Blogs from Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America - page 19

This will be the final blog post from my 2015 PanAmerican Highway riding adventure. Today Tuesday I am meeting with a shipping agent here in Buenos Aires to discuss timeline and logistics for shipping back the motorcycle to Seattle. Once all documents are in order, I will really be looking forward to taking a flight back to the US to meet my family and to return to work. However, as of today, I don’t know exactly when I will be able to fly out. I am kinda hopeful that I should be able to fly back to the US by the end of this week (fingers crossed). Before I end this journey and blog post, I want to take the opportunity and recognize all the people and organizations that have, implicitly and explicitly made this motorcycle ... read more

Distance driven today: 298 miles / 480 km Cumulative distance driven: 15,297 miles / 24,618 km Today’s trip: Bahia Blanca to Mar del Plata, Argentina It is funny how we take certain things for granted, and how a little bit of perspective can make us appreciate even the smallest of things. Today’s ride would normally have been deemed as being rather uneventful. However, in the light of yesterday’s rather miserable day consisting of constant rain, I can honestly say that I fully enjoyed riding for an entire day without a single drop of rain falling from the sky, no clouds in the sky, and with no fatal traffic accidents witnessed. On top of that, the temperature was much warmer today compared to yesterday when it was practically a degree or two above freezing. Today also marked ... read more

Distance driven: 40 miles / 65 km Cumulative distance driven: 14,621 miles / 23,531 km Complete motorcycle overhaul, including fixing the faulty clutch: yes Zoe’s last day on the PanAerican adventure: yes, she just took a flight to the US The goal of the first half of the day was to get the faulty clutch fixed. In addition, a larger service was due. I headed out early in the morning to get to the main authorized BMW dealership in Buenos Aires. From our hotel, close to the international Buenos Aires airport, it took over 2 hours in very dense traffic, to get to the dealership. Well there, the mechanics did a great job of prioritizing my bike, even though I just dropped in, without an appointment. Thanks guys at Trepad BMW Motorrad motors for dropping all ... read more

I really should probably list this as somewhere over Brazil or something, but we'll go with Buenos Aires for old times' sake. This was our last day in South America, which was sad. We woke up for a 7:00 breakfast before our bus came through at 8:00. A bit of time in the airport, and we caught our flight to Buenos Aires around 10:45. After landing in the city airport, we took a taxi to downtown to change money one last time for lunch and a cab to the international airport. Lunch was one last bout of empanadas at our favorite empanada place near the school. We hung out there for a while and met a Canadian dancer who speaks no Spanish and was very confused about pricing. To be fair, pricing is confusing here. Many ... read more

For our last day in Buenos Aires, we spent it...not in Buenos Aires. We went out to El Tigre, which is the town where the Paraná River meets the River Plate. The delta is impressive, with a bunch of inhabited islands and murky brown waters that are actually clean enough to swim in. The color comes from the silt carried downstream. The island inhabitants are mostly disconnected and lead a very different lifestyle. Most of their houses look like those "mini-houses" you see online, with only a room or two of space and just very efficient use of what they have. Trash boats come around every few days to pick up whatever they've created, and supermarket boats make regular trips. Medical boats with a physical therapist, a dentist, and a general practitioner also make rounds, and ... read more