Bust in Buenos Aires!

It could have been worse...

It could have been worse I guess. After all, it was merely the drive-shaft that had disintegrated and not the gearbox as initially suspected.

Having established a replacement drive-shaft to cost in the region of US$1000 (and a five week wait) from BMW Buenos Aires, I picked myself off the floor and placed an order with a supposedly reputable dealer in the US, for half this price.

Wrongly assuming that dealing with the developed world would be a breeze, I subsequently received three seperate deliveries in as many weeks. My sincere thanks to Sister-in-law Yvonne in Houston who sent parts the dealer wouldn't; to Canadian Randy and Calafornian Shelley who hand-carried various parts direct to Buenos Aires and of course, the local FedEx man who delivered the final delivery the dealer forgot to send. To add insult to injury, they sent me a can of household door hinge lubrication grease when I requested BMW high temperature spline grease! I shudder at the thought.

Hame's new best mate, the FedEx man!

Anyway, in between regular calls to the US dealer from the local internet cafe (thank goodness for Skype), I made use of the time by addressing the issue of the cracked sub-frame, leaking suspension and the intermittent ABS. The latter being a straightforward process - I removed the bulky ABS unit altogether. Problem solved! In it's place, I got highly technical and installed a cut-down plastic oil can to house spare parts. Result!

ABS replacement

The leaking suspenders were beyond my capabilities and were once again despatched to a local suspension guru for their third rebuild of the trip. Aftermarket shocks...not next time!

That only left the problem of the cracked sub-frame to solve. I found the solution lying in a bucket out the back of the workshop.

Potential frame support

Some work with Javier's hacksaw and files saw two new frame supports created. A nearby welding shop made a top job of repairing the cracks and securing my frame supports, voilà!

Frame support

Once the compilation of parts finally arrived, I set about putting it all back together:

Eh, where does this go again?

Hame and Javier

Hame installing the new drive shaft

With the bike complete, only one job remained: Project Rocket Launchers! Que? Some months previously I'd installed two plastic drainage pipes to the underside of either cylinder in order to store tools and tyre repair gear. The theory was a good one, the practice wasn't. Plastic pipes + hot exhaust = (To quote Em) "I told you so!"

Javier therefore suggested using ex-Argentine Army steel armament cans. Available from a downtown Army surplus store complete with a waterproof hinged lid and at ten pesos a pop (£1.60), I couldn't go wrong! A little long, we cut them to the required size and re-soldered the ends back on over the hostel stove!

Cooking up some rocket launchers

All that remained was to pack the tent and mow the lawn!

Saturday afternoon in suburbia

Finished!

(Hamish)

As well as being busy on the bike and fixing bits of kit etc, we also took in the sights and sounds of Buenos Aires. It's a huge city of 13 million and there is loads to do! With Dan, the Man with the Plan, we explored San Telmo, an area famous for tango and antique markets.

Tango in San Telmo (thanks for the pic, Daniel)

We wandered around Recoleta cemetery where the most famous woman in Argentina, Eva Peron is buried. The tombs were amazing. Feeling like I was in a scene from Romeo and Juliet, I marvelled at the amazing sculptures and ornate coffins in which the rich and famous or well-to-do families of BA are laid to rest.

Recoleta

Evita Peron's grave

We also went to the National Gallery of Fine Art. As well as lots of Argentinian and Spanish art, there were paintings by Renoir, Monet, Picasso, Van Gogh and Diego Rivera, to mention a few.

Rodin's The Kiss was also on display

We also watched the rugby world cup...

Watching England beat France with Simon, Guido, Hame and Daniel. (Thanks for the photo Daniel!)

...supporting our respective countries of course, but we also became huge fans of Las Pumas, who played with such passion and spirit we were bowled over. The support for the Pumas within Argentina was amazing, with huge posters everywhere and adverts on TV. Our favourite slogan was "Quilmes, sponsor of 15 animals with the hearts of gentlemen".

Las Pumas poster

A couple of extra Pumas recruits

While in Buenos Aires we got in touch with Marcelo, an ex-customer from Hamish's Everts days who he'd stayed in touch with. Marcelo soon became a good friend and he thoroughly spoiled us while we were in BA. He cooked us a wonderful asado, took us out on his boat around the lovely area of Tigre...

Click below to share the experience!

The Travelling life is tough!

Fuelling up the boat

Going for a spin on the river

Hame on a rubber ring!

...and gave Hamish a present of a St Andrew's school adults' team rugby top. Marcelo went to St Andrew's, one of most famous schools in Argentina - Scottish, of course.

St Andrew's school

With Marcelo and his family

Puerto Madera and a great meal out.

Marcelo's partner, Sandra also cooked us a gorgeous Brazilian meal and we watched her sing one night. She had an amazing voice and we were very impressed!

Sandra singing

Daniel was a great friend while we were at Dakar and we enjoyed his company. As part of his mission to "slow down the world" we had more than a few nights sampling the wonderful Argentinian wine and putting the world to rights. It's an on-going conversation!

