Archive for January, 2009
Sunday, January 18th, 2009
The last South American Blog Entry
I’m now back in Vaplariaso, Chile, just to the west of Santiago to ship my motorcycle. I’ll be loading the bike into a crate then the crate will go on a boat to NYC. From NYC, it will go to Houston to a warehouse where I will put the front wheel back on and drive the bike back to where I started.
This blog entry was going to be one of those “Final Thoughts” messages where I sound like a pretentious traveler and pontificate about how the world is a small place and how people are friendly. Maybe I’ll do it just a little… try not to be pretentious though, I don’t really have the qualifications for it.
But really, the best parts of the trip were the people. The moments I reflect back on the most aren’t the beautiful mountians or natural wonders that I saw while riding on the motorcycle, but the interactions with the people I met while driving around 17,000 miles (27,000 km) through 15 countries.
Unfortunately, the story that I know I’ll tell the most about the trip is being robbed at gunpoint around Lake Atilan. It should be noted that I try to follow up that story with the fact that a friend who I met only a few weeks before drove nearly 2 hours each way to look for me to see if I was OK the next day.
But other memories were starting the trip with two good friends escorting me to the Mexican border crossing the Rio Grande with a hang-pulled ferry, the friend I made in Belize lent me one of his motorcycles and customs official who invited us to his BBQ, speaking DaveSpan for hours to locals who have the patients to listen and speak s l o w l y to me, dropping my bike as I crossed a mudslide in front of 50 laughing Guatemalans who quickly helped me pick up the bike, hanging out in Antigua, learning that Mañana doesn’t really mean tomorrow, being the translator for my good friend and riding buddy’s charity project in Bolivia, fixing a border guard’s computer in Chile, and of course, spending Christmas with 15 other motorcycle travelers at the end of the world. How’s that for a long sentence? That’s my blog version of a montage. You can turn off the music.
Great times. Really. Why not do today what you could do tomorrow? Whatever it is.. This trip was originally planned as a “30 year old crisis” trip, but I didn’t want to wait any long because you never know if you’ll have the time or resources later. Really, why not?
I had set a few goals for myself at the start of the trip including learning Spanish. While I wouldn’t say that I’m even close to fluent, I am MUCH better than I started. I am comfortable in most situations and can have pleasant and semi-intelligent conversations in spanish if the person I’m talking to is patient. Outside of the MAJOR tourist areas, people in Latin America don’t speak English. I’ve developed a few friendships where we only spoke spanish. Thats much better than I ever thought that I could do as someone who struggles with foreign languages.
My other goals were really kinda stupid and generic. I don’t know why I put them there in the first place. Some of them I really failed like not riding more than 6 hours a day. I think my longest days were around 13-14 hours. Not that I was doing long mileage days, but sometimes there really isn’t anywhere to stop. I’m not even going to address the other ones as I don’t even think they are meaningful at this point. Well, I guess I am happy that I kept up with the blog. Of course there was a significant taper the longer I was on the road, but that is only normal. The blog is going to be something that I’ll keep for the rest of my life– keep it as something that I read and remember the good times as well as realize that I realllly shouldn’t have hit the publish button on a few of the stories and pictures =] Its been fun to write and share the trip with my friends, family, and fellow moto travelers. I know that the reason why I thought I could start this trip was through reading about other peoples’ experiences online. In “normal” life, you just don’t meet people who have the time and interest to sit on a motorcycle for half a year.
Anyway, I look forward to returning the US. Strangely, I really miss my job and of course I miss my family, friends, and flauschig puppy!
If all goes well, I’ll be in Houston at 9am on Thursday. I will then have a couple of weeks to get my life back in order before I start working.
Thanks for reading and thanks for commenting!
dg
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Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
Theo’s Argentina Pictures
I’m getting really lazy with my blog posts now. Sorry about that.. it is the whole end of trip thing. Atleast I have something coming online at all@!!
There are the collection of pictures from Theo’s camera.. so they’re sequential, but from all over Argentina.
Ruta 3…
Camping…
We met a really cool dutch couple at a campsite. I wish I had their contact information as the girl collected recipes from locals and other travelers for the last 9 months that she’s been traveling– She is making a cookbook!
They started off as backpackers, but switched but ended up buying a VW van to tour Chile and Argentina.
Me trying to get the perfect shot of penguins.
Am I in Texas??
Riding buddies
These are the two guys who are riding their bicycle to Alaska.
The Christmas eve dinner… Look at all those moto travelers!!!!
It was a really amazing couple of days. Everyone had such great stories and there was never a lull in conversation. We could always talk about how KMs they got out of their last set of tires…. and why touring the world should be done on a 250 honda….. or how much range you need in Mongolia….. or what did your family say when you decided to take off on a motorcycle.. or.. or…
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Saturday, January 10th, 2009
Ushuaia!!!!! Fin del Mundo!!!!
