RogoRides

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One thing we neglected to mention yesterday is that we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn.

Today was a good ride –we covered 568 kilometers from Antofagasta to Copiapo in the Atacama Desert. As we climbed the long hill out of Antofagasta we watched two dirt bike riders doing motocross jumps on the opposite ridge; they were obviously much lighter that we were. Like yesterday, there were limited gas stations on our route so fuel management became very important.

Once underway, we resigned ourselves to more desert scenery but were surprised by the new changes that quickly began to appear. First, other than the sandy ridge that the dirt bikers were on, instead, the mountains are less sharp and craggy, and it is possible to see the multiple colors of different types of stone rippling through the heights. The dunes gave way to stony ground stretching from the road to the foot of the hills. There were often unexpected surprises such as the “Mano del Desierto” or Stone Hand sculpture rising from the earth, and the ruins of an old British Fort in the middle of the wasteland. There were several more geoglyph sites; we have found it difficult to decipher the lines, maybe one of you out there can tell what they are!

We had very good roads for most of the way; very straight again; there was a stretch about 10 kilometers long where we were diverted onto a detour a temporary parallel roadway while the main road was being resurfaced. It’s nice that the temporary roadway was also paved. The road workers wear bright-colored work clothes that include masks and hats to protect against the sun and wind. We knew that we were climbing some when we left the coast, but were both very surprised to see the GPS showing us at 7071 f.a.s.l. The climbs were very gentle compared to the ones we have seen previously.

We saw many abandoned mines, and some that are still functioning with new facilities including flexible tanks and solar panels. We also began to see long stretches of white, which we believe was salt. When we checked on the map, we were in the area of several Salars or salt flats, at the beginning of the Atacama Desert.

The terrain changed somewhat after that; we began to see small pockets of green scrub brush on the side of the road, and some small purple flowers. The stony ground began to produce sharp black rock chunks that looked almost like obsidian. The hills had huge black stripes running across them; we thought perhaps they were seams of coal. We will have to find out what they are?

We wound our way back down to sea level and again approached the coast at Chanaral. Chanaral is a pretty seaport with a large cove filled with summer fun-seekers. There is a large salt-water swimming pool, and a lighthouse perched above the town overlooking the bay. Even after leaving the town, for the next several kilometers we saw many many campers with tents set up by the beautiful beaches. There’s nothing like summer by the sea! We stopped there to fill up and had lunch (which was terrible) at the Shell gas station’s restaurant. Afterward while we were suiting up, Dave noticed another Adventure rider filling up at the gas station and went to talk with him. Ben is from Holland, has been on the road for two years, and unlike most of the riders we have met is traveling in the same direction! We chatted for a while and swapped rider info, then said goodbye. About 30 minutes later a BMW blur raced by with a camera in hand, and we took photos of each at 100 kilometers/hour.

Just south of Chanaral we passed a beautiful airport terminal for the Atacama Desert Airport. It was a very modern new building and was teeming with people. It appeared to have jet service by LAN airlines.

Another hour to Copiapó, and the terrain continued to grow greener and greener. Not only was the wild flora increasing with trees and shrubs, we began to see lush green vineyards creeping up the sides of the barren hills. It was odd to see all the different types of trees growing side by side along the road. We when finally arrived in Copiapó, we found an energetic small town with a beautiful central square surrounded by a variety of trees. The architecture and layout of the town struck us both as very English, and we remembered that the British had been the most recent colonizers of Chile. We found a reasonable room at the Hotel San Francisco de la Selva, just a block of the main square. We spent some time in the square watching the people, and then went to the Bavaria Restaurant for dinner.

Tomorrow we should make it pretty close to Santiago and hopefully enter Santiago on Tuesday to look for a new rear tire as our current one will have over 10,000 miles by then.

Here is where we are tonight – we sent our coordinates from the town square, look for it on the satellite.

Latitude: -27.3662
Longitude: -70.3325
Nearest Town from unit Location: Copiapo, Chile
Distance to the nearest town: 0 km(s)
Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/17/2008 23:11:09

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-27.3662,-70.3325&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

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We had the best included breakfast yet in Copiapó; a self-serve buffet that included scrambled eggs, ham, that wonderful French bread and cheese, juice, and 2 kinds of sweet rolls, one of which contained sweet chestnuts. Fully fueled to hit the road, we finished packing and loading the bike, made somewhat easier by the fact that our window opened directly over Tiburon’s parking spot and we could just toss the soft stuff like jackets out the window instead of trucking down the stairs. Pam went to pay the hotel and was met with a rude surprise—her credit card would not work. We used another card, but tried to take some cash from an ATM, and still got a “funds not available” reply. We will have to call the bank tonight and find out what’s going on—we know there is plenty of cash in that account.

On the road again at about 10:00 am, we left pretty Copiapó and headed south. Copiapó sits a little bit inland; our road will cut back to the coast in a couple hundred miles for quite a ways, then later head back inland toward Santiago. The Atacama Desert, although still dry, is definitely starting to show more signs of life. The scrub vegetation is beginning to get thicker and we are about to see our first cactus.

As we were refueling before reaching La Serena, another bike with 2-up pulled into the lot. Dave went over to talk with them and we all got together briefly for a chat and a picture taken by a generous passer-by. They were Sergio and Carolina from Santiago, and were working their way North on vacation. They recommended many of the national reserves and parks, in particular an island where you can find dolphins and the world’s smallest penguins.

We encountered our first peaje or tollbooth in Chile; unlike the northern neighbors, Chile expects all vehicles to pay for using the road (there’s even a sign that says so). The amount varies each time, so we had to dig for money at each stop. It was relatively painless—at least we didn’t have to squeeze through those narrow “moto” lanes anymore. We were charged roughly half of what cars had to pay. The first 200 miles of our travel today was all narrow two lane that we have become accustomed to. The last 200 miles today was four lane divided toll highway with occasional additional passing lanes and was very good. We made excellent progress today, we may have gone the furthest distance of our trip so far and it was pretty easy.

Traveling on the coast road at sea level and 110 kilometers an hour it got downright chilly; we stopped and Pam dug out the sweaters. Good thing we did, as the elevation kept going higher; but with the sweaters, Frogg Toggs and mesh jackets we were still toasty all afternoon.

We stopped briefly to gas up, have a snack, get some water and stretch our legs; immediately we were accosted by a thin, woman dressed in a long leopard print skirt and flowered top begging for money. She was very persistent until Dave said “NO!” and waggled his finger and then ignored her. She was one of three that were all dressed in similar fashion and ‘worked” the same way. We watched them (and Tiburon) for quite a while as we sat at our outside table with our water and snacks. They were quite an act, and hit every person coming or going in the lot. They may have been Gypsies as they did not look local and had henna in their hair. They were able bodied and there was no reason they could not work – therefore they get no sympathy from us. Nor did we see anyone else give them anything.

Back on the road again, traffic suddenly came to a complete halt. It looked like it had been there for a while, as engines were turned off and people were out talking with each other. We asked someone coming back from the blocked area what was going on and he replied “un muerto”—a death. Apparently there had been a collision between a bicycle and delivery truck, and both lost. The truck had rolled into the ditch, the bicycle was in pieces, and it all looked pretty bloody when we passed it a short time later.

As we drew closer to Santiago, we came through groves of eucalyptus trees. It smelled so good! We also could see acres of farmland and the resultant produce being sold at roadside stands. There were many entrepreneurs on the side of the road waving white pom poms at each car as it approached. They had something in a large basket or bucket that looked like a coal hod and covered with a cloth, and appeared to be counting or measuring out something for those who stopped. We did not stop ourselves as we were trying to get to Santiago before dark, so whatever was in the buckets is still a mystery to us. We did see many signs for bread, cheese, olives and fruit.