Daniel, the King of Asados

After a month, Hamish had Bertha back to her normal self, if a little shinier and cleaner! She looks - and feels - like a new bike. Thank to Javier for the use of the workshop and all the coffee, and for being a good friend! We can recommend Dakar as a place to meet and greet new folks and to get anything done you need.

Meeting new travellers at Dakar

This sidecar and a half belongs to a guy from Lichtenstein

Saying 'bye to Portugese Antonio, after a few nights sampling wine...

One very intrepid traveller we met is Simon Gandolfi, a writer who is exploring South America and writing about his experiences on a bike. Here he is leaving after Javier fixed his bike (he had a spill in Tierra Del Fuego). Note the crutch holder...!

Ready for anything... (Thanks Daniel for the pic)

After about a month of living in the workshop we moved to an apartment for a week. It was in a lovely leafy green suburb called San Fernando and we had a very pleasant and relaxing time there.

Click below...

San Telmo apartment

View from the roof of our apartment (you asked what it looked like, Nicki)

It would have been far too easy to stay so we booked a ferry and packed up. After one final asado at Dakar, (kindly organised by Daniel) where we met lots of other travellers, we grabbed a couple of hours sleep and rode onto the early morning ferry to Colonia, Uruguay.

Leaving Dakar (Daniel, thanks for the photo!)

We actually had a PLAN, one of those things we find it hard to make. Hamish had heard about the ISDE (International Six Day Enduro) in La Serena, Chile so we planned a route there via Roasario and San Rafael - where we knew we'd meet up with lots of friends. We were - very happily - on the road again....

(Emma)

A rare nice picture of me - on Marcelo's boat

Frio o Muy Frio! Adios Argentina...

Continuing on with friends Grant and Jules we explored the far North of Argentina and headed towards Bolivia.

Our trusty steeds

(Thanks for the photo Jules!)

The four of us left Salta after an enjoyable week and rode North on Ruta 9 – pretty soon the scenery changed totally and we found ourselves riding through lush green forests; it reminded Hame and me of Malaysia and the road up to the Cameron Highlands. It was also full of bends which made Hame’s day!

(Thanks Jules for the picture!)

Malaysia?!

See the video below for a dizzying pillion's view!

Round the Bends!

We rode on into the Quebrada Humahuaca – a UNESCO World heritage area of outstanding beauty. The hills were of every colour and ancient rock formations lined the valley on either side of us.

We arrived in Tilcara and as the weather was warm for the first time in ages, we decided to camp. It may have been up in the high twenties during the day but at night it dropped to four or five degrees – a little chilly but we enjoyed being back in our canvas house! It was good to get back to the asados too!

Flame grilled...or scorched?

Tilcara was once populated by a tribe of indigenous people - mostly shepherds and farmers - until the Spanish came along. The remains of the village - the pucara - were interesting and we enjoyed exploring them.

Pucara Tilcara from above

Tilcara itself was a sleepy town with a large Quechua population and lots of adobe houses.

In Tilcara the four of us tried to make a decision about where to go next. We’d been thinking about the possibility of visiting the Salar De Uyuni in Bolivia via San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. Hame did lots of homework and got GPS co-ordinates, road reports and fuel information - we decided it would be a good adventure. We planned to ride over the Paso de Jama; apparently the only pass over the Andes which never closes, (ha ha).

From Tilcara we headed to Pumamarca and saw the amazing ‘hill of seven colours’

Traditional farming methods and the seven colour hills

The road wound its way up and up and we quickly climbed to 4100m.

High!

The land was bleak, dry, rocky and colourful. Here and there we passed poeple seemingly scraping a living off the land and farming llamas. We soon came to the Salinas Grandes – a huge salt flat stretching across the plateau.

A gomeria (puncture repair place) on the Salinas Grandes

Grant and Jules remembered a hotel in Susques they’d stayed at before so we decided to break the journey there and head to the Paso de Jama the following day.

The next morning came – bright and chilly with a temperature of -2º. Grant and Jules had decided to ride on to Calama while we checked out San Pedro as they’d been before. They set off about an hour before us.

Bleak, high plateau

It was about 140km to the border across a 4100m plateau with bleak rocky land either side of us. I don’t think I’ve ever been so cold – at one point I was in tears because I felt cold to my very bones. We arrived at the border and tried to thaw out with cups of tea and coca tea, the latter supposedly helps with altitude.

I'd decided to catch a lift over the pass in a truck as I was so cold but as soon as we got our passports out we were told the border had just closed, due to bad weather on the Chilean side. We explained that our friends had just gone across - the border officials told us they'd left 20 minutes before us and assured us they'd soon turn around because the weather had turned nasty and the pass was now impassable.

