December 31, 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!! FROM MEDELLIN COLUMBIA

We made it to Columbia. We flew out of Panama City on December 28. Bogotá is a really big city. We had no problems getting our bikes out of the shipping company, well except for the customs didn’t want to inspect the bikes and Girag the shipping company really wanted the bikes to be inspected by customs. Once we got the run around sorted out we were on our way. We also needed to buy reflective vests with our plate number on them, bright orange and we needed to have our plate numbers stuck onto our helmets at the back. THEN we were ready to roll.

We found a little hotel in Bogotá for the first night then rode out of the city early on the 29^th, Kelly’s birthday. We thought that we could make it to Medellin in one day, that was an over estimation on our part. The roads were twisty and full of traffic leaving the city for the weekend. We thought we had our experience with crazy drivers in Mexico and Central America, nope. They are worse here. Passing on a solid line towards us at top speed, passing us on a solid line with cars coming towards them, If you give them an inch they take all of the mile. They don’t realize that we are a bit bigger bikes than the usual ones around here so they just assume that we are going to fit on the shoulder and let them over take us anywhere. Both of us have become very aggressive drivers, just for the survival of it.

We took route 50 from Bogotá out to a city called Honda. It was 2 p.m. and we had only made about 157 kms, but it felt like we had ridden a full 450 kms. We all commented that it was the least kms traveled in a day but the most work. Between the heat and crazy drivers we were finished early. Kelly was pretty excited to stay in a city that is named after his favorite motorcycle.

We rode onto Medellin on the 30^th. As we grew closer to the city we could see just why people call it one of the most pretty cities in Columbia. It is situated in a valley with mountains completely surrounding it. 90% of the buildings are made of clay bricks that are the color of rust. With 2 million people there is a lot of high rise buildings that are not only businesses but apartments. The city crawls up the side of the mountains until the altitude is too steep to build. Really cool to see.

In the evening we hired a cab to tour the city for a look at the Christmas lights. We were told that the entire city was covered in lights.. we thought maybe a few streets but the entire city was covered in lights. For at least 4 kms over the river in the centre of the city Christmas lights were hung over the river. There was everything from the three wise men to a complete Santa scene. The taxi driver took us to every neighborhood within a few kms from the city center and each one had their own light decorations on display. We thought we would hire the taxi for just one hour.. it became two very quickly. Amazing light shows.

Tonight is New Years Eve and we are going to hang out in the Central Park with most likely a million of our closest friends. We have been told that the fireworks are just about the best in Columbia. We can just imagine what they will be like.

Well that is a quick update for now. We will post again with photos in a few days. Internet cafes are not always willing to allow us to us our laptop in them, so we will have to work hard to find one in Cali.

Until then…

Happy New Year Have a great evening and all the best in 2007

Kella

January 4, 2007

Hello from Pasto Columbia. We are now heading south towards the Ecuador border. We have been told by virtually everyone that Columbia was not safe and that we should not travel through it. It may be so that Columbia has had a bad name for tourists or foreigners for many years, but we would have missed one of the most spectacular countries you can imagine. From the minute we spotted the mountains from our seat on the plane we knew that we were in for a real treat. One just can’t describe the beauty of this country with words. Pictures might give you some what of an idea, but really the only way to really understand Columbia is to see it for yourself.

The people are not as warm at first as in Central America. We have been told it’s because they may think that we are from the U.S. However once they know where we are from they show us nothing but respect and hospitality ten fold. A woman that we met from Calgary, who was once a Columbian citizen, told us that Columbians think of Canada as a heaven on earth. Many of them would like to move to Canada to enjoy our prosperity, health care, and education system. Once again it leaves us feeling very privileged to be a Canadian citizen.

The military has certainly shown its presence along the highways. In the very mountainous areas the military line the highway six men long on both sides of the highway every 2 kilometers. They are very prepared for any guerrilla activity in the area. At first it was a daunting feeling that there had to be so many military to protect the people, then it became almost a normal sight for us. When they weren’t there we wondered where they were. Some areas are much worse than others of course, the bridges were all guarded by military and their armored vehicles. This is a fact of life here, people take it in stride

Columbia is certainly a country that deserves more positive representation from the media. The government is trying hard to change the corrupt ways of the past. The people we talked to believe that there is a long way to go before the country is completely safe for visitors and themselves, but it is only time and change that will make that happen.

It’s too bad the corruption reputation hangs over the heads of the people because they are some of the hardest working, eager to get ahead people we have encountered.

Here are just a few photos of the countryside we experienced in Columbia, just remember words don’t describe, photos can do a bit of justice, but seeing is truly believing.

The mountains were green to the top Horse and cart are still used everyday Beauty for as far as the eye can see!!

The "chicken" buses are always loaded with people, sometimes the inside is to full, so the roof is the next best place for the ride. These busses are very old with engines that smoke like a old wood stove. Kelly is able to take photos are he rides, Ken and Heather are in the lead today, followed by me. We are always on the watch for vehicles passing when it is unsafe todo.

January 7, 2007

Hello from Ecuador. We entered Ecuador on the 4^th of January, but having a internet connection to post from was a task to find. The border crossing was a long wait. We spent 3 hours in line-ups waiting to have our passport stamped on the Columbian side and then another 2.5 hours on the Ecuador side waiting with the same people to enter Ecuador. We also need to temporarily import our bikes into the country each time so we needed to have enough time to do the paperwork on that too. We had checked with immigration first to see if we could do all of the paperwork at the same location. Good thing we checked as the man that generally does the paperwork for vehicle importation was not at the border, he was in an office in the town of Tulcan about 10 kms away. After taking turns standing in the line for nearly two hours I checked again with the immigration people to see about exactly where in Tulcan we would go to do the paperwork, the woman informs me that the office closes at 4 p.m. and would not open again until Monday. It was now 3:30 and we had about 75 people in the line up in front of us. We needed to take drastic measures in order to make it to Tulcan 10 kms away, find the immigration office and get the paperwork done. We went to the front of the line, spoke to the police officer who was allowing people into the building just a few at a time. We explained our situation, and begged to go in front of all of these people who had waited too. After much discussion and some pretty stressed looking faces from all four of us we were able to get our passports stamped and hit the road to Tulcan with just 17 minutes to go. Good thing there were no police on the road from the border to Tulcan as they would have had a three good sized speeding tickets to dispense to us.

We made it to the immigration office exactly at four o’clock, luckily the man who did the paperwork was still at the office and was willing to stay and process us. We did leave him a “tip” for his extra time. He worked an extra hour on a Friday processing our bikes.

Over all it was a really easy border crossing to work through, just large line ups of people.

We are now in a very interesting city called Otavalo. It is known for its Saturday market. The indigenous people from all over the district bring their crafts to sell. The market was a minimum of eight streets both sides and a huge central square filled with booths. They have everything, alpaca, llama sweaters that are sold in Red Deer for around 125.00 to 200.00 for 10.00 and 12.00. Weavings, jade carvings, jewelry made of silver, jade, volcanic rock, and other precious stones, produce and fruits of every kind. I particularly enjoyed the chicken heads and feet for sale. They were a nice light snack for mid afternoon. J We spent the rest of the day just wandering and spending our budget amount for the entire day on items too good to pass up. Kelly was able to shoot some amazing photos while I shopped and bartered with the locals. I got some really good deals on the sweaters!! The temp is pretty cold. We are now riding with our Belstaff jackets and extra clothes underneath. We are also classified as giants here. Most of the native people are maybe 4 ft tall at the most. The seniors are maybe 3' 9''. The old ladies work so hard, they pack all of the wood to heat the homes, on their backs. Their skin is so weathered that they look like old shoes. They all wear authentic Ecuadorian clothes , little shoes that just fit over the toes no heals, brightly colored shirts and black skirts. They have little old man hats that both sexes wear. All of the men have long hair pulled back into a ponytail or a braid. They are such hard working people that you can't imagine them having any luxuries like cell phones or even new cars.. but they do. It's funny to see a traditional dressed woman selling her crafts and then looking further in her shop and seeing a flat screen tv being watched by the rest of the family.

We have now said good-bye to Ken and Heather once again. They are planning to go to the Galapagos Islands. So long to some excellent riding buddies. They are always up for a good meal with some cheap beer. We have investigated the idea of going, but unfortunately because my extreme susceptibly to seasickness we have opted out of going to the islands. The adventure there would be a minimum of $3000.00 for one week, a bit too much to be sick, or drugged for the entire time. Time is moving on too for us. We are going to have to make the decision of either to ride at a quicker pace and make it to Tierra del Fuego by the end of February or the beginning of March or find a volunteer experience in Peru or Bolivia and wait out the weather until spring.

For now we will enjoy our time here in Ecuador. There are many volcanoes to see, as well as the beaches of the Pacific.

Today we are having a maintenance day. Kelly is doing an oil change on the bikes, I’m updating the website and looking for some more deals on the local crafts to ship home.

We hope you enjoy the photos as much as we have enjoyed snapping them.

Until then….

Kella

Kelly in his new alpaca "bed hat" He is going to need it in the next few months. Some of the crafts that are sold at the market, spices are plenty too.

The market has just about everything you would ever need to live. The colors were so beautiful, shopping was a pleasure on this day

.

January 14, 2007

We continue to enjoy Ecuador’s, scenery, some of the food and all of the people. We spent several days in the capital city, Quito. We started out going to Quito to find maps. In all of the small towns that we have looked for maps in the people told us only Quito would carry maps of the country as well as maps of Peru, Bolivia and even Chile. So we made a plan to ride into Quito early enough to make it to two of the largest book stores for our much needed maps. We fortunately bought a very large map of South America in Guatemala so Kelly is using that one with his GPS. Unfortunately I am constantly asking where we are and how long until we get to the next place. It’s kind of like a kid in the back seat always asking “are we there yet?” So it was necessary to get a map for me, and maps for the other countries we will be visiting. Quito is a city of 2.2 million people. It’s known for its bad drivers and difficult roadways for getting around. So we did the next best thing and hired a taxi to take us to a hotel that was recommended in our Lonely Planet book. While Kelly was in the hotel trying to see whether they had parking for the bikes or not, a fellow came by noticing the bikes. He was so excited that we were riding KLR’s . I thought he was just happy that we were from Canada. It turns out that he and his two brothers are huge KLR riders in Quito. In fact the one brother Andre is the president of the KLR owners group for all of Quito. Anyone that buys a KLR in Quito has to be in contact with Andre so that they can join the club. Pepe was so excited he just wanted to show us to his brother at the gas station they own. He advised us that the hotel that we were trying to stay in was in a poor area of Quito. He knew of a “moto hostel” that was owned by a friend and that we should go and stay there. But first we must go to the Texaco and meet his family. So we drove over to the Texaco and were welcomed by a wonderful group of men all very thrilled to meet a couple of KLR riders from Canada. After a sharing of what we have done to our bikes and some information about Ecuador we were escorted to the moto hostel for the night.

We had heard of moto hostels before, we had just never had the experience of staying at one. Pepe escorted us to the hostel via his very loud KLR. Changing the pipe on his bike gave him a lot more torque and it certainly let you know he was on the road. The moto hostel was owned by a fellow named Ricardo Ricco. Unfortunately Ricardo was out of town doing business but his employee named German was more than willing to welcome us into the house. I should explain the concept of a moto hostel. If you’re an avid motorcycle rider, have a home with space to host people and are willing to open your doors to complete strangers from any part of the world then you would qualify to have an moto hostel. Ricardo has traveled throughout North, Central and South America extensively. He also has a complete garage for travelers to do any repairs needed on their bikes. German told us that “mi casa y su casa” We were welcome to use anything in the garage and use the house like it was our own. Ricardo was to return by Saturday and he would love to have us stay. The cost was $30.00 a night. No bad considering all of the amenities were had access to. His internet was darn good too. We ended up staying much longer than we had planned. The home was so comfortable and relaxing that we stayed just about the entire week. It was a good break from hotels and restaurant food. I thought I might have forgotten how to cook J

As for the map hunting, well we did hunt for maps alright. We had no success at all finding a darn one. We contacted my brother, Blair, back in Canada and asked to have maps sent via Fedex to us in a town further south. Thank goodness Blair had access to maps in Calgary from Map Town. He was able to send us maps of the next countries we are going to. Thanks Blair!! This is certainly cheaper than buying a GPS for me down here.

Well we thought if we didn’t leave Quito that we might have to ask family to come and visit us there next year. So we packed up and headed west from Quito. We had heard that there was a couple of really great riding roads out towards the ocean and then back into the Andes so that’s where we headed. We road the first day over a pass that was the most spectacular pass we have ever ridden. It was first class pavement with twisties and switch backs continual for over 80 kms. The start was at Aloag just south of Quito straight west to Santo Domingo de los Colorados. This was just the start of what would be two days of excellent riding conditions. We spent the night at a very industrial city called Quevedo, where there are not many tourists, we discovered this when we took a walk through the Saturday market where we turned heads more than we have noticed anywhere before in all of our travels. Generally the children do the most staring but this day we were the subject of many stares by everyone, and particularly the elderly. We have learned to just give a smile and a friendly greeting this usually is responded to positively.

The next morning we headed out back towards the Pan-American highway. If we thought yesterdays ride was spectacular we were in for a real treat today. Once again Ecuador didn’t disappoint us with her beauty and diverse landscape. We climbed to just over 4020 meters at the highest peak. The views were never ending of the country side. The road on this journey turned into gravel and dirt just as we started to really climb. We were also greeted by a group of the police with a very in depth inspection of our bikes, panniers contents and many questions asked. We didn’t understand the reason for such scrutiny until later when we were informed by a gravel truck driver that the new President of Ecuador was having a meet and greet with the people in a village by the name of Zambahua. This village was in the middle of no where. We could see it far off in the distance below us. There were busses, cars and every other mode of transportation you can think of in the village and driving towards the village from Quito. No wonder we were checked so carefully, we were riding to the village the back way on a gravel road on the exact day the President was there. Security is always high, this made sense now.

