Hard day in paradise!

Day 26 (220 km)

     After a good breakfast, we left 8 am to go back to Argentina.  We already heard about the road quality, what was a disaster for motorcycles. They were in the process of asphalting the “Carretera Austral" and preparing the road with a thick layer of gravel and by doing so you could not go faster as 20 km and we had 70 km to go before making a right turn towards Argentina to a border place called “Futaleufu” on the Chilean side. This road was not much better and I think I had an hundred close calls of wiping out, but was lucky.

     After seen some more spectacular scenery, we reached the border around 2 pm, did our paperwork fast and soon we were on our way to Esquel about 60 km away and of course on Ripio again.

      Esquel is a very small town and a gateway to some national parks and decided to stay nights, do laundry and rest.

La Junta in Chile

Day 25 (269 km)

   Left late, because we had to fix our bikes, Scotty his odometer and I had to do my chain and exhaust. Once on the road north on the Carretera Austral, we hit some nice ripio and maybe I start getting good in this, because I had no problem going 80 km + and never thought one moment I was going to wipe out.

    The scenery around is magnificent and every corner had something new and more spectacular as before, It started to drizzle a little bit, but not enough to get is wet and so far we actually never had rain yet!

     Getting closer to La Junta we went through a forest with very narrow roads and steep climbs and Scotty made a nice video, which I will try to upload in the next few days.

    Had a very late lunch , by just going to a small supermarket where we bought bread, pate and cheese, sat outside in the plaza to eat it and went for the last hour to make it to La Junta, Filled up the bikes with gas, looked for a pension and found one. They made dinner for us and this pension was full of road workers, because they start to pave the Carretera Austral now and this makes it even harder now for motorcycles to stay upright. We are already warned that tomorrow the first 70 km will be a disaster for us with all the construction going on and earthmovers will have the whole road dug up with thick gravel and lot of sand and this is what motorcycles do not like!

Carretera Austral, going north!

Day 24 (280 km)

    Left early to see if we can make it to Coihaique, 280 km away, what was the only small city in this part of the world, There is only one road and is called the Carretera Austral, so we never could get lost and this ripio road brought us again through snow capped mountains and this time through some big forests as well.

    Stopped for lunch 4 hours later in Cerro Castillo, a small village called after the enormously mountain, right in front of their door and were somehow lucky the last 100 km to Coihaique was paved, but very windy.

   I think the moto's getting banged up by this ripio a lot and noticed my exhaust by the cylinder is leaking and hopefully tomorrow it is just a matter of tightening up bolts. Scotty dropped the bike in almost standstill position today and the moto got a few more souvenirs. The gravel in this steep curve was to much for the bike and it's heavy luggage and  Scotty could not keep the bike up anymore.  After a while the moto started again and entered our destination for today and ended up in a very decent Hostel and could park our bikes in a covered garage, so I can work on it tomorrow!

Chile again!

Day 23 (204 km)

   Perito Moreno, we left for the border town of Los Antiguos, we had to do some small repairs on both bikes. Scotty had to do some welding on his stand what collapsed from all the weight he is carrying and I had to do an oil change and look into the chain again.

   An hour later, we reached the town and found out there was no gas and I was empty and was guaranteed I could gas in Chile for double the price. We found in a taller a welder and 2 hour later all was fixrd again and had a midday lunch.

   The border we reached @ 1 pm and told us it will be open again at 3 pm. The aduane guy looked a long time at our paperwork and asked me finally what is the nationality of the bike, because on all the papers it said nowhere Honduras.  I told him let me see the revision and I will show him and after studying the paper, I had to agree with him and told him that everything is possible in Honduras and he had to laugh. It was the first time for him that the title of the bike did not mention the country who issued it and I had to agree with him.

    Soon after that we reached the border town "Chile Chico" about 5 km away and filled up with expensive gas for about $ 7.00 a gallon and then finally we were on our way @ 4pm on ripio along side the lake to do about 120 km what took us more as 3 hours through the most beautiful road, I ever drove through.

   We ended up in a small village "Puerto Jaidal" and stayed in a private house, that rented rooms out, they cooked for us and even went to the local grocery store to get a few liters of beer.

    Tomorrow 8 km a nd the we will be on the most beautiful road in the world, the "Carretera Austral"

Cuevo Los Manos in the desert.

Day 22 (385 km)

   Had to fix the bike this morning! One of the problems was my chain again had too much play again and tightened it up a little bit more and wonder how long it will take more, to change the sprockets and put a new chain on.

    Secondly, both my head lights are not working anymore and found a blown fuse and the new fuse blew as well, so that fixed that problem! Could not find the short, so no more lights for me.

    So left around nine and 4 hours later reached Bajo Caracoles and this serrlement had maybe 10 houses and a gas station and we had some home cooked food there and continued to Cuevo de los Manos, what had an UNESCO heritage status, for exceptional historic paintings in a cave and being in a nice setting.

   The canyon was stunning, as well the 43 km side road and ending up in a canyon, the tour was so so and the 9000 old paintings from  thousands of hand imprints, I did not really see the historic value of it and to me it was just kinder garden material.

