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Published: January 20th 2008
Paperwork Complete
After many hours and rubber stamps my paperwork was ready and I was ready to rideDebbie may have done Dallas, But Rosco has done South America...
In January 2005, I shipped my brand spanking new BMW 1200 GS off to Chile on an ‘organized’ adventure through Chile, Argentina, Patagonia and down to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego.
I had also booked with the same organization to ride North up through Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and onto Machu Picchu in Peru, during April/May the same year.
After my Patagonia Adventure and on my return to New Zealand, mid February, I had left my motorcycle at the hotel, I slipped Sebastian (the bell boy) 20,000 pesos and told him there was more to come when I returned in March, as long as everything was as I had left it.
I had to fly home as our daughter was getting married in March (Adventure Ride Interuptus). Anyway it gave me time to catch up on all the farm chores that had got out of hand in January/Feb.
The wedding went off well, as they do, and I no sooner had to start packing and refocusing on my next stage of the adventure. When I arrived back in Chile I slipped Sebastian another 20,000 pesos as everything was as I had
left it 6 weeks ago.
For the first stage of my adventure in January, I was to group up with about 9 riders from the USA. The reason I joined up with group was that (a) I didn’t speak a word of Spanish, apart from “hasta la vista, baby” and this group had bilingual support and (b) I had no idea about the border crossing procedures, and they had a chase vehicle.
I had shipped my bike from NZ in November to be sure that it arrived in time, as it was, I arrived on the 10th of January and my bike arrived in the port of Valparaiso the day before, so by the next day, I was riding MY bike in Chile. Also I had factored in a week in case of shipping delays, so I was ready to ride, but I knew no one else here. I looked at my map and decided to go North, up the coast for a few days to get used to the Latin way of the roads.
Before I left NZ, my dear wife took me to the BNZ to explain how I get money out of the wall, well I
Tongoy
This photo was taken from my hotel room. caught onto that trick pretty well and managed to extract a $20.00 note on my first go. So off I go to South America with my new BNZ cash extraction card. After a few days I had run out of cash that I had exchanged at the airport, so was in dire need of an ATM. After locating a Banco de Chile with the visa plus display I put in my card and came to an abrupt holt as I was in utter confusion as suprise, surprise it was all in SPANISH !! after about my 3rd attempt I was sure the machine was going to eat my card. What to do, as I badly needed fuel, so I waited until I saw a mature couple and asked for their assistance. We discovered that the screen had slipped down and we couldn’t see the part that gave options for ‘Foreign Clients’, once that was established and then English became an option, I was away, and off to the ‘gasolina mass proxima’.
I discovered Tongoy, a small fishing village and stayed for three nights, using it as a base to explore the La Salena area. I meet a lot of interesting
Argentina - Chile Border Crossing
The road just continued on through the river local folk and an odd person that spoke a little English, mostly learned from the TV. As I was alone (solo), they tended to approach me, especially the men as they had never seen such a motorcycle (Moto). I e-mailed home to Raewyn and told her that I am well known over here, but by the name of Solo, not Rosco. It generally went like this, “You Solo ?”, I say, “se”, they say, extending their hand and shaking their heads, “Ah, Solo, Solo !!”.....as most of these folk don’t get the chance to travel far from home, along with my white beard, I was a bit of a novelty.
Arriving back in Vina del Mar to meet up with the other adventurers from the USA, only to find that they had lost their container somewhere between Houston and Valparaiso and didn’t expect to find it for a few days.
Well not being one to sit around, I loaded up my stuff and headed across the border via the magnificent Paso Cristo Redentor (3.200m) to Mendoza in Argentina on my own. I was away on my own for six days in Argentina, (this is a story by it’s self),
after meeting up with some bikers at a Police Check point, they invited me to their Rally as their guest, they were in awe of my ‘Moto’ and I think everyone at the Rally had their photo taken on it, after two days with them I finally crossed back into Chile through the very remote Paso Pichachen at 2.060m, meeting up with the other USA bikers that had finally found their bikes, unfortunately the container had been broken into during shipping and some of the guys lost their riding gear. The mood of the group was pretty rebellious; as they had been kidded along that the bikes would be there the next day, then the next day etc for 5 days and they were surprised to learn that I was to meet them at this point !!! This really fired up a few of the guys when they learned that the organizers knew the bikes were going to be at least 5 days away.