January 15, 2007

We spent the night in a very touristy town by the name of Banos. That is with a squiggle over the “n” other wise the word would mean “bathroom” in Spanish. We were certainly corrected on this pronunciation on this word. We wouldn’t want to be going to the bathroom town now would we? On our way to Banos we stopped at a little café for some lunch. I must tell you that unless there is a menu the only food you can order is the typical meal of the day. The typical meal includes; soup, a plate with rice, beans and chicken and even sometimes a salad. So this café had a typical meal served, when we received our soap we looked at it with a big of a surprise. Sticking out the top of the broth was a very strange looking lump of fat with some bone protruding. I took my spoon and lifted the lump of fat to exam it further. Kelly being the really hungry one was already slurping back the broth!!, me being the very fussy eater was still trying to figure out what the heck was this chunk in my soap. As I examed it closer I could see there was a place for hooves. Yes that’s right hooves!! An older man was watching me from across the café with a huge smile on his face. The server came over to see if there was something wrong, so I asked her with my usual facial expressions and body language, which this time included me using my fist as a hoof banging it on the table. I asked if it was a cow? Oh no it wasn’t cow. The old guy was laughing by this point and he made the action of little horns like a goat would have. It was bloody goat hoof soup!! So to say the least I lost my appetite. I don’t think it would have made a difference if it had been cow or goat the look of it was absolutely stomach turning for me. Kelly finished the soup and enjoyed his rice and chicken too!

Banos was a good time. We rode two up to the top of a mountain to see the highest volcano in the area, Tungurahua. In October of 1999, after volcanologists gave Tungurahua red-alert status, Banos and the surrounding areas were evacuated. By January of 2000 the people became tired of waiting for the volcano to erupt and they crossed the road blocks re-entering the city to continue on with their lives. Thank goodness the volcano has never had any other action since then.

It was so cold and windy at the top that we were reminded of the weather we could be experiencing back home in Canada. Well not exactly as cold a home, but it was pretty darn cool up there. The clouds were thick and moving very fast with the wind.

January 16, 2007

We rode south once again from Banos this morning heading down the Pan-american highway towards Peru. The road was once again beautiful with lush green mountains full of farming, cattle grazing and the Ecuadorian natives tending to their sheep, llamas and goats. From Quero we rode south to Riobamba. We had a bit of a frustrating time finding our way past Riobamba, once again there were no road signs to be found and many traffic circles to try to decide which way to head towards. Kelly always has a sixth sense of exactly which way to go, thank goodness. If we relied on my sense of direction we would still be in Mexico trying to head south. With that said, we made our way down to Alausi where the road turned quickly into dirt with a bit of gravel just to add to the mix. As we climbed the clouds became more and more thick until visibility was zero. We are now in a situation of; we can’t stop because of what is coming behind us so we just have to continue on staying as close to the edge of the road as possible so that the oncoming traffic doesn’t hit us head on. But not too close to the edge as there are no guard rails and we are at 2500 meters. I thought of Kelly’s mom Orma many times as she is terrified of roads like this let alone being on it in such dense cloud coverage. We only met a half a dozen big trucks and luckily they too were clinging to their side of the road. Only one crazy driver came up behind us, he passed us like we were standing still, maybe because we were going so slow, but safer. We made our way to a very small village, found a room for the night and hoped that tomorrow would be much clearer for us.

The beautiful country side of Ecuador Kelly enjoying a break!!

The mountains look like a patch work quilt. Farming takes place where you can plant a crop. The colors of green varied so much. If there wasn't a crop growing, then there were sheep, cows or llamas grazing.

This poor little donkey was loosing his winter coat. You can see he was tied up by his foot. There are no fences to keep the animals in. Some farms have stone fences.

This was a hut that a man lived in on a very windy Ecuador mountain. Note the elevation at 4015 meters. The 2012. odometer is a bit short.

I'm holding a guava fruit. Not my first choice. Kelly riding his mini moto in Quito. Ecuador at its best. We loved it

January 19, 2007

Peru, South America!! What image comes to mind when you read those words? The Andes Mountains, people dressed in colorful clothes, Llamas and cooler weather. Those might be the thoughts you have. They were certainly the images that we had in our minds. We might have seen this had we been a bit earlier in the season. Unfortunately we are just arriving to Peru at the start of the rainy season in the Andes. We had to make the choice to ride the coast instead. When I say the coast, it’s not the usual kind of coast you think of. The Peru coast has its own flavor. It consists of very brown sand dunes, garbage filled ditches, extremely large chicken farms and many villages abandoned. Most of the road was just far enough from the ocean that you couldn’t really tell that you were close to it. The roads were in fine shape, just the scenery was repetitive. Our perspective is that Peru is the poorest country that we have visited yet. The people live very simple, with hardly any amenities. Many of the houses have no windows or doors, and most are made out of bricks and mud. The garbage is a major problem in Peru. There seems to be no one place for the village people to dispose of their waste. The ditches and vast lands of the sand dunes have become dumping grounds for the waste. The temperature runs in the high 30’s on the coast during the day. It cools off quite a bit in the night, so sleeping is not a problem.

We rode through Lima today, January 21^st. We are riding on the average of 600 kms a day. With the city having well over 9 million people we were not sure exactly what to expect for a bi-pass or if we had to ride straight through. Luckily for us it was a direct route through the city. We didn’t even have to change roads. Signage was actually pretty good too. We hit a few bottle neck sections where the buses and semi-trucks took over two lanes and would squeeze us pretty tight, but over all we did pretty good.

We stayed at a National Park called; Nacional de Paracas. We took a boar trip out to a group of Islands to see one of the largest bird colonies as well as an extremely large sea lion habitat too. The islands are literally covered in bird crap. It is harvested every seven years by the Japanese for fertilizer. The bird species are penguins, a type of sea gull , red footed boobies and a small bird that we couldn’t understand the name, but it looked just like a blue jays in Canada. The sea lions were incredible. There must have been over 2 thousand of them. The size of the males was incredible.

The next day we headed further south with the knowledge that we will be heading in land towards the famous Machu Pichhu Ruins. We rode a very long day, over 700 kms through such an assortment of terrain and weather that it felt like we had completed several days.

We started off on the coast with sand and wind, climbed up through a range of mountains that had no vegetation living on them, to a gorge filled with foliage so green and beautiful that you could think you were back in the Canadian Rockies. We reached heights of over 4560 meters. (14,960 ft.) As we crossed over the tops of the barren mountains we were also blessed with three major hail and lighting storms. The hail was pea sized which was sticking to the highway just enough to make it freeze and very slippery. We stopped to re-group and a big truck passed leaving a trail in on the pavement for us to be able to follow. The winds were relentless too. We were feeling a bit tired and cold when we came across a fellow from the US riding his bicycle cross this section of road to Machu Pichhu too. It is really all in perspective isn’t it!! Here we are able to ride fast enough to move out of the weather, and this man, I should mention he had been four days on this road so far and in his early seventies, was making his way over this mountain range.

With a new attitude and the knowledge that we would be sleeping in a hotel bed this night we headed further down the road. Just about 30 kms short of our destination for the day my master link on my chain broke sending my chain on a very fast trip back down the highway. Kelly was able to find the chain and luckily he had a extra master link to re-connect it. The next morning we found a bike shop in Abancay where the owner helped Kelly add a extra link to the chain where the other one had been damaged by the break. So it’s off to Cusco and the famous Machu Picchu for a few days of tourists and history.

Until then…

Kella

January 24, 2007

Its day 158 on the road. Can you believe that!!. 158 days of travel. We left Red Deer August 21^st with tears in our eyes and big dreams in our hearts. 5 months have just flew by. We have encountered so many gracious people, breathtaking landscapes and life changing experiences; we are feeling very fortunate right now!! We have all heard the cliché that travel is a better experience than formal education; well I think that we could testify that it is very true. When you’re riding through a village, or over a range of mountains there is nothing quite like seeing the world first hand.

As much as travel is a rewarding experience it is also very tiring. We will take a few day here in Cusco to replenish our energy, see a few sights and plan our next leg of our journey.

The internet connections are difficult to find in Peru. The only ones that we are having any luck with are in large cities. So if the posting are a little further between this is the reason.

Watch for our photos to be updated on the gallery in the next few days…

Until then..

Kella

*I did add more photos to the gallery... they are there you just have to click on them to view them.

We experienced all of this in just one day of travel. It is amazing what 700 kilometers can bring you.

This is really what we thought Peru was going to look like. Green mountains, brick and stone houses, and much warmer weather.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.. oh, wrong month, and it is not supposed to be this bloody cold!!

The vast landscape of Peru. Not a single plant life grew on these mountains, o.k. maybe weeds!! Notice the elevation now. 4414 m

February 16, 2007

Wow, it has been several weeks since our last posting. We apologize for that. Many things have happened since our last entry. We have actually returned to Canada. Yes that is correct, we have come home. We need to explain why and for how long so that you’re not thinking that we gave up on this journey of a lifetime. About a month or so ago we were contacted while we were in Quito Ecuador about a business that has come up for sale in a summer resort area in British Columbia Canada. This little business is open for just 5 months a year then it closes. After many sleepless nights and deep discussion we decided that this would be a perfect way for us to continue to travel for many years to come. We could work hard for half a year and then set our goals for the next leg of our journey. We tried to start the process of making an offer etc from Peru, and then Chile with very little success with the fax lines and long distance calls. So the next best thing was to just decide to fly home and get serious about our future. So here are the stories of the last few weeks of our travels. This is certainly NOT the end of our journey; we are just on “hold” for the next 6 months and then its back to Argentina to finish where we left off.

Where to start, from Cusco we headed south to Puno Peru. We experienced some altitude sickness and perhaps a bit of food issues. We slept for about 17 hours. We were up and ready to hit the trail again the next morning. The ride from Puno to Tacna was really great. Lots of twisty sections to keep the ride interesting. At Tacna we fueled up to spend the rest of our Peru money and then headed for Chile. The border crossing was one of the easiest we have had so far. Just the heat was giving us grief. The temperature was in the low thirties with very little sun shelter. While I did up the paperwork Kelly sweltered in the sun. All in all it took about 2 hours of line ups and import papers to fill out. The city of Arica was like stepping back into North America. We were in a bit of a shock when we entered the city. We desperately needed to find a bank with a ATM and something to eat. That was certainly no problem. There was every amenity that you would need. We ate until we were feeling ill. Vegetables and meat were on the plate for the first meal. I think we even splurged and had an ice cream for desert!!

We knew then that Chile would be much different than Peru. Our hopes of some nourishment and good fuel were high. The scenery was pretty much the same as in Peru along the coast. Sand dunes and wind were a constant in our sights. From Arica to Iquique was 562 kms. Iquique was a really pretty city situated on the ocean. The drive to Iquique was really spectacular, you twisted your way over a small mountain range of sand, then down into the city. Just at the top of the decline sat an enormous sand dune. The dune was at least 200 meters in height and a kilometer long. It towered over the city like a wave frozen in time. All along the wind never stopped blowing. We had a much needed rest and then set out for our next day with refreshed bodies and minds.

From Iquique we road 720 kilometers to a small village called Taltal. This was a day of challenging riding and hunger that really never went away. Our stomachs had been stretched from the huge meal the few days prior and lack of food for the entire day. We ventured off of the Panamerican to a road that looked like it was paved. You can never take for granted that the maps are correct. This time it wasn’t. The road was pretty good but still under construction, for 120 kms. Then in the middle of this there was a section of brand new pavement for 20 kilometers then back to the gravel, pot holes and at times single track sections. By the time we arrived in Taltal we were ready to have a break from the riding. We were lucky to find a beach with free camping for the night. There were no cafes open, just the beach snack shop, so dinner was a bun, a bag of potato chips and a pop. The view was great!!

From Taltal we road back over to the Panamerican and headed straight south to Quintero Chile. It was just 200 kilometers north of Santiago. We found a really neat little cabin for rent for a week while we continued to try to put together the purchase of the property in British Columbia. While we were there we had a few days of exploring the area. The ocean was just 100 meters from our cabin door. We had a view that would cost millions anywhere in North America. The cities around Quintero were very touristy with the Chilean people enjoying their summer vacations. Vina del Mar and Valparaiso were huge cities to find some good food and sites to see.

Realizing that the international communication wasn’t happening for us we decided to head across to Argentina to Buenos Aires. We made our plans to fly back to Canada from there. The road from Quintero to Mendoza was awesome riding. One section had over 28 switch backs in the road. We rose over 2000 meters in those 28 switch backs. Then we entered a tunnel that was over 4 kms long. It was half way on Chile’s side and half on Argentina’s side. The further we went towards Argentina the darker the tunnel became. Four kilometers was the longest tunnel we have ever ridden.

Once we were on the other side of the tunnel the view of the Andes was incredible. This was finally how we had pictured the Andes. The air was cool, the skies were very blue and the mountains were snow capped. The border crossing into Argentina was really drawn out. You were first checked about 30 kms from the actual border crossing. We did two checks prior to the actual border crossing. The Argentina border was the most easy we have done so far!! You pulled into a very large building, pulled right up to the border agents and did all of the paperwork right from the bikes. No strange questions asked, and we understood everything that they asked of us!! Life is good!!

We had heard that the food in Argentina was excellent. Well we can testify to that 100%. The first meal we had was beef!! Good, tender BEEF. The steak Kelly ordered was like a mini roast here in Canada. He consumed the entire thing in record time. We knew we were onto something good here. Being from Alberta, beef is a pretty important stable in our diet. Argentina was going to show us it’s best, we could just feel it.

