CUSCO

After arriving in Cusco, I met the rest of the group. We have 9 riders & 2 pillions altogether, all Aussies, (apart from 2 Italian speed freaks, but they have been living in Sydney for a few years, so that is good enough) & have spent a bit of time getting to know one another and our Compass crew, Wiki & Lisbet, a young Belgian couple. We had a familiarisation ride out into the hills surrounding Cusco, & the traffic conditions & general mayhem out on the roads surprised a few of the group, but sofar there have been no major dramas about riding on the right, & being ignored by everyone else on the road.

The compound where the bikes are kept is a real sight. You have to ride down a sidestreet which is more like a motocross track to get there, & its behind some huge steel gates, & has a resident caretaker who lives in a pile of rubbish at one end. South America can certainly be confronting at times, & Cusco does not appear to be a wealthy town. But it is the tourism hub of Peru, & the centre of town is interesting notwithstanding the obligatory beggars, touts, shops full of tat, etc. There is some good stuff to buy, & some good restaurants, & food & grog is reasonably cheap. How does less than $2 a stubby sound? (Pause for a sip.) Some of the group are suffering already with altitude sickness (3300m), & stomach bugs, so far I have been spared anything serious.

I am currently back in Cusco, after having been up to see Machu Pichu. Quite a complicated process, as the train from here to there is still out of action due to last years floods. We rode part of the way, then took a 90 min train ride to Aguas Calientes, where we stayed overnight. Early next am, we took a mildly nerve wracking bus ride up to the site. It certainly must have been remote when it was built. Nobody was disappointed, it is quite a fascinating place. We then reversed the process, & took a different ride route back here. Great scenery, but the roads are not great, & you just never know what will come at you from around the next bend. There are heaps of speed humps which you usually dont see until the last moment, & all sorts of animals wandering around the place.

Tomorrow we finally get going up to Puno & Lake Titicaca. I am having trouble loading photos & will catch up when I can find a faster computer.

GOODBYE ARGENTINA---HELLO PERU

With my last day in Buenos Aires, I decided to visit a few of the places I missed out on last time I was here, so I headed up to the Cemetario de la Recoletta. This is an old cemetery where the coffins are kept in above ground mausoleums. It is notable for being the final resting place of Eva Peron, & it didnt take too long before I located same. Well, whacko, it was nothing flash. I was more interested in the fact that the place was so old. I saw several tombs holding people born in the 1700s. I also observed most of the tombs are a lot more presentable than many of the houses visible on the way into town from the airport. It is a bizzare place, & I kept thinking of that scene in Easy Rider where they had an acid trip in a similar cemetery in New Orleans. All that was missing was the acid, a couple of hookers, a pile driving rig &, oh yes, Denis Hopper. OK so there was a lot missing. Anyway, I then went & had a look at the big obelisk in the middle of the main drag. This commemorates the anniversary of the founding of the city, circa 1580 odd, well before Australia was even discovered. I think they wasted the head start.

Recoletta Cemetery

The Obelisk

A traffic cops vehicle. Intimidating or what? Dont laugh or they shoot.

Buggered if I know, its an ad for Pepsi.

After a 5 am start the next day, & a 5 hour flight from Buenos Aires, during which my allocated seat was wedged between one of the toilets & a woman holding a baby who screamed in my ear the entire time, I arrived in Lima. The place was barely visible due to a low fog, even though it was the middle of the day. This is apparently quite common. Yet when I walked out the door, it was hot & humid. Go figure. My first impression was that it looked a lot less prosperous than Buenos Aires or Santiago, the only other capitals I have seen in South America. But airports are usually located in crap areas, right? This outlook didnt improve as the taxi headed through some pretty run down areas & emerged on the coast. The Pacific was a dirty brown colour, & the beaches were made of grey shingles. I wouldnt swim in it at gunpoint. And the coastline was fronted by very high cliffs , making it hard to get to. Anyway, the Hotel Antigua Miraflores is nice enough. However, none of the rooms have flyscreens, & there is a sign in the bog instructing that putting toilet paper down the bog is not on. One dumps it in the waste bin, apparently. I have heard of this, but as yet not experienced it. I daresay its a hard habit to get into. God help the cleaners.

The courtyard of my hotel

The Pacific coast- foggy, grey & horrible, today anyway.

Anyway, this am I went out for a walk & finished up walking along the coast. Nice waves coming in, but as noted above, one would really have to be keen. I ended up at a new shopping mall - fun complex, the type of place I would usually avoid, but there wasnt much else on offer. Its too far & too hot to go into the city. The place was crawling with security guards, & all the buildings here have heavy grilles & screens on the windows & doors, so it looks like crime is rampant. Heavy stuff. I fly to Cusco tomorrow. Let the riding commence .....please!!

