Advertisement
Published: March 20th 2009
Edit Blog Post
hola,
for those of you who are spanish impaired , well you'll have to wait till later in the entry to find out what that means, haha. So we are officially cruising the open rode on my motorcycle. Our plan was to get an early start Thursday, but it didn't happen exactly that way. We finally arrived at the bike shop around 11am. After an hour or so of waiting, chatting, and waiting some more we finally had the bike outside and loaded up. We were lucky to be able to leave most of our stuff including our packs with C´s friend who lives in BA. So we tried to only bring minimal clothes since we had a lack of storage space on the bike. We decided to go north to the iguazu falls instead of mendoza because we figured the falls were a higher priority and we did not want to miss them. The falls are all the way on the brazil, paraguay,Argentina border. This is a little longer ride than mendoza, 1400 km, not sure how many miles that is, maybe 900 ish? So we headed out of BA sweating bullets in our coats in the 90 degree
heat. Surprisingly driving there is not that bad, it looks like the most horrific, congested madness yo have ever seen, but some how it all works. So we made our way out of the city, actually finding our exits, paying our tolls all like we were pros. So a little about this bike. After about an hour or so, going 60-70mph we figured a few things out. HOLY Sh$% its uncomfortable!! Wow does it vibrate.. oofa. The seat room leaves a whole lot to be desired, and it feels like a wooden bench, wheres the padding? haha. So i have to say to that kid who rode this bad boy all the way from colorado, cheers to you, there's no way i could do it on this thing. C is having a tuff time also, our butts just are aching , vibrating, always uncomfortable. We have decided 2 hours between rest-stops is the most we can go, otherwise it becomes real bad. So all that being said, its still frickin awesome!! It seems surreal to me, im actually in south america, argentina, riding a motorcycle. unreal!! SO back to our first day. We were doing ok, made a stop, got
some gas, all was well. So about 2.5hours into our ride, and with the late start we decided to stop at the next town to sleep. Well traffic stopped, and was backed up, trucks lined up for a mile or so. So we stop, everyone is out of there trucks,cars, etc.. We try to ask whats happening, and do not quite understand the dealio. Something about the president, and the land, and people, and the main thing is NO pass ! No one knows how long for. So back to the bike to hang out, and holy crap, i have a flat tire! Tengo un pinchazo....the rear tire is flat. now what??? So some truckers gather around, all talking, one says to pull bike near his truck and he has air. We fill it up, waiting to see the nail or something, and it turns out to be the valve, its broke, pico rota. ughhh. Now we be fooked. So they fill it up and tell us before it goes flat to just ride to the front of the line, and maybe the police will let us go through. So off we go, make it to the front, tire already
flat, stop and ask military dude whats up. Well now we see more clearly, theres no presidential parade or caravan coming through, its a protest , the argentinians have blocked the road in protest to their president. And its not the police that wont let us pass, its the people that are not letting people pass. They have a tractor and trailer blocking the road. So we park the bike and wait. We are only like 5 km from our destination, where they have places to fix the tire and places to sleep. Well we learned real quick while riding this bike, locals love coming up to us and talking. Where are you from, how far did you ride, where are you going,, etc... They love how the bike looks like a big hunk of junk, yet its from amercia, and made it here. We decided with our lack of spanish if locals asked where we from, etc, we would just say yes, from united states, we rode it all the way, cause trying to explain we bought it in BA and will ride it a short time is very difficult. And another perk we learned is once they find
out we rode all the way from the usa, everyone wants to help us !! Its like your a little celebrity. So back to the protest, we are still waiting, 2 hours or so now, in the 90 degree sun, people coming and talking to us, and so on. Well one of the protesters came over to talk, ask the same questions, but when he saw the flat he went over to this barn near by and found out they can help us. so we pushed the bike across the field to this barn, and these guys put a washer under the valve and tightened the valve a bunch so the air only leaked very slowly. And then they said now go go go,, huh? We said no pass, but he said, yes, follow me. So we followed him into the crowd, and apparently with his permission the crowd let us through, and off we went !! yeehaw. Ohh and while waiting there there were newspaper reporters taking pics, and of course they took some of us and the bike, so im sure we made the local newspapers,"stupid tourists stuck in local protest" haha. Also the tv station was there
and we saw them filming us as we pushed the bike to the barn,, ohh the fun. So we made it to gualeguaychu 10 mins later, found a hole in the wall, literally, place that fixes tires. Well the rear tire has to come off, so that's what they do, then have to break the tire down, and there's a tube, and the valve broke off the tube. Well now we need a tube, so one of the guys tells me lets go. So we jump into his monster milk delivery truck , well milk, and maybe gasoline on his off days, who knows what he delivers. Off we go to 3 different places in town, finally we find a tube. Back to he hole in the wall, bada big, bada boom, all back together, and we are on the road. It cost a whole $5.50 u.s. for that work to be done. so we go into town, well if you call it a town, find a hotel, and ahhhh finally get to sleep. Day one is over. we made it a whole 230km the first day, got caught in a riot, made the newspaper, and tv news, got to
ride in a delivery truck with some guy, and we are still alive. phheeew.
I have to say in one day on the bike i feel like we were more immersed in the culture, and the amount of interacting with the local people was more than 7 weeks backpacking. I used all 35 words i learned in my spanish class, twice! haha. But really, having to communicate, versus wanting to makes a big difference. I was surprised how much i have caught on, and C is also doing super well with it. So we still have 1150km to go, i guess my 2 day schedule to get there is out the window !!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0501s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb