January 21, 2011

Dad and I made it through Lima today. Man oh man was that crazy. There we cars and cars and cars and we got lost a few times but we made it through after about and hour and a half. We continued on from lima another 200 km. We were about 1 km out of our destination for the day when this cop car came racing up behind us yelling out spanish words through the mega phone. So we pulled over as did they. One cop come out of the car with the radar gun in his hand, shaking his head. He shows us the radar gun and it says 127 km/h. I started to think to myself there was no way we were going that fast. Anyways he asked to see our licence and registration. I started to play dumb like I didn't understand what he was saying but dad was already handing over his documents. Good one. Anyways dad and the cop go for a walk down the road. The cop wanted to show dad we had just entered a 60 zone. I went and gave my documents to the other cop in the car. Dad and the officer returned and got back into the car. Both of the officers said it was going to be a large fine, and I said "okay, ticket please" because I know they wouldn't give us one. They wanted a bribe so they could take the one and run. I kept asking for them to write the ticket but dad was trying to negotiate a bribe price. Good one again… Anyways long story short dad gave them 100 pesos (33 bucks) and they returned our documents back to us. So we asked them about a good cheap hotel and they told us to go another hour down the road dad thanked them and they were on their way. After they left dad said "I felt sorry for them" and we took off. Next time we get pulled over I am just going to handle it. Anyways we rode for another hour and made it to this little town, found a place, had some dinner and hit the showers.

January 20, 2011

This morning we took it really easy and just sat in the hotel room and watch wallie. Then around 11 we packed up and headed out. We only had about a 2 hour drive to do. We wanted to stay in Huacachina again. We got there and the owner of the hotel remembered us and gave us a room for  20 pesos less. After we un packed we both just went out and sun bathed. It was nice. I wanted to go sand boarding again but I was enjoying myself too much were I was. We were getting kinda of hungary so we went over the the cafe across the street. We were sitting there enjoying our meal when I saw our german friend, who we had met in Cusco, walk by. I called him over and had a nice visit with him.

January 19, 2011

Today we left Cusco and made it all the way to Nazca. Man was that ever a great but tiering ride. We rode for 600 km and it was all twisty. We both scraped our side bags and had a blast for the first 300, But then after that it was becoming a work out. So when we got into Nazca we went back to the same hotel we did last time. We were giving the same room we had last time too. After we were all settled in we went out for some dinner. We went to the plaza de armas and got dinner. After dinner we noticed there was some sort of large event going on. It was a rally car race. They were doing there big opening for the race tomorrow. The race will go from Nazca to Cusco, the road we just did. And apparently they are closing the road down for this. Man did we ever plan that right. After walking around and checking out the cars we decided to go back and relax from our hard days ride.

January 18, 2011

Today we had a full day to just relax, up-date the blogs and work on the bikes. While I was up-dated my blog dad was working on his bike. His chain is starting to go, so he just tightened it and hopefully it will make it to Lima. After we were both finished doing what we were doing we went out and had lunch at our favourite south american cafe, Jake's. They make the best coffee in all of south america. After lunch we headed out and did so sticker shopping :D. After walking around town being tourists we went back and chilled at our hostel. We noticed it that getting dark out so we headed down to the tavern to see if any of our new friends were there. They all we and we had another great night visiting with them.

January 17, 2011

We were on the road before 7 this morning. We went to bed last night really early so we could get up really early. We road all day and we made it back to on of our favourite towns, Cusco. But before we got to Cusco maybe just an hour or town out of town we met a couple on a dr650 from Alberta. We chatted with them for a bit and they told us they we going to Cusco as well. So we said we would meet them at the Nortons Rat Tavern for dinner. So once we got into Cusco we found a really nice hostel right above the Plaza de Armas. We got all settled in and went out to go get something to eat. We came back to our hostel and talked to another bike from germany. We were chatting with him for a while and invited him to join us for dinner at the tavern. The three of us arrived at the tavern and met up with our fellow canadians we had met earlier that day. We all shared stories of where we have been and were we were going. It was a nice night.

January 16, 2011

Today we got up nice and early and headed out. We road up to Chivay. Once we got to Chivay we found a room, dropped off our stuff and had lunch. Chivay was only a 3 hour drive from Arequipa. After lunch we went for a ride along the seconded deepest canyon in the world. Its deeper then the Grand Canyon. It was pretty cool. We went to the end of the gravel road and turned back. On our way back I was coming down into a creek crossing. I was only going about walking speed and my front tire locked up and I put down the bike. I picked up the bike and carried on. Once we got back to the hotel we looked over the bike. I had bend my handle bars, my crash bar, my brake leaver for my foot, my mount for my saddle bag, my foot peg, and a few other little things. But we straightened it all out. Except for my handle bars, that really pissed me off. After that we had dinner and went to bed really early.

