OK here it is...The aim of our adventure is to travel across Australia and around South America (then maybe back around Oz) for 6 to 8 months (or maybe 11) on two motorcycles. The plan is to jump on our two KLR650's here in Perth and head east over the hills. We will aim to reach Sydney within a couple of weeks before embarking for Santiago, Chile by plane. Once in South America, we will circumnavigate the lower half of the continent over the course of the months soaking in the as much of the cultures, sights, sounds and architecture that is on offer. We will travel in a anti-clockwise direction starting and finishing from Santiago....we will keep you all posted on the craziness, well most of it anyway!

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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Paso Del Jama into Argentina and back to Santiago...

Time was running out to get to Santiago in time for the flight so we pushed on to cross in to Argentina so we could get back on Ruta 40 and head through the wine regions. We left from San Pedro de Atacama early in the morning an embarked on what would be one of the hardest days of riding we have had on the whole trip. Passing over Paso De Jama which sits at about 5400m above sea level we experienced freezing cold, drove through falling snow, had 100km/hr winds and sand storms. Once through all this though, on the other side in Argentina, the weather was warmer and sunnier and we had a great time travelling through the small towns.


Some highlights from Salta to Santiago include...
the many tasty steaks in Argentina, the road up to Catchi and then down to Cafayate, great Malbec and Temprenillo wines of the region, meeting another KLR650 rider on Ruta 40, Puente del Inca and the ride over Paso del Liberator into Chile, the relativly hassle free freighting of the motorbike back to Australia, getting a set of Metzeler tyres for about 200 ozzie bucks in Santiago, drinking lots of Kunstmann beer...the best in South America and getting spoilt by family freinds in Vitacura.












So after 30,500 kilometers over here its hasta luego to South America for now and looking forward to more adventures to continue back in Oz...

The Road from Cusco to San Pedro de Atacama...

The Peruvians love striking and protesting so when we heard that there was a two day road strike we didn’t think too much of it when we decided to leave Cusco on the second day of the strike. So we set of with Trisha and Cholly towards Nasca hoping to make it pretty close to the 600kms. However to do a short 80kms of road took us all day as there was massive disruptions on the roads with trees, rocks, burning tyres and human blockades. We struggled throughout the day having to go off roads and on farming tracks, lift the bikes over the obstacles, create bridges and talk our way through at times mobs of people. The four of us where exhausted when we came across a very angry mob as it was getting late. The group of men had machetes, sticks and rocks and stood in front of our bikes demanding money which we happily gave to them to let us by, and whats 2 bucks to get through... Surprisingly this was the only angry group of people we met all day with most of the locals happily helping us or giving us directions. But once we got safely through this drama the rest of the way to Nasca was relatively uneventful… thankfully! but very beautiful with views of kilometer high sand dunes ect...






The Nasca lines are parallel and geometric figures as well as designs such as dogs and birds cut into the desert thought to be started around 900-200BC. These lines are a pretty amazing site and are best seen from the air so we took a light airplane trip over them. Despite feeling pretty green with the pilots flying technique it was a great and mind boggling trip as the lines we so accurate and it was amazing that they didn’t have a Dampi level… or perhaps they did.


After Nasca it was time to split up with Trisha and Cholly as they headed north to Lima to fly back to Europe and we started our south bound journey towards Santiago. The ride south was amazing with sand dunes and the driest desert we had ever seen. Not a thing survives except in the occasional valley where a small supply of water exists and people had set up olive trees and fruit trees somehow. The first stop was Arequipa, and with a new crack appearing on the rear rim of the motorbike we had to spend a very relaxing 3 days waiting to get it welded yet again. Once this was repaired we headed into Chile spending a night in Arica and then onto San Pedro de Atacama. We visited Valle del Luna but the weather we had there was incredible with + 80km/hr winds and sand storms making it very tricky on the bike. We were literally blown away by the landscape of the area and it can really seem at times like you could be on another planet.







Lake Titikaka to Machu Picchu...

Leaving La Paz we headed for Lake Titikaka which sits between Bolivia and Peru. We spent the a couple of nights at Copacabana and caught a boat over to Isla del Sol with Simon and a lovely Oz/New Zealand couple, Trisha and Cholly touring on their very impressive BMW GS1200A. The full day hike we did from the north of the island to the south was absolutely stunning with amazing views over the lake. From here we headed to Puno for a night and saw the floating islands which are home to a number of people. Now days the people tend to use the islands as floating souvenir shops to supplement their traditional way of living but it was still enjoyable to be out on the lake.






We set of with Trisha and Cholly to Cusco early the next day and thoroughly enjoyed the scenic ride despite a few rocks getting pegged at us by local kids, the ride went by without a hitch. Cusco is truly beautiful city in the old center but like most of the towns we have been to, the outskirts leave a lot to be desired but once in the middle the good Ol’ Spanish had done a great job with the architecture. Throughout the center you find yourself surrounded with Inca walls, with ruins on just about every local street. Although pretty touristy and relatively expensive is a still a great town to spend a couple of days. Also in Cusco is Norton Rats tavern, a must go to place for motorbike travelers with a massive visitors book filled with stories of adventures. Most of the people we had met on bikes along the way had their mark somewhere on the pages of this famous book! Jeff the owner was more than happy to pass on lots of info and advice as well as entertain us with stories of his travels over the years. With great burgers and good beers, we spent a lot of time here with Trisha and Cholly.


From Cusco we headed to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, which includes beautiful scenery and Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Pisac and countless others. We spent the day rinding through the valley and ended up in Ollantaytambo for the night where we organized a train ticket to the final town of Aguas Callientes before Machu Piccu. With a 5am start the next day we went with every man and their dog to Macchu Picchu. Although crowed, expensive and very touristy you cannot get over the beauty and setting of the ruins as well as the amazing amount of work that would have gone into the buildings.