Travel Blog Posts
April 8th 2011
When I left Soledad the weather was nice. It didn’t last long, though. About 1,5 hrs. Into my trip it started raining again. At least I got to test my rain suit. I am very happy with it! I stopped at Santa Maria to get some fuel. It was just like being in Mexico! I think I saw only 2 or 3 Americans and the rest were all Mexicans. I knew there were lots of Mexicans in California, but never imagined that in some towns were full of them. On my way to Las Vegas, I hit snow twice: when I crossed the Diablo Range and then when I crossed the Sierra Nevada. The temperatures went down to 3C but I didn’t have any problems since I was fully geared up. I went pass the Edwards ... read more
April 7th 2011
Surprisingly, today it didn’t rain at all. I was cold and windy, though, but at least not wet. After the winds I experienced in Patagonia, no wind can bother me. The roads south of Fort Bragg were very nice and twisty, so I had a good time riding. I have been always amazed of how some parts of California look exactly the same as Chile. It must be the similar climate and geography. I got to San Francisco around noon and I decided to go and take some pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge. Then I went to BMW to buy a decent rainsuit. I bought last season’s rainsuit that was on sale. I paid for it less than for any regular one. It is amazing how much cheaper things are in the US and the ... read more
April 6th 2011
Today it rained almost the entire day, but I came across everything from hail to fog. The rain only stopped when I crossed the Oregon-California border. Temperatures managed to go up to 11C, but most of the day they hovered around 4C. Traffic was bad at times, especially around the cities. The best part of today was when I left highway 101 and I took highway 1 to go to Fort Bragg. The road was absolutely incredible! Full of tight turns, hairpins, going up and down hills in a Red Wood forest... and there was no traffic! Sadly, I was wet, half frozen and tired so I couldn’t push has hard as I would have wanted to. Apparently, the weather is not going to improve very much tomorrow. I am not looking forward to riding in ... read more
April 5th 2011
Well, another adventure trip has started...this one begun when my motorcycle arrived back from Chile. It took it 2,5 months long to get back! I went and picked it up at the container facility, and as soon as I got home, I started taking it apart. It was in dire need of a tune up. I worked taking my bike apart mainly in the evenings after work, and during the weekend I put it back together. I decided to go to the Grand Canyon. The idea is to go along the coast all the way down to south of San Francisco, then cross California to Las Vegas. After Las Vegas I plan to head to the Grand Canyon passing through the Hoover dam. After the Grand Canyon I am going to go to the painted desert, ... read more
December 27th 2010
I stayed at my parents place for a couple of days before going to Santiago. We went to Santiago to spend Christmas there. After Christmas I started working on trying to send my motorcycle back to Canada. I managed to get it re-crated and taken to San Antonio, to be put in a container. To say that all the paper work to get the bike shipped back to Canada was difficult is a complete understatement! I had to go twice to San Antonio in order to complete all the paperwork! If it wasn’t for my friend Pablo Letelier, who lent me his car, I would have spent a week dealing with all the bureaucrats. I had to San Antonio the very same day I had to catch my plane to go back to Canada. Thank goodness ... read more
December 17th 2010
The next morning I had to cover the last 500km of my trip, to finish it where I started it (my parents’ house). I left Valdivia early in the morning, not before removing a huge nail stuck to my rear tire. Again, I didn’t stop at all on my way to Chillan. I arrived around lunch time, which surprised my parents that were expecting me to arrive in the evening. My mom didn't even recongnize me when I arrived! According to her, I look different in my motorcycle outfit. I didn’t know how to feel when I finish my roundtrip through South America: I didn’t if to feel happy for finishing in one piece such a long trip, or to feel sad because the trip was over and I had to go back to Canada. Instead, ... read more
December 14th 2010
The next day I continued north, this time on the Carretera Austral. This road was built by the army in the 80’s to have a way of accessing the southern part of Chile by land. Therefore, the road was essentially a very rough path through the forest, not really designed for civilian vehicles. I didn’t know what to expect. The Carretera Austral has a reputation of having very beautiful scenery, but horrible road conditions. I thought to myself: “it can’t be worse than Bolivia!”. And luckily it wasn’t. They have done lots of work on the road to upgrade it and they are even planning in paving it. There wasn’t much traffic on the road and the scenery along the road it very, very beautiful. In the evening I arrived to Chaiten. Chaiten has been abandoned ... read more
From Puerto Natales to Coyhaique
Published: January 23rd 2011South America » Chile » Magallanes » Puerto Natales
December 11th 2010
After Punta Arenas my next goal was going to Puerto Natales (roughly 250km north of Pta. Arenas) and then to the Torres del Paine park and the Cueva del Milodon. Puerto Natales is another small town with nothing much going for it other than being very close to the Torres del Paine. The road to the park is only partly paved, but most of it is gravel (in very good condition). The Torres del Paine are incredible! I was lucky enough that the clouds mostly cleared up in the afternoon and I could see them. After seeing so much flat ground for so long, it makes these mountains look even more majestic! I stayed in the park for most of the day and in the late afternoon I went back to Puerto Natales. Before reaching Puerto ... read more
Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego
Published: January 23rd 2011South America » Argentina » Tierra del Fuego
December 4th 2010
The day I left Buenos Aires, it took me about 4hrs to get out of the city. That day there was a politician campaigning for the presidency and he decided to block some streets. It was almost dark by the time I left Buenos Aires, so I decided to stop 150km south of the city and sleep on the side of the road. The next I continued what was going to be the dullest part of my trip. I still had to ride 3200km to reach Ushuaia. As I kept riding south, the trees and farms started fading away and everything turned into flat land with grass (pampa), straight roads and lots of wind. On the way to Ushuaia, I decided to go to the Valdez Peninsula to do some whale watching. The roads were very ... read more
November 29th 2010
The day I arrived to Buenos Aires, I went to bed early because I was very tired. The next day I went and explored the city. It is a great city, but it lives out of its past glory. Nevertheless, it has been the city I have liked the most in my trip. What a great place! While walking throughout the city and on my to the government palace, I saw a Suzuki VStrom motorcycle fully loaded parked on the street. Obviously, this was another adventure rider. The bike was sitting there with all the gear on, but the rider was nowhere to be seen. I waited there for a while and surely enough, the rider showed up. He was a Scotish guy (his name was Chris) who rode from Alaska to Ushuaia with a friend, ... read more
Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.003s; cc: 20; qc: 82; dbt: 0.0578s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.8mb
