31-Jan-2010 11345 Miles

Puerto Montt. The roads have been easy since we got out of the desert in Northern Chile. It is easy in these conditions to let the terrain remind you of other places. Between Valparaiso and Santiago it felt like the a summer ride between Salt Lake City and Evanston, Wyoming. For parts of the ride today I could have imagined myself on a bike in the heavily wooded hills of Northern Georgia, at least until you catch a glimpse of a smoking volcano. Yep, Not in Georgia, Dorothy.

Sometimes, as you are riding along, you just suddenly notice that things have changed. Even though it has happened over a few hours or even days. I think that happens when the roads are good and easy and changes are gradual. It is easy to get hypnotized by the road when it is really good. And really good, as in pretty strait and smooth, is a new experience for us. For example, as we got closer to the sea at Puerto Montt the sky and clouds suddenly got my attention. Just a strange looking sky. I also realized today that the sun is tracking to the north of our position. It had appeared to be directly overhead for so long and I didn't really notice the change until today. But today it is clearly behind us as we head south.

That first pic is our first stop after about 10 minutes this morning. Nick is digging out the cold weather gear. 54 Degrees this morning and it only warmed up to about 68. What?!? No sympathy from Utah?!? What's up with that. Doesn't Nick's bike look good all cleaned up? I was beginning to think it was an old worn out piece of crap. Amazing what a little soap will do.

30-Jan-2010 11135 Miles

Temuco, Chile. We have had a wonderful last couple of days. We rode from Casablanca into Santiago and managed to find our way around to the Los Condes area. There is so much motorcycle support there I think you could find about anything for whatever bike you had. We found a BMW dealer who called a tire dealer and we got Nick's front tire replaced. Santiago was really nice. Very civilized compared to any other large city we have been to in Latin America. As much as I would like to believe I could adapt to anywhere, I must admit that it was comforting to be in a very clean, organized place after all the chaos we have seen in the cities.

After we got the tire replaced, we headed south again for Curico. There is an American living there that Nick met in Washington. We met Donn and his lovely Chilean wife Polita the next morning for coffee. We ended up spending the day and evening with them and some of their friends, Valentina and Raul. We also met Polita's sister and her husband. Very nice people and we had a great time.

Then today, I did my radio show thing and guess what. We changed the oil and washed the bikes. They haven't looked that clean for 3 countries and its good to be clean on the inside also.

We have been a bit retrospective the last day or so. Trying to remember all the events of this journey. Nick asked about Lucky Charlie. I'm sure the lousy traitor is still partying in up in Mexico somewhere. Oh well, he's missed a hell of a journey. So many things seem so long ago because so much has happened. I am really glad of this blog. I have not gone back and re-read any of it, but I am sure I will appreciate that I have done this when I do.

The end of the journey is in site. It is getting colder again. We are at about the same south lattitude as Price is North. Now it will be as if we are heading for northern Alaska. So many names have been said about this place, Ushaia, South till there is no more South, End of the world, beginning of the world, but the name I like most is one we heard from our new friends last night. El Mundo Final. It feels like a powerful and fitting phrase for that goal of this journey. I will use that from here on out.

Looking forward we are trying to plan(I know, strange for us) a route to the south. There are some options, but my thinking when these choices come up is always affected by a Robert Frost poem.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

...Robert Frost

27-Jan-2010 10627 Miles

Casablanca, Chile. We rode mostly down the coast today and made it into Valparaiso. I was looking forward to that city as it is very historical, pirates, etc. But once we got there the appeal wasn't there so we carried on. We are in Casablanca now, within easy reach of Santiago in the morning. There, we should be able to get a front tire for Nick's bike and be on our way south again.

Nick knows someone who lives in Curico south of Santiago. We are planning on spending a few days there. The break will be nice. We have been running hard, but it has been great. We have watched the scenary change so drastically. From the very wet high mountains in Peru, Bolivia and Eastern Chile to the Atacama Desert(which for 600 miles we did not see a live plant except in the cities) and now to a more temperate zone with conifers and deciduous trees.

