Buenos Aires to Montevideo...

Leaving BA marked the start of Livi´s time on the back of Dave´s bike which was fantastic. We were all super stoked to have her join us for this leg of the trip, especially Dave. It was so good that Liv could be apart of the Los Colective team for awhile!

In many ways Uruguay is not unlike Australia, with the big blue open skies and undulating farm land. We crossed into Urugauy from Argentina at a town called Paysandu. In the day past we had tried to cross futher south at Fray Bentos, but where turned around due to a long running dispute between the towns on either side of the border. This didn´t bother us too much as we found a great little campsite on a river bank just out side of the Argentine town Gualeguaychu. A riverside beach offered some relief from the 39 degree day.

Leaving Paysandu we took off south down Ruta 3 bound for the Atlantic coast. A night spent camping along Rio Negro broke the trip up and after pushing through 400km the next day we reached Punta del Este. Punta del Este is known to many as being the ´Monaco´of South America, and our thoughts didn´t disagree. The eastern edge of the beach was riddled with luxury yatch´s and lush apartments. Everything was a little out of our budget, but we were keen to a day off riding and to relax at the beach. The day spent at the beach was fantastic, and offer a chance to catch some colour before hitting up the brazilian coast.

Punta del Este although great, was a bit over run for our liking, so we took off east to Punta del Diablo for a taste of the ´unspoiled´Uruguaian coast. We weren´t disapointed. Punta del Diablo is a small fishing town with a hippy feel and a timeless charm. Here we took shelter in one of the many beach houses that are avalible for rent. We all agreed that is has a feel similar to Rotto, back home, with the sandy roads and ramshackled accommodation. Truely a great place to spend a few days before heading back to Montevideo to see Liv off at the airport.

B.A. final days...

An eventful few days... visit to colourful La Boca and the antique/bohemian markets of San Telmo where we enjoyed some tango in the streets and a good cheap Italian food.

We also managed to see all of the trucks, cars, and bikes of the Dakar Rally which kicked off from BA on the 3rd of Jan. The exhibition put on in town during the days leading up to the race gave us a great opptortunity to get up close to the crazyness that comes with such a race. Some day....maybe we´ll be lining our bikes up! ha....

Delays with the Brazilian visas meant that we had to stay an extra day, as well as this Matteo managed to get his camera stolen at gunpoint in Palermo...he was taking some nightshots of buildings at about 1am on his own so not so surprising. The budding young ganster grabbed the tripod with camera attached with one hand while pointing the gun at his head with the other. Matteo then chased him briefly until the fella turned and shouted something in spanish...most probably along the lines of "What the hell are you doing gringo...i have a F**king gun!" so Matteo stopped and went home feeling a tad stupid and and sad after loosing some good shots.

The last night was back at Tango Backpackers in good company and eating lots of Choripan (chorizo sausage in a bun with lots of joy salsas), some last minute shopping on El Salvador for the girls and filing police reports.

All in all BA was tuns of fun and i think all of us will be going back one day...next stop Uruguay and hopefully some beautiful beaches.

Mar del Plata to Buenos Aires...

Mar del Plata, a true beachside city, was a great place to spend a few days before heading up to Buenos Aires. The many beaches that ran up this strip of atlantic coast, where lined with tall apartment buildings and packed with people throughout the day. We stayed at small hotel in the city center, which meant that we could easily walk to the beach and the surounding shopping areas. We were all now starting to get a taste of the beach life in South America and now can`t wait until we hit up the other coastal hot spots in Uruguay and Brazil!

After spending the few days in Mar de Plata we had to take off to get upto Buenos Aires to meet Dave`s family who where arriving on the 22nd Dec. We rolled into Buenos Aires after riding 400km in the pouring rain. Yes the ride up from Mar de Plata was far less than ideal...wet, cold and oh yeah wet! On the brightside of things we where now in the one of the worlds most exciting cities. I think we were all ready for a bit of inner city hustle and bustle and of course some decent nights out on the town. Although would have to seriously get into the Argentinian siesta lifestyle to ensure that we could kick through until the early mornings!

The first night in BA was spent at the Tango Hostel. The hostel was in Parlemo which was great as this is the area in which we would have the house with Dave`s family for the next few weeks. Kobi, one of Kate`s good friend from back in Perth has been living and working here in BA for the past 3 months, so it has been great meeting up with her and getting some much needed advice on the spots to be in BA.

Shop, Eat, Drink...Shop, Eat, Drink! Palermo is the place to stay in BA, great resturants, fantastic shopping & nice houses. The house that Dave´s parents orgainsed was fantastic, a three storey town house with a big back yard and comfy beds. A great break from camping.
Kate needed a tight leash to curb her spending on clothes - unfortunately for her there was no extra room on the bike.

The food in BA was great too, and we managed to sample a number of different parillas (grill houses). Cabana Las Lilas had to top the list, perhaps it was the fact that the resturant breed their own cattle just for you dinner plate...seriously good meat! La Cabrea was another great feed. We had some great nights out with Kate´s friend from back home, Kobi and her room mate Tiffany.

Christmas and New Years Eve were great times spent at the house, with a huge spread of food and drink on offer on both occasions. Dave´s excellent choice in fireworks was a highlight as we saw in the new year joining in with all the locals as the sky errupted in colour!

Ushuaia to Bahia Blanca...

In a way we were happy to be leaving Ushuaia...I think the relentless wind and cold weather was starting to become somewhat of a nuisance and the prospect of getting to some warmer temperatures up the coast was high on everyone´s priorities.

