Hi all,
Another big week, so Iīll probably split this into 2 emails again. We are back in Vina del Mar at present and should be making contact with the group we are shipping the bikes home with sometime today.
We last left you in Bariloche and we decided that the most scenic way to travel North was to hop back and forth over the Andes as many times as possible. So, we left Bariloche for a pass that Martin (Swiss guy on BMW from earlier in trip) and the Dutch scooter guys had raved about. We pretended we were on tall sportbikes. The pass did not disappoint-beautiful scenery and a fantastic twisty, newly-paved road that allowed us to finally scrub the chicken strips off our new tires (non-bikers: chicken strips are the part of the tread on the outside edge of a motorcycle tire that hasnīt seen the pavement yet. If you travel only in a straight line, or go around corners really slowly, then you have big chicken strips and little respect among other bikers). The mountains and lakes in this area were also fantastic and we had a super sunny and gorgeous day. Per usual, the Argentina border crossing was much easier than the Chilean one. There is a noticeable difference between these 2 countries in terms of how friendly everyone, including the border officials, are. Chile almost always makes you fill out all your own forms, and if you miss entering some info in a section (such as the name of the border crossing you are at), they give it back to you to complete, they will rarely help you by filling in this missing information for you. At this border crossing, the customs guy who gave us the forms spoke to us in extrememly rapid Spanish and refused to speak more slowly/clearly when I explained that my Spanish wasnīt so good. To boot, we were asked to fill out our own paperwork, per usual, but there werenīt any pens and the guy said he didnīt have another. This is now our 5th passage into Chile and I guess I was in a feisty mood that day and although we have a pen or two in our bags, I was like- hey man, we want to come into your country and spend money and if you donīt have a pen for me to fill out this form with, and you donīt want to fill it out for me with Chileīs only pen, then I guess weīll spend that money in Argentina instead. Of course, my Spanish isnīt as eloquent as that but I guess the point was made because a pen magically appeared.
Once in Chile, we were treated to crummy ashphalt, but still beautifull views of the many volcanos in the area. Our destination that night was Valdivia, a town we missed on our way down through Chile when opted to take that great ride on the trail between the 2 volcanos on New Years day. However, Valdivia is the home of our favourite Chilean cerveza- Kunstmann- so we were disappointed to have missed seeing the factory on the way down. Apparently, there are quite a few Germans in Chile and they started brewing their own beer here, probably in response to all the other nondescript Chilean brands that get consumed here. That night, we had dinner at the huge German beer garden-type brew pub they have attached to the factory. Dinner was basically a bowl of assorted sausages and smoked pork ribs and 4 liters of beer, 2.5 of which arrived in a columna, a one-meter tall glass cylinder of beautiful beer with its own tap. I love beer. Donīt worry, we werenīt riding our bikes that night. Of course, in our inebriated state, we bought a few souvenirs at the gift shop.
Next day, we awoke late, but with relatively clear heads (surprisingly) and had breakfast in town- Valdivia is quite a nice town where 3 rivers meet. We had breakfast across from the mercado fluvial- a market on the shore of a river where there were several rowing shells out. I was surprised to see that they had pretty good technique and modern equipment (hatchets and no wooden boats in sight). Who knew. The riverside market is half fish and lots of it and half fruit. Hilarious vendors trying their best. One suggested I could sit on the comfortable bundle of kelp he would sell me when I explained that we were travelling on motorcycles and had no room to carry it (I often give this excuse to vendors trying to sell us stuff but never had someone be so creative in suggesting how we might get around it).
We drove back to the Argentina border through Villarica and Pucon, the place where we spent New Years. It seems kind of wierd to be coming back to these places that we were at a month and a half ago. The road to the border was dirt and the views were sort of hidden by the forest but we emerged near the top of the pass to find a huge volcano right next to the road and a forest of monkey puzzle trees. Really neat! This border crossing went smoothly and we had wonderful views coming back on the Argentine side. At places in the mountains here, you look out and see layer upon layer of mountains and your point of view on the the mountains closest to you changes more quickly than the mountains further away so the result is that the view changes in front of your eyes as you ride along. It was sort of later in the day too so the setting sun was hitting the mountains and the colours were amazing.
We arrived in Junin de Los Andes right in the middle of some week-long festival. There were tons of fully-dressed-up Gauchos (Argentine cowboys) all over the place and the square was filled with vendors selling Gaucho gear and tack. We found a super bueno hosteria and went out to have a bite and take in the festive atmosphere. Argentinos are so friendly and nice. We really had fun checking out the gear, window-shopping and chatting with the friendly vendors until well past midnight. We were sorry that we didnīt really have time to stick around for 2 more days to see the rodeo (or whatever a Gaucho rodeo is called) coming up on the weekend.
We werenīt quite sure where the next town was that would have good facilities for tourists- by now, we are back on Ruta 40, the same Ruta 40 that we took through howling Patagonia. Ruta 40 is known for being in questionable shape all the way along and we had heard it deteriorates somewhat past Junin. As a result, not as many people visit this area and the guidebook doesnīt cover many towns in this stretch. Scott calls this getting off the boat- when you go somewhere that you know nothing about. Some towns on the map have great tourism facilities and others have 3 houses and a gas station and you never really know what you are going to get until you get there. Neuquen province treated us well- they are really working on developing their tourism and as a result, we were stopped twice by the cops at checkpoints- usually motorbikes get waved on through these checkpoints that are often at the entrance to bigger towns. I was actually a bit concerned at the second one when they asked Scott to stop several feet behind me (usually we go into them together) and then asked to see our passports. I thought for a split second about giving him my old one, in case he tried to bribe us to get them back. Luckily, they seem to just be checking in on tourists for research purposes -there were a couple of Neuquen Tourism people on hand to give us directions to the local tourism office. We figure they are just trying to gather info about tourists in the area, to see where they are from and where they are going. That said, I did notice when we crossed the border several days later that there was a record in the computer of us checking in with this cop. Ruta 40 in Mendoza province deteriorated as promised, but Iīll have to finish the story later as we need to get some work done on the bikes to prepare them for shipping.
Cheers all,
Scott and Pam