Our last tollbooth put us on the “Autopista de Aconcagua”, Aconcagua being one of the highest mountains in the Chilean Andes. The road took us through our longest tunnel yet at 2.5 kilometers long. Several warning signs prior to the tunnel gave everyone the option to use the tunnel or get off the toll way and use an alternate route along the cliff.

We arrived in Santiago just at sundown at 8:30pm. We were very lucky with traffic, there was hardly any at all. We worked our way toward the Centro to attempt to find a hotel, preferably the City Hotel at which we had stayed years ago. To make a very long story short, 2 taxis, countless circuits of the one-way streets in the center, and an illegal short-cut up the middle of the pedestrian promenade, 2 hours and several hotel stops later we finally found (by sheer luck) a very nice room at the Hotel Riviera on the corner of Miraflores and Moneda.

We went outside to find a place with a clear view of the sky to send our satellite coordinates. We tried standing in the center of the Alameda in a raised median area. While waiting for our Spot, we watched 2 street dogs that had their own game going with the taxis. The would wait in the outside lane, sometimes even lying down in it; whenever a taxi approached, they would chase it until it was out of “their” intersection. They would chase the taxis across one of the busiest streets in Santiago and then return before the light changed and massive traffic moved in. They never chased any cars other than taxis, and never very far. Neither dog was young. We have noticed throughout Chile that there are stray dogs living on just about every street corner. In America we have homeless people and beggars; in Chile they have homeless dogs that seemed to be well liked and somewhat cared for of at least tolerated by the local population.

In spite of two attempts we were unable to send our coordinates via satellite. There are too many high rise buildings and we do not have an unobstructed view of the sky. Tomorrow during daylight we will venture out into a nearby open area and try to send our Spot.

We had a delicious late dinner at Restaurant Nuria near our hotel where we ordered personal pizzas. They were the real things, just like we have had in Italy, and hit the spot. We got there just before closing; when midnight came, a buzzer signaling closing time rang for about 10 seconds, and all the wait staff sprung into action, putting chairs up on tables, closing the shutters on the windows, etc… We were graciously ushered out the tiny exit door through the locked metal shutter when we finished our meal.

The next couple of days we will try and put new tires on Tiburon and do a little maintenance including washing all of our clothes. We will also enjoy the many amenities available in summertime Santiago, where the temperature the last few weeks has been averaging 81^o Fahrenheit.

Here is where we were tonight. The green arrow in the satellite picture is across the park that our hotel room looks out on. Our hotel is located on the corner of Miraflores and Moneda Streets. We were standing beside the Alameda or Avenida Bernardo O’Higgins when we sent our location. The spot seems to be off by about 100 feet, probably because of sky obstruction we were not receiving all of the satellites.

Latitude: -33.4424
Longitude: -70.6443

Nearest Town from unit Location: Santiago, Chile

Distance to the nearest town: 0 km

Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/19/2008 23:45:41

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-33.4424,-70.6443&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

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Beautiful Santiago! It has been 13 years since we were last here, and that was in the wintertime. Today we are watching people dressed in light summer clothes walking through the park and tree-lined streets and thoroughly enjoying the day.

In the daylight we can better appreciate our hotel. Not only does the Hotel Riviera (www.rivierahotel.cl) have covered secure parking, internet, and breakfast included, our room is very nice; it is on the third floor and though small is larger than the standard room as it is a corner room and has full curved windows on two sides. The hotel is very well situated on the corner of Miraflores and Moneda, just one block from Cerro Santa Lucia, the gorgeous city park situated on a large forested hill and with a fabulous 360-degree view of the city from the top. The view from our room overlooks a crosswalk and a small park, and has a view of Santa Lucia as well. In the other direction, it is only a short walk to the paseos, the pedestrian walkways lined with shops and eateries and a wonderful place to people-watch.

On Tuesday after breakfast (toast, coffee or tea, and rolls with bread and butter) Dave took the metro (subway) and then a bus out to Avenida Vicuña McKenna where there were several motorcycle shops listed in the yellow pages, (Interesting, the motorcycle shops were on Avenida Vicuña McKenna in Arica, too.) The metro system and city busses in Santiago are modern and very good, and probably are the reason the streets are not choked with traffic.

Upon arriving at the shop that was listed in the yellow pages this shop gave Dave directions to turn right and walk down 10^th of July Street where he was told there are more shops. Finally after walking several blocks Dave came to a large neighborhood filled with hundreds of auto and motorcycle businesses of every description. Many of the shops had men standing on the street to waive you in as you drove into the area. Dave spent all morning visiting bike shops and looking for tires, oil and a filter for the VStrom. Although there were many sellers of tires finding the correct size proved difficult. Without too much trouble a Pirelli made in Brazil was located that would fit the rear, but nobody seemed to have a front tire. Well, maybe the front could wait if really necessary but the search went on. What Dave really wanted was a pair of highly recommended Metzler Tourances a tire that is described as 60% highway and 40% off road. Unfortunately, after locating the Metzler distributor Dave learned that the Tourances were sold out in his sizes.

Dave visited a shop, “Moto Mats Express”, Lira 824, Santiago Centro , that was recommended by several of the shops to install whatever tires were eventually purchased. Moto Mats was a small shop but had high quality tools and equipment and experienced mechanics. While talking to the mechanics at the shop Dave was introduced to Ricardo Cespedes who owned both Moto Mats and a larger shop in the Santiago suburb of Las Condes called “Moto Pro”. Ricardo had learned the business as a mechanic for Yamaha for many years and later decided to start his own business. Dave rode with Ricardo out to the neighborhood where his other shop was located and Ricardo offered to help Dave find a pair of tires that fit Tiburon. After several failed attempts the local Continental Tire dealer, “Motouring Chile” Los Juncos 388, Las Condes, Santiago www.motouring.cl said that they could have a pair to fit the VStrom by noon the following day. They also carried synthetic 10W-40-motorcycle oil that was needed for the oil change. So arrangements were made, Carlos Ramirez of Motouring would call Dave when the tires arrived and Dave would ride Tiburon to Ricardo’s shop in Las Condes where the installation and oil change would be done.

While Dave was tire shopping, Pam went searching for a laundry. The Yellow Pages showed several “Lavanderia Automatico” listings, and the hotel desk clerk assured her that there was one just in the next block. When she arrived, it turns out “Automatico” means they have an automatic washing machine—for their use, not the public’s. Two more stops failed to turn up a public laundry, so we bit the bullet and paid to have the laundry done, which included having our mesh coats cleaned. In the end it was worth it, as they were able to return the clothes within 4 hours, and even Dave’s bright yellow coat looked like new with all the road grime removed.

It did take longer that expected to return to the hotel, as Pam got turned around in the one-way streets and walked 4 blocks in the wrong direction. The upside was that she discovered the large Plaza de Armas, with beautiful buildings and market stalls in the old porticos. There were hundreds of people walking about or sitting on the many benches. Pam finally got her bearings and was able to navigate back to the hotel where Dave had just returned. Success on both counts the first day! We went back to the Plaza de Armas to send Spot, and got some good pictures of the old church and statues there. Afterwards we went back to Restaurate Nuria’s for dinner and a huge ice cream sundae for dessert.

