade where I had arranged to meet Jotope (Jean Paul) we had agreed to meet at a petrol station where he said I could ask the ladies in the near pharmacy to call him. However as I arrived he arrived to, very fortuitous. I followed him and after meeting his two gorgeous put bulls, who he adores ( and I love to see that 🙂 it made me very happy ) and his girlfriend Nubia, I had a nice shower and put my clothes in the wash ( I had not washed for 3 weeks and my clothes stank so this was a much needed activity) I had a chat to Jean Paul and heard about his life. WOW what an interesting man, I think we need to have a few more conversations. He is a civil engineer by trade but spent 27 years in the French foreign legion and retired as a Captain after he was shot 3 times in the back. He was sent to 104 different countries with the legion and he speaks, French, English, Portuguese and Spanish. After retiring he bought a farm in Portugal with this wife however after she passed he returned to Brazil, living initially in the south and the moving to Goiânia, because it rains too much in the south and he likes the heat. Jean Paul will only ride goldwings and has had three covering almost a million kilometres on the 3 bikes, but he only rides the old models not the new ones. He does what we all do on trail bikes on his goldwings and has ridden across Asia, including Mongolia on his goldwing as well as the northern part of Africa from Morocco. The current one unfortunately has alternator problems so he is waiting to get a new part when he goes to Mexico in a few weeks. He is also president of the Brazil chapter of L.A.M.A Latin American Motorcycle Association.  What an interesting and very nice and hospitable person. I really  Liked Jotopes house it is an open plan house with an outdoor kitchen plus a patio with BBQ, what I liked were the honeybirds so used ot humans they flew in and out and he could put his hand right next them when they were using the feeders just stunning. He also has the largest mango tree I have ever seen 🙂

 a few of the bikes at the bike meet

São José do Rio Preto

What a great and welcome interruption to my ride out of Trindade. I met up with Rui and Sinomar on the motorway and was taken for lunch, how cool is that. I was so late I thought they would not be there as we’d arrange to meet mid morning and it was already lunch time due to my oversleeping. THANKS guys for waiting it was great to meet you two crazy Brazilian bikers. Thanks Rui Leite for the lovely T-shirts and Thanks Sinomar for the great lunch. Rui does not speak English however Sinomar does speak some, however once again all language barriers were transcended by their wonderful hospitality and the common topic of bikes. It was just awesome to meet these two guys I will not forget riding along the motorway and seeing two bikers flagging me down, such a cool sight.

with Rui

with Sinomar

 Day 6 to São José do Rio Preto

At about 17:30 I was so tired I started to look for a hotel and on the horizon saw the Pousada Onsen Rio Preto a thermal spa and thought ‘’damn it I could do with some thermal spaing right now, so no matter what the cost I’m staying’’ The hotel looked okay so I pulled up and checked in, only to find that this is where thermal spas goes to die. The place must have been wonderful in its day, huge rock pools, plenty of thermal pools, tennis courts and massage building. You could really imagine how it once looked, but sadly no more. Only two of the small thermal pools were full, one was warmish and the other slightly warmer. The many stunning pools, rock pools and thermal pools all lay empty, the walking paths were cracked and the whole place was just worn and in need of a good lick of paint, so sad. However on the bright side it was cheap and the one warmer thermal pool was lovely 🙂 The hotel was slightly creepy though with only about 5 guests and made me think of the shining … so I put a chair in front of the room door that night … not sure what that would do against the creepy ghosts but it made me feel better.

Maringa

 Day 7 to Maringa

The following day I had a great 443km ride to Maringa, the weather was warm but just slightly cooler than up north and that was very welcome. I stopped on the way at a typical Brazilian roadside restaurant churrascaria a place where meat is cooked in Churrasco (BBQ) style. You find these places all along the roadsides in Brazil and the food is FANTASTIC. Every place I went to even if it was a petrol station restaurant had a buffet style lunches and this Churrasco meat available and boy are they good. I also bumped into a few bikers along the way which is always fun.  It seems Saturday is the bike clubs / groups day to ride as Sunday is family day in Brazil. There were plenty of clubs out and it just put me in such a good mood seeing all the bikes from unbelievably speed (remember these are Brazilian crazy riders) sports bikes to a group of Harleys and a small group of three wheelers. What a day 🙂

Foz Do Iguazu

 Day 8 to Foz Do Iguazu

I finally arrived at Foz Do Iguazu after 4620kms from Oiapoque on the border of French Guiana. I had just crossed the 5th largest country in the world, from top to bottom on my motorbike. The others being Russia (which I crossed in 2012) USA (which I will cross in 2016) China (which I did backpacking in 2001, and on my bike in 2012) leaving Canada on my bucket list.  I’ve now also travelled 80 countries in the world (my goal is 100 before I die) I’ll stayed in Iguazu for 2 days so that I could go and see the falls.

I got up early, caught the bus to the falls and wow they are stunning. I saw them before, during and after one of the heaviest rain showers I have ever experienced.  When it rains in Brazil it sure does bloody rain. It was coming down cats and dogs and after getting soaked I decided that I’d had enough of the falls and hopped a bus back to town.

 while taking one of the pictures I looked up and saw this little guy

I asked at the central bus station about going to Paraguay and the guy said it could not be easier ‘’just cross the road and take the first bus that stops’’ which literally arrived as I walking towards the stop. It took 10 minutes and we were across the bridge in Paraguay, no border check or anything.

Ciudad del Este is border town across from Iguazu and my first impressions were not very impressive. It was dirty, crowded, smelly and full of shopping malls. The prices are really cheap so this is a shopping haven for Brazilians. I was sadly not impressed although I think the heavy rain that kept me inside the shopping malls had a lot to do with my bias which may be unfair. I did however stop for sushi for lunch and was to die for, the best sushi ever. I did not feel like walking around Ciudad del Este in the heavy rain especially since I was now soaked to the bone and still trying to fight a cold. So I came back to the hotel and spent the afternoon lying on my bed listening to the rain and watching videos, a very welcome warm chillaxing afternoon. I relay liked the Pousada I stayed in, Pousada Aloha, the people are lovely and the rooms are so nicely and individually decorated you just want to spend time in them. It really feels like home and not a B&B.

 Junior and Gracia from Pousada Alaha