We were slightly concerned about them but a car load of Chilean officials turned up soon afterwards and assured us Grant and Jules were on the way back. Except that they didn't appear. A truck driver then came in from the Chilean side - he told us they'd continued on to Chile so we weren't quite sure what to think.

We waited for a couple of hours but Grant and Jules still didn't appear. At this point the border guards said they must have got across. Busloads of people began to arrive only to be turned away again and we became worried Susques would fill up and we'd not get a room.

Alternative transport

I was still freezing so while Hame rode back I hitched a lift in a Paraguayan lorry with driver Antonio Banderas and co-driver Tom Cruise. I told them I was Madonna and had a lot of fun teaching them to swear in English. In return I was educated in all kinds of South American music and watched Antonio Banderas drive the huge truck with one hand and pass a cup of mate back and forth with the other.

Hame, taken from the truck

I said a fond farewell to Adolfo and Amargo (as they soon admitted their real names were) and promised to buy them some whisky when we got to Paraguay. They'd been really excited when I told them Hame was Scottish - "Ah, whisky!!" they said with gusto. I had a good laugh and enjoyed practising my Spanish. I can also swear well too, now!

We arrived back at the hotel to find it quickly filling up with disappointed travellers all wanting to get to Chile. We kept a room for Grant and Jules but by nightfall they hadn't turned up - we could only assume they'd been lucky and got through.

Hame and I passed the evening and the next day meeting llamas and playing paper planes with Ezekiel, the manageress's son, and talking to other travellers.

Some of the other guests

Hame meets a llama! See the video below

Hame meets a llama!

We watched the weather reports and discovered that Buenos Aires was experiencing its first snow-fall for 80 years. Pictures on the TV showed delighted kids jumping about in the snow and building snowmen. It had also snowed in many other parts of the country. The weather reporter was very eloquent in his description of the forecast - "Muy frio o frio" ("Very cold or cold")! Like the rest of the world, Argentina seems to be having weird weather patterns.

The next day we woke to a temperature of -6º and the news that the pass was still closed. We hummed and hahhed about what to do; we needed to e mail Grant and Jules and tell them we were stuck but Susques didn't have internet facilities. It didn't have a lot actually - Hame strolled into town to buy wine and described it as 'Brown'.

Warming up the engine with a llama skin, Susques

We thought about riding back down the hill to Pumamarca where at least there was e mail, or waiting another day... while we were in the middle of deliberating, Carlos, one of the Paraguayans we'd befriended, rushed in saying, "Sus amigos, aqui!" ("Your friends are here!")

We ran out to greet a very tired and cold Grant and Jules - they'd ridden for 110km, found a hell of a lot of snow and ice, fell off a few times and turned round as they saw a storm approaching. They would have had enough fuel to get to San Pedro de Atamcama but they didn't have enough to get back to Susques so they had to spend the night in a shed at the border.

We were glad they were okay and we celebrated by having a glass or two of wine.

The next day the pass 'opened' (however it had been open when Grant and Jules first left, and it was very snowy and icy) but after hearing what it was like from Grant and Jules we decided it may not be the most sensible route to take - lots of snow, ice and two wheels isn't a good mix....

Disappointed, we rode back to Pumarmarca and had lunch. If nothing else we got to ride the hairpin bends again.

Cool bends

More cool bends!

Hame and I wanted to ride North to La Quaica and cross into Bolivia there, but Jules and Grant had had enough of the cold and had decided to cross the border at Yacuiba, a town at a lower altitude where it might be warmer.

We said farewell and made plans to meet in a couple of weeks in Santa Cruz to ride the road to Corumba (Brazil) together.

Hame and I North headed to Humahuaca - crossing the Tropic of Capricorn on the way.

Back in the tropics... or not?

Humahuaca was a quaint - if a little touristy - town of cobbled streets and adobe houses.

Street in Humahuaca

While looking for a hotel a lady stopped us and asked if we needed help. She gave us a few ideas for hotels and then said she owned a bar in town called Tantanukay and that we might like to go later - she handed us a leaflet before saying goodbye. We found a great little hotel that was half-built and had parking for Bertha in the restaurant.

I did a bit of laundry, within five minutes of hanging it out it had frozen on the line! So much for being back in the tropics...

Frozen knickers!

We wandered out to explore the town and ended up at the Tantanukay bar - we spent a great evening eating traditional local food and listening to live music. The lady we'd met, Elba, came and chatted to us - it turned out she was the wife of Jaime Torres, a famous local charango player. The charango is a popular local instrument, like a very small guitar or mandolin.

Traditional music and dancing

Elba and her husband had set up the bar as a meeting place for local musicians and a cultural centre for local traditions. We had an excellent evening - great food, wine and entertainment for eight dollars each - and it was pretty upmarket. It'll be hard to live in an expensive world again...

We stood with about one million other tourists to watch San Fransisco Solano pop out of the municipal building and bless the crowd. Every day he pops out for five minutes at midday - it was quite bizarre!

