BMWDOG

New Camera

2011-07-15T09:14:00.001-07:00

i just bought a new camera that i think will be good for my coming trip to Australia outback.

Canon SX130 IS

2009-03-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

test of new features on blogspot

2009-03-15T17:55:00.000-07:00

My first BMW is a 1960 R50 with a Pop Dryer side car.

Test of changed blog

2008-11-04T14:51:00.000-08:00

4-7-06 Michigan to Montana

2006-04-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

4-7-06

Sheila took me to the air museum near her place. It was a really fancy place and they sure had some nice planes there. Most of them were military planes but they had some really cool other stuff in there too.
T and Plane

Super X Henderson

MG

Indian 4

Ariel square 4

Solar car

Plane motor

Grasshopper

Texaco #13

Sheila lets Spice (the dog) live in the house in cold weather. Spice doesn’t have much of a coat and cant live outside in the winter. This is HER chair next to the wood stove. I had the stove cranked up so it was putting out some good heat and this dog was really getting into enjoying it. This is ‘her’ chair and it really seemed to piss her off when I sat in it.
Dog nap

4-9-06

Sheila wanted to burn off some old grass in a plot that she has a lot of different wild flowers planted. It was a nice fairly calm morning and we both got out there. She gave me a shovel to lean on and watch that it didn’t jump the line while she was ready with the hose.
Hose

Fire watch

Later in the afternoon I went over to Sheila’s friend Syd and Hank. Hank had invited me to come over and go for a canoe ride on a lake near their house. This area is covered with these little lakes and this time of year the water birds are beginning to nest. We saw an Osprey, Canadian honkers, wood ducks, other ducks and a swan that sure was trying to hide in the tall grass around the edge. All the photos I took out there came out terrible but we had a great time. I really like the pace of the canoe and the quiet.
Shore of pond

Hank and Canoe

Sheila and Syd were checking out the woodpile. Hank and Syd built a solar house but they do supplement that heat with a wood stove. This is some of that really high quality hard wood and they have a really nice wood splitter borrowed that will surly come in handy on some of those knarley hunks.
Woodpile

When I rode up to Michigan from Florida I knew I was going to be almost out of rear tire when I got there. The new rear tire I bought in Argentina was made in Brazil and it just didn’t have mileage in it. By the time I got to Sheila’s place I was almost down to the cords, which isn’t recommended especially traveling the rate I was going on the freeways headed north. When I got there, I ordered a tire and when I got back from the Upper Peninsula I went to town to get it. It was one of those rainy gray drab days that I guess are quite common in Michigan in the spring. The tire was there and I tied it on the back and headed for home. I made it to about ten miles from Sheila’s place when the trans stuck in fourth gear. There was nothing I could do about it so I rode it home not stopping at stop signs or slowing down much. When I got back I called my primary care mechanic, Bob Clement and visited with him about what happened and my options. A long distance diagnosis over the phone is always tough but Bob is a real knowledgeable guy on these bikes and the indications were that a small spring broke. There is a little spring in there that controls the shifter and it is possible when this breaks that a person can tip the bike over on its side and a little more and wiggle the shifter into a different gear, like third and ride home. The tranny needs to be taken out and the spring replaced. Bob said that these springs usually last a minimum of 75 K miles and he had replaced this spring when he had the trans apart when I had it upgraded last year. The bottom line was that the drive shaft and trans would have to be removed and the trans taken apart and fixed. Bummer, eh? I guess I was lucky in that this didn’t happened down when I was I the Amazon jungle where there are those Indians that shrink heads and shoot poison darts and such. I went through a 150-mile stretch there that you were not allowed to stop because of the indigenous Indians. Yikes, Rogers Saint Christopher medal working as well as all the prayers and best wishes of my friends, worked again.
Sheila called around to some of her motorcycle friends and found that there was a small shop down in Niles, Michigan that was started by some mechanics that relocated when a BMW shop shut down in South Bend, Indiana. She got their number and I called Bob back with that number as well as the BMW shop nearest to her house. Bob thought he would call them and see if they knew what they were doing and if he thought they would be able to fix the trans. I guess he gave them the third degree test and he passed (when I talked with Kurt, he said that it was almost like he was taking some sort of a test… I told him yup, Bob wouldn’t let just anybody work on my bike!!!). Bob called back to let me know that the Niles guys were OK. I called them and talked with Kurt and found out that he was coming up with a trailer and would pick up the bike and take it to his shop. What a deal that was. It was going to involve calling around and borrowing a pickup (unloading all the shit in it probably) and spending a good part of a day taking the bike down. Kurt showed up later that afternoon with a really cool little enclosed trailer and we easily loaded the bike up and I was impressed with his through methods I tying the bike down in the trailer. He sure seems knowledgeable about the bike and I liked him right away.
The news when I called was that it wasn’t the little spring but another part that ‘never’ breaks but did in this case. It was going to involve ordering the part and by the time the part came and they got it in, it was one week. I guess fortunately the weather was shitty and cold so I didn’t mind the wait. I checked the internet weather everyday and I was just hoping I was going to be able to find a hole in the storms that seemed to be coming one right after another.
I called Monday morning and found that the bike was ready to roll. I had already loaded the car with all my panniers, tank bag, tank panniers, waterproof camp gear bag and all the little stuff I needed. I did leave some stuff for Sheila to send on to me but mostly I carried everything but some maps, tour books and a couple of tee shirts I had picked up along the way. Oh yeah, a hand full of atomic fireballs for the trip (dang near burned out my mouth by the time I hit North Dakota.).
Kurt’s shop was easy to find as the big old yeller dog was parked out front next to a really cute little red head R75. That is the way some of those dogs are....
Dog and Redhead X

The first look in the shop I could tell this was a busy, very cool place.
First look

Kurt was somewhat ashamed to have me taking photos in the shop because he said it was exceptionally dirty at this point but I told him not to worry because anyone that was going to look at them would understand the busy time of year and how shops get at times. He has some really nice photos of a clean shop on his website and I really should grab them and post them but this is a real workshop and I liked it right away. There was a range of BMW bikes from the nice old airheads to the new fangled oil heads. Kurt is an oil head expert and prefers to work on them. He had other mechanics that specialize in airheads.
Oil head

Toaster tank

They also work on specialty car restoration and here he is showing me an engine that he thought Bob, my mechanic would like to identify….. know what it is Bob?
Engine ?

Well, here is the body that this engine goes in….
Car body

Kurt is doing a complete restoration on this car. It won the Lemans race in 1958.

OK, give up??

It is a Duestch Bonnet and the engine is an opposed two cylinder (like a BMW airhead) aircraft engine. He thought it was a French aircraft engine but not sure…
He had lots of cool stuff stuffed in the shop and everyone, as well as I, love this little 1958 Austin A35 panel van. Sorry the photo is so screwed up but to take the photo in those cramped quarters I had to take three photos and ‘stitch’ them together.
Van

Here is the 900 cc engine in it. Kurt says it is a blast to drive around town. I sort of knew what it is like because my dad had a 1959 Morris Minor pickup, which is much the same as this but with a 850 cc one carburetor engine. It looked like a showpiece but he says he drives it around some and yes it is always a big hit at shows.
Austin 900cc engine

Kurt was a busy guy while I was there and I wish I had more time to look around and visit with him and a guy named Brad that rolled in to get his oil changed.
Working

Kurt Przybysz Aint that a cool last name…………my spell check hates it….
BMW motorcycle service and restoration
Surrey Motorsports
Niles, MI
They have a website but cant find it right now.
The guy that worked on my bike, I never did get to meet, but his name is Ken Cornelis and he works part time as he is a crime scene investigator in Indiana. This wasn’t a crime scene but I guess it is sort of similar in that he to figure out what went wrong by looking at the evidence.
Good byes are always tough, and this one was no exception, but I really had to get the dogs rolling for home, as there was a little break in the weather. I said good-bye to the guys and got a nice kiss from Sheila and hit the road. Oh boy, was it ever good to be back up on two wheels. The weather started out not too bad but as I went along it got colder. The big worry for me was the huge cities that I would have to pass through on the way. I was very fortunate in that I hit them at non-peak times and just sailed through. All I had to do was follow the interstate 95 signs. Those big cities are sure impressive and scary to my eyes.
Chicago

When I got back in western North Dakota and into the National Grasslands area, I felt like I was back in ‘safe’ country and could really enjoy the ride. I have always liked this area when coming back from being back east.
Grasslands

This is the view in Montana and it just keeps getting better all the way home. This is the lest traveled freeway in the entire interstate freeway system and it was nice to be able to travel at 80 mph through North Dakota and Montana.
Montana

When I got into the Yellowstone Valley just outside of Miles City, this guy was starting his fieldwork for the spring. They have had some good moisture but it has dried out enough for fieldwork to start. This is the first fieldwork I have seen in my travels from Michigan.
Fieldwork

I stopped by Charlie Gephart’s who is my neighbor and best friend to report in. Charlie is the guy that pulled me out of all the big jambs I got myself into on my trip. If it wasn’t for Charlie I would still be picking bananas trying to make enough money to get home after having my wallet stolen and the credit card companies not sure if I am really using the card in all those foreign countries. THANKS AGAIN CHARLIE!!!!!!!!
Charlie walked out and it was really good to shake his hand. He took a few photos of me, so this is what I looked like after going to the end of the world and back. Not a pretty sight.
Just back

I rode up to camp and took this photo of the odometer.
24,801

It had a couple of miles on this new speedometer when I left, but this is pretty close to the distance, plus the miles I went on the airplane from Panama City, Panama across the Darien Gap to Bogotá, Colombia, the barge ride up the Amazon River and the plane from Caracas, Venezuela to Miami, Florida. With those miles totaled in, I went more than the distance around the world. In 1969 I took my motorcycle and sidecar to just north of Fairbanks, Alaska so I figure I have done the western hemisphere. What next??
Camp

Dirty Yellow Dog

cold road from Florida to Michigan

2006-04-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

3-18-06

Mike and I got on the highway and headed for Tova’s place in Panama City. We went a short way on a heavily traveled freeway.
Freeway traffic X

It wasn’t long before we made it to highway 27, which is the same highway I took to get to uncle Mike’s when I came north from Miami. Highway 27 runs up roughly the center of Florida. Mostly it runs though rural farmland with some large towns along the way. We went through a section that is mostly large expensive horse farms. It was just like the Kentucky horse farm area but maybe not as expensive.
Horse farms on HWY 27 X

Most of the highway was more rural and undeveloped and a more relaxed pace. I really enjoyed this ride through the heart land of Florida. I have never been to Florida before but have heard stories and was really glad to see it and on such a nice day.
Highway 27 X

Uncle Mike was ridding his K75, which is kept as clean and beautiful as his other bikes. This is him pulling out to get back on the road. The bike is unusual in that it is a white one and white ones were only made for police work and had several police related special features. This one is standard white but has been ‘dressed’ up with blue accents and striping.
Uncle Mike K75

We made it to Tova’s house with no problems. She has a really nice house on a huge lot in a quiet neighborhood. Her dogs were in great shape and I was pleased to see what a nice yard they had all nicely fenced and secure. Tova had a really nice supper made for us and she is one of the best cooks around. The next day we went out to the park that she used to live and work. This was an undeveloped park when she got there and she was instrumental in designing the interpretive trail we went on. She is a true biologist and identifies all plants by their scientific name just like my dad would. This area is very unusual in that it has a fresh water lake just the other side of the dunes from the ocean. We headed out on the trail and it was sort of a gentle sheep chute. It was explained to us very carefully that it was necessary for the sheep chute as the dunes were so fragile they could not handle human traffic.
Sheep chute X

This trail is really nice and the sand here is pure white. Tova said it is the remains of the mountains in the Appalachians that washed down here in a large river. What was really neat was that the sand squeaks when you walk on it. Even with my poor hearing, I could hear it.
Trail X

Quite a few of the trees and bushes were dead along the route and it was explained that this was the result of the hurricanes that came through last year. This is a natural progression for the area and the trees will rot and make homes for birds and bugs.
At the end of the loop in the trail there was an opening in the fence where we crossed into a piece of land set aside by some nature or historical society that looks after part of an old rocket experimental station. This was a place in World War II where they were working on developing rockets like the Germans were using (V-2 rockets). They were using the natural sand dunes with concrete and steel ramps to launch these rockets out into the bay. There wasn’t much left of the infrastructure but some of the old ramps and a bunker.
Ramp X

Bunker X

This was in an area where there were quite a few very up-scale homes being built. In this area we could be on the dunes and it sure is a special area. I really enjoyed walking around and checking them out as did uncle Mike. When you get uncle Mike out in the wild country he goes a little ‘wild’ himself.
On the dunes X

We all had a good time and Tova would stop every now and then to point out something unusual like these flowers and the little red plants under them that are some sort of fly trap.
Flower flytrap X

One of the main things that Tova was working on at this park was the protection of a little beach mouse.
Beach mouse sign X

We stopped in several different places to check out the possibility of beach mouse tracks. We found quite a few and Tova was very pleased.
Mouse tracks X

This park is surrounded by large developments and when I was talking about them I accidentally called them Condoms, which really seems to be a more descriptive name.
Condoms X

With these large condoms all along the beach, when a large storm comes through, the energy is directed to this park and it really gets a double whammy. Tova said that these dunes are very old and when they are gone they will be gone forever so they are doing every thing possible to protect them. It looks like a slow death deal to me.

3-22-06

I left Tova’s on a really cold day for Florida. A big cold front was sweeping through but there didn’t look like there would be any rain or snow on my trip up north to Michigan to visit a friend. It turned out to be a very cold ride all the way.
Snow bank X

I rode for three days and I had on almost all the clothes I had with me which were mainly tropical weather stuff but I did have my silk long johns with me and this was the first time I had worn them. I like them!!!! I rode through some little rain and snow showers but noting really very bad. When I got up in the morning I found that Michigan had welcomed me with a little spring snow shower when I woke up at my friend Sheila’s.
Spring welcome X

I decided to go on up and see my brother. My brother Dan and his wife Bette live in Hancock, Michigan which is on the Upper Peninsula, just across this very cool lift bridge. I have never had a chance to see it in operation and this trip was no exception as there was still ice in the channel.
Lift Bridge X

Sheila and I took a side trip up to Copper Harbor, which is the end of the peninsula. Along the way is a town called Calumet. We drove on into town to have a look around after I saw some really outstanding rock and stone buildings.
Brick-stone X

Brick-stone 2 X

There are some really fine buildings in this town. The downtown is still alive but it looks like they depend on the tourist trade to keep things rolling.
Fire hall X

Rockwork X

This is copper mining country and all these buildings are the result of the money that came in with the copper mines. This was a really nice building and there are quite a few of these around the country.
Mine building X

I had to take a photo of this rail car that must be pushed by a locomotive for snow removal on the railroad tracks way back when. It seems unusual in that it is made of wood.
Train plow X

This area gets what is known as the ‘lake effect’ snow. The storms come across the Lake Superior and pick up moisture and dump it as snow on the peninsula. They get ten feet of snow up there and the week before we went up they had 32 inches in one day. They said it was a nice wet spring snow. The main roads were open but the little side roads were still unplowed. A lot of the houses up there are only used in the summer.
Snow road X

This was a little village we went through and you can see the result of the snow plows throwing the snow off the highway.
Snow town X

We followed along the lake shore on part of the way home and stopped to walk around.
Lake shore X

Sheila was taking photos of the lichen in this photo and I was doing the same, as it was really soft and beautiful on the rocks.
Sheila photo X

Lichen X

4-1-06

On the way back to Sheila’s home we stopped by Harwick Pines State Park near Grayling, MI. This is a park set aside with a grove of old growth forest and it has a foot trail that runs through it. We took the dog (Spice) on a long leash and wandered among this wonderful place. I had always wondered what the country looked like before it was all logged off. One of the things that a little brochure said was that there was more value in timber taken off from Michigan than all the gold taken from California. I am used to seeing huge trees in the redwood forest as well as the old growth stuff in the Rocky Mountains, which make these trees look like peckerwood but when walking through here it is a really wonderful place. The big trees were maple, beech, hemlock and red and white pine with a few dogwoods in bloom every so often.
Old growth forest X
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There was still some snow here in spots and part of the trail we walked back on is a cross-country ski route.
Snow trail X

The ground was a blanket of fallen leaves.
Leaves X

4-5-06

Sheila lives out in a rural area and has a nice wood lot as well as a huge yard. She has planted crocus and this is the season they bloom.
The girls rolling in the flowers X

The weather has been really drab and gray here with some light rain and heavy frost in the morning. This day it was nice outside and she burned the burn barrel while the grass gets to thinking about growing in the sunshine.
Fire girl X

The hint of spring was so heavy that Sheila got all fired up and went out and planted the first snow peas in her garden.
Pea planter X

Sheila is a serious gardener and even though this garden has been downsized severely, it is much larger than most people care to take on.
Garden X

Back in the USA

2006-03-17T15:22:00.000-08:00

3-8-06

Still here in Manaus, Brazil and trying to find out how to get the bikes shipped out for the US or in Jims case, Canada. We met with one guy that Jim met in the hotel yesterday that said he used to work in the customs office and we went with him back down to an office that Jim went to several times yesterday when we thought we might be able to just get it done ourselves. It turned out that he just took us to an office that Jim went and talked with that guy yesterday and essentially told him the same thing, that we had to go to the airport, as this was the maritime customs. Well, we walked back to the hotel rather dejected especially Jim who realized how worthless this helper was and how it had been all a big waste of time. I didn’t realize what was going on since all this was happening in Portuguese and Spanish. I had found that there was a United States had a consulate here and had wanted to go there and see if they could help us or at least tell us if it was possible. When we got back to the hotel the helper guy took us in his car (must have been an old wore out taxi) to the US consulate and we were able to talk (wonderfully in English) to a very nice lady whose first comment on our problem was “this could be somewhat difficult”…….

Jim did a great job of explaining our situation and gave her a name of a contact that we were given back when we stopped at an air freight company. She took the name and number and went to call. We had never gotten a hold of that company as we got sidetracked with another one that turned out to be of no help to us. She came back and told us that ‘yes, it was possible maybe to get it done through that company but we would have to call him after two this afternoon. There has been a lot of stress on Jim during this whole thing and when we finally got back to the room, things sort of fell apart and we decided that he would go his own way and I would go mine. Suits me fine…………

I’ll hit the Venezuelan consulate tomorrow morning and get a visa to get into their country and head for Caracas tomorrow. I think it should be a five day or six day ride and the first part will be through the Amazon jungle. A hundred and fifty mile stretch of it is no stopping zone as it is an indigenous Indian place and you are not allowed any contact. I sure hope the bike doesn’t finally decide to give me problems when I get there.

I was talking with a guy yesterday and the discussion got around to how blacks are not discriminated against. I guess that is not entirely true. He said that they were mostly very poor folk. He said that way back in the old days the farmers decided it would be better for them to free the blacks and then they would not have to support them as they had been doing. when they owned them, they had to feed and house them but on the day they freed them they kicked them off their farms and wouldn’t let them back on. They then hired people from Europe and set up stores on their farms to sell to their workers. That way they didn’t have to support them and they made money on their purchases at the store they owned. I think this all happen in about 1880 or so. I am not sure if the farm owners still do the company store type thing. The guys did repeat what one of my friends wrote me and said that they did hunt down and indigenous Indians and exterminated them. He also said that the Nazis came over after the Second World War and hid out here. He said that some towns in Brazil are entirely German.

3-9-06
I had to take a photo of this wood working project that this little guy has been working on outside the hotel for four days.
Wood working project

He comes early in the morning and stays until dark working on it. it is all made out of some sort of hard wood that is probably from the local forest. He has only one power tool and it is a drill. He cuts everything by hand and I really love this saw that he has been using.
Saw X

I got a good early start this morning and made good time all day. It was nice not to have to stop and wait for a couple of cigarettes to be smoked and five people told that we came from xxx and went to xxx xxxx x xx xxxxx xxxxx xxxx xxxx xxx xxxxxxxxxxx x x xxxxxxxx x x xxxxxxxxxxxx xx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx x xxxxxxxx x and over five mountain ranges and xxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx x xxxxxxxxxxx the end of the world xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxbarge on the amazon xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx Well you get the idea.

Now it only takes about four minutes at a gas station and ten minutes to eat. It is also nice to let that big yellow dog run and not have to be worried about that little kowasuckie blowing up or having to listen to that loud exhaust. I find the best way to travel on these roads is to get behind someone who knows the road and follow them. I was behind a guy this afternoon that was running between 80 - 85 and we really made some serious miles before I pulled out and went in for gasoline. Going fast really eats the fuel too and it is rather expensive out here in the jungle. I am paying about $5.60 USD or more in some places. There are places in the road where there are bad potholes and sometimes really dangerous events.
Road event X

The road goes through that indigenous Indian reserve and the jungle really has tried to take over the road in spots.
Jungle road X

Outside the reserve the forest has been cut back and I went through several places where they were burning it back.
Burning X

3-10-06
I rode about two hours and made it to the Venezuelan border. The border was one of the easiest I have been through on the trip. Getting out of Brazil was just handing them the paper on the motorcycle and getting a stamp in my passport. Getting into Venezuela was slick. There was a guy working there that needed to practice his English and helped me fill out all the forms and get everything stamped. He said the visa was not necessary which was a relief as all the tour books say it is.
It turned out to be a beautiful ride through some sort of national park. There were several of these structures there and I really like them. they put poles in the ground and then horizontal sticks which they fill with mud. Wattle and daub I think it is called. I saw one up in Monitor Valley in Nevada years ago and it made a good line shack or mining camp.
Huts X

This is a common sight with the satellite dish pointing almost straight up. This is the way they point here at the equator zone.
TV dish X

3-11-06

It turned out to be a long day in the saddle somewhere around 600 miles. I ended up going on into Caracas and on through to the airport north of town about twenty miles. By the time I got there it was getting pretty dark but I went on east to Malcato where I got a room in a hotel with good parking and an internet connection.
I went past this steel mill or at least I think that is what it was. There was this red dust covering everything in the area. There was a large ship there and not sure but I think it was unloading ore. The mill sure was making the sky yucky.
Mill X

I filled up at a gas station after going 94 miles. I gave the attendant a 2,000 Bolivar and got back a 1,000 Bolivar. That works out to about fifty cents a hundred miles. Gas is cheap down here and I was glad of it since I couldn’t get my debit card to work in any of the bank machines I tried. I had very few Bolivar’s that I changed when I crossed the border from Brazil and have to make them stretch. I guess the money thing is some sort of a problem here in Venezuala but not sure why other than these banks don’t deal with American banks or something to give out cash.
3-12-06

I got up and had to wait for the restaurant to open at eight. After breakfast I took the bike out for a ride and thought I would check out the airport and see if I could find the air cargo area that I need to get to and get my bike on the plane. I never did find the air cargo but I did find the international desk and got a price on getting a flight to Miami which looks like will be about $466 give or take but probably give as there seems to be always some sort of fee to pay.
I will ride in tomorrow morning and see if I can get the bike shipped. I have the name of a good person so hopefully everything should fall into place and I can get that big yellow dog home.
I got the hotel clerk to change a hundred dollar US for Bolivar’s so I am good on cash now.
3-13-06

I got the bike all strapped down and ready to fly.
Ready for shipping X

I had to take a moto taxi to the airport for my flight. Actually not too bad a ride even though it was way overloaded. The guy is a good scooter rider.
Mototaxi X

3-14-06

I took the flight yesterday at one o’clock to Miami. It was a three hour flight and a little bumpy in spots but made it safely on the ground. I took a shuttle bus to a hotel and choked at the price as well as the ten dollar tax on top of that…. Oh well, welcome back to the good old USA.
I got up this morning and went across the street for a sausage muffin and a coffee at the McDonalds. Yup, I am back….
I came back to the room and tried to call the air freight company that should have my bike. The number that I was given is wrong!!!!!!!!!!! Now what do I do? Not sure but it will be an interesting day I am sure.

Homeland security X

Found it and had to go through several hoops at customs but finally got it and it looked ok for the trip.
Arrived X

3-16-06
It was a wild fast ride yesterday up to uncle Mikes and I got here about sundown. I found a fire station and the guy there gave me directions to the place. Mike lives in Lakeland, Florida. Mike has a wonderful collection of BMW’s, Triumphs, BSA, Austin Healys and a really nice shop to work in.
Today we took my bike over to his shop and had some welding done by his friend on the mounts for the saddlebags. The weld I had done down the road had broken again but this guy can weld and I think it should make it back to Montana OK where I can really work it over and weld some gussets in and make it stronger.

3-17-06

What a nice day. Mike took me for a ride in his Austin Healey around the town of Lakeland. Lakeland has several lakes and goes back to the early 1900’s. There are some really nice houses and buildings and lots of interesting stuff growing. This Austin has been taken completely apart and rebuilt. It took him several years to complete the job but it is a show winner when he takes it to them. he drove it to Montana several years ago to attend the wedding of Anna and Oscar at the farm.
Austin X

Out at his shop he got out one of his bikes that I really liked the looks of. It is a Triumph Daytona and it is a 500 cc cool little motorcycle. It is almost all original.
Daytona X

He has several nice bikes and I snapped this one of a BMW R60 that he is in the process of restoring. He is very careful person and when he finishes something it is perfect.
BMW project X

The Zone.............

2006-03-06T04:16:00.000-08:00

Amazon state flag

3-4-06

THE ZONE

We just got in this morning after five days on a barge. The first day in Puerto Vehlo was spent loading the barge with trucks, busses, one car and trailer, and our bikes. There were some problems that delayed our departure but since heading south of the US border, that has been the norm. I had to ride through a huge mud puddle to get to the barge area and my bike didn’t look so clean when I got there.
Dirty bike X

It was fun to see all the trucks getting loaded on the barge. Some were just trailers that were to be transported and others were loaded with their tractors for the trip.
Getting loaded X

I finally got a photo of a couple of those older Mercedes Benz trucks. I really like the looks of these trucks and some of them are kept so well polished and shinned up it looks like they are almost new.
Benz trucks X

I also got a pretty good photo of the system that most trucks use down here to keep their tires pumped up.
Tire pressure X

I finally got my bike loaded between two truck trailer boxes and set up my tent under one of them. The first night I just used my tent but after that I also used the tent fly as the rain can come sideways and blow in the netting. It was actually much warmer that way as well as it got rather chilly at night with a good breeze.
Barge camp X

I walked around the shore and got this photo of the boat that would guide us down the river and up the Amazon to Manaus.
Pusher boat X

While we were waiting for the second barge to be loaded, some of the guys had lines out in the river and were catching some small catfish, or at least they were similar to the cats that I have seen up north only longer whiskers. One guy left his line and went off to do something and I could see that something was biting at it. I hauled it in and found the hook in a little piece of gristle couldn’t catch anything so I reset the hook and tossed it back in. it didn’t take long until I had a nibble and when I set the hook I got what ever it was. They guy came back about then and made motions that I didn’t catch anything. Oh yah I did, I told him and proceeded to pull up this little fish. Wow, when I got it on deck everyone came running over and proceeded to beat the shit out of it. Evidently it is the bad-est fish in the river, even worse than the piranha. I don’t know if that is the case or not but no one would even touch it, they beat it with sticks and stabbed it several times with a knife. I was a big hero for getting that little bugger. Up until then, the trucker crew hadn’t paid much attention to me.
Bad fish X

In the morning we finally got under way. It was a rather noisy night as the truck trailers mostly had refers on them and they came on and shut off all night long. The trailer my tent was under was a rather noisy one too but I can sleep through almost anything.
Once we were on the river and headed down stream one of the crew, I think the first mate, took Jim and I around the boat and showed us the head and kitchen facilities. This barge trip was complete with three meals a day. What a great deal, five days (we didn’t know exactly how many days when we loaded on) with meals for a hundred and sixty-five bucks. The food turned out to be wonderful. We ate at the captain’s table, actually we ate after the captain and crew had eaten. Every meal had beans and rice and the special of the day was always different. As we went down the river some small boats would come along side and offer different things for sale. I didn’t see this little critter come aboard but I got there in time to see the cook cut it up for supper. Some of the trucker guys told Jim that it is a Pack-a or something like that.
Pack-a X

My guidebook says that they eat a giant guinea pig and I think that must be what it was. That night I wasn’t feeling good as I think I was coming down with a cold and missed the chance to try it. Jim didn’t miss the chance and said it was very white meat and not unlike chicken or turkey but very moist and juicy, yum, good. The next day there was some new little pieces of meat in the beans and I fished out several pieces and I think they were the pack-a. Yup, that is good food. One of the guys opened the freezer on deck and fished out some sort of big bird, larger than a chicken, and said it came from one of the river people. I saw an armadillo in the freezer and I did see one guy come on board with a dead one that he was trying to sell. I didn’t know what I ate most of the time, but it all was good and somehow special as we were living off the fat of the land or jungle as we toured down it. I hope I don’t catch hell for eating some sort of endangered species from my daughter, who has made it a focus of her professional life, to protect this jungle and all that it contains. I certainly am in favor of protecting this area but I can certainly see how difficult it would be to police this river.
I took a few photos of small houses or shacks that are along the river. Most of these places have no windows or doors, only opening. It is finally an area where there are no bars on the windows and doors. There have been bars on the window every place since getting near Mexico in the US.
River shacks X

Here is a cargo barge that looks something similar to what we looked like going down the river.
Cargo barge X

Here is one of the passenger boats that we luckily didn’t get on to go down the river. When we first got to Puerto Vehlo we looked at one of these boats that would take our bikes and us down the river the guys said. The problem was that there were only a few long springy boards placed on logs as a way of getting the bikes on board. The bikes would have to be picked up and carried on board and it didn’t look possible without dropping them in the river. We were both really spooked especially after talking with the deck hands who were pretty tough looking after a night of carnival. Neither of us liked the looks of going on that boat with lots of people and not much security for our bikes especially if we had a cabin and the bikes were left lashed on the deck where a hundred poor people were staying. We both felt really fortunate to be on the barge and it turned out to be much cheaper too.
Passenger boat X

As we went down the river I tried to figure out if any of it was virgin forest but decided that it must have at least been high graded of its good old stands of hard woods and beautiful furniture woods long ago. The river is such a good transportation system and I am sure it has been used that way for many years. Here is one nice older tree that must be just a pecker pole to the wood guys and has no value so they left it.
Big tree X

Most of the trees along the river seem to be much smaller than that one and quite a bit of it I can tell has been cleared and is now used for grazing. There was not a lot of grazing land along the river but it could be that there is more away from the river on higher ground. I only saw one place where there was a pile of logs all ready to load along the river. They were big logs and I bet they were worth a pile of money.

