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.