Meals in Santiago are more expensive than other places we have been; we are averaging $24 USD for two of us. Breakfast included at the hotel helps, and if we eat breakfast late, a light snack in late afternoon and dinner later in the evening keep us in budget. Restaurante Nuria’s is both good food and affordable.

Wednesday morning after breakfast we went for a walk while waiting for the Tire shop to call and tell us the tires were in. It was warm but breezy, and the temperature was comfortable even at 82^o. We came upon a section of street that had a “No Parking Except Motorcycles” sign—Dave loved that! He took pictures of the line-up of bikes, and of a clothing store called “Matthew” –our younger son Matt should appreciate that.

We decided to just use the hotel’s laundry service to do the few clothes we had been wearing when yesterday’s laundry was done, so that was dropped off. Back in the room we watched the homeless dogs playing in the park across the street, and began plotting out our route for the next stage of our trip; we will have to cross the Andes into Argentina at some point. We also have decided to mail back home the mesh jackets and pants and some other gear. The mesh clothing was required to cross the tropics but now that we are back in the temperate zone and heading south of Santiago we will run into cooler weather again, and we want to be as light as possible when we encounter the rough roads in Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego.

The call from the tire shop finally came and Dave rode Tiburon out to the suburbs to get the work done. Tiburon now sports a new set of Conti Attack tires, more street and racetrack than off road so hopefully we can stay out of the mud, they should be great for the highway. Pam stayed behind to research shipping companies and costs. Unpleasant surprise; 10 kilos (22 lbs) will cost us around $90 USD to ship home. Ouch! Oh well, it will be worth it to lighten the load and increase the safety factor. Now we will have make the final decision on what stays and what goes, and do up the shipping and customs paperwork to send it.

As Pam was hanging up the phone from one of the calls, she thought she recognized Tiburon’s steady purr outside the window. Sure enough, 5 minutes later Dave walked into the room. You know you have been riding a long time when you can recognize your bike’s motor amongst the traffic in a city of 6 million people.

Later we walked back up to the Plaza de Armas to enjoy the evening. There was a group of guitarists playing live music and selling their CD’s; we stopped to listen for a while, as they were quite good. They played one of our favorite Gypsy Kings songs and convinced us to purchase one of the CD’s. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. We had dinner at a different Restaurante Nuria’s (they seem to be everywhere, but the pizza is always great), and wonderful pastries for dessert.

We decided to stay one more day in Santiago just to enjoy and Dave will wash Tiburon and do some minor maintenance. Our Hotel is wonderful – the hotel staff has adopted us as we keep telling them “one more night”—they are very helpful and always have a smile and time for a quick chat. We would highly recommend our Hotel to anyone coming to Santiago, www.rivierahotel.cl , very reasonably priced at $48USD for two people, well located, and great service. And of course secure parking for the bike right next door included in the price of the room.

Thursday morning we went down to a full breakfast room; the hotel has a group of young European tourists staying for a few days. Listening to the excited chatter over coffee brought back good memories of our own trips years ago as young backpackers in Europe.

Santiago is a nice city to ride the motorcycle in, unlike most other large cities in Latin America. The drivers are polite and not in too much of a hurry. Trying to find his way back to the motorcycle neighborhood on the bike this time, Dave found that the main street suddenly changed names and ended in a cross street that said “no turns”. He had to turn somewhere, so made an illegal “U” turn (which was OK for motos in most countries) right under the watchful eye of the local carabinieri (police). Dave did his best not to ‘see” them waving him down, but they radioed ahead to the next street corner and there was no way to avoid stopping this time. After 15 minutes of speaking only English and trying to explain why he had made the turn, the carabinieri gave up and told him to “go”. He quickly found his way back to the right street and avoided any more illegal turns as much as possible. Though Dave is convinced that if you obey all of the signs in Santiago you cannot get there from here.

Pam did some window-shopping; there are wonderful leather shops here, and jewelry too; deep blue lapis lazuli can be found in a lot of places and seems to be quite popular. Many of the fun places to window-shop are not on the main streets but are tucked back into the maze-like galleries of ‘metro” centers—sort of like mini-malls.

Dave arrived back first, and took some great shots from the hotel window of the homeless dogs sacked out in their park, and passers-by in general, including a whole stream of backpackers who looked like they had just arrived in town. Later we went out to a local German tearoom, Café Colonia (www.cafecolonia.cl), for a pastry and coffee. The pastries were wonderful, apple strudel and cream-filled cherry strudel, served with cappuccinos in small glass mugs piled high with whipped cream.

We strolled through some of the galleries on our way back to the hotel, and then buckled down to business sorting through packing. Dave got our friend at the front desk to find us a box for shipping and some packing tape, and we redistributed what was left to balance the load evenly with the heaviest on the bottom. We grabbed one last quick pizza at Nuria’s before heading back to watch the Democratic Debate on CNN. Tomorrow we will drop our package off at the post office when it opens at 9am, and then will head south along the Panamericana Sur toward Osorno. From Osorno we will head east over the Andes to San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina in the Lake District.

Here are our satellite coordinates sent from the historic Plaza de Armas in Santiago. If you zoom way in on the satellite photos you can see details of Santiago’s small main square.

Latitude: -33.4378
Longitude: -70.6503
Nearest Town from unit Location: Santiago, Chile
Distance to the nearest town: 2 km(s)

Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/19/2008 23:12:16

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-33.4378,-70.6503&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

The coordinates and link below are sent from across the park which our hotel room looks out on – If you zoom in on the satellite you should be able to see Sierra Santa Lucia – our hotel sits on the little park at the bottom of the hill.

Latitude: -33.4424
Longitude: -70.6443
Nearest Town from unit Location: Santa Lucia, Santiago, Chile

Distance to the nearest town: 0 km

Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/19/2008 23:45:41

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-33.4424,-70.6443&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

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We are back on the road again today, and reluctantly prepare to say goodbye to Santiago. Having packed up last night our mesh warm-weather riding clothes and some gear to be mailed home, we were up early to be first in line at Correos, the Chilean post Office, when they opened at 9:00am. Not only did we send the mesh jackets and pants, we also decided to send the bike cover and the Kuryakyn Bag (the custom bag made for the Goldwing trunk rack that fits perfectly on the VStrom top bag), and some other items such as our mosquito netting since we are out of the tropics. We cringed at the weight and the corresponding tariff—10.27 kilos at $65USD—but Tiburon is now riding lighter, leaner, and lower, which is good as we anticipate an abundance of gravel roads in our future.

We were the first customers at Correos that was only 2 blocks from the hotel, and the transaction took only 15 minutes. We went back to the Riviera for one last breakfast before loading up and checking out. Dave brought Tiburon around from the garage to the loading zone by the hotel front door while Pam brought down the bags. We had a brief scare as Dave thought he had lost his wallet; we retraced all of our steps back to the garage and the room, and finally found that Pam had inadvertently packed it up in one of the bags. We lost ½ hour though unpacking and checking bags. Finally we were on our way; Dave found our way to the Panamericana Sur with relative ease and we headed south. It was good to get on the highway, as we are both wearing heavier winter gear now and it gets hot FAST when we are driving slowly. The weather will change soon and the cold weather gear will be appreciated.

It didn’t take long to get out of the city and suburbs and find us once again in the abundant farmlands. South of Santiago are the Wine Routes, and vineyards alternate with fruit and vegetable crops for miles on end. The highway follows a valley between the two mountain ranges and the fields are lush and green. The new tires handle well with less effort required and a feeling of confidence in the turns.