The barge family got sorted out after the first day and it seemed to form into little groups of like minded folks. Here is one group that made its home next to my tent camp.
Card game X

The guy on the right is a cowboy from the southern part of Brazil, or so I understand from one of the guys. He was always dressed well and much different than everyone else. He wore pants that were very roomy at the butt and necked down at the ankle. His shirts were loose too and he wore a big wide very fancy belt sort of like a sash with no belt loops. He was the chicken cook this day and brought his knife to cut up the chicken.
Kitchen X

Here is a picture of the bridge from the deck of the boat. The guy driving this day was the first mate and he saw me taking photos and motioned for me to come on up.
Bridge X

The view from up there was great as I expected. The bridge has to be really high to be able to see over all those trucks and cargo that these boats push up and down the river.
View from the bridge X

I took a panorama photo of the jungle on the east side of the boat as the sun was setting in the west. It is about six photos put together so I don’t know how well it will come out for you but this is what we saw for about a thousand kilometers.
Jungle Panorama X
i dont think the jungle panorama came out htat good so here is the knife sheath the cowboy wore.

Here are my neighbors cooking up some grub. I don’t know why they decided to cook their own grub rather than eat the food the cook made but there were quite a few guys that cooked their own food. Almost all the trucks have these little kitchens on the right side of the truck and I have see them in use all along the way. It is common to see them cooking at truck stops and parking areas and sure makes a lot of sense to me as they get good food and much cheaper than eating out at restaurants all the time. They have a two burner stove that swings out for cooking and I think they use a small door in the refer box as their refrigerator.
Cooking grub X

There were some interesting river traffic going by at times. There was not as much traffic as I had imagined there would be but every now and then someone would come by. This is a rather common family headed someplace.
Family cruise X

This is a rather low budget affair.
Low budget X

Here is a couple of barges loaded down with cars. This is a rather expensive load I guess. The truckers said that they were charged about 3600 reals or $1800 bucks each and that was just for Puerto Vehlo to Manaus. Some of these boats travel much longer distances on the Amazon.
Car-go X

Here is a common motor boat. They use a single cylinder air-cooled motor like a Honda or something like that with a long shaft with propeller on the back. It swings side to side and up and down. They seem to work really well and it sure gets away from the water-cooled system with complicated gear drive and water pump.
Motorboat X

We passed buy these guys doing some repair or rebuilding on some boats.
Rebuild X

This was the way most of the days were spent on the barge. The scene was endless and I never got tired of watching the jungle change or seeing new stuff along the way.
Viewing river banks X

There were some places that I just wanted to stop and hang out for a while. I really liked this house on a little hill above the river with excellent view. I suppose they have some cattle to keep the grass mowed around the house.
River house X

This was my constant companion on the voyage. It is a Thermo King refrigeration unit on the truck box.
Thermo King X

This darn thing was keeping the cargo at a temperature between 4 and 6 degrees Celsius. When it got above six degrees it would start up and run for about five minutes at low idle and then blast up to full speed for maybe fifteen minutes, then back down to low idle for a couple of minutes. It would be off for maybe ten or fifteen minutes which was wonderful. Now imagine being surrounded by another ten or so units at different distances and on their own time schedule. It was noisy but I didn’t seem to mind it for the first few days. After five days of this constant noise, it got really irritating and I was glad to finally get off the barge.

As we finally got near Manaus we saw lots of shipping activity along the banks. I forgot to mention that the river is a high water or flood stage now. The book says that the river goes down about fifty feet during the dry season. They were loading this boat with those shipping containers.
Shipping containers X

I was the fist one off the barge when we hit the dock. I had to wait until they got some of the trucks and truck boxes off before I could get my bike off and back on dry (well sort of dry as it is the rainy season don’t forget) land.
Off in the Zone X

When Jim finally got off we went up to get out of the loading area we had to stop at a guard shack. I pulled up next to the shack and Jim was behind me and stopped behind a truck tractor that was parked there. As soon as he stopped, the truck started backing up and he had only a splint second to get it in gear and try to make it out of the way. He didn’t make it and the truck hit him in the saddlebag and almost knocked him over. It was a glancing blow and it put a long gash in his bag but fortunately he wasn’t hurt or the bike damaged severely. Wow, even when you think you are safe and in no danger, you gotta be on guard and ready to react. When we went into the guard shack the guy wanted my document. Document? What the hell is that, passport, title to the bike, oh, maybe the little paper that they gave me when I paid my freight bill? I was lucky enough to find that and handed it over. That was what he wanted and I told Jim what he needed. Well, going through several rain events in a small leaky tent on the barge had one time found that little paper of Jim’s and he tossed it as it was nothing but a wet little rag that he thought he would never need. The only reason I kept mine was there was no place to throw it away other than the river (the river is a garbage disposal area on these barges, everything goes overboard).
The guard was informed that Jim had lost his paper by the group of truckers that were all around us. These are the same truckers we just spent five days with. You could tell that they were working on Jim’s behalf and finally the guard said that my paper would be ok and went back in and came out with two papers allowing us to get going. These truckers were great and I know they told the guards that we needed to get going and hurried us through as much as possible. It was another big round of hand shakes and slapping each other on the shoulder and we finally got out of there.
Manaus is a big town and we didn’t have any idea of where to go other than I remembered something about an area called zona franca being a hotel area. After several quick questions about where that might be, we ended up in an area that has several hotels and we got one with bike parking. It isn’t the fanciest place, but it isn’t that bad either. We drug a lot of our gear up to the room and I got my tent out of its bag and hung it up to dry. When we got up in the morning we had both tried to get our tents dry, but nothing dries well in this humidity in the morning. The air-conditioned in the room takes some of the humidity out of the air and I got mine dry. Jim hung his up over night and it got dry too, finally. We had been living on a steel deck with frequent showers, the guys cooking throwing water everywhere, and each of the thermo kings peeing water constantly. It is good to have everything dry again. The room looks like a tornado hit here or some flood refugees are here but we are very happy to be on dry land, with good beds and a shower. We stopped for an hour or so on the way down at a place where a small river met the Maderia. It was much cleaner water and the buzz around deck was we were stopping to take on fresh water. I couldn’t figure out what they meant by that since we didn’t hook up to a hose or anything from shore but finally realized what they meant when I saw guys dipping water out of the river and filling their water jugs with it. A bunch of guys came over and were giving each other showers so I put my swimming suit on and joined them. It was great as I was pretty grubby after three days. Jim decided that he wanted to go for a swim. Everyone was aghast and told him not to do it. They didn’t know Jim and I tried to talk him out of it too but he had his mind made up that he was going in and he did. He didn’t stay in too long and when he was ready to get out the truckers grabbed him and drug him on board. I was glad to see he didn’t have any holes bitten out of him. He told me later that he went down to the pusher boat and got in again. The truckers there thought he had lost his mind as well and were happy to drag him back on the boat. So, he made two successful swims in a river teeming with piranhas and alligators as well as electric eels and who knows what else. Dumb lucky bastard, but hell, what a story to tell when he gets home, eh? All I told him was that it is a good thing I caught and the guys killed, the bad-est fish in the river before he got in it.

3-5-06

We checked the airport and found out that it is possible to ship the bikes out of here on Wednesday and we can grab a flight any day for Miami so we are seriously considering it, or we can ride on up to Venezuela and take off from there.
3-6-06
we go to the airport after posting this nad see about the bike transport

some photos but no text

2006-03-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

here are a few photos of the last week. i am not able to post the text part of the log so i thought you might like a few photos to hold over till i get a chance to post the log. a thousand kilometers of jungle adn in the Amazon.....

Ariquemes

2006-02-26T03:49:00.000-08:00

A quick update on the after effects of my high speed dismount. I feel fine and not even sore other than what must be a small internal bruise on my hip that I feel at night when I sleep on that side. That scrape on my shin is about the size of a nickel and darn thing never did bleed. It is really amazing how not only was I ok after the accident but the bike is not damaged either. Well the windscreen isnt the same but none of the mirrors broken or any mechanical parts. Jim did say that my bike is starting to look like a used one...........

2-24-06

Woke up this morning and went out to see the bikes. The little hogs were there checking them out.
hogs X

Down the road we passed a guy pulling a trailer delivering beer. These are quite common and they haul everything in them.
hauling beer X

we stopped along the road while Jim did a little adjustment on his bike. It involves unpacking.
Jim repairing X

The road sort of closed up here with the jungle closing in on us.
Jungle Jim on his kow-a-suckie X

When we pulled into this town we saw a store that sold Pirelli tires for motorcycles. I was getting really thin on my rear one after just five thousand miles of pavement. They had a somewhat aggressive Pirelli and I went for it as I really don’t want to have any problems with tires if possible. Jim decided to get one too as his tire had some serious gouges that were caused by the bolts holding on his voltage regulator he had mounted on his rear fender. The gouges had gone into the tire and down to the cord layer. We are both glad to have new tires but darn things were somewhat expensive. When we were in the shop I snapped this photo of their wrecker side hack. They use it to get bikes that need repair. They work on bikes as well as sell tires for them. I really liked this little outfit and it reminded me of the ones that the Harley dealer had in San Francisco when I lived there back in the sixties.
Wrecker hack X

2-25-06
both yesterday and today started out overcast and it was really nice to ride in the cool air. It seems like it always gets hot soon enough and in the afternoon it seems to rain. On our way out of town we stopped and hit a couple of banks before we found one that would accept our cards. After the warm cash was in our pockets, we headed out of town. We both just had to stop and get a photo of this auto parts store.
Auto parts store X

When we were stopped at a gas station we were surrounded like ususal and this guy rides up on a hack with his mechanic tools in it. he was really interested in the big bikes. These little side hacks are very popular here and I have not seen them outside of Brazil.
Mechanic side hack X

Going through another little town Jim passed this guy. I thought it was interesting how similar a load they were hauling. Jim with a 650cc and this guy with a 125cc. I am not sure what they haul in these gray jugs but could be water or milk.
Packing stuff X

I had my jacket off and this guy came down to check it out. I wonder if he could sting thourgh it?
wasp X

We made it only about 350 miles today. We stopped at a gas station and I got some oil as I needed to change my oil. Jim did the same and we ended up changing it right there. When I checked my saddle bags, I realized that one of the main supports for the saddle bag had broken. Those Happy Trails bags have some problems with the mounts. Actually there were two other hair line fractures in the mounts as well as the main break. We found a hotel and I rode back and got it welded up at a pretty tough looking truck fix it place. The guy had an old three phase welder that he just hung the bare wires on the incoming breaker box. All this while standing on a wooden chair in a big puddle of water. the shop was leaking like a sieve in the rain. He searched around and finally found some small rod and with a very small welding shield held in his hand, welded up my mounts. i sure wish i cuould have done the welding myself but it looks like it may hold for a while at least. I have a lot of weight in those bags and i can see how the miles of rough road can be really hard on those mounts, but i would think that that is what they would engineer those mounts for. I suppose most folks that buy those bags dont put them to the extream of the back road over the andes, ruta 40 to terra del fuego and the freaking topes (speed bumps) of central and south america.

dog rolls over but does not die

2006-02-24T15:51:00.000-08:00

2-22-06

It was a long fast ride today. We went a little over 500 miles and ended up in a little town called Coxim in a hotel that is right on the Coxim River. When we left Bonito and headed toward Campo Grande the traffic was light and the road in pretty good shape. After Campo Grande the highway was well packed with big trucks and we rolled right along with them. These bikes can pass those trucks even on the down hill stretches and we passed them all sooner or later. I really like passing about twenty of them at a time when they are stopped waiting for road construction. I just pull over to the shoulder and ride to the front and the flag man always seems to like it. everyone seems to like the bikes.

We went by a 2-22-06

lot of sugar cane and soybeans.
Sugar cane X

Soybeans X

We stopped at a gas station and I got the camera out to take a photo of this cement mixer and the hod carriers that they evidently use instead of wheelbarrows.
Cement hods X

I also took this photo of the side of this truck as I think they method that they use to make the sides of the truck. These sides can be lowered down 1/3 or all the way off. Pretty neat method I think. I see the trucks loaded sometimes half one height and half another.
Truck side X

As I was taking the photo of this truck the truck driver started up the truck and opened the door and got out and confronted me. Oops, I told him I was from the USA and we didn’t have trucks like that up there. He was pissed but got back in his truck and pulled out and I was happy to see him leave and not try to stomp the sh*t out of me.
Here is another example of a common drinking cup. I don’t remember when the last time I have seen something like this for public use.
Common cup X

As we were traveling down the highway we came upon a couple of cops standing in the highway and when they saw us they motioned us to stop. The guy that was taking with Jim was motioning for him to get out his motorcycle papers and the guy that stopped me asked it I was American. I said I was ustadious unidos and he motioned me to move along. Jim played dumb and the guy finally motioned him to move along as well. Whew, that was a close one and we leaned to play dumb and not even try to speak Portuguese.
We took the little road that pointed to Coxim and went down that road more than a mile to find a little town on the banks of a river. We found a hotel right on the river and we got a room. When we had ridden down the street, we both looked for an internet store but didn’t see one. After we got our room I asked the neighbor at the music store where the internet was and after much talk, which I understood not one word, he got out a pen and paper and drew a map. I tried to figure out what they said and finally recognized plaza and on the map where it was. I took off on my bike and rode for a half mile and finally came to a business area and looked but couldn’t see any internet name or looking store anywhere. I finally jumped up on the sidewalk next to a store that looked like they might know where one might be. The big door was open and the guys in there were sure surprised to see me come riding up. When I asked about internet they got into a big discussion and finally cleaned off their desk and invited me to use it. wow, what a deal. It was fairly fast and I was able to post some photos from the last log that I was unable to post as well as the log about Bonito along with those photos. As I was working out on the computer I head a noise and looked out to see my bike under what looked like a huge water fall. Wow, can it rain down here in the tropics!!!! It rained and rained and I was happy to be inside and nothing to do but wait for those photos to upload. When I was finally done I asked them how much I owed them. They said no, no and indicated no charge. They had been having a good time talking with everyone who stopped to look at my bike and I guess they enjoyed the celebrity status that they had for that time. These people are really nice and even though we don’t speak the same language, we can have fun and get things done.
When I came back I went down to the river just out side our door. Here is a stitched together photo taking in down river and up river and the sun set. The river is flood stage and just rolling along. Lots of water in a hurry to get to the Amazon. The river is the Coxim and it is huge. This is just one little river that is heading down to the Amazon, cant wait to see the big one…..
Coxim River X

2-23-06

I know I have several friends praying for me as well as I have Roger’s Saint Christopher medal in the tank compartment. Well, today all of those things saved my life or at least prevented serious injury. It is a story that started out in the morning when I went in to take this photo of the showerhead. These are common where the weather is warm. They are electric heaters and when you turn the water on slow, it heats up the water and you have a warm shower. If you turn the water on high, you have a cold shower, as it can’t heat that much water fast. So you adjust the flow for the temperature you want.
Showerhead X

The road was full of trucks and the going was slow and the road was not in very good shape. We came to a little town and the traffic was backed up but I took the side street and passed up a bunch of trucks stopped. When the side street played out I snuck in between a couple of trucks and headed out in the oncoming lane. There didn’t seem to be any traffic coming that way so I cautiously passed a mile or two of trucks. There doesn’t seem to be any busses and there is very little car traffic on this road. When I got to the end of the line of trucks, I could see a tanker semi on its side across the highway. There was absolutely no way to squeeze by it on a motorcycle and I figured we were done for. It would take most of the day to get it out of the road if it was full of fuel or loaded with something dangerous it could take two days as you just don’t put a cable around a tank on one of those things and try to stand it up. Oh that was going to be an interesting project and I picked out a nice spot in the shade of a tree and parked my bike. Jim came up and motioned that there was a side farm road and maybe we could use it to get by the accident. Wow!!! Way cool Jim, and we charged down that little road. It had rained a lot and there were really muddy spots but we finally made it through and out the other side and passed a couple of miles of trucks going the other way.
Trucks waiting to pass the accident X

Wow, we really aced it today and I cant help but thank Jim big time for spotting that road. It was nice that the cops hadn’t closed it yet either. I think we were both grinning ear to ear after that score.
We stopped at a gas station and I snapped a shot of a Alcool pump. They sell a lot of alcohol for fuel here and I keep trying to not get the gas mixed with alcohol.
Alcool X

I rode by thousands and thousands of acres of soybeans in this area. The fields are huge and the trucks carrying the beans to the storage area fill the road. When one goes by with the cover not firmly attached, it is like getting shot with bee bees with the beans flying out of the truck box. I went by one place where there were five combines working on the last little piece of a field.
Five combines X

We were not too far from Cuiaba when we hit a little rain shower. It wasn’t too bad and we just kept going. Sometimes when it is cold and going to rain, Jim will stop and put on his rain gear over his riding coat. We made it through most of the rain and were on a two lane divided road. The country had turned into jungle for the most part and we were getting into some hilly country. when the country gets hilly, the farms get smaller. There was still a lot of truck traffic and I was just passing a truck and trailer when I thought I had a blow out or something like that. The rear end of the bike just went wild and I was unable to keep it up. It all happened so fast, I cant really say exactly how it happened but I do remember pushing off from the bike and at one point thinking to tuck my hands to my chest. I know I did one shoulder roll and several log rolls down the highway. I ended up in the grass of the jungle along the side of the road. Wow, what a way to get off at somewhere around 55 or 60. I felt fine and got up and went out to the bike and turned off the gas that was starting to spill on the highway. I went to the rear tire and gave it a kick expecting it to be flat but it was not. I then went to the front tire and gave it a kick. It too was ok. Humm. I remember that the pavement at the place where I went down was a place where the highway department had married a couple of roads and there were yellow lines and dashed lines all over as well as some lines that they had scraped in the pavement and then filled with paint. These areas were depressed a little and could have held some rain water or just slick. There was a difference in the pavement height of an inch or so too. So, you can see that there were several things happening in that area that all or some of them got the back of the bike to start wallowing. The bike is so heavy I guess I couldn’t get it out of it and down it went.
I am absolutely amazed at how well that Aerostitch coat and pants protected me. This is the second time I have been down with that coat and the first with the pants. There are a few holes scraped in them but I only have one little ¾ inch scrape just below my knee for damage to my body. I actually don’t even feel sore but maybe by morning I will feel some affects of my body sliding and rolling down the highway 150 yards or so.
So, all you folks thinking good thoughts and praying for me… THANK YOU…
And a special thanks Roger for your St. Christopher.

I rode with caution for several miles after the accident and finally met Jim coming back to see what had happened to me. It turns out a truck, probably the one I was passing, stopped where he had stopped when he noticed I was not behind him anymore. He has to do that every so often when I stop and take a photo of something and catch up later or he will stop and wait. The truck driver motioned to Jim that something had rolled over and over and pointed back down the highway. Jim with dread in his heart, headed back just knowing that I was probably dead or really screwed up laying along the highway. He was very glad to see me…….. especially riding my bike…..

The bike took a hard slide on the right side and somehow flipped over and when I picked it up, it was on its left side. About the only thing that happened to it was the windscreen was broken and the aluminum pannier and tank pannier were well scraped.
Dog scratches X

I had picked up the broken windscreen and we stopped at a truck repair place where a kid cut and fastened the broken piece to the remaining pieces of the windscreen.
Fitting windscreen X

We rode again down that road until it started getting late and it looked like it was going to rain.
Looks like rain X

We pulled into a little restaurant and had a coke while we waited for the rain to stop. We must have been on the edge of the storm, as it didn’t rain buckets like it had the day before.
Rain X

A VERY LUCKY DOG

Bonito downtown

2006-02-22T13:26:00.000-08:00

2-20-06
Bonito downtown

I took a walk around town and here is some of what I saw.
Bees at work in the yard of the hotel. They are really small and don’t ‘bite’ the guy said. They give a very special high priced honey that is good for everything.
Honey bees X

Flowers X

Hotel dog X

This is the way some of the sidewalks are done. It is really confusing to look and walk on.
Wiggles X

This is easier to navigate and it sure is pretty when washed like this section has been.
Black and white X

I saw this guy setting the stones for a new pavement project. He taps each stone down hard in a bed of sand with a hammer. Then they grout the stones in place.
Paver X

Paver work X

I was going down the street and came to the Moto-Taxi depot or at least where quite a few of them were hanging out. They were more than pleased to pose with their motos. One guy is holding what they called in Argentina ‘yerba mate’ but I think they call it something else here. it is some sort of leaf ground up and they put that in a gourd cup and add hot water. They have a straw with a strainer at the bottom that they drink out of. Everybody is drinking this stuff and they add hot water to the cup and drink again. almost everyone carries a vacuum bottle for their drink. Anyway, I talked with a one of these taxi drivers last night and it cost three ‘reals’ to go anyplace in town. They have a helmet for the passenger and off you go. Three reals is about a buck and a half.
Moto taxi X

Not far down the street I saw this guy delivering packages. I saw him several other places later so I guess that is one of his businesses.
Delivery hack X

There is a water supply store in town and I caught this hack there all loaded up.
Water hack X

There were three guys that were unloading the truck and all by hand, or back.
Water delivery X

I went up the street a couple of blocks to see the feed store where I had seen some saddles the night before. I wanted to take some photos for my friend Charlie.
Here is saddle blanket that I think is made out of wool and woven together with cord.
Saddle blanket X

Next comes the saddle and they are quite different than western ones.
Saddle X

Here is another saddle that is locally made.
Local saddle X

Next over the saddle is this pad with some sort of hair and I am not sure what kind. The guy seemed to say that is was horsetail hair but I think it was some sort of coarse sheep wool that has been tied in half hitch fashion to the topside of this coarse weave blanket.
Pad X

Pad detail X

Tied on X

Here is the saddle with the top layer on and a chinch strap over it that evidently holds it all in place. There is a chinch rigging on the saddle too but this chinch holds the pad and top layer in place.
Saddle and chinch X

Ah, here is the store clerk with a cattle-calling horn that he took out in the street and gave me a demo. Evidently this is the way they call the cattle in from the bush. There was a smaller horn made from only one cow horn but this one is made from five or six horns. It was way cool and makes a great sound. Gosh, I wish I could have gotten it and brought it home, then I could hire out as a cow caller….
Calling cows X

The store clerk was really nice and when his brother came in he introduced me to him as a ‘real’ cowboy. It would be really cool to be able to talk with these guys in Portuguese.
This was a really nice ranch supply store. There was a good supply of gate hardware, fencing supplies, vet stuff and a wide variety of cool stuff. Here is a nice little milking machine setup.
Milking machine X

They had a good selection of rope and lariats.
Rope X

I liked this little wood stove.
Wood stove X

Bonito is a nice little town and has been fun to walk around in. It is going to become a tourist town and I am glad I had the opportunity to visit it when it was still somewhat ‘real’.

2006-02-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

well, i got some of them posted.

photos

Bonito and Mario farm

2006-02-21T16:07:00.000-08:00

well, not sure why i cant post photos wiht this log either so will post it and try adding the photos later.

2-18-06

At this rate of travel we might not make it home, but we don’t care. We are in Brazil and all is well in the world. We made it through the border in fairly easy manner with no long lines and he border folks were actually very nice. That is a BIG difference from other borders we have gone through. Jim remarked at how different it is down here compared to the Central American countries. Yes indeed, quite a difference. It is hot but not as hot as it will get I am sure. It is humid here as well and I am sure it will get wetter as we get further north. I did read something in the guidebook about a desert that we will be crossing through so my spirits picked up dramatically.
We are in Iguazu I think that is the name of this town just across the border from Iguazu, Argentina. We pulled in here rather late after a slow start looking for maps and dealing with the border paper work. We only have 45 days on our visa but that should be plenty unless there is some problem down the road. We asked for a 90-day visa but were only given the 45. They say it is not big problem to extend it if necessary.
When we got into town we decided to go right away to a bank and get some BZ money. I found two big banks right across the street from each other and when I went in and tried my card it said it would not allow it as it was cirrus at one bank and wouldn’t give me anything at the other. I couldn’t read the reason as it was in Portuguese, I guess. Jim is having some real fun with that language. He is learning from the border guards as well as the restaurant owner we met down town. The owner turns out to be Palestinian and sure is a nice guy. He has good food too and when it came to pay, he allowed us to use Argentine money. At these South American borders there are not the guys with wads of bills ready to change your money. The restaurant guy not only let us pay but changed our money into BZ money. I don’t think we got that good of a rate, but now we had the currency of the country we were in. I actually had some when I changed my Chile money two days before.
We went out looking for a map and another bank to try. Jim finally found a bookstore with maps and we found a pharmacia that had a bank machine in it. bingo! More cash now so we were feeling good. I checked with the pharmacia and they had some of those pills that I took back in Cuszco that got rid of my diarrhea. I bought a couple of doses and figure that they could come in real handy down the road.
We were going to hit the Paraguay border and ride up through the eastern side of the country but were warned off of that route by several locals as well at the border army guy that helped Jim figure out some details on his map. They warned us about that part of the country being a network of drug trafficking as well as it has the worst roads anywhere in South America. I don’t think the trafficking and the bad roads deterred either Jim or me, but neither of us really wanted to go to Paraguay. It is just another border and we would have to buy another visa.

