It´s been raining since I got here last night. I left my motorcycle in Atlantida with a member of the local motorcycle gang, who is also on the SWAT team. It should be safe. We spent the morning talking about different trips and experiences. He has me sold on taking a trip up the coast of Brazil.
Then I took the bus to Montevideo, and the boat to Buenos Aires. At the terminal, the Argentine customs agents had two golden labs for drug sniffing. One was inside, at the point where the luggage comes in on the carrousel, and the other was right outside. The one inside decided it would rather play with the dog outside than sniff for drugs, so it got on the carrousel and started jumping over the bags, trying to get outside, even though it was on a leash. After a while, the agent decided to get out a tennis ball and show it to the dog. That drove the dog nuts, it started jumping up and down, trying to get to the tennis ball. The dog outside stuck it´s head through the opening and tried to get the tennis ball. So the agent would touch the bags as they appeared with the tennis ball and the dogs lunged at them. When he realized how ridiculous this looked, the agent let the dog go outside and play with the other drug sniffing dog. They didn´t find anything in any of the bags. I got the distinct impression someone in the Aduana´s office read somewhere that golden Labs are good for sniffing out drugs, but skipped over the part where it said you have to train them.
I got here at 9 last night, and shared a cab with some backpackers from Australia and New Zealand. We went to an area where their guidebook said there was a hotel, found it, and the place had one room. So instead of taking out the guidebook and looking for another hotel in the area that might accomodate me, the female backpacker asked if I was going to be okay. I asked the woman where there was another hotel, and she told me. The female backpacker said, ¨do you understand what she is saying?¨and repeated ¨Are you going to be okay,¨ but not as a question, then they almost knocked the woman at the door over racing into the hotel ahead of me. So I wandered a couple blocks until I found the hotel Bolivar, which was surprisingly clean and functional for $10 a night and cheaper than the hotel the backpackers were staying in.
Around the corner was a pub called the Gibralter, where I met a nice couple from England on an 8 month honeymoon. They have been renting cars and traveling around South America. We compared stories and experiences.
Then it was off to bed and here I am in the pouring rain, waiting for my plane home.
Atlantida, Uruguay
I rode across Uruguay yesterday, from Paysandu to Valizas, where I spent the night in a rancho, which is a house with no electricity, where you have to pump the water with a handpump if you want to take a shower or use the bathroom. so I pumped water and wandered around in the dark looking for candles. I got there after dark, and went to a restaurant I was at during my bicycle trip in february. because the residents have voted against putting in street lights, the night sky is incredibly bright and full of stars and galaxies. It´s hard to believe this is what the sky used to look like all over the world. valizas was deserted, and the restaurant served five tables all night, but I managed to meet an interesting Italian who has been in Uruguay for 30 years and was surprised I could tell he wasn´t a native.
this morning I rode up to aguas dulces, another beach town, and then hit the autopista back to Montevideo. After three days on the bike, I am sore, and I realize that I don´t take in as much on the motorcycle as I did on the bicycle. I think I will be taking a lot more bicycle trips in the future.
I am going to leave the bike here in Atlantida with a member of the Uruguayan swat team who assures me it will be safe, and take the bus to the ferry to argentina. I should be in Buenos Aires tomorrow.
I had a problem with my atm card yet again. apparently one of the airlines double charged me on a ticket and took out all my traveling cash, so when I got online, I had $2 and change to my name. but I called my bank and was able to transfer enough to keep going.
beside me in the cyber cafe, some kids are playing a game online, and screaming at one another as they play on different computers. It is rather distracting.
this morning I rode up to aguas dulces, another beach town, and then hit the autopista back to Montevideo. After three days on the bike, I am sore, and I realize that I don´t take in as much on the motorcycle as I did on the bicycle. I think I will be taking a lot more bicycle trips in the future.
I am going to leave the bike here in Atlantida with a member of the Uruguayan swat team who assures me it will be safe, and take the bus to the ferry to argentina. I should be in Buenos Aires tomorrow.
I had a problem with my atm card yet again. apparently one of the airlines double charged me on a ticket and took out all my traveling cash, so when I got online, I had $2 and change to my name. but I called my bank and was able to transfer enough to keep going.
beside me in the cyber cafe, some kids are playing a game online, and screaming at one another as they play on different computers. It is rather distracting.
Paysandu, Uruguay
The road to Paysandu is long and paved with adventure. I raced across the bridge and was able to get into Uruguay before the hippies closed the road again. They are doing this because the President of Uruguay got on the news and made statements about the paper plant and the protesters to the effect that Uruguay was going to open the biggest cellulose plant in the Americas right across the river from Argentina, and the Argentines were acting illegally in closing the bridge. There are also a lot of commercials on Argentine TV for Uruguay Natural, the government tourism agency, so the Uruguayans are sending mixed messages.
