Torres del Paine

KS- Sunday/Monday

Some days are harder to get on the bike,  especially when your laying there in a warm bed, and hear the rain pounding on the roof outside.  The temperature was around 40f. We were planning on going to Torres del Paine NP to check out the sights.  Temperature there was just over 30f.  So you can see our hesitation.  Kept tossing around the idea to just head to Punta Arenas, and skip the park and possible bad weather, until we decided that while we were loading our bikes in the rain, might as well grab a straw, and suck it up.  We headed towards the park with full tanks of gas, this was the only gas stations for our journey to the park.  Getting to the park and back would be stretching Chips fuel range, so he had to keep an eye on mileage to avoid running out.  After riding through some cold rain for a bit, the skies started to clear, and as we entered the park it was mostly clear, except for around the taller peaks. 

The park is not paved, and the southern entrance which would have allowed us to make a big loop out of the day, was closed.  The views in the park were incredible, and the wind was intense.  Roads through the park were dirt with some gravel on top, not bad riding on dirt bikes.  We separated because Chip was going to turn back when he felt he was close to half tank.  I rode further through the park than I had originally intended, wanting to check out one of the big waterfalls, but missed the sign and ended up at almost the other end of the park before I stopped to consult the map.  Turning around and making my way back towards the waterfall, there were many photo opportunities to be had, and I took advantage of quite a few.  This time I found the turn to the waterfall hike and went to the parking lot, hoping to find Chip there. He wasn't there, so I hiked up to he waterfall and snapped some pictures in the intense wind.  Being dressed in full cold weather riding gear, I built up a sweat on the short hike, and since the sun had came out it seemed like good drying weather.  Sometimes its good to be a foreigner, people don't expect too much of you,  like when your standing next to your bike in a parking lot, with your jackets hanging on your handlebars, and your riding pants down around your ankles (I was wearing long johns), having a snack of granola, and water.  They would look, tilt their head in confusion, and walk away. I guess they're just not used to seeing an Virginian eating granola.

Once a satisfactory number of pictures were taken, and fuel burned, it was time to head to the gas station about 80 miles back down the road.  I stopped and waited at the park gate for a bit, hoping to meet back up with Chip, but after a while, it was obvious that he had made his way back towards gasoline. And before you ask, phones don't work, closest cell signal is 30 miles from the park.  Making my way back to the first town, the road was almost empty, once getting back on asphalt, and the frequent sections missing asphalt.  I stopped just outside of the first town when I felt my phone vibrate with a message from Chip.  He had arrived before me, stopped for coffee, and finally headed back towards Puerto Natalas for gas.  It appeared he was only a few minutes ahead of me, but I couldn't catch him. 

We met back up at the gas station, and after we both had full tanks, we decided to make the push to Punta Arenas, the town where we were hoping to sell our bikes after the trip.  It was late in the day, after 6pm, and we had a 3+ hour ride ahead of us, luckily being this far south, and in summer, it's light until 10:30.  After a ways, Chip had to stop and tighten one of his bags, he said he'd catch up, so I slowed the pace until he caught up.  Apparently when he stopped, one of his switches we'd  rigged to replace his key switch had decided to give up the ghost.  So on flat ground, no starter, and me out of radio range, he had to result to trying to push start a loaded bike by himself.  Its an extremely difficult task to do by yourself, and he pulled it off.   I was impressed.  So down the road we went. With Chips headlight on the blink due to the bad switch, and his tail light laying somewhere on a dirt road in Argentina, we had to make it to town before dark.  It was close, but we rolled in at just before 10 and found a hostel to stay in. 

