O Brother, Where Art Thou?

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2011-05-31T21:23:00.000-07:00

From Santa Cruz we were headed towards Sucre, slowly working our way up in to the mountains, the Altiplano of Bolivia.

We left Santa Cruz and passed a couple of smaller towns. It was still very warm and with time there was more and more vegetation. The towns were very simple, you could see this is not a rich country, yet it is no comparison to other places in the world like certain regions of India for example, where Christoph had been traveling before.

After about half an hour we came to one of the police control points, we had passed several of these before in Bolivia and it is nothing special, at the most they will ask for your papers. Usually they have a rope stretched across the street so you can’t simply pass, most of the times this is lowered to the ground though. Here they stopped us and asked for our papers. We handed them over and the guy disappeared in his shed. When he came back he asked for some stamps on our temporary import papers which according to him we should have received every time we pass a control point. This was obviously a made up story, but he wouldn’t let us pass without them. Again we started discussing, going back and forth, until finally they asked for money. They started with ridiculous amounts, we felt like on a Turkish bazar. In the end we had to pay 50 Bolivianos for the both of us, about 5 Euros. This made a total of 150 Bolivianos in bribes that day. The most annoying thing about this is that you’re basically feeding into the system and they get away with it, but there was no way around. Anyway we were free to go.

Soon after leaving the checkpoint behind the roads became really nice, winding there way slowly up into the heights through almost jungle-like vegetation. Contrary to what we had been told and had read most of the roads in Bolivia (between the bigger towns) are paved and usually in a good condition, this one being no exception except for short stretches. There was small, remote houses along the road, some offering accomadation. It was a really beautiful area.

After a while we passed a small town called Samaipata. We decided to have a short break to grab some food and drinks. In the small shop we bought some snacks, and where surprised to see the sausages were branded with a German name and produced in the very same town. After a short discussion and a look around in town, which seemed quite nice, we decided to stay. It was rather late in the day anyway and we wouldn’t be able to make a great distance that day. We went looking for the butcher but it turned out to be a rather “industrialized” (yet very small) place. We had hoped for some nice German-style butcher’s shop and an interesting chat. Later we found out that for some reason a lot of Germans had settled in this area.

We found a hostel, got unpacked and went to the central plaza. Here we found some small restaurant with an outside porch were we set down to have a beer. After a while we got approached by a German couple living in England who had seen us earlier on our bikes. They were bikers themselves, though not traveling on those. We invited them to sit with us and it turned us to be a really nice night, with more people joining over the time. Unfortunately we lost the piece of paper with their email-addresses, so if you read this, send us a mail to longrideback (at) gmail.com.

The next day we got up early in expectation of a long stretch to Sucre. We were surprised to be welcomed by a farewell committee, thanks again for showing up and saying goodbye! After this we were on our way. After some time on paved road we took a left towards Sucre, now slowly making our way up into the mountains on gravel roads. The weather was nice and we made a good pace. After a while we got back on a paved road and then it was uphill on snake roads, the highest pass taking us to about 4.000 meters. We arrived in Sucre at about 3.500 meters late afternoon, but we had not pre-booked a hostel, so we had to drive around in town to find one. Suddenly the back of my bike started moving strangely and I pulled over to have a look. I had a flat tire, the first one on this trip. As we couldn’t find a place to have it fixed immediately we decided to have it fixed the next morning, put some air on it using our compressor and looked for a hostel. We found a reasonably priced one pretty soon and checked in.

The next day we looked for a “gomeria”, a place to have my tire fixed. Christoph took a spin in town, found one and returned back to the hostel. We disassembled the wheel, put it on the back of his bike and brought it there. It took the guy maybe 20 minutes to fix it and all he asked for was ten Bolivianos, about one Euro. And that was on a Sunday. I gave him 20 Bolivianos and he was happy. After that Christoph and me took a walk in the city. Sucre is one of the nicest cities in Bolivia in regards to its historic town center, being heavily affected by colonial architecture. It was quite busy that day since there was a rally going through town (rally as in fast, powerful cars). In the afternoon there was an award ceremony in the city center and some parties. Later at night I accompanied David, an Israeli guy, who desperately wanted to go out and find some party. Everything was closed though on a Sunday so we ended up in some shady local Karaoke place which smelled really bad of urine and vomit in some corners. Despite that it was packed and we decided to have a beer… We ended up singing a couple of songs, even gave the Spanish once a try, much to the amusement of the local crowd.

The next day we left for Potosi, an old mining town in the mountains. The roads were getting worse again. It was all gravel, sometimes good to drive, sometimes not so much. Two times we had to pass construction sites which would have been impossible to pass on anything but a bike and even that was hard. One time there was a difference in the road level of about three feet. You can see that on the video below:

In order two pass it we had to do some digging first which is quite exhausting in that height. Talking about height, neither one of us experienced any problems with altitude sickness during our journey, so that was good.

Anyway it wasn’t a very long drive to Potosi so we were not in a hurry. The views on the way were amazing and we really enjoyed the ride. We got to Potosi quite early, talked to some backpackers for hostel recommendations and found a nice one close to the center. Christoph wanted to do the mining tour so we looked for an agency and booked that trip. The next day we got up Christoph was feeling really bad, he had caught a bad cold. It had started in Sucre but now it put him in the bed. As I wasn’t too keen on the tour we called it off and I took a walk in the city. Potosi is a small town but also quite beautiful around the center with the regular colonial architecture and a huge market. The markets are very different from our ones, especially when it comes to selling meat and hygiene. There was a truck for example being loaded with various parts of cows at the end of the day, underneath it two dogs were “enjoying themselves”. Different standards I assume.

As I walked around I ran into the French family we had met in Quéllon in Chile. We had a nice talk and exchanged stories and decided to meet later that night, which for some reason unfortunately didn’t happen. We stayed in Potosi for one more night, waiting for Christoph to feel better, but in the end decided we wanted to move on towards Uyuni, taking it slow. Finally we were close to one of the places we had been really looking forward for, the salt flats of Uyuni. I will write more about those and the fantastic ride in the next blog.

Best regards,

Christoph and Thomas

About cops and other bandits

2011-05-27T16:06:00.000-07:00

So after almost three months we had finally made it to the border of Bolivia. We had heard a lot about this country and were curious to make our own experiences.

We entered the country in the East, coming from Corumba in Brazil. As I had written in the previous post we stayed in the border area for a couple of days and different reasons before really starting our journey through the country, but I am not going into that again.

When we first arrived at the border it was about noontime and the border was actually closed, so we had to wait for about two hours. Here we met a Dutch rider named Remco, who was passing on his BMW coming from Bolivia. He was the first one to warn us of bandits when travelling towards San Jose, the next bigger town in Bolivia on our way to Santa Cruz. Obviously this road was used to import cars (and other things) from Brasil into Bolivia. Before San Jose there was no way to get insurance for the cars which made it attractive for robbers.

We were also told that currently there was a fuel shortage in Bolivia due to strikes resulting from the (for Bolivians) rather high prices for gasoline compared to what it was exported for. And indeed the first two days the gas stations on the Bolivian side in Quijarro were dry as the desert.

When we finally left Quijarro for good, fuel was available through some hours of the day. The gas stations were controlled by military units and in order to get gas you had to register every time, including passport number, amount of fuel used and so on. Out of interest they also asked us where we were headed, and when we told them we were going to Santa Cruz via San Jose they laughed, warned us of bandits and made quite obvious gestures of what might happen upon having an encounter with them. Very reassuring indeed. Anyway, there was no alternative route.

After about 200 kilometers we headed for a small village where we were told was the only other chance to get fuel before San Jose. Small dirt roads including a water crossing lead us there. Two our surprise there was no gas station, it was merely a huge container as found on a truck from which the gasoline was sold, again being distributed to the waiting people by the military. Again we got warned of bandits, the “hot zone” obviously being the last 50 kilometers before reaching the town.

Here I also noticed that I had lost my SPOT unit which we had mainly used for tracking our trip but which also served as a backup for calling help in emergencies. On our way back to the highway we looked very closely for it but it was gone. With the batteries being dead and no WIFI available anyway it was impossible to track it down, so unfortunately we had to give it up. I was to get a replacement but not before reaching Lima, Peru.

We made it to San Jose in the late afternoon without any sight of bandits. Yeah. The town was quite nice, we got invited by some locals to join the for a drink in the night, but it had been a long and very hot (almost 40 degrees) day, we were both quite exhausted, so we decided to just get some rest to be ready for the next morning. We had been told that there was a stretch of about 80 kilometers with very bad road.