I have a year and won´t have the same problems I had in Argentina when I go back. Now I´ve got to figure out where to leave the bike.
Yesterday started off cool but bright, the storm had blown through, and the day looked like it might turn out to be warm. Then I went from Ruta 7 to Ruta 8 and found myself in a thick tule fog for about twenty miles. The thin strip of rubber on my left glove got quite a workout keeping the faceshield clean.
Finally I got through the fog and settled in for miles and miles of pampa. Something new is wrong with my bike, because I am getting 120 or 130 km before the fuel runs out, and before I was getting about 160. But it still runs and if anything breaks, I have a year to deal with it.
Crossing out of Rosario into Entre Rios, I saw the effects of the recent rainfall. The lowlands are flooded, and there are cows wandering around up to their necks in water. At the tollbooth, I was given a flier warning me about loose livestock and the road was posted with warnings about it too. I thought this must be a terrible tragedy, then saw a couple of boats made for rounding up cows in the water, so evidently this is fairly regular, and the farmers have prepared for it.
I got stopped by the Entre Rios police for crossing a double yellow line to get around a truck. The first cop asked me if I did, and I said that everybody does, so he transfered me to another cop to collect the fine. The fine was $330 at first. He told me they had a digital photo of me crossing the double yellow line, and asked if I did. I said I didn´t remember. It may have been a truck, it may have been six trucks, three cars and a pickup. He called up the road and someone on the radio relayed back my license plate and description, and that I passed a truck on the double yellow line. Why there was about five km. of freshly painted double yellow line on the long straight stretch right before the police roadblock was a mystery to me. I told him to give me a ticket and I would pay the judge. He said I had to pay them, and produced a form, in triplicate, that looked very official. It even had a stamp on it. Then he showed me one that was filled out, where some idiot had actually paid them almost $100 for something. I told him I wanted to go to the judge. He told me that they were going to detain my bike for 12 hours, and then I could go to the judge. They do this right before the bridge is closed for the weekend, so you are pressured to settle up. I asked where I could pitch my tent. Then the fine was $33. Apparently there´s a 90% discount for cash on roadside traffic fines in Entre Rios. I said I wanted to pay the judge, and would turn myself in in Colon, the next town up the road. He showed me on the form where I had to either pay them, or go to the court in Parana, about 200 miles away. Very good thinking on the part of whoever had the forms made. I said fine, I´ll go to Parana. He asked me if I´d been in Argentina before. I said yes, and he then said, ¨so you know how this works, don´t you?¨ Then he handed me back my documents and I was on my way.
In Colon, I filled up my bike and my spare tank. Every time I check into a hotel, I wonder to myself why they let me take 3 gallons of gas into my room. I wouldn´t if it was my hotel.
So here I am, now I´ve got to cross Uruguay and find somewhere to put the bike.
I have a year and won´t have the same problems I had in Argentina when I go back. Now I´ve got to figure out where to leave the bike.
Yesterday started off cool but bright, the storm had blown through, and the day looked like it might turn out to be warm. Then I went from Ruta 7 to Ruta 8 and found myself in a thick tule fog for about twenty miles. The thin strip of rubber on my left glove got quite a workout keeping the faceshield clean.
Finally I got through the fog and settled in for miles and miles of pampa. Something new is wrong with my bike, because I am getting 120 or 130 km before the fuel runs out, and before I was getting about 160. But it still runs and if anything breaks, I have a year to deal with it.
Crossing out of Rosario into Entre Rios, I saw the effects of the recent rainfall. The lowlands are flooded, and there are cows wandering around up to their necks in water. At the tollbooth, I was given a flier warning me about loose livestock and the road was posted with warnings about it too. I thought this must be a terrible tragedy, then saw a couple of boats made for rounding up cows in the water, so evidently this is fairly regular, and the farmers have prepared for it.
