Good WiFi - More Photos!

Day 21 - Jeff's Final Blog!

Day 20 - Our Grand Arrival....Sort of....

Again sorry about the long time between posts - we have had a combination of challenges - including Wifi, iPhone and lazieness....We are about 8 days behind and we have a few hours off so will try to catch up (cause I am such a fast typist Tan!). Jeff will be back in Perth soon and will update as soon as he can. Also as I am doing the blogs on my own now they will get a little shorter until I have caught up.

Day 20 started with a great sense of anticipation and anxiety - today we were to take on Santiago - the capital of Chile and final destination point for all but Dad and I. After waking about 10 times in the night to go to the bathroom due to the constant sound of the waterfall (Jeff will tell you more) in our backyard and last night's over zealous dinner we were all a little tired and while not manly to admit a bit worried about the traffic were were going to face.

Breakfast was a sombre affair as we all contemplated the end of our adventure and the challenges we had faced as a group. Today was also special for Bruce as it was his birthday! What a way to celebrate it! Not a bad achievement on your 68th birthday!

We set off and made it past the over zealous guard at the gate to the hotel. As we got onto the first road we started to see the real first effects of the earthquake from last month - despite the fact we were over 200km away from the epicenter the damage was unbelievable - all the roads were cracked, there were sections of road where Chile's main highway was diverted onto a gravel side road and we saw at least 15 bridges that had totally or partially collapsed - we were all praying for no more aftershocks as we crossed the still standing bridges.

Today was a long ride - over 500 km - a tough day normally but with all of the diversions it was becoming a very long one! We stopped for lunch at one of the service stations about 200km out of Santiago. For most of us this was the last of our Troopy (the name of our support truck) picnics - these were one of the key reasons we have all put on holiday kilos - bread rolls, meats, salad, chocolates, pastries and many other goodies - while riding has been tough it has not yet quite managed to burn off these lunches!

As we set off on the final stretch we were all excited and Dad, Jeff and I set off in front - all good - great roads again, intercoms and cue the memories. 30km down the road Jeff slows down and veers off the road - Oh No! Jeff's bike has done what Steven Bradbury's competitors all did - fallen down just short of the line.

After a 10 minute wait the Troopy caught up and Leo our fearless tour leader came back - Jeff's trip was over! Battery problems strike for the 4th time in 2 weeks! But wait - Jeff's bike gets my old battery and - It's Alive! I am not sure if Jeff was Sad or relieved when it broke down - but when it was alive I am sure he was happy - deep down, way deep down!

So the final stretch started again! After such a big build up the ride went very well - despite some hairy moments - including some crazy Chilean truck drivers we arrived at our hotel! After 18 days and over 500km through some of the toughest road this continent has we had all made it - all riders and bikes safe and sound! Amazing!

The best news was still to come - as an great surprise we all had our own rooms - after nearly 3 weeks in the same room this little moment was a moment for more celebration!

Dad, Jeff and I went shopping for groceries and after a shower in our own rooms caught up for a pre-Dinner drink.

For Dinner we we joined by Mick - One of Compasses's owners - who had flown over ear;lier to join our next tour - with over 60kg of spare parts in his luggage! Dinner was a great event as we all said goodbye and a few speaches were made to laugh and thank the crew! What a great experience!

As dinner wrapped up a few of us headed for a drink at - yes that is right the local Irish bar - yet this one had a twist - Karoke! Luckily were we able to keep Dad away from the microphone and we laid our heads down at 4am - What an adventure!

Day 19 - Jeff to update

Day 18 - Border dramas and meeting the locals

We regretfully awoke from Bariloche and were met with the thickest fog we have ever seen - all for what is meant to be the best ride of the trip - Great - We have become whinging poms!

We left Bariloche - sans bacon again - into low lying fog - damn I fogot my wet weather gear! Wet and 6 degrees for 130 km - Wow - tough work!

We then hit the mountains - now I rememeber why I am her - over 150km of riding into the best valley I have seen - beautiful ride, great lunch - happy Dave!

Over 3 hours border crossing when the Chilean Customs found us smuggling Salami over the border folloowed - much joy!

Then 200km of tough gravel (including Jeff's bike malfunctioning and going sideways on a 500m drop) and bitumen to see an amazing active volcano and the town of Pucon. Great town and dinner! Chat tomorrow - so tired!

Day 17 - Jeff Your Turn?

