DECEMBER 27, ESQUEL, ARGENTINA.

In San Rafael, at John and Annette's place, we stayed for 6 weeks. You can stay at their finca (farm) if you give them a hand. Before we left we finished the galleria (the porch). We did the concreting underneath in the early hours of the morning to avoid getting heatstroke.
I love this place when it's spring, all the greens look so pretty.

We celebrated Guy Forks night at the finca. One of those great ideas of Annette. She made toffee apples and I made a guy from old cloths and hay. Annette had invited friends, also expatriates from Britain and the States (the last one's had no clue what Guy Forks night was all about!).

It took all morning to buy some fireworks for Guy's night. In the shop they couldn't tell us how much it would cost and we had to come back 3 times before we got them. After Andy had fired off the first one, the hay underneath the trees started to burn. Some buckets with water prevented the finca from being burned down. After singing a song and a last dance with Guy we threw him in the fire...

The weather is very strange in this area. John and Annette's plums and grapes got hit by the frost, so there will be not much to harvest next summer. Sometimes the winds were horrendous. We just heard that they had a tornado....it proves that it is an El Nino Year!
It was not easy to say 'Goodbye' to John and Annette after having spent one and a half months at their place. We wish them both more than Good Luck, they deserve it . Bloody hard workers they are.

We left San Rafael on the 10 of November, following ruta 40 South and enjoyed being on the road again very much. The scenery was fantastic, blue sky and red and brown rocky mountains in front of higher black mountains with snow on top.
We found an OK-campsite in Malarque, quite close to a luxury supermarket. Good choice.
Ruta 40 has some good bits with asphalt and also some really shit bits of rippio (wash board), but you forget all your sorrow because of all the fascinating surroundings.
The campsite in Chos Malal didn't look very good, but it was surprisingly quiet after some drunks had left. From that moment on almost everybody we met was giving us presents...a guy gave Andy a fluffy hat, so he looks like a cosak now. In the middle of nowhere Argentina's Buff distributer gave us 2 Buffs (head scarves) with the Argentinian flag on it, together with a handy thermometer.
Andy is wearing that on his coat, so I can see how hot he is.
More lucky moments, we got stopped by the police twice and they even didn't notice, after a professional check on us, that the numberplate was gone.

We headed for Las Lajas and stayed 2 nights in a wooden cabana without electricity, but with a wood stove and a great view. Our cabana was surrounded by my favorite trees, the Monkey Puzzle Trees.

It took us 2 hours to cross the border into Chile. They checked the top box, but not the sidecar box, which was full of chocolate raisins, Andy's favorites. You are not allowed to take any fruit, vegetables and meat into Chile, but Andy didn't care. You can't find chocolate raisins very easy in South America.
After crossing the border we saw 3 volcano's, covered in snow, in one view! We also drove through South America's longest tunnel, that was quiet scary, I don't like tunnel darkness. It was cold, so we headed for a place called 'Swiss Andino', a hostel near Lonquimay.

Chile is much greener than Argentina (because of the rain!) and looks different as well. Higher mountains, more snow. The houses look like the ones on the prairie in a Wild West movie. The people are a bit more reserved than in Argentina.
You shouldn't write stupid things about your self in a blog like this, but sometimes it has to be done...We spent 3 nights in the nicest room in 'Swiss Andino', because we thought it was not to expensive. But when we got the bill we found out that one dollar is 516 pesos and not half of that amount, as we thought!
So we had spent our weekly budget in a oner, great. So for the next 5 days we had to camp in the wild. We drove around a huge volcano and got stuck in the snow, we turned around into another direction, following a river and found a beautiful place to camp near Troyo, a small village. Than it rained for almost 2 days and we were reading books and talked about our future plans while we were trying to stay warm in our sleeping bags.

We followed the Lake Route South from Curacautin to Cunco, a great ride, but it was still cold and wet. So we spent another day in the tent. I finished 2 books, one from Ian Rankin and one about Eric Clapton's life.
We got smelly, time for a cabana. Also a good place to change a broken spoke and to warm up. We decided to go back into Argentina. We wanted a bit more sunshine and Chile is not cheap.