Buenos Aires --Otra Vez

Hello Listeners, Nothing much to report yet. I am now in Argentina, & am just getting over the jetlag. Now I find out if the time & effort I put in to learning Spanish was worth it. The indications appear to be good because, sofar at least, nobody has gone off their trolley at me or resorted to violence after I have spoken to them. Just having a relaxing day in Buenos Aires today, with a 5am departure for the airport tomorrow, when I fly to Lima. Until Then.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Greetings to all. As some of you will already know, I am shortly to return to South America for some further biking adventures. Yes, I admit it, I'm hooked! It is just a question of what gives out first, the bank balance or the body. Either way, I'm sure the Government will look after me. So, I head to Buenos Aires on 18 April. Then across to Lima, and on up to Cusco. Here I will join a Compass Expeditions ride via Chile & Bolivia & northern Argentina to Iguacu Falls, at the convergence of the borders of Argentina, Brazil & Paraguay. From here, I join another Compass ride across to the coast of Brazil, then up to Rio de Janiero. Then I fly back to Buenos Aires, & get home on 6 June. After patiently watching & enjoying the journeys of several friends unfolding over the last year or so, I am fairly champing at the bit. Stay tuned.

A FEW MORE PHOTOS & A FEW LAST WORDS.

THE TIGRE DELTA just north of Buenos Aires

AS ABOVE

TIERRA DEL FUEGO NATIONAL PARK, where the road ends.

AS ABOVE. Its wild, isolated & quite spectacular.

And heavily forested too.

We went thru THE GARIBALDI PASS, just out of Ushuaia on the road north. That's snow on the roadside.

AS ABOVE. Tricky, not to mention cold!

WAITING TO CROSS THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN, separating Tierra Del Fuego from the South American mainland. The Sir Douglas Mawson lookalike is me, but the conditions were fairly Antarctic.

The magnificent LAGO ARGENTINO , between El Calafate & El Chalten.

ONTO THE GRAVEL AGAIN, Ruta 40, north of Tres Lagos. It gets worse.......a lot worse!

BUSH MECHANICS! An improvised clutch lever after a drop on the gravel. It actually worked. (No, its not mine!)



LANIN VOLCANO, on the border between San Martin de los Andes (Argentina) & Pucon (Chile). Yes, it's active ..........better keep moving!

A BIT CLOSER. The foliage is a so called Monkey Puzzle Tree.

PART OF THE SANTIAGO SKYLINE. The smog blots out what would otherwise be a spectacular mountain backdrop.

PLAZA BAQUEDANO, Central Santiago

ONE OF THE MANY CATHEDRALS, Santiago.

TERRAZA NEPTUNO, Cerro Santa Lucia, Central Santiago.

Ever wonder what the Third Reich did with all the leftover uniforms? Now you know!

CROSSING THE ANDES THE EASY WAY. Flying back to Buenos Aires from Santiago.

AS ABOVE.

Its been a hectic 3 weeks, covering a bit over 3,000 km by road. When we started in Ushuaia, it looked as though we were going to cop really bad weather, but I think we got lucky. It had been snowing the day before we arrived, & it was raining on arrival. The wind was stiff enough to be a concern, & it made the riding tough, but it could have been much worse, apparently. There was snow on the ground in a mountain pass on the first ride day from Ushuaia, so that's a first for me. Fortunately, the weather steadily improved as we moved north.

As a group, we have seen some spectacularly rugged & isolated scenery, ridden through some of the most remote & challenging parts of the planet, had some fantastic rides, honed our skills, enjoyed the cameraderie of similar minded adventurers, met a lot of very friendly & hospitable locals along the way and, best of all, had a lot of fun doing it. What more could anybody want? Just more, that's what! So there will probably be a next time, at least I hope so. Thanks for sharing this great experience with me. Hasta Luego, Mike.

BEWARE, THERE ARE LLAMAS !!!!

Well, they´re guanacos actually, a little smaller than llamas. There are plenty of them out on the plains, but they are a bit flighty, & usually bolt before you can get too close- fortunately, as they are bigger than goats.

Before we get to the infamous Ruta 40, here is a shot of a waterfall/glacial lake in Torres del Paine NP, Chile, followed by a refuel stop in the backblocks. The hose comes out of a hole in the back of a dilapidated shack, but what the heck, its petrol.

Got to a place called El Chalten, dominated by a massive granite spike called Mt Fitzroy.

