Small town on the Pampa

We spent a few days in Bariloche walking the streets enjoying the scenery and friendly people. Dave felt that he could easily settle there. It offered great features like sailing, hiking, skiing, beautiful views and good weather most of the year. It was Fall however and the weather was getting quite chilly. We decided that continuing south would have to be left for a future date.

When we crossed the border from Chile to Argentina the last time, customs gave us an eight month visa for our motorcycles rather than the customary three months. We thought about this for a few days and decided to leave our bikes in Argentina and return in the Spring (November). We emailed the Horizons Unlimited community and we had the good fortune to be contacted by cousins, Juan Louis and Juan Pablo from Mendoza who offered to help us find accommodation for our motorcycles.

The route north to Mendoza we chose was through the Pampa, the flat scrub land rather than Ruta 40 which we had ridden previously. This route took us through small towns and past gauchos - Argentine cowboys - and along the road of dinosaurs, wine and apples.

On the road to Mendoza

Route of Dinosaurs, Wine and Apples

We arrived back in Mendoza at lunch time and went back to our favourite restaurant for our steak dinners.

David enjoying a steak

After a leisurely meal we went back to the motorcycle dealer where we had our bikes serviced on our previous visit to ask where we could get our bikes washed. The service manager told us to follow him as he was going to get one of his customer's cars washed. The bikes had a thorough scrubbing and we were told there was no charge, the dealer picked up the tab, imagine that!

While in the hotel, we were making tea and Deb had boiling water spilled on her left foot. After 34,000 km - 21,000 miles of riding the only injury that occurred happened in tea making accident. To those that are worried about all the bad things that could happen to us, I bet you never thought we would be disabled by tea! Deb was stuck in the hotel room for our last four days in Argentina while Dave ran around with Juan Pablo and Juan Luis evaluating potential storage locations and attending a polo match. Actually, he was a very attentive, administering first aid and bringing her meals to the hotel.

On the evening before we left, we were invited to the family winery for an Argentine barbeque. The food and wine were delicious. The barbecue allowed us time to meet Juan and Juan's family and friends and share some of the things we have learned on the road. Juan Pablo was very interested to gather as much information as possible, as he will be shipping his motorcycle to Vancouver in June, riding to Alaska in July then turning around and riding back to Argentina by the end of the year.

Since Deb wasn't able to ride and our motorcylces were parked in the hotel garage, Juan Pablo rode Deb's bike to the storage place.

We flew from Mendoza to Buenos Aires where we had a seven-hour lay over before continuing on to Miami. In spite of Deb's injury, we felt we had to take the opportunity to see the city. We left our bags at the bus terminal and had a short tour on foot enjoying watching the dancers and soaking up the atmosphere of the city. Tango is the dance most associated with BA and the charm of the city made it very enjoyable for Dave, or maybe it was the short skirt and the long legs of the dancer.

Tango dancers in Buenos Aires

Street in Buenos Aires

One of the most famous streets in the world is Avenida Nueve de Julio. It is about 14 lanes wide, passing through the heart of Buenos Aires and is not a highway.

Famous Avenida 9 de Julio

We said goodbye to Argentina and flew to Detroit where we were greeted by Dave's family. As we drove across the border into Canada, we were welcomed home by a snow storm, probably the last one of the season.