Monday was not a real exciting day,  we found a shop that is willing to buy our bikes after we finish, the price isn't great, but the convince will be huge.  When you  come into a country with a bike, it is given a temporary import permit, with your name on it. So if you leave without the bike, they know. And usually are not too happy about a bike being sold in their country, without them getting their cut in taxes.  The shop will have an attorney write up the proper transfer papers, and have customs cancel out our import permits.  We'd be 100% legal, which is a bit rare on this journey. After that mission, we went to the ferry port to get our ticket for tomorrow, with no luck.  Ferry is full, even for motorcycles. It added to our mileage for tomorrow to reach Ushuaia, but the motorcycle shop owner said that the better route is to not take the ferry, so we'll believe him, and maybe try to catch the ferry on our way back here Thursday.  Then I went and got a haircut, after seeing some of my pictures from yesterday, I knew I was due.  Other exciting thing we did toady was laundry, and shop for plane tickets.  Its getting close, real close.  Tomorrow, Lord willing, we will be in the southernmost city in the world, our goal for this trip. Nothing is guaranteed down here, but were hopeful that everything will work out to where we will be getting on an airplane Sunday, and heading in that unfamiliar direction some call North.  

Pictures this time

Guanaco,  lot of them here, don't want to meet one at speed 

The big waterfall, from across the lake

The Horns

Gotta throw in a selfie , kinda cool clouds
 

Speaking of col clouds

Glacier and Back Into Chile

CN - Saturday

Today we got started fairly early to make the ride up to Los Glaciares National Park and get a close up view of the Perito Moreno glacier.  It's pretty much the only glacier in the park you can drive/ride to and get a close look.  It was only about a 50k ride from El Calafate to the park entrance and another 25k to the viewing decks.  It was again an amazing ride tracing next to the lake and getting glimpses of the looming glacier peaking around the curves.  The glacier itself is massive (240ft high) and not even the largest in the park.  What makes this glacier special is that it is advancing not receding - as most glaciers.  The chance to see large chunks calving off into the lake are high - and we did get to see two giant calving events.  The sights and sounds of it are indescribable and well worth the trip to see the glacier up close.  Well worth the $25 entrance fee to the park.

After a few hours at Perito Moreno we headed back to El Calafate to gas up again (gas is scarce in this area so you need to get it when you can) and head back into Chile to visit Torres del Pain.  As soon as we got on the Route 40 the winds became intense - again trying to rip the helmet off my head again.  We hit a dirt road shortcut that turned out to be a bit rocky and bumpy in places.  I ended up loosing my tail light somewhere along the way.  When we reached the boarder station (after getting gas again at the lone station at the end of the dirt road) I noticed it was gone.  Will need to find something to replace it as I don't want an excuse for a cop to pull me over and extort money from me.  The border on the Argentina side would have been quick and easy if it were not for the busload of tourist coming in from Chile.  The line did go quickly and we were through in about 45 minutes.  The ride through no-mans-land to the Chile station showed some of the strongest winds of the trip gusting up to 60mph.  When we parked our bikes I was sure the would blow over.  Tiny rocks were plastering my face as I walked up to the small border building.  This was very quick with the paperwork aspect, but we were required to unload all the bags and put them through an x-ray machine for the final step. The agent discovered some Spanish chorizo sausage in my camping food stuffs and confiscated it.  I asked him why and he said no fruits, vegetables or meats were allowed into Chile from Argentina.  I tried to present the irony in this as the chorizo was purchased in Chile (even the packaging indicated it was from Chile) so I was actually just bringing it back.  This of course didn't matter to the agent and he took it anyway.  Luckily later that day I found the same chorizo in a grocery store and was able to re-supply.

Our destination for the night went from camping to hostel, due to the cold and crazy winds.  I don't think I could buy enough stakes to keep my tent planted in this wind.  We found some beds (expensive because it's Chile) in Puerto Natales - just a bit south of the southern entrance to the Parque Nacional.  Rode into town to get dinner - some massive beef sandwiches with cheese, tomato, lettuce and guacamole, then called it a night.

Camp in El Calafate.

The massive ice field (only half the view),

Unapologetic selfie.

Calving glacier P. Moreno.