We ended up in Villa Penuana, just over the border in Argentina, on a camp site. It came with a cow that was chasing the dogs (or the other way around). They promised to warm up the water for a shower for us, but all we got were some drops.

There are loads of birds in Park Lanin, a park near the Lakes. We have been before in this area, but it was summer than and very dry. Now it looks green, green, green. I love it!

The road from Junin de Los Andes to Bariloche is so nice, yellow bushes and lupines everywhere. Lots of places to wild camp or to fish!

In Bariloche we contacted our friends Klaus and Andrea and their kids Manu and Nico. We had met each other 3 years ago and had shared a cabana together. Klaus had started a bike tours company and we were very curious about how they were doing. We were all very pleased to see each other again. One day we had a great ride out around the lake and all the family members ended up -one at the time- in the sidecar. Normally we don't do children (sorry kids), but Manu and Nico are super kids. They speak 4 languages, are funny and great company. And can make pancakes as well!

We stayed 3 nights in a wooden cabana at Klaus and Claudia's place near El Bolson. We worked on their land, trying to dig out huge thistles, like the ones in Scotland. They organized a big assado and that was very nice!

Time to start heading East to Viedma, to the HU meeting for travellers like us. It's a 3 days ride over the 'Pampa' , mostly rippio, to the other side of Argentina. We spend the nights in what we call ' Hotel Patagonia', which means, sleeping in a quarry next to the road somewhere on the Pampa.

So you get beautiful sunsets and silence. Except for the sound of a machine gun in the distance...it comes from a small animal that that warns his tribe for smelly bikers like us.

Lots of the Argentinian version of a South African ostrich around, wild horses also and other strange birds.
We also saw the Argentinian version of Ayers Rock, it has the shape of an enormous empanada.
Towards Viedma the Pampa is totally flat and it's very windy. The Patagonian winds are very, very strong and dusty.

We stopped in Viedma to rob a bank and to stock up with some healthy food and beer. Back at the bike we met 2 Canadians, Brian and Mary (later on we called her cave woman, but I can't tell you all the details about why). We drove together to the camp site in El Condor, were Kevin and Lorraine were already settled in. It ended up in having a big assado together.

From that day on other bike travellers arrived. There was another sidecar as well!!!!!!!!Tony from East Germany. He had had a bike accident and has to use a wheel chair. It doesn't stop this happy guy going where he wants to go, together with his lovely girlfriend Ina, who rides her own bike.

Old friends turned up, Sandra and Yavier from Dakar Motos and John (without Annette unfortunately). Finally we met Smelly Biker, Bob Morly, who wasn't smelly at all but nice company and also Ken and Carol Duval. They had had a bike accident and had visited 3 hospitals in Buenos Aires to find a doctor who would have no problems to let them go of to Viedma! And there they were! They came by bus and were very happy company.
Oscar and Nancy hosted the whole meeting in a great way. The assado they organized was perfect as also everything else.
This HU meeting was a very cozy one, we enjoyed it a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before we hit the road again, we parked our sidecar in Viedma in front of a radio station and before we had discovered what we had done I ended up in a real studio with micro phones and 3 interviewers, all asking questions at the same time....it was a good opportunity to thank Oscar and Nancy. I hope everybody has heard that.

We had to go back the same road we had been on before. Our friends Hazel and Tony would arrive by plane in Bariloche in 4 days time.
We drove back together with a Swiss couple, Chris and Sylvia, and spent together 2 nights in a cabana in Bariloche, which was nice.
In this cabana I turned the bath in a gigantic washing machine and managed to flood the whole place...

Now we are in Esquel, together with Tony and Hazel, who still can't believe that they are in Argentina! It's Christmas, we are in a nice place, with good friends, life ain't bad.
Back in Scotland they had floods and now loads of snow. It's minus 12. And in Holland nobody can travel because of the weather.....
Happy New Year to all our family members, our friends and all the travellers we have met on the road. We wish all of you all the best (and more) for 2010. It will be a good year for making your own wishes come true and to share all the good things together.