So the next day we continued our trip towards Santa Cruz. Soon enough the highway was replaced by a dirt road. First it was hard ground covered by sand, comfortable to ride once we had lowered our tire pressure. The only annoying thing was the dust blown up by the trucks in front of you or passing by. With time the road got worse, more sand and dust, and huge potholes. You could imagine that this road must be terrible to drive during rain seasons. Also the temperature was in the high thirties again, which made it even more exhausting working your fully loaded bike through those conditions. Still it was fun; we enjoy driving the rougher parts.

There were quite a lot of trucks on the road as well which had to go quite slow due to the conditions of the road. As I tried to pass by one of them it happened. The road was taking us uphill as I was trying to pass by at about 50 kph. I was basically driving blind because of all the dust raised by the truck when I hit a very deep pothole. The front wheel dove right in and the bike flipped over its front, throwing me flying through the air. I hit the ground quite hard, but as I got up I felt okay. My hand was hurting a bit as I had used it for protection and I had a huge bruise on my leg but other than that I was okay. Looking at my bike I could see the windshield and front light were broken and one of the extra lights was almost torn off and rendered useless. The handlebar was a bit bent in its fork brace, but the bike was running and good to drive.

The truck driver was gone of course, never stopped. Not even sure he saw me in all the dust. Another truck driver came by and helped me to pick up the bike. We took a short break to get sorted and then continued our way to Santa Cruz slowly, hoping to find a BMW dealer there to get the bike put back together.

We made it to Santa Cruz the same day. With the help of Horizons Unlimited we quickly found out that indeed there was a BMW dealer in Santa Cruz since about six months. Talk about luck. We took our bikes there and were surprised to be welcomed in German by Nicolas. He had been living in Germany for a while and was very helpful, as was the whole staff. They had all the necessary parts on stock so we left our bikes in good hands.

Santa Cruz is a rather modern city for Bolivian standards and there is a lot of money in town which you can tell by the shops, clubs and restaurants. We learned that over the time there had been a shift in wealth from the agricultural resource oriented west of the country (incl. La Paz) to the more natural resource oriented east.

So since we were stuck for some days we used the time to explore the city and its markets but also to go out and for example enjoy our first Sushi in a very long time. Asian cuisine is really not very big over here.

When I picked up my bike I was really surprised to see what a good job they had done, especially to the broken windshield. When I handed it over to them a huge piece had been missing, they had remodeled the whole area using fiberglass. Apart from that now the lower part was black you couldn’t see a difference. We made a plan to leave the next day, going towards Sucre, and said goodbye to Nicolas.

The next day we were to make our first experiences with corruption. I was going to pick up my laundry from around the block and had decided to take the bike. I had forgotten to bring my helmet and was too lazy to back to the room, so I figured wtf, everybody else is driving without one as well. And sure enough, after I had picked up my laundry and drove back to the hostel, I got stopped by the police. They told me I had not been wearing my helmet and this was an offense, so I had to pay a ticket. Unfortunately I had also forgotten to take all my papers which made it worse. I tried to explain I had everything in the hostel and anyway I didn’t see a problem as they don’t stop anyone else, but it was too late, they already had the dollar signs in their eyes. I told them to follow me to the hostel so I could show them my papers. Eventually they asked for 50 Dollars which I said I couldn’t pay, so I went back to the hostel under some false pretense and asked the guy at the reception for a reasonable price. I think in the end I paid them 100 Bolivianos (about 10 Euros) and off they were.

After that we packed our stuff and left towards Sucre. We were to bribe cops again the same day, but I’ll keep that story for the next blog.

Until then,

Christoph and Thomas

Sloths and other roadkill

2011-05-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

Oh dear. Writing a blog and keeping it up to date is more work than I thought it would be. With so many things happening it is sometimes really hard to just sit down and recapture all those impressions. The longer you push it away the harder it gets. Anyway, enough whining, where were we?

Okay, Brazil. Really we were just going through the South of Brazil to get to Bolivia and because we had been told Paraguay would not be worth the visit for most parts. So we didn't have any major stops planned until Rodrigo told us about Bonito. Here we were supposed to enjoy some really nice snorkeling.

So from the Iguazú Falls we were headed West through the South of Brazil, scratching the Pantanal. It was really warm and green, a nice change. On our way to Bonito way stayed in various small towns, nothing to special here. People were really friendly and despite our lack of Portuguese we made good progress. One time we stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. Even with hand and feet we could not follow the explanation because it was just too many turns. In the end a guy offered to drive ahead of us and lead the way. This is just one example of how helpful a lot of people over here tend to be towards us.

We arrived in Bonito after a couple of days and checked in to our hostel. Since we were going to stay for a couple of days and had not planned any driving the next day we decided it was time for some party. We asked for the best Caipirinha in town and headed for the bar. On arrival we ordered a drink and were literally hit by a brick wall. These guys knew how to do their Caipirinhas! The rest of the night remains a mystery for us, but the next day we got to the bar the whole crew knew us by name and we had a lot of new friends. Amongst others we had met Valquiria and her friends, most of them from Brazil and also visiting Bonito for vacation. Valquiria and Christoph became close friends and we were to meet her again numerous times in the future.

It took us another day (and another party) to make it to Rio da Prata (Silver River) to go snorkeling. We drove our bikes along some really nice, red earthed tracks to the site of the camp. Here we got equipped with wetsuits and the like. Next we walked a couple of kilometers through the jungle to get to the river. Lots of wildlife and nice vegetation. When we got to the river we got some instructions on how to correctly navigate or rather float through the water. As our guide was talking a Tapir was swimming by, which was a major event and even the guide was thrilled as he had not seen one swimming during his career.

We got into the water and off we were. The water was crystal clear and not too cold, the wetsuit providing just the right level of comfort and floatation. The river is quite shallow with a lot of huge tree roots providing shelter for all sorts of fish. For Christoph, who had done some more snorkeling in the sea, this was the best sweet water snorkeling ever. Unfortunately we did not carry an underwater camera, but trust me, it was amazing.

The trip pretty much ended after coming to a sort of lagoon with underwater hot springs that you could dive to. After that we were taken back to the farm to enjoy some local food and returned back to Bonito later in the afternoon. We stayed in Bonito for a few of more days, for example enjoying our Belgium/Dutch/German volleyball match. But after a while it was time to continue our way to Bolivia. The weather stayed warm and humid. Being close to the Pantanal flora and fauna were really interesting, which also affected the usual roadkill, which was quite different from what were used to. Amongst others we passed a dead sloth and an anteater… But no worries, plenty of vultures around to take care of it.

We came to Corumba, where we intended to cross the border to Bolivia and head on to Santa Cruz. We stayed for the night and got up rather early the next morning to move on. While Christoph got engaged in a conversation with Valquiria (which resulted in us staying in the border region for a couple of more days) I was waiting outside by the pool giving the sun a go. I guess I underestimated the Brazilian morning sun; anyway I caught a really nice sunburn which would bring me a lot of joy for the next couple of days.

We finally got to the border around noontime just to find out it would not open again until two o'clock. We met another biker though (a Dutch guy) who was trying to cross in the other direction. He gave us some good advice on the coming roads and warned us of bandits on the stretch towards San Jose. Obviously a couple of bikers had been stripped clean that way not too long ago. This was just the first warning of many more to come. We were told not to stop for anyone and if in doubt about the situation just to speed up and go for it.

The Bolivian border crossings are a mess, while every other crossing would take us maybe an hour we waited for five hours to pass on to Puerto Quijarro. Although our hostel was quite okay the place itself is a little shithole, reportedly full of smugglers and the like. Happily, we were going to enjoy this region for a couple of days to meet up again with Valquiria.

This led to some interesting experiences though, for example we got to be illegal immigrants for the first time in our life. Driving with a Brazilian license plate the border officials just don't seem to care - on neither side of the border. You could take anyone and anything across the border, no questions asked.

Also, the last night we spent in that area, we had a few drinks in Corumba (Brazil) before returning to Quijarro (Bolivia) and crashing a local fiesta there. It was really fun, once one local started talking to you, you were the attraction of the town and the party got started. Valquiria left us that night and we were off to Santa Cruz the next day, never mind the fuel shortage and the bandits. More on those in our next blog!

Cheers,

Christoph and Thomas

Gravity And Its Effect On H2O

2011-05-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

Having been recommended to check out the Iguazú Falls (or Cataratas del Iguazú) plenty of times we were headed for Argentina once more. You can actually visit the falls from both countries, but the view from the Argentinean side is supposed to be the nicer one. So from Uruguaina in Brazil we passed straight on into Argentina. Our first day trip would take us to Posadas, where we decided to spend the night. There's not a whole lot to say about our stay in Posadas, except for that we encountered our first cockroach (although the hostel was quite nice). We also met some other travelers and had a nice night talking.

