13 Feb – Neuquen, Argentina

In the last couple of days we have knocked off around 900 km through exceedingly boring and hot country. It has actually been unbelievably hot and to think I planned for a winter-like ride. The roads are long and straight and generally speaking, hard work on a trail bike.

This is the first country I've been in where ordinary motorists wave and toot at motorcyclists. Kind of nice really.

Neuquen (new keen) is quite a large city and we arrived just on the afternoon rush hour traffic only to find our booked accommodation had been cancelled. Got it sorted OK and now we sit under a canopy of grape vines tucking into olives, cheese and sausage while the wood fired asado is heating up. Like I said, these Argies sure know how to live.

Quote of the day: "I've got enough for the beer - not so sure about the rent"

12 Feb – Chos Malal, Argentina

A long 500km day with a large dose of gravel to make it interesting. There was a time when the road was sealed but years of neglect has taken its toll. The country is high plains desert so it is largely featureless and the wind whips up clouds of dust. Boring would best describe the days ride. The one exciting moment was nearly pole-axing a couple of donkeys standing in the middle of the road. They certainly weren't impressed by my presence and just stood there. The gravel did not suit all of our party but nobody bit the dust.

We had lunch in a delightful little tree studded town after about 200 km. None of us filled up which was a big mistake. The towns on the map were more like dusty two-house “villages” with horses, dogs and donkeys – and no gas. Three of us made it to the next gas station and three ran out en route.

Tonight we are in Chos Malal, a dusty desert town with a blast furness wind blowing. Spent the early evening at a cafe with the usual round of cervezas then off to a BBQ (asado) restaurant. The Argentinians certainly live well.

Quote of the day: “No problem, I'll fill up at the next town”.

11 Feb – San Rafael, Argentina

The usual confusion getting out of town but we managed to find the correct route and a gas station. The clue seemed to be to follow the signs to San Rafael.

It's hot as hell here. My guess is around 30 – 35 degrees and getting to sleep at night is a mission.

The ride to San Rafael was not very long but it was sure boring – thank God for an MP3 player. Off to the right are the Andes and off to the left are low hills and we are in this baking plain in the middle. It's like Texas with hills. The road has become a standard dual carriageway and some of the vehicles are pure POS. The Argentinians drive like Kiwi's – they drive fast, pass on yellow lines, blind corners and generally take no notice of the road rules.

We got our first sign of the famous (infamous?) Ruta 40 – and it was gravel. Today we turned off onto route 143 but we will meet Ruta 40 again soon.

Quote of the day: “don't worry I have the route memorised”.

10 Feb - Mendoza, Argentina

This is a very pretty city with tree lined streets and an alfresco dining culture. Our hostel is right in the middle of it all. Prices in the shops appear to be much the same as in NZ.

The other group arrived late this afternoon and we filled the evening Pizza, wine and beer and toddled off to bed for another 2am nap. A good local Malbec (as in Mendoza) at the restaurant was about $12 NZ .

9 Feb – Mendoza, Argentina

Today might well be the highlight of the whole ride for many – riding over the 4,000 metre Andes and the spectacular switchback road on the Chilean side. It's a busy road because it is the primary crossing between the two countries with end to end 18 wheelers and tour buses plus streams of cars. For all its height it was not cold at the top. We took a side trip at the top to visit a monument, Christo the Redentor de Los Andes, a Catholic must see. The road up was steep as hell and dirt. My trail bike got up OK but the determined Catholics were taking their cars up.

Crossing into Argentina was no problem save for the language thing. We filled out all the forms the best we could given we could not read the questions. Once out of the mountains the ride was slightly boring, not helped by the down pour that soaked us through. As you approach Mendoza you pass through endless fields of grape vines – this area is famous for its wine.

We sampled some last night along with the local beer at a BBQ put on by the daughter of Graciela, an Argentinian woman with our small group. It was a thoroughly enjoyable night and we arrived back at our hostel at 2 am. We spend 2 nights here as we wait for the group behind us to catch up.

8 Feb – San Filipe, Chile

It took us a while to navigate through Vina Del Mar and find the route to our nights stop. We never did find the fast route so ended up on a route that took us through all the back streets of the various towns and villages. There were many stops looking for directions and it was a very hot day. Some of these towns are pretty rough and many places look abandoned. One little collection of adobe buildings just down the road from us looked totally abandoned when we rode through them this afternoon but tonight we went past them again on our way to dinner. This time it was a busy little community with people out and about for the evening.

Dinner was at Restaurant La Ruca, an apparently historic Restaurant (based on the age of the photo's on the wall), with a dirt floor. Nice meal washed down with a can of beer.

Tomorrow it's off to Mendoza which is about 300 km away and in Argentina.

7 Feb – Valparaiso Chile
We have been in Valparaiso for the past couple of days. Friday was devoted to dealing with the Customs people to get the bikes released. Then it was off to the wharf to unpack them. Two bikes would not start (flat batteries) and later two dumped their fuel all over the gas station forecourt (dry seals in the petrol pumps) and one had no fuel at all. Actually it wasn't bad. We had a shipping company rep walk us through things and she was a blast – a chubby good-time Gal who took us to the pub for lunch and was keen to organise a BBQ for the evening. Some people have great jobs.
Today (Saturday) a couple of us did the tourist thing with a bus ride around the points of interest including Vina del Mar which is clearly the up market suburb of this town. We are staying in a nice backpacker hostel in a very poor part of town. This is a very old city and buildings in our area are around 100 years old and a little run down. There are street hawkers everywhere selling everything from half used cans of of stuff to new clothing. They set themselves up on the footpath by laying out mats and wait for passers buy to be attracted. Further down the road it's more organised and that was impressive to say the least. Mostly fruit and vege, fish (which adds a most distinctive aroma to the mix) and flowers. It's wall to wall people and noise. We, more me really, had lunch there, a cheese sandwich and a bag of peaches plus we lugged a huge and heavy water melon back up the hill to home.
Sight of the day – a dog. There are hundreds of stray dogs here and they are tolerated by the local human population. This dog was sitting in front of the butcher shop sign all the world as if it was reading the price list prior to selecting its cut.
The last two of our group arrived from Santiago this afternoon and are now enjoying their first cerveza (beer) before we head off to a resteraunt for a bonding session. Actually the cerveza will probably be enough. There is a small hole in the wall bottle store over the road where we are buying the stuff from. I don't think they have ever sold so much beer and wine in one go. Beer is about $2.00 a can and the wine about $3.50 a bottle. For $5.00 you can get an excellent Cab Sav which right now the noisy buggers around me are giving a nudge to.
Tomorrow we move on.