We passed several orchards but were unable identify with certainty the types of fruit; given the signs at the fruit stands along the road they could have been apples, peaches, oranges, or avocados. There were also cultivated raspberry bushes and what we think were raised strawberry beds—much easier for picking than beds on the ground. In addition to all these, the fruit stands also advertised melon, sandia, and miel; honeydews, watermelons, and honey, and always with fresh queso—farmer’s cheese.

We came to our first peaje of the day and finally found out what was in the white covered baskets that we had seen when riding into Santiago last week. Swarming all around the tollbooths were hawkers holding the covered baskets that we could now see were full of small sweet cakes and breads. This is a whole new concept in drive-through fast food.

The road was good solid divided highway all the way today, with tollbooths every so often as we change regions. Dave pulled off one exit to gas up, and we tried to pay the exit toll; the nice toll-taker asked if we had our recibo (receipt) from when we got on. Apparently, if you have your receipt, you can trade it in for a new one similar to a bus transfer so you don’t have to pay twice. We learn something new every day.

It turns out the first gas station did not have the octane we use. We cruised through the small town looking for another station, but couldn’t find one; however we did find a small supermarket, so Pam ran in and bought the makings for a picnic lunch. We got back on the highway and continued a few kilometers to the next COPEC station where we filled up. Another ½ hour down the highway Dave spotted a green park area for lunch so we exited and drove Tiburon through the park to a likely spot. We had homemade cheese-and-mortadella sandwiches and coconut cookies sitting on a park bench under the chestnut trees. Very nice.

We decided to stop for the night in Chillán, about halfway between Santiago and Orsono, where we will turn east to Argentina. It was about 6:00 pm and still very light when we arrived and found a street fair in full swing on the main plaza and paseo. Dave parked Tiburon and the end of the paseo while Pam scouted for hotels; we got one on the second try at the Hotel Cordillera (www.hotelcordillera.cl) for $60USD. A little steeper than we wanted to pay, but it is the weekend and there is a fair in town; we were lucky to find a place, and this included breakfast, parking, cable TV, and wifi internet in the room. AND hot water.

We checked in, changed clothes and went out to explore the happenings in the plaza. Just like in Santiago, there were many street dogs; Eric would love it here. We walked through the craft fair booths that sold jewelry and leather, and a whole row of home made chocolate candy…. On the other side was a huge sidewalk sale of used books, all kinds; it was very neat to walk through and observe the different titles, some in English, most in Spanish.

Here as in every other place we have been in Chile there are several street dogs living on our corner of the Plaza. These appear to be more than just strays. We theorize that they are like shared pets to the local population. We did see some sort of tags on a couple of the dogs that lived near our hotel in Santiago – maybe rabies vaccination or some type of identification? We are still not sure why these animals are tolerated although sometimes eccentric they appear very well behaved around people.

On the paseo, there were displays from the different departments of the local university, including fire fighters, medical students, locally made hiking boots, lots of interesting stuff. Families were roaming with kids in tow carrying balloons and popcorn.

We were thirsty after our ride, so we ducked into a local eatery, the Fuente Alemana (German Fountain) and had an schop and a cherimoya fruit juice. Afterwards back to the hotel to plan for tomorrow.

The last two nights while we were dining the restaurants had TVs showing a large music festival originating from Viña del Mar here in Chile. Last night Journey was the featured band and tonight Peter Frampton was rocking Chile. Frampton was great and received both a silver and gold award for his performance. This is a huge event and Frampton remarked that this was one of the warmest audiences he has ever played for.

Tomorrow we continue south to Osorno and then turn east to cross the Andes.

Here is where we were tonight.

Latitude: -36.6066
Longitude: -72.1035
Nearest Town from unit Location: Chillán, Chile
Distance to the nearest town: 0 km(s)
Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/22/2008 21:56:14
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-36.6066,-72.1035&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

If you zoom in on the satellite photo for the link above you will see the Plaza de Armas or main square of Chillán – our hotel is right across the street on the pedestrian promenade you can see in the photo.

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We got up late and packed and Dave brought Tiburon around to the front of the hotel. Dave rode the bike half a city block up the sidewalk to the hotel on the pedestrian promenade. While Pam was bringing bags down, several people stopped to talk with Dave about the bike. He got lots of suggestions on the best roads to take to Patagonia and places to stop between here and there. When Tiburon was loaded, we set off through Chillán back to the Panamericana Sur toward Orsono. It is still over 500 kilometers away, so we don’t know if we will make it today or not, or maybe detour to one of the places in the lake district that have been suggested .

Although it was warm when we first started out, we were both glad of the winter coats, as the temperature was cooler today due to partially overcast skies. Once back on the highway, the scenery continued to change as we drove further south. Whereas yesterday it was lots of vineyards and farms and dryer, today it was more pasture land with herds of dairy cattle, or and hay fields that have been recently cut. Forests of eucalyptus and pine began to appear, and we saw several signs advertising those woods for sale. We passed logging trucks and many of the forests were obviously planted as the trees grew in rows; in some areas we also saw where they had been clear-cut. The fresh smell of eucalyptus and pine together was wonderful.

We stopped 30 kilometers north of Temuco to gas up and have some lunch. We finally found out what “pastel de choclo” is, as Dave ended up with that when his first choice at the gas station cafeteria ran out. It is basically a chicken pot pie with chicken, onions, olives, mushrooms, sauce, and a crust of corn mixed with cheese. It is a typical Chilean dish and was quite good.

After lunch, we continued on the highway, passing through occasional peajes or tollbooths. We have decided to head to Pucón, a small resort town situated on Lake Villarica, just 12 kilometers from Volcán Villarica, the second most active volcano in South America. We turn off the highway onto a good two-lane road and traveled about 60 kilometers. We first came to the town of Villarica, situated on the Lake of the same name. You cannot see the lake when you first enter the town, but soon the shoreline comes into view and you realize just how big this lake is. We continued following the road around the shore for about another 20 kilometers until we reached Pucón. This was a surprise; as we approached the town, we saw sign after sign advertising hotels, hostels, cabañas, camping—this must be a very popular spot! When we did reach the town, it was filled with tourists. We stopped at a Tourist Information center, which referred us to 3 different hotels within our price range. We got the last room at the first place. Hostal Gerónimo is a very nice establishment, more like a large boarding house. The front lobby is located off the two sitting areas and the wine bar. There is comfortable furniture everywhere; the walls are textured white stucco, and the ceilings are paneled in knotty pine, with pine furniture in the bedrooms. Oriental rugs are on the floor, and old-style milk-glass sconces and chandeliers provide the light. Our room overlooked the back garden filled with flowers. There was secure parking for Tiburon, and breakfast is included in the price, as is internet, and all for about $67USD, which, given this is high season in a very popular tourist destination, is quite reasonable.

After unpacking and changing we walked down to the dock area and sent our Spot coordinates from the end of the wharf. There was an older steam-ship (1905) taking tourists on a sunset cruise (we decided to pass). The harbor was filled with sailboats, powerboats, jet-skis and water-skiers. Not to mention two ships from the Armada Chile—the Chilean Navy.

We sat on the dock and watched the boats and the loons while we waited for Spot, and took several pictures of the steaming volcano. Afterward, we strolled through the town to see what was there. It was almost wall-to-wall people, and they were speaking all sorts of languages—we even heard some Americans. We ducked into the grocery store to pick up water and wine, and we emerged a ½ hour later, there was a dance folkloric show going on across the street at the city hall, complete with costumes and live music.

