Yellow pages, anoraks, a dog in a beret and who wants to go to uruguay anyway?

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Hmmm so i was in ecuador last blog - that was a long time ago!! We're now in buenos aires and its so cold i am typing this in gloves, 3 pairs of socks and a scarf! It is freezing!!! for once a return to england will actaully be warmer!
Anyway so we made it out of ecuador with amazingly no problems and hit the coast of peru for some final sunshine (and Aaron to remind himself he can't surf!). I was rejoicing we were in the country of old stuff and yes dad we did do the cultural thing of going to look at some old rocks and stones in the ground! However we are probably the only tourists in south america who were 40km from Machu pichu and rode straight past it!
anyway we made it down the coast, stopped into Huarez and the codillera blanca to look at some stunning mountains and then headed staight to lima. 10 years ago i remember Lima as a city with an orange sky, full of pollution but today it is lovely. We had put aside a few days for bike maintainence here but a few turned into almost a week. There are surprisingly not many motorbike shops and in a city of about 12 000 000 they are not easy to find - cue us cruising the crazy streets of lima with me and the yellow pages on the back attempting to read the maps! 5 days later bike hopefully fixed we set off to nazca and those famous lines.
Now i thought i was pretty good with small planes but the nazca pilots are something else! i spent the whole 30 minute flight hanging onto anything i could find that seemed remotely stable! The lines were very impressive but it was 2 slightly pale and wobbly travellers that got on daisy later in the day and headed to cuzco!
Cuzco was nice but touristy and we generally just got drunk, before seeing some more old stuff and heading back to bolivia!La Paz required further motorbike mechanics (suspension having only made it to just outside cuzco) and more alcohol!Armed with some 1980s retro anoraks we found in a german army shop in la paz (interesting as all the clothes are for 6'5 germans in boliva who buys this stuff?) we set off across the alta plato for argentina!
Interesting fact about Boliva and peru - all the dogs wear clothes! yep i have no idea why but there is nothing stranger than seeing a pack of dogs all cruising around on their own in various outfits! The other day i saw one wearing a denium jacket and thought that was weird, however i think this was beaten by a dog in potosi that seems to own a range of different coloured matching coat and berets! Every day was a different colour!
Rejoicing in the fact we were back in the land of good wine and food we headed straight for Salta and of course celebrated with more wine, gin and tequila!! Sadly this led to Aaron collapsing in bed and me obviously convinced i was fluent in spanish, spending 3 hours chatting to the hostel secruity man (poor man!) before the room stopped spinning enough for me to go to bed!). it was 6 hours after this delightful state that found us quickly running out of time attempting to drive 1500km in 2 days to iguazu falls! We weren't in a pretty way by the time we finally made it!
Iguazu was cool as was paraguay that we illegally popped to (Aaron needed a visa) for a few hours to do some motorcycle part shopping (ooh it was exciting!). So that was all countries in south america visited except uruguay and that was only 1200km away! We set off! Sadly the weather had other ideas and caught in the middle pf a tropical storm we didn't get too far! We didn't get too far either at the uruguay border either!! 1 country away from completing our aim and we failed at the last hurdle!!! To be fair both me and aaron got into Uruguay but because of some not so nice men at the border Daisy did not! So Uruguay will never be seen and is not on my most favourite of countries list!But we have made it to Buenos Aires!!
Geeky facts for you:
- This now means we have completely circumnavigated south america and completed the full figure of 8.
-We have visited every country i south america - does uruguay count? i think the crossed out stamp in my passport does!
- We have driven 43, 500 km!!! (It is 40, 076km round the world at the ecuator!!!)
- Daisy has broken suspension again!! (but this time we just keep riding!)

So it is only santiago de chile and a further 1200km to ride in minus temperature (yippee!) before daisy gets a rest! we have one week to get there and sell her before our flight to some sunshine (hopefully!). Sadly the border between argentina and chile was shut because of thick snow earlier - still not sure if its open so keep your fingers crossed and i will hopefully let you all know how it goes from santiago!

till then - does anyone want to buy a motorbike????

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