Strange spending so much time so high, altitudinaly that is, when the highest real estate in Oz, Mt. Kosiusko, is only 2,200 metres or so (I think) and here in San Pedro de Atacama it’s already 2,440 and everywhere else around here is higher. Breathing is always a little laboured but with a mouthful of coca it gets easier! Did a few look-arounds of San Pedro, they really draw a long bow with some of the “famous” features, crikey, but the general scenery is soo fantastic that you can overlook the overblown toury spots general shortcomings. Valley of the Dead, Dry [View Full Entry]

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Susques is about 3,200 metres above sea level and I was waking in the night and having to take a few deep breaths to stay alive….but in the morning we were going even higher….this pass is about 4,300 or so…pretty thin air up there…and they say there’s some snow about as well. Hey, lets go! Another mouthful of coca, it does seem to help! And I didn’t inhale! I stop a few times along the 130 kms to the frontera to just watch the ever closer snow capped mountains, this is very barren terrain, the odd animal, what were guanacos, then [View Full Entry]

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Morning time, off to Salta…a 4-way group this time altho’ Raf annd I move further ahead as we go…..day starts with 100 kms of ripio, then nice asphalto and all of it in deserted roads, fantastic scenery, mountain range to the left like scrunched up old carpet, slabs of bare rock in parts, green fuzz over the rest, clouds hanging around the peaks, off to the right, bare rock in spectacular reds and browns, cactus plants and scrubby thorn bushes, pretty inhospitable but beautiful. Every few kms a washout, as we would say back home, sometimes concreted slipway but others just [View Full Entry]

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Once more off into the great unknown…north Argentina and the crossing on freshly graded ripio, the worst sort, but speccy views. ….and another couple of terminally challenged bicyclists making their way to nowhere…..but they waved. It is soo like parts of northern and central Oz, red hills, gravely soil, scrubby brush and beautiful gums, the view this morning of the range out west of Villa Union, framed by a couple of big gums, could have been a piece of Uluru or somewhere in the Macdonnel Ranges! The road from Cordoba to Villa Union was an uninspiring 500 plus kms wi [View Full Entry]

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Suddenly, around the next corner, the clouds just rolled into the side of the mountain and engulfed me. Visibility was down to about 15 inches and the condensation on the visor halved that. Fortunately I couldn’t see the precipitous fall to the valley below, the gaps in the safety barriers, the rows of little crosses dedicated to the ones they found, the oil/rubber slicks glistening on the wet asphalt, the loose gravel on the corners, the cops, the trip wires, the hit men, the imagination going wild… The road up had been sweet, cool curves and mega views back down to [View Full Entry]

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So, where were we? Really rugged rock faces here as the valley gets narrower and the road climbs higher, tortuous, angry old mountains, great cracks and crevices, agonised twists in the layers of colours, yellows, browns, reds even green, and a quick sighting of Mount Aconagua, nearly 7,000 metres!!, snow capped, proudly standing out as the highest peak outside the Himalyas (across the border I meet a couple of German guys who are going to climb it) then into some serious going up bits, one section has 27 hairpin switchbacks in an almost vertical rise, mind boggling dimensions to the scene, [View Full Entry]

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I was surprised how quickly we were out of the mountains and onto the agricultural plains of rural Chile. Just regular, ordinary farmland with some rolling hills, and huge plantations of pines and eucalypts again. Once more the smell of eucalyptus in the air...aarrgghhh always gets me! Some of the locals are a bit sceptical when I tell them all eucalypts come from Oz.....well, that’s what I was told! I’ve seen a couple of massive treatment plants, don’t know if I just don’t get out enough to see them at home, but these facilities are monstrous. The central construc [View Full Entry]

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I could just about crack it for a few bars of “The Happy Wanderer” Is it just the lack of oxygen? I don’t think so, there must be something more….but everyone is so cheerful! Along the road the road workers grin and wave, a gaucho herding some horses along the river bank waves his hat, I almost expect him to pull out a colt 45 and fire a few shots into the air, backpackers waiting patiently by the road wave and smile, call out greetings, cyclists nod or wave, depending if they’re on the ascent or descent, at every stop along [View Full Entry]

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Another perfect day!….Bariloche breakfast and then off under another Simpson’s sky, little fluffy clouds on azure background...sweet!....snowcaps on ragged mountains all around, perfecto asphalto, nice curvery, off towards San Martin de los Andes. Winding thru’ the mountains, in fact fanging thru’ the mountains, getting some of the dust off the bike…. close-up, wildflowers, behind, pine trees up as far as they can go, then rock and more rock right up to the snowline and the sky. Then the road plunges down, sweeping along another huge, dark greeny blue lake, t [View Full Entry]

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After the last thrilling visit to the barber I know you’ve been hanging out waiting for my locks to lengthen anew….today was the day. I nearly didn’t make it as I had a small session in the wonderfully decrepit bar of the museum hotel. I’m writing from the bar this evening, the music is astonishing, some v cool jazz from I don’t know where, but the lighting is extremely low and moody. Several antique chandeliers have small coloured globes, the antique cash register has a little strip light, just enough to see your money. Mostly its dark! Late in the night, [View Full Entry]

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