2-19-06
A view of the top of a wall that surrounded the place where we parked the bikes last night. This sort of thing is very common everywhere in south and Central America.
Glass top wall X

We rode through farm country again as the ground opened up and there were farmers growing soybeans and corn. There was other stuff growing, but that and grass was the main crop.
Farms X

We stopped at a service station for Jim to have a smoke and use the toilet. When I came out from the toilet a guy driving a tractor pulled up next to the yellow dog and went in. I like farm country, it makes me feel at home.
Tractor and yellow dog X

We stopped at another station and this guy comes up and starts talking to me. I eased him over to Jim but he then switched to English, well sort of. He was hard to understand but I got out of him that he was a farmer around there and had been for fifty years. He said that farming was no good now there. I took it to mean that there was no money in farming anymore there. I think that is a common reality all over, at least I think that is getting to be the situation in the US. The banks and other financial organizations are making money as well as chemical and energy but the farmers are just hanging on. There was a water dispenser at that station and it was in this old freezer. It had two spigots and a tin cup on a string for people to drink. I watched several folks drink out of that cup while I was filling up with gas. I don’t think I have seen a communal drinking cup for a long time. I guess there are no communicable diseases down here or they don’t care.
Cold water X

Here are some guys planting corn. There was corn in every stage from just planted to being harvested with combines. In yard gardens, they had corn growing in several different stages from six inches to ready to eat.
Corn x

I caught this combine harvesting soybeans. Some of the fields were dried off like this one, and some guys were harvesting what looked like green fields. Not sure what the deal is on harvesting green soybeans.
Combine X

We passed a few of these shantytowns that were right along the right of way along the highway. They were mostly made from wood scraps and plastic. They must be terribly hot in the day. They were mostly closed up today and not sure why. It is Sunday and maybe they are gone to town or maybe they are working someplace else. There were a few residents around and I saw a few little two wheel carts made from old car axels and a couple of old very skinny horses. These folks must work on the farms around here but not sure why they have to live on the highway.
Shanty town X

We rode through mostly overcast skies this morning and got into thunderstorms in the afternoon. The thunderstorms were mostly just around the edges and all in all it was a wonderful day on the road.
Thunder storm X

We made it to Dourados in late afternoon and cruzed into town. It is a nice town and we rode around looking for a hotel. We finally found one after I asked a guy by tilting my head with my hands for a pillow and saying ‘hotel’. My old sign language and English seems to work even down here in Portuguese speaking land. Jim is having a great time with the locals learning new words and making new friends as usual.

1-20-06

Another nice day to ride.
Good road X

We stopped at a gas station for some lunch and Jim sent a guy over to talk to me. It turns out he is a farmer and Jim said I needed to talk with a farmer. They guy was Brazilian but spoke really good English although he hadn’t spoken it in quite a while. He runs about 2600 cattle on a ranch just north of Bonito but he lives in Sao Paulo. He was one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. He said that the farming cycle was very short here and it was at a low peak now. I guess there is some sort of disease like mad cow or hoof and mouth that is going around and their export business is dead. I asked him if he raised the Brahma cattle but he said that they were not raised here but they raise Zebu cattle from India. He said there were maybe thirty different kinds of Zebu cattle but most are white or light brown. He said the European cattle don’t do well here in the tropic region but the Zebu with their light skin and short hair, do very well. He doesn’t raise cattle but just buys calves and feeds them on his grass. He has three cowboys that look after the cattle but I think that was only part time. He said he has plenty of grass even if it doesn’t rain for 60 days but he says it always rains and the grass stays green from the ground moisture.
White cattle X

The guy was so friendly and asked many times if he could do anything for us. he sure wanted to please which seems common around these parts.

We finally pulled into Bonito which is a tourist town for visitors to the panatal which is a major wet lands here. We stopped at a tourist information place but that guy sent us on to a little hotel and tour place where he said the guy spoke English. It turned out to be a really nice little place and the young man spoke very good English and told Jim all about the tours that were available. Jim is going on a tour in the morning and I didn’t want to go but when the owner came in from his farm and found out that I was a farmer, he invited me to go out to the farm tomorrow and visit it with him. He says he loves it out there and it is just a small farm, but he doesn’t care. He said that land prices have gone up three hundred percent in three years but the farms don’t make any more money. It is probably just that the land prices were so low and people found out about it and the area will develop as a tourist center. Too bad for this area in some ways but good in others if they control development in critical environmental areas. He said if I wanted to he would give me the key and I could set up my tent and camp next to the river for a couple of days. That seems to be the way these people are down here. Cool eh? I will go out with him tomorrow and check it out. He is actually Argentinean and married a Brazilian woman. He has spent time in Canada and lived in Alaska years ago. His English is a little hard for me to understand, as is all language with my poor ears.

2-21-06
Jim baled out on going on the eco tour after deciding that I would have a lot more fun going to the hotel owners farm and seeing real stuff. I am certainly sure he was right considering how he is familiar with being run through the chute at many other tourist places. I guess he decided that he didn’t need that professional experience here in Brazil in the tropical forest after all.
While we were waiting for the owner to show up a guy came into the yard and asked if we wanted to buy some beer. He showed us a bottle of homemade beer. I think Jim would have taken him up on it if it had been later in the day but at eleven in the morning, he passed on it. it looked pretty good though.
Beer X

We loaded into Mario’s truck and drove around town picking up some cowboys that he hires to work on his farm. Mario is really quite a character and we started having fun and learning about the country right away.
Mario X

One of the first things we saw was one of these mounds and I have wanted to ask someone what the hell they were. I thought they were either termite or anthills. It turns out that they are termite hills. He says that they have to use a bar and something like a small post hole digger to make a hole in them and put poison it the hole to kill them. they are very destructive to the trees and need to be controlled.
Termite hill X

When we got to the farm, there were dogs to pet and I took advantage of that to give out a few pets I have been saving up for just such an occasion.
Dog pets X

Mario said that the big black dog is some sort of dog that is raised around here and is used to hunt or protect from jaguars. Evidently they are not afraid of them and will try to kill them. She was a fairly good pet but didn’t love them nearly as much as the brown dog, she likes pets a lot.
Good dogs X

A nice flowering bush was there and I snapped this photo for my flower friends.
Flowering bush X

We went out to see Mario’s cattle. They are the Zebu cattle and they all looked in very good shape. You have to watch the cattle and look at them differently than the ones I am used to looking at so see they are really nice stock. He buys weanlings and keeps them for two or three years and then sells them. they don’t make a lot of money but they pay the expenses of the cowboys and the farm. He was very pleased that I liked his cattle.
White cattle X

He has a couple of new building on his place, one for his cowboys and the other is a place for his family when they come out. This is the stove in his place.
Kitchen stove X

We went by a place where I think the cowboys cook. It was a really cool stove and it looked like it had just been given a new coat of mud ‘paint’.
Cowboy stove X

On the way home we met some cowboys on the road. I had told Mario that a friend in Montana named Charlie that had asked me to send photos of cowboys if I got a chance. I have not taken photos of people mostly because I don’t like to impose on them and some folks don’t like it. Mario stopped and asked these guys if it was ok for me to take pictures. They said sure and I was able to walk around and talk and take photos. They were really nice and thought it was fun. I really liked these guys and wish I could have really talked with them.
Cowboys X

Rope X

Stirrup X

Vet stuff X

Young cowboy X This was a very cool little kid and so proud to be with the men.

Knives X

I looked at a set up like this in a store and one of them is a steel for sharpening the knife.

This Mario is quite a guy. he speaks five languages and his use of the english language is fantastic. he worked for american express for years and did well and saved his money and uses it wisely. we talked of politics and world affairs and are both of the opinion that we can do well without politicians. Rx

iguazu dog

2006-02-18T08:52:00.000-08:00

2-16-06

The forests got thicker. The population got a little poorer. There are still tree farms but they look like they are being taken over by other plants.
We stopped in a little town and had lunch. We usually look around and find one that has tables on the street. It is really nice to watch the traffic, especially the women.
Street lunch X

We made it into Iguazu fairly early and found a place to stay with parking for the bikes. It looks like it will be a long day at the falls if what other people are saying is correct.
I stopped at a money exchange place and changed my Chilean money into Brazilian and Jim got out a big wad of bills that he has collected from central America on down. That wad will have to be exchanged tomorrow, as they didn’t know what the exchange rate was on some of them. we will have to hit them after ten thirty as well as hit the Brazilian embassy for visas. Evidently the Paraguay border is where we get the visas for them.
I was at an internet place and just getting up to pay my bill when a lady comes up to me and askes ‘are you Rex the BMW Dog? I was stunned, how could anyone know me down here? it turned out that Jim had met her and told her all about me and where I was. Jim, always looking for a way to jerk my chain….. She was a rather interesting lady. She was a BMW motorcycle rider for years but a few years ago she was in a car accident and can no longer ride. she is from Toronto but comes down for the winter. She has a ranch near Buenos Areis. She said that the ranches used to make lots of money but now lots of the ranches take in guests to try to make ends meet. I guess that money devaluation thing that happened a few years ago changed everything down here. there still is money, but not as much as there was. Traveling is much cheaper here than almost anywhere I have been so far.

2-17-06
We went to the Brazilian consulate this morning and got visas. Mine cost me 120 bucks but Jim got his cheaper. The guy says that they charge what the US charges their citizens to go to the US. After that we went to the money exchange and Jim tried to exchange some of the bills he got in central America. The guy took forever and finally told him that they couldn’t figure out what they were worth but he would give him two buck for them just to put them under glass on the counter. Jim didn’t go for that and will try the exchange at home at his bank or wall paper with them.
We next got on our bikes and headed out to see the falls. They changed us ten bucks to get in. They gave us a map and Jim found out from the info gal that there was a small train that would take us out to see the falls and that it was free. I could hardly believe it, free.
Train X

There were sheep chutes for us to walk through to get out to the falls.
Sheep chutes X

The falls were really spectacular for sure. There is a lot of water falling here and it is all happening at a place where three countries come together, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.
Top X

Falls X

Falls2 X

We saw a couple of animals on the trails. One was this monkey.
Monkey X
left out the monkey photo
The other was a really nice lizard that was about two feet long.
Lizard X

On the way back to town and our hotel I snapped this photo of a halftrack outside a military installation along the road. It sure looks like a cool jungle cruzer.
Halftrack X

I am not feeling well tonight. I have a headache probably from too much sun and not enough water intake. They were charging three prices for water out there and I didn’t take water with me like a dumb tourist……

2006-02-15T14:21:00.000-08:00

2-13-06

What a beautiful morning today. I wanted to find a bolt to replace the one I borrowed from Jim as it really was too small. We started out at the Honda shop but that was a worthless attempt. While I was in the Honda shop Jim was asked by a radio man if he and I would be interviewed on the radio. Sure, he said, and he went on the radio live and gave a description of our travels. The guy came over to me and started asking me questions and wanted me to talk on the little cell phone that was plugged in live to the radio but all I could say was ‘tengo mal oido’ which means I cant hear sh+t.
Jim radio X

He did point us to a shop he called a bolt shop just down the street. I thought, yah, sure, a bolt shop in this little town but when we went down the street here is this little shop with a big bolt for a sign hanging over the door. Too, much I thought. I took the bolt out and went in and with lots of gestures and sign language, got a bolt somewhat longer and a little fatter. I had to check a couple of them for size before I got the right one. Meanwhile, Jim finishes talking with several people who just pop up and want to talk. This happens everywhere we stop. Jim came in and I was able to get a locking nut and washer. I did have to make a few drawings, my mechanical drawing skills came in handy, but I also got four new bolts that will hold the saddlebags on if they should break or come loose again. I never did understand if they were hardened ones or just soft ones. Either way at least I have four new ones with washers and self-locking nuts. They appear to be good ones. This town is one of the first real farm towns we have been in for quite a while. There was a Massey and a John Deere store as well as several other types of farm equipment stores. It was nice to be in farm country again.
We finally blasted out of town and made it down the road to a piss stop or gas stop and Jim noticed one of his bolts that hold on his foot peg was gone. Fortunately the bolt I had given him back that he had in his pocket, fit. How is that for luck? That is the way things are. Aint life great?
I had been looking for oil for the oil change I needed but had only found 15x40 in all the gas stations I tried. In that little town we found a oil store and dropped in to check it out. They had the 20x50 I needed and it appears to be good oil. Jim bought a quart too as his bike is using oil. After over 60 thousand miles, I guess it has reason to get a little thirsty.
Jim got to thinking about his oil and decided to do an oil change too. He was able to find some more oil at a gas station but they couldn’t find a pan to drain our oil into so off we went.
I saw a small mechanic outfit along the road and stopped and told Jim that I would like to see if we could change our oil there. We pulled in and this guy with a great big belly, two teeth and a bunch of tattoos came out and shook hands all around. When Jim asked him if we could change oil there he said sure. He moved his car out and we moved our bikes in. it turns out he is a motorcycle man and was tickled that we had stopped. While Jim was changing his oil I asked him about his motorcycle and he took me over to the other shop and showed me a Honda 500 that he has set up for racing. He then took me over to his house and showed me a table filled with big trophies that he had won on motorcycles. Way cool……
He told Jim that we could use any of his tools and let us have the shop. When we were done I took over twenty pesos and had a hell of a time getting him to take it. I just talked to him in English and he talked Spanish and we both understood. We both talk bikes and the breed.
We rode through miles and miles of big farmland today. It is like riding through the heartland of the US. Miles and miles of corn and soybeans. There was some cattle grazing and I did see what I think was a group of cows being grazed intensively. It was hard to tell at that distance. There is supposed to be a lot of beef grazers down here that are doing the intensive rotational grazing method.
I really don’t like riding through this area of big farms as I know they are all chemical outfits. When you see a field of several hundred acres and there is not one weed in it you know that some hard chemistry is going on. I did see a couple of spray planes passing over.
I got to one area and couldn’t figure out why all the leaves were gone off the corn. I was wondering if they somehow grazed it off and then I noticed that across the highway the leaves were stripped off the soybeans. I stopped Jim and pointed out that they must have gotten a hell of a hail storm that ran right through there. Jim is not a farmer and he doesn’t see those sorts of things. I hope he doesn’t get too pissed at me for pointing out all the farm stuff that I see along the way.
We didn’t make a lot of miles today with the bolt stuff and oil changes but it was a good day to ride. it is getting a lot warmer up here and it is getting darker sooner too. We were up town and ordering supper and Jim pointed out that it was 8;30 and when we were in Ushuaia it was getting dark at 11;00. when we get to the equator again it will be getting dark at six and getting light at six, year round.
We think the town is San Lorenzo and it is like the other towns that we have been to up here in Argentina. It doesn’t get going until nine at night. There is the most amazing array of motorcycles, motor scooters, bicycles, cars, trucks and all charging down the road looking for a little space to get in to. Many of the cars and lots of the scooters drive with no lights. The cars drive with parking lights mostly and even the cops drive with parking lights. We ate out on the sidewalk and ever now and then some guys would see our bikes and come over and talk bikes and traveling. Jim really has a wonderful time talking with them. his Spanish is really getting good even though they speak differently down here than they do in Mexico and Central America. He says that their pronunciation is different and in some areas they talk so fast he cant understand them. He is so good with people and everyone seems to just love him. When I come out of the restroom at a gas station, women and men asking questions and having a good time will often surround him. I am not much on people but Jim loves ‘em.
We stopped at an internet shop on the way back to the hotel but there were several young kids we didn’t like the looks of hanging around and Jim stayed outside while I read a couple of quick emails. I didn’t get a chance to answer them as I didn’t want to keep him waiting. I like to give a quick response if I can, as I really appreciate you folks taking the time to write me and let me know what is happening in your life. It is SO good to get your letters even if it is just to say hi and you enjoyed a photo.

2-14-06

this morning I took this photo of some type of flowering bush outside the hotel.
Flowering bush X

We had a nice ride today through some nice country. the big farms sort of played out and we started getting into smaller farms and often broken country with grazing and brush and some trees. There have always been trees but they are ones that have been planted as wind breaks or firewood forests. There sure is a lot of eucalyptus grown in south America. I guess it grows well in many places and makes wonderful wood, or at least some varieties do. There have been all along the highway spots where they have small wood lots growing, Jim says that they are called Descanso on the little road side signs.
Descanso X

We see many people stopped using them as parks. On Sunday there were lots of folks out along the road with picnic gear and camp chairs in these spots. Most of the right of way is taken up with farm crops, mostly soybeans and some sunflowers.
The trucks around here are mostly single axel type but they pull enormous trailers with them. I tried to get a photo of one of the nicer older Mercedes Benz trucks but when you want one, there are none around. This is one of the newer trucks and a large one with one of the trailers with three axels. It seems like some of the trucks are even smaller with bigger trailers than this.
Truck trailer X

There are a few log trucks and I got a nice shot of this load coming through.
Log truck X
We were stopped at a pay booth on this expressway and met this old guy on a scooter. He gave Jim detailed instructions on how to get to the road we wanted. I know he gave good directions, but sometimes those details get a little complicated especially when given rapidly in Spanish. We made it through the maze of highways and across the river by going under a river in a long tunnel. Wow, what a trip this is turning out to be….. We are off the main tourist path and we both sure do like the towns we are going through. I will say again that most folks are white European types and from what one of my friends says, that is because in 1905 or so, the Indians were hunted down and killed. That could certainly be the reason, I don’t know.
We didn’t make it very far today. We stopped in a gas station just on the outskirts of Federal to get gas and a drink. It turned out everybody there wanted to talk and look at bikes. There was one van filled with maybe two or three families that were very interesting. The mother and daughter of one family came over and were very friendly to say the least. I didn’t get a photo of the daughter (wow) but her mother was such a trip and here is a photo of her. She is an old hippie and evidently the dad is an old hippie too. They have this wonderful custom of kissing the cheek and hugging every chance they get. We both got hugged and kissed several times. The daughter came back and gave Jim a couple of CD’s that have some heavy metal music on them, or at least he thinks it is, not sure just what is on them but they sure did want us to have them. we don’t have any way of listening to them.
Music chick mom X

With this introduction to the town and by looking at the map it was going to be several hours to the next town, we decided to call it a day and got a nice room at a small hotel. We took a cruise through town and really liked it. these small towns are clean and the people very friendly. It feels safe too, unlike the larger towns.

I saw a field of corn being combined with an old combine where the guy was sitting out in the open, but when I got turned around and came back to get a photo, it was too far away for a good photo. I will put it in anyway to let the farmers know that harvest season is on down here. I see lots of trucks at the grain terminals unloading but not sure what they are unloading. I see a lot of silage corn being cut but the beans are still green and doing well. I think the season is really long here and they may even be double cropping some.
Combine X
2-15-06

We are in Posada for the evening. It was a nice ride this morning when it was cool, but soon it got hot. We traveled well until we came to a policia check point. The policeman there stopped us which was unusual as they usually just wave us through. He wanted our drivers license and told us to go over to the little shack he had by the side of the road. What the??? We did as directed and when he got us in the little shack he started in on Jim that we had supposedly ran the last check point and gone over 40 kph when we did. We adamantly insisted that we had not because the cop at the last station had just waved us through. He told Jim that the fine would be 760 pesos or something close to that. That comes out to over two hundred dollars!!!! Jim talked and talked and I jumped in there and talked English with a few little Spanish words thrown in but it wasn’t looking good. He finally did come down to 325 pesos for both of us after talking for a while on the little cell phone with maybe his boss, who knows? Things were not going on real well as far as I could understand so I attempted to offer that we pay 100 pesos for the ticket and produced a 100 peso bill after telling him that we didn’t have much dinero and needed some for food and gasoline. Flopping the hundred on the desk surprised him and Jim immeadeately begain assuring him that this was not money that we wanted to pay under the table, this was all the money that we could afford to pay for the infraction of the law that we broke. He went over it several times assuring him that we knew he was very professional and this was not a bribe but what we could pay for the ticket he was going to write. Well, he seemed to relax at that and finally decided after looking at a chart of fines that 110 pesos would be enough to pay the fine. Whew, that was a close one. I have an idea if you try to bribe a policeman you are in big trouble here.
Slick Jim had the cop write out the ticket in my name because as he explained to the cop he was a professional and it wouldn’t look good on his driving record. So now I am officially registered as a law breaker in Argentina. After we left and I was headed down the road I got really pissed off and thought of all the shit things I should do but when we stopped next, Jim eased me down telling me that, hey, we just drove 17,000 miles and broke almost every rule in the book, drove up one way streets the wrong way, passed thousands of cars and trucks on double yellow lines, drove most of those miles way over the speed limit, etc, etc, etc. It cost us about $17 each.,so I guess for a dollar a thousand miles, the fine wasn’t too bad.

We went through miles and miles of grazing land in the morning and it got into more and more tree farming in the afternoon.
Road forest X
There was an area in there that was very hot and seemed dry as there was little farming going on. In that area were cattle with long ears like they had Brahma blood in them. in most other areas the cattle were Herefords and other English type breeds. As we got close to Pasada the country has become a little hilly and it gets more rain I think. The cattle look very good.
We went by several sawmills on our trip and this is the first chance I have had to get a photo of one of the teepee burners that they use to burn scrap. There were these type of burners when I was a kid in lumber country but they were made out of steel. This one and several others I have seen are made out of brick. They were not using this one at this time but were just burning a lot of scrap in the yard. It was really smoky there.
TeePee X

2006-02-14T16:37:00.000-08:00

2-13-06

what a beautiful morning today. I wanted to find a bolt to replace the one I borrowed from Jim as it really was too small. We started out at the Honda shop but that was a worthless attempt. While I was in the Honda shop Jim was asked by a radio man if he and I would be interviewed on the radio. Sure, he said, and went on the radio live and gave a description of our travels. He came over to me and started asking me questions and wanted me to talk on the little cell phone that was plugged in live to the radio but all I could say was ‘tengo mal oido’ which means I cant hear sh+t.
Jim radio X
He did point us to a shop he called a bolt shop just down the street. I thought, yah, sure, a bolt shop in this little town but when we went down the street here is this little shop with a big bolt for a sign hanging over the door. Too, much I thought. I took the bolt out and went in and with lots of gestures and sign language, got a bolt somewhat longer and a little fatter. I had to check a couple of them for size before I got the right one. Meanwhile, Jim finishes talking with several people who just pop up and want to talk. This happens everywhere we stop. Jim came in and I was able to get a locking nut and washer. I did have to make a few drawings, my mechanical drawing skills came in handy, but I also got four new bolts that will hold the saddle bags on if they should break or come loose again. I never did understand if they were hardened ones or just soft ones. Either way at least I have four new ones with washers and selflocking nuts. They appear to be good ones.
We finally blasted out of town and made it down the road to a piss stop or gas stop and Jim noticed one of his bolts that hold on his foot peg was gone. Fortunately the bolt I had given him back that he had in his pocket, fit. How is that for luck? That is the way things are. Aint life great?
I had been looking for oil for the oil change I needed but had only found 15x40 in all the gas stations I tried. In that little town we found a oil store and dropped in to check it out. They had the 20x50 I needed and it appears to be good oil. Jim bought a quart too as his bike is using oil. After over 60 thousand miles, I guess it has reason to get a little thirsty.
Jim got to thinking about his oil and decided to do an oil change too. He was able to find some oil at a gas station but they couldn’t find a pan to drain our oil into so off we went.
I saw a small mechanic outfit along the road and stopped and told Jim that I would like to see if we could change our oil there. We pulled in and this guy with a great big belly came out and shook hands all around. When Jim asked him if we could change oil there he said sure. He moved his car out and we moved our bikes in. it turns out he is a motorcycle man and was tickled that we had stopped. While Jim was changing his oil I asked him about his motorcycle and he took me over to the other shop and showed me a Honda 500 that he has set up for racing. He then took me over to his house and showed me a table filled with big trophies that he had won on motorcycles. Way cool……
He told Jim that we could use any of his tools and let us have the shop. When we were done I took over twenty pesos and had a hell of a time getting him to take it. I just talked to him in English and he talked Spanish and we both understood. We both talk bikes and the breed.
We rode through miles and miles of big farm land today. It is like riding through the heart land of the US. miles and miles of corn and soybeans. There was some cattle grazing and I did see what I think was a group of cows being grazed intensively. It was hard to tell at that distance. There is supposed to be a lot of beef grazers down here that are doing the intensive rotational grazing method.
I really don’t like riding through this area of big farms as I know they are all chemical outfits. When you see a field of several hundred acres and there is not one weed in it you know that some hard chemistry is going on. I did see a couple of spray planes passing over.
I got to one area and couldn’t figure out why all the leaves were gone off the corn. I was wondering if they somehow grazed it off and then I noticed that across the highway the leaves were stripped off the soybeans. I stopped Jim and pointed out that they must have gotten a hell of a hail storm that ran right through there. Jim is not a farmer and he doesn’t see those sorts of things. I hope he doesn’t get too pissed at me for pointing out all the farm stuff that I see along the way.
We didn’t make a lot of miles today with the bolt stuff and oil changes but it was a good day to ride. it is getting a lot warmer up here and it is getting darker sooner too. We were up town and ordering supper and Jim pointed out that it was 8;30 and when we were in Ushuaia it was getting dark at 11;00. when we get to the equator again it will be getting dark at six and getting light at six, year round.
We think the town is San Lorenzo and it is like the other towns that we have been to up here in Argentina. It doesn’t get going until nine at night. There is the most amazing array of motorcycles, motor scooters, bicycles, cars, trucks and all charging down the road looking for a little space to get in to. Many of the cars and lots of the scooters drive with no lights. The cars drive with parking lights mostly and even the cops drive with parking lights. We ate out on the sidewalk and ever now and then some guys would see our bikes and come over and talk bikes and traveling. Jim really has a wonderful time talking with them. his Spanish is really getting good even though they speak differently down here than they do in Mexico and Central America. He says that their pronunciation is different and in some areas they talk so fast he cant understand them. He is so good with people and everyone seems to just love him. When I come out of the restroom at a gas station, women and men asking questions and having a good time will often surround him. I am not much on people but Jim loves ‘em.
We stopped at an internet shop on the way back to the hotel but there were several young kids we didn’t like the looks of hanging around and Jim stayed outside while I read a couple of quick emails. I didn’t get a chance to answer them as I didn’t want to keep him waiting. I like to give a quick response if I can, as I really appreciate you folks taking the time to write me and let me know what is happening in your life. It is SO good to get your letters even if it is just to say hi and you enjoyed a photo.

2-14-06

this morning I took this photo of some type of flowering bush outside the hotel.
Flowering bush X

We had a nice ride today through some nice country. the big farms sort of played out and we started getting into smaller farms and often broken country with grazing and brush and some trees. There have always been trees but they are ones that have been planted as wind breaks or firewood forests. There sure is a lot of eucalyptus grown in south America. I guess it grows well in many places and makes wonderful wood, or at least some varieties do. There have been all along the highway spots where they have small wood lots growing, Jim says that they are called Descanso on the little road side signs.
Descanso X

We see many people stopped using them as parks. On Sunday there were lots of folks out along the road with picnic gear and camp chairs in these spots. Most of the right of way is taken up with farm crops, mostly soybeans and some sunflowers.
The trucks around here are mostly single axel type but they pull enormous trailers with them. I tried to get a photo of one of the nicer older Mercedes Benz trucks but when you want one, there are none around. This is one of the newer trucks and a large one with one of the trailers with three axels. It seems like some of the trucks are even smaller with bigger trailers than this.
Truck trailer X

There are a few log trucks and I got a nice shot of this load coming through.
Log truck X

We were stopped at a pay booth on this expressway and met this old guy on a scooter.
scooter guy X

He gave Jim detailed instructions on how to get to the road we wanted. I know he gave good directions, but sometimes those details get a little complicated especially when given rapidly in Spanish. We made it through the maze of highways and across the river by going under a river in a long tunnel. Wow, what a trip this is turning out to be….. We are off the main tourist path and we both sure do like the towns we are going through. I will say again that most folks are white European types and from what one of my friends says, that is because in 1905 or so, the Indians were hunted down and killed. That could certainly be the reason, I don’t know.
We didn’t make it very far today. We stopped in a gas station just on the outskirts of Federal to get gas and a drink. It turned out everybody there wanted to talk and look at bikes. There was one van filled with maybe two or three families that were very interesting. The mother and daughter of one family came over and were very friendly to say the least. I didn’t get a photo of the daughter (wow) but her mother was such a trip and here is a photo of her. She is an old hippie and evidently the dad is an old hippie too. They have this wonderful custom of kissing the cheek and hugging every chance they get. We both got hugged and kissed several times. The daughter came back and gave Jim a couple of CD’s that have some heavy metal music on them, or at least he thinks it is, not sure just what is on them but they sure did want us to have them.
Music chick mom X

With this introduction to the town and by looking at the map it was going to be several hours to the next town, we decided to call it a day and got a nice room at a small hotel. We took a cruise through town and really liked it. these small towns are clean and the people very friendly. It feels safe too, unlike the larger towns.