From Posadas we continued towards the Iguazu Falls. It was really getting hot now, with temperatures just around 30 degrees. On the way we got controlled by the police, who seemed to be more interested in our journey (and football) than our documents though.

Just 50 kilometers before Puerto Iguazú, the town we wanted to stay in, we passed another biker, also fully equipped for a long travel. At the next gas station we had to stop in order to fuel up, and just as we had sorted out our cash difficulties (always make sure you have some on you...) the other biker pulled up as well. We could now see he had an Chilean license plate and as he started talking German to us we were quite surprised. His name was Rodrigo but the name Rüdi quickly stuck with him. He was of German decent in the third generation and had also visited a German School in Santiago, we he was born. Having just finished his studies he was also traveling through South America and now on his way to Iguazú. We decided to meet there later that day.

The hostel we had booked in Iguazú turned out to be quite nice, it was also part of a Latin American chain of hostels we have made good experiences with, called "Hostels Latinoamérica" or "Ho.La" (also check their website). It had a nice garden with outdoor kitchen and pool plus the usual mix of backpackers. We parked our bikes, got them unpacked and enjoyed a late dinner and some wine with Rodrigo. For the next day we agreed on leaving early together to go see the falls.

It was only a 20 kilometer ride so we made it to the falls quite early in the day. When we pulled up on the parking lot we saw some more bikes like ours but the drivers (obviously Canadian) were nowhere to be seen unfortunately. Anyway we entered the park and were in for a day of trekking from one waterfall to the next. The weather was beautiful and there was a lot of people besides us enjoying the scenery. The waterfalls were amazing, as was the surrounding nature. Amongst others we saw coatis (a type of racoon), hummingbirds, loads of butterflies, monkeys, toucans and a caiman.

Christoph and I also did a boat tour which would take you from one waterfall to the other, at times driving you right into the spray. It was a nice and refreshing experience on an otherwise hot and humid day. We also paddled through some canals in the jungle, although that was quite boring (not as "jungly" as proclaimed) and not worth the money. Well, listening to the absolutely naive Californian girl was quite funny in the end...

We left the park in the late evening as it was closing down. Actually it seemed like this would have been the best time to visit as now a lot of animals (like the monkeys) came out and it was getting more lively. Anyway back to Iguazú Rodrigo and us enjoyed another good night with some cooking and wine. The next morning we met to take some pictures together and the continued our individual tracks (Rodrigo wanted to go see a black market in Paraguay). After passing the border to Foz do Iguaçu we continued our detour through Brazil the next day, now headed towards Bonito, where we wanted to enjoy some snorkeling.

Cheers,
Christoph and Thomas

Detour

2011-05-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

Our original plan was to enter Paraguay soon after leaving Buenos Aires. During our travels though we were told many, many times that Paraguay just isn't really worth going to. Instead we were told to check out Uruguay, especially Colonia del Sacramento. With Colonia just being an one-hour ferry ride from Buenos Aires we decided to give it a shot, continue our little detour into Brazil to go to the Iguazu Falls and then decide about whether to go to Paraguay or not.

So in our nineth week traveling in South America and after having crossed the borders of Chile and Argentina countless times, it was time to enter Uruguay. We took a ferry in the evening and arrived in Colonia around 7:30 pm. The migration at the border didn't take long (we never had any trouble so far), by now we're masters of this little dance: Show your passport and get it stamped to exit country A, hand over your temporary import documents of country A, enter Country B, show your passport again, get it stamped, go to the migration office and get your new temporary import documents for country B. Usually this won't take but 30 minutes. And thanks to the good old German passport you never have to worry about a visa either.

As we had yet again pre-booked our hostel we just had to find the adress and check in. Colonia isn't too big, so we didn't have a problem finding the place. We had dinner, checked our emails etc. and went to bed.

The next day we explored the city. The contrast to Buenos Aires, although just across the Rio Negro (which is the widest river in the world with around 45 kilometers) couldn't be bigger. Due to its history and the resulting architecture (the Spanish and the Portuguese fought over it for a long time and it changed government many times) it became a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995. The old town center resembles the essence of a Mediterranean feeling with its old stone and brick houses, cobblestone streets and flowers everywhere. It was the perfect getaway after the rather exhausting, nightlife oriented times in Buenos Aires.

We took a city tour, stooped around in every corner and enjoyed some time at the river bank (which actually seems much more like a regular beach). We really would have liked to spent some more time here, but after the second night it was time to move on towards the Iguazu Falls, another three or four day ride. We had decided to drive through Brazil but then cross into Argentina as we had been told the view would be a lot better. Anyway this meant another two border crossings we had to calculate for.

We left towards Salto where we checked in to a hostel. The hostel didn't have a garage or place to put our bike to, but the owner told us to check at a gas station around the corner. They were very friendly and let us put our bikes into the car wash overnight. The next morning we looked for a "Gomeria", essentially a tire dealer. Since it was Sunday we were lucky to find a decent one that was open. Finally we got to change our tires. We disassembled the rear wheel in the shop, got our new tires on and were good to go for another 12.000 kilometers.

From Salto we were headed to Brazil. We crossed the border close to Uruguaina. This was a bit more tricky than usual as there was only an Uruguyan immigration and the Brazilean migration was to follow 70 kilometers later. Finding out the way speaking some Spanish in a country where they speak Portuguese was an experience but we managed. So although we had made it to Brazil in a good time it was rather later until we could check in to a local hotel. The price was a little higher than what we usually pay but after having breakfast the next morning we didn't mind. I think we had tears of joy in our eyes when we laid our eyes on decent rolls, ham, cheese, fruits, scrambled eggs, cake, you name it. For two months we had been served toast (sometimes rather crackers) and orange marmelade for breakfast including instant coffee. So yes, every little cent was well invested. With a full belly we hit the road again...

Cheers,
Christoph and Thomas

Big City Life

2011-05-06T17:44:00.000-07:00

From Mendoza to Buenos Aires, or more correctly Capital Federal, it was another 1.000 kilometers. Naturally we didn't drive these in a day, so we had to stop overs before finally making it to the city.

Most of the times it is really funny and amazing to enter one of the smaller towns (or sometimes just gas stations). The attention you draw with the big bikes and all the gear is incredible. Whenever you stop you're almost immediately approach by some locals or sometimes other travelers who are interested in your story. The best Spanish we speak is when we have to explain where we are from, where we have been and are going to and how long we are traveling for. Also I think we must have made it to dozens of private picture galleries by now because everybody wants to take a picture. If we were ever to have our fifteen minutes of fame I guess this is it.

Sometimes it's less funny. Especially older folks will greet you with "Heil Hitler" once they'd find out you're from Germany. This doesn't happen often, but it has happened like three or four times now. There's really not a lot you can do but to tell them off. As our friend Lucas would say: No flags!

Early May, entering the eight week of our travel, we made it into Buenos Aires. Our first impression was this place is huge! Traffic wasn´t too bad actually, you have city highways passing through the center that will take you around rather fast. You have to watch people cutting lanes, especially the smaller bikes (of which there is a lot). Other than that we felt pretty comfortable (actually comfortable enough to do some tricks as you can see on the pictures). Anyway we didn't have to drive a lot within the city. We had booked a hostel in advance, so we took all our stuff there, then hooked up with Lucas and took our bikes to his place, where we could leave them in a garage for the rest of our stay.

The hostel we stayed at was one of the ill famous Millhouse hostels which are known for being packed with backpackers ready to party. They are very well organized, offering all kinds of services and tours with a (generally) very friendly, English-speaking staff, but if you're looking for a more individual experience, this is definitely not the place to stay. It is very central though, being located at 9 de Julio / Av. 25 de Mayo, with two subways just around the corner. The nightlife takes place in different barrios (districts) though (mainly Palermo and San Telmo I believe) so if you don't want to take a taxi to go out (risk of fake bills etc.) you might want to consider to stay there.

The first night we had some drinks at Lucas place (awesome view from the rooftop patio over the city) and then went to a club called Bahrein. Every Tuesday night they play Drum'n'Bass, so finally Thomas was back in his element. We had a great night out, dancing away to Drum'n'Bass and Dubstep sounds. It was a perfect beginning to our week in the Capital of Argentina!

All these days we spent exploring the different districts of the city. We went to Palermo the first day before Bahrein, where we met Katie again and explored the local bar scene. We went to Recoleta, strolling around the market, visiting the Iglesia de la Recolata and the adjacent cemetery, where (amongst others) you will find the grave of Evita Perón. We went to La Boca, the ill famous artsy district as well as the (a little bit more quiet) San Telmo, where I (Thomas) had another great night out with Lucas while Christoph was out for a local football match (the local Boca team, Boca Juniors, were playing Independencia). We had a really funny night with Virginia, Lucas and their friend Victoria at their place, enjoying yet another great barbecue on their rooftop patio.

