LAKE TITICACA

Our group has moved on from Cusco, & we are now in Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We had a good ride of about 400 km yesterday. The roads leaving Cusco were very ordinary. Nobody official gives a rats about potholes (or anything else as far as I can make out), but my favourite hazard is the missing manhole cover. Some of these are big enough to trap a front wheel, & they can appear at any moment. And if you are in a roundabout, & think this entitles you to some sort of priority.......wrong!! I am truly staggered at the number of dogs roaming the streets of Peru. Mange, distemper, hydatid worms, rabies etc are all alive & well , & in no danger of going the way of smallpox. But back to the riding. We crossed a mountain pass on the way here, at about 4300m. It was hailing just as we got to the top, but it blew over quickly, & we moved on over generally good roads, but with a few bad sections, through quite spectacular looking countryside, wide sweeping vistas with snowy peaks in the background. Lots of rural folk, mostly women in the traditional dress of skirt, long socks, cardigan & brightly cloured shoulder bags topped off by a bowler or top hat, walking along the roads herding sheep, llamas or alpacas. The hats apparently vary from town to town, region to region. Farmhouses are mostly made of mudbrick. Its quaint, but you wouldnt reckon anyone is making any money.

When we arrived in Juliaca, I thought I was back in India, complete with roadside junk & diabolical traffic. The ride leader took a wrong turn up a narrow one way street in the middle of the chaos (hey, it happens) & we ended up having to turn around. Ten bikes doing 3 point turns in street did not help, but I thought it was pretty funny all the same. Anyhow, we got here, & I continued my startling run of punctures by picking up another nail just as we arrived. Oh, another thing , the 650GS has a seat like a park bench, good thing I brought the Airhawk seat cushion.

This morning we went out on the lake to visit the floating islands made of reeds, which was the purpose of our visit to Puno. This is really quite remarkable, as there are whole communities living out there in houses made of reeds, & it feels weird to walk around with a slight moving sensation as the surface gives underfoot, sort of like walking on a matress. They also make boats out of reeds as well, which was neat to see. These days though, the buoyancy is provided principally by two tubes filled with empty plastic bottles. Such is progress. The bad news is that this place has been developed into a total tourist trap, the objective being to extract as much dough from everybody as possible, but this is no surprise, is it¿ (that was a spanish question mark by the way). So after the obligatory photos of women in Peruvian outfits, & a wander into some of the houses for a look, out comes the hard sell for local handicrafts (read: crap that nobody needs or wants, least of all me). Pretty much what we expected. As for the Lake itself, it is impressive in that it is so large, over 160 km long, & is located in the mountains at such a high altitude. But sadly the reality is that it is a fetid swamp, the worlds largest sewage treatment lagoon, a giant stinking cesspit constantly topped up by the shit running from the streets & drains of Puno & other towns. Fortunately, the stench is somewhat modified by the clouds of exhaust fumes, & even in the back of this particular internet cafe there is no escape.

I just dont know how so much of the world lives in conditions like these, much less how it can ever be improved. If people dont care about it, then they deserve to live in crap. And being poor doesnt give you a licence to throw your rubbish into the street. I cant see that Puno serves any other purpose than to pollute Lake Titicaca, and that the concepts of urban planning & building control, public health management & basic hygeine are virtually non existent. As for Occ Health & Safety.........dont make me laugh! Anyway, we leave for Bolivia tomorrow, which is just across the other side of the Lake, & have our first border crossing. I dont expect there will be much improvement. Photos asap, I promise.

But amid all of the above angst, today I had one of those moments you just cant buy. I was walking along the street just as a primary school was finishing for the day. A little girl of about 5 or 6 stopped on the footpath & looked me up & down with a very studious expression on her face, and then with that wonderful innocence that only children have, said " Greengo".

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.