Julie and Hal would love it here. Lots of outdoor activities including climbing the volcano, hiking, boating, fishing, horseback riding, rafting and camping. The weather is like the perfect Oregon summer.

We took our purchases back to the room and headed out for dinner, going just up the street to Cassis, which appeared to be the most crowded place in town, and had the most scrumptious-looking dessert case you could imagine, most of it with some form of chocolate. We had pizza with Asturias sausage and pimentos; and a ham and cheese crostini sandwich made with Parma ham and goat cheese. Dessert was sarsaparilla and Bavarian cream pie with a scoop of chestnut ice cream (Pam) and a scoop of chocolate ice cream (Dave). It may have been any use sending home the extra weight, as we are both gaining on this trip….

We watched the stars on our walk back to the hotel and tried to find the Southern Cross. We will try again as we are not sure we actually found it.

At 11:30pm the restaurant and the streets were still full of people. We walked back to our hotel, as we want to get a full day riding in tomorrow. We will continue on to Osorno and then head east toward Argentina and Bariloche.

Google satellite photos do not seem to get in close for our location in Pucón so you can use the following link.

Click Here To View Info On Pucón

Latitude: -39.2765
Longitude: -71.9818

Nearest Town from unit Location: Pucón, Chile
Distance to the nearest town: 1 km(s)
Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/23/2008 22:44:15

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-39.2765,-71.9818&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Click Here To View Today’s Photos

It was a beautiful day with crystal clear blue skies when we woke up this morning. We had a wonderful breakfast, much more European than previously, with homemade bread, fresh butter and jam – and – cheese and ham, yogurt, juice, and coffee. The included breakfast coffee in Chile has been primarily powdered Nescafe, but it is made with hot milk or a mix of hot milk and hot water, which gives it a whole new taste. Anyway, we left breakfast feeling well-fueled for the long day ahead—we will cross the Andes from Chile to Argentina, with our sights set tonight on the resort town of San Carlos de Bariloche.

Our map showed a secondary road that went directly south to the cutover across the mountains. Dave asked some local people if that would be a good road to take instead of going all the way back to the autopista highway 5 and then south to Osorno before cutting east. We were advised against it, it was not a road in good condition; so we said goodbye to Pucón and the volcano, and turned back the way we had come till we reached Villarica. I am sure that on a KLR or one up on a Vstrom these unpaved roads would be a lot of fun. Once in Villarica we headed southwest about 30 km over nice country two lane to get back to the autopista. This road was reminiscent of the little lanes out on the Olympic Peninsula 35 years ago. The lakes were beautiful in the morning sun, as was all the pasture, farmland and forest. We went through a lot of brown cut hay fields and other late summer foliage, we saw a notice on TV last night that it is just 28 days until fall. February here in the south corresponds to our August up north for the season of the year.

Once back on the highway, we encountered one last peaje before turning east on route 215 toward the Argentine border. Today we only had to travel 100 miles on the autopista; everything else was on narrow two lane country roads. Route 215 is in relatively good shape, and the traffic wasn’t bad at all. It wound around more countryside and through a town called Entre Lagos –“ between lakes” –, which it was. On the other side of the lakes the Andes rose like they had just emerged from the water. There were lots of farms on this side, and lots of viveros (plant nurseries) too. We passed one large vivero that was growing blooming lilies in all colors, shapes, and sizes—probably 4-5 acres. The scent of lilies was heavy in the air, and the bright colors of pink and yellow among the white was gorgeous.

Growing wild along side the road we saw wild fuchsias in deep rose colors, growing in big bushes rather that the smaller plants we usually see at home. We also saw lots of ripe wild raspberry and blackberry bushes, and people out picking them. At many of the farm stands we see now, we see the berries advertised along with the other fruits and cheeses.

Finally we saw signs for the entrance to the Puyehue National Park, and for Chilean Aduana (Customs). The Park is part of an area of protected forest reserve that stretches on both sides of the mountains and the border, although in Argentina it is the Nahuel Huapi National Park. The road is excellent, and lined with trees that change with the elevation; eucalyptus, pines, firs, and all the wonderful woodland smells. The road through the mountains was extraordinary, both in scenery and in road conditions – lots of twistys on good road.

We cleared Customs out of Chile in about 20 minutes, and after about 30 minutes of driving through the park and cresting the pass at 1321 meters (4,293 feet), we cleared into Argentina in about 10 minutes —much easier than the crossings we had in Central America. As we finished up in Argentina, another rider came through and we stopped to talk for a few minutes. Ottavio Gigli is from General Roca, Rio Negro, Argentina; he is Italian but has lived in Argentina since 1970. He had a beautiful BMW bike and bags, and had been riding in Chile for the weekend. Dave asked him about our road options from Bariloche to Ushuaia, and he said we should definitely go to the east coast and take route 3 south, as the alternative, (route 40), was good only at the beginning and the end, and was mostly poorly maintained gravel in the center section and a difficult ride with a loaded bike. He seemed to know the roads well, so it was good to have advice from someone in the know. We swapped cards and we left Ottavio and his friends in the customs area.

In both southern Chile and now in Argentina we have noticed the houses are built chalet-style of wood and stone and use natural stain rather than paint, much like a Lindahl Cedar Home in the USA. Even the Immigrations and Customs buildings on both borders were made of beautifully crafted beams and ceilings. The road coming down from the pass route 231 eventually curves along Lake Nahuel Huapi, and there are Chalet-style houses nestled in the woods along the way. Largely German and Swiss immigrants settled this part of Argentina, and the cultural influence is very evident. We were to see that even more when we reached Bariloche.

The roadway along the lake gradually changed from heavily forested to deciduous trees to pampa—lowland scrub on dry, level stretches of land reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest East of the Cascades. We came around one bend in the lake and could see the town of San Carlos de Bariloche directly across the lake, but we would have to drive nearly an hour more around the lake to reach the town. (it’s a BIG lake—897 square kilometers with 7 long arms, the longest of which is 96 kilometers long and 12 kilometers wide.) There were still some mountains in the distance, but the big ones (Andes) were behind us now.

We finally drove into town and were a bit surprised by what we found. We knew that Bariloche is a tourist town, a big ski resort in the winter and lake resort in the summer; we hadn’t expected it to be quite so charming in spite of all the tourist traffic. The town is built on the side of a steep hill that rises to the base of one of the Ski Mountains. In town, the streets are wall-to-wall buildings built in the Swiss/German style, with all sorts of boutique shops with local handicrafts and goods. Bariloche is famous for its chocolate; they have wonderful chocolate makers and stores here, and even a chocolate museum. There was a busy artisan market on the town square when we stopped at the Tourist Info to ask about hotels. When Pam went inside, there was a long line ahead of her, though it only took about 10 minutes’ wait. The Tourist Info provides a list of Approved Hotels, including information on whether they have parking, wi-fi, and for some even if they still had rooms available at that time. We took the list, got our bearings on the map, and took off to find a hotel. The first 4 either had no good parking or no wi-fi, but we finally found a room at the 3-star Anconcagua Hotel (www.aconcaguahotel.com.ar). They had secure parking behind the hotel, wi-fi in the rooms (although it was better in the lobby), buffet breakfast, all for $75USD. We knew we would have to pay higher than usual in Bariloche as it is a tourist destination, but it was worth it. The first night we had part of a suite, as it was the only room they had; the second night they moved us to a second floor room with a fabulous view of the lake. The staff is very nice almost everyone speaks excellent English. We have noticed that many people in Argentina want to speak English even though our Spanish may be better they insist on speaking in English.