We left Humahuaca's cobbled streets and headed up to the border, seeing yet more amazing and ancient rock formations on the way.

570 million years ago this was the sea bed...

Amazing formations

La Quaica, the border town, wasn't very inviting so we rode West, out to Yavi - a small adobe village with a way of life which seemingly hadn't changed for the last 200 years.

Outside the kitchen door in our hostel

Our hostel

Traditional roof-building methods

We spent a great evening with a family from Rosario (East Argentina) who invited us to stay if we go back that way.

We've come a long way....albeit slowly!

In the morning we finally managed to escape Argentina, after a really fantastic few months. It was exciting to be in a new country again.

Next blog - Bolivia!

(Emma)

Me and Bertha on the road

Em and Hame's big trip... or Hame's beer tasting tour of South America?!

A Couple of Weeks at the Bottom of the World

We are here

Bertha at the end of the world

After Christmas we stayed on in the woods for a week with Jason and Pete, the KTM riders, and Val and Adam, the crazy Californians. Amongst other things we perfected the art of asado, ate some excellent food (including a rather magical US recipe of lamb and mushroom stew) and generally had a great laugh.

One of those nights

We also went on a couple of good walks; one around a lake to the border between Chile and Argentina...

Hamish in Argentina, taken by me in Chile

...and we walked to the end of the world with Pete, there it is, just behind us...

The end of the Earth!

...and saw lots of wildlife, including this magnificent woodpecker. I think it's called the Magellenic Woodpecker.

We visited a huge beaver dam too, but didn't see any beavers.

A big beaver dam

When we'd got rather too feral we moved back into town and booked into a hostel for three days over New Year.

And we PARTIED! We brought in 2007 with new mates and lots of beer. Sorry, I mean cheer.

The start of the evening, 'Uh-oh'

One hour into 2007 and we were in a traditional Argentinian Irish pub; I started as I meant to go on and danced on a bar stool with 60-something year old George from Michigan, a biker we'd met on the way.

Wahay!!!

We enjoyed the luxury of the hostel for three days then moved back to the tent, this time we pitched camp at the Rugby Club, an excellent campsite sheltered by trees and next to a river, run by a very friendly family. On the way Hamish spotted a sign 'Tierra Negra, 10 pesos'. ''Excellent!'' he said ''A hostel for only 10 pesos!'' Actually it meant 'black soil' (peat) for sale. Time for some Spanish lessons...

We enrolled at 'Finis Terrae' Spanish School for a week. It was fairly intense but I was amazed that I remembered some of it from school. (I learnt Spanish for a year when I was 14 but as I spent the entire year doing rather non-acamdemic things I can't believe anything stuck) Hamish and I both learned heaps, and I enjoyed it so much I enrolled for an extra three days. Hamish had had enough by then and went fishing with Adam, so Val gave me a lift into town on her bike instead.

Graduation!

After three more days my brain was completely full, and I now need to practise. At every available opportunity (and when nobody I know is listening) I've been talking to people and can now hold a short conversation, thanks to my excellent and very patient teacher, Sofia.

The teachers and some students

Hame turned 38 on January 7th. We had a small party the night before with other bikers staying here at the campsite, plus a few of our fellow students. The Swiss bikers produced a cake at midnight and Val and I cooked enough Spag Bol to feed an army.

Make a wish...

There are no strangers, only friends you've yet to meet

The next day we'd decided to go and see the Martial Glaciar which is in the hills above Ushuaia. Hamish, being Hamish, took one look at the 'hill' (to a Scotsman it's a hill. To everyone else it's a mountain) and was off and up through knee deep snow to the top. It took him about an hour and a half to get up there, and about 10 minutes to get down, slding on his backside, yelling 'Awesome!!!' all the way. Must have been hanging around with Americans too much.

Hame is the tiny black dot in the middle

Going up

Val and Adam, Ushuaia behind

Ushuaia from above

From even further up, Hame's picture

We both like Ushuaia. It's a port, it is fairly touristy, but we've enjoyed being in one place for a couple of weeks and we've got to know the town quite well. Houses of every shape, size and colour are clustered together up the steep streets, there are heaps of duty free shops and restaurants to cater for the tourists who mostly come by boat, stopping in Ushuaia as part of a cruise. Ushuaia also seems to have more than its fair share of chocolate shops, what a shame for my waistline...

Ushuaia is famous for its king crab.

Ushuaia is also the embarkation point for cruises to Antarctica; for a mere US$3000 (this is half price) you can explore Antarctica for 11 days - I think we'll give that one a miss. We're in summer now, with daytime temperatures of around 15 degrees, with snow on the tops of all the surrounding mountains - it's very picturesque. In winter the town still relies on tourism and it becomes a ski resort.

There is lots to do here, cruises up the Beagle Channel, diving - if you are completely insane as the water is freezing - lots of hiking, fishing and even golf. I managed to get a game in at the Southernmost golf course in the world with Carla, a Canadian from Spanish school. It was great to play with snow-capped mountains around us.