After spending some time at Hostel Argentino in Rio Grande we took off north with the aim of reaching Buenos Aires within 8 days...this meant that we had to harden up our behinds and pump out some serious long days of riding. We split from two of the other bikes who had be riding with us over the past 2 weeks, Alex and Stuart, who were heading up on the west coast, but spent the next two days heading up Ruta 3 (major route up the east coast) with Helmut, Martin and Lauren before heading off further north on our own again. The time spent traveling with the other bikes has definately been one of the highlights on the trip so far...who knows purhaps we´ll meet some others as we continue up through Brazil, Boliva and Peru.

Estancia Paloma

The long days on the road tested both the riders and the bikes, but both seemed to handle the conditions quite well. New tires where fitted in Trelew, as well as a suspension lift for Matteo and Kate´s bike which was the first big purchase for the Kawa´s but I think everyone was happy with the effort the old Dunlops had put in! The shop that sorted us out for all this was a called Adventura Motos. We would all recommend swinging in here if you need any work done in this area, the crew was very helpful and the prices quite reasonable.

Adventura Motors crew

10mm shorter swingarm link...35mm extra clearance

Puerto Madryn and the near by Peninsula Valdes/ Puerto Piramides was a great resting spot for a couple of days before continuing north. Long hot days, beaches, and cold beers was bliss after coming from Tierra Del Fuego. A day spent riding around the Peninsula was definitely a highlight with large numbers of penguins, sea lions, elephant seals and fur seals around for viewing...we even caught a glimps of some passing orcas. In this area, they are known to beach themselves on shore to capture sea lions and elephant seals...unfortunately we weren´t so lucky to seen this.

Puerto Madryn

Puerto Piramides - Penninsula Valdez

Leaving Peninsula Valdes we put in a solid 720km days riding to reach Bahia Blanca, a town of 300.000 people. We pulled up in a small hotel here to rest for a few days and soak in some of the Argentine city lifestyle. From here the next stop is Mar del Plata, a popular sea side holiday spot for locals, before heading up to BA to meet up with Dave´s family for christmas.

Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire)

The ferry ride from across the Strait of Magellan took around 3 hours. The ship was old and packed with passangers, trucks, cars, cargo and of course the bike. The conditions didn´t end up being a bad as most had expected, which was a good out come as a couple off us were expecting to spend a decent amount of the trip hanging over the side rails. I think we all enjoyed having some time off the bikes and kicked our feet up and took in the great surroundings of the Magellan...unfortuately we didn´t catch a view of any whales.

The western side of this, the largest island off the extreme south of South America, belongs to Chile and the eastern side to Argentina. Here the Andes codillera runs from west to east, so that the north of the island is flat, covered with vast sheep farms, while the south has moutains, glaciars, lakes and forests. This distant island off the southern tip of South America seemed so far away at the start of our journey, to finally reach it provides a great sense of achivement.

Given the title of the land of fire, this area is everything but. We all agree that a more suited name would be the land of wind! Wind speeds here exceed 100km which provided us with a few days of interesting riding, with the bikes being pushed all over the road. Matteo and Kate even switched off their bike and stilled managed to move along at 30km/h with a strong tail wind.

Arriving at the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia was a true highlight, and was something everyone had been looking forward to. Ushuaia is postitioned on the northern shore of the Beagle Channel, which is named after the ship in which Darwin sailed here in 1852. The town itself is a little overpriced and the weather very unpredictable, with alot of rain...this wasn´t ideal for us as we had all decided to camp!...Anyway we are about to head north now which will see us hitting some less windy and much warmer areas...we can´t wait!

El Calafate to Torres Del Paine...

El Calafate was a great spot for us to rest up after a couple long days riding down Ruta 40 along the eastern edge of the Andes. We stayed at a campsite along the river Arroyo Calafate just on the way into town. The facilites here where great and gave us a chance to get a bit of washing done..which was much needed.

The main reason people travel to El Calafate is to visit the Glaciar Perito Moreno which is situated at the western end of Lago Argentina (80km from El Calafate). The Glaciar is one of the few glaciars in the world which is moving. It decends to the surface of the water over a 5km frontage and the height of about 60 meters. The vivid blue hues of the ice, with the roar as pieces break off and float away as icebergs from the snout are spectacular. This Stunning scene is a must see for anyone traveling in Argentina.

We left El Calafate en route to Torres del Paine in Chile. This route took us across a bleak area of Patagonian Steppe...an enjoyable ride none the less which was great to share with the other bikers we had meet in the days past. Axel, Stuart, Martin, Lauren, and Helmet became apart of Los Colectivos for this section of the trip which was fantastic. We had been looking forward to meeting up with other riders and it has been very interesting listening to everyones stories. We had agreed to head south down to Ushuaia together before heading our separate ways.

Parque Nacional Torres del Paine was one of the destinations we had most been looking forward to, and our expectations where not let down. Blessed with beautiful weather and decent campgrounds we where set for a couple of spectacular days in the world renowned park. Nothing really prepares you for the stunning sites on offer. The glaciar-topped granite massif Macizo Paine, from which rise the vertical pink granite Torres (towers) del Paine was easily one of the best sites we had seen on our journey so far. A 20km trek into the centre of the park was really enjoyable. This was the first exercise we had done for a while...it was great to get off the bikes for a day and walk around for a change.

After three nights in the park we all took off south again for Puerto Natales. We spent one night here at a campground in the middle of the town. Puerto Natales is a decent little town, but it was only a stopover point for us to get some rest before heading down to Punta Arenas. We reach Punta Arenas late the following afternoon and managed to get a spot on the 5:00 ferry across to Tierra del Fuego!