Also we met a lot of people in the hostel from around the world (mainly Europe and Brazil) which we would go out with or meet again in one of the many clubs.

All in all we had a really, really fantastic time in Buenos Aires, it is a city definitely worth visiting. Especially after not having been to any major city for two month it was great (and exhausting, but in a good way) to make use of all the advantages such a place has to offer. After one week we were looking forward to get back on the bikes though, so finally (after having added another two nights to our original timeline) we met up with Lucas (sorry for being late) to pick up our bikes.

Our next stop would be Colonia in Uruguay, a country we had not planned for but which we were recommended by various people along the way. Instead of driving there we decided to take the ferry from Buenos Aires, which only took about an hour.

More about our small detour to Uruguay and Brazil in our next blog!

Cheers,
Christoph and Thomas

In Vino Veritas

2011-04-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

Our next big trip would take us from Puerto Madryn to Mendoza. Here we wanted to enjoy the local specialties - specifically the wine of course!

From Puerto Madryn we headed North on the Ruta 3 for a while, then took a West-bound route towards Neuquen. Nothing dramatic happened during these days, we had fun days driving and the weather stayed nice as well. From Neuquen forward we were headed North-West until we finally got back on the Ruta 40. It was a good feeling to be back on the gravel and we really enjoyed our ride. Closing in on Mendoza the landscape took a Wild-Western sort of shape, with red-colored earth and Mountains just alike. Without noticing the altitude had changed to around 1.900 meters before gradually decreasing again.

On one of the last days before arriving in Mendoza we were on our way on the Ruta 40. We had already been driving for about 400 kilometers when we arrived in the village we had planned to spent the night in. Upon arrival it turned out to be very small though, nevertheless the local hotel (no hostel to be found) would charge very high prices. We looked at the map and decided to give it a shot and continue to Buta Ranquil. It was another 200 kilometers (which would make it our longest daytrip so far) and the sun was already about to set. We knew we were in for a night drive.

The gravel was great but very dusty. As I (Thomas) was riding in the back I was keeping a good distance to Christoph, maybe two or three kilometers, because otherwise I couldn't see anything. As the sun finally set it was sitting so low in the sky it was literally blinding you. At times, with all the dust and the sun, you were merely guessing whether the next turn would take you right or left. Nevertheless we were trying to keep our pace as we wanted to make it into town in time to find a hostel.

After a while I stopped to take a picture of the sunset in the mountains, an awesome sight. As I walked away my bike fell over, obviously the ground was loser then I had thought. I took my pictures, lifted up the bike and was on my way after ten minutes or so.

Unfortunately at this point Christoph and I completely lost sight of each other. This had never happened before, but I guess there's a first for everything. The only problem was that I didn't have a map of the area and there were hardly any road signs. At a crossing I stopped my bike to figure out where I was and where I needed to go using the GPS, luckily some local guys stopped and helped me out. They had also seen Christoph, so in the end all was good.

I arrived in Buta Ranquil a while after Christoph, we found a hotel for a reasonable price and enjoyed a beer we had well deserved.

Now into the seventh week on the road we arrived in Mendoza two days later. We had booked a hostel in advance which turned out to be really nice. Prices were okay and the staff was awesome. We met a lot of friendly people that night, including Alejandro and Marco. Alejandro was very eager to help us with a lot of things which was really nice. As we had arrived in the late afternoon (as always) we decided to go for dinner and then explore the city the next day.

The city is really nice and lively, with lots of green alleys and a huge park to the West of the city. Restaurants and pubs everywhere we were bound to have a good time. Funny enough, we were the only ones wearing flip flops despite temperatures around 25 degrees. When we asked Alejandro he said sure they would wear flip flops, but not now that it was autumn...

We spent four nights in Mendoza and really enjoyed it there. We went out a lot with the people we met at the hostel. There was a live concert which turned into a club night we went to with Carla, Gabriela and Paola from Chile, Slavik from Buenos Aires, Alejandro and Marco from Mendoza. We enjoyed some of the best Argentinean Parillas (traditional barbecue) so far - one was prepared by Alejandro at the hostel, amazing stuff, best Chorizos we ever had. Another one was at a local restaurant, where we met with Charles, our French friend, who had met up with a good friend from back home and was also staying in Mendoza for a couple of days before heading of to do a small photo story about French immigrants in some remote village.

Another day we went on bike'n'wine tour to some of the local wineries with Katie from London and Cassandra from Michigan. You would drive out to the countryside by bus, then rent a bike and take it from one winery to the next, where you would taste some of the local wines. Malbec is very strong in this region. Needless to say we had a good time.

Also, having passed the 10.000 kilometers a while ago, it was time for an inspection of our bikes. We found a BMW dealership in Mendoza by contacting some fellow travelers (check their blog). We left our bikes overnight and picked them up the next day, looking (almost) like new. There were some flaws though: They forgot to readjust the adjusting bolt tightening the chain on one of the bikes and obviously a steel brush to clean our windshields... The price was good though, I guess in Germany we would have paid at least twice or three times at much.

We left Mendoza being both happy to move on but a bit blue to leave all those friendly people behind. Nevertheless we were now headed towards Buenos Aires, which we were really looking forward to since a long time, especially since we would meet up with Virginia and Lucas, whom we had met in Pucon. Read about it in our next blog.

Cheers,
Christoph and Thomas

Free Willy!

2011-04-15T17:04:00.000-07:00

If you’re a frequent reader, first of all thank you. Secondly you might have noticed that we haven’t been writing a whole lot lately. Sorry for that. We’re going to try to catch up, it’s been a good three weeks and around 4.000 kilometers since our last blog, so it’s not going to be easy, as neither one of us is keeping a diary. For the sake of simplicity we’re going to divide the story into several blogs representing the most significant parts of our route.

Having driven hundreds of pretty unspectacular kilometers on the Ruta 3 we made it into Puerto Madryn. The town is mostly known for the Peninsula Valdés, a UNESCO world natural heritage. During different times of the year you can watch all sorts of whales, including Orcas, and a bunch of other animals like sea lions and penguins. Arriving here in the middle of April we were hoping to see some Orcas hunting, it was the end of the season though, so chances were slim.

Anyway when we arrived in the late afternoon the weather was beautiful. As there were hardly any tourists left at the end of the seasons we had no trouble finding a cheap hostel (which was a nice change after we had been denied hospitality in most places for the past two or three days). Most of the dorms were empty so we had an eight bed dorm to ourselves. After we had settled in we explored the town, grabbed some food and took a walk by the coastline.

The next morning we got up very early (it was actually the one and only time we managed to do so) to make it to the Peninsula Valdés in time for the tide. We grabbed a quick breakfast and of we were. It was still dark, but just as the coastline came into sight the sun was rising above it, being both a beautiful sight and literally blinding at the same time. We stocked up on gasoline in Puerto Pyramides and then took the gravelroads to Punta Norte, one of the hunting grounds for Orcas. On our way we were accompanied by Nandus again which would flee into all directions when we approached. One of them was a bit indecisive whether to run left or right, changed its mind midway and ran directly in front of Christoph's bike, missed it only by chance but had to take an accidental hit by his boot. Both Nandu and Christoph were fine...

We arrived at Punta Norte a little later and could immediately hear (though not yet see) the sea lions. We parked our bikes and walked to the coast. Maybe ten meters below one could see the beaches were dozens of sea lions were taking a sun bath, unaware that all the photographers and other curious onlookers were secretly hoping for one of them to end up between rows of sharp teeth during the course of the next few hours.

For the next one and a half hours we just watched, enjoyed the sun and the ocean and waited for something to happen. All seals were to make it out alive that day though, lucky them. We decided to move on and left them behind, barking happily at the waves... We took the gravel roads to the next viewing point which was Punta Cantor. Here you could watch penguins, specifically "Pingüinos Magallanes". Nice little fellows and funny to watch. Also there were loads of armadillos chasing about.

After spending half a day on the Peninsula watching wildlife we returned to Puerto Madryn and spent another night exploring the (not soooo busy) nightlife in town. After three days we left town to continue our way up North. On a gas station on our way out of town we ran into another biker from the US whom we had met before at the border of San Sebastian. It was a petty we met him as we were leaving because he told us about a trip he had taken the day before were you would actually go diving with the sea lions, which obviously must have been amazing. You can see a video here.

