JourneyRider

Meeting a fellow Yank motorcyclist in Coyhaique (03/30/08)

I have spent a couple of nights in Coyhaique trying to find a part for my motorcycle. The city does not quite meet my expectations from the Lonely Plant description but it has still been worth seeing despite being touristy. Unfortunately, Coyhaique has no motorcycle shops and there was only one motorcycle mechanic in town ¨Pablo¨ but he did not have any spare parts. At Pablo´s shop I met Will, a guy from Oregon riding a Honda XR 250 that he bought in Chile. Will and I hung out as we waited for Pablo to work on our problems. We went to the grocery store and bought 40´s of Quedate and drank them on the sidewalk outside the grocery store.

Will was a 26 year old artist who had just broken up with his girlfriend and had been wanting to do this trip for a while. He told me that his last job was doing maitenance on the Pacific Northwest Trail. He has a blog section about his trip on his website wlbimagery.com We talked about motorcycles for a long time and he wanted to know all of the things that I would do differently if I did the trip again.

(Near Coyhaique they use these giant sheets of fertilizer/seed bags to secure the steep banks around the highway.)

From Motorcyclist to Hitchhiker (03/29/08)

Unfortunately the chain to my motorcycle broke again at the connecting link. It left me stranded 130 kilometers South of Perito Moreno on Ruta 40. This is the third time in a month that I have had a connecting link break. The last two times it made sense because my chain had close to 20,000 miles but this chain and sprockets only has 3,000 miles.

When I figured out that there was nothing I could do to fix the bike I started to push the bike along Ruta 40 to the next town which was 30 kms away. Wow was it depressing as I pushed my 400 lbs bike down the road at about 1 mph. About 5 vehicles drove by in 3 hours. Luckily the 5th one was a truck and it stopped to give me a lift to Perito Moreno.

The two guys in the truck were cooks who were on there way back from working for a few months at one of the mines in Patagonia. There names were Alfraedo and Juan. Luckily Juan knew about motorcycles so loading the bike on to the truck and fastening it went rather smoothly. When we made it to Perito Moreno Alfraedo and Juan dropped me off at a Gomeria behind the YPF gas station. I gave them some gas money and thanked them for helping me out.

(L-R Juan, Alfraedo, their friend)

The mechanic at the Gomeria (They call mechanic shops Gomerias here! It gave me a pretty big laugh the first time I saw it in Argentina. gomer!) told me that the only way he could fix the chain without a connecting link was to remove the connecting link and weld in one of the spare links that came with my chain. After checking on horizonsunlimited.com it seems that this idea will work but only for 2-3 days of riding.

Looking for an excuse to see the Caterra Austral I decided to hitchhike to Coyhaique and look for a conncecting link there. It was very strange to hitchhike for my first time. On my second vehicle I got lucky and the truck driver pulled over. After opening the door to the 18 wheeler my first impression was ¨Oh no, this guy looks like a serial killer,¨ but luckily his looks were deceiving and he turned out to be a nice guy. He told me that he had a family of 8 kids (grown up) in Commodoro Rivadavia. The suspension on his truck was completely shot. It was easy to tell as the cab jumped all over the place that this guy was mainly driving the truck on gravel roads.

Getting to Coyhaique took a few more rides. The people I talked to were very interesting and now I understand why the hitchhiker´s have much better Spanish that the motorcyclists. Most of the time hitchhiking was like a huge Spanish lesson. The last guy I hitchhiked with was a biologist at a Pumalin National Park and it was hilarious because he was 100% hippy. He had hippy necklaces, hippy food, and hippy music. He was surprised that I did not recognize his Pink Floyd music. I can not say that I am a huge fan of PF now but it was kind of a cool experience to listen to their music as we drove through spectacular mountain and lake landscapes.

Going to El Calafate and changing my mind about the Caterra Austral (03/25-04/02/08)

Driving back from Ushuaia I knew that I better at least see the Moreno Glacier near El Calafate because so many people told me it was amazing. The glacier there was truly amazing. You have to pay a $15 entrance fee to get into the park but the fee worth it because the road was great, the walkways to see the glacier was great, and the park was very beautiful also. It was nice to see that they are working to make the road better and also doing new construction on the walkways. All national parks should be run like this one.