January 15, 2011

Today was a good day. Dad and I were quite busy. First thing, after breakfast, we went and got the oil changed. We went to this shell lubrication store and were able to change the oil in front of the store. They gave us oil pans to use and disposed of our oil for us. They were really nice. After that we decided to go for a little ride. We came back to the hotel parked the bikes then went for lunch. Once we were finished we went and got a double decker bus tour around all of arequipa for 4 hours. It was okay, Im glad we did it but I wouldn't do it again. We got to see where a lot of the local farming was done, the mansion of the founder,  a old flour mill, and everything in between. When we got back dad and I were pretty tiered, so we just chilled the rest of the night.

January 14, 2011

Today was a boarder crossing day and I was looking forward to it. Normally we don't sleep well before a boarder crossing but we have got the boarder crossings down pat now. We got to the chilean boarder crossing and were stamped out within 15 minutes. Then we got to the Peru side and there was a line up just to get a parking space. But we just played "stupid gringo" and went to the front of the line a got a parking spot. We went and got stamped in within 10 minutes, but then we had to get the bike imported. There was a large line up for that. It takes about 15 minutes per person to get the vehicle imported, so for the next 2 and a half hours we stood in this line up. Man did that suck. But we got into Peru and rode to Arequipa. We found a nice place to spend the next couple of nights. After we got settled in we went out and enjoyed the night exploring central Arequipa.

January 13, 2011

After breakfast we got onto the road, around 8:30. We had a longer day today, I think it was about 700km from Antofagasto to Arica. But it was just straight and flat, like it has been for the past couple days. Dad and I got into Arica around 5 and stayed at the same place as we did 3 months ago. Once we got our room we wanted to explore the town a little bit. So we started walking down the street and then all of a sudden dad yells "HEY LOOK AT THAT" and I look and it was a dakar shirt, nicely folded up and on display. It was in the printing shop only 5 doors down from the hotel we were staying at. They had stickers too. We were both excited but they only had the shirts in white. So after talking with the owner for a bit he final told us to come back at 8:30. So we went for something to eat and were back at the printing shop for 8:30. He had printed up some grey shirts for us and more stickers. So we bought 2 white t-shirts and 4 grey, and 14 stickers. And he only wanted 20,000 pesos for it all (40 bucks). But we ended up just giving him the rest of our chilean money which was 29,000. Now we have no chilean money and we'll be going into peru tomorrow morning. So everything worked out great.

January 12, 2011

We packed up this morning and were on the road for 9. We rode to Antofagasto. Same as yesterday we saw a lot of the bikes on the road. They were all following the dakar. When we got into Antofagasto begot somthin to eat and then decided it would be pretty cool to pick up some dakar souvenirs. We searched all other the town and then we were finally told that we wouldn't be able to get anything. Apparently all the t-shirts, hats, sticker, ect. move with the dakar people. So it was next to impossible to get any souvenirs. Well that sucks. After the let down we found a nice hotel. It was brand new and really cheap.

January 11, 2011

So Dad and I got on the road relatively early. We rode to Caldera and got a room. Today there wasn't really much to see. The road was pretty straight and pretty flat. So we only stopped for gas and thats it. While we were riding we passed a number of bikes due to the dakar race. We talked to a couple or Chileans in Caldera. They were surprised to hear we weren't going to stay longer and watch the dakar. "It would be too busy for our liking" we explained. After chatting with them we headed back to the hotel.

January 10, 2011

Today Dad and I left Martina and Enzo's place. We thanked them very much for having us then we headed off. First things first. We had to go out and do the redactor pass. It was on our list of things to do so it had to be done. It was a little bit out of our way but totally worth it. It was so much fun we were throwing the bikes side to side the whole way up and down the mountain. We both managed to scrape our saddle bags, it was a blast! After that we headed north. We stopped in this little town called Los Molles. I have friends from back home who grew up there. So I wanted to take some pictures for them. After that dad and I pressed forward to a town called Los Vilos. We found a cheap hotel and bunked down for the night.

January 9, 2011

Since Dad and I have road hard for the past couple days we decided to take today off and just relax. We worked on the bike a little, just to fix the moto cam, because tomorrow we are going to do the redentor pass. It has 29 switch-backs, Im really looking forward to it. After we got the camera working we went out on got some groceries. We are having a shared meal with some of the other guests there, Adam and Guido. We bought the meat and they bought the veggies. It was a really good dinner. We had steak with eggs on it. It was getting late after dinner so we hit the sack.