After settling in to our room, we went to inquire about a place for dinner. It was still quite light out and we were surprised to learn that it was almost 10:00pm. No wonder we were hungry…. The desk clerk recommended a good parrillada (restaurant specializing in grilled meats) just 2 blocks away, very good and not too expensive. We found “El refugio de la bosque” quite easily, and were warmly welcomed into a window seat table in the cozy upstairs dining room. There was a blazing fire in the open pit fireplace, and a large display case with all the different cuts of meat. The master grill chef was very busy, bringing the different types of meats to the tables as they were ready. In some cases the clients did not speak Spanish, so he would explain the different cuts with animal noises—sheep, for example was “baa-aa-aa”. Dinner was excellent, far more meat that we should have eaten, but too good to leave any behind. We ordered a bottle of wine and simple salad of tomatoes, lettuce, and onions to go with it that was just right, and a super-ice cream sundae to finish it off. Did we mention that the ice cream in Chile and Argentina is very artistic, home made and all very good and not expensive. All that was $35USD for both of us.

While we were eating, we noticed that it started raining a little, but stopped as we were ready to leave. No sooner had we stepped outside, though, than it began to really come down, and we skipped from awning to awning on our way back to the hotel trying to stay dry. The desk clerk said the area had been very dry and there was concern about forest fires, so the locals were glad to have the rain even if the tourists weren’t.

Tomorrow we will do more exploring of Bariloche, as we didn’t have much time today due to our late arrival.

Here is where we were tonight – the satellite photos show our spot on the lake front – Bariloche is a ski city built on the lake.

Latitude: -41.1325

Longitude: -71.313

Nearest Town from unit Location: San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina
Distance to the nearest town: 2 km(s)

Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/25/2008 02:34:43

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-41.1325,-71.313&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Click Here To View Today’s Photos

Here is where we were on the 25th of February – The coordinates are sent from our hotel window ledge at the Hotel Aconcagua.

Latitude: -41.1336
Longitude: -71.3135
Nearest Town from unit Location: San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina
Distance to the nearest town: 2 km(s)
Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/26/2008 03:57:34
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-41.1336,-71.3135&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Click Here To View Today’s Photos

The intent was to rise early as we intended to cross the pampa and head to the Atlantic Ocean and the east coast today. However, the best laid plans…we went out to dinner very late around 12:30 a.m., which is not unusual here. So we got to bed very late and slept in just making it to the great breakfast buffet before they took it away. You might say we are eating our way across South America.

After packing up, loading Tiburon and making some last minute purchases, we were finally underway just before 1:00 p.m. reluctantly leaving behind beautiful Bariloche. We had instructions for getting out of town (basically, turn right up the hill and keep going up) and we had directions for a gas station on the way, as we were down three clicks on the gas gauge. Unfortunately the gas station did not have premium so we got sent all the way back down to the lake to get the right octane causing us to lose at least half an hour.

Eventually we got going toward El Bolson on route 283, which is a secondary road but doesn’t require a lot of backtracking to get to highway 40. We were glad we took it, as it was a beautiful drive around lakes and mountains, some with snow and glaciers in the peaks with lots of beautiful scenery. Lots of pine and spruce here, too, and the air was wonderful.

After a few hours, we connected up with route 40, and the scenery changed very abruptly; we drove through some twisty turns and suddenly the mountains and lakes were gone and pampa stretched in front of us, with mountains in the far distant background. It was really eerie how the landscape changed so drastically so fast.

The first thing we noted is that this pampa is very unlike the pampas in southern Peru and northern Chile. Although they all go by the same name, the two in the north were really harsh desert, with occasional scrub. Here in the middle of Argentina, the land is almost entirely covered with a variety of scrub brush, we even saw a tumbleweed go by. Mostly we saw what looked like small round mop-heads, some white, some golden and some gray-green. There was a little bit of what we in the US think of as “pampa grass”—tall slender stalks with feathery tassels in light gold. Then there were low bushes and clumps of grass, but not enough to make a complete ground cover. We took several pictures in several places; you can see how much the terrain varies when we get them posted.

One thing that seemed odd was the fencing. We were in the middle of nowhere, nothing but scrub as far as the eye could see, except for the road we were on and the fence running along both sides of it. Rarely did we see any animals, when we did it was cattle or sheep, and generally a loner or a very small group. Dave did learn today what the expression meant ‘follow like a flock of sheep” — we came round a corner and there were a couple of sheep crossing the road and about 5 more sheep in the field to the left. The first one headed across the road in front of us and jumped the guardrail. The others then did exactly the same thing oblivious to oncoming traffic. The driver in the car behind us had to stop to avoid taking out the last one.

The pampa that we traversed today stretched for over 400 kilometers from west to east. There was a fairly long stretch on route 40 that was under construction and required us to drive on a gravel detour — a bit tricky with our load and difficult to make any real speed, but Dave got us through it with no problem. We left route 40 just south of Facundo and picked up route 26, which cuts directly east toward Comodoro Rivadavia on the coast. We went east a little farther to Sarmiento where we stopped for the night.

Sarmiento sits between two very large lakes; at 9:00pm as we descended from the pampa through a gorge it was still daylight, and the lakes were a gorgeous blue color. There were lava flows and very interesting geologic formations all around us. Once again the landscape changed almost instantly from dry rocky scrub to lush green fields with poplar fences. The temperature dropped at least 10 degrees as we approached the lake area and the surrounding green spaces and swamps. We arrived in Sarmiento around 9:30 p.m. and we spotted Tourist Info and stopped to inquire about hotels. One of Sarmiento’s claims to fame besides the two large lakes is the nearby Petrified Forest. The fairgrounds are also located there with life size statures of a couple of famous horses named “Gato” (cat), and “Mancha” (stain), we are not sure why they are famous. The colorful Gauchos are a big part of the culture of the Pampa. Sarmiento is not very big, but the Tourist Info Office which was very helpful and found us two recommendations for hotels with parking and breakfast at a reasonable rate. No hotel in town has Internet, but there is an Internet café right on the main street we were told.

We found a room at Hotel Ismar. It is an older building with an inner courtyard that provides parking. We got a triple, as that is all they had left with a private bath, for $46 US. We immediately began getting bitten by hordes of large mosquitoes, had to put on mosquito repelant for the first time in days. We also consulted our charts since we had recently stopped taking our malaria pills. According to our information no malaria here so no need to take any more pills.

Directly across the street was Heidi’s, a small family restaurant that had wonderful steaks, fries and salad. We were so tired after the long ride we didn’t even change out of our riding gear before going to eat, and will try to get to bed earlier than last night. A nice Argentinean Steak and bottle of wine was just what the doctor ordered. Tomorrow we should reach Comodoro Rivadavia in a couple of hours, then connect up with route 3 that drives south down the east coast to Rio Gallegos. We are only days away from Ushuaia.

Here is where we were this night.

Latitude: -45.5868
Longitude: -69.0688

Nearest Town from unit Location: Sarmiento, Argentina
Distance to the nearest town: 2 km(s)
Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/27/2008 01:43:02

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-45.5868,-69.0688&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Click Here To View Today’s Photos

Up early to have breakfast and be on our way. Surprise (not good)—Pam’s Spanish apparently did not translate correctly and breakfast was –not- included; never has been, never will be. There was not much we could do, so we left with intentions of stopping down the road for breakfast. We wanted to get an earlier start today to make up for yesterday’s afternoon departure. We were also concerned with the South Atlantic winds we had read about which seem to strengthen in the afternoon.