I just checked and I guess we are firmly, officially in the southern termperate zone(but so was the Atacama Desert) by being south of the Tropic of Capricorn.

Once we get very far south of Santiago, I think we will be seriously out in the weeds again. It gets to be pretty far from town to town. I am excited to see this wild place and I have no idea what it will hold for us. I don't even know what it's supposed to look like and I don't want to find out by surfing the web. We will just experience it and see what there is to see.

26-Jan-2010 10315 Miles

Coquimbo, Peru. We have made lots of miles the last few days. We are just enjoying watching the scenary roll by in Chile. We have had some interesting things happen over the last couple of days.

I am kinda wondering if we look like a couple of little lost children sometimes, because someone seems to find us at the times we could use some help and gives us the solution. Yesterday was such a day. Nick's tires are in bad shape. We thought we could make it to Santiago where we managed to locate some tires for his bike. But when his rear tire started to come apart it was failing quickly. Big changes by the mile, not by the day anymore, and we had 1000 miles of desert to get to Santiago. Well this guy, Antonio, stops and looks at Nick's rear tire as we are getting a coke after fueling up. He says he has a solution, so we follow him to his shop, where he has half a dozen, slightly used tires for Nick's bike. Amazing. As we are taking the wheel off we notice that his brakes are gone. Now these are the brake pads we just replaced in Bogata, no bueno. 4000 miles and they are shot, tearing up the disc, not good. We have no parts. In my world that would mean waiting for parts, but in Antonio's world, not so. He is going to heat up and remove pads from some other brakes, grind them to match the plates from Nick's brakes and bond them to those steel plates. 6 hours later and we are on the road again. We had ridden about 100 miles before we met up with Antonio. It was late, about 6:30 and we both felt like riding so we just rode and rode through the Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth, till about midnight. We ended up putting 400 miles on that day and ended up in Chanaral. As we rolled into town my bike logged 10,000 miles on this journey.

Then today, we met a guy and his girlfriend from Santiago. He started making phone calls for us and located a front tire for us there, so now all we have to do is go get it.

Like I said, I think we must look like a couple of lost little children sometimes. These people seem to find us when we need them. I can't say enough about the friendliness of the people here in Chile. Everywhere we go the people are so nice.

And I guess we got out of Peru just in time. Deanna emailed me a line like that and I didn't know what she was talking about until I checked the news. Wow, I guess we did. All those places covered with water and mud looked very familiar.

24-Jan-2010 9639 Miles

Tocopilla, Peru. I loved Arica. Cool little coastal town in Northern Chile. Very nice. I think I said it last time but Nick and I are both feeling better. Must've been the cumulative effect of illness and altitude. It is nice to get warmed up and thawed out. We did not get out of Arica until about 1pm, but we rode until dark to end up here in Tocopilla.

What a ride. Such different country. So dry, so much desert so close to the sea. It is quite beautiful in a very uninhabitable way. We rode out of Arica and went a little bit inland. I don't know whether to call these things Sand Dunes or Sand Mountains but they rise about 3000 feet so you be the judge. We went up and down these things for a couple hundred miles before coming to the sea again at Iquique. And what a view that was, wow. No pics of that, sorry, the road was too wild and nowhere to stop without getting run over.

This is the first time that gas has been an issue for us and we are really gonna have to be careful. It was about 200 miles between gas stations today. That is only do-able on Nick's bike if we go slow. There have been gas stations everywhere up until now. We may have to tanker gas in my bike and find a way to syphon mine to put in his to make some of these distances. It is going to get challenging.

The first pic is of a nice Argentine family that we met. Father, mother and their 2 boys have been riding around South America together. Very cool. The pic of my bike dash shows the mileage. That is exactly double what it was when I left Price, Utah. The most amazing part of that to me is that I had that many miles on it before I left, just from May to November. Damn things gonna be old before I get back. And no, Newby, I'm not gonna give it to you. The last 150 miles were along the coast, very beautiful. I was wondering about it after seeing Peru, but it is way nice. I think I could sail the West Coast of South America.