January 8, 2011

Today dad and I rode hard we made it to Valparaiso, but with very few butt breaks. We made our way back to ruta 5 which was fun at the beginning. It was very twisty in a couple of sections and managed to scrape the side of my skid plate, it was awesome. But anyways once we go into Valparaiso dad and I drove straight to the Villa Kunterblunt (where we left 3 months ago today) It was nice to see Martina and Enzo again. So dad and I went out for dinner after we got all settled in. We went back to the same restaurant we visited when we were here and the owner remembered us. It was good, then after we came back and I went to bed I was pretty tiered.

January 7, 2011

Dad and I talked the night before and decided to take 2 long days to get to Valparaiso from Osorno. So we left around 8:30 this morning and decided to spend the night in Tome. We wanted to go along the coast instead of taking the panam the whole way up. Once we got into Tome one of the locals told us to go 10km more to this little town just outside of Tome. It was a nice little town but there we a lot of ruins due to the earthquake that had happened back in feburary. Later that night, we found out that we couldn't follow the coast the whole way to Valparaiso. So we worked out and made an alternate rout through.

January 6, 2011

So today dad and I didn't do any riding. We got new tires for our bikes and dad got new head bearings. The people at Motoadventura were just great. We really appreciated all that they did. Plus there shop was very nice and organized. After we got all that worked out dad and I went back to the hostel and got our bikes washed. They look a hell of a lot better then they did. So after all of our work we rewarded ourselves with a beer :D. Then we took the rest of the night and just relaxed.

January 5, 2011

Man was today ever fun. We made it to Osorno with no problems. The ride was great, I feel at home here. There are lots of trees and mountains and the roads are twistier then ever. It was great. Dad and I made it through Barilochie then went over and did a boarder crossing into Chile. And i have to say dad and I are really getting used to going through the boarder, they aren't as much of a stress as they used to be. So once we got into Osorno we went straight to the Motoadventura shop, to see if we cold get tires and if they could change dads head bearings (because he bashed them pretty good on the rut 40). It was around 5:30 and they close at 6 so the mechanic said he didn't have enough time, but to come back around 9 in the morning. So we carried on and found a plc to spend the night.

January 4, 2011

We made it to Esquel, just like we had planned. We found a nice cheap place in Esquel and then went out and did some walking around and bought some groceries. Also dads watch had died so he needed a new battery, so we found this shop and the owner of the shop was just fantastic, he could not do enough for us. After that we went over to the gas station of fuelled up for the next day and also used the internet there, because our hostel didn't have internet. It was getting a little late so we headed back and made ourselves a later dinner then went to bed.

January 3, 2011

During breakfast this morning dad and I talked it over and decided to make some tracks. (pick up the passe) so we drove all the way to los antigos. And man was I ever glad to get off the gravel part of the ruta 40. So dad and I found a nice hostel and picked up some grocieres. Dad and I looked over our rout and decided not to go into chile quite yet. We decided to stay in argentina and go to Esquel instead. After dinner we took the night off and went to bed.

January 2, 2011

We got up early this morning and hit the road. We road to Tres Lagos filled up with gas then headed up to El Chalten. It was very beautiful on the way up there. Once we got to El Chalten we had a coffee then headed back to Tes Lagos to fill up with gas again. We talked to the owner of the gas station and he told us about this farm that has gas and lodging and food. So we made our way up there. It was all gravel the whole way. We found the place regardless. They didn't have rooms left so we had to use the tents for the second time on the trip. Once we got all set up it was dinner time. It was a all you can eat parilla. The dinner was okay. It defiantly wasn't worth the 100 pesos per person (25 dollars). After dinner we hit the sack.

January 1, 2011

Dad and I slept in this morning due to the late night. But once we had breakfast we wanted to go get the bikes washed. We rode around for a bit and released "Oh yea its new years day, nothing is open…" So we came back to the hostel and took it easy. Later we went and walked around the town a bit more and people watched. While we were out e grabed some beer and fixings to make dinner. We had a relaxing night with our new germany friend Helena.

December 31, 2010

Today dad and I found the greatest road ever to ride! After breakfast dad and I got ready to go see the Moreno Glacier. We started to head over there and released we we on the wrong road. But that didn't matter because it connects up to the right road later on. Anyways we were riding on this gravel road and as soon as we touched pavement it was constant twists and turns for the next half hour. It was awesome. So once our fun was finished we got to the Moreno. And wow what an impressive piece of ice. We got tickets for the next boat ride which was in an hour so we went to the restaurant there and had lunch. After lunch we got on our boat ride and got to see the glacier up close. But not too close because ice is constantly breaking off. After our boat ride we went and hiked around there, staring at the glacier waiting for a huge piece of ice to break off. There were some loud cracks but no destruction of ice. So we headed back to our bikes and met too other bikers on the way. They were just coming to see the glacier then heading to El Calafate. So we told them to check out our hostel. Once dad and I got back about an hour later our new friends showed up. They are from England and their names are Dave and Martin. Anyways it got later and we headed off for New years dinner. Dinner was absolutely fanastic. But i got a little bit of an elegiac reaction to something. But it wasn't a big deal my throat just got a little swollen. After dinner we went to the club/bar right across the restaurant and hung out there for a bit. We decided to head home around 3 o'clock in the morning. HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