I saw a field of corn being combined with an old combine where the guy was sitting out in the open, but when I got turned around and came back to get a photo, it was too far away for a good photo. I will put it in anyway to let the farmers know that harvest season is on down here. I see lots of trucks at the grain terminals unloading but not sure what they are unloading. I see a lot of silage corn being cut but the beans are still green and doing well. I think the season is really long here and they may even be double cropping some.
Combine X

CATTLE GRAZING X

2006-02-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

2-11-06

we headed out of Trelew and headed up Ruta 3 and stopped at PT Madryn or gas. It can be a long ways between gas stations so we fill up regular as you cant depend on there being a station down the road. There was a nice wind power demonstration out on the highway. Not sure just what they were running but it was nice to see it.
Windpower X

On the way back out there was a little ship traffic we had to go around. Madryn is a port city.
Boat traffic X

I stopped along the highway at mile post 1157 and took this photo of hog skins hung on a fence at the entrance to one of the estancia’s (ranches). Evndently there are wild hogs here that they hunt. I am not sure but it looks like they might be the European wild boar as well as what one guys said was red deer but the horns look like elk horns.
Hog ranch X

We made it on up to Rio Colorado on the Rio Negro river. The Rio Negro is the northern boundry of Patagonia. From this river north is the Pampa. We had to wait until after seven for one of the restaurants to open. There were several more but they don’t open until nine at night. This is common and with Jim going to bed so early, it is hard to get a meal before he has to go to bed. We set up our camp on the north bank of the river in a municipal campground. It only cost about two bucks to camp for each of us. it was really nice camp other than there was a little road traffic noise which I can tune out. What was really nice was we had a great view across the river of true south. I figured if at all possible I would get a good look at the southern cross. The full moon came up and it wasn’t long until I could make out four stars in the general area of where I figured south should be. I am really glad I got a good look at it even if it didn’t have the cross drawn in between the stars. That full moon made the night special as well.

2-12-06

I had the date set wrong the other day on this computer and I have been posting the wrong dates. Oh well, just another day on the road anyway. I got the last dog log all screwed up on the days but now hopefully I got it straightened out. `

I noticed the night before that my saddle bag had shed another bolt and was starting to hang loose. Dang thing is the same one that was starting to shed before. I noticed that this time it had shed the bolt that holds the foot peg for the passenger. I lost the foot peg and had to borrow a bolt from Jim. He carries a small box of bolts for just this sort of circumstance. I robbed a bolt from a fender brace and have the bag back on but it sure pisses me off that the hardware for those Happy Trails bags is so inferior. I will have to get another bolt for that foot peg brace and give Jim back the one I borrowed from him. It is really too small but it has held well today.
The country sure changed as soon as we crossed the river. The map said that we would be going through a thorn forest and we went through a section that looked like mesquite but I didn’t get off the road to see for sure. This is a shot of the beginning of it.
Thorn Forest X

Later it thinned out and there was farming being done. I guess they get enough rain here to start to grow corn dryland as well as sunflowers. Here is a shot of a field of sunflowers and a strip of what I think is soy beans along the highway right of way. This was planted along the highway for miles and miles.
Sunflowers X

We stopped in Santa Rosa and had lunch. On the way out of town I saw a internet place and we stopped to check email. Out front was this really cool Citron 3CV or at least that is what the emblem said. Jim asked the owner of the shop how old it was but she didn’t know. She said that it is made in Argentina so I guess when the French frogs were done making it there they shipped the plant to Argentina and made them here. i watcned a guy my size get into one and he fit just fine!!!
Citron 3CV

Late Sunday night.

We went up town to look for a restaurant around the square where we were told we could find them. We went up to one that had several tables out on the street but no one was using them. Inside it was quiet too but when we asked they said yes they were open. It happened that it was 9 o´clock and they were just opening up. After we ordered Jim asked if they were just opening or were about to close. They had a hard time understanding but finally let us know that they open at nine and close at five in the morning….. Jim says that that is exactly his sleep time and it is about true. The town square was pretty quiet when we got there but now it is ten thirty and it is jumping, all this on a Sunday night. It is no wonder we can never find a restaurant open in the morning for coffee. I told Jim we need to get up earlier and go in and have steak for breakfast. There was a guy in one of the little Citrons and he said it was a 79 model. They are a lot of them in town and four cruising main tonight.

Ride with my Penguin buddy

2006-02-10T17:06:00.000-08:00

2-7-06

I worried about the bike all night and I went out this morning and tried to start it. It started ok but I don’t think it turned over as fast as it should. I got out my multimeter and found that they alternator is working as when it is running it goes up to over 13 volts and down to 11 something when idling. That new sealed battery must be going bad. I will have to try to find a replacement.

2-10-06

I didn’t get much written these past few days so here is an attempt to catch up.

2-7-06 continued
The bike started up but didn’t seem very lively but it did start several times at the gas station and another time or two. I put on another layer of underwear and off we went. I didn’t plug in the liner or turn on the heated grip. I actually had two heated grips before my accident but after that I only have one that works. I am thinking that possibly the one that isn’t working is shorted out somehow and that could be the reason that the battery was not topped off as it should have been with the days ride before. I actually don’t like plugging in the liner as is seems so hokey and then there is that little cord that has to be unplugged every time I get off the bike. I will have to say that when it is plugged in there is a difference but not as much as I would like for the cost of the dang thing and the inconvenience of plugging it in and out. When at home I think I will be using mostly down underwear and wool for warmth under my riding coat.
It started out a cloudy day but as we went along it got to where it was driziling or raining lightly. I have not mentioned the wind but it was along for the trip as well. We climbed up a hill and got into the clouds or maybe heavy fog. I couldn’t see Jim more than 100 feet ahead of me and the little tail light was all I could see in that fog. I don’t know how he found his way over that hill, but it was an amazing display of blind luck. He told me later that he couldn’t see where he was going.
We made it into Rio Grande and tried to get a room at the hotel we stayed at a few nights before. Even though it was still fairly early, they were filled up and no rooms available. Now you would think that some hotel person would have traveled up to north America and noticed that all the motels and hotels have ‘vacancy’ or ‘no vacancy’ signs. That is not the case south of the USA border. we went around and asked at several hotels and found them all full except an expensive one on the main drag. By this time we needed a room and opted for it. as we were walking back to put the bikes in the parking area, Jim noticed a couple of newer BMS’s parked and thought that one of them belonged to a guy we met in Quito who is from Mexico by the name of Cesar. When we went up to pay for the room Jim asked the hotel guy to call the room where the bike guys were staying. It was true that it was Cesar and a friend. We cleaned up and met them for supper. Motorcycle talk and good grub. Down here people don’t start to eat until after nine and I don’t know when we finally got out of the restaurant but when we went to use the hotel internet connection, it was after one in the morning. They don’t get up early, but they can sure stay up late. Actually the stores close in the afternoon and open and stay open very late.

2-8-06

We didn’t get up that early but we did finally get out on the road after a short session on the internet connection. I tried to load up my photos from the Ushuaia log but when I check the log after downloading them, they were not there!! I don’t know what was happening but I see that they were posted later. The guy that runs the blog must have had some computer problems and it took a while.
We had a pretty good ride that day and made it to punta rio Gellegeos or something like that. When we were coming into town I spied a Honda shop along the road. Jim went on by it and stopped at the gas station to fuel up. We have to be really careful here because the distances can be long and we need fuel at every chance. I told Jim I wanted to go back to the bike shop and see if they had tires for our bikes. He thought it was closed but saw a guy on a motorcycle getting gas at the next pump and asked him if it was open. The guy said he thought it might be so we went back. I walked in the door and there was a row of new tires. Wow, I picked out a new rear one and a new front one and asked them to go ahead and mount them. I pulled the bike into the back of the building and into the shop. Nice clean shop with some tools nicely displayed. I ended up unloading my gear off the bike and taking off the tires. The guys don’t ‘do’ tires there and I jumped in a pickup with the owner and made a fast trip across town to a tire shop. It turned out that the machine was broken down but I had them break the beads on those tubeless tire rims, which is a tough job by hand and took the job back to the motorcycle shop. I changed out both tires in about a hour. It is so nice to have new rubber on the bike. Jim went out and looked for a hotel for us but didn’t find anything so came back to get me and we both went out looking. We looked and looked and finally I was in the lead and I took a gravel road along the beach. Jim said later that he thought I was just looking for a place to try out my new tires. I found a nice hotel right on the beach and not too bad a price.

2-9-06

We had another cold windy day but made good time. This Argentine pampas is really beautiful country. I wonder why I rode 15000 miles when I could have just ridden a few hundred miles and see the same thing in Wyoming. I guess the wind, cold, flat, short grass prairie can be anywhere. We pulled off the highway and found a Hostel not far off the bay. Jim needed to do some laundry so he took off on that mission. He came back later and said “wanna go see some penguins?”. Well he knew the answer to that question for sure. I have been bitching about not seeing penguins when we went to Ushuaia and have been telling him that my dream was to get a penguin and put it on my motorcycle and maybe give it a ride. what the heck did I come down here for otherwise? Jim was off again on the mission of organizing a penguin tour for me. Jim is a professional guide and tour manager and he got everything arranged. All I had to do was show up. Jim threw in a special kicker on this tour and told me that there was a dead penguin where the tour started down on the beach. Wow, a real penguin I could see real close, ok, it may be dead but I aint that picky when it comes to riding buddies. (sorry Jim, if you are reading this).
I went down with Jim and while we were waiting for the penguin boat to arrive I made friends with the dead penguin.
Penguin boat X

At first I tried to get him comfortable on the fender of the bike. When he was ready, off we went for a short ride to a better photo spot.
Fender friend X

Here we are with my new buddy on the tank bag. He seemed to like it better up there where the view was better.
Rx Penguin X

We got on the boat and headed out to the island. That boat really takes the rough waster well and with two big outboards it can really travel.
We were not supposed to screw around with the penguins and were supposed to stay in a group. There were six of us and the tour guide lady. It was hard for me to understand some of what she was saying but learned that they have two babies and feed both for 20 days. After that time they only feed one and the other dies. That is what happened to my buddy. She had some interesting info to give us and when someone asked if they cant find a partner what happens. Evidently the gay males make a nest and use a rock for an egg and sit on it like a regular couple.
Penguin group X
The penguins nest under small bushes on the island. Here is one that came back to the nest to nap?
Nest X

2-10-06

it started out a wonderful sunny day and stayed that way mostly all day. The pampas is changing slowly and there are now small bushes that must be three feet tall. Just a day ago the bushes were only a foot tall at the most. The wind still blows and the land is flat mostly but there are a few draws and small places that have willows and other plants growing. The wind mills are only about ten feet tall here and they all have small maybe five or so foot fans. The wind blows here, did I mention that? I saw one wind mill that they guy had removed every third fan blade I am sure to slow the darn thing down or make it not have so much power.
We stopped in a little town called hell i dont know and had lunch. I liked this stature.
Oil worker X

It was a nice day and we stopped to get gas and had an ice cream bar. Life is good.
Ice cream X

I am not sure if I have the town right but here is a nice wagon that seems to be popular in this area. I guess it went over the pampas well in the old days. Not sure if it was horse or oxen pulled.
Wagon X

Here is a picture of some charcoal that the sell around here for bar b que. It is just pieces of wood that have been turned in to charcoal and not the bricket type that is so common in the USA.
Charcoal X

There are a lot of guanacos and I met a guy at the motorcycle shop that is a sheep farmer. He says that they are really tasty as I figured that they would be. I have been seeing these big birds that look like an ostrich and they are really fast. I tried to catch one a few days ago but it was much quicker than me. The rancher said that they can run 50-60 kilometers an hour. He was a pretty cool guy and told me some about the sheep business here. they have foxes and pumas that they have to shoot. They can have rifles and pistols, which is nice to hear. They sell or butcher their lambs at three months and they are all exported from Patagonia. This is milk fed high quality lamb and must go to Europe. As far as I could tell, the ewes only have a single as I couldn’t see any ewes with twins. He was a big red headed guy and he is somewhat normal down here as there are a lot of European type folks here.

2-11-06

Our window looks out on the ocean this morning and Jim noticed that the sun was coming up over the ocean. Wow, everything is so unreal down here. The shadows at noon point to the south and the stars are all strange at night. I did see what I think is the southern cross but it doesn’t have a cross in it like the drawings, only four stars sort of tipped on its side or at least I think that is it. my directions are all screwed up down here. sometimes I orient myself north and sometimes south and most of the time I am lost…..

We went up town, actually a barrio of town and went to a little park where they have some old oil drilling stuff on display. This is a oil producing area and I saw several pumping rigs on the way down here.
Pumper X

Tools X

Wood derrick X

On down the road we went to a medium size town called Trelew where we hunted for a motorcycle shop where we could find a tire for Jim’s bike. His rear tire was down to almost the cords and way past the wear bars. He asked at a service station and after another fine tune question from another guy we rode up to the shop. It was closed as were most of the shops around and were told that it would open at four. It was three thirty and just across the street was an internet shop. We went in to check email and while I was just getting started, a guy came in and pointed to the shop to let me know he was open now. How the hell he could tell I was a biker is beyond me. There were only two guys in the store with beards and wearing riding clothes. We had a lot of fun with the guys in the shop and over in the mechanic area. Jim found a nice tire of the same pattern as the front one I have on my bike. It isn’t the best but it is a Metzler Sahara and it should give him some good miles or kilometers as his bike is a Canadian type.
Jim tire X

Jim asked one of the mechanics that worked on his bike (the rear brake pads were worn to the metal) where we could find a hotel. He jumped on his bike and led us to a nice little hotel but unfortunately it was full. There was a big one next door and we went there and got a really nice room but it cost us about fifteen bucks each. There is breakfast and internet service here so that helps on the cost. Unlimited hot water to waste is ok too as are the big fluffy towels.

Somewhere back there we stopped to have lunch at the same restaurant that we ate at before. I took a photo of the sheep livers can that the owner was so happy to show me. Her husband runs 10,000 sheep but she doesn’t like the sheep so she runs this restaurant. It sounds like he has quite a crew to keep the sheep and I guess with ten thousand he does need some help. I told her we had run 600 by ourselves but she was unimpressed with only a hobby flock it seemed.
Sheep livers X

we met a brizilian today and he had a fire extingusher taped on his bike. supposedly it is required in argentina. he was a really cool guy and gave me one of his stickers.

here is a photo out on the pampas. it is a mostly dry river but is shows this big river valley cutting through the flat lands. everyone said that it was a hundreds of miles of nothing, but i find the pampas wonderful.

a photo of the bikes on another ferry crossing the straights of Magellen. this one was only about twenty minutes and was a very nice ride.

2006-02-08T04:23:00.000-08:00

Ushuaia The End of the World

2006-02-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately the blogger site is not taking photos at this time, so I will try to post the photos later. Rx

2-6-06

We left in the morning with sunshine peaking through the clouds. It was 40 degrees on Jims thermometer on the bike. It was still wet on the road and the road where there was road construction was muddy and slick. This is Ruta 3 and it will be paved all the way to Ushuaia soon.
It was a cold ride but it didn’t rain on us but it did get cloudy and a little windy. We finally pulled into view of Ushuaia and we could see the Ocean cruise liners huddled at the dock.
First view X

We made our way downtown and found a place to have some lunch. This town is just like any other tourist town is seems. The cruise boats dump off their passengers and they run down town and buy presents for themselves or friends back home. You folks aint getting anything so don’t go out and watch your mail box for incoming gifts. All you are going to bet is an email log with a photo of downtown.
Downtown Ushuaia X

I thought this was a interesting little art work that was downtown.
Peace X

On our way out of town on our way to the ‘end of the road’ we stopped and checked out a couple of hotels for rooms and prices. Wow, they were pricey!! We finally found a nice campground and paid our fee for the evening. We didn’t set up camp as we didn’t want to leave our gear there while we headed for the end of the road so we just charged off. The road is mostly paved but I am sure soon it will all be paved. We had to go into the park where they charged us ten bucks each to enter. There were actually a lot of people there as I guess it is a favorite camp and hiking place. The last fifty miles or so getting here, there were trees finally and we had left the flat pampas behind. There are big mountains here too but we couldn’t see much of them as it was so cloudy. One of my friends wanted me to send photos of the rivers of molten lava running down the mountains, well here is the best I could do for ya….
Volcano X

I finally made it to the end of the road and snuck through the barrier and pulled the big yellow dog up for a photo op. I looked at the back of the sign and found Greg Frazier had truly ‘signed’ it as I heard he had. I had to scratch BMWDOG there too.
End of road X

They have put up a new sign next to the old one so I put the dog over there and took its photo too.
New sign X

I checked out the back of this new metal sign and found a virgin sign. Not even one person had signed it and I was pleased to be the first to add a sticker to it.
First sticker X

I had a little stack of stickers made before I left and have been putting a sticker here and there along the way. I sure wish I had brought more, as there are many places where stickers are posted. Much like a dog marks its territory.
Jim an I shook hands and congratulated each other on our accomplishment. I think we are both very happy to have done this.
As I have been traveling down the road, I write the names of the towns I will be passing through along the way on my windscreen with one of those ‘wipe off’ markers. When I get into a town and the roads are confusing, I just look at the list and ask someone where xxxx is. I took this photo of the last list of towns on the windscreen.
Last town list X

This is the photo of the odometer at the ‘end of the road’ or ‘end of the world’ as the chamber of commerce likes to state.
14986 Miles X

We made it back to camp and the odometer read 14999. My buddy Ken says that is more than half way around the world when you take into consideration I have already made the trip to Alaska. At least it is a good start………..

Now I gotta get home.
2-6-06
We left fairly early this morning from camp and we thought we were lucky to not have it be raining. It was cloudy and cold but no rain.
Cloudy leaving Ushuaia X

It turned out that we were not that lucky after all. It started to rain but not really the driving rain like we had the day before. It was however very cold and the temperature thing said 50 degrees but with the high humidity, it was very cold. I had my electric liner on (plugged in) and one pair of long johns on. It actually wasn’t that bad but when going 70 mph, it was cold. We stopped at a service station and got gas and talked with a couple of guys riding a Honda 250 that were going to go camping down near Ushuaia. They didn’t seem troubled by the fact they only had 250 cc’s but then they were from Ushuaia and were only going about 200 kilometers. When I went to start the yellow dog it only gave a few grunts and the battery was dead. I don’t know if it was having on the heated grips and the liner on at the same time that is the problem or if the new battery is going bad. I have run the grips and liner at the same time before so I suspect that the battery is going. I guess I will find out in the morning.
We made it back to Rio Grande and found a room at a hotel right on the beach. It looks ugly and cold out there. I don’t think I will go for a swim.
Jim left me here at the hotel and took off to find a place to change his oil and see if he could find someplace to fix his saddlebag mount. We found that the mounting bracket for the bags is broken as well so he might need a welder too.
There is a truck stop down the street with internet service so I guess I will go down there and send this log out.

I HAVE BEEN TO THE END OF THE WORLD AND AM ON MY WAY BACK…..

The Straights of Magellan

2006-02-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

Dog at Straights of Magellan X

1-3-06

We got up early and went down and had a nice breakfast of eggs, toast, cereal with milk, and coffee. It was the best free breakfast we have had so far. Most of the time it is just bread rolls with maybe some butter and jam with coffee. We had a lot of time to kill before the ferry left. Jim was showing me how the zipper I fixed on his riding coat had broken totally and the zipper would no longer work. This is a BIG deal down here in the summer because it is dang cold, windy and this morning it was raining. I told him to go ask the desk lady if there was a place where he could get his jacket zipper fixed. It turned out that the lady’s husband took him to a seamstress and they put a new zipper and new snaps on his jacket and they only charged him 15 bucks. He has been really pissed at it because it leaks now after several years of hard use and the zipper finally gave out. He is very happy about his coat now.
New zipper X

We finally made it down to the Straights of Magellan and I pulled up and took a photo of the yellow dog and a cruise ship out in the Straights.
Dog cruz X

We thought we could get a cheaper trip over on this boat but the crew was pretty wasted from the landing the night before.
Cheap ride X

We ended up taking the ferry that we had reserved a space on the day before. It cost us about 14 bucks for us and our bikes, each. Not too bad a charge for two and a half hour trip.
Ferry X

As we were pulling out we went by a Princess cruise ship that was in at the dock. This is a very different way of seeing south america....
Princess X

When we pulled in and got off the ferry I had to take this photo of a Mercedes Benz Uni-mog truck. I have always wanted one, the ads used to show it working on the farm field during the day and taking a couple dressed in evening clothes to a fancy opera house in the evening.
Uni-mog X

1-4-06
We found a fairly nice little hostile last night after we got off the ferry in Povenir. It rained a little last night and still raining this morning. It looks like a cold wet ride today and I don’t think we will make it as far as Terra del Fuego. I have been really fortunate not to have had much rain on this trip. I think there were only two half days of rain so far but those were not really cold days. Down here it will be different. We saw on the tv weather last night that it was supposed to be 8/14 for temperatures. Jim says to double the number and add 30 to get F temperature, so 46/58 should be the range today. They had a satellite photo and the girl casually pointed down here to the end of the world and made some comment, probably like, ‘they are screwed again’. Jim has been talking with the locals and they seem to be in agreement that it is mid summer down here, but I heard from Bill who was down here last year about this time and he said that snow was in the air. It is time to get the hell north for sure as I guess it is mostly cold and wet down here in the summer. Winter must be really bad although Jim said the hotel lady said it didn’t snow much but was rain and ice all winter.
We went out last night looking for an internet place but couldn’t find one. We asked several people and even kids and evidently there is none in town at this time. They sent us to a couple of different places but they didn’t do internet in one place and the other we never could find. It there was internet here I am sure the kids would be hooked up and messaging or emailing back and forth like other towns we have been in.

It was really sh*ttty day to be out riding. It was very cold and somewhat windy and it has rained all day. I followed Jim about five miles and then couldn’t take the road at 35-40 mph. It was a pretty good gravel road but it was wet and the potholes were full of water. I liked it much better at 65-70 or so. The main problem I had was the fogging on the inside of my face shield. We made it to the border area and stopped in at the Frontier restaurant for something to eat. Jim noticed that they had apple pie so we had a piece after our meal. It was nothing like good ‘ol American apple pie but not that bad for something at the end of the world. They had some cool old stuff hanging around the place and I spotted this can of sheep livers that I put in here for all my sheep friends.
Sheep livers X

We then hit the Chilean border and that went rather smoothly. A few miles down the road was the Argentina border and when Jim pulled in his bike quite running. We made it through that border in good time too but I knew Jim was worried about his bike. When we went out and stood by the bikes, Jim said he was going to try putting it on reserve as it seemed like it was starving for gas. He tried starting it a couple of times and it ran and quite. About the fourth time it took off and ran well, so we took off down the road and made it as far as Rio Grande and took the first room at a hotel that we stopped at. It is a fairly nice hotel but since we are back in Argentina, the price was not bad for the quality of the place. It has internet service so I should be able to post this tonight. We came in dripping rather badly all over the lobby but the guy didn’t seem to mind at all. Jim went out looking for a drink and I headed for the shower. Wow, was there a lot of hot water that I just soaked under. That sure did take the chill off the old body after that cold wet ride. I had forgotten to zip up my coat to the top and secure the Velcro strap so I had allowed some water to leak down my front inside the coat. I have done that several times and you would think by now I would have learned. Not so, short term memory loss still a fact. After we got way down in southern Chile and Argentina, we have been having rooms with bathrooms that have bidet in them. The toilets are of the European type that have just a small amount of water in the very bottom. In these toilets when you take a shit, the turd will leave skid marks on the way down depending on the consistency and texture of the product digested. I found these toilets for the first time in Iceland when I went several years ago. I learned there that they always leave a little brush in a holder to clean off the skid marks. These bathrooms also have had toilet seats and paper in the holder unlike most places up north. It is true that most of the ones up there were much cheaper so maybe we have moved up scale now. You still have to put the used toilet paper in the little wastebasket, which is the same as I do at home with my outhouse.
Toilet X

Rio Grande is much different than any town we have ridden into. It seems to be all rather new construction and big wide streets with fancy shops. It doesn’t seem to be a tourist town but just more European. We are not sure what is the reason for this town but I we did pass a couple of small oil pumps on the road I as well as I saw photo of a off shore drilling rig on a map showing the Straights of Magellan. That would make sense if that is the reason why this town is on a roll and the people here have money. In Puerto Arenas there were lots of nice buildings but they were dated from the 1930’s. We both wondered why that little city was there and what brought money to the area as there didn’t seem to be enough fishing or sheep to make much money sense.
We went down and had supper a little bit ago and we both had bife completo, which is a steak with French fries. Wow, what a good steak even though it looked like no steak I have ever eaten. They gave us each a large plate of French fries and a basket of bread. They can sure feed down here. there was too much to eat and we both left half of our French fries. The fries were good ones too as they use good potatoes. I think it cost me about $6 bucks and that was with a coke.

Punta Arenas

2006-02-02T16:56:00.000-08:00

2-2-06

Punta Arenas (I loved this town from way back in early grade school. We used to call it “point to your anus”).

Punta Arenas, wow, it really does exist!!! We rode down the highway in some of the heaviest wind I have ever experienced. Jim started off in front as he usually does when we are on pavement. I ride in front on gravel but I have him in front on his KLR since it is somewhat limited in power and figure he can set the pace. Well, the wind was terrible and he was going along at 45-50 mph and was getting thrown all over the road. I was getting beat up with the wind too and I blasted by him so I could get my speed up to 65-70+ where my bike seems to like it much better. I guess the wheels act as gyros and make it more stable. I was still getting pushed around but I don’t think more than two feet or so off my line. I was staying in my lane at least and felt much better going faster. I noticed that he was keeping up with me some times, so maybe he was getting the same effect or got over his fear of the wind blowing him off the road. He has his bike very heavy loaded and I don’t think there is much difference in the weight of our bikes. My big yellow dog is sure a good road bike. I twist its tail and off it goes……….
I talked with Jim later and he said his bike was max-ed out and he couldn’t go any faster. I had heard this before from John who rode down with Bill, he said that he couldn’t keep up with Bill in the heavy wind. Well, the wind was sure heavy. My windshield fix held up fine even with the windshield being blow back and down at a 45 degree angle. I have no idea how fast the wind was blowing, but I would guess that is was over 50mph. When I was headed into the wind it would blow my helmet back against my face and it was like having my nose pressed against a glass window. When it came from the side like 45 degrees or so, it would lift my helmet and darn near strangle me with the strap that goes under my chin. I had to finally put my face shield down and ride that way. I always ride with my face shield up but the wind was so strong that it made my eyes water and tear so bad that it would get the glasses wet, and when it dried out, it left a white film on the glasses. I would have to stop and lick them clean every so often and it was like licking a saltshaker.
We made it down to the turn off to Punta Arenas and I chose that we go on down and check it out. We were following along the water and the chop out there was pretty fierce too. Jim has good eyes and found that on the map it is called the ‘Straights of Magellan’. Wow, can you believe it? Just like in the old school books, here it is and I am riding my motorcycle beside it. I remember that it was very dangerous and my friends Ken mentioned in an email that it is still recommended that sailors do not go this way because of the wind and strong currents. I hopefully will not have to deal with the currents, but will have to wait until tomorrow when we get on the boat that will carry us across the Straights. It will only cost us about 14 bucks for the 20 minute trip and it sounded like a good deal rather than ride about 150 miles or so by backtracking and heading south.
We gassed up and headed into town to look for a hotel or hostel. The first one we looked at was a tiny room and dirty in an old house. Jim thought that maybe we could find something down by the water and we headed off in that direction. We found a nice place but the rooms were pretty high, like 36 bucks each. I talked with the girls and asked for the econimo rate and she finally came up with 20 bucks which is still high but this is Chile and everything is high here. We ended up with a really nice room and there is a computer in the office/lobby and hot water and TV in the room. Jim found that is has CNN world news in English, which is the first we have had that on TV in a month or more. Something about Iran in the news and the Stock market is down. Same old sh*t that was on the news last time I watched. It also has a plug right by the bed so I can plug in the computer and write this.
I got an email from a friend who is along for the ride, letting me know that there is a whorehouse here that has a history going back to 1750’s. I doubt if we will make it there to check it out, but nice to know that in far off place like this, there are facilities to satisfy any hunger.