Now we're getting somewhere

KS- Thursday/Friday

Looking back, the days are almost starting to blur together, but not quite.  Thursday morning, I was laying in my tent, half asleep, when I heard a familiar sound.  One of the workers at the campground was trying to start a weedeater. I remember thinking he couldn't be serious, but he was.  As he started cutting full throttle through the thick grass, I knew sleep was a thing of the past.  Crawling out of my tent, I saw the guy from the next tent, and we both looked at each other, our wrists, and then the guy running the noisemakers.  Don't have to speak Spanish to understand that he was thinking the same thing I was.   Idiot.   Pretty soon Chip rolled out of his tent, expressing the same sentiment.  Soon, he headed off to the bathroom near the tents, a very third world affair. No toilet seats, and generally poor condition.  Luckily I noticed the other guy walk to another building in the camp, looked almost abandoned, but I took the chance and headed that way as well.  He had found the real bathroom, complete with tile floors, and toilet seats. So later on, I did inform Chip to the discovery, but not until after he had succumbed to the quad workout of the seatless crapper.

After the usual morning routine of packing up camp, we headed to the local gas station for breakfast. 
Followed by the twisting of throttles and heading south through the mindless terrain of the Patagonian steppe. We stopped at every gas station we passed,  because you only pass them about every hundred miles or so, miss one, and you're probably pushing.  We began seeing some new forms of wildlife along the roads, first was a Guanaco,  kinda looks like a cross between a deer, and a llama.  Typical herd animal behavior, stand alongside the road, and then scatter when a vehicle approaches, usually away from the road, usually. We saw quite a few herds of them, with their young. Pretty cool looking animals,  wonder what they taste like.  The next one we saw looked like an ostrich, but just a litter shorter. Later we learned they are called rhea,  again they hang out in groups, and tend to scatter when you approach.  Not quite as big as I think an ostrich would be, but certainly big enough to cause you to separate from you motorcycle if you met one head on.  Again, ;I wonder what they taste like.

We finished the day a Bajo Caracoles , a one horse town, missing about three quarters of the horse.  There was a gas station, and a few houses.  We pulled into the gas station to fill up, and were told there was no gas.  And since we'd already ridden 500+km., we didn't have the interest in continuing on. Chip has a smaller tank than my bike, and didn't have enough to make the next town 225km away.  They told us someone was bringing gas in the morning, so we decided that's were we would be for the night.  The hotel, which is also part of the gas station, and restaurant/convenience store, wanted $50 US for a room, with a double bed.  Luckily there is a guy who runs a campground just across the parking lot, and by campground, I mean he lets people setup tents in his yard. And by yard, I mean the sandy area between his house and the fence. You get the picture.  He charged us $5 for the two of us.  Not bad.  So we went back to the only place in town to pass the time with drinks and snacks.  Other bikers were rolling in, only to find out there was no gas until the morning, so the hotel started filing up fast from bikers and cars low on fuel.  We met a couple more Americans that evening (yes people from Mexico to Argentina are all Americans technically) Sid from Colorado, and Mia from Washington.   They both camped in the same yard as us, but with variable entry fees.  Sid, being a retired gentleman from Colorado, was charged 250 pesos, vs our 100 for the two of us.  Mia, being a middle aged woman (her words, not mine) was charged nothing, and was offered tea and breakfast in the morning by our camp host, who constantly walked around whistling a tune. He was a very good whistler, even if we didn't know the song. 

This morning we woke up and packed out gear, awaiting the gas delivery.  When we pulled the bikes over to the sticker covered gas pumps, the owner flipped the switch on the pumps and started filling our bikes.  At first we thought he was running a scam,  shutting off the pumps in the afternoon to drum up business for his over priced establishment.  Then I noticed the pickup truck hooked to a homemade trailer sitting behind the pumps.  He had a 300gallon plastic tote in each the truck, and trailer, as well as about 3 55gallon drums in the trailer.  Apparently someone makes the 100mile run about once a day or so to bring gas to the station, fine by me, as long as the stuff burns and we make it to the next pump.   Once the bikes were filled,  Sid, Mia, Chip and myself headed out together to the next town 225k away.  Very uneventful ride, nice weather, but a touch cool. 