We travelled as a dysfunctional group for a few days before the wind and road conditions of the vast Patagonia plains and Rute 40, levelled everyone.
Patagonia is vast land of nothing, that goes on day
after day, but head West into the Andes and you find the Puerto Moreno Glacier, the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile, it was great to see wild herds of Guanaco (Llama like) and flocks of the endangered Nandu (ostrich/emu like)Puerto Natales and on down to Punta Arenas. We crossed the Magallanes onto the island of Tierra del Fuego (Land of Fire) and rested at Ushuaia before our return ride North. Ushuaia is the end of Argentina’s Rute 3 Fin del Mundo (End of the Earth), also the jumping off point, if you want to take a boat cruise to Antarctica and is situated below our Campbell Islands. It is also the World’s most Southern permanently inhabited land, but it is connected to the internet ! (KiwiRider ED take note)
The ride back North took us up the Atlantic coast on Rute 3, then back across the Patagonia Plains to the Chilean border and up the Carretera Austral, which was a challenge in places with reconstruction, altitude and ferry crossings, until we reached Puerto Montt.
From Puerto Montt, back to Vina del Mar was mostly paved and so was quite a scenic cruise with the majestic Andes and the
Ushuaia
Fin del Mundo, the end of the earth. Argentina border never far away on your right and the sparkling Pacific on your left, not much use for a GPS here.
The second stage of my South American Adventure left Vina del Mar, with two other guys, known as Cutis and Roger and a Doctor and his wife, Lolita, all from USA again. We retraced my previous Solo route over the impressive Paso Cristo Redentor and onto Mendoza, the wine Capital of Argentina.
We travelled North up to Salta, through some of the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen. The altitude is something that we don’t consider in our normal riding environment, but over here it is a major consideration, as it can creep up on you and suddenly you may get a thumping head ache, so you must pace yourself each day and you sure don’t run anywhere at 3,000 to 4,000m.
We then headed to the Argentina/Bolivian border crossing at Villazon, it took us 3 hours to negotiate this paperwork nightmare. The ‘road’ from here into Bolivia and onto Tupiza was a mixture of dry river beds and semi formed gravel roads, mostly occupied by huge articulated trucks, who of course own the whole road,
Gerardo in Punta Arenas
Gerardo in a breeze from Patagonia may times I rode into the drain, just to make way for them.
After The great mining city of Potosi, the roads were greatly improved, at one stage we were on a new wonderful tar sealed highway, with white and yellow lines, so were able to lift up our cruising pace, but you had to look out, as we approached a river crossing on this highway we realised that there was NO BRIDGE. We had to follow the truck tracks that had compressed the large rocks, through the river and out the other side. Enquiring (with difficulty) at the next town, we learned that the Roading Authority only had enough money to either build a bridge or pave 10 km of highway, my bet is that the bridge will never get built, as people just accept that this is how it is......
Arriving at the rim of the canyon that the city of La Paz is built in was one of the most amazing sights I saw, to see this magnificent city just cascading through the valley, was just awesome, and to remember that this is the highest Capital city in the world.
We then moved North again to cross
Argentina - San Antonio
The Mountain pass between Salta and San Antonio de Los Cobres the mighty Lake Titicaca and into Peru. When we reached the city of Juliaca, we had to negotiate a protest by the native people, as they had blocked the main road through the city with big rocks, broken bottles, burning tires and burnt out cars, it was quite a tense encounter as the people were very restless with the Government. We picked our way through the debris and the protesters, waving and nodding to them when we could, we even took a couple of photos. When we regrouped outside the city we found that Curtis had picked up a shard of glass that let his tire down, after a quick repair we were on the road again to Cusco and my goal, Machu Picchu.
At Puno we visited the floating reed islands, this has a fascinating history. After a suspect dinner here, Roger finished up in hospital at Cusco with acute food poisoning, the next day, Curtis dropped and we left him at the hotel. Late that morning I began to feel unwell, light headed and dizzy, along with a belly rumble. Well after a good crap and a chuck, with it all washed away and down with a bottle
Highway in Bolivia
Highway North of Villazon towards Tupiza of fresh water I was back to my usual self, well maybe just slowed a little. The others took a day or two to come right. The Doctor and Lolita were vegetarians , so they escaped whatever it was that got us three.