Just as we left Puerto Madryn my (Thomas) bike hit the 10.000 kilometers. Christoph was to follow soon after. And not a whole lot later we would pass the 10.000 kilometers traveled in South America , which you could easily tell by the state of our tires. They were clearly not made for riding tar across these distances. Ever since Punta Arenas we had been carrying our spare tires though, so we decided to push on and get the most out of them. It was not until after Buenos Aires that we finally changed them... But before Buenos Aires we hit Mendoza which we will talk about in our next blog.

Cheers,
Christoph and Thomas

Ushuaia Baby!

2011-04-09T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hello fellows... We finally made it in and out of Ushuaia with many stories in between…

On a rainy day (29.03.2011) we pushed through the 400 kilometer ride from El Calafate to Puerto Natales. Being chilled to the marrow, we were glad that we had already booked a hostel in advance and just had to check in. Luckily we made a good choice and the hostel (“Yaganhouse”) was very neat and clean and the wooden walls and floors added to a cosy atmosphere. Due to the bad weather we decided to relax that day and to do only one day of hiking afterwards, so we would at least see “Torres del Paine”.

The next day when we were about to leave for the national park, guess what - we ran into Charles (our French comrade) who had arrived in Puerto Natales the night before. So we agreed to meet in Ushuaia in a couple of days and we were on our way to “Las Torres”, marking the Eastern end of the famous “W-hiking Trail” (a 3-4 day hiking tour) in the natiuonal park “Torres del Paine”.

With the sun peaking out from time to time and great gravel roads we had a fun ride to the “refugio” (our hostel for the night) which was located at the foot of “Las Torres”. We started our 3-4 hours hike up to the “Mirador Las Torres” immediately, however the snow fall border started already at 400 meters , therefore the higher we came the deeper the snow got. Furthermore we had no view of the mountain peaks since it was very cloudy and it started to snow again after a while. Finally we had to turn around 500 meters before the end of the trail because the snow was up to our knees and the poles (to mark the track) disappeared in it completely. Finally we arrived back in the refugio just before nightbreak and we warmed our limbs in front of the fireplace.

After another day in Puerto Natales where I (Christoph) got a crack in one of my panniers welded (those panniers are suppose to be extremly robust and a simple drop made it burst - ridiculous), we moved on to our first big milestone of our journey - Ushuaia.

On Saturday, 02.04.2011, we left Puerto Natales to take the ferry from Puerto Espora to “Tierra del Fuego”. For some reasons we didn’t have to pay for the ferry, so we got a free transfer. Maybe the captain was a motorbike fan? Due to strong winds there were heavy motions of the sea and the waves kept splashing over the rails. While we were enjoying standing outside getting sprayed by those waves the crew was observing us from inside and kept wondering about those weird Germans.

Upon our arrival in Tierra del Fuego we were confronted with deep gravel and strong winds, nevertheless we still made it to the border to Argentina the same day. On our way we overtook a Brasilian biker on a Suzuki V-Strom who was going at 30 km/h. Driving that speed he probably didn’t make it to the next village before night fall. Well, we never saw him again. On the last 30 kilometers to San Sebastian the road turned into a muddy earth road, therefore our bikes were covered in dirt at the end of the day. We decided to spend the night on the Chilean side of the border in San Sebastian (which literally consisted of one hostel and three houses) in order to cross the border the next day. The lonely hostel was of course overpriced. Since they didn’t have any power feed-in there during the night, a generator was running from 7pm until 11pm. After that - darkness until dawn…

Behind the border (on the Argentinean side) the roads went back to tar all the way down to Ushuaia. However the wind was even harder compared to the day before and as soon as we passed Rio Grande it became even worse. Everytime a truck passed by you were protected by the wind for a second but as soon as you were exposed to the wind again it hit you even harder, almost like a shockwave.

Due to the low temperatures and our freezing fingers we stopped in a little village called “Tolhuin” to warm up a bit. In the end this break occurred to be a blessing because we stopped at a panaderia that was selling the best empanadas we had so far in South America (paused there again on our way back… hmmm).

Even so we had only another 120 kilometers to Ushuaia the temperatures dropped down immediately (to 2-3 degrees) as soon as we had left Tolhuin. Just before Ushuaia there were two mountain passes to cross over. There the temperature dropped under 0 degrees and the road was covered with a thin snow layer. Nevertheless eventually we arrived freezing but safely to Ushuaia. There we checked into the “Freestyle” hostel which is the prototype of a decent backpaper hostel: English speaking and cool (sometimes trying too hard) staff, clean, well maintained, central located, with lounge area, TV room and the hostel offering touristic activities. It was good fun staying there and we met many other travelers (backpackers) to group up with.

Ushuaia with its rather huge amount of shops, bars, restaurants and offers on outdoor activities is (just) another of those touristic towns we have been to a couple of times now on our way through South America. Nice, but it lacks in uniqueness. However being the most Southern city of the world (at least “officially”) it was a big milestone on our trip, therefore we decided to rest there for at least two nights and to take it easy.

Even though March-April are the recommended month for visiting Ushuaia the city was rather low populated and it felt again like being there in off-season. Only one place, the Irish pub “Dublin”, seemed to be crowded every night. It’s the most recommended and favorite bar among travelers in Ushuaia. So it was little suprising that we met again old (travel) acquaintances in the “Dublin”. Fun place…

The next day I (Christoph) decided to do some hiking in the National Park nearby Ushuaia. For the parks entrance fee we had to pay 85 pesos which is quite overpriced especially considering that the park was rather lame compared to those we had visited on our way South.

The night before we wanted to leave Ushuaia I (Christoph) got food poisoning what was a rather awkward experience. Thus we had to extend our stay for two more nights… However that delay was not much of an issue because our spare tires which we were going to pick up in Punta Arenas, were mailed too late from Valparaiso and wouldn’t arrive in Punta Arenas before 11.04.2011. So we had another five days to spend in the South, anyway.

On Friday, 08.04.2011, we finally left Ushuaia and returned the same way we came because there is only one road in and out of Ushauaia. But this time we were more lucky than at our arrival and there was no snow. Nevertheless it was still freezing cold. After another stop in Tolhuin where we enjoyed some more of those fantastic empanadas, the temperatures started increasing and for 20 kilometers we could enjoy the true beauty of Tierra del Fuego. A breathtaking composition of golden meadowland and red foliated trees… assumingly the cause for its name. After a while we got closer to the coast again and those strong winds had us back. It must have been a funny image for all the other people on the road seeing us riding in a 45 degrees angle leaning against the wind.

After another border crossing from Argentina to Chile and some more kilometers of muddy roads we eventually arrived in Porvenir. From here we wanted to take the ferry to Punta Arenas the next day. So after another night in a small, deserted village we found our way to the harbour where we met David from Canada, whom we had first talked to in San Sebastian when we crossed the border. He has been traveling on his motorbike (a BMW R 1200 GS Adventure) for almost two years now and more to come. Besides South America he has been all over Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. We used the 2.5 hours ferry crossing to exchange our experiences and the usual war stories. It was another great encounter meeting someone who has been traveling for such a long and is still burning for it. Finally David cancelled his initial plan to move on to Puerto Natales the same day and instead spent the night with us in Punta Arenas. Eventually we had a fun night hearing some more fantastic stories of his travels.

After a (rainy) relaxing Sunday in Punta Arenas we finally received our tires on Monday morning, 11.04. 2011. We also used the chance to get rid of some of our luggage by packing a parcel and sending it back to Germany. We gathered almost 6 kg of luggae and equipment that we sent home… what a relief.

Due to the bad weather we decided to travel fast towards the North of Argentina where we expected (or hoped for) higher temperatures. Nevertheles the next three days were a torture because we had to ride everyday between 400-500 km through a solitude of flat nothing (the Pampas) while temperatures ranged between 2-7 degrees and hard rain was our constant companion. Anyway after three days and 1.300 km we arrived in Puerto Madryn (14.04.2011) where the sun and decent temperatures of 14 degrees welcomed us. And we were left with the feeling (and hope) that we passed the cold weather and better days would lie in front of us… and we shouldn’t be mistaken.

But more about that in our next blog.

Cheers,

Christoph and Thomas

El Cambio

2011-03-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

A good 2.000 kilometers through Chile, roughly following the Panamerican Highway, reaching its end in Quellón, over volcanos, past the Pacific Ocean, on highways, country-roads and the most simple dirt-tracks, across canals on ferries, accompanied by all types of birds, dogs, sea lions and dolphins, we made it into Patagonia.

We already talked a little bit about it in our last blog, but it’s very hard to describe this experience. Since we started our journey the landscape is constantly changing, it’s hard to keep up, hard to put into words. When we finally arrived in Chaiten it was very cloudy and starting to rain, but there was this feeling of finally entering the Southern, wilder part of Chile, so we didn’t mind. Forested mountains to the right and left, we passed through the ghost-town of Chaiten, which was destroyed by a volcano eruption in 2008. A river, which used to run by the small town, was now dividing it into two parts, running by houses half sunken in ashes.

