Bike trip day 9: Poor planning and rough roads

---

Hola,
So today was not our best day. We started out the morning today still not totally sure where we were going. We both knew the smarter plan would be to head back to buenos aires, and then start heading west and into bolivia. Well neither of us was willing to give up on the bike just yet, and i think thats why we both were hesitant on making a desicion. I know i wanted to go to mendoza, which would mean spending another 10 days on the bike. Well this morning unfortunetly our choice was made for us. We had to see what dates we would be able to switch our plane tickets too, becasue our current return date would barely let us get back to lima. Well Richard helped out, and made the calls for me, And when i read the news it kinds sucked. The only dates available meant we had to head back to BA and get moving to be able to see and do all the stuff we planned. This is where proper planning would have really helped us out. We waited until the last minute to try and change the flight, and of course we were not able to get what we wanted. So no one to blame but ourselves. I suppose when you travel for 7 days, making plans for each day, where to be, what to do, where to eat can be accomplished. BUt planning 75 days, well thats all but impossible. But i still think we made a mistake by waiting soo long,, but ohh well, on we go.
So with the bum news this AM, we re-looked at the map and decided to put in a big day today so we would have a nice short day on our last one driving into Buenos Aires. We also found another short cut to avoid some bigger cities. All was well until we turned off on our shortcut. This road, while paved, was not what i call a suitable road to ride a mushy suspension motorcycle thats is carrying to much weight to begin with. HOLY potholes !! These things would swallow a car if you werent careful. Even trying to be careful we bottomed out the big dog quite a few times anyway. It was awful, like riding in a mine field. I slowed down some, but decided if i had to go 25mph the whole way, i would just assume turn back and get back on the main highway. C did not share my opinion but sicne i was driving i win...haha. So we stayed around 50mph or so. C does not have a good view of the road back there, so was not always ready when we would pound into another hole. She got roughed up pretty good back there, i also was bounced around , but i was at least able to brace for the impacts. Well all but one anyway, i was avoiding one crater, and all of a sudden there was a hole in the road, and i slammed into it pretty hard, luckily because of my speed i think we got lucky, instead of the front tire crashing into the hole, and then slamming into the steep rock on the other side, i think we actually jumped a bit, and the front tire cased the other side of the hole so the front suspension was able to absorb a big part of the impact. Anyway we stopped, checked things out, and all was well. Well except C, she was not happy or amused! BUt i tried to tell her , how i was right and how going faster was smarter, but that argument didnt go over to well. So after about 3 hours on that road, we finally got back on a real road, and by 5pm we made it to our destination. Guadeleguay. We rode about 525km this day, and with the news that the bike trip was over to start the day, and then that road, we both felt pretty worn out. Tomorrow we have about 250km to BA, and then its all about selling the bike, and getting out of BA and off to Salta, argentina. The scenery today was not bad, it did get very iowa like, lots of cows, farms, etc.. but still interetsing to admire. The bike handled it all great, no new problems thati know of.

---