Hole-in-one! Dream on

Carla

Riding in Ushuaia is not without its hazards though; with mad dogs on just about every corner who like to chase bikers. Both Adam and Phil got bitten whilst here, and every time we go out we are chased. The dogs lie in wait at traffic lights, then the minute you take off, WOOF! and off they go after you. Val was convinced that if you don't move your foot they can't see it so will not know what to bite. It worked for us, on our journeys to school.

One other issue in Ushuaia is the complete absence of road markings. This makes for interesting riding, especially at crossroads. Argentina is full of crossroads as most towns are laid out in a grid system and we've not quite worked out who has the right of way. There seems to be an unwritten rule which we've not figured out yet.

A bit of history...

For 6000 years or so Tierra Del Fuego was inhabited by groups of indigenous people. One of these groups, the Yamana, lived around the Ushuaia area. Tierra Del Fuego didn't have the large amounts of natural resources coveted by European explorers who invaded land owned by other indigenous groups further North, but there was contact between the Yamana and Europeans as they navigated the Beagle Channel. Missionaries later established Ushuaia and attempted to convert the Yamana to Christianity.

Area once inhabited by the Yamana

This contact brought diseases which the Yamana had no resistance to and in a couple of generations, sadly, the tribe was all but destroyed. A few descendants of the Yamana live today in Chile but there are only about 20 left. We went on a 'school trip' to the Yamana museum as a Spanish lesson, it was very interesting to see how people adapted to the area and made use of the few resources to survive. Tierra Del Fuego means the 'Land of Fire' and was christened by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, as he sailed past and saw the fires of the Yamana.

Part of the national park, the area once inhabited by the Yamana

I've mentioned 'asado', the traditional Argentinian grill. At weekends families get together, find a good place outdoors and cook up an asado - meat, meat and more meat on a fire. It is very delicious, but there is a distinct lack of vegetables around...

Two men and a fire

Another national delicacy we've been enjoying is empanadas. These are small pies filled with a variety of ingredients and they are absolutely delicious and horribly fattening. My excuse is I need the extra fat to keep warm.

Owners of the campsite, Maria and her husband, making homemade empanadas

Hamish has spent the last couple of days fixing a problem with the front brakes, there has been slight leakage from the front caliper. Perhaps it was because of some extra cargo...

Hame hard at work

We intend to leave Ushuaia in the next couple of days and head North, on our way to El Calafate, speaking Spanish all the way!

(Emma)

PS
I have finally put some wedding pics on the blog; if you want to see Hame in his kilt check out the entry 'On the Road Again'

Great Weather For Yachts

(27th December)

After a couple of Asados (traditonal Argentinian grills) at our campsite on Peninsula Valdez, it was time to go.

Bruno demonstrating how to do Asado properly

Pete, Hame, Mark, beer

The weather changed a bit, which was a shame as I'd wanted to dive - apparently if you are lucky you can chare your dive with sea lions and dolphins...anyway it got windy and a litttle cooler and the dive boat stayed in. As we left Peninsula Valdez the wind came up more, and it stayed with us for most of the next week as we headed South.

With the bikes constantly leant at an angle against the wind, we rode South with Mark and Aasha, covering the 1800km to Ushuaia about a week.

(See www.markaasha.com for more pics of this week)

As we rode South it got colder... and then colder still. Some days we could feel the change over only a few hundred metres, and every day saw us donning more layers until we were all much bulkier - or that could have been because of all the fab food we'd been eating!

Aasha sporting the latest in 'bikewear'

On the way to Ushuaia we stayed in small 'cabañas' - self catering accommodation, or cheap hostels or hotels. Some had better beds than others!

Hame's banana bed

As we were on the move every day we didn't want to be packing up the tent every morning. Accommodation is generally quite cheap, we've been paying about $10 US a night (about five pounds), usually with breakfast, but our preference is still for camping.

Squeezing Bertha in behind a guesthouse

We met some great people and felt welcomed wherever we went. The best welcome of all was from Graciela in Rio Grande (Hotel Argentino) who handed us a glass or homemade cherry liquer as we arrived, freezing cold after a wet ride into Tierra Del Fuego.

Welcome to the Hotel Argentino

An early Happy Christmas with (L to R) Aasha, Val and Graciela,

After leaving Peninsula Valdez the wind was quite hard work so we only rode about 150km before stopping in Gaiman, a small village originally colonised by Welsh migrants in 1865. Nowadays Gaiman has several Welsh themed guesthouses and tea rooms; we sheltered from the wind and had a huge cream tea before bedding down for the night in the Dyffryn Gwyrrd hotel.

Hame found a fellow rugby bloke, the owner of our Welsh hotel

Cream tea house

The next morning the wind was more manageable so we hopped on the bikes and headed to Punta Tombo, site of the World's largest colony of Magellenic Penguins. 175,000 breeding pairs come here every year for the summer months, and they were everywhere!

