Two Pegs to Patagonia, The 3 Americas

Jean had two wishes for this trip, other than the penguin thing.

* To meet an Andean woman wearing a "bowler hat"
* To have a conversation in Spanish with her.To get to Bolivia we had to head back into the mountains and leave the desert behind for a few weeks. We had been warned that rain was expected higher up and within an hour of turning east rain clouds formed. A timely change into wet weather gear was accomplished on a flat open plain.

Uyuni, the worlds largest salt flat.

We had written it off the route, due to its possible inaccessibility during the wet season (dirt roads only), but Jean decided she would brave it.

So, we selected the straightest and flattest route, and hoped for no rain.

The tarmac turned to hard pack, the hard pack turned to muddy sand. And in the distance we saw rain.

The road from Uyuni to Potosi, Bolivia.

All hail the Bolivian road builders! For every metre of paved road they manage to build across this hugely scenic but very inhospitable terrain.

From Uyuni we wanted to head to Chile, the most direct route was 500 kilometres of dirt, with at least one stretch of 400 kilometres with no fuel.

So, to be fair to the bikes and ourselves we decided to head back to Oruro via Potosi which had much more tarmac, and then head into Chile at its most northerly border with Bolivia. A detour of about 1500 kilometres.

At least it feels like some one has.

Before crossing from Bolivia to Chile we filled up, but not before the attendant made sure we understood that as foreigners we would be charged double the fuel price, 60p/litre, we assumed it was the equivalent price to Chile to stop people coming over and sucking the tanks dry.

It had been 170 kms since the last gas station, and as it turned out would be 230kms to the next one.

Somewhere in Bolivia. The most common road sign seen here. And there's loads of them, llamas, alpacas, vicunas.........by the road, on the road, about to cross the road. At least they don't suddenly dash across in the suicidal manner favoured by moose and deer. They eye you up and then casually saunter over the road like someone crossing a main road in Liverpool city centre.

For many years now my email has carried a signature at the end.
"The internet is a huge and diverse community and not every one is friendly"

After our great experiences with people we have met on this trip via various internet resources: Christine in Virginia, Thomas in Atlanta, Pam and also Wes in Texas, Garry in Mexico, and Norm in Panama, who have all hosted us......
I now really think it is time I finally changed it.

When looking ahead to this part of the trip we thought the only choices were

1) Ruta 40 - mainly dirt road and high (very high) winds, tracking the east slopes of the Andes.
2) Ruta 7 - the Carretera Austral, 1200kms of dirt on the very scenic west slopes of the Andes, with ferry crossings, followed by Ruta 40.
3) Cross to Argentina by the Chilean lakes, go to the Atlantic coast and take ruta 3 south, then the same road back north.

Option 1 and 2 and been ruled out a long time ago.

Option 4, did not even exist. Until Santiago.

West of the Parque Nacional Bernardo O'Higgins on the coast of southern Chile. Pengy finally got to see lots of relatives (the Magellanic family branch) swimming past. Unfortunately they were a bit camera shy and kept diving for fish instead of posing properly for photographs.

View from the Puerto Natales ferry, rounding the base of the Peninsula Roca on the southern coast of Chile.

It's been over six months, somewhere around 19,000 miles with more highs than lows.

We set out with a target of Patagonia, and even though technically we have been in the region since the Chilean "Lake District" just north of Puerto Montt, we didn't feel we had truly arrived until we got to Torres Del Paine National Park.

We managed to get the two Pegasos here as well.

(for the Higgins family)

Bernardo O'Higgins, one of the main players in the independence of Chile, has tributes all over the country. There are main streets named after him, a national park, town squares, and numerous monuments.

Seno Otway penguinera, near Punta Arenas, Chile.

Pengy spotted his relatives returning home from the sea, after a long day fishing. When they had finished resting and 'socialising' they all waddled back to their burrows making a lot of noise and stopping from time to time for some beak rubbing and flipper waving.
Pengy then found a salubrious looking burrow and took up residence for a short holiday.

We have been very lucky on this trip, except for the actual breakdown.

A rapid search on the internet located Gonzalo at Motoescar in Punta Arenas who agreed to look at Jean's shock absorber if we could get it to him (240k away).

He then rang back to say he had a friend in Puerto Natales, with a truck, who was going to Punta Arenas the next morning.

Cerro de la Cruz, Punta Arenas.

There's the route home, via Buenos Aires and Madrid. I just need a way of getting there!

An enterprising resident has used big poles in their garden to set up signposts to cities around the world. For the equivalent of $40 we could have ordered one for St Helens. However, we'd sooner spend the money on food, beer and getting my bike fixed.

I think I did, once, but I got away with it.

Yes, we are now in the home of beef and claimants to British sovereign territory.

Jean's bike is finally fixed, last adjustments made at 10.00 this morning and then we high tailed it out of Chile. 9 days in Punta Arenas was enough for us. There are just so many times you can walk up and down the same promenade.

With out the aid of Gonzalos at Motoescar we would have been there much longer. His final fix was to get a friend to fabricate a new seal.

After four days of progress north seeing nothing but flat pampas stretching from one horizon to the next, we finally reached the Welsh region of Patagonia at Trelew and decided to have a two night stop.

This meant that we had a chance to visit the largest penguin colony outside of Antarctica. Much to Jean's joy, although we are in the last 2 weeks of the fledgling season before they all migrate north to the sea off Brazil, there were still penguins to be seen.

Lots of penguins.
At the entrance as I was paying I heard Jean shout "look... penguins! "

But still not out.

After all the bad roads we have crossed :- The gravel, the mud, the sand and the ripio.

A roundabout on tarmac in Argentina is the scene of my worst spill so far.

Its not as if I was going fast, around 35mph (60km/h for any Canadians still reading).

We were going straight on, I entered the roundabout , looked to my right to see if any vehicles were approaching from the next exit and then .......

.... sky, road , roundabout, bike, spin.

On the road all kit is useful, however some kit is more useful than others.

By far the most useful and utilised is gaffa/duct tape for its ability to stick anything back together again.

However we carried and collected a few other items that have been invaluable to us.The Washing Machine

Clothes were mostly washed by jumping up and down on them in the shower while applying Dove soap, but sometimes a more thorough wash was required and there was not always a handy launderette in some remote places.

Thats two continents down, at least one to go. No more bikes have fallen over recently.

It has been a quiet week, especially with me limping everywhere.

We spent most of the week sleeping and socialising in the garage at Dakar Motors, who have a workshop with a 'hostel' attached.

Basic, but functional, and shared with other bikers and travelers.

We managed to fill one night, along with about 40,000 others, at an Iron Maiden stadium concert.