       Almost 6 pm, we left the sight to get to the border with Chile, Los Antigos and Chile Chico, but at 8 pm, we had enough of it and stayed in the only place in between "Perito Moreno"

Continuing Route 40 North

Day 21 (365 km)

   Left El Calafata early to make a jump on Route 40 and the scenery is incredible and decided to make a little side trip to the petrified forest on the south shore of Lake Viedma. To make the story short, we never found it, but the area was mind blowing and of course no tourists or traffic in sight to ask directions.

    After this, we went to Tres Lagos, a place in the middle of nowhere, but we had lunch and there was a gas station. At the gas station pulled up a group of French riders on nine Kawasaki Klr's and we could not believe our eyes, The group leader told us that further north on Route 40 it was almost impossible to pass, due to heavy rain fall in the last few days everything turned into clay!

and that we should make a detour to Gobernador Gregores, by going east first 143 km on ripio and then north 116 km to catch up with Route 40.

  

   So around 8 pm, we reached Gregory, tired, cold and happy, thay we made it before dark and filled up with gas, took the first hotel, we saw, took a well deserved bath and had dinner and beer!

Glaciar National Park "Perito Moreno"

Day 20 (153 km)

    Today an easy day and just visiting the park where the Perito Moreno Glacier is situated and is almost the only one in the world not retrieving yet and is considered the eight world wonder. After a very scenic ride of 80 km into the park which also borders Chile, but no road goes into there! So it is a dead end, but worth the extra kilometers.

    The park itself was nice put together and after strolling there for 2 to 3 hours, we had lunch and return back to the hotel and prepared for the next day trip further north.

Finally the famous route 40 in Argentina

   Day 19 (278 km) 

     Left Natales for the Argentinian border going north towards NP Torres deL Paine about 65 km away on a beautiful new paved road. The park is the main attraction in the area and considered the eighth wonder of the world and is a mekka for hikers in the high Andes! We decided not to go and entered Argentina instead on a desolated dirt road by a border post called “Cerro Castilla” and 15 minutes later, we were 2 stamps in our passport richer again. The weather was very nice today with lots of sun, dry and warm walking and cool on the moto and not too much breeze.

    To get to Route 40, we had to do another 10 km on ripio and then the (in)famous Route 4o ( more as 5000 km long from the Bolivian border to Cabo Virginas , just south of Rio Gallegos on the Atlantic ocean) showed up and went north on a brand new paved road towards Calafata 200 km away. About halfway, we had another 60 km ripio and on the junction was a very lonely gas station

 and around 4  pm we entered Calafata, a very touristic small town and this place was the base for all the Glaciar parks 80 km more to the west and the most well-known was called “Perito Moreno” we are going there tomorrow! Calafata was also situated on the south shore of one of the famous lakes Argentina has, “Lago Argentino”

     Found a motel like hotel with a nice courtyard and were able to park the bikes in front of the room and decided to stay 2 nights. Walked the busy mean street later that evening and this village was full of tourists and this was still considered low season!

Flat tire syndrome in Punta Arenas!

Day 18 ( 293 km)

    Had to get up around 4:30 in the morning and it was all ready daylight to catch the ferry from Porvenir to Punta Arenas and precisely 6 am, we reached the dock, which was about 5 km away from the overpriced hotel. Went inside to pay for the 2 bikes $ 21.00 each and the riders are free!

     Putting the bikes on the boat, Scotty noticed, I had a flat rear tire and I was almost sure there was a conspiracy against me if it comes to flat tires. There is no where in this world, I can get more as 10 flat tires since the bike left Honduras and Scotty had never had a flat tire yet. Start to think what happened this time, because I just put a brand new tire on the bike in Ushuaia 500 km ago and drove the last 150 km on ripio and nothing happened! Anyway they secured the bikes on the ferry with straps and we went upstairs to get some coffee. Met a Dutch couple with a jeep and asked them to help me on the other side after we leave the ferry with my bike, using their cigarette socket in their car to use our 12 volt pump. Had a nice conversation with them and they had almost similar plans as we did to get to the north of Argentina and Chile, so probably will bump again 
into them!

     During the 2 hour trip, I was hoping that the flat was caused by a nail or so instead of guessing again why I have these problems and was the happiest man in the world, when I found a very small broke off nail in the tire and this time finally I new the reason and was relieved. As well the flat happened on a convenient spot, right by the ferry, instead of in the middle of nowhere, so after all I was "lucky"

     Changed the inner tube quick in Punta Arenas and took off in drizzling weather for Puerto Natales about 250 km north. 

     The nice paved road had almost no traffic and nowhere to stop from not getting wet, but on the end it wasn't too bad and it start to clear up just before Puerto Natales, which is surrounded by snow capped mountains and on first site entering the small town, they were depending completely on tourists and had tens of Hostels in town  and found one quick in the centre and a lot of tourist were walking the streets and there were plenty of restaurants, one next to the other.