Machu Picchu was the highlight of my South American Adventure, it was a place that I had only dreamed about visiting, and here I was standing amongst the Inca Ruins, what a buzz.
From here, border fever sets in as we are now heading South, on the home run, as it were, but we are still 3,500km from the end of our adventure. We rode through magnificent mountains to get to the Colca Canyon at Chivey and onto Arequipa.
We crossed the border again, into Chile, at Arica, which is on the edge of the Atacama desert, which stretches the next thousand or so kilometres North and South of here. We rode through barren rock and mountains for the next few days, with things starting to green up as we reached Copiapo, 1500km’s down the coast.
Back in Vina del Mar, there was a lot of reflecting to do, we have just completed around 20,000 kms through
Boliva
Road tunnel north of Tupiza such a range of diverse extremes in terrain, culture, altitude, monetary systems, food, road conditions, temperatures, wild life....But for now I have to repack my moto for return shipping to NZ.
This Adventure so absorbed me and I had learnt such a lot, even a bit of Spanish, I could even order a coffee with milk (in Spanish) and that’s what I would get !! I committed myself to write a book on this life changing experience, but do you have any idea how long that would take me sitting at this bloody computer !!!. As a few mates of mine showed more than a passing interest in my adventure, and doubted that I would sit inside for a few months typing up a book, I suggested that I organize another adventure for them to South America, so.............
Rosco’s Rocky Road High Andes Adventure to Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru was born
The planning for Rosco’s Rocky Road Adventure to Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Peru is now well in hand for this 36 day motorcycle adventure to South America in March 2008. We will be shipping one 20 foot container out of Auckland bound for the Chilean port of Valparaiso.
Bolivian Woman
Life is harsh in these remote places This container will take 9 bikes. We will leave NZ early March 2008 on a direct Lan Chile flight to Santiago, transferring to the coastal city of Vina del Mar. We then collect our moto’s and ride North up the Pacific coast to Tongoy, then turning East over the Paso del Aqua Negro Pass, at 4779m and into Argentina with 350 km to our next gas stop.
Traveling North in Argentina until the fascinating city of Salta where we have a day off to wash ya stuff and prepare for the next challenge which will take us back into Chile for one night at San Pedro de Atacama before we cross the border into Bolivia.
This South West section of Bolivia is extremely remote, there is no formed road, we will have to take enough fuel, water and food for the next two days or until we reach San Juan, our destination will be Uyuni through one of the world’s most diverse landscapes including geothermal activity and the largest salt reserve in the world as we cross Sala de Uyuni
From Uyuni we head up to the highest Capital City in the world to La Paz.
From La Paz
Machu Picchu
The high light of our high Andes adventure we cross the mighty Lake Titicaca and into Peru and visit the famous floating islands at Puno.
From Puno we head to Cuzco and the Inca ruins at Ollantaytambo and onto Machu Picchu by train. We stay overnight at Machu Picchu so you will have time to explore this amazing and interesting archeological site. We return to Cuzco by train.
The next day we head South West to Chivay and the Colca Canyon area and onto Arequipa.
From Arequipa we head South to Arica and back into Chile. We cross back into Argentina over the spectacular Paso San Francisco to Fiambala where we take a day off to soak in the hot pools and do ya washing.
We keep moving South to Mendoza Provence, the wine Capital of Argentina, then cross the Andes for the last time, with fabulous views of the highest summit in the Americas, the 6,959 metre (22,841 ft) Aconcagua, then ride the spectacular highway back to Vina del Mar and a grand Farewell Dinner at the Ankara Hotel.
I don’t know if you counted, but there are at least 7 Border crossings that we need to negotiate, so our paper work will have to be immaculate.
Arequipa
Inside the Santa Catalina Monasterio We are already oversubscribed for this High Andes Adventure in 2009, but we are happy to put you on standby as a lot of things can change between now and then. We are also organizing another adventure to Tierra del Fuego, in the deep South, this will be in November 2008. but again book ealy for this one.
Tu Pasaporte a la Aventura For more info contact rosco.rr@ihug.co.nz
Un abrazo, Rosco Pennell
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Raewyn
non-member comment
Lucky man!
Aren't you one lucky man to have your darling look after everything at home while you go adventuring with your mates? 10 million brownie points accrued for redemption at a later date! Have a wonderful ride! Love from your Fun Allocation Officer xxxx