I did not think that I would enjoy the glacier at first because I had seen a gigantic ocean glacier in Alaska before. Seeing this gigantic land glacier was very unique though. The glacier formed between a small row of mountains and has been slowly stretching down into the lake below for thousands of years. If you watch the glacier long enough you will witness some pretty big chunks of ice falling into the water below.

Being this far West in Argentina and knowing how bad the scenery is on Highway 3 up to Commodoro Rivadavia I have decided to drive North to Tres Lagos on Ruta 40 (the road is almost completely paved) and head North for Perito Moreno where I will cross the border for Chile Chico  and drive North on the Caterra Austral. (North of Tres Lagos on Ruta 40 there was no pavement until 100 km´s South of Perito Moreno.

The frame to one of my panniers broke again in El Calafate but luckily I found a good welding shop and had the break fixed. The name of the shop is ¨El Garage¨ and the owners are Sergio and Raul who are very nice guys. They had a friend named Santiago who knew English and I talked with him for a long time. This gomeria has a the best view out of the ones I have visited so far.

(The garage is located on Valentin Feilberg 364. It is on the other side of the grocery store and a drive up the hill for a little ways. Phone 02902-491982)

Yes Ushuaia at last!(03/23-27/08)

A quick 3 days of riding only paved roads got me to Ushuaia. I wanted to get there fast because the weather was getting very cold and riding in the snow was my greatest fear. The 3 days of riding were very painful because it rained the whole time and to my disappointment the majority of Patagonia looks like Nebraska.

Once you get to Tierra del Fuego you have to make 2 mandatory crossings into Chile in order to get to Ushuaia. If I had known this ahead of time I might have just skipped Chile! (Just joking) Chile was beautiful but everything was so damn expensive there. ($6 U.S. for gas, $1 for 12 ounce pop, $15-20 hostels).

(Tip: Make sure and stock up on groceries at the Carrefour in Rio Grande because the prices are much better there than the grocery stores in Ushuaia).

It was not until Rio Grande that I got to the beautiful part of Patagonia which is full of forests and wildlife. This 100 mile stretch of road to get to Ushuaia is probably one of the most beautiful that I have seen. The land is truly unmolested besides the trails from ATV´s and dirtbikes every few miles. Until now I have not had any negative experiences with ATV riders.

The ATV riders I experienced in Patagonia were truly stupid. I think that maybe they were having some kind of event that day because they were everywhere a long the road. Instead of parking their trucks and cars away from the road they park them right next to the highway in long lines and than expected every passing vehicle to slow down to 20 kph.

I was surprised to see an oncoming ambulance with its lights on and a convoy of 10 trucks following it (driving on both sides of the road). I understand comraderie but this was just plain dumb. They were making the highway dangerous.

Ushuaia was a very beautiful city but unfortunately I did not get to see the city in all of its beauty for 2 days because it rained so much. My tent, sleeping bag, and boots all got soaked in the rain. The drive down to Ushuaia was a true test on my imune system but fortunately I never got sick.

While in Ushuaia I visited a nice glacier with friends from Buenos Aires that I met the day before. We took a taxi to get to glacier that was on a mountain right next to the city. I was surprised to see another ¨Salcar¨ sticker on the window of the chairlift building. These stickers were from Salvador, the nice guy I stayed with in Nicaragua who made the same trip 2 years earlier. At first the weather was poor at the glacier and we thought about turning back but it is a good thing we did not because on the way down the snow stopped and the clouds went away leaving an amazing view of the city below.

The day after my arrival to Ushuaia I made sure to try and call/email everyone who helped me out on my trip. It was really great to talk to the mechanic in Honduras who helped me fix my air filter. It was also nice to thank all the great couchsurfers I have stayed with. Unfortunately, I lost many phone numbers and emails and I just wanted to say thank you on here to anyone I did not personally thank. 

I met a nice guy from Buenos Aires named Jota at the internet cafe and we hung out at his hostel for a couple of days. At the hostel I met a lot of people that Jota had made friends with and they were all really nice too. This hostel was amazing. It overlooks the water with a nice view of the mountains, has a great log cabin type construction on the inside, and his located right in the heart of downtown Ushuaia. The cost was $15 U.S. a night and it comes with a free breakfast. The staff was friendly and helpful even despite me not being a customer. The name of the hostel is Free Style Backpacker´s Hostel and here is a link to reviews of it. http://www.hostelz.com/hostel/65602-Free-Style-Backpackers-Hostel

It was pretty hard to leave Ushuaia because I had made good friends and there was so much to do. Not wanting to be driving on ice and snow was what made me leave. To do the trip over again I would try to arrive in January or Febuary and spend a couple of weeks hiking there.