We wandered around roped-off paths between burrows, sat and watched them launch themselves into the sea and watched as they waddled across in front of us. The penguins were utterly charming and not at all bothered by our presence. They even came to check out our bike!

A local checking out Bertha

Bertha had another visitor a little further down the road, a baby guanaco.

Guanacos are related to camels; they are very common in this part of Argentina and we passed several groups (anyone know the collective term?) of them grazing near the roadside.

We've seen flamingoes, hares, a fox, lots and lots of species of birds (Carol and Neil, we need you!) as well as domesticated animals on the many Estancias (big farms) we've passed.

We met a man who'd walked from Santiago, on the road 3000km from Santiago.

There are lots of other bikers heading South for Christmas and we've seen a fair few cyclists. I've thought lots of times of my good friend James who cycled from Alaska to Ushuaia a few years ago, and I now know for sure what I've suspected all along, he is barking mad! Some of the roads are sooooo long and featureless, the mountains are huge, you really would have to be quite mad to attempt it on anything without an engine. Jamie, we are amazed. You are a legend.

On the way we stopped to help Rick, who'd ridden form Alaska on a KLR and whose chain had snapped, almost sending him off the road. He stayed on, and left a 50m skid mark. Hame and Mark, the engineers, got straight in there and managed to unwrap the chain from the sprocket. Luckily for Rick he was near a service station and the story ended well when he got the bike on a truck to the nearest town.

The changing weather gave us a few good rainbows...

The end of my rainbow...

In Comodoro Rivadavia we were on the way to the shops when we passed a couple of policemen looking angry. On the way into town we'd seen several groups of young football supporters looking a bit like they wanted trouble. About two minutes later we heard shots, and looked back to see the policemen chasing and shooting at the football fans, who's turned out to be rioters. Four police cars followed, and all the young guys scattered. We went and hid in the supermarket and did our shopping until it was safe to go back up the road!

Bertha on the ferry to Tierra Del Fuego

We were really excited to get to Tierra Del Fuego. It's a place we'd heard about for years and since we left Malaysia back in April, Ushuaia was our destination for Christmas.

For most of the previous week the roads had taken us through very flat, very barren landscape. As we rode further South into Tierra Del Fuego, we were suddenly up in the snow-capped mountains, riding through sleet! It was magnificent scenery.

Brrr!

We had a great week with Aasha and Mark

We rode into Ushuaia, a little chilly but happy. Mark and Aasha weren't mad enough to stay in a tent so we left them at their guesthouse and rode out to the National Park, about 20km South of Ushuaia, almost at the end of the world...

Our camp at the end of the world (with tame bunnies)

It was cold, we were very glad we'd upgraded the sleeping bags in Australia to big fat down ones which kept us warm as toast. At night it has been about four degrees!

On the way to the park we'd bumped into Grant and Julie who we'd last seen in Viedma. At the park were about 20 other bikers of varying nationalities; Kiwi, English, German, Japanese, Swiss, American and ourselves. It was good to catch up with Jason and Pete who we'd met in Viedma too, and Californians Val and Adam. We decided to have a traditional Christmas dinner, cooked on the fire.

There was a bit of deliberation about how to cook the chickens - the boys had designed a spit roaster out of bits of metal and jubilee clips. We had a great laugh trying to make it work, everyone got involved with bits of string, screwdrivers and ideas. Being fuelled by beer and champagne didn't help, but it was fun. Eventually we gave up on the whole spit idea and with the help of a long spikey thing cooked the chickens straight on the fire, along with loads of vegetables wrapped in foil.

We were quite amazed when the meal turned out to be delicious, not burned to shreds as could easily have been the case! Here are a few pics taken throughout the day:

How to roast chooks

Grant keeping the smoke out

Cooking up a storm

At last it was ready

Gabi - I managed to find something to dance on!!!

Hope everyone had as much fun as we did. Hame and I had a quiet moment and raised our plastic cups to our families and friends in distant places....Happy Christmas.

There were a few sore heads the next day, but we managed to ride down to the sign which says you have reached the end of the road...

Here's the latest of my high-tech maps.

How we got from Aus to here

The last couple of weeks - 5400km or so

Bertha has been running well, the only issue being a slightly leaking front shock, despite the recent rebuild in Melbourne. Hame gave it a good clean and made a shock sock, and it seems to be holding up for now.

We plan to stay on in the national park for a few more days, celebrate the new year somewhere in Ushuaia, or just by the tent perhaps as it is such a beautiful spot. After that we have a few weeks before meeting my Mum and Stepdad a little further North, so we have decided to try and improve our Spanish by going back to school. We'll camp in Ushuaia and enrol in Spanish classes for a week - we need it! There are a few snow capped mountains to climb too, Hame is itching to get up there.

We're really enjoying moving more slowly for the time being; from here it's a slow ride North...

(Emma)

Hotel of the week!