Day 16 - Dodging Cars, Dogs and Blood Sausages

Day 16 started with a very welcome sleep in - until 8am! aking in our own rooms wigthin a studio apartment was a rare joy - as was the strong WiFi signal as we took the chance to update iPods (I think I have heard all my songs at least 5 times by now) and call loved ones.

For the second day in a row as we went to chack out Dad had lost the key again! Asx the others boarded their steeds with engines running we frantically searched the apartment for our key. Dad had lost they key in the last town and had sworn black and blue that he had handed iot the the surly manager in the last town. After ten frantic minutes we found the key....to the last apartment in Dad's Jacket! Finally both keys were located and a rather sheepish Dad organinsed for the key from the night before to be mailed back (internal mail in Argentina - if mailed express - takes 15-18 days to arrive!).

Finally we set off on the bikes - into peak hour! Scary is an understatemengt - at one point we had three bikes abreast in a 2 lane road only to have 2 cars try and pass in the gap in between us! We were all pretty glad to get back on the highway.

The morning was a pleasant ride and finally it was starting to get warmer - we finally hit 20 degress for a short while.

Lunch was great as the group imbibed in more sandwiches and a potato salad made by the boys - I have never been so glad to get some veges in my system.

The afternoon was the best ride of the whole trip! Amazing - over a mountain pass, down through forrest and past a beautiful lake! For the riders out there this was a 120km patch of the best motorbike riding roads ever created! 120km sweepers and perfect road conditions. This one ride alone made the trip worthwhile - when we got there we all wanted to turn around and do it all over again!

Finally we arrived in the town of Bariloche. This town was founded by Swiss, German and French immigrants and is a famous tourist destination that boasts the best Chocolate in the world - the ladies on the trip were excited!

We stayed on the outskirt of town on the lake in custom designed wood cabins (again we got to spread out) that were the best accomodation thus far on the trip! Truely beautiful and a place I would love to visit again.

After arriving and the usual unpacking process Dad and I took a ride to get some supplies - Beer and Bacon! The cabins had a kitchen andx we promised ourselves Bacon for breakfast! So exciting! :)

As we left the cabins to the local Supermercado (our Spanish is getting progressively less impressive with every passing day) we had to dodge obstacles for the second time today - this time the local dogs who love to say Hi in their own special way - by running directly at the bikes and trying to trip you up.

The Supermercado was brilliant as we topped up on all supplies - yes we found and trying to trip you up! We found bacon - should we get the 500gram pack or the 1kg pack - tough decision - we got three large packs - One each! :)

When we got back the Cabin owners put on a traditional Argentinian Assado - BBQ. This was a real highlight as the BBQ was in their back yard with great company, their whole famiuly including dogs, more meat than you could ever consume and beautiful surrounds. The best BBQ of the trip (there have been a few!) and a home cooked meal. The funny moment of the night was when gthe Blood sausage was served - we all lost our nerve and declined - the toughest dodge of the day!

As we head off to bed we are all excited about the day off to explore Bariliche tomorrow!

Day 15 - Casino Royale....Kind of.

The ride today started with eight motorcycles blasting through town as fast as is humanly possible to avoid being another drive by victim in the derilict town of Perito Moreno. It was a long days riding today, 580kms, the longest of the trip. Stunned that i survived the gravel portion of the trip, we wound on the throttle averaging a cool 130km/h before stopping at a quiet out of the way ranch for lunch. Half an hour passed before we began to wonder of our ill fated troopy support vehicle. Where could it be? Had its alternator finally given up the game and succumed to the harsh climate of Patagonia? An hour later and one very relieved German guide waved the vehicle into its parking slot. Gathering around to hear the obviously perplexing tale of a breakdown and bushman like skills fixing it in the dessert, we were supprised to see confused faces.

"What?" they said.

"What took you so long then!"

"Nothing, we had the foot to the floor and against the wind all we could manage is sixty."

Taking a calculator out of my bag and chalking up sums on the blackboard, i came to the conclussion they were indeed correct, and in fact not stopping to smuggle cocaine accross the border as was my original suspicion. It seems that not only motorcyclists have a tough time dealing with the plaguing winds of this place...

Having gone through my playlist of megans songs (thanks hun) twice, and confused motorists beeping as they saw me standing up with one hand massaging my destroyed bottom, i was about ready to see the looming signs of esque crossing the horrizons. Driving through town, David beeped and waved like a madman pointing to a huge sign which read "Casino". All nodding in agreement after our thouroughly enjoyable millionaires spree at the tables a few nights ago we were all keen for a beer to say the least. I would like to say driving through town was uneventful and safe, but alas it was not. It was very eventful and hidiously dangerous, dodging motorists comming from different directions and making three lanes out of two. Roundabouts were tackled by locals with as much care for right of way as hitler had for poland. Arriving at the hotel with the heartrate of a chipmunk on speed, we dismounted and entered our comparitively flash place to our previous towns prison cell.