I got stopped by the Entre Rios police for crossing a double yellow line to get around a truck. The first cop asked me if I did, and I said that everybody does, so he transfered me to another cop to collect the fine. The fine was $330 at first. He told me they had a digital photo of me crossing the double yellow line, and asked if I did. I said I didn´t remember. It may have been a truck, it may have been six trucks, three cars and a pickup. He called up the road and someone on the radio relayed back my license plate and description, and that I passed a truck on the double yellow line. Why there was about five km. of freshly painted double yellow line on the long straight stretch right before the police roadblock was a mystery to me. I told him to give me a ticket and I would pay the judge. He said I had to pay them, and produced a form, in triplicate, that looked very official. It even had a stamp on it. Then he showed me one that was filled out, where some idiot had actually paid them almost $100 for something. I told him I wanted to go to the judge. He told me that they were going to detain my bike for 12 hours, and then I could go to the judge. They do this right before the bridge is closed for the weekend, so you are pressured to settle up. I asked where I could pitch my tent. Then the fine was $33. Apparently there´s a 90% discount for cash on roadside traffic fines in Entre Rios. I said I wanted to pay the judge, and would turn myself in in Colon, the next town up the road. He showed me on the form where I had to either pay them, or go to the court in Parana, about 200 miles away. Very good thinking on the part of whoever had the forms made. I said fine, I´ll go to Parana. He asked me if I´d been in Argentina before. I said yes, and he then said, ¨so you know how this works, don´t you?¨ Then he handed me back my documents and I was on my way.
In Colon, I filled up my bike and my spare tank. Every time I check into a hotel, I wonder to myself why they let me take 3 gallons of gas into my room. I wouldn´t if it was my hotel.
So here I am, now I´ve got to cross Uruguay and find somewhere to put the bike.
San Luis, Argentina
Summer ended today. All I had to do to make this happen was cross the Andes. I left Santiago a little late, after standing out on Catedral St. with my jumper cables hooked to my bike and a pathetic look on my face until someone stopped and gave me a jump. Once the bike got started, I rode around the block a couple times, loaded up all my stuff, kissed Marcia goodbye for now, and headed to the Caracoles, the treacherous curves you have to climb to get out of Chile. That the road is poorly maintained is not enough, to make it more interesting, the trucks coming from Argentina like to pass one another on descent. Makes for some interesting motorcycle riding.
Santiago was overcast and brisk, but once I got out of town the sky cleared and I felt a bit warm. Then I started to climb the Andes, and the further I got, the colder it got, until by the time I reached the tunnel separating Chile and Argentina, I could not feel my fingers.
I chose the fast moving line for a change, and got through customs in less than half an hour, which is fast for this part of the world. By the time I was legal in Argentina, my hands were warm enough that I didn´t feel like I was wearing mittens when I tried to turn on the lights or start the bike.
One of the little games I play as I travel is ¨try to have no money left over from the country you are leaving.¨I have less than a dollar in Chilean coins, so I won today.
The game took on a new twist when the ATM at a bank in Santiago captured my card two days before I was to leave and I had to scramble to get it back. So now I have to keep in mind that I may be unable to get money out of the machine at any time, and have to take out the absolute most I think I´ll need, because I could get cut off at any time, and have a schedule to keep. It will be interesting to see how many Argentine pesos I have left when I leave.
I stopped for gas in Uspallata, and met three RVs full of old Brazilians. The brazilians are the most amable people in the world. They started to talk to me in Spanish about my trip, the road to Chile, and the exchange rate with the dollar. First I replied in Spanish, then started in Portuguese. After about two minutes, it suddenly came to them that I was speaking Portuguese, and they lit up and switched to their own language. We spoke for a few minutes more, then I excused myself. I am sure that if I didn´t, I would be in an RV right now somewhere in Chile.
The sky was bright with sun and big white clouds as I started to descend towards Mendoza, and I thought I was going to have a nice day of riding. I haven´t done any distance riding for over two months, and was looking forward to it.
Then the sky got dark, and the clouds came down and touched the earth around me. The wind picked up and blew bitter cold, and it began to rain. It was a cold rain, but not strong. The ground was mostly dry. In the distance, I could make out patches of blue sky.
The road took a turn, and I was in a black sky, and the rain began to pelt me and the bike. I huddled down forward over the tank and rode on. The Axis bike still runs great, between hiccups and backfires that jerk the whole bike back and then forward. It ran all day at 120 kph, has been unbelievably reliable and I should like it, but for some reason, I do not like this bike.
Once I got to the pampa, the rain lightened up, but the sky stayed dark and grey, and the cold began to penetrate my clothes and then my chest. It was a damp cold and the rain was constant and weak. The pampa is a long flat stretch that seems to go on forever. It runs from the Andes to the ocean, and this is why storms blow in so fast and with such force from the atlantic, then pile up and explode against the mountains.
I rode the pampa out as long as I could, and came to San Luis. I am sure I´ve been here before, even though I don´t recognize any of it. The town square has a beautiful church and one block away is the New York New York casino. There are lots of casinos in this town. Apparently it got hit pretty hard by the rain before I got here, because the water runs fast about half a foot thick in the gutters.