(About 8 layers of clothing and you really look like you gained 50lbs)

The Chilean Darien Gap (03/12-19/08)

After leaving Valdivia, I headed South for Puerto Montt where my plan was to head Southeast along the mainland where I heard that there was a dirt road connecting North and South Chile together. Two days of driving and a ferry fee later it turned out that there was no road as the dirt road I was on abruptly ended and hour past Hornopiren.

(Here a man flyfishes in a beautiful river. I took this on to make my flyfishing guru friend Philip jealous.)

Frustrated, I returned to Puerto Montt and tried to make up my mind about whether to head an hour North to Osorno or to head South to Paragua and cross over to the Island of Chiloe. I knew the ferry fee was $70 from Chiloe to the mainland and that it would probably be a couple days wait to catch it.

In Puerto Montt I decided to look for some coolant for my leaky radiator. As I was walking into a small hardware store a German Shepard jumped out of the back of a truck and bit me in the back of the leg. I yelled out in pain not knowing what had happened. Once I figured out it was the dog that bit me the first thing I thought was ¨Rabies!¨ Luckily I had 3 layers of pants on because it was so cold and the bite only left a few bad scratches. For the rest of the day I had a bad limp because the dog bit bit me right on the thigh.

Unfortunately, I chose to head South to the Island of Chiloe. I camped outside the city of Castro in the back of a large Morton building that was next to a gas station. Inspecting the bike with a flashlight I looked at my badly cracked frame from tough dirt riding the previous day. My pannier was being held on to the bike with fishing rope that a truck driver gave me on the ferry. Luckily the morton building turned out to be a welding repair shop for hydraulic cranes on fishing boats. The owner was a nice guy and welded my frame nicely in no time.

I drove South to Quellon where I learned that I had just missed the ferry and would have to wait 4 days for the next one. Four days! I could not understand why the ferry only left 2 times a week when there was no road over the mainland. (BTW: The ferry from Quellon to Chaiten leaves Wednesday and Sundays at 2 p.m. but is frequently late) Now I understand that all of the big trucks and the locals take the ferry directly from Puerto Montt to Chaiten (I think it is about the same price and it leaves frequently)

I camped for 4 days in Quellon and luckily there was a nice family who took me in because it rains all the time in Quellon. Camping in the rain is never fun. The family was actually 2 families that were living in the same house because 1 family was waiting on the windows to be installed on there newly constructed house next door. They let me sleep in the house without windows and I have never been more happy to have a roof over my head.

They fed me meals and I gave me mate to drink. The meals were very good but I had to refuse on one of them because I think it was intestines of a cow in a bowl! I told the family I was vegetarian but than I remembered that I had eated chicken with them for lunch the previous day. Luckily they were not offended. Finally it was time for my ferry to leave and I thanked the family and headed down to the docks with my motorcycle.

The ferry was late and would not be leaving until the next night. Being fed up with Chile I decided that it would be better to drive back up to Osorno and cross into Argentina. The scenery is very pretty a long this route and I would recommend not crossing at the Island of Chiloe because the scenery is better near Bariloche and you will not be waiting for ever in an expensive country where 1 liter of coolant costs $7.50 U.S. From Bariloche you can drive South to Tecka on paved roads and than head West from Tecka to Parque Nacional Los Alerces and drive South on the Caterra Austral (The Caterra Austral is mostly unpaved and not too easy in some parts with big lose gravel.

Staying in Valdivia, Chile with Cristian (03/09-11/08)

It took me 2 days to get from Rancagua to Valdivia because my motorcycle started to leak oil and I had to take half of the motorcycle apart so I could re-torque the head bolts. Valdivia is a beautiful port town located just above the Patagonia region. I had arranged to stay with a couchsurfer named Cristian there.

Cristian turned out to be a very nice guy and his family were also great people. They took me in from the freezing cold and made me feel like I was at home. Cristian`s dad was a firefighter and his mom was a business administrator.  They had some very interesting family stories.