Being given an odd brief by our guide 'Leo' about the hotel, we figured that A - the previous tour group were pissheads and B - we were not alloud to bring outside beer in the hotel then run around in the nude. So being the good temporary argentinian citizens we were, we ordered a round of beers from the hotel bar to be told they had not expected such a 'rush' and we had drunk them out of beer after eight beers. Again the preperation of this race of people is astounding, and again im left wondering why they are not in controll of half the worlds free population.

Skipping off to dinner earlier than usual, we came to a cute little restauraunt set in the center of the bustling metropolis. Straight into the menu in search of beef and beer (customary argentinian diet of champions) we laughed our asses off. Of four pages, there was one quarter dedicated to food, and the rest to drinks. They had every rendition of every cocktail, and the english descriptions too! Beach on sex comes to mind. Going for the standard, by which as you all by now know is half a cow and an intravenous drip of hidiously cheap beer, we decided with much conversing that we should explore what this town has to offer and show off our mad gambling skills at the casino.

Inside, we discovered that this casino was outfitted as extravagantly as any other aussie built one. Yet only seemed to opperate as one on the weekends, instead choosing to utilise their space and serve drinks from a bar that was nestled away in a corner. Figuring the only thing on offer was the argentine pokies, i decided to try my luck. Now i have played my fair share of pokies before, but never have i won a feature and been charged more money in the process. Dumbfounded we ordered a round of scotches and, true to tradition they gave us a glass of scotch (yes a full glass) and a can of coke. It seems that here, your the bartender and the responsible service of alcahol concept has been clearly lost. Fun times.

Day 14 - The Town That God Forgot!

As we awoke in pitch black in our bedroom at the Ranch we all heard a sound that resembled a boatful of cats being strangled - was our crazy Argentinian Butcher from the night before practicing his dark arts? No - that was just the wind - gusts over 120Km per hour promising to rip the building from its foundations. Great - over 400km today with more than half on gravel and a crosswind that could blow over the Empire State Building! Oh well at least it was not raining....

After our usual Argentinian Breakfast delights we headed off on the bikes into more deep gravel - at times it felt like the Argentinian Rugby team was crash tackling the bike from the tire tracks into deep gravel and stones - hard work!

After 50K we hit Bitumen which made must of us pull over and thank God for our survival. Over 250Km of highway and crosswinds - at times our bikes we at more than 30 degrees leaned over just to keep going straight.

Finally after a fuel stop and a lunch (see above) we hit the mountain ranges - awesome - no wind. This was the best gravel roads we had seen in days - it was truely beautiful and great riding.

We arrived in Perito Moreno - our town for the night exhausted after over 11 hours on the bike - only to be met with the Town that God Forgot. This town had an air of depression that was palpable! It was like 8 Mile after contracting terminal cancer. Most of the buildings we deserted, the shopfronts had stones and bullet marks through them and the only people we saw were driving around in cars that looked like they were about to fall apart.

At least we were staying in the "best hotel in town" - wow! This place felt like a prison with three of us crammed into a room the size of a small cupboard. The town was so bad that the window of our room had been boarded up with shutters. We were later to find out this was to stop rocks being thrown through our windows by bored local kids!

To avoid the oncoming depression we set out to find WiFi to contact home. After being told by the surly hotel manager that all WiFi was down in the town due to wind we set off down the main street to find what was the only pub in town - and they had WiFi! To get the password we ordered drinks - I manned up and took on a Quilmes and Jeff and Dad decided on the safe option - a wine! Bad mistake! The lady at the bar had brewed her own and tasted like off apple juice with gasoline added! I had a good laugh as Quilmes was for once the better option.

After a hour to download 6 emails we gave up and headed back to the hotel for dinner. This was the highlight of the day - Chicken and Chips! Awesome and a good break from Red Meat.

As we settled down in the prison cell for the night we drifted off to sleep with the sounds of the local lads doing laps of the Town that God forgot!

Day 13 - In the lair of an argentinian serial killer

Leaving our shanty of a gypsy town we were again glad to be back on the road again. In the days leading up to this days riding we were indulged with camp fire horror storries of the next days ride. Previous groups had spent twelve hours for just 120km's riding, falling off too many times to count and trashing a few bikes in the muddy track. But there was hope on the horrizon, two days sunshine would relieve us of this nightmare. So on the last night before going to bed we each performed our own version of the anti-rain dance.