It feels so good to be warmed up and dried out. The temp is in the upper 70's to low 80's. Pretty tough to take.

23-Jan-2010 9658 Miles

Arica, Chile. Well, we got further than I thought today. We made it to the coast again. We are both feeling better as we got lower. The first 200 miles were in 40 degree temps and driving rain. Our first views of Chile were spectacular. Even as the terrain turned to desert as we headed for the coast it was still spectacular.

It feels great to be in Chile. Chile was a goal country for me and this feels like a major milestone. Arica is a coastal city just a few miles south of the Peruvian boarder. The Chilean coast already seems so much nicer, cleaner, and prettier than the Peruvian Coast. I am really happy to be here.

We are at 18 degrees south and headed for 55. Chile is about 2700 miles long(thanks Deanna baby for that bit of trivia), so this will be quite a run. At this point it feels like we actually might make it. I always thought we would but there were some days I had my doubts. But now it seems like the tip of South American is in reach.

22-Jan-2010

LaPaz, Bolivia. Pretty much an uneventful day. Like there is such a thing on this kind of adventure. The pics are somewhat limited because the weather was bad most of the way. We have been riding in a lot of rain and cold. Yesterday, Nick almost hit a woman who jumped out in the road behind a van and today I almost hit a cop that did about the same thing. I'm sure I would have lost that argument. But all is well.

The border crossing into Bolivia was strange and it took about 3 hours but we made it and went into LaPaz. Nick and I both are not doing well in these big cities and are ready to leave about the time we get there. LaPaz was beautiful as we were riding into it from above. Just a huge sprawl across a large valley between many, many high peaks. Not so pretty once you are in it.

The best story of the trip we got today. It's the best story because, number 1, it just is, and number 2, because it didn't happen to us. At the Bolivian border we met this Colombian couple who were riding 2-up on a Suzuki 600. I was doing my customs paperwork with the wife and she started telling me this story. It needs a little background though.

When Nick and I first got to Cusco we were trying to figure out the best way to see Machu Picchu. We were talking to a restaurant owner and he thought we should ride the bikes up to Santa Theresa and walk in to MP from there. About a 2KM, mostly vertical trail. This appealed to me because it was different from the normal tourist thing. But, thankfully, he went a step further and called some people to check on road conditions. The answer was terrible because of so much rain and we decided to take the easy way and do the train/bus thing. It was really nice and relaxing by the way.

OK, back to the Colombian couple. They decided to do it the way we chickened out of. When they were almost there, they went through a wash that was deeper and stronger then they thought. It washed them and the bike and gear into the river. Did you see the pics of these rivers? The wife managed to stay close to the bike and shore and was able to get out. The husband got washed into the river and managed to get hold of a boulder and hang on. I can't think of a worse case here. Imagine being in Helmet, gloves, boots, and full riding gear, hanging onto a boulder in a river that you couldn't swim out of if you were naked. Some people and rope were nearby and they were able to get to him with someone on the end of a rope. He really thought he was gonna die. But they got him out. Got a tractor and rope and 10 people or so and managed to get the bike out and onto a truck. 3 days in Cusco to dry out the bike and calm the nerves and they were on their way again. I'm damned impressed with both of them. A lot of people would have said, "screw this, we're going home", after a deal like that. I hope I don't get to find out what my answer would be.

The pics are mostly around Lake Titicaca with the last 2 being in LaPaz. The lake pic with the mountains in the background are from the Bolivian side looking across the lake to the Cordillera Blanca.