We saw quite a few sheep on the way down here. We had to cross the border again and are back in Chile. When I stepped out of the border building, I saw a guy unloading a sled being pulled by a couple of oxen. I got my camera and went down and asked him if I could take a photo. He motioned that it was fine, so here is his team all lashed up and ready to pull. I have seen a lot of this same type of hook up but never had the chance to take a photo.
Oxen X

Ah, some yarrow, I think it is, blooming along the trail to the oxen.
Yarrow X

We were in mostly sheep country and went by some rather large estanica’s as they call the ranches here. I stopped to take a photo of one of the little ones. I have seen a few of these along the way down here but this one lent itself to my camera. Yah, it is small but easy to heat I’ll bet.
Estancia X

I stopped at a nice sheltered place so Jim could have a smoke. I stop every hundred kilometers or miles so he can have one. This place had one of the high tensile fences along side it so I finally got a chance to get a photo of one of these. They seem to be able to keep sheep in with them.
Sheep fence X

When we were back in Moreno I talked with that guy who told me to go to the grocery store to get my bolt. He ran a tour service as well as owned a sheep ranch down the road. He was telling me that in 91 I think it was, one of the volcanos blew up and deposited several inches of ash over the snow in his ranch area. He said they had 10,000 sheep but after the ordeal was over, he only had 3,000 sheep. He said that he was trying to build up the quality of his wool by bringing in Marino sheep. one thing that was interesting that he said was that the guys down at the ocean could grow higher priced wool than he could and I had to ask him why. He said that he could grow a lot of grass and the guys down by the ocean could not. It is one of those things where if you starve a sheep, you get very fine grade of wool and if they have a lot to eat, they grow coarse wool. I gave him Susan’s website address www.icelandicsheep.com in case he wanted to try to import some Icelandic’s. I asked him about what happened several years ago when the money was devalued. He said yah, they really were tough on the money. He said that if you had money in the bank, they wouldn’t give you any for a long time and if you had dollars in it they paid you back in pesos. It was one peso to the dollar but now it is three pesos for a dollar, so, you got back one-third the money you had in the bank. He said the government does this sort of thing all the time and nobody uses the bank much. I said it must be rather uncomfortable sleeping with all that money under the mattress and he just laughed.

Rio Turbo (coal mining town)

2006-02-01T16:44:00.000-08:00

2-1-06
We headed out for the glacier this morning after making a cup of coffee in the kitchen of the Hostel. It was a new paved road most of the way and they were paving the rest of the road.
Paving X

This area gets a lot of traffic as we noticed in the morning with all the Mercedes Benze busses picking up people for daily tours. There are a lot of them around here. When we got to a traffic stop on the way to the glacier I pulled out and passed about a ¼ mile of busses and vans full of people going to see it. Jim is so kind and considerate he never thinks of doing that sort of thing. I however am always looking for the opportunity to ‘get the jump on ‘em.’
I took this photo of the glacier from a distance to give an idea of the size and scale. It is 14 kilometers long and about 50 meters high at the base where it calves in a lake. There was a nice rainbow over it.
Glacier rainbow X

Jim found that lighting a smoke in the fierce wind coming off the glacier was somewhat difficult.
Jim smoke X

We rode on up to the viewing area and it is all set up just like all the parks in the USA. I felt like a sheep in a chute here and tried not to piss on or stomp on all the NO signs. I think they must have gotten professional help from our park service for ideas on NO signs.
Sheep Chute X

Oh, I found some flowers in bloom for my flower friends. It is late season down here and the rose hips are starting to turn red. Soon there will be snow down here, so we gotta hurry and head back up north.
Wild flowers X

Here is the calving ground of the glacier. I could see and hear them when they fell.
Calving ground X

I have to get one of me in here with the glacier in the backgroud.
Dog glacier X

We headed back to Ruta 40 and made it to a little town (Rio Turbio) and found a couple of rooms in a house on the edge of town. I had been thinking about my windshield broken bracket problem for many miles and after paying for the rooms i went out and started fixing my problem. I decided to make two new brackets out of some of the wire that we wrapped Jim’s saddle bag on with. I knew there was an extra length I left on the wrap so I cut it off and made the new brackets. I think they will do just find until I get back or find someone to make a new one. It may be one of those temporary permanent fixes I am so famous for. It was fine when I was headed into the wind when ridding, but when I stopped with the wind from the rear, it would almost rip the shield off. I think I am good for now.
Windshield repair X

Jim says that if you get inside the house you cant tell if the wind is blowing. Well, out on Ruta 40 today the wind was noticeable. I could feel it blowing the bike sideways when it came from the side and I was on gravel. Mostly the wind came from the right side and I would travel in the extreme right side of the road so when I got blown over, I still had plenty of road to ride on. The gravel piles between tire track lanes makes this an interesting ride. We came across several places where they are paving more sections of Ruta 40. This road will be just another paved highway soon. I am glad I was able to experience it in gravel. When I went to Alaska in 1969 the Alaskan highway was still gravel. I went up with my Harley and sidecar and I am glad I had the chance to do it before it was paved in the oil boom several years latter. We don’t have much more of Ruta 40 to do in gravel.
one last photo of Jim at the glacier X

2006-01-31T15:20:00.000-08:00

this looks like it will have to be a photoless dog log or limited photos anyway. the link up is so slow it takes several minutes to download one photo and i am hungry and need to feed myself. this is a tourist town and there are lots of places to eat. much different than some little towns we have been in.
1-29-06

Here we are in Perito Moreno. We only made it about 350 klicks today. We finally hit the Ruta 40 gravel road. I really don’t like to travel gravel roads slow as it seems to just beat me and the yellow dog, so I got out in front and pushed it up to around 70 mph. Jim doesn’t like the gravel and said he has a tough time going 55 mph. I guess that must be the difference in the bikes more than anything. He is a good rider. We saw a few cars on the road as well as this guy from England who was heading north and stopped to chat. He gave us pretty good info on the roads on down south.
England BMW

He said he was ridding with a gal from not sure where when he hit a soft spot and got up on his pegs and gave it some gas. She hit the same spot and I guess she was afraid of it as she had gone down last year and broke her shoulder and some ribs. He said she went down pretty hard and had to be taken off in an ambulance. Nothing was broken but she is hurt pretty bad. He said that had taken some time dealing with that as well as taking side trips so he had been a week coming up from Ushuaia. By the way he described the road, it will take us a few days of riding to get there. The wind and the really bad gravel are a combination that is really dangerous and keeps the speed down.
Open countryX

This is wide open country here and this country really reminds me of parts of the west. I didn’t see many cattle but I did notice that the roadsides are mostly fenced with high tensile wire fencing. In one area where there was no fence I jumped one of the birds that look like a small ostrich. They are about the size of a big turkey with very long legs. It was in the road but I couldn’t catch it by the neck and so we will have to have something else for supper. Not far from the bird ordeal I jumped a small group of something that looks like a llama or Alpaca but man can these things run. They didn’t run like a llama but more like deer. They can really move. They are about the size of deer too and they looked like they were in very good shape. I have seen some squished rabbits but not a live one so far. I have seen a few hawk type birds and maybe a couple of other kinds of birds, but birds are way down on my list of things to look at.

We went by this what? Memorial to sheep shear dudes. I have to put these photos in here for Ralph or sheep sheerer.
Sheep X

Sheep2 X

It wasn’t long after we met that guy from England that I must have hit a sharp rock and soon I noticed that my front tire was going flat. I really like these tubless tire rims, they keep the tire from flopping around and I was able to pull over and out of the way to the top of a little hill. When Jim showed up and asked what he could do, I told him to time me. Dang if he didn’t…. it took an hour from start unpacking to finished and ready to ride. this tire was a new one and when I pulled out the tube, it had a slice of about ¾” in it. I couldn’t find any problem with the tire so I just patched it and off we went. We didn’t have to go far to the next town of Perito Moreno where we pulled into a service station and found a guy from Alaska riding a African Twin. I asked how the hell he got that in Alaska and he said that he hadn’t, but had rented it in Buenos Aires. It seems that they rent them for $80 bucks a day but there were four of them and they got them for sixty bucks a day. They had ridden down the coast and he said it was three days of nothing to get to Ushuaia. He split off from them and was going back up ruta 40. he and his partners run a motorcycle touring company out of Anchorage. He was full of info on the route too.
Alaskan X

As we were just about to head on down the road going south I noticed my front tire was very low. Dang…. I sent Jim on into town, where they are holding a big bicycle race, to get us a hotel. It seems that the hotel rooms go fast in these little towns. When he came back I told him the story of the tire. it seems that that rock evidently did cut the tire and the motion of ridding it into town was enough to damage the patch I put on it and it leaked. I didn’t want to put a tire boot in it unless I have to so I just went back to the old tubless tire that I have been carrying since I bought the new tire. I may see about getting a vulcanization on it or I may just boot it if I need it. it will be best to get a new tire if I can and will start looking now. It was nice to be at a gas station with an air hose to put that tubless tire on. If I didn’t have that air I would have had to try the co2 trick or go and put a tube in it to get it pumped up. Dang, two tires in one day.
When I got to the hotel and started unpacking I found that one of my saddle bags was looking sort of weird. I found that the bolts that hold the racks to the bike were gone!!!!!
So it looks like we will be here in town in the morning looking for some replacement bolts. They are Allen headed cap screws that had self-locking nuts on them. So much for self locking, eh?

We have both noticed that there are a lot of very large breasted women down here. They really like to show them off too, not that they run around topless, but they like to expose the cleft or wear things that really leave nothing to the imagination. Neither Jim or I are opposed to it, it is just a different country and that is the way they do it down here. Actually most of the Latin women seem to like to show them off. Life is good down here.

1-30-06
We walked around our part of town and found a internet shop with much asking around. It seems that they don’t need to put out a sign since everybody knows what they do. We actually found two stores with no sign to give you a hint of what they do. When we went in the woman gave me a card that explained that their service was slow and I may not be albe to use yahoo or goggle. Humm. Well, I tried anyway and both Jim and I found that it was extremely slow. In fact it took about five minutes to download an email and sometimes it would time out and I would have to try again. wow, back to the early days with a phone line. Yikes, I guess that is what I get for coming down to the end of the earth.
We met a guy who runs a tour company on the street and I asked him about where I could get one of the allen headed cap screws and he told me to go to the grocery store just down the street as it is the oldest business in town. It seems that they also have a hardware store in the back and when we went in, we found a really cool little hardware store ‘manned’ by two women that really knew their hardware. Come to find out from them, there was nothing like what I had in town but they did line me out with some nice metric bolts, washers, nuts and self locking nuts.
When we got back to the bike Jim suggested I high-grade other allen bolts and replace them with the new ones, which I did. Thanks Jim, I hadn’t even thought to look elsewhere. The repair went smoothly and it wasn’t long before we were back out on the road headed down Ruta 40. It was a fine gravel road and we were making good time.
It wasn’t long before we met a bike coming at us and we stopped to chat. It turns out that he is the owner of Alaska Rider or www.akrider.com. He rents a dozen Harleys, a dozen KLR’s and this year they are going to rent BMW’s for the European adventure riders. He says they get a lot of Japanese riders and he speaks Japanese as well as several other languages. He was really a nice guy and he gave us more info on the road.
Alaska Rider owner X

On down the road I came up on this truck just pulling to the top of a little hill. I have been seeing a few sheep along the way but this is the first I got to see them up close.
Sheep truck X

We were ridding thorugh some really beautiful country and all of a sudden an armirillo crossed the road in front of me. Or at least I think that is what it was. I stopped and gave chase up the hill but it must have gone in a hole so I never did get to look at it good. I have never seen one alive before, just dead on the road in Texas. I took this panamora of the little valley where I stopped.
Big valley X

We found another couple of bikers just leaving this little store out on the road. He is from England and has about 300 K on this Yamaha and she is from Germany and has 70 K on hers. We didn’t talk long as they were in a hurry to get but we went in a had a quick cup of coffee. Good coffee…..
England X

German X

We were making pretty good time and I stopped to get a photo of the nice gravel road.
Good gravel X

We made it down the road to a place that the English guy recommended. It is a ranch house on one side of the road and some ruins on the other. We stopped and asked the ower of the ranchhouse if we could camp across the street. He really wanted us to camp in his yard but the English guy said he had yard lights and I didn’t want to be under yard lights. We found some pretty good protection from the wind. Did I mention wind? Well, it is here and it was blowing pretty hard.
Jim got to looking at his bike and found that one of his saddle bags had spit off the bag support that was pop riveted to the bag and it had slipped down and was just hanging by a prayer. He was so lucky to not have lost the dang thing. (by the way, I have had to clean up my language on the blog because some of the computers have child safety programs and my log wont come up because I have used some bad language in the past dog logs, so I am trying to clean up my act and use socially acceptable language. Weird but I will try to climb out of the gutter and not use my normal language.)
It was missing the piece that was riveted on so we went out in the pampas and looked for what ever we could to somehow fix it or at least get it down the road to someplace where we could get it fixed. Jim ended up using a little piece of wood and some of the high tensile wire I found. It was really good wire but hard to work with for sure. Jim got it wired on but left the bag empty to keep the stress on the wire job down.
Bag repair X

It was a windy and somewhat cold night out there and I was really glad we had stopped and found the problem with Jims bike and got a emergency repair on it before he lost it.

1-31-06
We got a pretty early start and I sure have been enjoying this Ruta 40 gravel road.
Gravel road X

As I was out in front since I go faster than Jim, I ran across several groups of the Guanaco’s as they were scared off the road. They can run like the wind but these didn’t run that far an I was able to get this photo of them which is as good as I could do without a telephoto lense.
Guanaco X

We rode for a couple of hours and came to a sign that said that the farm just off the road was a restaurant. Jim didn’t have any breakfast (I had granola and milk and coffee) but did have a cup of coffee that he made on my little stove. When I pulled in and got off my bike this beautiful little girl came over to me and grabbed me by the little finger and led me away to meet her two dogs. She then led me out and made me get down on my knee and climbed on my back and spurring and talking a blue streak in Spanish, we headed up the hill to see her baby guanacos and a few sheep that were up there. When I wanted to go back to the restaurant she was positive we shouldn’t go back. She was just so cute and when I did carry her back piggyback she changed her plan and took me out to what I thought was the dog pen again but when I went in she closed the gate. She wanted me to stay and be her friend!!! She tried locking me in several places as well as blocking the door so I couldn’t get out of the restaurant. I finally just grabbed her up and told her I was going to take her with me on the motorcycle. She seemed happy with that and when I put her in the seat she was totally happy. She has her bat in a glass jar with her here that she wanted to show me. It is really funny because she didn’t show any attraction to Jim at all. I showed her that I had a granola bar in my tank bag and I gave it to her. I guess it was true love at first sight for both of us. Jim said if I was fifty five years younger, who knows what would happen. I said, what if she were fifty five years older?
My Love X

I have to put this photo of an old one cylinder four head Lister shearing machine that they had out in they yard.
Lister shearing machine X

We went on down the road and finally made it to this really nice pull off where we could get photos of the lake and mountains in the rear. I think this is where we are headed tomorrow, up to see the glacier.
The Ruta 40 will be paved soon and when we got to sections that were being paved, it made me somewhat sad to see this fine route finally going under oil.
Pavement X

Dog at lake X

We pulled into El Calafate and looked up a hostel for the night. We were just going to get a room and then make a quick run out the road and check it out but then decided to take it easy and hang out for the rest of the day. I needed to write some on this road log as well as I wanted to take a nice hot shower after all the dust and wind we have been dealing with. We took a quick walk up to an Internet shop and I did a fast check on emails. I then came back and took that hot shower. I let it beat on my shoulder, as it still seems to need work. I hope I can get it worked on some time but will probably have to wait until I get back to the states. This Ruta 40 is gravel but it is a really nice road. We both have been told many scare stories about the road and I am sure they are or were true. I think we have been very fortunate that the wind hasn’t been vicious as it can be. we have had wind but not the furious kind like we had several days ago when we were still on pavement. I did notice that one of the brackets on my Parabellem windscreen has metal fatigued and needs to be replaced or somehow beefed up and I am sure it is from the constant wind buffeting. Jim was saying that when he left Canada he figured that when he got back his outfit would look the same. I guess I figured that I would move some of my gear around and pack it different but the road makes changes in its own ways and cant be foreseen.

south road ruta 40

2006-01-29T06:20:00.000-08:00

1-26-06

we got out of town yesterday after stopping at a pizza place and consuming a pizza. We were going to stop at a big mall and have a good meal but after zooming around under this big parking mall, with Jim’s loud exhaust making all the cars with motion sensors start screaming like hell, we finally got out on the main street and after a few illegal turns and jumping a few parking barriers, we made it to a cheap pizza place. We ended up getting two for the price of one and took the other one on up the hill to give to the kid who I talked with last night and let us stay outside the gate. As it happened, there was a large group of people there and when his boss found out that we intended to stay another night outside the gate, he told the kid to have us go on up the road a ways and camp there. we did that but not before I gave him the pizza and a liter of coke to go with it. he said he was not going to get in trouble for letting us stay there. a really nice kid he is and I hope he enjoys the pizza.
We went up the road about three more clicks and found a nice place to camp. When it got dark I noticed that Orion was upside down!! The seven sisters, the Pleiades was upside down too. Hell, we couldn’t find the North Star and having never seen the Southern Cross were unsure of what that looked like. Humm, will have to find someone down here who knows what is up there.

The ride off the mountain and out of the canyon was wonderful in the early morning and we got to town early and got out and down the freeway, well pay-way in good time. We made good time all the way south and finally called it quits in a little town called Collculli. We couldn’t find a hotel in the little town so had to go out to the highway and get a motel room. There was a restaurant next door and went over there and had some supper. We had the special, which turned out to be some sort of corn mush with chicken in it. it was really good and we had some bread type biscuits to go with it.

The highway was very good and fast. Most of the way was marked 120 kph which is about 70 mph. The big yellow bike turns 4750 rpm at that speed and likes it. Jim said his klr was running about 5200 I think. He had his oil changed at the bike shop and he got some special oil that they were selling that claimed to make your engine make music. The oil is called Motorex. It is an SJ oil and comes from Switzerland, I think.

The ride south of Santiago was mostly like driving down the Sacramento Valley in California. This is farming country and a lot of fruit is grown here. I saw a lot of grapes and fruit trees as well as a lot of corn grown. There were huge fruit packing plants along the highway like Dole. I really don’t like these huge farm growing areas as I think of all the chemicals that are in constant use. There was a layer of smog that followed us south as well since we are in a big long valley. One interesting thing I saw along the way was some of the corn grown had this weird tops on them. The tops or tassels on this cornfield were long and bushy. It was only a few miles down the road when I saw along the highway several folks selling brooms. They were nice new corn brooms and I finally put it together that that was broom corn that was being grown. I had never seen it grown before but had looked at the catalog offerings of broomcorn seed.
One other thing that I noticed was the advertising billboards along the road almost without exception featured blond very white people in them. Even the women that had black or brown hair were just as white as refrigerators. As I drive along, I look at the people in bus stops, driving cars and trucks, and just in the towns and they are all brown skin and black hair.

1-28-06

We really hauled ass down south on that expressway. Most of the time we were going the 120 kph. The agriculture changed along the way. The further south we got, there were more and more tree plantations that must be planted for wood production. This was mostly hilly country and there were several types of trees planted. Most I think were pine type and a lot of eucalyptus with some deciduous types that looked like poplar. Every now and then we would come back into an area where they grew fruit of some kind. Grapes and other berries as well as maybe peach and apple trees were along the road. Way south the country opened up and there was a lot of grain being grown. It was a heave crop that they were growing and I saw a lot of it that had lodged and was laying down in the field, what a mess that is…..

At Osorano we headed east and toward the mountins and we stopped at a rather fancy restaurant because we were very hungry and we didn’t know if there was anything else for fifty miles or so. We gorged ourselves, I had salmon and Jim had Cordon Blue or however you spell that as well as cheese cake for a treat. Wow, we were stuffed and our wallets were much thinner after.
We made it to the border a little after noon and we both were pleasantly surprised at how easy and stress free the border crossing was.
Parque National Park X

It is a Natonal Park both sides of the border and it reminded me of Yellowstone, Glacier, Teton and all those other national parks that I have been too. There was something different but I couldn’t put my finger on it for a while, but finally figured it out that there were no signs telling you NO you cant do that, and look over here, it is beautiful. You had to pay attention and just enjoy the scenery. There were very few people as well and the road was wide and plenty of places to pull off and park if you wanted. You don’t have to park in a designated parking area.
Mountain Dog X

Lake Dog X

We made good time and made it to Gubernador Costa which is near Jose de San Martin for the evening. There is a restaurant as part of the hotel and we had a steak supper tonight. It was great…..it is the first steak I have had in I cant remember when, well maybe it was at Charlie and Jeanne’s. nothing is as good as Jeanne can cook, but it wasn’t bad for Argentina. It will be good to check out the steaks in Argentina as they have the reputation for being the best.
Ruta 40

I gotta make this short again as I want to get down to the internet place and get this sent before they close.

ok here are a few photos i will cram in herer at the end. we are stopped in a little town and fouind this internet place, could be a library or something.

rex food

parque

open sky

karl from Austria on his KLE.

flowers for my friends

citron CV2?? i have not seen one in over 40 years.

2006-01-25T12:12:00.000-08:00

Suzuki van

fast ones and a slow one

african twins

santiago

2006-01-25T08:57:00.000-08:00

the internet is about to close so here is the quick

1-23-05
It was not a very good day today.
We stopped to take a leak and have Jim take a smoke break when he noticed that his muffler was starting to come apart. It is some sort of hot shot loud muffler and it was spitting its guts out. He had to unpack and get out his tools and remove the muffler. After he got it out we could see that it needed to be pounded on and needed something soft to work on it with. I told him I would go find a board to pound in on and took off. I know he thought I would walk fifty miles out here in the desert before finally giving up and walking back. Well, I didn’t go but thirty yards when I found a really nice two foot board that looked like it was a swing seat in a past life before it gave itself up to me from the side of the road for motorcycle repair. Jim was sure surprised when I came back packing that board. It worked perfect and we got the guts back were they were supposed to be. the next problem was that he needed something to go through a hole in the side of the muffler and hold the guts in place. I told him I would go find something and took off. No problem, I found a really nice foot long piece of ¼ inch soft iron wire. He was double surprised when I came back with that. Sometimes I wonder about having those kinds of finding it skills……
Muffler X

We stopped at a nice little restaurant and had some lunch. When we came out there was this cute little Suzuki van parked out front.
Suzuki Van X

We also saw this cool little Chevy-Opal delivery van. We talked with the two guys driving it and found it was a 1.7 liter diesel and it gets 20kilometers per liter.
Chevy-Opal X

We were headed down a really nice freeway (well more a pay-way actually) road when Jim after going around a nice sweeping turn coasted to the side of the road. He found he had spit a chain off the sprocket. He coasted his bike on down the highway to a nice level gravel place off the road. The chain was one he got in central America and was not fitted with the o rings like the new better chains are. He had been using chain lube on it at regular intervals but it was not able to take it. The sprockets are very worn and that is pretty tough on chain too. The chain was very stiff and Jim decided to replace it with the old chain he had along with him that he had taken off. The wheel sprocket is very worn and the cogs are sharp as hell. He had to shorten up the chain a link and greased the hell out of it and on the road we went again.
Chain X

We flogged it on down the highway and finally pulled off and found a campground on the beach. Dang thing cost twenty bucks to camp the night in our own tents. I found the toilets clean in the morning but no frigging paper, as usual. You would think that ten bucks would get you a yard of ass wipe, but no way Hose-zaa……….

1-24-06
We rolled fast and got into Santiago in the afternoon. We just blasted on in to the heart of this big city and Jim asked a truck driver where the motorcycle shops were. He lead us around town in his dump truck and finally told Jim to go down a road and look on the right. We went down that way and found a bike shop where Jim went in and asked for a Kawasaki dealer. He got some complicated directions and came over to see what I had come up with at a BMW car parts place. It wasn’t a dealership but a parts house. the guys were really nice in there and when Jim asked for directions to the Kawasaki dealer one of the guys said follow him and he jumped in a Sabaru and took off in high gear. It was touch and go following him but finally he stopped at the dealer. He was so nice and wouldn’t take anything for gas even if it was a fast long ride.
Jim went in and found that they have no parts and they said it would take about two weeks for them to order parts from Florida and get them delivered. Wow….
We left there and tried to find the BMW motorcycle dealership. We were going down a busy road when I spotted a guy on a BMW GS 1150. I waved at him and motioned for him to follow me and I pulled over and I asked him where the dealer was. He offered to show me and took off at a high rate of speed. Yikes, he was a fast town rider. He zipped in and out of traffic and blasted between lanes. It was really hard to keep up but finally after one hell of a scary ride he pulled over and told us to go down the main road another five minutes and we would find it on the right. We made a much more calm ride up the road and did find it finally. I needed a little plug that goes over the timing hole that had been missing for some miles. It isn’t absolutely necessary but I noticed when I set the valves last time that the flywheel was getting dirty and that plug will help keep it cleaner. I then tried to ask about having them do some maintenance like grease the clutch splines. I didn’t get very far with that, they may be able to do it but not sure how I could get them to understand what I want. I was thinking I would have them do it on the way back from the tip of S America, but not sure now. I may have to ride it home the way it is and have Bob yell at me for mistreating my bike. Life is tough at times.
We left the BMW place and tried to follow directions to a big bike area. We finally found a couple of dealers and pulled into one that looked like they knew bikes. It turns out that they are a really upscale bike shop and have some of the top of the line fast bikes anywhere. Jim was talking with the salesman and they have one of 11 bikes that is all handmade and cost $45,000.00. Most of the bikes are ones you could jump on and race or at least kill yourself quickly.
Bimota X

One of the guys took me in the back rooms and showed me the shop and all the collector cars they had. There were Ferrias and Cobras as well as some other cool race type cars. The shop area was clean and very neat and they seem to have all the good tools. It couldn’t be any more different than the Honda shop I went into before.
One of the mechanics told Jim that he was able to talk with a friend who told him that he was able to cross reference the sprockets and would be able to get him fixed up tomorrow.
I got into a discussion with one of the guys here and he turns out he is in waste management and other environmental things. These people down here are so friendly and nice. He speaks very good English and when he got out his computer to find us a camping place in the mountains near here, I turned him on to my blog site. He really liked that. He found us a campsite about 20 clicks from here and up in the hills. He said it was located at curve 15. We had no trouble finding the way and when we finally went up this canyon we found the first number one curve marked. It was paved road and wow, were they hairpin curves. It was much similar to the road we went over the Andes but paved. When we finally made it to curve 15 we were quite high up there. When we pulled in the kid said that they were closed!! I explained that we needed a place to camp and the motorcycle guy had found this as a camping place. I had him talked into letting us camp about four clicks up the road but then Jim found out that they wouldn’t open the gate until 9. we needed to get down to town before that. I then asked if we could just camp out front of the gate and the kid said OK. It was a very nice place to camp over looking a rushing stream and snowcapped mountains in the distance. One of the best things about the camp was it was free.
Camp-view X

After Jim went to bed I was sitting out enjoying the evening when the kid came out and practiced his English. We did really well and we had a good time visiting back and forth. These people down here are so very friendly and nice.

1-25-06

Off the mountain we went in the morning and found an internet site not far from the motorcycle shop where I checked my email. I didn’t take much time to write back those that emailed me but hope to be able to later. I wanted to get back to the motorcycle shop and give Jim all the moral support I can give. He is having a tough time with this.

I found a chair and plug in for the computer charger and have been able to write this dog log. I am not too sure about the project that Jim has going other than they have his bike torn down and the sprocket off and are waiting for the new sprockets. Supposedly there are two sets of sprockets and two chains coming. That will be great……. He will need to have another change of sprockets and chain before he gets home to Canada.

I took some more photos of some of these bikes here. I really like this..
Moto-Guzzi California model X

Cagiva X

Bimota X

At another dealer down the street were these.
African Twins X

They also had a sidecar outfit on the street.
Hack X

dog log from Caldera

2006-01-22T16:47:00.000-08:00

1-18-06

we p

that is all I got written back then so I will fill you in on where we went and where we are at the present.