Buenos Aires is a huge city with a very easy road system to figure out. We had contacted the amazing folks at Dakar Motos prior to our leaving Chile to make sure they had room for us and the bikes. No problem!! We were treated like family by Sandra and Javier. They run a first class business catering to travelers like ourselves. We were able to make the plans for our flight home and know that our bikes would be looked after. With a service for the bikes and our flight set we prepared for our next leg of our journey.

This is certainly not the end of our travels. We have just begun to plan our adventure back in Canada. Once the travel bug bites it’s pretty hard to ignore it. We have been changed for life. It’s a gamble to put things on hold to pursue something that is not a sure thing, but if you don’t take a risk then you don’t truly live.

So stay tuned.. the best is yet to come for us. We have loved every minute of what we have completed this far. We’ll see you all on the road again in September.

Enjoy the photos we have posted on the gallery.

Until then….Kelly and Della Graham

You can haul very thing on your car, Ikea did. Some of the mud housing we saw in Peru. Taking a break along the desert. Enough sand and wind!!

This was a machine used for the salt mines. Here Kelly is trying to get the "best" shot. He gets wet!! This is the road with the 28 switch backs. pretty cool

A car for our daughter!! It's yours Nicole The Saturday BBQ! at Dakar Motos. It was AMAZING One of the many historic building in Buenos Aires

Javier and Sandra (on the left) of Dakar Motos. Hugo and Sam were The main shoping street in Buenos Aires where you can buy leather at very cheap

fellow travelers from Germany and Ireland. You meet the most incredible people on the road

September 3, 2007 Hello from Red Deer Alberta Canada.

Well here we are preparing again to head out onto the road. We are just in the final stages of packing and finishing the renovations on the little rental property we purchased in... yes... good old Red Deer. The property in B.C. was just not ment to be right now. The owners got greedy when they found out someone was very intrested and increased the price to beyond our reach, so we invested our money into a real fix'er upper in Red Deer. After three weeks of intense repairs to this little property we are REALLY looking forward to returning to Argentina to finish South America. We fly out of Edmonton on the 15th for Toronto, with a bit of a stop over, just 12 hours, then onto Buenos Aries. Javier and Sandra have the bikes ready for the 3056 kms of riding to reach the most southern tip of South America, Terra del Feugo.

I've had a request to add more details of the bikes performance as well as mileage, gas prices etc. More facts that would interest other riders and travellers, so I'll start this on this leg of the journey. Hopefully I'll give a bit of information on our mileage,the bikes performance, fuel costs etc. I understand that stats are a part of the information that will only enhance the interest of the website.

When we arrive in Buenos Aires it will be Sunday the 16th. We will check into a very clean little motel just a few blocks away from Dakar Motos. We will have a rest and prepare for the first leg of our journey to the very tip of Argentina,

September 20th, 2007

O.K. I'm sure that people are thinking that we have been on the road now for almost a week and there is no post. What are we doing? Well it's taken a few days to get back into the pace of South America. We had a great time on our 12 hour lay over in Toronto. We rented a car and thought that we would just drive into the city for a tour. While we were heading out onto the freeway we spotted a sign that said.. Niagara Falls 130 kms. We looked at each other and said..If we're so close it would be a shame to not go and see them. So the decision was made quickly and easily to start "the change of plans" thinking that you have to adopt when traveling in the manner that we are. We spent a few hours wandering around the area, snapped a few pictures and headed back to Toronto to have some dinner before we had to check in.

Our flight was a lot longer than I remember coming back home in February. The plane was a older Air Canada 300 series that was in much need of new insulation in order to block the noise of the engines. So sleep was limited. We got to have a brief stop in Chile before our arrival in Buenos Aires. Then it was back to the busy pace of a large South America city. Taxis drivers all wanting to take you to your destination, bidding on the best price. The extremely fast driving, splitting lanes and blowing of the horn at the very least thing. Oh! it's good to be back on the road again!!

We have been asked by many people, why we choose to travel the way we do? Once we arrived back in South America the question can be answered very quickly.. It is a state that you enter that you feel really ALIVE. All of the sights, sounds, smells and encounters with so many amazing people makes you feel that you are truely living.

Each day brings a new decision and experience that you have to make and accept or resist and be unhappy. So you choose to be happy and go with the flow. We have both said that even just spending the last 6 months back in Canada has made us much more demanding and expecting of things right away that are really just not necessary. We have had to slow our pace and expectations down once again and just relax. This feeling has been the most prominent since we have arrived back.

We had planned to head South to Tierra del Fuego, but we have heard from many of our friends here that the spring has been extremely cold with a lot of rain and even some light snow in the South. So plan "B" goes into play. We will head North. Uruguay and Brazil are our first destinations. We are having the bikes serviced right now by Javiar at Dakar Motos. The serivce and hospitality at Dakar Motos is first class. Javiar and Sandra make you feel like family from the moment that you enter their shop. We have met others that are traveling South America now on their bikes too. Daniel and Milko are two awesome fellows from East Germany. We have shared a few bottles of good Argentina wine and shared some tales of the road with them each night. Emma and Hamish from England and Scotland. Hamish made sure that we knew in fact that he is a Scott and not from England. Great people!!

It is now Thursday, we maybe will be on the road by the weekend. Kelly and I are working at slowing our pace down, but excited to get on the road again. Hopefully the bike service ; oil change, check the values, change the chain and both sprockets, check the brakes and replace the batteries will be finished up by Friday.

Thanks to all of the readers for their continued support. It does put a bit of pressure on me to write interesting things and post exciting photos. We will try our best.

Until then....

Kella

Niagara Falls... the tourists enjoying the day.

September 21, 2007

Yahoo!! the bikes are serviced and we are going to be on the road in the morning. The saying "everything happens for a reason" is very true in this case. We arrived in "Canadian" mode, and had to adjust our pace. We would not have done very well if we had just jumped on the bikes the day after we arrived and went. First of all we didn't really have a solid plan, and second we wouldn't have had the opportunity to have met some of the most fun people on the journey so far. Milko and Daniel from Germany have been such a blast. . The nights have been late, filled with stories from East Germany and road travels they have made, as well as our new found enjoyment for a very good glass of vino. Now that we are settled into the pace of here we are ready to venture out and go. Emma and Hamish have added so many new insights to the roads north and south of Buenos Aires, it's priceless information for us. Last night was Milko's last evening with us so Daniel prepared a bar-be-que for everyone. I used to think the the Alberta beef was the best in the world.. what did I know. I certainly hadn't experienced Argentina beef prepared this way before.. WOW. Between seven of us we ate 3 kilos of meat, salad, sweet potatoes and 6 bottles of vino. (wine) Only one word can describe it.. FANTASTIC. It's a great way to send a person off. It leaves you wanting more... so you make sure you return to Dakar Motos before you leave Argentina.

Watch for photos...

Until then.. Kella

September 23, 2007

Impressed with the "new and improved" look of the website!!! A huge heart felt THANKS goes to Daniel. This gentleman has the heart of gold. We worked on the website until 2:30 a.m. the night before we left Dakar Motos, and just look at the results.. Fantastic!! Daneil knows that "when" he gets to Canada he has a place to hang his hat in our home. We set out on the road yesterday morning about 10:00 a.m. Leaving Dakar Motos is like leaving home again. Javiar and Sandra are so kind and willing to go the extra mile to make our stay awesome. We were going to take the ferry to Colonia Uruguay but the boats were full until Monday. We certainly didn't want to turn back now, so we decided to drive north and take the land instead. We rode to a little town called, Gualeguaychu last night. Camping is everywhere so we were able to find a great spot. The weather is a bit cool, I'm greatful for my sleeping bag that is good for minus 18 now. It was cloudy and very windy the entire day today. We rode 400 kilometers today. The wind didn't stop, at times it was down right nasty. Our border crossing into Uruguay was very quick thanks to the blockade at the bridge crossing on the Argentine side. We hear that there has been a dispute between Uruguay and Argentina at the borders so the bridges and borders are closed to local travellers. When we arrived at the bridge just before the Uruguay border it was blocked off with rope, barrels and tires. A young guy waved us to go back, then when I didn't move he waved us to go through. We crossed this bridge that was completely empty, which made it a bit of a weird feeling. At the border crossing office the countries work together that is the first for us. Usually we have to check out of the country we're leaving and then travel a little bit to the next one. They actually worked together this time, which made the crossing time just 15 minutes.

This part of Uruguay has a very simular landscape as Central Alberta. Very wide open spaces with many cattle and sheep farms. Every once in a while we would spot a Rhea or two grazing in the cow pasture. We even spotted a Armadillo running across the hiway. We slammed on the breaks and the scared little guy didn't know which way to go. We'll watch for a photo opportunity of an Armadillo for sure. Tomorrow we plan to head for the coast, looking for sunshine.

Until then... Kella

September 25, 2007

We received an e-mail today from a very good friend by the name of Ryan Craig. He is a young man that has become a part of our family over the last few years. I first met Ryan when I was working at Notre Dame.

Ryan’s maturity and life experiences far exceed that of many adults we know. He sent this wonderful e-mail wishing us good travels; as well he gave us words of wisdom once again. He told us to enjoy, but to know that with all journey’s there can be set backs. “Hope all goes well as planned on this leg, but if it doesn’t, well, so be it, things happen for a reason. What's adventure without unfortunate events, right, bear mace?”

Each day that we travel we experience new people, new sights, and new challenges. This is exactly what makes the journey worth every moment. Having said that.. the last couple days was just one of those challenges that we look at and have a laugh.. as well it puts you completely back into reality that you are in fact in a 3^rd world country that you don’t speak their language or know all of their rules and regulations. What I have written is part of an e-mail that I sent to family for a quick update. I thought I would share it as we can all have a chuckle at our expense.

We made it all of about 110 kms today. The Brasil border crossing was so confusing that I just about pulled all of my hair out. We had to enter a pretty large city called Rivera. It's located on the Uruguay and Brasil border.. in fact it's half one side half the other. The "Aduana" which is the office that you must find in order to have your passport stamped is actually the Federal Policia station for Brasil... and the Uruguay office is the tourist office. AND they are on the opposite side of the city.. of course. We finally found the Uruguay one in order to get stamped out... Then we got directions to the Brasil office, which is the Federal Policia station.

So when I went in there this creepy little stinky man had me fill out our tourist papers and stamped our passport.. I thought all was good!!.. Oh, so I thought.

I asked him where the temporary import office is for the motos? He said a whole string of stuff.. not Spanish or English.. but Portuguese Oh, crap.. I don't know that one!! Then he waves me out of the office. I knew that we had to have papers for the bikes so we went to this central office of the Federal Police to see if we could ask a someone. They directed us to a building about 4 blocks down and across several other streets.. in the mean time this guy flags us over and shows us another Aduana office.. wrong office again.. so we follow this guy on his bicycle back to the Uruguay office.. They take our Uruguay papers for the bikes and tell us "finished.. go to Brasil"

I still had this nagging feeling that we needed paperwork for the bikes and I had heard that Canadians needed a visa to get into Brasil... no one would listen or give me instructions as to where to go...

Frustrated .. both of us.. we decided to just head for Brasil and hopefully we would be o.k. Nope.. we get about 7 kms down the road and there is a Policia roadblock. The guy was so nice.. I had him escribe , write down the name of the document that we needed and where we had to go to find it... guess what??

We headed right back to the bloody Federal Policia Office that we started out at.. turns out after much yelling at me by this big Brasil Policeman.. that, we infact need an "visa" from the Brasil Consulado, which is closed until tomorrow. The guy that stamped our passports this morning made a mistake and shouldn't have stamped them !!! grrrrr.

So we had to get another hotel tonight to wait for the Consulado to open tomorrow , then we must apply , and wait to see when they will have the visa ready.. grrrr.. Oh, well it's a pretty cool city. There is a huge "free zone" for shopping. There is every "brand" name knock off you can think of from the US and Europe. And it's cheap and even cheaper. Too bad we don't have any room for more junk... :)

It hasn't warmed up at all. It’s about 12 c. We're freezing. The room tonight has not heat.. and just one sheet and a wool blanket.. it's cold. Thank goodness for our down sleeping bags.

So, to make a long story shot. We arrived at the Consulado this morning at 9 a.m. on the dot. We spoke to a very kind woman who could understand a bit of English and our poor Spanish. We needed to fill out the paperwork, provide proof that we can afford to travel into Brasil and leave again (visa card, bank card) and get a passport photo of ourselves for their files. All of the details took just 5 hours today!! We have our travel visa for Brasil. We even walked back to the Federal Policia station for the stamp required by them.. the guy even remembered us as we walked up to the building.. He says, “Oh, Canadians.. come with me!! He even filled out our tourist card himself, this time.

So it’s off to the coast tomorrow, hopefully we find warmth, a sunny beach and a great campsite to spent a few days at.

Until then…

Kella

September 28, 2007

Ola, From Brasil. We have made it up the coast of Brasil to a very tourist town by the name of Torres. The entire community is based on summer tourism, which has not started by a long shot yet. The locals are still walking around with winter coats on. We are looking even more out of place as we are in our short sleeves and sandals. Crazy Canadians and their warm blood. It’s actually around 20 c here with a nice warm wind off of the ocean. We spent the day walking the extremely large beach and looking for a bank that would exchange our money. We did find out that no ATM’s will give money out to tourists using their credit cards until at least December!! We were told that in any small town until at least December the ATM’s don’t work for cash withdrawals, expect for local people with bank cards. We couldn’t believe it!! The only places that we will be able to get money are in San Paulo, or Rio de Janeiro. Torres has about 250,000 people in it and no bank will give us money on our Visa, MC or even exchange US dollars.. it’s hard to believe but true. So we had to go to a money exchange place and take a little beating on our US cash we have. Makes you remember that in fact we are in a 3^rd world country I guess.

Kelly decided to get a hair cut today also. He found a Barber Shop run by a fellow that had been cutting hair for 40 years we found out. This was the best cut Kelly has ever received. On top of it the cost was just $3.50 Cdn. Gordon, Kelly’s dad would be impressed with the top notch cut and the price was excellent.