However, I am more likely to remember the place for the massive dose of gastro I got at no extra charge after dinner in a local restaurant. After spending a night in/on the bog, I did not eat for 36 hours, & had to spend 2 days in the support vehicle, thus missing out on a big section of Ruta 40. However, I did get a good look at the countryside, usually as I ran out of the 4WD a few times to find a bush & then to add my personal contribution to the local ecology (too much information?). It is an unbelievably windswept & desolate part of the world, but like OZ, its got its own special grandeur, & there are usually snow peaked mountains on the distant horizons which add to the overall vibe. I was fit enough to ride the next day, which happened to be the longext ride day of the trip. It started with 130 km of murder- deep gravel, corrugations, & sand, 350 km of bitumen, with large sections of side detours which were worse than the road they were replacing! We had a savage wind in places, but apparently we got it relatively easy, nowhere near the full fury that can be unleashed. It was probably the toughest ride I have ever done, its tough on the bike, & tough on the rider. It was not unexpected, but I was not in A1 shape to start with, & I´m very satisfied with my effort.

RUTA 40. ITS A TOUGH GIG !!!

Ruta 40 is being upgraded with large sections under total replacement (theyre replacing it with a road!). When it is finally finished, it will be just another road, but right now, it is deservedly the stuff of legend. We have seen many other bikes, either tour groups or individuals in twos or threes. Its BMW Central down here.

Some of the towns are amazingly backwards. Here is the main street of Rio Majo, note the extensive reconstruction program in full swing.

When we got up as far as Esquel, a pleasant ski resort town, the country started to improve, with forested mountains, & lots of wildflowers. It is now starting to look quite alpine. Yesterday, we had a great ride on good roads to reach Bariloche, an even more European looking town on a large lake. This is our accomodation on the outskirts. Neat, huh? Just like Bavaria.

On the downside, my bike now has a damaged headstem bearing, making it quite hard to ride, & the guys dont have a spare, so thats a bummer as we have even more good roads to ride on tomorrow. Such is life! But overall I like the F650, its got everything you need, its light & responsive, it handles the rough stuff comfortably & predictably, & on the bitumen, I love the way it howls when you wring its neck in 3rd & 4th. Its back into Chile tomorrow (19Dec) to Pucon via the 7 Lakes area, should be another scenery overload. I´ll post more photos when I can. See you all soon.

FIN DEL MUNDO (end of the world)

Hello readers, Sorry about the delay in posting, access to reliable internet has been a problem. A quick summary so far. I arrived in Buenos Aries a bit of a jet lagged wreck, compounded by a reaction to my yellow fever shots. I had a bit of a look round town, & while it is a lot like Europe in the visual sense, there is also some in your face third world evident-people fossicking thru garbage, slums, lack of footpaths, general grot etc. However, the food is amazing. These people eat like there is no tomorrow. Red meat is the go, & the portion size is about half a cow. Here are 2 photos of crowd control South American style. This lot complete with water cannon & baseball bats were waiting in a city square for a bunch of protesters.

Anyway, after a night out to meet the rest of the group on the tour, we flew down to Ushuaia, where it was cold, windy & raining. We went out for a quick ride, to get used to the bikes, & each other. There are 5 Aussies, an American & a Brit in the riding group, & 3 Compass guys to show us the way. We headed for the end of the Pan Amarican Highway, literally the end of the road at the bottom of Tierra Del Fuego.


This is one of the ultimate goals, the holy grail, for serious motorcycle travellers, so it feels weird starting from here, but thats what we did. We have been doing some long days, 3-400 km, over a mix of road types. Sofar the dirt has been mostly ok, but the big problem is the wind. It is absolutely unbelievable. It can literally blow you right off the road. I have never, ever ridden in conditions like this, cranked over about 20 degrees just to go in a straight line! Its tough & its uncomfortable, & its also cold. There is a lot of snow around in parts. We are all wearing every bit of clothing we own. Enough complaining. There are vast open spaces down here, & in that sense, its a lot like Australia, altho the vegetatiuon & wildlife are very different. We crossed into Chile, then took a ferry across the Straights of Magellan. The Torres del Paine national park in Chile was very, very spectacular.

We crossed back into Argentina, & moved on to a place called El Calafate. From there we went 80km up to the Perito Moreno glacier. This thing is absolutely gigantic, about 5 km wide & 60 m high. You dont need to wait long for a chunk to break off, its very fast for a glacier, and you can hear it creaking & cracking continously. We saw a lump the size of a block of flats break off & hit the water at the front like a bomb! This photo only shows a small part of the front edge of the glacier.

We are about to head into a remote region of Patagonia, for what we think will be 4 days of hard going over the worst roads we are likely to meet. Gotta go, more later.