The mountains seemed to be steaming, fog rising from the forests. As we slowly made our way up we were riding on winding roads, huge farns and wild rhubarb (the leaves having diameters of 1.5 meters maybe) growing to both sides from the face of the rock.

Passing on the landscape changed and suddenly had a more romantic character, less wild, a bit more European also maybe. The landscape became a bit wider, with the mountains still being very present, but the rise was less steep. There was a lot of green, some small farms and every once in a while some cows passing the street, sometimes lead by gauchos on their horses.

The road let up to an altidue of about 700 meters above sea level. We could now see the first snow on the peaks to the right of us, waterfalls cascading down the rocks. From here on it was downhill again. As we continued our journey towards the South the landscape kept changing like this. Along with the landscape the temperature was ever so different, from day to day, sometimes from hour to hour. Over a stretch of two or three days we’ve been traveling at temperatures between 2 degrees (passing to Argentina) and 22 degrees (in the Pampa).

Some of the most spectacular views so far were presented by the area around the Lago General Carrera (or Lago Buenos Aires, as it is called on the Argentinean side of the border). The lake is huge, covering an area of 1.850 km² (the Lake of Constance being tiny in comparison, covering “just” 536 km²). The colour of the lake is of a very deep turquoise as we have never seen it before. It is surrounded by snow-covered mountain peaks, the Carretera Austral winding its path alongside. Driving through this scenery your heart is jumping, your soul is gasping for air and your mind constantly rings with “Wooooooeffinghooooooo!”

Closing in on Argentina we left those mountains behind for smaller hills, the color now turning to a sandy red. But again, just as we came to Chile Chico, the area was mainly flattening now; there were huge rocks the shape of the Ayers Rock (just a bit smaller). Instead of being red though these rocks were of a blue color! Amazing…

As we crossed the border to Argentina (which took us about half an hour, papers had to be handed in on the Chilean side, new papers for the bikes needed to be issued at the Argentinean side) and went onto the Ruta 40 the wind started hitting us. It would be our constant companion from here on. Imagine going straight on the highway despite driving in a slanting position most of the time. At times it will hit you with such a brute force you’re being shifted by one or two meters. While this is not a huge problem on a deserted, paved highway, on the gravel parts of the Ruta 40 (of which there is a lot) this can be quite a challenge.

The road is in a pretty good condition for a gravel road (and when the sun is shining). You stay in the tracks of the trucks and all is fine. But left and right of these you have deep gravel, whenever you cross it your back wheel will start to dance. While this can be fun you need to be very careful and concentrated. Especially since wild herds of Lamas and Nandus could pass the road at any time.

Because the weather was good (apart from the first two days in Patagonia we have been really lucky with the weather so far) and there was hardly any traffic we were traveling at a pretty good speed (we actually set our new speed record for traveling on gravel on the Ruta 40). The wind was blowing hard, but when you stayed focused it was great fun driving. Unfortunately our French fellow started daydreaming (according to his own way of telling the story) when he got hit by the wind, pushed into the gravel and lost control over his bike traveling at 100 km/h. Luckily he didn’t get injured at all, obviously his guardian angel is a fast sprinter (“Fahre niemals schneller, als Dein Schutzengel fliegen kann…”). We stopped by the road to get his bike back in shape as good as possible and then headed for Tres Lagos, where we arrived late in the evening.

From Tres Lagos we headed towards El Chalten the next day to go hiking in the mountains. We were really glad to arrive with good weather at the end of the season, because the place was still quite crowded with tourists. We were shocked by the idea of what the trails would look like in high season (talk about “individual tourism”).

The mountains and tracks around “Monte Fitz Roy” are beautiful though. We went hiking for about a day and at least in the beginning had most of the incredible views to ourselves. If you have the time it’s definitely worth to spend some more days in this area (depending on the weather of course). But as we are still headed towards Ushuaia we left the next day.

Just as we had left El Chalten Charles’ bike broke down again unfortunately, this time the carborater being the issue. His engine constantly died on him, and as his battery was flat also Christoph and me got our morning work-out. In the end we decided to toll him. Toll him? Yes, toll him. We attached a rope to my bike, put it around Charles’ suspension fork where it wouldn’t mess with his steering and off we were. We just had to do six kilometers, and we were driving slowly, but it was quite an experience. Some lessons learned:

Align your bikes before starting.
If you have a third person have him/her push the bike that is to be pulled while starting.
Agree on a speed before starting.

Anyway there weren’t any issues and we made it back to El Chalten safely. Here we had to leave Charles behind as he had to get his bike fixed for real this time, so Christoph and me were on our own once again. After having lunch we hit the road towards El Calafate.

El Calafate, like El Chalten, is also a very touristic place. This time there wasn’t as many young backpackers though. They do have a casino – where Christoph and me ended up after a small pub-crawl and won 150 Argentinean Pesos (roughly 40 US Dollars). The obvious attraction of El Calafate though is the glacier Perito Moreno, were Christoph and me drove the next day.

The road leading to the glacier must have been designed with motorbiking in mind. It snakes by the lake, curve after curve, for about 27 kilometers. It is great fun driving this road, probably even more so with different tires. Anyway we made it to the glacier and were stunned by it majestic presence. It is huge and stretches way into the horizon. As the glacier is still moving yet maintaining in size you have a lot of energy, which releases every once in a while with a cannonshot like sound. The ice of the glacier shines in a deep blue. You have to see the pictures to get an idea.

As we came back we ran into Charles. His bike was fixed and he had just arrived. The next day though we were yet again headed in different directions, as Charles wanted to go to Perito Moreno and we went on to Puerto Natales. It was a very cold day, with temperatures down to zero degrees and the wind blowing stronger than ever, and as we passed the border to Chile there was snow, whitening the landscape for a brief moment. When we arrived we were happy to find a well-heated hostel which we had booked in advance. Here we had some dinner and started to prepare for our next trip to the famous “Parque Nacional Torres Del Paine”. More about this though in our next blog.

Until then, cheers,

Christoph and Thomas

Low Tide

2011-03-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

We made it, we finally left Puerto Montt and entered Patagonia.

Wednesday, 16.03.2011 we finally received our import papers we were waiting for since Saturday, 11.03.2010 in Puerto Montt. Even though we used our time in Puerto Montt for several day trips it was about time to break camp and finally proceed our journey into the South.

So Thursday morning we took the ferry to Chiloe, which is an island in the South-West of Chile. Chiloe is 250 km long and 50 km wide and therefore bigger than e.g. Saarland in Germany. Our goal of the day was to see some pinguines at Pingüineras Puñihuil at the North-West of Chiloe. Unfortunately we could hardly make out any pinguines from the main land, however there are more to come down South. Instead we endeavoured another highlight that day, namely our first watercrossing. Also we rode our bikes on the beach (see the videos on Youtube that we posted).

That night we set up our camp in Chonchi, which is a small village half way down South on Chiloe. There we stayed in a hospedaje (hostal) that was recommended by some fellow travelers we met in Puerto Montt. It was a rather big hostal, but since we were the only guests it felt a bit like an abandoned ghost hotel (“The Shining” reference). When we were leaving our hostal on Friday a pack of dogs was chasing our bikes and one of them snapped for Christoph’s boot, so he had to kick it. First time he ever had to kick a dog… those dogs over here are crazy.

Before we left Puerto Montt on Thursday we had bought tickets for the ferry from Quellon (on Chiloe Island) to Chaiten (our entry point to Patagonia). Departure time was Friday night 24:00 o´clock and the duration of the trip was to be eight hours.

So Friday we started for a short day trip to the Parque Nacional Chiloe, afterwards we drove to the South-East of Chiloe to Quellon where our ferry was supposed to leave. The boarding of the ferry was planed to start at 22:30 o´clock. We arrived in Quellon around 19:00 o´clock, also marking the end of the Panamerican Highway. The city was the most run-down one we have seen so far in Chile, so we even had a hard time to find a decent restaurant to have dinner.

At 22:00 o´clock we arrived at the docks where we met many nice people mostly from Chile and Argentina that were waiting for the ferry to Chaiten as well. Among them was also another motorbiker from France (Charles) who was on his way to Ushuaia, too. The ferry finally left delayed at two in the morning.

After a short and rough night on the boat we arrived in Chaiten. However since the tide was still not high enough when we arrived the boat couldn’t dock. So we had to wait another hour. Isn’t there something like a calendar for the tide (Gezeitenkalender), so ferry cooperations can adjust their schedules accordingly?