December 30, 2010

Dad and I got on the road around 9 ish. We rode to Torres del Paine but decided not to go into the park because it was 130 dalliers for the 2 of us to enter. So we crossed the boarder and went to El Calafate. We found a nice new hostel with parking and internet. Once we were all un packed we went out to have a lunch/dinner. After that we had to go do some sticker shopping. I found a sticker that will work just perfectly in my collection. Once we got back we took another easy night because tomorrow we are going to see the Moreno Glacier.

December 29, 2010

Dad and I packed up this morning and had breakfast. We said goodbye to our german friends Patrick and Jana and we headed on the way. We didn't ride very long today because we left later then we wanted to. We had to wait for our laundry to be finished. So once we had our laundry we rode to Puerto Natalis. As soon as we got in town it was around 2:30 so we decided to get lunch. Lunch was okay. After lunch when found this nice little hotel, with parking and internet. We are happy. Once we unpacked we went out and got some groceries for snacks later. We took the rest the night off and watched a movie. :D

December 28, 2010

We were up early this morning because we had to go through a boarder crossing and a 2 hour long ferry. So we said our goodbyes to the owner of the hostle and we moved on. We got to the boarder and there was a line up… Typical. But shortly after we were stamped out then in. We had lunch with John and Sharan Just on the other side of the Argentina boarder. After lunch we continued on until we met the cross in the road when John and Sharan will say the finally goodbyes for now. We said goodbye and told them we'll see them in the future. We were sad to see them go. We kept on riding and we made it to the ferry terminal an hour early. We got our tickets and shortly after Patrick and Jana showed up. We took the ferry to Punta Arenas then went to the hostel independence, where we stayed last time. The owner, Edwardo, was happy to see us and that we brought friends. After we got settled in we went and looked for tires for Patrick. After about an hour of searching the owner of this Auto body shop drove us across town to this, back alley, shady, looking place. I felt a little un comfortable. But when he opened the rusty steal sliding doors, there was this beautiful, clean shop with over a dozen brand new BMW. It was the weirdest thing. Anyways the owner of the shop gave Patrick a # for tires and we were on our way. After our little adventure, we all went to the all-you-can-eat grill, in town. Once we got back we all hit the hay.

December 27, 2010

On the road again. We are now on our way home. The only problem is it is going to take us 4 months to get home. But we can only go north from here. So once we got packed up, we said our thanks to Lucas (Hectors son) and carried on. Before we left Ushuaia dad wanted to do some souvenir  shopping. So dad got 2 shirts and i got a whole bunch of magnets :D. After that we picked up gas and met up with John and Sharan at the entrance sign of Ushuaia. We road back to Rio Grande and spent the night at the same place we did last time coming through. Also our Germany friends Patrick and Jana made it to the hostel. It was a good night.

December 26, 2010

Today we were really fortunate. The owner of the hostel La Posta had a KLR 650. So he took dad and I on a tour of the back gravel roads around Ushuia. It was awesome, he took us near the end of the beagle channel. We got too see a lot of the back country that a lot of other people don't get to see when they travel to Ushuaia. It was really a fantastic day. Thanks Hector. Once dad and I got back we made some dinner. We arrived back at the hostel around 4 ish. After dinner we just took the rest of the night easy.

December 25, 2010

Christmas!!! This morning dad and I had to move rooms, because the room we were in was booked for the next 5 days or so. It took me about 2 hours to move all my stuff due to the account I wasn't feeling too well. After I had moved all my stuff from one room to the next. I crawled into bed and didn't get out till 5 at night when  John and Sharan came over for christmas dinner. Dad had made a really really good chicken stu. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Once we were done dinner. we watched a bit of Russell Peters on the computer. Then our friends from Viedma, Patrick and Jana, showed up. We all had a nice visit. It was another solid christmas.

December 24, 2010

Christmas Eve!!!! But it really didn't feel like christmas. This morning after breakfast our friends John and Sharan moved to a different hotel because they had reservations there for the 24th 25th and 26th. So after they left we took the day off and just worked on the blog and watch some tv. It was a nice day. Later we headed to a christmas dinner at this other hostel where we met back up with John and Sharan. It was 100 pesos (25 dollars) for all you can eat and drink. I kinda took advantage of the all you can drink part. But i had a good time. Dad and I returned back to our hostel around 12. I just went straight to bed.