Tomorrow we will head a bit further North. Most likely we’ll end up in Florianopolis, which is another very beautiful beach area. It’s too bad that we’re just a little bit ahead of the summer season. We can’t imagine what the scenery would be like it the weather was a bit warmer. I should expand on the term “scenery”. As it’s not just the landscape that I’m speaking of. The women here are extraordinary. They exude a sexy image that we have all heard of about Brasil women, but to see it first hand is really quite something. They walk, dress, groom and speak sexy. We North American women have a few tips to learn from down here. Their curves are very beautiful. A large butt and hips are accentuated by their dress and worn proudly. It’s too bad that more North American women are not proud of having a little meat on their bones. Our media has way too much influence on us. If their fashion is ahead of us, we had better be ready for the VERY tight spandex leggings and EXTREMELY high platform shoes. This style is everywhere. We are coping better with the language now also. If we talk slowly in Spanish most people understand us. We haven't starved yet!!.

Here are some photos of the trips so far…. Enjoy.

Della enjoying the beautiful beaches of Brasil. Life is Good!!

Old and New It all works together The famous dinner prepared by Daniel. (Daniel is standing carving.)

A Yumbo Moto with his cargo. A very typical parking view in Brasil.. small motos everywhere!!

Moto Taxi... This was so cool to see. A typical scene of the highway in Uruguay, very much like Alberta

September 30, 2007

We have had two of the most enjoyable days that you could spend traveling. We really enjoyed our day spent in Torres. The next morning we rode out with anticipation of where we would end up at the end of the day. We took the advice from Hamish and Emma that we had met at Dakar Motos and rode north via a little highway in the National Park called; Sao Jaoquim. We really had no idea of what to expect. They had told us that it was a “nice” road to take. Nice doesn’t even start to describe the day. The road twisted and turned its way up and along a mountain range that was absolutely breath taking. We rode most of the way in 2^nd gear just to navigate the switchbacks. You will see with the photos to follow just how impressive the view was. It is truly on of those days when a picture is worth a thousand words.

We finished the day off a little later than usual; we had no choice as places to stay were far and few between. We ended up camping on the Island of Santa Catarina, which is really part of the city of Florianopolis. You drive across a huge bridge to enter the Island part of the city. The campground was situated right on the beach. It was a very touristy area. The cost reflected the area for sure. We paid $ 25.00 Reais, which works out to

$12.00 Cdn. That is the most we’ve paid to camp so far. We woke to a very large angry barking dog in the campground at 6 a.m. so we got a early start.

Once again we had really no idea of how far we were going to go for the day. We just headed North knowing that we really didn’t want to drive through a large city called Curitiba. Once again with the advice of Hamish and Emma we we’re able to avoid the city and have another really great day of riding. We drove through many small beach towns loaded with people out enjoying the sunny day. Some of the main towns were; Itajal, Joinville, and Guaratuba. We were able to catch a small ferry ride from Guaratuba over to Marinhos. On the ferry we met an adorable little man who was so excited to talk to us. It turns out that he is a radio announcer from the local station. He was so interested to hear about where we had been and how long it has taken us. The usual questions that we get are; How many kilometers is it from Canada to here? Are you married to each other? How big are the bikes? And, where are you going?

Once this fellow had finished his conversation with us, there was a line up of others who were just as interested to know what we are doing. Kelly visited with a fellow from Curitiba, while I had a question and answer period with two young fellows who were riding their mountain bikes over to the other side for a picnic. One of the questions that they asked me was, What is the coldest day you have lived in Canada? When I told them minus 45 they couldn’t believe me. They also knew that we shovel snow, because they had seen it on TV. Many people expect that we speak French. We quickly explain that we live on the side of Canada that speaks only English. Most of the time.

This part of the travel experience is so much fun. We get to meet so many kind and curious people in a day. This leads me to the funniest experience we have had so far. We ended up on a very busy 4 lane highway for several hours today. There were not very many cars on it, just an extremely large amount of transport trucks. A VW golf caught us and passed us several times. Each time the driver would wave and carry on. The windows are all tinted in many of the cars so you can just see the outline of their bodies or hands, so you really don’t know who is in the car. As the miles progressed we ended up passing this car and they passed us several times. Near the end of the day this car passed us one last time, and in the dirt on their back window they had stopped and written this message: WE LOVE CANADA. WELCOME. Well as you can imagine this made our day. They honked and waved like crazy as we did the same in return. Further down the road we pulled into a gas station for a quick fill and this car pulled in behind us.

Kelly was able to have a great conversation with this very excited, friendly couple. It turns out that they have a friend who has a friend that knows someone in Canada. When we asked them where the friend lives.. they had no idea. They just knew he was from Canada and that he was really nice. Way too funny. Great people!! They also asked as so many people do, if there was anything that they could help us with? And If there is anything they could do for us? Once again, another great day of riding a beautiful country, meeting the nicest people along the way.

Oh, I should add that for almost 25 kms. Today we rode through a extremely beautiful area that was line with begonias on each side of the road and foliage that was so dense and green that it was the closest we have yet to riding through a true jungle.

So tomorrow we will tackle the highway just south of Sao Paulo. We will stick to the coastline. Sao Paulo is supposed to have something like 17 million people in it, so we’ll do our best to avoid it as much as possible. We are now just two days riding from Rio de Janerio. Once we arrive in Rio de Janerio we’ll give another posting from there.

Until then…

Kella

October 1, 2007

We have been just over a week on the road and our heads are full of amazing sights, our stomachs are half full of some pretty good food, and our hearts are completely full of our love for Brasil. The people have been so friendly, including the Policia. Thank goodness for Kelly’s lack of the Portuguese language. We had just finished passing a long line of cars, busses and two transport trucks. After reaching a top speed of 139 kms an hour, because a car was coming and they don’t give you an inch, we rounded a corner just to pass another little car, but this time the local Policia were waiting for law breakers like us. Oh, crap!! Was the words that came out of both of our mouths. The officer proceeded to walk directly out into our lane to flag us over. Great, here comes a BIG ticket our way. They never want to talk to the woman, so he goes to Kelly, asking for his bike papers and license. This cop starts explaining to Kelly that you cannot pass any cars on the double solid yellow line. As he points to the line several times. Kelly just has this dumbfounded look on his face the entire time. He takes Kelly’s papers and goes back to the car to speak to the senior officer. All the while we’re watching in our rear mirrors to see by their body language what might happen. The young cop comes back and asks me for my papers. No problem, I’ll even give you Canadian insurance if you want. He proceeds to look over my papers, tells me the same thing about the yellow line and then returns the papers to both of us and waves us on!! Talk about the luck of the Irish!!

We knew that we had broken the law; we even expected to get a fine and pay it. Thank goodness we didn’t this time. So the rest of the day we paid very close attention to the posted speed limit and did not do any illegal passing at all. We weren’t going to push our luck again.

Once again Kelly demonstrated his superior navigational skills getting us through Sao Paulo with not a problem. We were able to stay on Ruta 55 and avoid any of the big city traffic. The GPS is not showing any roads at all right now, so we are, or Kelly is; relying solely on his map and natural talent. I know that I’ve said this in the past about his navigational skills, but it can’t be said enough as to how grateful I’m that he is so good at this. My anxiety of riding in the large centers can be pretty big. I’m forever grateful for Kelly.

We had a very good example of 21^st century technology and 18^th century transportation today. There are many horse and wagons still being used on the roads here, but this one gentleman was not only using his old wagon loaded to the top, he was driving while talking on his cell phone. We had a good laugh at this one. Would it be illegal to drive your cart with one hand, and talk on the cell with the other? I guess not if the horse knows where he’s going!!

We are now just 300 kms from Rio de Janeiro. Our plan now is to try to find a decent hotel on the outskirts of the city and then take a cab into the city for a couple of days.

If the road signs are as good as they have been in the rest of Brasil then we should have no problem getting around. Brasil does have very good signage.

Until then…Kella

October 3, 2007

Hello from the most beautiful city in the world!! Rio de Janeiro

We arrived yesterday about mid afternoon. After a stop at a gas station about 65 kms outside of the city, and a brief conversation with a couple of men who told us that there were far too many cars to ride into the city we arrived to our challenge. Actually we took their brief directions and rode directly to the famous Copacabana Beach area. The signs for direction in Brasil are very good. The traffic was however very busy. With several honks and waves from other drivers we worked our way through the maze. Today we visited the Pao de Acucar, Sugar Loaf. It's a dazzling peak that you ride to via a cable car. It provides one of the best views of Rio. We met a very interesting couple from Ireland. Kathrine and Dave are here on a tour of Brasil, Paraguay, and Peru. We enjoyed a great afternoon with them.

Then it was off to the Corcovado, on Hunchback mountain to see the amazing Chirst the Redeemer statue. This is known as one of the new 7 wonders of the world.It takes your breath away standing at its base. It is over 80 years old, built from granite. He keeps watch over the city with his arms wide open welcoming all that arrive to Rio de Janeiro. Tomorrow we are off to the Copacabana Beach to enjoy the sun.

Copacabama Beach

Corcovado (Chirst the Redeemer)

The airport view from the Sugarloaf.. quick take off

October 8, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving to our family and friends in Canada!!

We hope that you are all enjoying a little turkey and all the extras that go with it. We have been on the road for a couple of days so we will update you on the last few days.We left the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro on Friday morning. Once again we had not problems with the road system. That is not to say that there weren’t a million cars driving pretty fast, but it is a very good road system in the city. It took us almost one hour and ten minutes getting to the outskirts of the city. When you’re riding you do a few things at once of course, for example you watch the road, the cars in front of you and what’s coming up behind you. But, when you’re riding through a city with 8 million people coming and going, doing their thing you tend to get distracted once in a while. Oh, I forgot to mention the little bikes that fly up behind you, on the left and right make sure that you keep to the middle of the lane so that you don’t wipe them out.

Spending the three days in Rio was our 25^th wedding anniversary present to each other. On October 16^th we will be celebrating 25 years of our lives together. It is hard to believe that time has flown by so quickly.

We rode south to a really cute little city called Paraty. We bought a gift for Nicole from a guy on the beach who recommended this town for the weekend. (No Nicole, we’re not telling you what it is) Paraty is a very old city with a district that was once the center of the city into a very exclusive shopping area for the Brazilians. They have converted the extremely old buildings that were once homes, shops and even barns into incredible shops.

The streets have been kept the old cobblestone as well the building are in good repair leaving the old architecture in place. There are bus loads of tourists stopping off at the town just for the shopping. We found an incredible camping spot right across from the beach. The campground was kept in very clean conditions. The evening was spent listening to the Evangelical ministers preaching to the masses. The first night was interesting to listen to as we had not really experienced such a radical church service before. The music was loud and very soulful, but the preaching was really difficult to take after about half an hour. It was just painful after listening for over an hour to this fellow scream at the top of his lungs, in Portuguese of course. We did get the Halleluiahs though. This service took place from about 6:30 until 10:00 each night. We decided that we would wait to make a decision to practice this religion. It was very energy draining.

We left the campground this morning with the direction of Southwest in our minds. As we left the coast roads heading for the interior of Brasil we will fondly remember our time spent enjoying the Atlantic Ocean here in Brasil.

Here is a little bike maintenance information that has been a request of a few of our readers.

Kelly changed the tires on the bikes, just the back ones. We purchased Bridgestone Trailwings from Dakar Motos knowing that the ones we had on were soon to be done. We were able to get 14,125 kms off of the Purelli Scorpions we bought in Panama City. The Bridgestone Trailwings are just a bit too off road for us at the moment. The road noise is pretty terrible. Over 100 kms/hr it sounds like you’re a jet ready for take off. We are hoping they will last until we get to Buenos Aires. We will see. In total so far we have ridden from Red Deer Alberta to Atibaia Brasil 32,400 kms. Since we left Buenos Aires we have ridden 3850 kms. Kelly has done 6 oil changes on the bikes, tightened up the steering heads and greased the chains on an every other day basis. The KLR’s have been everything that we have expected and more. They are really great little workhorses.

We are extremely pleased with the bikes.

Well that’s an update for now. Hope everyone has enjoyed their Thanksgiving. We really do have so much to be thankful for.

Until then….Kella

October 9, 2007

Here are some photos from the beach town called Paraty. Great camping for the weekend.

The soil is so colorful.. the most beautiful red.

Kelly hard at work.. the tire change

This was a local artist painting the church.. perfect photo

This "kid" was sitting in a car waiting for the owner. Goats and me seem to find each other all of the time. He didn't even smell too bad. Kelly pointed out that he was headed for a cafe.. hope he wasn't lunch!!

The boats lined up waiting for their next guests. Paraty Brasil

The view from across the canal. Beautiful spotOne of the amazing creations of the local artists.

October 12, 2007

Here is our last posting from Brasil. We spent three full days riding across to the west of Brasil. The landscape was totally different than anything we have seen so far. As we headed inland we witnessed the soil change drastically. It is the richest terra cotta color you can imagine. The farms were producing everything from bananas to grain. Most of the crops that were ready for harvest right now were the sugar cane. It had grown to almost 10 to 12 feet high. The contrast of the deep green foliage and the dark red soil made for an eye catching view. As we rode further west the crops also included the world renowned coffee plantations. When we rode through a city that had a coffee plant in it, the aroma of fresh coffee filled the air. Not being huge coffee drinkers we certainly did enjoy the rich smells.