After leaving Sarmiento we began to drive past lots of oil wells, pipeline and associated industry. This would continue even well into Tierra del Fuego.

We reached Comodoro Rivadavia on the coast in about an hour; we didn’t even go into the city as highway 3 south joins up just outside of town. We could see the city, though, and beyond it the Atlantic Ocean. We haven’t seen the Atlantic since we were in Honduras in Central America (or was it the Caribbean). The road followed along the ocean for around 80 kilometers, and we could see beautiful breakers on the clean beaches, with large bunches of kelp washing in providing that oh-so-good salty sea smell. There were a few people out surf fishing, and several just enjoying the beach.

The land juts out into the ocean about 80 kilometers below Comodoro Rivadavia; the road does not. Instead, it cuts straight across the peninsula for about 350 kilometers of pampa that changes color and content over every other hill. One minute it is black and looks like lava rock with burned bushes; the next it is bright yellow sand with yellow plants that look like round fuzzy sponges (or Tribbles, for all you Star Trek fans). A third rendition is sandy with sage-green bushes of varying heights, and an occasional tumbleweed. Finally there are the very few but very lush green spots where there is obviously water for green grass and even bulrushes and cattails. It is amazing that any land mass so vast and seemingly endless is really made up of many different mini-environments, even though at first glance it all seems the same.

We stopped for gas at a gas station that appeared very busy. We waited in line for a few minutes and noticed that the lines weren’t moving; when we inquired, it turns out that they were out of gas and everyone was just waiting for the fuel truck to arrive. Well. We weren’t that low on gas, we had at least another 100 miles left so we kept driving. Annoying though, we had sat there for over ten minutes and no one bothered to tell us that there was no gas available.

We stopped at the next YPS gas station (which had gas) and took a breakfast break at the roadside gas station/restaurant. Breakfast was very good local fast food; a BIG sandwich of steak Milanese (beef pounded flat, breaded and pan fried), and slices of ham, cheese, and egg frittata on good bread. The sandwich was so large that we split one and it was more than enough for us both. There was coffee for caffeine jolt to keep us going, and we were back on the road in 20 minutes.

We started to see guanacos on the side of the road, sometimes-just one or two, sometimes a whole herd of 10 or 15. They are pretty animals, very alert and quick. See the link for info about this relative of the camel.

We were also very surprised to see rhea-running wild—inside and outside of the fencing. Pam had thought she saw some yesterday, but figured she imagined it; today proved otherwise. We must have seen over 50 by the end of the day, and got some good camera shots. Like the guanacos, they are very quick, but not nearly as pretty! It’s been hard to find any local info about them other than that they are one of the wonders of Patagonia.

We passed several saltpans—areas where the moisture had evaporated in the heat leaving behind a large crusty “pan” of salt. Usually they were deserted, but once we saw sheep eating right at the edge—not sure if they were just eating the grass or actually eating the salt.

Other motorcyclists abound—we met two riders from Brazil who were just returning from Ushuaia—they said the roads were good except for 105 kilometers of ripio or what we call gravel. And we chatted briefly with a couple from Argentina who were also on the way south, on a 250 Honda. All together, we passed at least 6 other riders today on the highway.

The weather was pretty constant today; cool this morning and clear. By the time we reached the coast it was starting to get warm, and by mid afternoon it was downright hot. The sky was very different however. To the east, over the Atlantic, the sky was clear and bright blue. To the west, there were some overcast clouds, but high and scattered. To the south the sky was heavy overcast with dark clouds and obvious rain in some places. These last miles are going to be interesting! Not only was the weather variable, the winds were very strong and kept changing direction also. Dave had to really work to hold the bike sometimes as we had estimated 35-40 knot winds, complicated by passing vehicles, especially the large trucks and buses. Early on we had learned to respect the wind – which means slow down in its presence and use extra caution especially when passing vehicles going in the opposite direction. These winds were strong but pretty steady unlike the spooky hammering winds we encountered in the Atacama Desert.

We reached a police checkpoint near Rio Gallegos; the cop asked Dave where we had come from. When he answered “Sarmiento”, he was told to go inside and register.

When he went to register, the clerk asked where he came from. When Dave said “Sarmiento”, the clerk responded “, no, no, where are you from originally?” “USA”. “Get out of here, you don’t need do anything”.

Why couldn’t the initial policeman have done that?

It stays light until well after 10:00 p.m. We made good progress today an estimated 691 miles thanks to the 15 hours of daylight. The road was paved the entire way but in varying stages of repair. In some stretches it was new and in other stretches the edges were falling away into gravel and there were lots of rough patches but only a few stretches of un-patched potholes and these were well marked.

We arrived at Rio Gallegos just before dark. There is a long highway “Entrance” to the city center; we found a room at the Hotel Santa Cruz. They were on the high side at $70 US, but had undercover secure parking in their garage, wifi, and breakfast. They had just remodeled and the property was very nice. Interesting note here; the remodeling had provided state of the art décor and facilities, but they still used old fashioned keys for the rooms; not your regular front-door key, but a real key-in-the-lock-like-your-grandmother-used key similar to a skeleton key.

After arriving Dave walked a couple of blocks to the main plaza a park, which like Sarmiento, was heavily wooded to try and send our spot locator. After a couple of tries and no success we gave up. We knew that we were approaching the margins of our satellite communicator’s coverage area but tonight was the first failure we experienced. We have come so far south there is only sporadic commercial satellite traffic overhead. Interestingly enough we tried again the morning of the 28^th from the ledge of our hotel window and were successful. We are guessing that we just happened to send our locater as a satellite was going overhead, a bit of luck to document our position. In most parts of the world our locater can hear a satellite go over and send our coordinates within 20 minutes guaranteed.

The downtown of Rio Gallegos is very nice, several crowded restaurants that looked excellent with lots of choices and of course the ever present Casino like most of the large cities. We had some business to take care of on the phone which took a while and when that was done the nearly 700 mile day caught up with Dave and he decided to forgo dinner and just call it a night.

Our Progress On February 27th, 2008

Here is where we were tonight.

Latitude: -51.6225
Longitude: -69.2122
Nearest Town from unit Location: Rio Gallegos, Argentina
Distance to the nearest town: 1 km(s)
Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/28/2008 10:20:32
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-51.6225,-69.2122&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Click Here To View Today’s Photos

This morning we had a good breakfast at the hotel; bread, jam, yogurt, ham and cheese, and of course coffee and tea. Dave pulled Tiburon to the front of the garage to check tires and to load it, and Pam started bringing bags down. After the first trip, there were two businessmen standing talking to Dave about the bike; apparently bike aficionados, and very pleased to see a Suzuki of large caliber. We took pictures of them with the bike, and Señor Pejkovic then led us with his truck to a gas station on our route out of town. People here, as we have found everywhere on this trip, are very nice.

We took the same highway back to the police checkpoint where we were stopped yesterday—there were no problems today, we were just waved on through. Thirty minutes later we came to the Chilean border.

It took us only 20 minutes to process customs out of Argentina. It looks like soldiers in the Argentine army handle the border control and clearance; there were several soldiers on duty. The Argentinean soldiers always seem very professional and helpful. There was also a beautiful Golden Labrador on a chain run next to the roadway that the soldiers came out and played with occasionally—very nice dog, although we suspect if you were carrying something you shouldn’t be, he wouldn’t be nice at all.