On the 18th we made it on down to Arica, Chile
In the morning I went down below the hotel and took some photos of some of the people selling things. Here are some guinea pigs for sale. I saw a guy come up and inquire about them and the girl caught one and turned it over and showed him it sex organs. He bought it and put it in his small carrying sack. I couldn’t tell how much he paid.
Guinea pigs X

This gal was selling alfalfa by the bundle. This is the way they pack it out of the field.
Alfalfa X

I stopped at one of the little stands and bought some popcorn. It is really good and it doesn’t have the germ in the kernal. I am not sure how they do it but it is really good.
Popcorn X

We drove by a lot of these little desert shacks. I guess the government gave the people land and they built these shelters to prove up on the land? Not sure of that but there are a lot of them.
Desert shacks X

We were really in a sand desert.
Desert X

We drove from Arica to Tocopilla on
1-19-06

it was a desert ride but every so often we would come to a little valley that had water that came out of the mountains and they used the water to make farms.
Valley farms X

1-20-06
from Tocopilla we headed east as we both couldn’t stand missing the Atacama Desert.
We headed to San Pedro de Atacama. We were ridding into a big desert valley that evidently gets water from the mountains but the water cant escape and makes ponds for the birds.
Big desert X

This is a photo of dropping into San Pedro area.
Dropping in X

There were rain clouds in the valley. I had always heard that its never rained in the Atacama desert but when we were getting gas at the gas station, it rained!!!!! Come to find out, it doesn’t rain in parts of this big desert but in San Pedro it actually gets some.
Rain clouds X

We met a bunch of really nice biker bums from Brazil.
Biker bums X

1-21-06
in the morning we took the road out to the salt flats and small lakes to see the pink flamingos. The flamingos go out and eat the red shrimp and turn pink or at least that is the story I got. It got this photo of one of the nicest pink ones with long legs I have seen in quite a while.
Pink flamingo X

Here is another of just the plain ones in the water.
Flamingos X

The salt comes to the surface and makes a really rough surface.
Rx salt bed X

I put one of my little stickers on the office at the ranger station.
Sticker X

We back tracked to Calma and took the road south to Antofagasta. In so doing we came to the sign that said that this was the Tropico of Capriconio.
Dog at Tropic X

This is mining country and we met these folks on the highway. There are mines everywhere you look around here. it really reminds me of Nevada with all the little roads going out in the desert.
Wide load X

1-22-06

we left the campground down below Antofagasta and headed south. We hadn’t gone far when we had to pull off the road for this. We have been seeing photos of this for years. The BMW folks had their new bikes posed in front of this in their advertising campaign.
Dog-n-hand X

When no one was looking the Dog went around and pissed on the thumb.
Dog piss X

The desert out here is endless and I could see for maybe a hundred miles. It was very much like Nevada but there was absolutely noting growing. No bushes or grass or even bugs or birds. Nothing but sand, rocks, dirt and sky. Wow!!!!!
Endless desert X

We made it to Caldera and found a nice hotel. It is pricey but that is the way everything has been so far in Chile. It cost about $18 dollars for 158 miles of travel. Dang gas is really expensive and lunch cost about $8 and a simple supper at least ten bucks.

leaving Peru

2006-01-19T10:04:00.000-08:00

1-16-06
We got a little late start this morning because we got to talking with the German kid that came in yesterday on the Honda African Twin. He has been on the road for two years so far and has been to Australia (for a year and 56,000 kilometers) and New Z and I know he flew his bike to San Francisco and came down from there and could have gone other places. Jim talked with him last night at the Norton tavern along with Jeff the owner and I think Sacha (who knocked on my hotel room door last night and I told him to go to the Norton). Jim said he didn’t get back to the room until one in the morning. Lots to talk around at the bar I guess. I don’t do well at bars but I will say that that one is a really nice one. They make a great lemonade drink and the burgers are about as close to American as possible. It isn’t a biker bar because as Jeff says, ‘I am the only biker in town.’ It sure is a neat place for those on bikes who are traveling down south, to come to and find out info on roads and just talk and be with another person who understands ridding bikes. There is even a little deck that looks out on the main plaza and I see some out there watching the parade of tourists and the Indians trying to sell them something. I really don’t like to be bothered so I just ignore them and they leave me alone. The shoeshine boys really don’t like to see my dirty boots and they have a hard time believing I don’t want my boots polished.
I will have to say that that African Twin really looked good especially the way he had it all rigged out. I think the tank he had on it was 12 gallons while I thought mine was big at 9.2 gal. He is headed south too so we might see him down the road later.
African Twin X

The road was pretty much good going south and we made pretty good time. It was a partly cloudy day and we followed a big river up in the hills until we were starting to get pretty high and the mountains with the snow were right there.
Mountain peaks X

I stopped and took this photo of the bike next to some nice peaks. I popped on the gps and found it was 14,041 feet right there.
High Bike X

We hadn’t gone much further when we came to the summit where I could see that there was some sort of market or working of llamas and alpacas in some stone corrals just down over the road.
Stone corrals X

Up just off the highway at the summit were a bunch of people selling local crafts. I guess the tour busses stop here and unleash the tourists on them. They couldn’t understand that I didn’t want to buy anything, all I wanted to do was take a few photos. It would be really cool to stop and buy a bunch of stuff for my friends but I just can’t handle it on the bike.
Craft stuff X

They had a sign up at the summit. This is the first summit sign I have seen on the trip.
Summit X

As we were cruising along at these high elevations, I could see several bands, flocks, bunches, groups or what ever you call a number of alpacas and llamas out grazing. They seemed to be only at the highest elevations while the cows and sheep were grazed at the lower elevations. One thing that I noticed was that a lot of the small buildings and homes used thatch roofs. I don’t know why but I bet they are a lot warmer than the tile roofs. It was cold as hell up there and I felt that it was a damp cold. It will be nice to get back down to the coastal desert as well as the warmer weather.
Thatch roofs X

We made it on down to Puno and went into town and looked around. Jim didn’t like the looks of it and asked at a small travel agency where we could find a place to stay. They recommended a hotel down the road and right on Lake Titicaca. We finally found the place and it is one of the nicest places that I have stayed at on the trip so far. It will cost us but after spending quite a few nights in rat holes, it is sure welcome. I went in just a bit ago and took a hot shower. We have not had a hot shower worth a shit for a long time. The shower at the hotel in Cuzco only worked partly and only at a slow spray. This shower will really blast ya, and I let it work over my shoulder that has been giving me problems. It feels great now and I hope I helped it.

When we came into town we went past a place where there is an old Aztec ruin fenced in. I walked back to the place and walked around and took a few photos. I don’t know what is going on here but it certainly seems like it is some sort of place where the penis is worshipped.
Penis rocks X

Detail of wall X

1-17-06
we took off in a light rain this morning and headed for the coast. It was very cold as the road went up and up. We had stopped for a piss and a guy came ridding down on his bicycle to see what we were doing. It turns out that he owns the 120 Alpacas down the road as well as 180 in the far distance of this photo. I have heard that white Alpacas are rare so this must be a special herd as I think most of them were white.
We went across a big high plane and I think it must have been near 15,000 feet where there were signs that warned about the Vicunas. I saw a few in the distance, which I felt lucky to have seen, as they are so rare.
I finally had to plug in my electric liner and it was sure welcome. It gets really cold up that high and going fast on the bike.
Jim’s bike started running really shitty up there. He lost a lot of power and said I think that he couldn’t get it past 4000rpm. It really sounded bad as it was missing badly. He has a really loud muffler on the bike and it is easy to hear even with my poor ears, ear plugs and helmet on. We finally topped out and headed down the other side going to the ocean. The climate changed rapidly and soon we were ridding through mountains with blowing sand and cactus. It was still pretty much overcast until we got way down below the clouds. It gets warmer and warmer as we lost elevation.
We finally made it to Moquegua about an hour before dark and found a nice hotel just overlooking the town and only about two blocks away from the action. It is nowhere near the quality of the last hotel we stayed at but will do just fine as we are both beat from the long ride today. I think we must have put on around 400 miles or so.
I noticed that Jim’s bike was dripping oil from the front wheel and I guess his fork seal is going out. He has a spare with him and will have to get some fork oil and replace it.
We went on downtown and had a chicken dinner and found Jim a bank credit card machine so he could get some bucks out for tomorrow. I think it is only two or three hours until we reach the border of Chile.

some guys loading sand and gravel into a truck in a river. X

some towns have these three wheelers and some dont. some have the three wheel motorcycles and some dont. i like this tribute.

Cuzco the last day

2006-01-15T17:40:00.000-08:00

1-15-06
ah, feeling much better even after spending all day yesterday doing tires. We had spent half of the day before waiting for tires but only one came in. yesterday the other three finally came in. they turned out to not be exactly what we ordered but they were close enough that we are on new rubber now. In my case the front tire that came was a tube type so I now have a tube in the front and in both cases the rear tire is just a smidgen smaller than we wanted, 130-70-17 rather than the 130-80-17 that is recommended for our bikes. I don’t think it will make much difference other than the speedo’s are going to be off a little. The front tire is dual sport and the rear is more a street type but we have many miles of pavement to run now and they should do us just fine. We will be both carrying two spares and extra tubes.
The tire changing process down here at the little Honda shop was done out in the street as there was no room back in the shop. I had to go back in the shop to take a piss and wash my hands and found it about 12x12 and full of dirty bikes, oil soaked floor and very few tools. It was a real test of balance to get back into the washroom where there was an almost black never washed toilet and no soap at the cold-water sink.
The boys brought out there tire tools which consisted of two pieces of ½” rebar that had been ground down on one end. Fortunately we had our own tire tools there and we both finally had to take over the tire changing operation ourselves. They must have pinched Jim’s tube because when we were all paid up and shaken hands and said good bys, I took off and noticed that Jim was not behind me. It turns out that his front tire was flat. He thought that he had pumped it up when it was done but couldn’t remember for sure. They took the tire off and took it down to a tire shop and put it in a tank of water and after airing it up found no leaks, so they came back and put it on and sent us away again. after we got back to the hotel, Jim worked on repacking his tools and arranging things in his panniers. I went up and took a little nap. Soon Jim came up and I asked how things were going and he said the tire was flat again. We went back down and took the tire off the bike and put a new tube in it. We didn’t blow up the tube but I am sure that we will find a pinch from one of those rebar tire irons in it somewhere.
We met some Venezuelan guys art the shop. The mechanic had a transalp on its side out in the street and proceeded to take the right side of the bike apart. Evidently there was a noise coming from the clutch and they took the side of the motor off and had all that oily clutch stuff out with cars and trucks going by. I sure wouldn’t want my motor opened up out on the street. They were really nice guys and the one that spoke good English gave us his email and telephone number in case we came to Venezuela or need something. These people we meet down here are just that way. There have been several Argentinean people at the hotel that have been very nice to us and everyone is always interested in where we are going and where we have been.
It started raining last night and continued this morning. We got up late for us and went over to a nice little restaurant above the square. When we finally got out of there it had slowed down to a slow mist. I decided that it was slow enough for me to do a valve adjustment on the bike. It had not been idling well at the high elevations and I know my R90 runs poorly when the valves need adjusting. I found the valves in pretty good shape but had to open one intake valve a little as it was tight. I changed the oil and was in the process of starting on the oil filter when it started to rain again. dang….. I will have to change that filter on the road soon. It wasn’t a good place to change it here anyway because when I do it I get oil all over as I remember I did at Frazier’s when I changed it there. He almost threw me and my bike out in the alley when I got oil on his patio.
I took a walk around town this afternoon after a nice nap. I was lucky enough to find the gate open to one of the convents that they are restoring because there were some tours that were going through. I think you have to pay to go on one of these tours to get in there but I figured no one would notice a big Santa clause wandering through at the same time. Everyone seems to avoid me for some reason. It was fantastic and I followed a couple of guys that were able to get one of the guides to open a small door to allow us into the main chapel. Wow, this was not that large but the details and quality were some of the finest I have seen. Both Jim and I went into the big church on the central and it was the best and most elaborate church I have ever seen. The wood carving all painted in gold and the detail of the carvings were incredible. Behind the main alter we found this wall with wood carvings all the way to the ceiling with detail I cant even begin to describe. I read in my tour guide that it was a great example of Andean wood carving, so I guess the Spanish must have made them carve it for the church as it sure wasn’t Andean. The tour book also said that the town is built on the remains of an Andean city and many of the buildings are built on the rock foundations of their old city. It says that their rock work it unexcelled in the world and after walking around town I certainly believe it. I never did make it to the Andean ruins around here mostly because of my health but now I feel better and wish I had felt better.
We went to the Norton bar last night and visited with Jeff again. I really like the lemonade that they make there. I was bitching about not bringing my camera along so I could take a photo of his Norton that he has parked downstairs because it is so classic with the oil slick under it. Jim finally convinced me to go back in the rain and get the camera so I could take a picture of it.
Norton X

I also got a photo of Jeff pointing to the sticker he put on the glass behind the bar. I only have a few left and figured that this is one of the best places that I could put one.
Jeff X

I had the camera with me again this morning and took this photo of a couple of neat iron locks that were on one of the doors on the main square. They sure do look like they are really old ones but they may be new ones built like the old ones.
Locks X

I have been really missing a lot of neat doorknockers while walking around with out the camera but I guess that’s the way it goes. There are huge ones about ten feet up on the doors of the cathedrals and a variety of different ones on many of the doors in this old section of town.

Last night I found Jim at a restaurant and Internet place over the central. He hadn’t ordered yet and when I told him that I had found the pizza place that Anna had told me about with the pizza oven he wanted to go with me. It was really cool place. It was still fairly early so we were the only ones eating. They have this dome adobe oven with a fire in it and the guy made our pizza while we watched. One guy went out and brought over a pineapple and proceeded to cut it up for our Hawaiian pizza we ordered. I wonder how many other pizza places cut up a fresh pineapple for pizzas. It sure made a difference in the taste too. I have been getting fresh pineapple juice for breakfast too or some times mango or guava and it is sure good and nothing like what you get up north.

Cuzco at last

2006-01-13T05:56:00.001-08:00

1-12-06
Yesterday started out a little foggy but soon cleared up as the sun made its way to the valley bottoms. We knew from talking with the locals that Abancay was about five hours of hard ridding on dirt and gravel. The story was that after that, it was pavement (wow, we were hard pressed to even imagine pavement again, it sounded like naked women waiting for us!!) from there all the way to Cuzco which should take about three hours. We have been hearing that it would take three hours to get to Cuzco for several days so we hoped it would be the case this time.
We hadn’t gone too far up the road when I met a family moving along the road. One of the daughters was spinning on a drop spindle and stopped to take her photo. I usually don’t take photos of people as I think it is sort of a private thing but she seemed happy to show her work off.
Spinner X

The road climbed as usual since we were down maybe 10,000 feet or so up to the normal it seems in this country, 14,000 feet. The road was pretty tough in spots and better in others but it had rained the night before and left some spots a little wet.
More mud X

When riding in this country you really have to watch the road and be prepared for the trucks that are on the road occasionally. It is always interesting to meet one on those sharp switchback turns. I am always searching for the best route with the least amount of potholes or channels eroded by water crossing the road. Every once in a while I take a look over the edge when I am on the outside and peek over the edge. Wow, sometimes it is like looking over the edge of a skyscraper or over the edge of Grand Canyon. I had seen a lot of photos of the Grand Canyon but I never got the ‘real’ experience until I went there and looked over. I think my photos of the Andes Mountains and canyons must be the same. You have to be here and look your self to see the depth and breadth of them. I take photos every so often and of the ones I post I hope you can get some sense of the grandeur. If these mountains were in North America you would have to pay big bucks to go see them. Here is one from yesterday looking down maybe 3-4 thousand feet
Road down X

When you see this view you know that you have maybe an hour and a half before you make it down to the town. From there it is another hour and a half to the top again. all the roads we have been on have been to go over the mountain and maybe skim along the ridges for a few miles and then drop back down for the ride back up. Everywhere we stop for a piss or smoke break (Jim smokes some) the view is stunning. The air up here is clear and you can see for a long ways. I don’t think it is as clear as it is in the desert at high elevation but not bad for sure. Here is one little stop place where we could see in the valley but the mountain peaks were hidden by clouds when I snapped it.
Canyon X
I took this photo of one of the little hill towns across a small valley. I really like the way that they seem to fit in with the surroundings. The roofs on most of these rural old town are all tile while a few maybe of the new corrugated tin type which I don’t like but I am sure makes sense to them in speed and cost of roof repair. There are also some buildings covered in a cheap paint with old political slogans and signs that sure do detract from the views.
Hill town X
I think this is the same town up close.
Hill town 2 X

We finally did make it too the pavement. It was an instant joy to speed along for sure after ridding along in first and second gear for two days. It was wonderful to cut those big corners at high speed and finally get the yellow dog in fifth gear. As I rode along though, I started feeling weird about it. We were heading up another big pass much like we had done the last few days but this time we just blasted by the houses and the people didn’t even hardly look at us. We have been so used to people just staring at us as unbelievable or smiling and waving. It seemed almost decadent, like being an American.
It was nice to be on pavement however when it started to rain. We had stopped at a gas station to fill up with 84 octane, which seemed to be the only thing available, when it really started to pour. Jim needed to suit up in rain gear and I was thanking my friend Bill Shockley for talking me into getting Aerostitch ridding gear from the Riders Warehouse where all I do is zip it up and ride what ever the weather. In the hot weather I open the sleeves up wide and scoop up air and vent it out the back and neck. It does get hot when I stop though….

We finally made it to Cuzco around six o’clock. It was getting dark and we finally found the main square where both Bill and Dr. Greg Frazier had recommended I go. We circled the square and I spotted the Norton Rats Bar and pulled up on the huge cobble stone sidewalk as the cabs were streaking by. It just so happened that one of the tour guides was there and seeing that the Policia were charging down on us for doing something so outrageous in their town, she told Jim to follow her and she would lead us to a good hotel. It turned out to be a really old and really cool old hotel with a central courtyard where we parked the bikes. The room is ok and I really like the atmosphere here. there are world travelers here from all over using this for a meeting place and a place to strike out to all the fun tourist things to do here.
After we got setteled in the hotel we beat feet over to the Norton Rats bar. The owner Jeff was not there yet so we went off and had some pizza for supper. Jim had been dreaming of pizza and a ham sandwich for miles. We then headed back over to the bar and met up with Jeff. He is a really nice guy and I guess in his forties. He came down and bought the bar seven years ago and really has it decorated in motorcycle stuff. It is a touring biker hangout but there was no one there at this time. He said there were a couple of them in the day before but they must be gone as they hadn’t come in yet.
We found out all the cool stuff about his major rides that he has done down here on his old restored Norton. The Norton is parked downstairs and it really looks good even with the large oil puddle stain under it. I gave him greetings from Dr G as well as Bill Schockley. He said that he didn’t remember Bill as he must not have given his last name as he has family named Schockley as he is from the same area as Bill.
We got the scoop on how to get tires ordered out of Lima and sent here. as it was we went to the place today but it was not open. We went down the street and talked with another guy and he gave us an address and said get a cab and go there. we did get the cab and ended up at a nice little Honda shop and through him were able to get two sets of tires sent in. I get mine put on this Saturday morning and Bill gets his tomorrow afternoon. We were only able to order Pirellis tires as that seems to be the only game in town, or in Lima at least. I will be carrying my old tires for spares as they still have quite a few miles left on them. We hear that it is really difficult to get tires south of here.
We caught a cab back to the hotel and I we both went to the room and crashed. I am not feeling well at all and the diarrhea is back with a vengeance. I have been taking one Lomitil every morning for quite a while and I guess I finally got something that it couldn’t handle. Jim offered me his supply of Ciprofloxacin 500mg and it says take one tablet twice a day for traveler’s diarrhea. I hope it works as I am really tired of not daring to let out a fart all day and really messy toilets even with the Lomitil.
I have spent all the rest of the day in bed. I have been cold even with blankets over me that I can hardly turn over under.
Jim went out to get some water for me to drink as I have been squirting but no water intake. He asked the hotel girl that we got the room from last night and she insisted on bringing me a cup of coca tea. She told me to chew the leaves when I was done with the tea. I know it is supposed to help with altitude sickness but that isn’t what I have or at lest that is what I believe. I just drank the tea and chewed the leaves and I don’t feel any different but maybe it takes time. I really like the tea it makes and would like to send a big sack home for tea at home but doubt if that would fly with the customs folks.
I took a quick look at email last night but really didn’t have time to reply to my mail. I really don’t feel like doing it tonight either but may go out and see if I can post this dog log. Yah, I am calling it a dog log now, not so many letters to type.
I also noticed last night when I looked at the last log to see what it looked like that when the curser went over one of the little photos on the log, it wanted to hyperlink, so I clicked the photo. Wow!!! I hadn’t realized that those little photos were just thumbnails and they make a big photo if clicked. That makes me feel a lot better as I thought that those little photos didn’t give you much but it was all I was able to do. I got a few emails saying that they enlarged the photo but I thought they put the photo in photo shop or something to do it. I have not posted a lot of photos thinking that they wouldn’t show up so I didn’t post them. Humm, new tricks, for the old dog………

I forgot to write about something that happened yesterday. I was following Jim up the paved highway when it was raining. I guess the rain was a signal for the people to bring their animals home as the highway had a lot of animals being herded along the road. Jim drove through a pretty big herd of cows, donkeys, sheep goats and pigs. He opened up a nice lane for me and as I got up there a donkey loaded down with sticks decided to cross to the other side. I swerved around him and out from the right a pig, about a 100 pound one, came charging across the road. I have always wondered what it would be like to hit a pig and now I know. I think the front tire hit him in the head or neck and when that happened the bars of the bike gave a jerk to the left. I think then the cylinder hit the shoulder of the pig or guard on the right side and that helped snap the bike back into a straight line. The freaking pig I could hear squealing his head off. I just kept going.

1-13-06

I spent all day yesterday in bed after we went out for breakfast. My stomach was not feeling good and I was cold as could be. The hotel gal brought me an extra blanket and I had two more extra blankets that were on the third bed. It took almost all day but finally I warmed up. One thing I noticed it that I am having a hard time getting enough air by breathing through my nose. I have to breath through my mouth partially. I guess this must be because of the high elevation. Jim found that the hotel is 3450 meters so that is over 10,000 feet which is not nearly as high as we have been but then we didn’t stay at that elevation for long. I thought I would be accustomed to the elevation by now but maybe not at my advanced age…..
I took on of the Cipro last night and again this morning but still don’t feel that great. I guess I will need to let the pills work some before I get to feeling better.

Cuzco at last

2006-01-13T05:56:00.000-08:00

Andahuaylas maybe

2006-01-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

1-9-06
We stayed last night at Churcampa in a really nice hotel. We were concerned about where we would park the bikes but there was a small garage that we were allowed to park in. it was a tough one to get the bikes in and really tough to get them out in the morning but it was a good safe place to park the bikes. The town itself we thought was really nice and clean. The towns here in Peru are clean it seems at least after the border towns.
In the morning we headed out of town and it wasn’t too far until I noticed that Jim wasn’t following me anymore. I headed back and found him just unloading his bike. He had a flat tire on the rear.
Jim Flat X

It took quite a while for him to get the damn thing off and when he did he found a five inch piece of heavy wire had stuck in one of the knobs and gone in. after he got it taken off we found that there was a two inch hole ripped in the tube and I sure didn’t like the looks of the cord on the inside of the tire. Some of the cords were cut and it has a pretty bad slice in it. I have three tire boots and could have put one in the tire but Jim was carrying the rear tire he took off when he put this one on and I thought it best to use the used one rather than try to fix it with a boot. I think that would be fine when you were using the bike around home, but out here on the road far away from tire shops and help, I would rather a new tire. We are now both needing a new tire. I hope we can find tires in Cuzco when we get there. I still have tread on mine but the way the roads that we have been traveling are, I am sure it is eating the rubber away. The other day when I stopped to ask directions Jim noticed that I was getting a flat tire. I have a tubeless tire and I only had to poke a worm in it to fix it, rather than remove the tire and get out the tube and patch it. It worked slick and amazed the crowd of locals with the worm fix and the use of the little wal-mart air compressor that I carry.
Rx flat X

We had ridden back into town as we were told that the road was impassable. This after riding way out the road where we met a man, woman carrying a baby and leading a couple of kids that told us there was no way even on a moto. Jim makes friends and talks with everybody and the guy said sure the road is not open but why don’t we go up over the mountain and we can meet up with the good road over the other side. We finally found the road that they were talking about and after making a switchback in the middle of a soccer game, the first of many, we were on the road. Nobody had driven on this road in a long, long time.
Soccer road X

The road climbed way up and finally we came to what the guys called the Ruins. When we got there we knew we were on the right road. Road is a nice name for that trail as it was pretty tough ride. There were hundreds of switchbacks and it seemed to go straight up when I came to the turns. That big bike sure had to work to get me up that hill. I would have to let it dog down to five miles or less and then ask it to pull me up and out of there. I had to run really low rpm’s and was worried that I would run out of battery juice but somehow I had enough and it never quite me. To give you an idea the progress, we went 140 miles in 7 hours and the first fifty miles were on pavement and probably averaged 50 mph for the first hour. What a beautiful road it was. I would think that I was the first person to be here in years when I would come across a shepherdess out with a flock. They are all over the hills down here. It is absolutely amazing to find someone sitting along the road miles from anywhere. Here is a shepherdess with a small flock of sheep and goats.
Sheep and goats X

I saw this little boy the other day with his hogs.
Pig herd X

After what seemed like half a lifetime we finally made it to the top of the hill. Wow, what a view from up there. it was about 15000 feet or so.
On top X

My road logs are sort of all mixed up and I am sorry about that but I am so tired after the days ride I just have not had the time or energy to do much. I took a photo the other day that I really like that shows the fields on one hill. The hills on the Lima side of the mountains are all worked like this one.
Quilt X

Over on the other side of the mountains or at least on these mountains, there is not the intensive agriculture that we saw before. The climate is much drier over here and I have even seen cactus grown in rows in some of the mountain fields. They use or at least I have seen a lot of cactus fruits for sale in town. When Jim had his flat today I snapped this photo of the cactus in bloom.
Cactus X

We went though a little town today and Jim stopped to ask directions from the lady next door to this one. I snapped this ladies photo for all my sheep friends. She is using a drop spindle to spin some wool yarn.
Spinner X

Today we were in the high country again. We climbed out of town and went way up to the pass and took off from there along the ridge of the mountains. I got out my gps and found that we were at 14,000 and the road went along the high country for fifteen miles or so. We saw some cops up there and they were amazed that we were up there. They told Jim that we should be very careful up there on that road as there would be no one up there to help us if anything happened. Well, it was really a bitch of a road as it was just so rough with washboard and huge potholes. It pounded my butt and shoulders so much that I could hardly stand it. We got into one area where there was snow, ice and mud, which makes for some interesting riding.
Slick X

I’m not sure what the name of the little town is here but we decided we had to stay here as it was getting dark and we really needed a place to hole up for the night. We stopped at the gas station and bought two gallons of gas each. They give you two gallons in a plastic five-gallon bucket and you pour it in your tank using a beat up funnel. It works. I have no idea what octane we got but probably 84 as I think that is what everybody uses around here, as it is the cheapest. I try to get the highest and that has been either 90 or 94. So far I have not noticed a problems with the gas and the bike has been running well. It does not have the unlimited power at high elevations and it idles rough when high but so far no problems. (Thanks to Bob’s Motorwerks near Red lodge, Montana). The bike has always started well although when it has been cold I had to use the choke to get it started.