The gas prices are pretty high. It is costing us nearly $ 50.00 reais each time we fill up. The good thing about the gas station stops are the incredible buffets that are offered in almost everyone. If you arrive just before lunch time you can have the fresh pick of some really good food, for a not too bad price. Unlike eastern Brasil where they have the buffets by the kilo, these are a flat rate for as much as you can consume. I have to add that they also offer a huge variety of meats that are bar-be-qued right there in the restaurant. We had no idea that this was the procedure at the first one we stopped at. We assumed that you chose the food that was on the buffet and that was it. Oh, no!! A fellow starts to bring over to the table a skewer full of one kind of meat. He slices off a good sized piece for each of us and leaves, only to return about 8 or 9 more times with a different type of meat each time. There was pork, beef, and chicken but also chicken hearts and pineapple covered in cinnamon that was to die for. Both Kelly and I could have just eaten the entire bar-be-qued pineapple. The pineapple just melted in your mouth. That is one recipe that we will bring home with us.

During our camping on the coast one of our sleeping mats has sprung a leak. We tried everything to find where it has this really annoying slow leak. You start out in the night with a full mat, and by morning you have been woken at least 3 times to inflate it again.

We contacted the company, Outdoor Research/Exped out of Seattle Washington. The customer service rep by the name of Jeff Calaski was able to arrange for us to receive a new mat shipped to us in Paraguay. We really want to acknowledge the Outdoor Research Company for their professional manner in which they helped us. We have really enjoyed the camping on this leg of our trip, and without the sleeping mat it makes it nearly impossible to continue to camp. So when we ride through Asuncion Paraguay we will have a new mat waiting for us at the DHL office.

We arrived in Foz de Iguacu on Thursday October 11. We rode into a pretty good rain storm. The wind kept us on our toes with the bikes. The rain wasn’t coming down as hard as the wind was sweeping it sideways. Foz de Iguacu is the Brazilian city that borders Paraguay and Argentina. The waterfalls are the main tourist attraction here. They are called Iguassu Falls. We visited the falls for an afternoon. The information that we received is that there are over 280 different waterfalls that are situated between Brasil and Argentina. The Brasil side has the Floriano and the Santa Maria falls. On the walk we were able to have an incredible view of the Garganta do Diablo (Devil’s throat). It gives the Niagara Falls a good run for its money. It was pretty spectacular to see.

We also visited a very beautiful Buddhist temple here. There were statues of a variety of characters, including a gigantic one of Buddha himself. The temple was open to see. This was a really peaceful, interesting afternoon.

October 14, 2007

Hello from Paraguay! O.K. here’s the story. When we entered Brasil we had a difficult time getting all of the proper paperwork. We got the passport stamped, the visa completed, but we didn’t get temporary import papers for the bikes. We couldn’t get anyone to understand what we were asking for. This nagged us the entire time we were in Brasil. We investigated the web to see what the consequences were going to be for us for not having the proper paperwork. All that we could find was that we would be fined greatly. There was a possibility of having trouble explaining just how we got the bikes into Brasil without the paperwork. So when we arrived at the Paraguay/Brasil border we checked to see just how difficult it would be to exit the country. As it turns out there is a bridge , called the Peace Bridge that connects the two countries together. There are no officials checking any vehicles running back and forth across the bridge. So we figured that IF we rode across, got a hotel with parking for the bikes, then walked back across and had our passports stamped out of Brasil no one would be the wiser. THANK GOODNESS it worked. As we crossed the bridge we came upon a few Brasil National Policemen. We stopped and asked where the office was to exit Brasil. It turned out that one of them spoke really good English and was heading to the office right away. We had a escort right to the office, had the passports stamped and we walked like crazy to get back across that bridge. Then we just had the task of getting a visa and a temporary import for the bikes into the Paraguay side. We had prepared ourselves for an entire day of running around to get all of the proper paperwork completed. We found the Aduana very quickly. Inquired about a visa, it turns out that Paraguay has a very advanced system for issuing a visa. They have it completely computerized, they took our passport scanned it for the photo and information and it was done!! We were amazed that Paraguay had such an advanced system when they are such a small country and Brasil had such a completely screwed up system when it claims to be the most advanced country of South America. We even had our temporary import papers completed correctly this time. Lesson Learned!!

We spent a very sleepless night in the city of Cuidad del Este. That was the city directly across the river from Brasil. We found a very “cheap” hotel. $20.00 US to be exact. Well maybe not a cheap as we have paid, but it was the worst hotel we have stayed in so far the entire trip. It was situated just one street over from one of the busiest black markets in South America. You can purchase “anything” from electronics, perfume, makeup, watches, sunglasses… and the list goes on. They are cheap and mostly knock offs. The people are there in flocks buying bags and bags of stuff. Back to the hotel.

Kelly thought that the man who ran the hotel had it just for a front. There were people coming and going the entire time. The rooms were so run down and dirty it was certainly a sleeping bag liner night. During the night the noise never stopped. We heard the general loud music and people talking most of the night, but we also heard gun shots very close by and around 2:30 the transformer right in front of the hotel blew. We had no power for the crappy little fan that was keeping us somewhat cool, as opening the window wasn’t really feeling like a safe idea. Needless to say we were up and out of there by 6:10 this morning. The ride to Asuncion was a wet one. It rained the entire time. We spotted a young couple walking on the shoulder with their two little children and the husband was pushing the little motorbike. It was raining pretty hard so we slowed down to turn around and offer them some gas. All of a sudden a 4X4 came screeching up behind us swerving out of control. Kelly yelled at me to get the hell out of here and I was already twisting the throttle. The truck was out of control heading for us on the shoulder. After about 5 sideways swerves it came to a stop. Only to take off again at mach one. We turned around to help the young couple and it turns out they had a flat tire. They explained to us that a amigo was coming with a truck to get them. We were glad that they had help coming.

So here we are in Asuncion waiting for our sleeping mat to arrive via DHL. We had a very wrong perception of what Paraguay was going to be. From what we had read we thought that it was one of the poorer countries. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We have seen so many Mercedes Benz cars every. Not just in Asuncion but on the entire ride through the country. The city it’s self is very advanced. Beautiful homes, first class restaurants and a great road system set the scene for this city. We will enjoy ourselves while we wait for the mat.

Here are some photos for your enjoyment.

This is the main road that runs through Cuidad del Este. The busses were backed up for blocks.. Just some of the hundreds of vendors in Cuidad del Este

Until then…Kella

Another set of the some 280 different waterfalls.

Iguassu Falls from several different places... really very impressive.

Iguassu Falls... very impressive. Here's a little creature that was on the trail to the falls

Kelly beside the Sugarcane crops Della waiting by a beautiful tree Notice the color of the road.. the soil was even brighter

The Buddist Temple... a very impressive place.

October 16, 2007

Happy Anniversary to US!!

Today we celebrate our 25^th Anniversary. This is exactly when this entire travel bug bit us. Who knew we would be in South America a mere twenty five years after we tied the knot!! I know it’s a cliché saying that “time flies when you’re having fun” but really we were talking and it doesn’t seem like twenty five years. We have had our share of ups and downs, many more “ups” that is for sure.

So where ever you are today, we ask you to raise a glass and toast us on our successful marriage. We have started to make plans of just where we will be on our 50^th.!!

Just a quick note, the sleeping mat has arrived. The Aduana has it in their possession and may release it to us tomorrow. We plan to spend the day negotiating with them and then having a wonderful dinner out.

Until then.. Kella

p.s. wish we had a photo of us 25 years ago. we certainly look a "little" older.

A continuation of October 16, 2007…

I just had to write about the experience that we had this morning. There is a two fold that will happen here. First I will journal in order to get this off my chest and second Kelly thinks there is an angel with us and he wants to share our good fortune with others.

We had to check out of the hotel that we have been staying in since there were no rooms for us tonight. The Aduana has not released our sleeping mat yet. We checked with DHL this morning, we were told that we had to go to the airport directly to the Aduana and sign some forms in order to get the package. It just so happened that one of the employees from the hotel was going to the airport at the same time and asked us if we wanted to ride with him. We told him that we had our bikes packed already so we would just follow him out there. So we jumped on the bikes and started to follow this young fellow who was driving a Toyota van with one passenger in the front seat with him. Well he takes off like a bloody formula one race car driver. He is swerving in and out of lanes and hitting speeds of up to 120 kms in the city. We just won’t keep up to him. There is a traffic light so he has to stop long enough for us to catch him. Then off he goes again. Last night it rained hard all night. There were puddles everywhere. So we’re about two kilometers from the airport, were riding about 200 meters behind him and all of a sudden he hits a gigantic mud puddle and hydroplanes out of control. This is what we saw happen in very slow motion…. The van swerved to the left, it went sideways up over the curb, with a wall of water. At this point it looked like it was going to roll. But, then it swerved right across the road, heading directly into a retaining wall for an overpass. Some how the young guy driving steered the van back straight, but not without first hitting the wall, sideswiping it all the way down the passenger side of the van for about 25ft. The passenger was a visitor from Argentina. He had his window down and his arm out the window. We don’t know how he got his arm in and how he didn’t hit his head on the cement wall when they hit it!! The van came to an abrupt stop at the end of the wall.

We were in shock!! To say the least!! We pulled around the van, jumped off the bikes and ran back to see if they were o.k. The back tire on the driver’s side was ripped right off the rim and the passenger side of the van was swiped clean of all paint, the mirror was cleaned off too. The Argentine guy was so funny; he says that he’s fine. He gets into accidents all of the time. No problem he says!! The hotel employee is as white as a ghost and looking pretty scared. They were both not wearing seat belts of course.

They were both fine. But I think that Kelly and I had to check our shorts. We just looked at each other and said in stereo.. thank goodness we didn’t ride with him. We would have been tossed around in the back pretty good. You can’t even think about what would have happened if the van had rolled. That’s where the angel comes into play for us.

That is two near accidents in just a very short time. We have many people tell us how dangerous motorcycles are. We’ll take our bikes and have complete control over our own destiny thank you very much.

With in about 10 minutes another employee came and picked up the Argentine fellow took him onto the airport. We carried on too. On our way back from the airport about an hour later the young fellow and the van were still sitting, waiting for someone to bring him a spare tire. We are just thankful that no one was hurt.

As it turns out, the Aduana isn’t ready to release the package yet today. So we have to wait another day. DHL tells us that they have no say over when the Aduana releases the packages. So we will spend another day here in Asuncion. It is not raining today, so it’s a great day.!! (we’re just happy to be alive)

Until then…

Kella

October 21, 2007

Hello from Bolivia!

Wow, we can’t believe that 5 days have passed since we’ve posted. As you can see we finally picked up our package from the Aduana in Asuncion Paraguay. We spent a total of 5 days waiting. For our last night in the city we headed out for a dinner at a local restaurant. We found a decent restaurant, or at least it looked pretty good. It was a bakery also, we thought a good desert might be a treat before we head out on the road. When the waiter brought over the menu he opened it up in front of me as they usually do. Out drops two very large cockroaches. I tried not to jump or look too scared; you certainly don’t want to embarrass the poor guy. No problem. We were both apprehensive after that about the cleanliness of the place. We order an apple pie thingy and wait, just as the waiter is bringing it over to the table I glance over by the bakery cabinet and across the floor runs the biggest rat ever. Kelly looks at me and I gasp. Then over walks the waiter with the pie. To say the least we picked at the pie and got up and left. That was actually the first time either of us had seen a rat before. Alberta is rat free!! Thank goodness.

So the next morning we arrive early at DHL to pick up the package. We had a good feeling that today would be the day!! Yup, we got the package and headed for the hotel to gather up our stuff. By the time we packed and got away it was about 10 a.m. already.

The day was heating up pretty good by now. We got the last minute directions from the hotel staff and hit the road. We were headed for ruta 9. Everything was going great so we thought until about 140 kms down the road Kelly noticed that we were in fact heading

not straight north but north east. Oh, darn we we’re on the wrong road. After some decision making we figured we don’t really have to go the entire ruta 9. The signage in Paraguay is less than perfect. We knew that we would eventually hit ruta 9 so we just kept on riding.

The Mennonite farms lined the highway. Each one has a sign posted stating the name of the farm. We saw one called Manitoba. We had read that the Mennonites had immigrated to Paraguay from Manitoba in the early 1940’s. It was really great to see the sign with a Canadian name on it. Along with the many farms there were also many animals grazing along the side of the highway. Cows, pigs, and of course many many chickens. We tried to slow down as much as possible for all of the animals but there were so many chickens that it was pretty difficult. We were riding along and a flock of chickens ran out onto the road just as Kelly was passing. He hit the brakes and tried his hardest to avoid this huge chicken. Oops, he hit one dead on. It spun out from his front tire, feathers flying everywhere. You feel so bad, because you know that it’s one of the people’s egg or meat suppliers. It sure looses its feathers when you hit it on a bike, just like an explosion!! J Kelly looks back to see me riding through a cloud of feathers. There was no meat hung up on the bike when we stopped later.

The city we ended up staying in was called Concepcion. It was a university town. There must have been over 1000 motos just riding up and down the streets on Friday night. Guys, girls everyone was out for the night. We had fun watching the antics of the youth parading the streets.

The next morning, October 20, we headed out across Paraguay on ruta 5 headed for the Bolivia border. The day heated up unbelievably. Riding across the Chaco was like riding into a blast furnace at top heat. We were so hot and thirsty that we couldn’t spit dust. The vast majority of the land is used by ranchers who graze Brahma cows over 1000’s of hectors. We spoke to a journalist in Asuncion who was here from Belgium covering a story about the misuse of the Chaco by the ranchers. Apparently a few wealthy ranchers are buying up all of the Chaco for their herds leaving the indigenous people without a place to live or they are using them as cheap slave labor. You can see from the road the shacks that the workers live in. Once in a while you could catch a glimpse of the owners main house from the road, they were usually a mansion with a airstrip and all the bells and whistles. With so much corruption in these countries we wonder if the cattle production is a great front for much more lucrative business. The gap between the wealthy and the poor is very noticeably huge in Paraguay.

