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Published: December 5th 2014
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We have all arrived here in Vina del Mar, here is a catch up from Chaitan.
Leaving Chaiten, we got an early morning ferry ride to the island of Chiloe, where we slept overnight at Castro. Leaving Castro the next day we continued north to Chacao where we caught another ferry to the mainland and Puerto Montt, then onto Valdivia on the coast.
We made a detour to visit a New Zealand owned farm called 'Manuka' it is now the biggest dairy farm here in Chile. Both Jack and David had connections here and we were invited for lunch and a tour of the farm, this was enjoyed by the farmers and non farmers alike.
After the farm tour we headed out to the coast for the night at Valdivia.
This morning Cristian left us and headed home to Santiago after a having joined us in Punta Arenas.
Leaving Valdivia the next morning and straight into about 20kms of road reconstruction, but we knew about it so we had made allowance for the extra time it would take, as we had to catch another ferry at Puerto Fuy at 1.00 pm. While we waited to board
the ferry we had the most delicious empanadas that I have ever eaten and all made on site, hot and fresh.
The ferry took us the length of Largo Pirihueico, we rode onto the Paso Huahum and into Argentina to stay at the same hotel in Junin de Los Andes, where we sheltered from the snow storm a few weeks ago.
This ride was not without incident, as we entered a small town, David, on his KTM, pulled to the side of the road to check some movement in his steering to discover that his front wheel bearings had completely collapsed - BUGGER!!
Lucky there was a playground close by with some wooded platforms for the skate boarders, so we assembled them to make a ramp to get the KTM up on the truck and David became a passenger in the truck.
When we arrived in Junin de Los Andes, it was like a different city without the snow cover, but the Pirrillia Restaurant was still there and so we all went back to it that night.
The front wheel was removed from the KTM to remove the collapsed bearings, lucky that Ripper had a
spare one in his bag, but we needed two. So the decision was to put the KTM back onto the truck and source new bearings in Neuquen the next day.
Gerardo woke to find his front tyre a bit soft, so he rode down town without his helmet to the gas station to get air, on the way he was spotted by the police and pulled over for not wearing his helmet ( nobody else in the town was wearing one either but not with Chilean No Plates!) He was made to walk back to the hotel and get his helmet before he could ride his moto.
When he got back, the tyre was still soft, so we rode back down and pumped it up again and I found a cut in the tyre, so we removed the wheel and took it across the road to a tyre repair guy, it turned out the the air was leaking from around the rim seal, so that was cleaned up and the tyre put back on, end of problem, all this time David was used as a counter weight on Gerardo's moto.
The ride to Neuquen was a long
hot ride across the Patagonian Pampas. We made a detour to the town of Plaza Huincul to check out the dinosaur museum, we took photos of the reconstructed largest dinosaur that has ever walked the earth, it was absolutely fascinating.
David went off in a taxi and came back with new bearing and cir clips and with the help of the KTM Back up Team, they had the bike ready to ride before dark.
We had a stop over in San Rafael before heading to Mendoza the next day.
Mendoza is a fascinating city and as we entered we took everyone to the big bronze statue that celebrates the independence of Chile, Argentina and Peru from the Spanish 100+ years ago and then onto our hotel.
Shopping was on most minds at this stage.......
On our spare day we organised a lunch and tour at Lopez Winery. To get there we took the city train with a 300m walk at the end to the winery. The tour was great, not too long, but very informative and the lunch was to die for in such a fine setting, then it was back to the city for
last moment purchases.
We had an early start for our last ride back into Chile, via the Paso Christo Redentor, but instead of taking the tunnel, we headed up over the original road.
As we entered, I could see that there had been some maintenance done recently, and there was a lot of water (melted ice) on many sections. As we approached the summit, there was a huge front end loader working to clear the road, the boys in front of me had already got through, but the loader had pulled more ice down to clear the road. After a few minutes he beckoned me through, but there was still a lot of snow/ice blocking my way, but I gave it a good go, but soon got wedged between these two huge ice blocks, that I thought would just break up as I hit them.
Thanks to Paul and Tiny I managed to finally get through. Paul had to get passed a parked truck, guided by Tiny riding 'Shot Gun' on the back, while Melean walked up, no way was she getting back into the truck. After a regroup at the top we continued down the Chilean
side to the border control.
On my way down we passed a group of bikers heading up, and I saw a fellow that just looked like Jack the Shadow, same stature and same bike. Well when I reach the bottom, there was Ripper parked up without his Shadow? "Where is the Shadow?" I ask him. "He's gone back up so he can do it again" replied Ripper.....that Shadow needs some therapy when he gets home!
We continued on and started the process through customs etc, this is such a busy border that hoses both exit of Argentina and entry to Chile in the same building and you would think by now they would have worked out a simple system to process the people and vehicles that come through, but it is always a drama to get everything done in order here.
After an hour or so we were heading down the pass and onto Vina del Mar.
On arrival, Gerardo organised the bikes to be power washed so we could load the container the next day.
Gerardo had had another 1,000 kms to ride south to Puerto Montt to ship his moto back to Punta
Arenas.
All the loading went to plan, the adventurers have headed home and today I will return the truck to Cristian at the airport on my way home.
So another Patagonia Expedition comes to an end, with no damage or dramas, but many challenges with the weather and terrain, but everyone returned safe.
Thanks to Paul and Melean in the chase truck and to Gerardo for all his help with South American logistics.
un abrazo,
Rosco
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Maree
non-member comment
thanks Rosco, great stories and pictures, another epic adventure over. Have a well deserved rest and Merry Xmas.