After driving for hours through the unchanging pampa, I finally encountered some new terrain.
This is exactly what I thought the end of the world would be like!
Crazy looking trees, jagged mountains, and rough roads. Everything was there except for the rough roads. It was a perfectly smooth asphalt pista the entire way through Argentina.
Theo’s and my bike happy enjoy the vista.
I’m just showing off with my new camera now.
Theo and I were just sitting around taking photos when 3 very familiar bikes showed up!! In the lead was Thomas…
Then Andrea!!!
Followed by Olliver and Silke!!!
We met for the first time a few days ago on ruta 3 at a campground. There we shared wine and travel stories. They are two really great couples of people! I was very happy to meetup with them again. Here are the faces behind the helmets (Silke and Andrea)
Thomas
und olliver!
We were just a few minutes away from Ushuaia.
I made it to Ushuaia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is one of the classic “end of the world” tourist photos. For me.. this isn’t the “real” end of the world photo. That is forthcoming. This was as far as I was going to make it before christmas!
More fun with the sign!
Theo made it to Ushuaia too!!!
Look at all that flare!!!
We went to Rio Pipo in Ushuaia, a campground a very expensive but nice campground at the end of the town at the end of the world.
There was a thread on Horizons Unlimited, the overland travel site, about meeting at this specific campground for Christmas. Over the two days before Christmas, tons of bikes started showing up. Well, not tons, but about 15.. and it is amazing to see that many moto travelers in one spot.
There are also lots of bicyclists around Ushuaia. There were two guys (American and British) who were just starting their trip. It was fun to talk to them and feel their excitement around the start of their two year trip.
Oh yeah, Ushuaia is overran with tourists buses and ships!! This was a “Rolling hotel”, aka a rolling chicken coup that was a trailer full of partitions with beds.
Here they were eating breakfast… All Germans!! I’m convinced there is no one left in Germany as they are all traveling south America.
Rotel Tours — Das Rollende Hotel. The driver was pretty cool, but I didn’t talk to any of the guests.
… More bikes showed up
Cars and trucks too. This guy made the GPS maps that I was using while traveling.
International dogs…
Californian surfers
Vans….
I didn’t get a picture of Chucks bike, but I’m going to go fishing with him when he returns to Texas. He’s a great guy who did the same ride.
Ushuaia was one big 4 day party. While there isn’t much to see in the town itself, it was one of the best times I had on my trip. It was really fun hanging out with a bunch of people who think that taking time off from a job and sitting on a motorcycle for a few months is a GOOD idea!
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Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
Traveling South in Argentina
After spending a week in Mendoza, it was time to start the breakneck pace of heading south to Ushuaia for Christmas.
This was the first sign I saw that was indicating Ushuaia!!!! I was pretty excited=]
Theo is always commenting on German products around the world.
We’re finally starting to do some camping. My plan was to start camping when things got more expensive such as in Chile and Argentina. In the rest of the Americas, we were able to get a hotel room for < $15 for a double. In Argentina, it was usually around $30-45 for a simple room in a good location. We camped on the Valdes Peninsula. We got there on a Sunday afternoon and it was packed. We had to scrunch our tents and bikes in the bushes.
What really made this experience crappy was that someone stole a bag from Theo. They cut off one of his softbags from his tank paniers. Very crappy. Atleast he didn’t have anything of value in it, just the bag itself.
I made cat friends at camp.
Some ozzies who were riding motos.
After leaving the campsite, we started heading south to Punta Tombo. Here is where one of the largest colonies of Magellen penguins live. There were penguins EVERYWHERE!
Zoom into this picture and start looking for penguins.
Lots of fluffy fat little penguin babies.
Everywhere!!!
This penguin was in a fight and covered in blood.
Theo’s making friends. Unfortunately the penguins had enough friends and proceeded to bite Theo on the arm.
Penguins are really very awkward animals until you see them in the water. It was amazing to watch them swim in and out of the ocean.
Theo gets bit by another penguin.
We continue to head south and I continue to make friends with all the gas station dogs. I dont know if they know that I love dogs or it may also be the fact that I always give dogs potato chips or whatever I’m snacking on when I see them. This guy was particularly fluffy!!
We did more camping.
I met a great family who was returning from Ushuaia. We talked for a couple of hours (only in spanish!!) about the route and family life in Argentina.
Thats where we’re going!!!
There was TONS of oil everywhere. There were wells for both oil and natural gas as we cruised down the road.
It was so cold that we had to wear everything we brought. There was a crosswind of about 80 km/h trying to knock us down constantly. Here’s Theo with a customs official who wanted to be in the picture at the Chile border.
\The ferry to the island of Tierra del Fuego.
Here’s the official start of Tierra del Fuego. This was a great moment for me. It was just so strange seeing all these road signs with these places I had only read about.