Just outside of Concepcion we were pulled over by a National Policeman and his assistant. They pulled us over to check our paperwork. The older officer in charge started right away saying that we needed an insurance paper for total South America. He took our passports and bike paperwork into a little shack on the side of the road. He flagged for one of us to follow. As we know they don’t like to speak to the women so guess what, I went. We planned this, if we are stopped and we think it is a bribe situation I will do the talking and “acting” and Kelly will act like he can’t speak or understand any Spanish. So once in this shack the cop pulls out a big file of papers that he started telling me that we didn’t have. He points to a paper that is completely worn out that looked like some sort of insurance form. He points at it and starts telling me that it is an “infraction”. He pulls out a big book and explains that he is the National Polica and that he is the law with great pride and emtion. He hammers down on the book saying that this is the law. I agree and ask him to show me the law that states that we need South America insurance. He opens the book to the section that talks about Yellow fever. I say “Oh, si yellow fever si I have the papers. No he screams at me. Then he brings out another book and opens it to a section on the Aduana and temporary importation of motos. So I show him the paper “again” of the papers we have on the motos. To make a very long story short. After one hour of me pretending that I don’t know what he is saying completely and him getting more frustrated and then me asking him “Cuanto es Senior? 5 times. How much? And saying “ticket senior?” He just shakes his head and tells us to go. By this time Kelly is standing at the door of the shack trying to keep his laughter concealed. So I gather up the passports and bike paperwork and start to leave. Just as we leave the door the guy says “ vente dollars” I turn and say “como?” He says again, only louder “vente dollars for the infraction” We start to walk away and he yells at us. So we figure we should just give the bugger the twenty dollars and get the hell out of there. So I walk back into the shack and the guy is now sitting with his back to me. I go to hand him the money and he points at the desk. Oh, no I’m not going to let him off that easy. I stuff the money in his hand and say to him “ Bribe” He wouldn’t look at me or move his hand. Nothing makes me madder than a corrupt cop. He wasted our time so I acted stupid and wasted his and frustrated him. I guess he still won as we did pay him the money, but he did have to work for it. Or should I say “act” for it. Bugger!!

We were stopped a second time by the National Policia, later in the day. This time the guy was just being snoopy. He had us open our bags up and the boxes. He picked up our Argentina book and opened it up. Looking at the pictures he was very impressed with the photos. All the while were standing there sweating to death in our riding gear thinking, o.k buddy you’re just being snoopy quit wasting our time here. He also found a clay sun that was wrapped up in bubble wrap. He wanted Kelly to open it. So Kelly pulls out his buck knife and starts to rip open the bubble wrap. I’m thinking, for god sake Kelly put the big buck knife away the cop is going to think we have a weapon. After wards Kelly said that he hesitated pulling out the knife too and then he thought, most of the people here carry guns, what the hell are they going to think about this little knife. Nothing. Kelly opened a small part of the package and tried to explain that it is a “sun for the wall in the house” The cop was smelling his fingers to see if it was drugs!! No we say, “sol por de casa!”

That’s all we need it the cops thinking that we are transporting drugs. We finally got him convinced that it was just a wall hanging. He finished snooping and let us go. It was only 40 degrees and were standing on the side of the asphalt in black riding gear sweating to death. But you have to let them look.

We arrived at a very little village called Marical Estigarribia. The aduana, and passporte office for leaving Paraguay were located in this village. So we were able to do our exit paperwork prior to getting to the Bolivia border. The temperature in the gas station did read it was 35 degrees. The heat was almost unbearable. We looked for a hotel and some air conditioning. We found both in a shabby little hotel on the side of the highway. Our plan was to be up by 5:30 a.m. and riding so that we can beat the heat. We were on the road by 6 a.m.

Today is Sunday October 21, 2007.

Just as our day started we were flagged down by two fellows on a very old 125 with a flat tire. The valve stem had ripped out of the tube. We found a patch that was large enough for them to cut a hole in the center and at least get the valve kind of back in place. They had everything to fix a hole in the tube, pump, glue and patches just not one large enough to hold the valve in place. Ours worked and they were able to get back on their way. We entered Bolivia by 9 a.m. Not without a few embarrassing moments though. For the first 70 kms into Bolivia the military do a check point where you have to take your passport and bike information into their army office. One fellow documents your information into a tally sheet. Well this same guy asked us if we had a “momento” I thought he was asking for a “memento” from Canada. Duh!! I go out to the bike and proceed to get him a Canadian sticker etc. He gets this really dumbfounded look on his face when I hand him these silly stickers. Then he flags another solider over that has a gun in a holster. He points to the gun and asks again if we have a what I thought he was saying was a “memento” OH NO it’s a GUN!! Kelly said the look on my face was priceless when I figured out what he meant. The look on the soldiers face was even funnier according to Kelly. O.K. I’m an idiot!! Why would he even ask if we had a gun?

I’m only telling this because if I didn’t Kelly would type it in himself, so I might as well save him the time and tell you this most embarrassing moment. J We’re stilling laughing out loud about it tonight as I type. In Kelly’s words “It was hilarious”

The road situation changed drastically when we entered Bolivia. We went from a newly paved road to a two track dirt road with some gravel and an incredible amount of dry dusty dirt. You would be driving along and all of a sudden there would be a dust bowl with about 1 1/2 feet of the loosest dryest dirt we have ever seen. This road (trail) went on for 130 kms. Our off road riding skills were put to the test today. We hadn’t been off road since the first leg of the journey in Mexico. You soon tune up and either relax or crash. When we stopped today Kelly asked me what I thought of the Bolivia roads so far. Great! I just have to stop crashing. J A picture is worth a thousand words. Truly this was a very large dust bowl that just swallowed me up. I was a “pigpen” by the end of the day. Following Kelly is usually a pleasure, when it’s not so dusty!!

Tomorrow we will head further north to Santa Cruz. There are several roads up in this area that we have heard are a really challenging mountain ride. There is camping and some great scenery to see. The heat will decrease too.

Until then… Kella

Asuncion in the park fruits and veggies sold on the street.. The two fellows we helped with their flat

Kelly letting a little air out of the tires.... for this road. This is the good part of the road. Kelly buying some water.. we needed LOTS

O.K. here's the "dust bowl" that ate me UP.. The truck in the back ground passed through this way. He broke his axle trying to make it through.

October 26, 2007 working back to October 21^st.

Hola from Sucre Bolivia. Since our last posting we have traveled some of the most challenging but invigorating roads yet. From Santa Cruz we have traveled south/west. One night was spent in a very beautiful little town called Sampiata. This ride was actually a very short day for us. We had heard from others that this was a must to visit, but also a great start for what will some much more difficult roads to ride.

Sampiata is like a little oasis in the middle of no where. The town has many tourist offices to assist with trip out to the local rock climbing or horse riding adventures. We were able to camp at a very lovely place called La Vispera. This business is a combination of rooms for rent/camping/a café/ as well as a very big selection of herbs and teas that are all grown right on the premises. The owners are a Dutch couple, which has found the right combination to make a very relaxing place to rest for a day or two.The food at the café was called “slow food” because anything that you ordered was made from scratch, Meaning that all the ingredients were picked from the garden as it was made. We ordered an omelet for breakfast. In other places you would have it in front of you within 10 minutes or less. Not the case here. It took 45 minutes to prepare as we watched the cook make several trips to the garden to cut her ingredients. The result was amazing. Every flavor that was in the dish was so flavorful that you savored every bite. It actually took us just as long to eat it as we didn’t want to finish too soon or the taste would be gone. We both would say this was the best food we have eaten on the journey so far. So if your ever in Bolivia and want a meal that will be long remembered make sure you look up Café Jardin at the La Vispera. Oh, I forgot to mention also that each dish was beautifully garnished with flowers that were totally edible. Pretty cool.

At La Vispera we met a young man from Holland that was working at an animal reserve near by. He was working with a Puma that was blind and had diabetes. The Puma was named Tupac. Mick had been at the reserve for almost three months working with Tupac. He was on a mission to build a new habitat for the Puma. This is one of the volunteer experiences that are where you pay to stay and do the work. Mick was taking a rest to recuperate from an infection that he had on the top of his foot. He told us that there are many diseases that can be contracted from the animals as well as the living situation. Sounds like a very rewarding experience, but one you would have to be very committed to. The contact information for Mick, if you’re interested in helping him build the habitat for Tupac is as follows: mickjanssen@gmail.com The parquet is called; Parque Ambue Ari and the project is called; Projecto Tupac We told Mick that we would give a shout out on the website if anyone was interested in his very worthwhile project.

We also met a fellow by the name of Martin Munnik. Martin was just walking down the street when I spotted him. He had just moved to Sampiata from Thailand. He was born in the Netherlands. He had traveled around the world on his motorcycle for three years. During that time he met his wife in Thailand and after he finished his journey he went back to Thailand and married. They lived for three years in Thailand and had decided to move to Bolivia about a month ago. Sampiatia had made such a big impression on Martin that when he had passed through on his South America leg of his journey that he convinced his wife to move there. He had bought into one of the tourist travel businesses so he was just getting his feet wet in the new business. He was able to give us some very good information on the roads that lay ahead of us in Bolivia. Thanks Martin you’re advice and experience was most valuable. Samaipata Bolivia

The next two days of our journey were ones that we will look back at with some very fond memories as well as one very life changing memory that I will explain as I go.One of our destinations to visit is the place of the last battle of Che Guevara. For anyone who has either lived or traveled in Central or South America you will know who this very important man is. Here is an short explanation of the history of Che Guevara.

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che or just Che was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas.

As a young man studying medicine, Guevara travelled throughout South America, bringing him into direct contact with the impoverished conditions in which many people lived. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to the conclusion that the region's socio-economic inequalities could only be remedied by socialism through revolution, prompting him to intensify his study of Marxism and travel to Guatemala to learn about the reforms being implemented there by President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.

While in Mexico in 1956, Guevara joined Fidel Castro's revolutionary 26th of July Movement, which seized power from the regime of the dictator General Fulgencio Batista in Cuba in 1959. In the months after the success of the revolution, Guevara was assigned the role of "supreme prosecutor", overseeing the trials and executions of hundreds of suspected war criminals from the previous regime. After serving in various important posts in the new government and writing a number of articles and books on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 with the intention of fomenting revolutions first in Congo-Kinshasa, and then in Bolivia, where he was captured in a military operation supported by the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces.^[4] Guevara was summarily executed by the Bolivian Army in the town of La Higuera near Vallegrande on October 9, 1967.^[5]

After his death, Guevara became an icon of socialist revolutionary movements and a cultural icon worldwide. An Alberto Korda photo of him (shown) has received wide distribution and modification, appearing on t-shirts, protest banners, and in many other formats. The Maryland Institute College of Art called this picture "the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century."

I wanted to put information that was correct into the journal post about Che because to not tell the exact story would be a disservice to the people that continue to support his work. Even if it’s not what you believe we have to give this man credit for the huge impact that he made on the people and their lives even today. So we traveled to the village of La Higuera where Che was captured and killed by the CIA and the Bolivian Army. La Higuera is a village of only 77 people, 19 being children. When we arrived we were met by a woman who takes care of the museum, which is the actual site where Che was shot. It was a little school in the centre of the village. We also met a woman who was only twenty years old at the time the murders took place. She told us of the men and the day that it happened. She brought out pictures of Che that she had from then.

This was actually a very moving experience for us. The feeling that you have from the people is that life may have been very different if Che Guevara had lived long enough to complete his mission for the people.

This is where it gets interesting for us while staying in the village. We took a room that looked out onto the only cement in the village, it was the courtyard for the school, doctors office and the library. Of course we don’t enter a place like this without being noticed. While unpacking the bikes for the day a couple of children came to watch. The girl and boy were very polite and sweet. While this was going on the doctor was in and out of her office seeing people. The girl disappeared only to return with her book to read to me. As we sat and listened to her read the doctor watched. Once the girl was finished she called the girl over to speak to her. The girl disappeared again and the doctor called me over to show me the library. This doctor and her husband were from Cuba. They were living in the village for 3 months working through the Cuba government. They will spend a total of 2 years in Bolivia moving throughout the country to small villages that would otherwise have not medical support ever given. As we talked she explained that she was on a mission also to help the local families in other ways. Cuba had sent many books to the village, but they were always in need of more. She went on to tell me about the young girl and her brother that I had been playing with. They were being raised by their mother and father who were very poor. There is also a small baby girl in the family. The doctor asked if I would be interested in helping this family. So she gave me the address of where to send clothes, school supplies and books. Then the mother arrived with the baby to meet me. She was very young. It was very moving for me to actually meet these people and then be asked to help them. Of course was the answer that I gave.

The doctor said that she asked many people who came to visit the museum of Che hoping that she can get many of the family’s sponsors in the time that she is in the village. So I now have a mission for when we get back to Canada.

So the next morning we rode very quietly out of the village, or so we thought. We started out at 6 a.m. and the little girl named Mariela was running across the village square to say good-bye to us.

The sky was so blue and the air was so crisp, it made for a very pleasant start to what would be a long 230 kms ride over some of the most desolate mountains we have experienced. The road was just double track for most of the day. When ever we would meet the odd other traveler we would be the ones to pull over to let them pass. It is much easier to squeeze past a bike then the other way around. Also we could take the inside so that the cliff wasn’t our concern.

After about 3 hours of climbing to an altitude of 2800 meters we started to descend to make our way across the Rio Grande. At the river crossing we had dropped to just 900 meters. The terrain was very barren several of the sides of the mountains sliding onto the road. There are very little trees to help stabilize the soil on the mountains so consequently you come across many sites where the road has just been washed away by the soil. We came across a pretty big slide. As we came around a curve we were faced with a wall of about six feet high of solid dirt. To the left on top of the pile was a D7 Cat pushing the earth back into place. We had to wait about 45 minutes in order for the machine to clear a large enough path for us to make our way across the slide. Only to be met by another Cat and Grader working on the other side of the wall of dirt. This is where the off road riding skills really comes into effect. So we dug deep and just went for it. The ground was soft and very loose. Kelly in the lead was able to make his way across with just one stall of the bike. I took a very deep breath and went for it. I just stalled twice. The humor in this is that Kelly was expecting to have to jump off his bike and run back to assist me. When he got stopped and turned around I was already stopped right behind him. He just gave me this great smile and said on the communication system “You never cease to amaze me, your one tough old biker chick!!” With words of encouragement like that, who couldn’t resist at least giving it a good try. J

The building of the road we needed to ride on!!