Arriving at the next town, we all gassed up again and hung out a bit, discussing where everyone was going next. Chip and I were heading to El Calafate,  the others were stopping at a different town.  All of our routes are heading towards Ushuaia, so we could probably cross paths later on somewhere.  Mia decided her bike needed an oil change, and after purchasing 2 quarts of overpriced oil, rolled her bike around the corner of the gas station and proceeded to do the job.  Got to say,  I was impressed.  Sid was going to search for the ever elusive working ATM,  so Chip and I decided to head on down the road.   Saying our goodbyes, we left out of town on a rocky road that soon turned back, into pavement.   Later on, we ran into a construction site on Ruta 40 that lasted almost 70km,  It was nasty loose rock, deep in places, with plenty of washboards on the hills.  Chip took the wiser approach by slowing down and picking his way through.  I on the other hand, decided that speed was the answer as I slid and waved my way down the gravel road, aided by the 40+ mph crosswinds that did a wonderful job of knocking you off your preferred line into deeper rocks.  By the time it was all said and done,  Chip had stopped to help another rider pick up his BMW GS that just crashed in front of him,  and I stopped at the end of the gravel section, to find my chainguard bracket broken and flopping around.  Out comes the toolkit, off comes what's left of the chainguard.   Met back up with Chip, and down the road we go, fighting the notorious Patagonian winds but on an easer, paved, battleground.

After passing beautiful mountain views, and amazing emerald colored lakes and streams, we arrived in El Calafate.  There was a long line of cars at the gas station, due to the power being out, so we proceeded to a nearby campground, where the power was also out. After getting a campsite and setting up our tents in close quarters, it is a weekend after all in a tourist town, during peak vacation season, it was time to relax.  We cooked our dinner at the picnic table, and discussed our plans for tomorrow.  Should be pretty cool, but you'll have to read about it later.  Our days here are winding down,  the end is in sight,  but were not there yet.

Sorry for the lack of pictures,  it seems that good internet is not easy to find here,  I'm running all this off my phone, which can't quite handle the pictures.  Don't worry, we'll put some up one of these days.

Patagonia

CN - Tuesday/Wednesday

It's getting chilly (Chile) again - pun intended. Last night it was down into the 40's. I'm beginning to wonder if I brought the right cold weather gear for camping. I haven't used my sleeping bag liner yet so still have that. My bag is a 35/50 flip bag so the liner should get me down to at least 30. I guess if still cold with the liner I can just pile my riding gear on top. I'm guessing it's not going to get warmer as we head further south.

We decided to try again with the insurance game in Osorno. We still need the liability insurance for Argentina. Our friend Mauricio said we can purchase it online and sent us a couple of links but they require a RUT number that seems specific to Chilean nationals - which we are not and do not have. The first stop was a no, but have us a lead on another agency that dealt in international insurance. We got excited when the agent at the international agency smiled and said she could help us. However, our hopes quickly faded when she started entering in docs and info, then after a quick call to the home office said she in fact could not help us. The only way to purchase for us was online. She gave us a link but once again it required the dreaded RUT number - back again to square one. I suggested we just ride to the boarder and figure it out, or cross into Argentina if they don't ask for it at the border and try to get in somewhere there. Ken however, was determined and convinced we needed it prior to entry (Mauricio also indicated we would need to have it before). While I was getting an espresso and pastries at a nearby bakery, Ken had gone back inside to plead with the agent for help with the website - and it worked! When I returned and went inside to see what he was up to he had the insurance paperwork in his hands. She was somehow able to bypass the RUT number and make it work. After taking care of my registration and purchase, but not before I had a malfunction of the hose on my Camelback emptying the jacket bladder into the floor of the insurance office, we tipped her with a half dozen fresh muffins from the bakery and were off to the border.

The ride to the Chile/Argentina border was very beautiful with volcanos, rugged mountains and flowing rivers to enjoy along the route. The remains of a recent fire had left all the trees stripped of any green leaving just the stalks. Made for a scene similar to entering Yellowstone Park from the south. Exiting Chile was pretty quick and easy but after we covered the fairly long distance between the two border stations we came upon a long line of trucks and cars waited to enter on the Argentina side. Once we got through the line and into the building it went fairly quickly making for about a four hour process total.

Once through the final gates the scenery changes once again to dark green trees and bright blue lakes. This region is truly very picturesque and memorable - one of my favorites of the trip. The town (Villa La Angostura) we camped in about 40k into Argentina reminded me a bit of the north shore of Lake Tahoe - as well as several others we passed through the next day. The campground was nice and shaded with very clean facilities at $15 a tent. Not to bad for a resort area.