Unfortunately, customs into Chile took much longer, 45 minutes, due to a long line. One of the customs officers had a long conversation with Pam about Chile, Argentina, family back home, roads, etc. while she was guarding the bike and Dave was doing the paperwork. He was very friendly, talkative, and let us take his picture when Dave finally returned with all our papers properly stamped.

Once back in Chile, the roads were not nearly as good as they had been in Argentina. Shortly after clearing, customs, we arrived at the Straits of Magellan where we were to board the ferry to the island of Tierra del Fuego—land of fire. We arrived just as a ferry was unloading, and we thought “terrific timing!”; wrong !! The ferry loaded up with petrol trucks, no other vehicles were boarded. (Not that we would want to cross the cold water surrounded by highly combustible fuel.)

The ferries run every thirty minutes; there are two that cross continually. The next ferry arrived, unloaded, backed out and turned around, then loaded up again, this time with regular passenger traffic. It was a smaller ship than the first one. Once on board, someone from each vehicle had to go to cashier to pay. When Pam’s turn came and she said “moto”, the cashier looked up, looked surprised, smiled and said “no charge”. The fare for a regular car is the equivalent of $33USD, so we were very happy. It is only a 30-minute crossing of the Straits of Magellan; once we arrived at the other side the ferry unloaded very quickly.

The road signs were very confusing—we had researched advice on which roads to take and not to take, but got lost trying to find right unpaved road. We did see some new wildlife though—while trying to figure out what road we were on, a fox dashed across the road in front of us. He was brown, not the red we are used to, and ran so quickly that Pam missed him with the camera. He was a quick brown fox…

There was an RV from Argentina that we had encountered several times through all the customs checks; they were now on the same road that we were, trying to find the road longer and less traveled but in better shape, which we think is route 79. They were ahead of us and flagged down an oncoming truck presumably to ask directions; after a short discussion they kept going on a well-packed and fairly busy dirt road. We also flagged down an oncoming truck and tried to tell him where we wanted to go—he said this was the wrong road, and we should turn around and turn right at the next intersection. We did as he said and found ourselves back on Chile route 257 which is the same road as Argentina Route 3 which we did NOT want, but took anyway, as we had lost a lot of time and knew we had over 100 kilometers of dirt and gravel road to travel before dark. Our advice to others is don’t take this road the other road is safer.

The road was horrible, changing gravel and large rocks in piles with ruts and lots of dust, frequent large trucks that nearly swept us off the road. The dust was so bad after each truck went by that we took to pulling over and stopping shortly before they reached us so they could see us well and we could let them by without being toppled by the wind and blinded by the dust. There were only deep ditches and no shoulders so we didn’t want to ride too close to the right edge on this uneven surface and wind up in the ditch. Most drivers were polite and waved and slowed for passing traffic; about every 5^th one however just plowed on through with no thought as to how their slipstream and dust cloud might affect the other traffic. Next time we will find route 79 to definitely avoid the traffic.

There were signs all along the route warning of natural gas pipelines; we saw the pipeline running parallel to us on several sections of road, and at one point we passed a flaming oil pit near a natural gas plant. That was bizarre; it looked like a gas fireplace set in a 100-ft diameter crater.

As we drove through over the gravel roads, we saw more guanacos and many more sheep, some with dye on their backs that we figured were markings for shearing. The topography was very bleak; gently rolling plains with saltpans and short grass, no trees. Flocks of geese were in the meadows, and we saw more of Pam’s strange birds. We started to see changes in plant life; whereas before the landscape had been all green and brown, now we saw sudden bursts of color from different flowers and bushes on the sides of the road, and an occasional scraggly tree.

We had come almost 100 km from where we had crossed on the ferry, and we were concerned that with our wrong turn in the beginning and our extended first and second gear travel we might run out of gas before we reached the next gas station at the border in San Sebastian. We had 2 liters in reserve tanks in the side bags just in case. It turns out we didn’t need the reserve bottles, we just made it to San Sebastian and the customs checkpoint back into Argentina with the gas gauge on the last click when we arrived. As we were filling up, the Argentine RV pulled in behind us. They had taken the route 79 we had been looking for, and told Dave the road had been great all the way. The Argentine RV drivers asked Dave how the main road was and Dave said it was terrible – The Argentinean then remarked that, “well we have the best and the worst of everything”.

At Chilean exit customs Pam made friends with another border policeman. Sr. Pizzaro explained that the reason for the many big trucks traveling the dirt road is because Rio Gallegos is only customs entrance point to the island; all commercial goods have to arrive through that checkpoint. Rio Grande, 100 kilometers down the coast of Tierra del Fuego is a big commercial area, so truck traffic is pretty heavy. Dave took his picture with Pam and Tiburon after 20 minutes again in line to exit Chile. This is the day for making friends. Another 10 minutes to clear Argentine customs inbound, then 1 hour more to Rio Grande. It was windy and cold, altitude was 25 fasl, and we could feel the moisture in the air from the salt water. All along one side of the road were pretty rock formations blown by the wind; on the other were salt meadows filled with sheep and birds.

We finally arrived at Rio Grande to find a much larger city than we had expected. We stopped on the edge of town to turn off our MP3 music player so we could navigate better in the city. Three large dogs seeing us stopped came out to ambush us and chase us. We have gotten pretty good with the technique used for dogs that chase motorcycles. The dogs usually run as fast as they can in a trajectory to intercept the bike. So we slow way down and so do the dogs and at the last moment accelerate safely away before they realize what is happening. Well tonight when we used this technique Tiburon decided to stand up on the back wheel and wheelie down the road up through second gear. Funny, this never happens with the Goldwing. Pam was excited to finally experience her first good wheelie and the dogs needless to say were left in the dust.

We had no problem finding our way to the center of town, but we did have trouble finding a hotel. The first one we tried right off the main avenue was The Hotel Villa; they were full, but called two other hotels for us that were also full. The clerk recommended two others she knew of that may have parking, and off we went on the search. Three hotels later and in full darkness, we finally secured a room at “La Posada de los Sauces”, (www.posadadelossauces.com.ar) just off the beach. The link has an explanation in Spanish of how the hotel got its name.

It is a small cozy but classy establishment with radiators in the rooms that were turned on, and a very nice restaurant and bar. We were not happy about the room cost — $80 US—but given it was the only room we had been able to find in 8 tries, we wrote it off. Our Caribou luggage was so dusty from the dirt road that Pam rinsed them off in the shower to get the dust off. We had a fabulous dinner in the hotel restaurant. Dave had “Cordero Fueguino Arrollado” boneless lamb filled with vegetables, ham, cheese and spices and Pam had a big steak in mushroom sauce all accompanied by a fabulous $5 Argentine red wine—one of the best meals yet. We toasted our arrival in Tierra del Fuego with a pisco after dinner drink to cap it off. After dinner we walked across street in freezing wind to send our GPS Spot from the beach (again he never went not having any satellites overhead). Back in our room, we had trouble logging on to wifi; we finally gave up and fell asleep and will try in the morning. Dave will take Tiburon to wash the dust off in the morning as well and we will press on to Ushuaia.

Here is where we were the night of the 28th February.

Click here for Information on Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

At this latitude it is very difficult to reach any of the commercial satellites that are in range in the rest of the world. We were able to send our coordinates yesterday from Rio Gallegos after several tries – probably some luck involved – but so far have not had any luck from here on the island of tierra del fuego. We hope to arrive in Ushuiai tomorrow, exactly two months from the day we left Chicago, and will get caught up on our postings and pictures then. We have been blessed with great weather – it is currently 51 degrees with a high today expected to be 54.