We make an executive decision tonight. It is clear that we are both having some symptoms of altitude sickness. It is affecting Nick worse, probably cause he has had a cold to go along with it. But tonight I am just fatigued and feeling like hell. It is time to go down. We are going to get up early and get to the Chilean border. We will still be high but it will put us within easy reach of the coast tomorrow. I hate to bail out of Bolivia this quickly but if we don't get healthy the rest of the trip is in jeopardy. When we started this I wondered what kind if condition I would return in. I knew that it would be hard at times, and as beautiful as this part of Peru and Bolivia have been, it has been tough on us. We have spent a great deal of time cold, wet and hungry. The accommodations available have not always helped the situation either. Cold showers, hard beds, etc. I'm not whining, buy the way, just stating the facts for this decision.

This part of Peru has been a big part of the "one thing" that I talked about in the beginning. Chile is coming.

21-Jan-2010

Puno, Peru. We left Cusco this morning. It was a little overcast, but nice. It seems like we can't leave anywhere without going up. This was a gradual climb out of Cusco but we are following a river upstream so we know were going up. Pretty soon it's cold, the bike is telling me that we are over 14,000 feet and its raining. I really don't mind. I do mind if its raining when we leave in the morning. Having to get up and gear up to go play in the rain, cold and mud is harder than getting up to a nice day and then having to deal with some rain later. It really rained and hailed some and rained some more. We were up over 15,000 feet when we decided we weren't coming down for a while and decided to put the heated gear on. Good decision. My new thermostat program works, just plug and unplug, but for quite a while the temp was in the low 40's so no need to unplug. The terrain widened and straightened over time today until we reached the shores of Lake Titicaca at Puno. Very cool.

I decided that all the pics I take are of the good stuff. When the weather gets bad the camera stays in the waterproof pocket. Guess I should make a point of getting it out for the bad stuff. Something else is weird here. I left Utah for the winter with the intention of being where it is really warm for a long time and what do we do, chase high elevation bike rides(15,000 feet plus), look for glaciers, look for 22,000 feet peaks, and lakes and rivers that consist of glacial ice melt. I'm near the equator riding through 40 degree temps. Something's really wrong with that. It may only get worse for a while. One of the passes I want to go though is over 17,000 feet, and so far, these passes are not just a go over the top and then down again. We may be there a while, or we may be down and back again several times.

I seem to have been on the wrong side of the law today. The local police didn't take to kindly to my climbing on top of the Incan gate we came across. No sense of humor. And later, we got stopped by the highway police, they seem to think we should have this piece of paper that we don't have. This is about the 4th time we have been checked for this since we have been in Peru. Today they started talking about a fine or something, which is their way of trying to extort money. I just told them we had all the paperwork we needed to get through their country and waited. I won, they let us go.

The pics. The Incan gate was cool. The rock work is amazing and this was border station for the Incan empire over half a century ago. A little boy and his family gathering crops while we put on our rain gear. The train tracks. I decided that these tracks were used by Butch Cassidy and Sundance when they were on their way to Bolivia. They loaded up their horses to give 'em a break and kicked back in the comfort car. We're on our way to Bolivia to look for the bastards that killed 'em. We stopped and got a cup of coffee and these boys were hamming it up. The shore of Lake Titicaca.

20-Jan-2010

Yes, you guessed it. It was another "WOW" day today. Machu Picchu deserves all the hype it gets. Pure magic. The site. The architecture. Just amazing. We took the day off from riding the bikes and took a train from Cuzco to MP. Then rode on a bus from the train to MP. Now, I've had some people think we are brave or crazy or a little of both to do the things we have done on motorcycles. But let me tell you, getting on a bus to go up the side of a cliff outranks what we have done on motorcycles. Thats just scary, your hoping the drivers health card is up to date as well as the mechanics. And hopefully neither of their wives pissed them off this morning. But all went well.

The history is also amazing but I will not try to render my version of what I heard and understand about Machu Picchu. If you want to know, google it. I'm not going to try to describe anymore either. Just enjoy the pics.

About the ankle. My nurse said I should try to stay off of it. Sorry Shirley, some things are worth a little pain.