We hit the road on Wednesday around 9:30am and the morning consisted of passing by several more beautiful lakes surrounded by mountains. The roads were twisty, the air was cool and dry and the skies were deep blue - I was really enjoying the ride. In the afternoon the terrain turned into high plains steppe and the road straightened out. The distance between towns and gas became something to pay attention to.

We had targeted a town with gas and a campground to stop for the night but the campground turned out to be a treeless dirt-patch so we just gassed up decided to ride another 80k to try our luck in the next town. In the next town the campground wasn't a huge improvement but at least it had a few trees and grass. The nights are getting warmer with overnight temps now up in the 50's. We had a late lunch so dinner consisted of a few knifes of a stick of chorizo I had bought a few days earlier. Looks like the terrain for the next several days is going to be more of the same.

Non spicy Chile

KS-Monday

Title pretty much says it all.  Things have been a bit bland lately.  We left Santiago on Sunday morning, with pretty much no traffic as we rolled out of the city.  Morning gas/oil stop and we headed on down the Pan American Highway 5. Our goal for the day was Concepcion where we had been setup with a free hotel room/s by our good friend Maruico Thanks Again, it was awesome!  The ride down was a little over 500k, but since the road here is exactly like the interstate highway back home, it was no problem to make it into town on time.

After checking into our separate rooms, and enjoying an awesome high flow shower, we decided to walk across the road o find dinner at the mall.  Yep, you heard me right, we actually went to the mall on purpose.  Mainly because there was supposed to be a TGI Fridays there, and we've been having a hankering for familiar food from home.  This was not to be the case, after wandering around the mall, even looking at maps, it was not to be found.  So we settled for Pizza Hut pizza, and a whopper from Burger King at the mall food court.  When we left, we were no longer hungry so I guess it was mission accomplished. 

This morning we loaded up and headed out to the gas station,, add gas, add oil, twist throttle, pay toll, add gas, add oil,  twist throttle, repeat.  The views were almost exactly like riding through southern Virginia, same road, gas stations, etc.   Only differences were the toll booths that I think are way too close together, and gas prices are in pesos but much higher than home.  A gallon of gas here is running around $4.50+ a gallon, and oil is about $7 a quart.  With the miles we've been running, were almost burning through our predicted daily budget, just on petroleum products alone!  Add in food and a place to stay, lets just say were offsetting the cheaper days we had up north.   We've got to get out of this country.

Which leads us up to tonight, camped out in a city campground in Osorno , sitting at a picnic table.  Just finished a dinner of tuna/rice for me, and ramen/sausage for Chip.  Living the luxurious life out here on the road.  Tomorrow we hope to cross into Argentina, and we mean hope. Insurance is required there, and we have not been able to find solid information on where to get it.  We spent this morning checking 5 different insurance companies with no luck.  Been helped out with a couple online places, but they're only for residents of Chile.  Information on this stuff is hard to find, if you don't believe me, sit with one other person and using your cell phones set on super slow, try to find a place to buy insurance for motorcycle travelers in Argentina.  So tomorrow we will check as many places as we dare here in town before heading into the mountains towards the border.  There are/may be places to buy insurance about 40 miles inside Argentina, if they will sell it to us, and the border guards let us through.  Again, there are other people who do this, but crossing different borders, coming from different countries, and so on.  I haven't even bothered checking my insurance company back home, since their coverage ended as soon as we crossed out of Texas.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

So that's is,  pretty boring.  Only interesting things I saw today were several vehicles with sitting on the axle with wheels missing.  A tractor trailer with duals pulled off that might have fell off the jack, a car with a wheel off, sitting on the hub with no jack,  and a tractor pulling a discbine with a wheel gone, again sitting on the axle.  Mush be a lugnut thief on the loose down here.  So,  there you have it, just another couple boring days on the road, taking that little blue dot on Google maps, and trying to push it as far south as we can.  Maybe we'll have a better story next time, but for now, I'm going to crawl in my tent and see what tomorrow brings.