We are just honing up our skills for the next leg of our journey. Saltar de Uyuni is next. This is a lake of salt that you can ride across. The mileage is around 200 kms. We have been told that you can open up our bike to go as fast as possible with out any worry. There is no horizon just blue sky and white salt.

We will rest in the capital of Bolivia Sucre for a couple of days. Kelly has to do the service on the bikes. Oil change and tighten up all and any bolts that have been shaken loose. When we arrived yesterday the entire city was shut down with road blocks at every entrance. The protest was for the city to tell the politicians that Sucre wants the government to sit at Sucre not at La Paz where it is held now. Sucre is the countries capital therefore all government should be held here. We had to ride over side walks and down stairs in order to make it to where we could find a hotel. The people were fine with us going around the road blocks; they were not going to make any effort to help us by moving any vehicles.

So now we rest, post photos and service the bikes. Sorry for the long post, there was just so much to remember.

Until then…. Kella

October 31, 2007

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!

Saltar de Uyuni!!  This is a name that we will not forget for the rest of our lives.  Since our last post we have traveled nearly 780 kilometers.  For us that doesn’t sound like a very long distance, but it has been a distance of many rough roads and one very amazing experience on the Saltar de Uyuni. 

From Sucre we rode to Potosi Bolivia.  This is a mining town that is as busy as a Alberta town with oil.  The landscape was very brown and barren.  The town sits at an altitude of 4000 meters.  For our imperial system readers that is around 13,123 ft.  In Potosi there was a mini Calgary Tower situated on a hill in town.  We could see it from our hotel but weren’t sure of what it was.  There were no people around it that we could see.  So we walked towards it for several blocks.  Once we found the street that was at the bottom of the lookout, we decided that since we had walked all that way we had better attempt to climb up to this viewing tower.  With the altitude we both felt like we had run a marathon by the time we reached the building.  The doors were locked so we thought the place was closed, but outside there were many aboriginal people just hanging around.  We both thought it was strange to have such a expensive looking tourist attraction and not to have it open.  Just as we were about to walk back down the hill, a man came to the door and unlocked it inviting us in.  We had to pay $5.00 Bolivian dollars each to take the elevator to the top for the view, but we said to heck with it we walked all this way we’ll spend the money.  At the top the view was really incredible .  You could walk around the entire structure to view the city and the valley so far beyond.  We both said it was worth the effort to climb the silly hill.  BUT we flagged a taxi to get back to the hotel after. 

  Both Kelly and I had a little altitude sickness for the first time.  We had a mild headache, a little sick stomach and very stuffy noses.  Kelly wasn’t able to sleep because each time he would fall asleep he would gasp for air and wake himself up.  It was a very long night.

Feeling not very rested we decided to ride further and perhaps adjust to the altitude as we went.  The road from Potosi to Uyuni was only 217 kms but it was a hard ride.  The washboard on the road was at least 6 to 12 inches deep constantly. Then there was the sand bowls.  OR as I like to call them “dust bowls” The sand was so dry that when you rode through it , it swooshed up like chalk dust.  It also sucked you in like a garbage disposal.  Your front tire would just jump to the left or to the right with no warning. 

So to say that speed wasn’t a problem is an understatement. If we weren’t so determined to make it to Uyuni to see the Salt Lake I might of thrown in the towel at one point.  This is a big statement for me as I pride myself on meeting the challenge of riding a motorcycle all the way down here.  But to be very honest, these roads were not a pleasure.  Just work, a lot of work.

Uyuni was a very dusty little town with many tourist offices to meet the many needs of the people coming to experience the Saltar.  From what we could gather most of the tourists were from Europe, Australia and Japan.  We never met a US citizen or other Canadian. 

The largest tourist operation is the Jeep/driver rental.  All of the companies offer a 1 to 5 day tour of the Saltar and surrounding areas.  They have huge 4X4 Toyota’s and Nissan 4X4’s.  Many are beaten up with bald tires so you had to be very selective as to which company you go with.  For us it was a matter of getting the GPS coordinates and making it down the bloody road where you enter the Saltar.  We noticed that my shock had blown when we got into Uyuni, so I was limping a little or I should say Ruby2 was.  She had taken all that she could on the roads.  With the knowledge that my shock had leaked out all of oil we had to make sure that we would make it back on the other side of the Saltar to a town that might have someplace to get it fixed.  But, I’m getting ahead of myself. 

So the saying once again :  A picture is worth a million words.  I know it’s usually a thousand but this one is a million.    Saltar de Uyuni!! 

When we entered the lake it was like driving on ice.  The white of the salt played games with our Canadian minds.  We had to stop immediately and make sure that it wasn’t slippery.  We were laughing so hard at our thoughts.  As we made our way out and across the flat white terrain you still had to fight the feeling that it wasn’t snow covered ice.  We had heard many ideas of how to drive across it.  For example; follow the tracks of the jeeps or set your sights on the horizon and go!! The white of the salt and the blue of the sky made for a horizon that is indescribable.    With having the GPS coordinates we were able to ride any direct we wanted to just so long as once we started to get close to the Isla de Cactus where we needed to stop,we could just go.  So it was this way and that way with nothing to dictate to you where to drive.  We even tried to close our eyes and just drive. (this being one of the most difficult acts to try)  We managed to get a 5 second eye closing session.  The eye closing is a really weird feeling.  The Isla de Cactus is an Island in the middle of the Saltar, it is a rock hill with Cactus growing everywhere on it.  This is a big stopping place for the entire tourist crowd to have lunch and take photos.  When we pulled up to the meeting spot this girl was waving to us franticly.  Kelly thinks that she is waving to someone behind us so he just smiles.  It turns out it is Clare from England that we met in Samaipata Bolivia.  She was traveling with two fellows from England.  Clare was one of the nicest people we have met.  She comes running over to give us a big hug and ask how our ride has been.  Way too funny!! 

After our stop at the Isla de Cactus we decided that we were going to camp out on the Saltar for the night.  So we picked a direction away from the beaten path and rode for about 8 kilometers. How we decided to stop was this; we got up to top speed, which was all of 115 kms/per hour and shut off the bike, coasted to a stop and that is where we set up camp for the night.  This was only 3 p.m. so we had lots of time to play around on the salt with photos.  As the night came we experienced a bit of a salt storm.  The sky was turning a funny gray color, all around us there was a mist of salt in the air.  We quickly set up the tent and prepared for a windy night.  The sky cleared just enough to give a beautiful sunset.  Around 12:30 a.m. the wind finally stopped so that we could go outside and experience the biggest night sky we have ever seen.  It felt exactly like a snowy moon filled night in Canada, without the cold of course.  The refection of the moon was so spectacular with the sky filled with so many stars you couldn’t even begin to count.  There was no one else in our sight.  This was the most amazing feeling, yet a bit eerie and unnerving.  To be so alone in such an isolated place was an experience we will never forget. Kelly had a difficult time sleeping once again because of the altitude.  We were at 3650 meters or 12,000 ft.  Not the highest we have been but it was certainly a cold night in the tent.  We had been told that the temperature could dip as low as minus 10, but it didn’t get even close to freezing.  We Canadian are a tough bunch!!  (Good down sleeping bags help).

The next morning we woke to the sunrise that swallowed up the entire horizon.  The heat was soon penetrating the tent giving us the energy to get on our way.  We had a long day ahead of us.  We had just 360 kms to ride but over ¾ of it was yet again off road.  We found our way to the exit of the Saltar with no problems.  It was the rest of the day that proved to be a bit more of a challenge to navigate.  We had to make it to a village called San Juan and then head from there towards the Chile border.  Remembering that my bike has a blown shock the ride was even more difficult.  The road to San Juan was washboard filled and very sandy.  The mileage was a total of 70 kms turned out to be a pain in the butt.  There were absolutely no signs and San Juan didn’t show up on the GPS.  Ever!!

Actually there were no roads or towns on the GPS.  So we relied totally on Kelly’s navigation skills.  The result, we came to a fork in the trail we were driving on.  Kelly asks me what direction I think we should go.  He shouldn’t do that.  I chose right and so we went right.  Yes it was the wrong direction.  We should have gone left.  We ended up on a village down a very sandy trail asking at a school which way to San Juan.  (after I got stuck in the sand a couple of times, by the way I can get myself out now without Kelly having to come back and help me.)   The children in the village were pretty excited to see these two strangers on Motos looking for help.  After leaving a bunch of Canadian Stickers for the kids we set out  on this goat trail to find San Juan.

At San Juan we needed directions once again to find the Chile border.  We had a general direction that Kelly knew we needed to go but once again while we were leaving the village there was another 5 trails that you could choose to take.  So we turned around and went back into the village to ask just to make sure.  The fellow at the bar took us around back and pointed at one of the volcanoes and he said “See that Volcano drive towards it and once your at the bottom, stay right”  I quote. He also mentioned it was 62 kms, and it was!!   O.K. this is supposed to be the main road to exit Bolivia into Chile.  IT was a goat trial in a valley basin that spanned a kilometer wide with absolutely no marked road at all.  Most of the time we were in a river bed with tire tracks veering off in every direction up into the hills.   I can’t tell you the anxiety that I experienced in that 62 kms.  I must have said to myself a million times; trust the process.  This has been our mantra the entire trip when we are in unsure situations.  This was certainly that for me.  Kelly is my Hero.  He just sets the bike in the direction we need to go and ALWAYS gets us there. 

We reached the Bolivian border at around 2:30 in the afternoon.  As we pulled up to the border crossing we searched for a building to do the proper paperwork.  There really wasn’t much to be found.  There was a train and some buildings on the other side of where it was parked, but no building on our side.  A fellow came strolling across the gravel towards us.  He was the Aduana fellow.  He calmly took our bike papers and walked away.  I asked where the passport office was and he flung his arm in the direction of the train.  So Kelly stayed with the bikes and I headed off towards the parked train. 

I could see a man on the other side of the train cars walking around, so I yelled “Hola” at him.  He peeked at me from between two cars and waved me to climb through the cars to get the passports stamped.  This was a first for me EVER.  I was always taught to stay way from the train cars and certainly never climb through them.  So here I am scrambling up and over the car couplers to go and get our passports stamped to leave Bolivia.  It just makes you smile at the process that is generally so proper.  Only in Bolivia. J

The woman at the Aduana on the Chile side told us that Calama was just 2 maybe 3 hours away.  Well a bloody 5 hours later we finally make it to Calama.  We were both so tired and hungry that we could have puked.  We didn’t eat all day and there were certainly no stops for leisure time if we were going to make it by dark.  The road was just as terrible as on the Bolivia side.  I have to say it won’t bother me to not see a washboard for a very long time.  I know we have some in our future, but never as bad as the ones we experienced this last 5 days. 

We are now in Calama making plans to get my shock either fixed or a new one sent from the U.S.  Once again we are e-mailing and Skype calling to solve a problem.  Thank goodness for our computer.  It has been a real life line for us.  We think that we will ride to Salta Argentina where we can have a shock sent to us from Javier from Dakar Motos in Buenos Aries.  When we e-mailed Progressive Shocks in California explaining our situation here in South America we received a one sentence answer back.  “Send the shock back to us”  That was it.  To say the least,  Progressive is not going to get rave reviews from us at anytime.

Today Kelly is sick with a stomach flu.  So he goes down stairs at the hotel to ask about where a farmacia might be.  A man is standing at the desk with a “doctor bag”  he over hears Kelly asking directions and asks if there is anything he can do to help.  It turns out that he is a doctor staying here at  the hotel.  He tells Kelly that he will write him a prescription later.  Not even a hour later a there is a knock at the door of the room and one of the hotel employees hands Kelly a prescription in order to kick the stomach/bowel situation.  Nothing like easy access to medications.  Way too funny.  Just another example of life in South America.

I have posted many photos on the photo album for viewing.  I hope the Saltar de Uyuni pictures give it justice other wise you will just have to go there and see it for yourselves. 

This is the village of Uyuni Bolivia.  It is in the middle of a very empty desert.  The art work was sitting on the main street in the middle of the road.

We had to wait 2 hrs. for gas before leaving Uyuni.   Kelly getting to the good stuff on the Saltar.     Always looking in his rear view mirror.. I'm always there!!

Notice the honeycombe shapes of the salt.          The view was as far as your eye can see.                      Some fun stuff with the camera.

If you jumped high enough you just might jump right into the sky!!  We laughed until we hurt!!               Does this not look like we are sitting on snow !!     

One last jump for joy before the sun went down.     Kelly packing up the tent in the morning.                         A beautiful Saltar de Uyuni sunset.

Preparing for a "one pot" dinner.                              The salt storm was blowing in.                                       He tried to look cold. Really he wasn't.

November 7, 2007       

 It’s been a few days again since I posted anything.  Well we made it to Salta Argentina.  What a beautiful little city.  The weather is certainly a lot warmer here.  The days are around 28 C. with the nights cooling off nicely.  We did make contact with Javier at Dakar Motos in Buenos Aires.  He arranged to have the shock fixed there.  So we were able to get an over night bus to take the shock on Monday the 5^th.  We just had word that it is now fixed and will be shipped back to us tomorrow the 8^th so we will be back on the road by Saturday the 11^th.  Yahoo!! There is nothing like getting up and riding the beautiful Argentine roads for a day or two.

