Closing in on San Rafael!

Day 31 (522 km)

   

     Today, three of us took off for a trip through the desert on route 40 and as usual no other traffic and the day was soon 35 degree Celsius again and we were making good time. The Spanish guy "Vincente had to go about 250 km to meet some other friends from Buenos Aires and this old man was a pro on his Honda Tornaado 250cc and on ripio he went 80+ km, where I went only 30 km and struggling! So after a couple of hours on bad ripio for me we ended the last 2 hours in winds of 100 km+ and finally we reached his meeting point and had a good time together

   We continued another 200 km to San Rafael and reached there 7 pm, rode through main street and checked in the first hotel, we encountered. This small ciity was busy outdoors in the evenong and soon found a terrace to get some beer to get rid of the dust we caught the last few hours!

  

Route 40, moving north from the cold to the heat!

Day 30 (470 km)

   Today, we trying to jump on the map north as much as possible and left 8 am sharp the hostel after a good breakfast, we prepared ourselves. Soon we were the only traffic on this lonely paved highway and we cruised 100+ km p/h on an altitude between 750 and 1100 meters. Passes through an arid desert area with some nice mountains as backdrop and soon the ice capped mountains disappeared as well.

      It started cold this morning, around 4 degrees C, but soon we hit 30 degree Celsius and had to take layers of clothes off to keep up with the heat. There was not a cloud in the sky, but plenty of breeze again, so we had to concentrate not to be blown of the road.

   The first small town we came across was Zalapa, about 270 km away and filled up with gas. After that Scotty could not start his bike and after eventually taken off all his bags and by looking at the battery, we found the problem. Both terminals were broke off and after fixing this as good as we could, we got the bike started but realize, he had to buy a new one!

   The next town 200km away, we filled up with gas again and again the bike wouldn’t start, so it was time to look for a battery in this small town. We found a 14 amp one for $ 125.00 and Scotty had to buy it and wait at least 3 hours for the battery to be charged up slowly, so we called it the day.

    We found an hotel around the corner and were glad the room had A/C, you definitely needed that in this place called ”Chos Malal”.  We picked the battery up around 7 pm installed everything and went looking for some food and beer! To our surprise we came across Vicente for the third time, an old guy in his sixties, maybe seventies. First we saw him in Puerto Jaidal, Chile, then in Esquel,  Argentina and now here. He has a Honda Tornado 250 cc and all he rides is ripio off the beaten track

7 Lake road through the Andes

Day 29 (253 km)

  After breakfast, we made a loop in Bariloche through the ski area called Llao Llao and took a cable lift up to the top of one of these mountains and after the photo shoot took of for San Martin de los Andes, a small touristic town about 200 km north of Bariloche.

                                                           

  

       It is actually the road going there what is interested and is called the 7 lake road, which swings through the mountain valleys with on both sides blue crystal lakes and of course a small stretch of ripio in between.

    Got there after four and found a youth hostel, which we are using a lot now, because of there kitchen and storing food, the rooms are ok and usually have fast internet.

   Lately, we not covering a lot of distance, but if we want to get to Lima, we have to cover more kilometers and hopefully start doing that from tomorrow on. It is still at least 5500 to 6000 km and have to do this in 17 days!

San Carlos de Bariloche, the famous ski resort in South America

Day 27 & 28 (297 km)

   Saturday, day 27 was our rest day and that is all we did, besides checking over the bikes and finally I resolved my back fire problem for the last 2 years. All it was, was the metal ring gasket between the elbow of the exhaust and the cylinder. It was broken and missing a piece and that caused sucking air when I went to idle and the gas trapped in the elbow ignited! I put a lot of red gasket maker around it and next day when we left for the 300 km ride, I could not believe the difference and all went smooth, Had to fill up the tires at a gas station to get get from 18 to 29 psi in the rear tire and from 18 to 21 psi in the front, Still do not understand where that air went!


  Took route 40 again north and the road was all paved and hardly any traffic and the first little village was 120 km away and went again through beautiful landscape with the ice capped mountains on our left side and finally start climbing up to a 1000 meters and stayed most of the time around 600 meters to one thousand. Had some lunch on the road and around 2 pm reached a few lakes and closed in on Bariloche.

     Went a little bit out of town and found an hostel on the 
lake, called Alaska.

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.