Mountains and Meetings

Thanks to the generosity of a friend of the family we had a place to stay in Santiago; we enjoyed spending a few days there in a comfortable flat getting ready for the Big Off Part II. We were both incredibly excited; new country, new continent, and not too many firm plans.

We'd loved Easter Island, and despite what Hamish said in the last blog Tahiti was lush and green and beautiful, and full of very gorgeous big brown men with long hair and interesting tattoos, singing and playing the Ukulele. (Although maybe that's why Hame wasn't so keen?!).

We were eager to get out of the city however, and head for the mountains and Argentina. We packed the bike, feeling proud of ourselves at the amount of stuff we'd managed to get rid of and condense, only to find that our stuff had grown immensly and would hardly fit on the bike. Horrors! Where does it all come from?

With poor Bertha groaning under the weight of whatever else it is we've managed to collect and the GPS telling us we were still in North Balwyn (Melbourne) we rode swiftly out of the city and up to a wonderfully exciting twisty mountain road, with snow-capped peaks all around us and hair pin bends with steep drops to the side.

The border crossing was easy enough, despite a few confusing moments over bits of paperwork we were supposed to have or had to fill in. The guards were very helpful even though there was a complete language barrier and we soon got through.

Hamish had picked up a dry cough in Santiago, and as we ascended it got worse. By the time we'd crossed the border into Argentina he was feeling quite rough and refusing food (so I knew he was really ill). We decided to book into a hotel in Puerta Del Inca, a tiny town just over the Argentinian border to wait until Hame felt better; he climbed straight into bed and didn't get up for the next 48 hours.

We weren't sure what was wrong, he had a fairly high fever and a cough which just seemed to get worse by the minute. I know that men get things far far worse than we women do, but he did seem quite poorly. With no doctor in town I donned my nurses uniform, fed him some vitamin C and stuck a thermometer in his mouth every few hours.

Not a bad place to be stuck for a couple of days...

I took some time to explore Puerta Del Inca, which took five minutes, although the town is famous for having a natural stone bridge and an old spa. I also chatted to groups of climbers slowly acclimatising and doing some warm up climbs, getting ready to tackle Aconcagua, South America's highest peak, close to the town.

Bertha next to the window of our room

We decided the altitude wasn't helping Hame so after a mixture of pills found in our first aid kit and getting Hamish started on a course of antibiotics, he was able to get up and ride. (It took a full week for him to recover but he's fine now).

We still planned to head South for the HU meeting in Viedma, about 1600km South East. As Hame wasn't 100% well we stuck to hotels and meals out - cheapish but we planned to camp again as soon as we could.

The ride was very colourful, the hills seemed to have been painted in a variety of shades of rock and soil; after a while I simply stopped taking pictures as every corner gave a new fantastic view.

The road is long...

With many a winding turn....

We had a slight wiring problem on the way, we lost the ignition switch, the lights, horn, intercom and indicators, so I became the starter motor (again) and indicators for a day or so until Hame got it sorted out. I had great fun trying to explain all this to the receptionist and asking her if there was an electrical mechanic in town, in Spanish.

Our Spanish is improving, slowly, but now I have the problem of not understanding a single word of the answers I receive. For example:

Me in Spanish: Where is the nearest petrol station?

Passer by, in Spanish: OK - you go around the corner take the third right and go straight ahead until you see the town square where there's a petrol station although it may not be open right now so if you head back up the street take the second right then the third left just next to the jewellers shop where my Auntie works there's another one which may be open failing that head back out of town on the road you just came in on and you might get petrol there. Understand?

Me: Er, Gracias.

We are getting better, slowly. Hame can order beer and steak easily so he's happy.

A couple of days of fairly tedious riding over very flat land brought us to Viedma for the Horizons Meeting. We found the campsite and were welcomed by the very friendly and hospitable Oscar, the organiser. We met up with Aasha and Mark, who we'd last seen in Brisbane, and Grant and Julie who've been e mail correspondents of us for some time (they also have a story on here).

Me and Jules

How many blokes does it take to change a tyre?!

Oscar had organised a ride into town to join up with a group of local bikers for a barbeque which was good fun. The following day we rode out to a cliff top from where we could view a huge colony of sea lions. Oscar then took us on a '20km or so' ride on gravel roads across farmland, after almost 50km we arrived at our destination, a sheep farm belonging to his friend.

A breather after a big dusty ride.

His friend had roasted lamb and beef , the ride had made everyone hungry so we tucked into the traditional Argentinian meal, huge delicious chunks of meat with bread, then flopped around in the shade to digest it ready for the ride home.

Post-roast

Everyone

Lew and Anita and their Big Luggage!

Bike fashion.... so sexy

It was good to meet other people who are mad enough to ride around this huge continent, share stories and compare notes about places to go, plus of course sample lots of local beer.