In Chaiten Charles (from France) joined our group to travel with us to Ushuaia. Unfortunately it was raining really hard so we had to ride the first part of the gravel roads of the Carresterra Austral in the rain. The unpaved parts of the Ruta 7 are strewn with potholes, sand, gravel and rocks. That was also where Christoph damaged his front wheel when hitting a rock. At the same time he hurt his calf when preventing to fall. Finally he got his bike fixed in Coyhaique and his leg is getting better and better every day.

Saturday night (19.03.2011) we stayed in a very small village called Puyuhuapi. The next day we moved on to Coyhaique which is the biggest town in this region of Chile. On our way there Charles got a flat rear tire. So we disassembled the wheel and Thomas drove Charles and his rear wheel to the next village (13 km) to get it repaired. Three hours later we finally succeeded to fix the bike and were back on the road to Coyhaique. Due to our delay it was already dark when we continued our trip, so Thomas could use his additional xenon light for the first time. Eventually we arrived hungry and exhausted in Coyhaique around 23:15 o´clock, so we were glad when we found a hostal that was still open. What a day…

By the way Sunday was Charles' birthday, so a big bummer for him that he had flat tire and we arrived that late in Coyhaique. Anyway we decided to stay a day in Coyhaique to regain our strength, cure our wounds and take care of our bikes. At the end of the day Christoph’s wheel was fixed and the bikes were cleaned and oiled. Finally we celebrated Charles birthday and had great time in a pub where we got to know the entire family of the owner… A real family business.

On Tuesday (21.03.2011) we continued our trip through Patagonia. Surrounded by a fantastic scenery and nice weather we traveled fast and left 300 km behind us. The more far we get South the colder it gets, today the average temperature was 9 degrees and the coldest was 2 degrees including snowfall. Fortunately we are equipped for these conditions and got the right clothes with us. This night we spent in Puerto Guadal about 100 km before the Chilean-Argentinian border. Our host was a Belgian immigrant who just opened his hostel one and a half month ago, so we heard another interesting life story and he even cooked us dinner.

Today we passed the border to Argentina after passing Chile Chico and are now in Perito Moreno. Read more about our journey in the next blog… Pictures will follow soon, right now our internet connection is too slow for uploading.

Cheers,

Christoph and Thomas

A Gringo's Wisdom

2011-03-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

Since we're stuck in Puerto Montt waiting for some documents we need to be able to cross the border to Argentina in a couple of days we have some time to tell some more stories.

Amores perros, pero… Or simply dogs. What's up with the dogs in Chile? I mean I personally love dogs, and the Chilean ones are laid back to say the least, "tranquilo" even. With one huge exception – they don't like motorbikes at all. You can see them picking up the noise of a bike before you hear a thing. They will move into a "ready, steady, go" position or hide behind a corner, and just as you hear the motorbike approaching they are already charging towards it, hunting it down the street. I don't know why they do it, maybe it's the sound of the engines which differ from the cars. Actually we were thinking about doing field studies with different engines (one cylinder vs. two cylinders for example) to see what gets them. Maybe next time. Right now we're busy not running them over. Sometimes the best way ist to let them come close and then get away full throttle, as they can't keep up. Looking forward for Peru where dogs are accompanied by pigs. That should do for a funny picture, a motorbike being chased down the street by some wildy screaming pigs. Go animal farm!

As far as the Chilean people are concerned, the ones we have met so far have been really nice. As everyone we have met has been so far, really. So for all those people who sayed we're gonna get stabbed within the first two weeks - didn't happen. Or for those of you who thought our bikes would be stolen first time we turn our heads - I mean sure, we take them off the street at night. I do that in Berlin as well. Over here you stand out of a crowd with a bike like that like the Pope on an AIDS charity event (no offense). It really wouldn't make sense to steal the bike. Even if you say the bikes could be scrapped and then sold in pieces – there's no market for the pieces here. We've seen exactly one Chilean guy with a BMW. They usually ride Harley or small Suzukis or the like (the cops in the cities drive small Yamahas). But really there's not that many bikes here at all.

And security in general? Well, Puerto Montt is the first town that looks a bit shady at dusk. Maybe it's because of the brothels next to the super market, but what do I know. But in general I have not felt unsecure over here so far. Okay there was this one moment where we were in a McDonalds in Chillan, sitting by a streetside window, watching a guy kill a rat right then and there. For a second I looked at my burger, then remembered the cockroaches in Newcastle, Australia or the one storming out of a burger joint in Senatobia in the US and thought - oh well. Been there, done that.

Traffic is fine as well. At most times on the highway or one the conuntry roads you can’t really speak of traffic. You're driving by yourself most of the time, so any mistake you make is bound to be your own. Also the Chileans are quite reasonable drivers, no problems there at all. That will probably change as we come to Bolivia or Peru, but that's then and this is now.

So what about a roof over our heads you might ask. Until now that hasn't been any problem at all. So far we’ve been camping only once, staying in hostals most of the time as they are reasonably priced and bear the comfort of a shower and a real matress. Or at least most of the time. Because the one thing which is a bit difficult at times is finding a HOT shower. Any shower is good, a hot shower would be even better, especially now that it's cooling down a bit. But that seems to be a game of chances over here.

Anyway regarding budget it's been okay so far, but once the weather becomes better again we will definetely do some more camping as well. It's about half the price compared to a regular hostal, well at least it was for the one camping site. Anyway we are looking forward for prices to drop as we leave Chile, we were told that it is rather expensive over here and we can expect prices for gas for example to drop once we get into Argentina. Which is nice, with fuel obviously being one of our main needs.

Well, so much for now, we're going to hit the town to find something to eat. And maybe some drinks…

Cheers,

Christoph and Thomas

Al Sur

2011-03-11T10:44:00.000-08:00

Hola mi amigos! We have been to Pucón in the area of the Parque Nacional Villarrica now for four days. Originally our plan was to leave today, but we decided to go to see some hot springs instead. Unfortunately it started to rain heavily during the night, so we agreed to just hang out for a day and take it easy. Which is good for you because it gave us time to write this blog entry!

After completing the set-up of our bikes we left Valparaiso around noon on Sunday, 6^th of March. It was a great feeling to finally hit the road for real.

The sky was gray and cloudy first, nevertheless it was quite warm. After leaving the city behind we knew only one direction – we were headed South! Our main means of navigating were a map of Chile and our compass. Our first waypoint was Pichilemu, a surfspot about 250 kilometers South of Valparaiso. We were trying to stay away from the big highways and chose to drive small backcountry roads instead. The scenery was amazing and changing constantly. Sometimes we were driving through open plains with small bush-like trees – it was like straight out of a wild west movie. Then there were hills, huge cactusses taller then men were growing wildly. We came through areas which looked quite European, almost reminding us of the “Schwarzwald” (black forest). In the late afternoon the sun came out and finally, after about maybe four hours, we saw the Pacific Ocean again and hit Pichilemu.

As it is off-season over here it and since we arrived on a Sunday it was not as busy as it might have been on other days, but still there was a lot of people on the streets and in the cafes & bars. We drove around looking for a hostel we were told of by Martina before we had left Valparaiso. We found it right by the beach. The place was run by a Dutch guy who came to Chile about 15 years ago at the age of 21. With only 23 years old he decided to buy a piece of land and stayed. He’s now running the surf hostel, including a small restaurant/bar. A German girl, who was staying in Chile for about two months, was working behind the counter.

We unloaded the bikes and took them for another spin. It was really fun to get rid of the extra weight and just chase them through the area surrounding Pichilemu. When we came back it was rather late already, we were quite tired from the last couple of days, so we just had some drinks and sandwiches and went to bed.

The next day we enjoyed our breakfast by the ocean, packed our bikes and left Pichilemu around 11 am. Again we were headed South. We drove towards Constitución, and when we came to Vichuquén we went offroad for the first time. In the beginning the trail was very steep and sandy, later it got a little better. After about 15 km of loose gravel we ended up on a regular paved road again.

From Constitución we headed East towards San Javier on some dirt tracks and curvy country roads winding their way along the hills. At San Javier we entered the Ruta Cinco and watched the needle of our compass turn South again. The Ruta Cinco is a national highway, which we decided to take in order to eat away some kilometers on our way to Patagonia. At the end of the day our goal for the first month is to reach Ushuaia and we had to keep in mind the weather conditions down there, which are probably turning a little worse every day. Finally, after roughly 500 kilometers we had made that day, we hit the town of Chillan in the evening, where we decided to stay for the night. Yet again it was rather late, we just grapped something to eat and went back to our hostel.