Lucky for us we pleased the suspicious sun gods and were met with another days sun. But just for shits and giggles, the sun gods decided to wreck our pleasent moods with a visit to his asthmatic neighbour the god of wind. Bugger. 100km/h winds punched us in the face as we shot down the highways at what we thought were rediculous speeds, but in reality was just 80km/h. Having finally changed my playlist to a more uplifting tune, i couldnt help but whistle through my doubts as i thought of the approaching gravel. Again deep in day dream i shot through a beautiful left hand turn, wondering why everyone was on another road to my right. 1......2......3....ambulance coming at me head on......4.....ohhhhhhhhh. Wrong side of the road. And now i was going down a one way strip whilst group memebers were wildly waving their arms in bewilderment. Having pulled over, i decided my first practice on this dangerous condition of mud and gravel would be crossing the nature strip to the right side of the road. I was an expert by the end of the three meter crossing and kept whistling, knowing in my heart that the scary three meter nature strip was surely the worst off road i would see on this trip...

Sheepishly pulling over in a servo in the middle of nowhere, i was met with giggles and over emphasised wipes of the foreheads. Now, when i say the middle of nowhere, i mean this. It was the only service station within 500kms. Meaning that if you were driving your average gas guzling four wheel drive, you would end up 100km's short of this and having to eat each other for supper. Filled up we hit the gravel, for the next 150km's.

With the words of my off road teacher ringing through my head, "just let the bike move under you" i decided to cross from one wheel track on the road, over the billion loose pebbles in the middle to the other wheel track to show off my mad off roading skills. Mistake number 1. If you are ever in this situation, i sugest you roll over and die or pull over and play a game of chess. The bike moved around so much underneath me, i felt i had been lubed up with ky jelly and chucked into an oversize jumping castle. Now they say a shot of adrenaline is addictive, but whoever wants to feel like their testicles are tickling their adams apple ever again should be culled from the gene pool for this "thrillseeking" tendancy. At the end of this challenging piece of gravel, our guide pulls over to tell us that this is the best he has ever seen it and its not even challenging for an epileptic grandma in her supercharged wheelchair. He drove off before i was able to crash tackle him to the ground and beat him with his own arms.

Finally arriving at the ranch we had booked for the night, i had to individually pry my fingers off the handlebars which were now locked in my kung-fu grip of fear. Casually checking my cell for reception, i shunned myself as it would be like neil armstrong getting out on the moon and looking for a McDonalds. A cow casualy walked by me, not even stopping as it lay a track of manure at my feet. Awesome. But in reality this place really was strikingly beautiful, wild horses grazing and pink flamingo's (proof that god regularly does acid) lazing by the open stretches of wetlands.

Our lovely ranch owner, the genuine czech / argentinian imigrant, welcomed us in and settled us into our rooms for the night. Casually strolling around before dinner, which was to be an argentinian barbeque, i walked into the kitchen where i was met with "ajkfklfasljfhlajf" or something or other. Seen in the bottom photo, he resembled a deranged versian of a spannish pornstar gone wrong. His hair was wild and his moustache full, teath missing in an interesting pattern of 1,2,1,2. The place smelt of smokey death, as most argentinian kitchens do. Grinning through his collander like smile, and sharpening his rediculously large knife in front of me he said "kjasfjlasflhfa jashlhsaf jashlashflafs", which obviously meant "Im going to kill you in your sleep". Mumbling a quick collection of gobblygook spannish words to please my new serial killer friend i was gone within a heartbeat.

We only saw our friend later on at dinner, as he sat quietly in the corner smiling at us as we ate. Seeking to avoid the scary gaze of slicy dicy, and also the disapproving stares of the ranch owner and his wife (i chased their sheep around the paddock like a prisoner seeing light for the first time in twenty five years), we sampled their exotic selection of terrible beer (Quilmes, or quilmes) and fine wine. Night over we retreated to our rooms where i jokingly told david that the water he was drinking gallons of was going to give him food poisoning, drifting easilly off to sleep to the rumble of the wind nearly tipping the house over and the disconcerting grumble of davids stomache...

PHOTO ALBUM Upload - We have Internet!!

Finally we have internet that isnt a homing pigeon with a navigation problem. So we have compiled a few other photos (from numerous peoples request) from the trip you havent had a chance to see yet, enjoy!!!