I rode around looking for a hotel, then went to a drugstore to ask about cheap places, as I learned to do on my bicycle trip inUruguay, and got pointed to the Inca Hotel, for $21 a night, breakfast and parking included. I probably could have found something cheaper, but there´s a lot to be said for getting off the bike and into a hot shower when you are cold and tired.
The sandwich I had for dinner was a Lomo completo, grilled new york steak with ham, egg, lettuce and tomato on toasted artesanal bread. It was literally bigger than my size 14 tennis shoe, and hung out about three inches over both sides of the plate. It was $3.50. And it was delicious.
Santiago was overcast and brisk, but once I got out of town the sky cleared and I felt a bit warm. Then I started to climb the Andes, and the further I got, the colder it got, until by the time I reached the tunnel separating Chile and Argentina, I could not feel my fingers.
I chose the fast moving line for a change, and got through customs in less than half an hour, which is fast for this part of the world. By the time I was legal in Argentina, my hands were warm enough that I didn´t feel like I was wearing mittens when I tried to turn on the lights or start the bike.
One of the little games I play as I travel is ¨try to have no money left over from the country you are leaving.¨I have less than a dollar in Chilean coins, so I won today.
The game took on a new twist when the ATM at a bank in Santiago captured my card two days before I was to leave and I had to scramble to get it back. So now I have to keep in mind that I may be unable to get money out of the machine at any time, and have to take out the absolute most I think I´ll need, because I could get cut off at any time, and have a schedule to keep. It will be interesting to see how many Argentine pesos I have left when I leave.
I stopped for gas in Uspallata, and met three RVs full of old Brazilians. The brazilians are the most amable people in the world. They started to talk to me in Spanish about my trip, the road to Chile, and the exchange rate with the dollar. First I replied in Spanish, then started in Portuguese. After about two minutes, it suddenly came to them that I was speaking Portuguese, and they lit up and switched to their own language. We spoke for a few minutes more, then I excused myself. I am sure that if I didn´t, I would be in an RV right now somewhere in Chile.
The sky was bright with sun and big white clouds as I started to descend towards Mendoza, and I thought I was going to have a nice day of riding. I haven´t done any distance riding for over two months, and was looking forward to it.
Then the sky got dark, and the clouds came down and touched the earth around me. The wind picked up and blew bitter cold, and it began to rain. It was a cold rain, but not strong. The ground was mostly dry. In the distance, I could make out patches of blue sky.
The road took a turn, and I was in a black sky, and the rain began to pelt me and the bike. I huddled down forward over the tank and rode on. The Axis bike still runs great, between hiccups and backfires that jerk the whole bike back and then forward. It ran all day at 120 kph, has been unbelievably reliable and I should like it, but for some reason, I do not like this bike.
Once I got to the pampa, the rain lightened up, but the sky stayed dark and grey, and the cold began to penetrate my clothes and then my chest. It was a damp cold and the rain was constant and weak. The pampa is a long flat stretch that seems to go on forever. It runs from the Andes to the ocean, and this is why storms blow in so fast and with such force from the atlantic, then pile up and explode against the mountains.
I rode the pampa out as long as I could, and came to San Luis. I am sure I´ve been here before, even though I don´t recognize any of it. The town square has a beautiful church and one block away is the New York New York casino. There are lots of casinos in this town. Apparently it got hit pretty hard by the rain before I got here, because the water runs fast about half a foot thick in the gutters.
I rode around looking for a hotel, then went to a drugstore to ask about cheap places, as I learned to do on my bicycle trip inUruguay, and got pointed to the Inca Hotel, for $21 a night, breakfast and parking included. I probably could have found something cheaper, but there´s a lot to be said for getting off the bike and into a hot shower when you are cold and tired.
The sandwich I had for dinner was a Lomo completo, grilled new york steak with ham, egg, lettuce and tomato on toasted artesanal bread. It was literally bigger than my size 14 tennis shoe, and hung out about three inches over both sides of the plate. It was $3.50. And it was delicious.
Santiago, Chile
Wouldn't it be great if the functions of government were privatized? Especially the post office. Can you imagine how much cheaper and more efficient the private sector could provide essential services? Well, that's how it is in Chile. So this is your mail, being sorted in the park by the guy who is going to bring it to your house. And if something's missing? It's probably still in the park.
The weather has been absolutely spectacular, and I have been riding across Santiago on my BikeE recumbent bicycle, in preparation for my epic ride through Uruguay the month of February. I have started a blog where I will be posting trip reports. The site is http://bentgringo.blogspot.com
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