First Camp and Santiago

CN - Thursday, Friday, Saturday

I slept until 9:00am again this Thursday morning - the time change has really screwed up my internal clock for some reason.  Upon looking at my phone I see a Facebook message from Mauricio Bolivar - we had worked together in Vail about 15 years ago.  I knew he was back in Chile but didn't know exactly where.  Well turns out he is in the town of Copiapo, about 2 hours south of where we were.  I quickly sent him a message back that we would be there around lunchtime and hoped we could meet up to say hello.  He sent me back the address of the hotel he manages and we were off to meet up with him.  We arrived to his ibis Hotel around 1pm and were promptly greeted by a smiling Mauricio.  The main thing I remember about Mauricio is that he is always happy and smiling.  A super great guy and it was awesome to catch up with him over lunch.  Being the gracious host that he is, he also offered us comp stays at ibis Hotel properties along our route south!  Thanks Mauricio!!!

After a two hour lunch and some tips from Mauricio on travel itinerary in Southern Chile we were off on the bikes again.  My chain has been continually stretching over the past couple of weeks and only has one adjustment left to go before the final setting.  I'm going to need a new chain soon.  My clutch has also been slipping so need to replace the clutch plates at some point as well.  We stopped for gas on the way to our way to La Serena where we finally hoped to set up camp on the beach.  While airing up the tires a guy rolls up on a big BMW 1200GSA and turns out he is an American from North Dakota on a two year RTW trip.  The big BMW is made for a guy like Andy - he is 6'6" tall!  We decided to ride together for a bit as he was headed the same way as us.  He really has to be easy on the throttle not to blow by our little 350's!  We arrived at the outskirts of La Serena where we started looking for the campground the Mauricio suggested but we couldn't find it.  The knew the beaches in Chile are pretty much open to public use so we just rode out and set up camp on a small dune.  We found a small restaurant just up the beach from camp so ended up eating there and sharing stories with Andy from North Dakota.  It was good to finally be camping on this trip.  Now that it doesn't get dark until 9pm it is perfect for camping!

We woke up Friday morning to a bit of a drizzle (again around 9am) so packed up quickly and hit the road.  Mauricio had sent me a text that Sebastian, who also worked with us in Vail, was in Santiago and had insisted that we stay with him.  He owns a sort of hybrid long term hostel in the city catering to university students.  We needed to cover 475k quickly as he as leaving for the coast to visit family for the weekend that afternoon.  After tightening my chain to the last adjustment setting (still super loose), we were off. The road from La Serena to Santiago is pretty much all 4 lane interstate so we were able to make good time at around 100k per hour - pretty much my max speed unless I have a tailwind and downhill due to my clutch slipping in 5th and 6th gears.  I had sent Sebastian a note to see if he could recommend a motorcycle shop where I could buy a chain.  Not a problem he says.  We arrived to the edge of Santiago around 4:00pm expecting heavy traffic but it surprisingly wasn't bad at all.  We found Sebastian's place easily and he led us to a lot where we could park the bikes.  We then all went in a cab to the "Moto District" of town where all the shops were.  In Central and South America stores of the same type are clustered all in the same area.  You want auto parts go the the "Auto District", shoes the "Shoe District", etc.  Pretty convenient.  I bought a chain and we headed back to Sebastian's.  It's too bad Sebastian had plans for the weekend as I would have been fun to hang out and have a tour guide for Santiago - in fact that is exactly what Sebastian did in a previous life so he is an expert!  Thanks so much for the hospitality Sebastian and allowing us to stay in your home - we really appreciate it!  After saying goodbye to Sebastian we headed out to find some dinner (and beer).  It wasn't too difficult as just around the corner from his place is a bunch of neighborhood bars and restaurants.  We ended up staying out until almost 2am, again sharing stories from the road with Andy.  He has quite an adventure thus far also!