This is what it looks like when you are up on top and are looking at the road going down.
Going down X

Corn. Tonight we had soup and corn for supper at the only restaurant in town. It was a big building with long tables and benches. We were the only guests and there was no menu as normal I guess. They served up each a cold ear of cooked corn. The kernels were huge and it was really good tasting corn. Way back on the trip when I was with the Colombians we had lunch some place and popcorn was served with the meal. It was strange but the guys said it was normal as popcorn was invented in this area. A few days ago we had corn that was served with supper. It was big kernels that had been heated in oil and salted. It was really good and we asked what it was. Popcorn she said. It hadn’t popped but it was not a hard kernel either so it must have popped inside or at least it softened it up somehow. (note: I saw some popped corn in a little sack for sale here in Andahuaylas that looks like popped but more solid kernels.)
The hotel room wasn’t much to write about but I will give it a few lines. When we got the room, two beds, two chairs, and one little fifteen watt light bulb that had never been dusted until I did it was down a steep little street.
Hotel room X

We were shown the Banos or toilet and we had to go through a little steel door down the street a couple of doors that was locked. They opened it for us and we went in and inspected the squat hole toilet. They are kind of neat things but very different than what we are used to. There is a place that is raised for your feet to be and around and in back is recessed with a hole under where your asshole is. They provided a hose and small broom for cleanup. I remember seeing them in the Whole Earth Catalogue years ago and I am seeing them in use here. I used a couple of them at restaurants and a gas station along the way. Well, the door was locked in the morning so we used the one at a restaurant later.

1-10-06
It was a restaurant that was open in the next town. We went in and said we wanted breakfast and Jim negotiated scrambled eggs and potatoes he thought. When it came it was pretty bad. There were scraps of scrambled eggs in a pile of very greasy soaked fries. We ate a few but decided to hit the road and see what the day offered.
Rx Restaurant X

The morning road was very rough again with the usual potholes and loose gravel and rocks. I try to go as fast as I can just to hit the high points and let the bike take those big hits which it does with grace. My body isn’t so accommodating. Damn, I am sore all over but mostly in my shoulders and butt. I try to keep a light grip on the bars but with these conditions, I really have to hang on or the bars get ripped from my grip. We both thought that the rough road was bad until we hit the muddy one. Neither one went down but it was close a time or two. The roads all seem to go either up, down or across the high country. we went across the high country again and it was around 14,000 feet again. it is really pretty up there but dang it can sure get cold up there. We came by a herd of Alpaca’s or at least I think that is what they were. One of these looks like it was sheared or plucked or what ever they do to these things.
Alpaca X

Oh, lets see, yesterday I think we went 136 miles and I think we rode a total of ten hours.
We made it to Andahuaylas around one and had lunch at a nice restaurant. We each had the pollo supremea and that turned out to be a breaded breast of chicken and a huge pile of rice with french-fries. I sure do love the fries down here. They use good tasting potatoes down here. When we have been riding by the potato fields I can see many different kinds that they are growing. Some I have seen now have white flower blooms but most have the beautiful purple ones. The potato plants are really different here too as most of them seem to grow very upright and I don’t remember that with the ones we grew in Nevada that came from down here. it could be the difference in elevation. I have seen quite a few guys out in the fields spraying the potatoes with back pack sprayers. I guess they have the potato beetle to deal with too. This is probably the home where they came from too. If I remember right, all potatoes came from Peru originally.
It was almost two after we finished lunch and decided that we would stay here in town as neither of us wanted to be out on another five hours of rough road and maybe looking for a rat hole to stay the night in like last night. Above the restaurant is a hotel and they had a nice place to park the bikes and we both got a good room with hot water and TV. I might watch tv tonight but thought I would write a road log first this afternoon.
I took a walk up town after a nap and am pleased at this little town. It is so clean and everyone seems friendly. They look at me as if I am from another planet for sure but nod or say something when I say ‘howdy’. When we have been riding through these little villages in the way-back country they don’t really know what to think of us. There cant be but a vehicle or two a week that goes through there and all of a sudden here comes two aliens on motorcycles. A lot of times I see women/girls and kids quickly slip out of sight when we come by. A few of the people wave but those are mostly the young boys. I bet it gives them something to talk about for a few days after we go through. Once you get on top, you have to go down.
The road below X

Almost all the older women here wear a felt hat and most of the men do too. The younger women don’t seem to wear them but out in the country they seem more prone to wear them. I guess town has the girls more style conscious. I sure do like the way they look in the hats. The women carry the kids and everything else on their backs with a knotted shawl. Even little kids carry their brothers and sisters that way as well. It is amazing how much they carry on their backs up and down these hills. It doesn’t take much of a walk for me to be huffing and puffing. They are harvesting lots of alfalfa and they make a wad about two feet in diameter and strap that on their back and off they go. I am not sure but I think they must be feeding livestock that way rather than letting them graze tied to a rope. There is a lot of that type of grazing going on as well as small herds being moved around with kids and older folks. Around small towns there are quite a few pigs that wander around grazing and looking for anything to eat. I love to see the little pigs poking around they are so cute. Almost every place we have been, it has been grazed close to the ground. Here is a photo I took just coming into a village. This one has just been upgraded with streetlights.
Village X

the high country

2006-01-09T06:27:00.000-08:00

1-5-06

another great ride in the desert today. We got a late start because I saw that there was a museum in town and I had to go over an look it over. Jim came too and I think he enjoyed it too but not as much as I did I am sure. The gold work that those cats made is some of the best I have seen. It is just hard to believe that they could do such good work with stone and wood tools. I have seen a lot of jewelry and I have never seen anything to compare with what these old ones did. It sure gives me a starting place for my metalworking. I really would like to get back home and pound on some metal. It is a long ways home now over 8700 miles. We rode south through some really nice desert country again today. It seems like the sand has blown many miles to cover the hills and valley with sand. There were places where big scale agriculture has come in and claimed large tracts of land and planted several different crops. One that I really liked was the fields of asparagus. I know that it likes sand to grow in and there is plenty here. it seems like all the irrigation is done with drip except for the areas that are planted to rice. One thing that really gets me is to see a half million dollar Claas combine out in a field with tracks and then to see that it dumped the grain in a pile in the field and there are people out there filling huge sacks and piss-anting them up into trucks parked by the road. They also spread the grain out on tarps and stir it around with their feet to dry before filling a sack with the grain. There are huge processing plants to de hull the rice. I saw some guys burning the rice hulls in piles of limestone rock. I could then see several guys breaking the rock with sledgehammers to make lime which they then put in sacks. There are lots of little operations like that going on along the road.
On thing that really surprised me was all the chicken houses that are in the desert along the coast. I guess that the disease problem is very slight and the temperature always constant.
Chicken houses X

One of the coolest things I saw the other day was a guy dipping water out of a well with a long stick attached to a short length of pipe. Instead of using a bucket and rope, he just lowered the bucket and then pulled it up and tipped it over to water his burro. How simple can it get. When I had a small well I went through lots of hell trying to make the dipper work and with this system it always works. KISS, keep it simple stupid….
Peru beach X

This morning after about two hours of riding, Jim pulled over and stopped. I pulled up and he said “I don’t know if I can take a thousand more miles of this” Gee, I was just thinkng, “wow, this is going to be great if there is another 8 thousand miles of this”

We made it to Lima and out to the east fairly easily. It is a huge city but the main road wasn’t that bad to get in and out going towards Cuzco which is where we are headed. About fifty miles up the road or so we found a little town that had some sort of a vacation spot. They had a very secure area all fenced with guards around and lots of small cabins and dorms. We ended up getting a dorm room which was good as I think we were the only ones in the building. We parked the bikes in side the building after getting a board to be able to ride up the steps. Everyone was very nice and they had a restaurant and internet on site.

1-7-06
we pulled out very early and headed up the canyon. Wow, it just kept going up and soon we could see snow on the mountain. It had rained some in the night and I guess it snowed on the hills. The more we climbed the colder it got and soon we came to a long line of trucks and busses stopped. I am not a nice guy and wait my turn anymore and pulled out to pass the line up. The line went for miles and miles with some interesting spots along the way. There were trucks and busses trying to pass and getting stuck and cars always in the way.

The people along the way were great and waved us on and encouraged us to get by. It is so strange as in the US your are a real son of a bitch if you try to sneak into line ahead of anyone.
The road up X

Well, that is not the way it is down here. we had some pretty scary moments and we both dropped our bikes in the ice and snow. Nobody got hurt and we made great time over the mountain. It took several hours and we passed somewhere between three and four hundred cars, trucks and busses.
Trucks and busses for miles X

Jim looked at his odometer and figured somewhere around 15 miles of stopped vehicles. Jim thinks we were the first to make it over the top and down the other side. I don’t know for sure but we never saw anyone else. I talked with one of the bus drivers near the top and he said he had been there for two days. I remember Anna telling me that everyone takes food and essentials for extended stays when they travel down here. busses have flats, break down and evidently snow storms too.
The way past all those vehicles involved riding between them and sometimes along the side of the road and always weaving in and out. Since everyone was stalled it was fairly simple. We never got stopped totally but there were a few places where they moved some and we had to wait to slip through a spot.
Getting’ by X

The top X

We stopped up near the top at a little truck stop restaurant for coffee but they didn’t have any so we ate a lunch instead. We were not sure just what we were going to get but it ended up that we each got a big bowl of rice and mystery meat soup. It was really good and along with the soup we got some potatoes. They were just like some I raised years ago in Nevada when we had 77 different varieties of potatoes. In place of coffee we got a cup with hot water and coca leaves. This is all taking place at over 15,000 feet and coca leaves are supposed to be good for high elevation. I never did feel any effects of the elevation but Jim said he was feeling somewhat dizzy at times. I never did seem to notice any affect from the coca leaf tea but it was OK taste wise.
Spuds and Coca X

After we went down the mountain some I started seeing small farms again. there was some old terrace farming high up in the hills but these farms down lower were really beautiful and well taken care of. The potatoes were in all states of growth from just starting to grow to full bloom with purple flowers. They really do a nice job farming. They were harvesting alfalfa and cutting it by hand and toting it to big trucks on their backs. I saw several carrot harvests along the road. They were using the irrigation ditch to wash the carrots. I grew carrots I Nevada years ago too and can appreciate the work involved.
Carrots X

We went by a field the other daythat was being harvested of potatoes too and stopped to get these shots. They really had a nice crop of spuds.
Potato harvest X

ok, here is a flower photo for those in need.

Peru

2006-01-05T04:58:00.000-08:00

1-2-06

we all headed out of Quito rather late in the morning. Some of the guys were not feeling too well in the morning and it seemed to take forever for everyone to get their shit together and packed on their bikes. Sacha decided to go for a ride with us too but has to come back to have his 12,000mile service done on his bike on Monday. We headed over to the Marriott Hotel and picked up Caesar who is from Mexico. It was really sort of neat to see the bellboys, men actually, bring down all his gear in little bags on a little cart and all he had to do was put them in his saddlebags. This is the high-end way of motorcycle traveling. He is really a nice guy and is taking a run at South America, as he has good partners in his businesses of construction and auto-repair.
Quito is a big city and it seemed like it took about two hours to finally find our way out of the damn city and out on the Pan American Highway. It was really too big of a group. There were the five Colombians, Sacha, Mike from South Africa on a 950KTM, Caesar, Jim and I. There seemed to be constant stopping and regrouping for gas or snacks or directions, or ????.
I finally asked Jim if he would mind breaking away from the group and just us head south and get some miles on our bikes for the day. He thought that would be ok and when everyone stopped at the Bienvenidos turnoff we finally said our good byes to the bunch.
Rex Bienvenidos X

Those Colombians were really hard to leave. I really feel a kinship with them. I was talking with them and they said that if I wanted to come back to Colombia I wouldn’t have to bring a bike, I could just use one of theirs. That is the kind of guys they are. I offered them one of my bikes if they got a chance to come up my way. It is so darn hard for Colombians to get visas I don’t know if they will be able to come, but with five bikes I think I can find something for them to ride.
Jim and I put a few miles on before it started getting late. We pulled into a fairly large town called Riobamba and we went down town to he central area. It was really weird. As I said it was a fairly big town with large building, but the town was almost deserted. The shops were mostly closed and there just weren’t any restaurants open and very few people around. Usually on a Sunday there are lots of people around. The streets were dirty too and it just had a weird feel to it. On our way out I spotted a fairly nice looking hotel next to a chicken place and we stopped and got a room. The rooms were small so we each got a room for ourselves. After a rest we went down the street to a Chinese restaurant and I ordered what was supposed to be ham and rice but turned out to be a thin little tough steak and rice with sort of a vegetable sauce. It didn’t taste very good but I ate it anyway. After getting back I started getting a headache and I had a bad one all night. In the middle of the night I went down stairs to get a aspirin out of my tank bag and found the main door to the hotel locked with a padlock. It was not a good night and when I got up in the morning and saw Jim he recommended snorking down a gator-aid or two, to get rid of the headache. Well, I had a gator-aid I had been packing since Montana and popped the seal and knocked back a big mouthful. It didn’t take long to realize I had to barf and I went over to some bushes and almost tossed my damn guts out. It is a good thing they are attached well or I would have tossed them all over the bushes.
We basted on out of there a little after seven and hit the road. Jeez, I wished I had put on more clothes, as it was chilly as could be. I think Jim said that his thermometer said 42 which doesn’t sound that cold but I have been used to warmer temps. We are at high elevation down here. the hotel in Quito was 9,200 feet and the trip today was mostly around that elevation. Jim said that he had never been riding at that elevation before when we stopped and I read over 10 thousand on the GPS.
It was a good days ride and we didn’t see any straight stretches of road today. It is hard to make much time when the roads are so curvy but I think we both liked the ride today, or at least I really did. The road for the most part was very good shape except for a short section that went in a canyon and was hard packed rough dirt. I bet that is a real bitch when it rains. There is always the rogue pothole to deal with but nothing terrible.
We made a good ride today but with the curvy roads we didn’t really make a lot of miles. Jim wants to make some miles now as he thinks that he is up against the clock on getting to the end and riding back.

1-3-06
we made a good early start this morning and headed over to the coast. The road was terribly foggy and wet.
Foggy road X

We didn’t make very good time at first since we had to be in first or second gear. We got into a really bad wet muddy stretch but fortunately it wasn’t that long a stretch. After we went over the hill we started down and finally got below the clouds. The country really opened up and it got just like Nevada. It was wonderful to not have to look at green!!!!!
Jim death valley X

When we got lower it started getting green again and finally we made it to the border. oh, yuck!! This border crossing was I guess better than most as it didn’t take us more than a couple of hours. We didn’t have to pay anything either so that was nice. We were at the Ecuador customs office getting the bikes stamped in when I decided to change my American money for some Peruvian money. I was in the middle of the transaction when Jim came out from across the street and yelled at me to get over there. I had been watching the bikes and was doing the money thing on the side. Well I was in the middle of the transaction when he yelled so I quick hurried up and changed the money. Well, it turned out that he was yelling at me because one of the cops that he was dealing with told him that there were people selling counterfeit money.
Peru border X

I don’t know if I got bad money or not but when we stopped at a little restaurant in Peru they wouldn’t take my money. We went on a little further and I was able to use one to buy water and tonight I bought the hotel room. If you change money be sure to get well-used money and not the new looking bills. Ah, the lessons to be learned the hard way.
We pulled into a little town and started looking for a place to stay. This is really different country than any I have been in. The little towns are strung along the beach and we finally found one little hotel next to the beach. I tried to talk the guy down but Jim was not doing well at all. The meal we had at noon was not good and I guess he was getting a reaction to it. I had the shits all day and needed a room to so I finally forked over my questionable money and got a room at full price of twenty bucks or seventy pesos. I immediately went in and took a good squirt and then Jim came in and threw up everything but his socks. Dang this traveling in a foreign land is a lot of fun sometimes.
Jim was not doing well, so he and I went up and sat in the shade and a little breeze. The guy that sold us the room brought the bar keep up with a bottle of something and gave Jim a shot of it to help his stomach. Well, soon he was down throwing up again but maybe that was a good thing. He finally went in the room and took a little half hour nap. We then made a run into town to check email. Gee, this is the first time no one emailed me. I guess that motorcycle dog log didn’t go over very well.
I left Jim at the Internet store and made a run back to the hotel. I stopped at a little restaurant and picked a nice table outside so I could watch the waves breaking on the shore. There were quite a few, maybe thirty or so, fishing boats anchored off shore. As I was sitting there enjoying the view a couple came out looking for a table and I motioned them over to sit with me. It turns out he is a German engineer on vacation and he had a nice looking young lady with him that he met last time he was here. Older guy, young chick syndrome…
He has been all over as most of these German guys have. He said that this year he finagled it so he had seven weeks off for vacation. Not bad. Soon, Jim came along and came to the table too. We got into a discussion of the country to the south and the German was a wealth of information. His main point was that we should stay along the coast, as the mountains are rainy this time of year. He recommended that I not even try to get up into Bolivia, as it will be rain for sure. Even the big salt lake that I sure wanted to go see is under water now. Not a good plan to ride in a salt-water puddle, eh? He says it is really cool to come down and see it during our summer. It seems like I remember guys heading to Chile in the summer to go skiing when I was in Jackson, WY. I guess I will have to miss some things this trip.
We had a pretty scary thing happen on the road today. We were down near the coast going through a little town when I started into a ninety-degree corner. As I approached a truck coming the other way started around the corner. He had a huge load of maybe cardboard boxes all flattened down. I noticed that the load shifted and was leaning way over my head as I went by. Jim thought he was a goner for sure but somehow that load stayed on. The trucker only had limbs for uprights on that truck bed but I guess they must have been out of good wood. That was the only close call today, so we figure it was an easy day.
When we got down in elevation we started seeing motorcycles again. There really were not very many motorcycles in Ecuador but we are seeing a lot of them now we are at sea level and in Peru. There are quite a few of the motorcycle three wheelers here too that they use for cabs and general transportation.
Honda-hack X

1-4-06
wow, what a day. We rode through over a hundred miles of desert. Some of it was like Arizona and some like Nevada and some sort of like the Great Salt Lake. We started out on a regular size road but it finally got smaller and smaller until it got to be a little dirt and sand trail out through a lightly forested with a sort of mesquite tree.
Dirt road X

Same big nasty thorns on it anyway. We made it back to a paved highway but it ran through a dune area and some of the dunes came across the road.
Sand highway X

Jim had never seen anything like it before but I felt right at home.
Sand ride X

We made it to a little town called Lambayeque and found a really nice hotel that would let us bring our bikes in the hotel. They didn’t seem to mind that Jim rode his bike down this twisty hall and parked it outside our room door. I left mine in the lobby as it will be locked all night as well as a person that stays there as night man. Jim just wanted to ride down the hall for the hell of it. He is really having a good time today. We made a lot of miles and saw some country that he has never seen the likes of. We went looking for a place to eat and I asked a guy where a restaurant was. He pointed down the street and when we went there, they were closed but a boy just walking out went back in and soon the mother came out and invited us in. she said she would cook us a special meal of veal and vegetables with potatoes. It was really a nice meal and we were the only ones in the room. The waiter thought he would be nice and turned on the tv to bbc and we watched a news clip over and over of the Isreal prime minister being hauled to the hospital. Then heard about how he and his family are all mixed up in a graft corruption of 3 million dollars. Same old shit for news so Jim went over and put it on mute which was very nice not to have to hear it.
We hit a little internet store and checked emails but we were both beat and needed to get back to the hotel and sleep. I have stayed up for an hour or more writing this as well as going through the photos and seeing what would be appropriate to post. I gotta go to bed now……..
1-5-06
So far about 8,500 miles. The gas in Ecuador was $2.10 gal for the super or good stuff and the regular was about a buck and a half. I used the good stuff if I could get it which was not always available. In Peru we are paying about four dollars a gallon. Wow, a twenty dollar bill got me about three bucks back in change. They use Soles down here and I am still trying to figure it out. I used the wrong pin number at a bank atm and had to call my buddy Charlie up and get the bank to reset the number. What a great friend and help mate Charlie has been. I got the warm cash the next time I tried a machine. Thanks again Charlie!!!

Peru

2006-01-05T04:39:00.000-08:00

i have a good fast line here in Peru so i thought i wuould post a few extera photos. life is good and the ride is wonderful. Rx

1-2-06

we all headed out of Quito rather late in the morning. Some of the guys were not feeling too well in the morning and it seemed to take forever for everyone to get their shit together and packed on their bikes. Sacha decided to go for a ride with us too but has to come back to have his 12,000mile service done on his bike on Monday. We headed over to the Marriott Hotel and picked up Caesar who is from Mexico. It was really sort of neat to see the bellboys, men actually, bring down all his gear in little bags on a little cart and all he had to do was put them in his saddlebags. This is the high-end way of motorcycle traveling. He is really a nice guy and is taking a run at South America, as he has good partners in his businesses of construction and auto-repair.
Quito is a big city and it seemed like it took about two hours to finally find our way out of the damn city and out on the Pan American Highway. It was really too big of a group. There were the five Colombians, Sacha, Mike from South Africa on a 950KTM, Caesar, Jim and I. There seemed to be constant stopping and regrouping for gas or snacks or directions, or ????.
I finally asked Jim if he would mind breaking away from the group and just us head south and get some miles on our bikes for the day. He thought that would be ok and when everyone stopped at the Bienvenidos turnoff we finally said our good byes to the bunch.
Rex Bienvenidos X

Those Colombians were really hard to leave. I really feel a kinship with them. I was talking with them and they said that if I wanted to come back to Colombia I wouldn’t have to bring a bike, I could just use one of theirs. That is the kind of guys they are. I offered them one of my bikes if they got a chance to come up my way. It is so darn hard for Colombians to get visas I don’t know if they will be able to come, but with five bikes I think I can find something for them to ride.
Jim and I put a few miles on before it started getting late. We pulled into a fairly large town called Riobamba and we went down town to he central area. It was really weird. As I said it was a fairly big town with large building, but the town was almost deserted. The shops were mostly closed and there just weren’t any restaurants open and very few people around. Usually on a Sunday there are lots of people around. The streets were dirty too and it just had a weird feel to it. On our way out I spotted a fairly nice looking hotel next to a chicken place and we stopped and got a room. The rooms were small so we each got a room for ourselves. After a rest we went down the street to a Chinese restaurant and I ordered what was supposed to be ham and rice but turned out to be a thin little tough steak and rice with sort of a vegetable sauce. It didn’t taste very good but I ate it anyway. After getting back I started getting a headache and I had a bad one all night. In the middle of the night I went down stairs to get a aspirin out of my tank bag and found the main door to the hotel locked with a padlock. It was not a good night and when I got up in the morning and saw Jim he recommended snorking down a gator-aid or two, to get rid of the headache. Well, I had a gator-aid I had been packing since Montana and popped the seal and knocked back a big mouthful. It didn’t take long to realize I had to barf and I went over to some bushes and almost tossed my damn guts out. It is a good thing they are attached well or I would have tossed them all over the bushes.
We basted on out of there a little after seven and hit the road. Jeez, I wished I had put on more clothes, as it was chilly as could be. I think Jim said that his thermometer said 42 which doesn’t sound that cold but I have been used to warmer temps. We are at high elevation down here. the hotel in Quito was 9,200 feet and the trip today was mostly around that elevation. Jim said that he had never been riding at that elevation before when we stopped and I read over 10 thousand on the GPS.
It was a good days ride and we didn’t see any straight stretches of road today. It is hard to make much time when the roads are so curvy but I think we both liked the ride today, or at least I really did. The road for the most part was very good shape except for a short section that went in a canyon and was hard packed rough dirt. I bet that is a real bitch when it rains. There is always the rogue pothole to deal with but nothing terrible.
We made a good ride today but with the curvy roads we didn’t really make a lot of miles. Jim wants to make some miles now as he thinks that he is up against the clock on getting to the end and riding back.

1-3-06
we made a good early start this morning and headed over to the coast. The road was terribly foggy and wet.
Foggy road X

We didn’t make very good time at first since we had to be in first or second gear. We got into a really bad wet muddy stretch but fortunately it wasn’t that long a stretch. After we went over the hill we started down and finally got below the clouds. The country really opened up and it got just like Nevada. It was wonderful to not have to look at green!!!!!
Jim death valley X
When we got lower it started getting green again and finally we made it to the border. oh, yuck!! This border crossing was I guess better than most as it didn’t take us more than a couple of hours. We didn’t have to pay anything either so that was nice. We were at the Ecuador customs office getting the bikes stamped in when I decided to change my American money for some Peruvian money. I was in the middle of the transaction when Jim came out from across the street and yelled at me to get over there. I had been watching the bikes and was doing the money thing on the side. Well I was in the middle of the transaction when he yelled so I quick hurried up and changed the money. Well, it turned out that he was yelling at me because one of the cops that he was dealing with told him that there were people selling counterfeit money.

I don’t know if I got bad money or not but when we stopped at a little restaurant in Peru they wouldn’t take my money. We went on a little further and I was able to use one to buy water and tonight I bought the hotel room. If you change money be sure to get well-used money and not the new looking bills. Ah, the lessons to be learned the hard way.
We pulled into a little town and started looking for a place to stay. This is really different country than any I have been in. The little towns are strung along the beach and we finally found one little hotel next to the beach. I tried to talk the guy down but Jim was not doing well at all. The meal we had at noon was not good and I guess he was getting a reaction to it. I had the shits all day and needed a room to so I finally forked over my questionable money and got a room at full price of twenty bucks or seventy pesos. I immediately went in and took a good squirt and then Jim came in and threw up everything but his socks. Dang this traveling in a foreign land is a lot of fun sometimes.
Jim was not doing well, so he and I went up and sat in the shade and a little breeze. The guy that sold us the room brought the bar keep up with a bottle of something and gave Jim a shot of it to help his stomach. Well, soon he was down throwing up again but maybe that was a good thing. He finally went in the room and took a little half hour nap. We then made a run into town to check email. Gee, this is the first time no one emailed me. I guess that motorcycle dog log didn’t go over very well.
I left Jim at the Internet store and made a run back to the hotel. I stopped at a little restaurant and picked a nice table outside so I could watch the waves breaking on the shore. There were quite a few, maybe thirty or so, fishing boats anchored off shore. As I was sitting there enjoying the view a couple came out looking for a table and I motioned them over to sit with me. It turns out he is a German engineer on vacation and he had a nice looking young lady with him that he met last time he was here. Older guy, young chick syndrome…
He has been all over as most of these German guys have. He said that this year he finagled it so he had seven weeks off for vacation. Not bad. Soon, Jim came along and came to the table too. We got into a discussion of the country to the south and the German was a wealth of information. His main point was that we should stay along the coast, as the mountains are rainy this time of year. He recommended that I not even try to get up into Bolivia, as it will be rain for sure. Even the big salt lake that I sure wanted to go see is under water now. Not a good plan to ride in a salt-water puddle, eh? He says it is really cool to come down and see it during our summer. It seems like I remember guys heading to Chile in the summer to go skiing when I was in Jackson, WY. I guess I will have to miss some things this trip.
We had a pretty scary thing happen on the road today. We were down near the coast going through a little town when I started into a ninety-degree corner. As I approached a truck coming the other way started around the corner. He had a huge load of maybe cardboard boxes all flattened down. I noticed that the load shifted and was leaning way over my head as I went by. Jim thought he was a goner for sure but somehow that load stayed on. The trucker only had limbs for uprights on that truck bed but I guess they must have been out of good wood. That was the only close call today, so we figure it was an easy day.
When we got down in elevation we started seeing motorcycles again. There really were not very many motorcycles in Ecuador but we are seeing a lot of them now we are at sea level and in Peru. There are quite a few of the motorcycle three wheelers here too that they use for cabs and general transportation.
Honda-hack X

1-4-06
wow, what a day. We rode through over a hundred miles of desert. Some of it was like Arizona and some like Nevada and some sort of like the Great Salt Lake. We started out on a regular size road but it finally got smaller and smaller until it got to be a little dirt and sand trail out through a lightly forested with a sort of mesquite tree.
Dirt road X

Same big nasty thorns on it anyway. We made it back to a paved highway but it ran through a dune area and some of the dunes came across the road.
Sand highway X

Jim had never seen anything like it before but I felt right at home.
Sand ride X

We made it to a little town called Lambayeque and found a really nice hotel that would let us bring our bikes in the hotel. They didn’t seem to mind that Jim rode his bike down this twisty hall and parked it outside our room door. I left mine in the lobby as it will be locked all night as well as a person that stays there as night man. Jim just wanted to ride down the hall for the hell of it. He is really having a good time today. We made a lot of miles and saw some country that he has never seen the likes of. We went looking for a place to eat and I asked a guy where a restaurant was. He pointed down the street and when we went there, they were closed but a boy just walking out went back in and soon the mother came out and invited us in. she said she would cook us a special meal of veal and vegetables with potatoes. It was really a nice meal and we were the only ones in the room. The waiter thought he would be nice and turned on the tv to bbc and we watched a news clip over and over of the Isreal prime minister being hauled to the hospital. Then heard about how he and his family are all mixed up in a graft corruption of 3 million dollars. Same old shit for news so Jim went over and put it on mute which was very nice not to have to hear it.
We hit a little internet store and checked emails but we were both beat and needed to get back to the hotel and sleep. I have stayed up for an hour or more writing this as well as going through the photos and seeing what would be appropriate to post. I gotta go to bed now……..
1-5-06
So far about 8,500 miles. The gas in Ecuador was $2.10 gal for the super or good stuff and the regular was about a buck and a half. I used the good stuff if I could get it which was not always available. In Peru we are paying about four dollars a gallon. Wow, a twenty dollar bill got me about three bucks back in change. They use Soles down here and I am still trying to figure it out. I used the wrong pin number at a bank atm and had to call my buddy Charlie up and get the bank to reset the number. What a great friend and help mate Charlie has been. I got the warm cash the next time I tried a machine. Thanks again Charlie!!!

i was asked to post photos of chicks on my bike. so here is one with two.

the

motorcycle stuff mostly

2006-01-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

12-31-05

The guy I met here (Jim) from Canada riding the KLR is really a nice person and seems to really have his priorities in order especially in respect of his bike. He has been using it as his primary transportation for several years and has it set up accordingly. What amazed me the most was when he said he one time rode it 30 miles (could have been kilometers) when it was 40 below zero. Forty below is the same in either centigrade or Fahrenheit. I told him I had a friend in Colorado that likes to ride in the cold, or at least likes to test the limits of what he can ride in but found that his KLR wouldn’t start when he had it at 26 below and had to finally get it started at 18 below with the use of either. Jim said that he has a couple of tricks to get his started so I thought I would pass them along for my KLR buddies as well as any other bike as I think it would work on any just as well, but the KLR guys are more crazy than most (smile). Not that Roger,Ken,ect. are crazy you understand, just different…..
Jim uses a small electric block type heater that he glued to the bottom of his engine case. It is one he says that they use to put on equipment in the far north like hydraulic cylinders and small motors. He used some gasket cement (he couldn’t remember if it was the stuff that gets hard or not) to glue it on and then put some insulation under that before putting on the aluminum crash protection that goes under the engine. He then had a woman sew up a bra to go under the motor and up the sides of the bike that sort of enclose the motor and keep the heat in. He has a three prong plug mounted right on the handlebars for the block heater. Next to that plug is a BMW female plug that is connected to the battery. Into this he plugs a small battery charger so his battery is always at full charge even when it is very cold. A lead acid battery looses quite a bit of starting power as the temperature drops below zero. I am not sure what the loss is on one of the sealed batteries so that might not be an issue. He says it is not a problem starting the bike when so equipped.
Some of the other improvements or modifications;

He moved all the fuse connections that are under the seat and hard to get to out to the side below the seat. He used the plastic fuses too as he said they were easier to see and replace.

