Tuesday Dec. 11, 2007
From overheating in the streets of Santiago I headed southwest to the surf town of Pichilemu for a night where, surprisingly, I found cool humid weather on the Pacific coast.
Riding south along the modern Panamerican highway I passed through 8 annoying toll booths in one day, where unlike their friendlier neighbors, they even charged motos. And with hotels at roughly twice the price of Argentina's and gas at over $5 US/gallon I was already planning my exit.
But the countryside was beautiful, the air freshly scented with pine and trees were bursting into spring bloom - I couldn't help feeling how similar it was to western Canada. I made good time on the modern highway though and passed quickly through Valdivia and Puerto Montt before ending up at a beautiful campsite in Ensenada located perfectly on the shore of a gorgeous lake with a volcanoe on either end of the beach.
Shortly after leaving my campsite and passing through lush green countryside I found myself in a mystically foggy, old-growth forest laced with snow. It was strange because I was only at 1,000 m (3,280 ft) altitude, and when I got to the other side of the mountains it was once again clear and warm.
And again at this border there was a twilight zone of about 16 kilometers between Chile and Argentina, but this time neither country was interested in what I had with me.
The scenery around Bariloche was fabulous and there was an obvious difference in the lifestyle of people that lived in this latitude of the country known as the lake district. It was obvious - even in the quiet season - that this place was used to huge loads of tourists and after a couple of days I'd had enough.
From Bariloche I rode north along the beautiful 7 lakes road to the small cities of San Martin and Junin where I met a couple of other overlanders (Chuck from Seattle, USA and Peter & Carol from Revelstoke, Canada). We were all slowly working our way toward the Dec. 7th Horizons Unlimited meeting in Viedma on the Atlantic coast.
On my way east across Argentina to Neuquen I was nearly hit by a flock of parrots flying around the highway, something I expected to see in some jungle rather than in the middle of a desert plain. Ironically, while looking for tires at a couple of moto shops in Neuquen I bumped into my friends Nick and Lesley Poole from England - who I'd met and bought a set of tires from in Medellin, Colombia! They are on a multi-year, world tour and after over a year on the road still have an admirable desire for travel, adventure and each other. It was great spending the next few days with them swapping road stories on the way to the HU meeting.
I managed to get a set of tires while I was there, but the heavy Argentine import tax meant that the same Brazilian made tires I'd paid $100 US for in Colombia cost me $180 US here.
I arrived in Viedma (and sister city Patagones across the river) a few days before the HU meeting so I could get caught up on a few things, but was distracted by visits with other riders. On Dec. 5th while riding through town I was involved in a slow speed accident with a car that decided to turn left in front of me. I was knocked down, but Buzz and I were not hurt, however, the car received significantly more damage from a metal plate I had mounted to the front crash bar to carry the spare tires. After the accident the lady driver got out, angrily blurted out several Spanish words (which I didn't understand), got back into her car and drove away.
The HU meeting was held in a campground near the ocean and had a turnout of around 25 bikes. The Canadians had a good showing at around 6 people (2-Edmonton, 2-Red Deer, 2-Revelstoke), but I think the Germans out-numbered everyone. There was a young Swiss couple on a new BMW GSA1200 that was so heavily loaded (complete with 2 paragliders) it had everyone gawking. A solo German woman in a heavily outfitted Land Rover traveling with her dog also caught allot of attention. One evening a Globebusters tour group of 6 BMW GS riders pulled into camp. They were doing a 4-1/2-month tour of the Americas (Anchorage to Buenos Aires) and had some very interesting stories.
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After over 14-months of traveling along the Pacific Ocean, this was my first visit to the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the weather was cool and windy though, so I didn't spend any time suntanning. I visited the largest parrot colony in the world nesting in the ocean-front cliffs and a even saw hundreds of sea lions parked on the rocky beach.
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