I must write about the ride to Salta.  We crossed a mountain pass called Jama.  Which in spanish is pronounced Hama.  The GPS was working overtime.  Kelly was watching it increase in altitude by the 10’s.  We reached a grand height of; 4850 meters or around 15000 feet.

On the top of the pass we spotted small patches of frozen water lying at the side of the road.  The heated grips came in very handy at this point.  The good thing or bad depending which way you look at it, was that the bikes weren’t able to exceed 80 kms per hour because of the lack of oxygen.  They were pinned at 80.  At least there was not too much wind chill we were going so slowly.  Ruby2 did have a bit more power,  I pulled away from Kelly a few times.  The pass was really very spectacular.  That altitude is now the highest we have been. You could feel the lack of oxygen in your breathing. It took us over an hour to cross the top of the pass.

We crossed into Argentina just after we started to descend.  While Kelly was watching the bikes at the Argentine border a young guy on a 350 /2 stroke Russian bike was adjusting his load, so they had a great visit.  Gabriel was also on a journey.  He had started out in Ecuador his home country.  He was doing a complete circle of South America.  Now this guy was a true adventure rider.  He had the look of a well seasoned rider with all his gear strapped to his bike in every which direction. He was mostly camping and staying where he was invited.  What a great guy.  Later down the road we passed him, with a huge wave and a smile he continued on his way. As a after note;  we met up this Gabriel again when he made it to Salta. 

Salta is a city of about 100,000 people.  It is situated in the valley with beautiful little mountains surrounding it.  We headed to the Tourist Office for some information as to which Hostel would be the best to stay at.  We needed a garage, for my bike.  Cooking facilities would be a great way to save money so we were interested in that too.  The young woman working there spoke very good English so we were able tell her our needs.  Well she just happened to know of a cute little apartment that we could rent for a week or so.  It has a kitchen, hot water, t.v., and most of all a garage.  It happened to be her Grandfathers too.  So we had a look at it.  There was no doubt that this was a great little place to hang our hat for a week or so.  It turns out that we even had internet via WIFI.

The shock only took 5 days from the day we sent it to it’s return.  We were pretty happy with that.

So today is now, November 9, 2007.  Kelly is putting the shock back on my bike so we can leave first thing Saturday morning.  We are heading straight south from here.  It’s Ushuaia set in our sights.  The road that we will be taking mostly is Route 40.  This is the notorious road that all Adventure riders talk about in Argentina.  Ruta 40 has a section of about 300 kms that is extremely windy, it’s shale gravel and a two track road.  It has challenged many riders.  We should have some great photos coming in the near future.

Until then….

Kella

Gabriel from Ecuador... he was a true adventure traveler... the wind just about blew him off the road.!!            One of the many great roads in Argentina.!!! 

This was such a awesome ride.  which took us too... Pumamarca, the Mountains of 7 colors.. there were actually 7 different colors of mountains.

Kelly coming out of one of the trails in the Mountains of 7 colors.   This was just outside the village of Pumamarca Argentina.  It was so beautiful. 

Putting on more clothes,  It was soooo cold.                  Notice the 4823 meters..we went up from there.   This is the ICE along the road on top of Juma Pass

November 13, 2007

Our ride from  Salta to Mendoza was an experience of many different terrains.  Just outside of Salta the countryside was farming, mostly cattle and fruit/vegetables.  The farms were very large and spread out.  There were little villages along the highway.  

The farms used tractors as well as carts pulled by horses and cows.  The tractors were still small and loaded with people.  As we rode south the land soon  changed into a desert with sand dunes then quickly it changed again into mountains on both sides.  It looked like a large V with mountain on either side running parallel to the highway. This was highway 68.  The road was very narrow and twisty.  A small river that was very terra cotta ran along side of the road.  The cactus were blooming their beautiful flowers.  The mountains were so red again they were in deep contrast to the very green trees.

We came upon a fascinating gorge called “devils gorge”  there was a very large gorge that you were able to climb back into.  The rock was in such a cool formation.   

A small river of red.  The water flows amazing colors.                                                                               The route south of Mendoza Argentina

A gorge that we discovered.  Kelly climbed up and back into it.  Incredible setting.                              These clouds were hanging on top of the mountains.like icing.

The green valleys with the red rock looked cool.       A vinyard with another crop growing                             The gravel was good, a bit sandy but pretty good

From straight as an arrow.......                                 to the curves.............                                                to the prehistoric looking rocks.

The bike adventure..                                                    The museum of vine.                                   Grape vines can grow up to 100 years.. these were planted in 73

Some of the tools used in the making of wine.              One of us enjoyed the painful bike ride...not.                The fertile valleys of Mendoza.. great grape growing

From this incredible section of the highway the terrain changed into complete desert.  The kilometers clicked by with the mile marker signs like watching the clock while waiting for your doctor visit.  Ruta 40 has mile markers at each and every kilometer, so riding through the desert became pretty routine quickly.

The only stimulating part of the highway was it had very large dips built into it for the flash floods from the mountains.    If you rode fast enough you could get the roller coaster affect a little.  Flash floods must be a real problem, as the dips were situated a min of a couple hundred meters to 600 meters apart.  Whoopie!!  Far off in the distance you could see the mountain range of the Andes for some stimulation.   Then there was the wind to challenge you.  Sometimes a cross wind, sometimes directly head on.   We stayed in the city of San Juan after a 650 kms of riding.  There was really no other options but to keep riding.  Many of the villages had no camping or hotels to speak of.

San Juan was a busy city, however everything is closed on a Sunday.  We couldn’t find any camping so we had to find a hotel.  That was a challenge in it’s self.  The ones we did find were either very expensive or a real dump.  So we found the “Shelby” not far off of the main plaza.  There were no double beds so we took a room with 3 single beds.  After a dusty sleep we hit the road again very early in the morning. (The room was so dusty that you could see it hanging on the walls.)

The road from San Juan to Mendoza was once again varied in the landscape.  We had brand new pavement to gravel.  Ruta 40 is going to be a variety of surfaces making it never dull.  Some of the road had been paved and was let go.  The asphalt was broken and gone, other spots were just solid gravel.  The gravel is pretty good, not like the Bolivian gravel.  It can be little rocks with a bit of sand, not the huge washboard.

The farming once again became the primary views of the countryside.  The temperature was just right for riding.  Cool in the morning with the heat rising to about 27 c in the afternoon.  The vineries were so beautiful spread along the countryside like a patchwork quilt.  The soil was once again fertile with just the right mix of sand.  Mendoza is a city of many trees and green grass.  The city is situated in a dry arid area, but the city is lush and green with trees lining the streets.  We arranged for a tour of a vinery and a museum in a little village just outside of Mendoza.  Villa Nueva was the centre for many winery tours.  On the bus ride out to the village the driver told us that the best way to see the vinery and museum was to ride a bicycle.  We didn’t really understand what he was talking about until we arrived in the village.  The streets weren’t paved and there was no public transportation to be heard of.  The distance between the vineries was a few kilometers so the bicycle rental business was booming.  Two somewhat o.k. bicycles for a half a day cost us 50 pesos.  With a map of the village in hand we set out for our tour.

Our first stop was at the museum.  As we arrived there was a huge group of others on bicycles arriving too.  We could hear them speaking English and noticed a few Canadian flags on their backpacks.  After a few minutes we discovered that this group was from the Edmonton and Red Deer area.  How cool was that.  As we took the tour we visited with our fellow countrymen.  This museum is the largest in all of Argentina.  They have tools used in the crop production and vine making dated as far back as the late 1700’s.  The museum was attached to a very modern facility.  The wine produced there is one of Argentina’s best.  We really enjoyed the time spent at the vinery and museum.  Our next stop of the day was to the chocolate factory.  This was a family run business that had roots tracing back to Germany.  The variety of chocolate was amazing.  There must have been 20 different varieties of chocolates.  Chocolate drinks mixed with liqueurs.  After our stomachs filled with wine and chocolates we were done for the day.  Oh, I should mention that the bicycles were terrible.  Kelly’s front end was so loose that we were afraid it was going to fall apart.  The seats were killers too.  We also realized just how much we need to exercise once in a while too.  Tough peddling around the village.

After much discussion and contemplating we decided to buy new tires in Mendoza before we headed south.  The Bridgestone Trailwings we put on the rear were wearing really terrible.  The bikes felt like they were dog tracking or a wobbly situation the entire time.  We had had so much luck with the Pirelli Scorpions the we made the decision to buy two new sets.  We were able to find them with no problem in Mendoza.  The honda shop was huge with a great selection.  Kelly installed them himself so the money was not too bad to part with.  Now we’re ready for the rest of the ride.  New tires make such a different it’s hard to explain.  When you have the right ones your entire experience is that much better.  They give you the confidence and pleasure of riding 8 to 10 hours a day on what ever road is presented to you.  We knew that ruta 40 was going to be not only hard on the tires but a challenge for us too.  So new tires was a good decision for us to make.

We enjoyed our time in Mendoza, but Ruta 40 was still ahead of us.  It was beckoning us to keep going south.  So we headed south with nearly 4500 kms to finish before we can say our destination is complete. The tip of South America as far as you can ride.

November 17, 2007

RUTA 40 Argentina 

There have been so many stories of the motorcycle ride on this road that you’re never really sure of the facts or the fiction.  Well we’re going to tell you the facts; 

The sign just outside of Mendoza read :  Ushuaia 4300 kms.  Checking on the map we  tried to see exactly where the pavement was and where we would be riding on gravel.  It looked like we had about 1000 kms to ride on gravel.  We decided that we would ride as far as we could each day and see how many days it takes.  The first two days we rode 600 and 630 kms.  On the third and fourth days we did 740 and another 640 kms.  A lot of the road was gravel or broken pavement in pretty rough shape.  There was one section of new pavement that gave us a break from the gravel.  But it was the wind that took it’s toll on us each day.  With gusts up to 100 plus kms/hr. riding was a challenge.  You could get no more than 60 to 75 kms per/hr and the wind would change direction sending you across the road, over the track lanes into the oncoming lane.  Sometimes we would just choose to ride in the opposite lanes because it was a bit smoother or there was less loose gravel.

The road was long, straight and narrow.  You could see for many kilometers ahead of you.  The mountains were pushed back from the road at least 20 to 30 kilometers giving the wind plenty of time to wind up its speed.  If you had a direct cross wind from either the left or right all your energy was used to keep the bike from blowing right off the road. Your front tire would hook the loose gravel sending you for a out of control swerve to either the right or left, depending on how the wind hit you at the instant second.   If the wind was hitting you face on it took all you could muster up to just keep the bike going straight.  We had to ride up a couple of mountains directly into the wind, that was exhausting beyond words.  But, if the wind was behind you, well it was like a “freebie” you could ride without any wind hitting your face at all.  The bike sounds like it needs to be shifted up one more gear and the fuel saving is great.  We looked forward to the sections where the wind was going with us, just for the break.

Kelly and I came up with a new “four” letter word.  WIND.. we had fun using it in phrases to describe our feelings towards the wind at the moment.  It’s amazing how your mind works when you are cold, tired and really not enjoying the ride.

The longest section of  Ruta 40 that has no gas is 340 kms.  Our bikes can make it to 330 kms. Interesting enough though we didn’t go on reserve before we got to the gas station at the end of that section.  What did happen was totally frustrating and a real piss off.

After some of the most challenging riding I have done, just about 60 meters from making it to the pavement I lost control of my bike and went down.  The wind was so strong at this point and my muscles were so tired that I just couldn’t fight it anymore.  Just as we rounded the last corner with the pavement in sight my bike bolted across the road towards the ditch.  Trying to straighten the bike I slid my front tire on the huge rocks , it slid right out from underneath me.  Luckily I wasn’t going very fast.  I wasn’t hurt nor was the bike damaged.  My pride was hurt and my goal was broken.  I tried so hard to make it the entire Ruta without falling.  I should note, that Kelly also had a near fall.  He was riding pretty fast when the wind hooked his front tire and sent him into the loose gravel on the side of the track.  He was able to keep control of his bike and straighten it out.  Thank goodness for that as he would have had a much more destructive crash, as his speed was pretty quick.

El Cafafate is the cutest little town.  This is where we decided to stop for a couple days rest.  We also wanted to visit the Los Glaciares National Park.  This is where the Moreno Glacier is located on Lake Argentina.  This is one of those times that pictures are worth a million words.  The glacier is absolutely breath taking.  It is 60 meters high and over 1 kilometer wide.  It is sliding at the rate of 2 meters per day.  The ice that is breaking off of it is mind boggling.  We were able to walk to the south side of it and watch for ice to fall.  The sound of the ice breaking was like a bomb going off.  You couldn’t take your eyes away because by the time you heard the sound the ice was already in the water. 

The colors were so intense and so true that the ice looked like Styrofoam painted.  We were able to take a boat cruise to have a look at the glacier from the water.  There were ice chunks the size of cars and trucks floating in the water all around the glacier. 

Here are the photos to show you how beautiful, amazing and spectacular this glacier really is.      

Some of the views from Ruta 40..                                 Flamingos were spotted all along the ruta                    Pavement was great... when there was some

The kilometer marker... big count down.                      Mountains in the distance.... just beautiful

Having a break from the road....                                  The tripod is working great for the self-photos             more pavement... cool

Putting on more warm clothes...                                   O.K. here is the gravel.... long and straight                 Ooops... that was the sand in my way again!!!

Kelly letting our air of the tires.. or is it putting it back in..   Just hanging out in the wind.                                More  Ruta 40... long, straight and flat

The signs tell it all.  There were 'many' of these ones.    The amazing, breath taking Glacier Moreno.               Chilean fire bush. 

Glacier Moreno is sliding 2 meters per day.  The ice chunks that break off are huge.  The color was so blue.   We're enjoying one of the worlds most awesome sights

November 20, 2007