Cristian`s dad had been a fire fighter for more than 30 years and he was the 3rd generation in his family to serve in the Chilean fire fighting service (which is solely made up of volunteers). Twenty years ago Cristian`s dad was driving late on a winter night to pick up his wife from work when he noticed a group of people around a bridge trying to convince a young girl not to jump off the bridge into the freezing water. His dad got out of the truck just as the girl jumped in, but he jumped in after her and saved her life. He never told anyone about the story, but after a few weeks people realized that it was him and the fire apartment awarded him the highest medal you can recieve in Chile.

Cristian also told me that 2 years ago his parents were driving home in the night when a drunk came speeding around a corner on the wrong side of the road and ran into his parents car. The car hit them on the driver´s side and Christian´s dad was knocked unconscious. His mom was fine with no injuries but she had a brain anyeurism the next day. The doctors gave her a 2% success chance for having brain surgery. Cristian´s dad told them to do the surgery and amazingly his mom recovered fully a couple days later just before Christmas.

Cristian and I drove on my motorcycle to see the old Spanish forts that surround the coast in a circle at the navigable inlet on the ocean. It was really interesting to see a 300 year old fort that was in very good condition with many of the original cannons still resting in the same spot after hundreds of years. The way the ports were positioned the cannons could hit any location between the inlet which was pretty big at about 1500 yards across. On the way back from the fort we made a video of the motorcycle ride.

Hanging out with Rocky and Jose in Rancagua, Chile (03/04/08)

In Santiago Rocky introduced me to his friend Jose who was a helicopter pilot who had just flown in from California. Jose and Rocky were heading South towards Rancagua so they could fix a helicopter. Rocky invited me to come check out the helicopter and hangout in Rancagua.

(Rocky Medina and his crew fly this water dropping helicopter on contract within the regions of Chile.)

I met up with Rocky and Jose and the next day we went to go see the Chilean fire fighting helicopter that they were fixing. The helicopter had to have the bushings in the rotors replaced with new ones. It sure was a cool looking helicopter. The crew for the helicopter was frustrated because the helicopter had been grounded for the last 4 days while there was a large fire only 30 minutes away. Once the helicopter was fixed the pilot left right away to fight the fire. It was interesting to spend time inside the hanger and see what the life of helicopter pilots and mechanics was like.

Rocky, Jose, and I had a good time going out to the bars and clubs that night. It was hard to leave because I had become good friends with them. Rocky and Jose lent me tools to finish my trip with and they bought me meals, beers, and etc. I could not have asked to meet kinder people on my trip.

Chile is breaking my wallet, but it is worth it! (03/02/08)

My Australian friend Tim and I crossed the Chilean/Argentinian border after spending a few days in Mendoza trying to sell our bikes. I removed the duck tape and protective plastic from my paint and Tim could not believe it was the same bike. I also ran into the Argentinan rider who bought me lunch before and he asked me if I traded the last motorcycle into the rental company for this one. I guess the 2 days of painstakingly cutting and placing on the plastic tack sheet paper (Home Depot: used for protecting the inside of drawers) really paid off.

The ride to Chile was full of beautiful mountain turns but I was forced to take it cautious because at anytime I thought my worn chain was going to come off the sprockets and mangle my leg. Damn it was scary to feel a huge vibration on every rotation of the chain.

In Santiago Tim and I had a very wholesome meal at Mcdonalds and than said goodbye and went our own ways. Tim found a buyer (Polish motorcyclist) and was heading to the coast in a few days to find work as a deckhand on a sailboat bound for Australia. I went to the grocery store in Santiago to look for dinner and buy distilled water for my leaky radiator.

While I was filling my radiator outside the grocery store a guy came up and introduced himself. He was an American helicopter pilot named Rocky who worked in Chile selling used Huey´s to the Chilean Government for forest fire fighting. After telling Rocky that I wasn´t having any luck finding an internet cafe he offered to let me use the internet in his apartment and I ended up sleeping on Rocky´s floor for the night. The next day Rocky kindly offered to help me find a motorcycle mechanic who could install my new chain and sprockets. The search did not go well so Rocky took me to his aircraft hanger where his lead mechanic (Harley owner) kindly changed them out. Having aircraft mechanics work on the bike was a true pleasure. They are so thorough and precise with everything they do. First they take things a part and order them, than they clean the parts, than they lubricate the parts, than they install the new parts, than they test the parts, and finally they torque them. Watching these mechanics work on my bike was very pleasurable.