The next day, it was Tuesday, we continued on the Ruta Cinco. We passed Los Angeles and headed for Temuco as we wanted to spent a couple of days in the National Park area. To the left we were accompanied by a view of the foothills of the Andes. After passing Temuco we left the highway at Freire, now bound Eastwards again. To our front we could see the snowy tip of the Volcán Villarrica rising. As the weather was really nice, sunny and warm, we decided to look for a camping site in Pucón. We put up our tents by the lake (Lago Villarica), went to the city, bought a couple of beers and returned to play some games.

Late at night we noticed our neighbors, who had driven their car into the sand, one wheel almost completely buried. We walked over to help them get it out but it would not move an inch (the eventually got it pulled out by another car the next morning). So instead we all ended up sitting together and enjoying some beer and wine. That’s how we got to know Virginia and Lucas from Argentina as well as Jorge from Chile. All of them were on vacation as well and were traveling in Chile. We had a great night together with a lot of stories and even more laughter.

The next day we decided to stay in Pucón a little longer but wanted to look for a hostel to have a better and safer place to store our luggage. As there is a lot of hostels here but it is off-season as mentioned earlier finding a room was not an issue, so we had a lot of time left to enjoy the day. We took the bikes and decided to drive to the Volcano. Little did we know what we were in for.

When we were at 800 meters above sea level we entered an official park area. The guy at the gate said it would be no issue to go up there by bike, so we decided to go for it. The rise up to 1200 meters was okay, it was a regular though pretty hard offroad track. It seemed to be corrugated iron sheets covered with dirt and gravel, tight roads twisting their way up the mountain. When we came to the base station conditions changed rapidly. The temperature had dropped by ten degrees, and where before we had something close to a road there was know only trails leading a steep way up the mountain. There was no one to be seen anywhere and when we stopped for a rest we could enjoy a silence which was just incredible.

The trail was a mix of lose sand and huge volcano rocks. We made our way up to 1500 meters, from there on we decided that the conditions (trail and weather) were too bad to continue. The tip of the Volcano (at about 2847 meters) was covered in clouds. So we made our way down, choosing a different trail than the one we had been riding on before.

Coming downhill the trails were even more challenging. Christoph managed without problems, I dropped the bike a couple of times at very slow speed but nothing serious happened. In the end it was matter of strength, driving down the hill under these conditions and having to lift your 200 kilogram bike can be quite tiring. We had also forgotten to bring some water for ourselves. That went straight to our “lessons learned”. All in all what was supposed to be a short round trip took us three hours and when we came back to Pucón it was almost getting dark again.

When we entered the town we heard people calling for us – it was Virginia, Lucas and Jorge who were sitting in a bar on a rooftop terrace. We brought our bikes back to the hostel, got changed and were out for yet another fun night with our new found friends.

The next day we spent in preparation for leaving Pucón (which as I mentioned earlier did not happen in the end), cleaning and maintaining our bikes, washing clothes etc.

Which brings us back to the beginning of this post. When we were surprised by the heavy rain we were happy to have the time to just accept these kind of things for what they are, kick back and relax. And that’s exactly what we did.

Cheers,

Christoph and Thomas

Vital Signs

2011-03-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

Alright boys and girls. On Tuesday, 1st of March around 4pm we left Germany for the time being. We had packed our belongings and finally started our trip. A good 24 hours later we arrived at the airport of Santiago de Chile, where we were picked up by Oliver, a German immigrant and neighbor of Martina and Enzo, our hosts for the next couple of days. Oliver took us to the “Villa Kunterbunt” in Valparaiso, the hostel run by Martina and Enzo. Over the time they had specialized in travelers like us.

The place was buzzing with travelers, most of them had just returned from their individual trips. Big, dirty bikes everywhere, they were telling stories we are eager to listen to. There was two friends from Austria, Bernd and Hans, who had travelled 16.000 km within the last two month. There was Renate and Petra, a couple also from Austria, who had travelled through South America on their KTM and Honda for the past year. Finally there were Dieter and Lutz from Bavaria in Germany, who had stopped by to lose some weight of their bikes and were going to continue up north within the next couple of days.

The first evening was overwhelming, there was adventure in the air. Over a couple of beers and some good barbecue we sat outside amongst the bikes, enjoying the warm summer evening. We heard so many stories, saw some fantastic pictures and videos, got so much advice for the time to come... We couldn't have imagined a better start. Everybodys' eyes were gleaming, as “kitschig” as it may sound. Late at night we went to bed to finally get some rest.

The next day we got informed that our bikes had arrived, nevertheless due to customs etc. we had to wait for the next day to pick them up. So Christoph and me decided to stroll around Valparaiso and get a first impression of South America.

The city stretches over a huge number of hills. The center is buzzing with life, school had just started and there was uniformed kids everywhere. Dogs were sleeping on the sidewalk, only to be disturbed by a few motorbikes, which they would chase down the streets (they don't mind the cars for some reason).

In the more residential areas everything was very colorful, houses were painted in every colour of the rainbow and there was graffitis everywhere. Including the dog poo it therefore reminded us of Berlin in a way… After returning to the city center by cable car we enjoyed our first Completo Italiano, basically a Hot Dog with tomatoes, guacamole and mayonaise. Very enjoyable though propably not very healthy. Last but not least we had some coffee and returned to the Villa Kunterbunt for some more stories, beer and barbecue.

Today, on Friday, we finally picked up our bikes. We were so happy when we unboxed the sleeping beauties, we had waited over a month to see them again. We spent about two hours to get the bikes ready, and finally we were off. All the luggage went onto Enzo's pick-up truck so we were free to enjoy the ride. It was fantastic to finally unleash the beasts again. All the other guys were there as well as they had just retuned their bikes, and everybody knew exactly how we felt.

The only downside was that the anti-corrosive we had used to protect our bikes from the sea water proved to be a real mess. We would definitely not recommend using that stuff as it is totally over-engineered. The bikes were perfectly safe in their boxes as they were and it was a complete mess getting that stuff off. That will also go to our "Logistics"-section as a hint for future travelers.

Finally we packed our bikes, they are now good to go. We received some further good advice regarding weight distribution etc. Being very exhausted from the long day we are going to conclude this day with a final barbecue and then finally head off tomorrow. Hope all of you enjoy reading this, pictures to accompany this post will follow soon!

So long,
Christoph and Thomas

Edit: Due to some further modifications we decided to make to our bikes we will be heading down south as of tomorrow. The good news is that this also means you get to see some pictures as we had time to update our gallery. Check it out!

The Big Bang

2011-01-13T04:43:00.001-08:00

Welcome everybody to our first blog entry!

As you all know Christoph and I are about to head out for South America in March. So we decided to create the inevitable travel blog to keep our families and friends posted. More than that, we also wanted to share the information we have collected in regards to planning such a trip. For us, finding other blogs like this was a great help at times and we hope we can add to this traveling community by sharing our experiences with others.

So what has happened so far? Since we first came up with the idea for this trip in January 2010 (see "About us") a lot of things have happened. At times it was quite hard to organize everything in parallel to our job traveling routine (bu-hu), but in the end we managed. Most importantly, in July respectively September 2010, both of us received their motorbike license. Shortly after that we purchased the BMW F 800 GS. In a different blog entry we will tell you something about why we decided to go for exactly this bike. For us it was the perfect choice (from what we can tell so far).

Next we gathered all open items based on any information we could get hold of (books, magazines, the internet) and created individual tasks & responsibilities. Though it sounds quite nerdy it actually worked, and helped us planning and delivering our small project. I suppose in the end we did learn something at our job. The main points were:

travel logistics (for ourselves and the bikes)
accessories & modifications (for the bikes)
tools and spare parts
equipment & clothing (for us)
travel documents (e.g. international licenses)
medication & vaccination
navigation & communication
outdoor equipment (camping, cooking)
photo gear
others (e.g. first aid and language training)

We will talk some more about the individual items at a later point (check out the "Planning" section when you come back). For coordination of these activities we used a shared file we could both access. While this was not the most sophisticated tool it could provide a good (and quite exhaustive) starting point to others.

So now, about six months later (we didn’t actually start planning our trip until July 2010) with just six weeks to go and having checked most of the boxes we feel as well prepared as we can be. We’ve had on- & offroad driving and language trainings, we are vaccinated against every disease you can possibly think of and finally we are so well equipped we are every pickpocket’s wet dream.

From here on we will add information to this blog, update and modify it (right now we’re working on a more sophisticated solution for the GPS tracking functionality so you can stay with us) and of course write about our journey. Anyway we are excited and anxious to start our trip. Our tour is going to take us from Chile to Argentina, on to Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru. Hope you’ll stay put for our stories and pictures and enjoy reading!

Cheers,
Christoph & Thomas