He drilled new holes and placed additional vent holes in his air intake filter box.

He has some sort of a locking mechanism to keep his tire from spinning on the rim if he is running low pressure in the tire. This keeps the tube from getting the stem ripped off at low pressure and high torque. (rim lock)

He added a PIAA fog light just under his headlight. This morning he was going to try to fix a bad connection that was in the light bulb mount when the Colombian guys pushed him aside and said that they would fix it for him. Well, one is a mechanical engineer and the other an electrical engineer so he stepped aside and they really did a first class job on it. These Colombians are really so friendly and helpful.

Jim said that he has heated grips, heated vest and heated sox that he plugs into that BMW socket that he uses to plug in the charger. He bought an upgrade for the alternator. He has a center stand which makes it much easier for tire changing and a really better way to park the bike and maybe necessary for shipping by airfreight. He said he and the other guys that shipped their bikes to Quito had to siphon all the gas out of their bikes before shipping. He had taken his fuel petcock off a few years ago and taken the thing apart when he thought he had a problem with it but it was really the small hose on the back that he had not hooked back up. By taking the valve apart he had disabled the safety mechanism that keeps you from draining the gas if you take off the gas line to the carburetor. All he had to do at the airport was take off a line and drain the gas. I was supposed to get the gas level way down on my bike when I took my bike in to air cargo I had heard but I never was able to get the gas out so it was shipped with about ¾ tank of gas. Nobody asked and there was no problem and nobody even looked in the saddle bags where I had a fuel cylinder for my cooking stove. I had drained that just in case a few days before. I guess if makes a lot of difference which shipper you use.

Has a after market shift lever with a plate on the back that will keep the lever from poking a hole in the case if the bike tips over on the left side.

He replaced the mechanical foot brake switch with a hydraulic one after he smoked his tail light that was equipped with hyper lights like I have on my bike. He had the hyper lights mounted inside the tail light lens and a high output tail light bulb. He now has a big led array in a x shape that fits right in the original light mount. It has the blinking that I like so much as it really gets you attention when he starts to brake. I learned how effective that is when I rode last year with Bill Shockley who had then on his bike. I got a set when we stopped at Riders Warehouse in Duluth, MN. Dang I sure spent a lot of money when we stopped there but I love everything I got there and I am very glad I had that Aeorstitch coat on when I had my accident. I think those lights have saved my butt a time or two already. Oh, I don’t remember if I wrote that I got hit in the rear by a cabbie when riding in town one time. It turned out to be just a gentle push and his bumper had just hit the tire and no damage done. I cant blame the hyper lights from keeping me from getting hit as I was stopped and probably didn’t have my brake on. I really like the coat and pants as Shockley said I would. When riding along with someone and it starts to rain, they always have to stop and put on rain gear over their riding suits. With my coat all I have to do is zip it all the way up to the neck and make sure the flap is Velcro-ed shut.

Jim just came by and I read this to him and got his OK on all the info. I asked him what else he had and he said he had almost everything Dual Star have in the mechanical upgrade stuff and not the comfort and cool looking. The most important thing is that he has done he said was put in the frame connection kit. That is where the frame comes together at the top and is held together with two small screws. The kit has you drill a hole all the way through and uses a large grade eight bolt to hold everything together. He does have the Corbin seat that is almost a necessity as the stock seat is horrible for a long distance rider.

I think he said that his bike had about 85,000 kilometers or somewhere around 55,000 miles in four years. When he rode at –40 the speedometer blew out as well as the front fork seals.

1-1-06
it was a good new years. We all stayed at the hotel and had a fire outside on the terrace. There was some alcohol drunk out there but I only had a little and feel fine this morning. I love these Colombian guys. I am almost twice their age but I feel like brothers with them. It got a little emotional last night when they gave us foreigners a gift. I got one of their moto club hats. One really neat thing was that everyone wrote down on a little piece of paper what they didn’t like about themselves and at midnight we all threw our little pieces of paper in the fire. We all started out the new year without all that bad baggage and it feels great. It is sort of like a new years resolution but I think I like this way of getting rid of the bad rather then making yourself a promise.

Quito and new friends

2005-12-30T18:33:00.000-08:00

12-30-05
Yesterday I got up early but was out on the road somewhat late out of Tulcan. I stopped out on the edge of town at a restaurant and went in side and said to the guy ‘deseuno’ which means breakfast if I got that spelled right. He said ‘completo?’ and I said ‘Si’ and sat down and waited what ever might come my way. Well he brought me a big glass of fresh juice a big platter of rice with French fries, a fried egg, a piece of thin sliced meat that was tougher than leather almost, but tasted good, a cup of coffee and a big roll. After eating almost all of it and paying the exorbitant price of $1.75 I walked outside to find my bike surrounded with motorcycles. It turns out that it was Sacha (the guy I rode into Panama and shipped our bikes to Bogota) and four guys and a gal from Medellin, Colombia on their way to Quito. They asked if I wanted to ride along and what the hell, sure if it isn’t too fast and crazy. It turned out that they were really nice to ride with. They are all young but look out for each other and were safe to ride with. They might have traveled a bit faster than I would travel on my own but I felt ok with them. The scenery coming into Ecuador was similar to Colombia and just as nice.
Ecuador-farms X

As we were riding along we came to a place where we all stopped to take photos of the first snow I have seen since leaving the North Country. One of the Colombian guys asked me if I have ever seen anything like that and I told him I was from Montana…Ha, ha, ha. He says that there is a place up near their home but they have to ride three hours to see snow.
First snow X

As we were heading down a nice straight stretch of road we came across this section of highway that I think was being used to dry some hay. There was a policeman on a motorcycle there talking with some guys but he didn’t seem concerned. As we proceeded down the road the ‘hay’ was piled along side the road I guess after it was cured.
Road hay X

We stopped to have lunch and I got a photo of all the bikes in a line. This was the first real chance I got to talk with the guys and they are really a nice bunch of guys. They speak some English and some of them very well.
Lunch bikes X

We stopped at the point where the equator crosses the road and of course that is a photo op for sure.
Bike at equator X

Ah, for my flower friends, a flower that I found on the equator.
Equator flower X

After the equator it was not far into Quito. One of the Colombian guys had a list of hotels that a friend had given him and we charged off into this huge city to find one. We stopped and asked directions several times until a guy on a bike like a couple of the Colombians ride came up and asked what we needed. He then proceeded to lead us downtown and right to this really nice hotel/hostel in the older part of town. There were a lot of gringo people walking around and the place was clean and fairly cheap so we claimed a couple of rooms and settled in. I walked out and found the two Colombian guys that I had met the day before outside the hotel. They were looking for a room but I think they need something a little more plush. Not long after that a couple more guys pulled in and I got to talking with one guy riding a KLR from Canada and we seemed to hit if off well together. Some gray hair, his name is Jim and he is a tour guide in the Banff Lake Louise area in Canada. The other guy was riding a 950 KTM and I was saying that I saw a tire changed on one of those bikes in Creel, Mx at the horizons meeting and if I had a bike like that I would sell it rather than change a tire on it. Hell it turns out he was the guy that owned the bike and changed the tire in Creel. I didn’t recognize him as I hadn’t talked with him at Creel but just watched the tire change. He is from South Africa and had just shipped his bike to San Francisco and rode down to Creel, his name is Mike and he is really a nice guy. Not long after that Jim and Mike met a guy that they knew from Mexico who was taveling with his girlfrind/wife?? I am not sure where they are staying but near here I think or might even be staying here, I don’t know.
So it turns out that in this huge city some bikers from all over the world come to the same spot and we have been having a great time.
We went out to eat last night at a restaurant and after went over to a place to have a beer. It turns out that Jim and Mike had gone in there the night before and been greeted buy the owner who is Canadian. I stayed and had one beer and called it an night and went back to the room and sacked out.
This morning thing sort of got rolling slow and sometime after lunch we all hopped on our bikes and headed out to the Equator spot that they have developed near town. The guys got out their GPS units and found that the spot is actually near here but not quite where they have this big theme park built. I think that they just had a piece of land or bought it and built it here for convenience. It is close so good enough I guess. We all had our photos taken of us straddling the line.
Rx equator
Ok I took a photo of another flower at this equator spot too.
Flower X

It appears that we all are going to stay here in Quito for New Years eve and will be rolling out soon after. I think Sacha is going to have to stay longer as his 12,000 mile service is due on his bike. He is really chomping at the bit to get going but the service is required for the guarantee to be good. There are a lot of foreigners here as it is a good place to seek out eco tours, white water rafting, hiking, the Galapagos islands and lots of other stuff. There are lots of outdoor gear places and several internet places right near the hotel. It is nice here and lots of bars for the guys to hang out in. they got in last night between one and three. Some of them didn’t look so good this morning. It could be the elevation too, yuck, yuck…..

End of Colombia, hellow Ecuador

2005-12-28T13:40:00.000-08:00

12-25-06
It was a really nice Christmas eve with Carlos and Lucy’s brother Juan’s family. They opened a few presents that they gave each other and then we had a really nice meal with the prepared turkey, several different kinds of bread and a nice salad. One interesting thing was served before the meal and it was a small pastry cup filled with I couldn’t imagine what. It didn’t taste sweet like I thought it would but a little stringy and to me it didn’t have much taste. It turns out that it was filled with egg plant. Everyone seemed to really love them but I think a person might have to develop a taste for them. It wasn’t that it tasted bad, it is just that I was expecting something sweet. I have this problem all the time when I go into bakery stores and choose something that looks like an apple turnover and it will have some kind of meat filling. They are good but what a shock when you are expecting something sweet. Everyone had such a good time and I was really pleased to be invited to be there with them. I was very surprised when Carlos and Lucy gave me a gift of a really nice t-shirt with a typical Colombian hat on it and from South America. Juan’s family gave me a really nice shirt too and I was really pleased that they thought to include me in their Christmas. I sure am humbled in that I didn’t even think of giving them a gift.
Clothing in Bogota is always long pants and shoes. At this elevation shorts and sandals or flip flops just don’t cut it. I was wearing my big heavy boots on all our walks until I finally got out my good running sandals and I don’t care if I am the only one in Bogota wearing sandals, they are more comfortable than big boots for walking around. Down at lower elevations shorts and sandals/filp flops are just what everyone wears. It must be nice to have only one set of clothes and not winter and summer clothes. Lucy was complaining about the weather in Montana and I remember when she was there for Anna’s wedding to her brother, it was 114 degrees that day. I can imagine now how much of a shock it must have been to someone from down here.
This morning Carlos and Lucy took their car and drove out to the edge of town and I followed behind. The traffic was light and I sure would never have found my way out of town without their breaking trail. It was amazing how the city just stopped and the farmland and grazing land started. It was just wonderful to be out in the country again after being in the city so long. The grass is green and everything is wonderful. Bogota is around 6 thousand feet I think and it was chilly in the morning. I even had to stop and put on a long underwear shirt as I was really cold with just a light shirt and short sleeve undershirt. I guess I should have looked at the map that Carlos scanned and printed out for me that gives the elevation changes along the road. The road started going down and it got warmer as I went down. The map gives the average temperature for each place and it is directly related to the elevation. The temperature doesn’t change around here with the seasons, it is the same all year round. The temperature can change five degrees or so but that is about it. I went past Ibague and finally stopped in the town of Cjamarca as there were all kinds of police and military guys hanging around and I figured it would be a safe town to hang out for the night in. it was only about two o’clock and in Cjamarca as I figured that Armenia would be another two hours at least and I might want to go on to the next town after that as it was going to be a big town. I would much rather spend the night in medium size towns rather than the big ones.
It is Sunday and Christmas and the town is packed with people. It is hard to day if this is normal Sunday or if it is just the holiday. They don’t get a Monday day off down here for an extra day for Christmas. They celebrate Christmas on the day before. I may have mentioned this before but when I said to carlos that someone had stolen the baby Jesus, he said that the baby wasn’t put in the manger until Christmas eve at midnight as that is when the baby was born. I had never heard of that before.
I found a little hotel called the Nevado on the main street and got a nice little room that doesn’t seem to be very noisy. There is a restaurant combined so that will be nice for supper. I took a walk down town and was taken with all the little four-wheel drive outfits that seem to be some sort of country taxi system. They must be using them on the back roads around here as there are regular car taxis and busses but these things look like they go where it is rough. I haven’t the slightest idea what they are but they seem to have diesel engines and they load them up. Some of them have ‘Carpati’ on the side.
Cabs X

I went to the restaurant for supper and when the girl came to take my order I asked for a menu but there evidently isn’t a menu. I pointed to my mouth and I guess she got the message because soon a big bowl of potato soup arrived as well as a plate with some unidentifiable items. I ate the little thin tough steak, the rice, beans and fried banana, but I left something big white and tasteless (yucca root?) as well as some red stuff all chopped up on a leaf of some kind. It was a good meal and it only cost about four bucks.

12-26-05
The breakfast I had this morning at the restaurant was just as weird as last night. No menu and they just served me. I got first a big bowl of potato soup with a hunk of rubbery tough meat in it. I ate the soup even if it was rather odd to eat hot soup for breakfast. They then served a platter with fried banana, rice, little things that look like biscuits but are made from corn, cold scrambled eggs with stuff in them and a medium size bowl of café (?). I aint sure what the café was supposed to be but I guess it had lots of milk in it. I checked out everyone else in the restaurant and they were eating the same thing. They just held the bowl up and drank out of it that way. It was like a big tea cup with no handle.
I headed up the pass to La Linea which is about 3,500 meters or over 10,000 feet from Cajamarca which is about 6000 feet. What a beautiful ride. The small farms on the hills are really beautiful, as they all seem to be growing something different.

When I was in town I was standing on a corner when a guy and gal pulled up on a little bike and the girl got off and walked away. The bike was loaded down with stuff tied on all over it. It was just a small bike I think it was a Suzuki and it had 115cc on the side. The guy got off and I tried to talk with him but not much got said other than I let him know I was a moto man. Well, almost to the top of the hill I saw him parked along side the road. I stopped and I guess his bike finally gave out under that load. The day before he said that there were no problems with the bike. He was a big guy and the girl average so with the gear and all, that bike was overloaded for flat land. I got a photo of him taking off for the hotel. It turned out that he stayed in the same hotel I did but he got to park his moto in the hotel lobby and I parked just down the street in a big lock up parking garage.
The farms that grew crops gave out to grazing land at the top of the pass and there were lots of cows grazing. This is a really beautiful road and it was in great shape. I got a chance to look around unlike all the countries up north where you have to watch the road constantly. The bike is running well and still has lots of power at these elevations. I need that power too to pass those big trucks on those curvy mountain roads. There often isn’t much time to pass and that bike can really take off and pass quickly. I took this photo near the top and coming down showing the road as well at the clouds. It was cool to be above the clouds.
I had put on a long underwear top in the morning and I was dressed about right for the trip over the top. It got a lot warmer on the other side and as I got lower the farms got going again. The variety of crops that they grow is amazing. I really loved the farms and marvel at how they can manage farming on the hillsides like they do. I am a flat land farmer and mechanized as well while these guys do it all by hand and pack it out on their backs too.

The valley floor crops are almost all sugar cane while the hills and mountains are more tree crops, corn, and some trellis crops. It is actually hard for me to say what is growing out there. When I went in a store in Bogota the fruit section had maybe twenty different kinds of fruit and I couldn’t identify many of them other than apples (from Washington) and some plumbs. I really should have bought one of each kind and tried them all. They sure did look weird though with little bumps and odd shapes.
I finally climbed out of the valley and made it to Popayan which is about six thousand feet again. it seems like a nice altitude around here temperature wise. The hotel I found is really nice. My room has a really nice bed and the bath has a shower with one handle but an electric heater on the showerhead. if you ever get down here and find on of these thing in the shower you have to know how to use it. If you turn the water on full, the water will be cold, so just turn the water on a little bit and you will have hot or at least warm water. The sink water is cold at there is no hot water heater. It has to be quick and much easier that having a hot water system for a hotel.
I stopped at what looked like a good restaurant around noon as there were quite a few cars parked out front. It was the same thing, no menu. I just made the shoveling motion to my mouth and the guy laughed and pretty soon I had a plate of food before me. It was a big hunk of chicken with rice, beans, those little corn biscuit things, a fried banana slice, some salad stuff (I don’t eat the salad stuff) and a piece of yucca root, oh and some sort of juice. wow, they sure know how to feed a hungry biker down here. I figured it cost about three bucks.
This is a little bigger town than I really like to stay in but it wasn’t that hard to find a place to live, but it will be fun trying to find my way out and back on the road to Quito. That is one thing I really liked about riding with Dan and Bonnie, as Dan had an unbelievable sense of direction in towns. I guess his being a fireman and droving a cement truck, had trained him to know where he was in a city. I was totally lost but he knew exactly where we were and how to get out.
Lets see, I went through an area that was rather poor and I think most of the people worked in the farm fields. Most of the people there were black. There is a significant part of the population in parts of the country that are Afro-Colombian. I remember Carlos saying that there is not discrimination here. there are areas where there are a lot of poor afro-Colombians.
I am seeing a lot of horse drawn carts here. I saw a very few in Bogota but as I got out of the city I see more and more. Mostly they are used for cargo transport and here a lot of them are used for farm produce transport. One horse only hooked to a little ten foot, four wheel wagon. I wouldn’t say they have the right of way but everyone seems to give them room.
Horse cart X

Supper was at a chicken place and no menu again. I made my shoveling to the mouth move and he got the picture. Pollo (chicken) it was, with rice, beans, a couple of corn biscuits and potato soup.
12-27-05
I tried the same restaurant for breakfast but the only thing they had for breakfast was chicken so he pointed me down the street and I got a helping of scrambled eggs, rice and fried banana with a cup of milk coffee. Dang I still haven’t got the black coffee thing down yet. I asked for tinto, which is supposed to be the word, but she said no tinto so I went with the café. Good enough for me. On the way out of town I passed this little ferris wheel which looked like a cool deal. The guy just stopped to chat with a woman and his two little dogs got out that were riding on one of the seats.
Ferris wheel X

The road today was just beautiful again. I crossed some high mountains and had some outstanding views of some really deep canyons. It was almost like looking down into the grand canyon only it was green and there were people living there and farming there.
Hillside X

Some of the little farms were on better ground and were just show pieces.
Ridge top farm X

Road goes into tunnel and when you go in that tunnel it is pitch black.
Tunnel X

I had to stop and take a photo of these guys just coming up out of a canyon with a pack string of horses that were loaded down with boxes of fruit that were harvested down there someplace.
Packin X

I was going through a small town when I spotted this guy hauling a pig behind his motorcycle. I real hog man I guess you would say.
Pig-hauler X

I caught up with a couple of police guys riding down the road and I just felt it was a good idea to follow them and not pass. It was sort of like having a police escort. I did finally pass them as they stopped to talk with another policeman. Not much further the road was closed and they showed up to make sure no one went on by. They were actually really nice guys and they were interested in my bike as I was in theirs. They were riding Yamaha 650’s and they ride two up, or at least these guys were. I could keep up with them easily enough but they really crank right along on those bikes.
Cop’n guns X

It wasn’t too far from where the road was closed to the city of Pasto where I found a nice room in a hotel right downtown. It had started to rain and I needed a place right away. I met a couple of biker’s back where the road was closed. They were from Medellin, Colombia and were headed to Ecuador and the coast for a few days. I stopped on the outskirts of Pasto and waited for them to come along and when they did I asked if they knew where the hotels were. They pointed to one really fancy one and said they were going to stay there. I asked how much and one guy said he thought a hundred or so. Yikes, I am a twenty to twenty five guy so I rode on and found this nice hotel. It even has warm water but no toilet seat like a lot of the hotels I have stayed in. I wonder why they don’t have toilet seats? I can’t imagine people stealing them. Oh yah, you have to put used toilet paper in a little wastebasket and not down the toilet when you go south of the US border.
12-28-05
it was a beautiful ride to the border over some really nice mountains. The farms on them were very nice. I met the bikers again along the road where they stopped to take a photo of a water fall. One of them took my camera and took a photo of me.
Rex X
It didn’t take too long to get to the border but the border was terrible. I stood in the Colombian border to check out for tow and a half hours and an hour and a half in the Ecuador line to check in. I asked some guys where I would get my moto checked into Ecuador and I was given a little guy that had me hang around for a while and then he got on my motorcycle with me and we rode to town about three or four kilometers. How weird to have a guy sitting on top of my pack on the back of the bike. We went into the town and I would never have found the customs office without him for sure. The girl who wrote out my stuff was very nice and it only took a half hour or so to get through that office. With papers in hand I went back to the bike and one of the inspectors who looked at my bike pointed me in the direction of Quito. It turns out it is through the middle of the town of Tulcan. It was about three o’clock then and I decided to get a hotel for the night as I think the next town is a long ways away and I don’t want to ride at night. I found a nice hotel downtown and there is a parking lot for the bike. The room is ten bucks, oh, I had to change back into US money here. the room is much nicer than the last one as it has a toilet seat as well as a much bigger in size. I think it will be much quieter too.

Popayan

2005-12-26T14:25:00.000-08:00

i am in popayan and headed for the border tomorrow i guess. colombia is wonderful and the prettyest i have seen so far. the damn food is going to make me fat again though. yum, yum. Rx
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
12-24-05
Yesterday morning Carlos and I went to the National Museum. We got there a little early so took a walking tour of the National Park, the bull fighting arena and the planetarium. When we got back the museum was open and we went in to look around. The museum is located in an old prison and the building is really strongly built and very beautiful.
Museum National X

The walls must be four feet thick and they left the bars on the windows as well as huge barred doors separating the different wings and floors. There was some interpretative signs but they were all in Spanish. It was nice to have Carlos let me know about important things as we walked past. He has had Colombian history in school for years and he knew most of the major political and military events that happened. On of the most colorful characters was Simon Bolivar and they had a special wing all for him. He is a hero in the entire north of South America as he was responsible for their independence from Spain. He was really a handsome man and the paintings of him are wonderful. .
Simon Bolivar X

They had a small collection of gold there and one of the best photos I got is this one. They are hard to take photos of as everything is behind glass and the lighting was poor.
Gold X

There was a really nice display of ancient artifacts that are very similar to the Mayan stuff I saw up north but evidently they are no relation to them. In one wing a guard came along with us and told Carlos some really interesting things about one area where he, the guard, grew up. It is an area where they found large statues of some really mean looking monster man shapes. They had a photo of them being dug up and exposed. The guard pointed to one man in the old photo and said it was his grandfather. He was a really nice guy and when we were about to leave he took a small object wrapped in toilet paper from his pocket and showed us. He asked Carlos if I would be interested in buying it. Wow, it was really cool but I couldn’t imagine buying something like that and trying to smuggle it across a border. Geez, I have enough problems as it is and anyway I don’t want anything that I can’t carry on my motorcycle.
Guard artifact X

There were some really nice art works throughout the museum. They had mostly paintings of people that were portrait style but there were sections of more modern style paintings by famous artists in Colombia. I really liked this painting of a woman looking at a print.
Woman painting X

There are several really nice woodcarvings of men’s faces. This one is my favorite.
Woodhead2 X

I am not sure just who these guys are but I think they are death masks cast in bronze. I am not sure why I find all this morbid stuff interesting but I guess it is something a person isn’t confronted with much in our society. It could be that I am realizing that I am getting closer to the end as well. What ever I think these three death masks are pretty cool.
Deathmasks X

After we left the museum Carlos took me to one of his favorite restaurants near where he used to live. The restaurant is sort of small homey and with lots of stuff hanging around on the walls. There were bunches of the large plantain (big green type bananas) hanging between rooms. Carlos ordered for me, as I have wanted to try different types of Colombian food. What I was served was really cool. It consisted of a sheet of plantain that is somewhat like a hard corn tortilla only huge. On it was a big helping of a sort of hamburger pieces in a red sauce topped with grated cheese and topped with a salsa sauce. Also on the plantain was a scoop of avocado dip. To the side was a dish of corn, rice and I am not sure what the topping stuff was. Wow, this was a really cool and good meal. I was really eating off this plate that I ate, as I went along. The whole thing is put on piece of paper on a wood board to serve it. Simple and efficient.
Lunch X

Today is Christmas eve day and we went in the car over to the restaurant where Lucy had ordered the Christmas supper meal of turkey. It is really not a turkey but I guess the turkey meat taken out and mixed with other things and put back in the skin and baked. It looks really good and Lucy snuck a little taste to be sure it was ok. We went in the car to one of the nicer malls in town and looked around. There were shoppers there for sure but I didn’t see the mad rush to finish Christmas shopping like I have seen in the states. The people down here don’t seem to get in that mega shopping extravaganza like back home. I think it is more a family and friends time. Carlos said that when he was a kid the families would gather in huge groups but now they tend to be smaller gatherings. When he was a kid it was common for 50 or more to gather on Christmas. Actually I guess they would gather the day before Christmas as everything happens on this day and nothing on Christmas day.
We went to an Italian restaurant for lunch and after that we went to another nice mall building where we all had an ice-cream. Carlos and I had a waffle cone which turned out to be the biggest thing I have ever seen or tried to balance, while Lucy got a small dish but they packed it and stacked it so high it was almost impossible to eat it all. We went back to the apartment and had a nap, or at least I did.
In the late afternoon Lucy and I went shopping for a few small items that she needed for tonight. Some members of he family are coming over for Christmas supper. I took a photo of Carlos and Lucy on the street.
Carlos and Lucy X