Saturday morning Andy was off the the BMW dealership for some parts and Ken and I went in search of a lavanderia to get some clothes washed.  I'm down to just a couple of things that don't smell completely disgusting, so it is much needed.  Google said there was on 0.7 miles away so we set off on foot to find it and hope it was open.  It was so we dropped off the sacks and were told to return at 6pm to pick-up.  We then walked back, grabbed the tools and my new chain, had some lunch and went to work replacing the chain on my bike.  We were planning replace the clutch plates with the newer ones I have been carrying since Mexico, but the lot closes at 2pm so we would only have about an hour - and I don't think the lot owners would appreciated us dumping oil in there lot.  They have a little hut right there so would definitely see the mess.  We decided to save the clutch plates for another day.  The chain replacement took about 45 minutes and we headed back to Sebastian's to relax and enjoy the day off the bikes.  Sunday we will out towards the Lake District of Chile which is some of the most beautiful parts of the country.  If all goes as planned we will be in Argentina on Tuesday.  Mauricio has us set up with hotels the next two nights but we may decide to camp as the lake area has campgrounds everywhere.

Big thanks again to Mauricio and Sebastian for their generous hospitality.  You guys are the best!!!

Wrenching on my bike - again!

Ditch camping on the beach.

Sebastian's block in Santiago.

Mauricio!

Crosing the Atacama Desert

 

 

KS- Wednesday

Not a whole lot to write about today,  but I'll give it a shot anyways.  We woke up this morning in Patillo Chile,  earlier than usual,  were trying to adjust to the 2 hour time change we got when we crossed the border.  Breakfast was the standard fare for the area, instant coffee, bread, sliced cheese and sandwich meats.  It actually works out pretty good for us, don't need to eat a whole lot when all your going to do all day is hold onto a set of handlebars. The three Brazilian bikers were loading up their bikes before breakfast, and we all posed for group photos before they headed off into the unknown.  Unknown because they told us,  in Portuguese.  We spent most of the morning catching up the blog while we had the chance, and a comfortable couch to work from.  Eventually we loaded and headed out to the local gas station for our bikes diet of gas and oil.  Petroleum products down here are not cheap, a tank of gas and a quart of oil set us back about $30 US each.  For as nice as the roads are here, its sure going to throw off the daily budget.  There are plenty of street dogs here that love to chase my motorcycle,  and Ive had to result to the boot and throttle to prevent them from tying to take me out. 

We rode down along the coast for a while on a narrow strip of land between the ocean, and where the mountains sweep steeply up to almost 3000ft.  Passing through one of the last towns we would see for a while, we gassed up again, and hunted down some Wd-40 for our chains.  We've used several other kinds of motorcycle specific chain lubes, and I haven't seen much difference for our situation, other than price. Lider  is the WalMart of South America and as I watched the bikes, Chip went inside for wd, and a new headlight bulb to replace the led one that burned out already.

With freshly lubes chains and full tanks of gas, we rolled on down the coast. After a while the road turned inland, and we climbed up and out into the desert.  The Atacama desert is the driest non-polar desert in the world, and it is empty. Sand, rocks, and mountains  are pretty much the only thing there besides the road and power line.  There is one thing there that stands out,  a giant hand sculpture that stands 36ft tall.  Mano del Desierto is its name, and it was placed there as a monument to the emptiness of the land. Kinda cool, since Ive seen pictures of it before, we did the photo thing as well before taking off on down the road.  The Atacama desert it famous for its wind, and we got to experience it first hand.  One section of wind basically took away my top two gears for a bit, just not enough power to push through it at the speeds we wanted.  Oh well, duck down and hang on and just hope it doesn't last too long.  We made it to the next gas station ok,   Chip had switched to reserve a few miles before, and was just a bit worried about being able to make it.  So the third fill up of the day, top off the oil and head the last 100 miles to the beach where we hoped to camp.  

Just outside of Chanaral I stopped and waited for Chip, who had stopped earlier to put the liner in his jacket, it had cooled off quite a bit up there. I put in my liner as well while I waited.  We stopped in town and grabbed some water, then went to see if we could find a suitable campsite.  No such luck as the beach was very rocky, and we had pushed the limit of daylight, arriving just after sunset, I guess we should start before 11:30am next time if we want to make big miles and find a place to camp,  We covered just under 600 kilometers today, not bad for small bikes on a late start.  With camping crossed off the list, we came back into town and found a place for the night.  Nothing fancy, but they are remodeling it, we just got here too soon to enjoy it. 

Sunset overlooking the ocean

Hand of the Desert,   talk to it

Racing the sunset to the beach