Hame getting into the Christmas spirit

One couple, Alexis and Greg, had driven from the UK via Australia in an old army ambulance, I loved it - (maybe one day when there are small Oags travelling with us?!)

Aasha and Mark demonstrate a new riding style

After another day or so at the campsite we said our goodbyes and headed South with Aasha and Mark to Peninsula Valdez, a national park and wildlife haven on the east coast. We found a great campsite one sand dune away from the beach and are spending a very relaxed few days here.

Yesterday we had what I can only describe as one of the most incredible experiences I've ever had, as cliched as it sounds. One of the reasons for coming here was to whale watch, but as we'd been told it was the end of the season and that most of them were on the way elsewhere we didn't expect too much. We booked ourselves on the sunset tour, cracked open a bottle of red and got ready to see a couple os whales.

Another fetching getup

After an hour or so we found a few, which became a few more, until we were surrounded by 18 whales, Southern Right Whales, all in pairs of mothers and calfs. The whales seemed as curious about us as we were about them because on a few occasions they came so close to the boat we could have touched them.


Close, but they came closer...

I was speechless (for once) and completely in awe of the size and grace of the whales as they swam up to the boat, put their heads out of the water to have a better look at us and then sank down, swan under the boat and reappeared the other side. I got a faceful of expired whale breath as I watched. Hame has all the close up pics on his camera, I'll put some on here later so you can see the sheer size of them. I wish I could put video on here, I've a couple of incredible clips of the whales within one metre of where I was standing.

From here we plan to head South to Ushuaia to celebrate our first Christmas in our tent. So far we are enjoying Argentina very very much, it is cheap (about US2 each to camp), with wonderful food, friendly people and stunning scenery - I think we shall be here for quite a while yet!

By the way, forget the fact that bike travel can at times be dangerous, look what can happen when you fall over in the shower...

(Almost worth it to see the look on the face of the poor lass I landed on, who was getting dressed outside my cubicle)

(Emma)

Sign of the week:

On the Road Again

After an interlude to our travels, flying back to Scotland for a family wedding, we´re back on the road for part two of our adventure; South America. Having landed in Santiago, Chile and being successfully reunited with Bertha (our bike), we´re off to Argentina, hopefully in time for the HU meeting in Viedma.


Ready to go

Having missed all too many family gatherings as a result of living overseas the past ten or so years, we were not about to miss the wedding of my close cousin, Mairi. After all, the wedding reception was being held in a whisky distillery! How could we refuse? (Wedding pics to follow)

PICTURES FROM THE WEDDING OF MAIRI AND JON:

Catching up with family at home:

Halloween with Rory

Being back was great to catch up with family and friends, however after too many drams, pints (not nancy pots or schooners) and home cooking, it was time for teary goodbyes and to get back on the plane.

With Em´s brother in London

We took the opportunity of a stop-over in Dubai to catch up with good friends, Gabi and Max, who provided us with an insight into life in the UAE. Fortunately, not all of Dubai is sand and glitzy buildings; the mountains providing a cool respite to the desert heat.

Oasis

They also provided some good trails to ride, Max kindly providing me with his KTM to scoot around on, which proved to be a little more nimble without Em, panniers and camping equipment on board!

Where are the panniers?

When back in Melbourne, our main task was to crate Bertha for the journey to Santiago. BMW Melbourne kindly provided us with a crate, albeit minus the new 1200 Adventure it originally contained, bummer! Mindful of freighting the bike with an empty tank, we arrived at BMW with the fuel pump wheezing; saving us the job of emptying the tank of residual fuel. As with all the best travels, a case of good luck as opposed to strategic planning.

After braving a Melbourne hail storm (remember, it´s supposed to be summer here!), and a bit of juggling here and there, we squeezed the bike, panniers and spare tyres into the wood and cardboard box, strapped it down and said goodbye. All being well, we´d be reunited in Santiago in a couple of weeks time.

Fortunately, Melbourne wasn´t all work and no play. We caught up with relatives of Em, whilst Martin and Fiona were once again the perfect hosts. Martin taking me fishing out in the bay, my lack of skill landing a somewhat immature flat-head. I gave it a second chance at life and threw it back.

If you hold it close to the camera it looks bigger! (Em)

We wrapped up our Australia trip with a drive down the Great Ocean Road on our final day with Martin, in his extremely quick VW. It may not have been a bike, but bloody good fun nonetheless. Experiencing the waves crashing in on the South coast seemed a fitting end to our (almost) circumnavigation of this massive island.

Us and Martin (Urban Man)

Rather then fly directly to Santiago, we´d opted to stop-off in Tahiti for a couple of days and then Easter Island for a week. After all it was the same price as a direct flight, so why not? I should have realised if David Essex sang about somewhere, it was bound to be dubious! Ok, that´s a little unfair (on Tahiti, not DE), it wasn´t so bad, just expensive. Nonetheless, it did provide us with the chance to kick back after the previous month´s excesses. (Next time I´ll go to Tahiti and he can go to Skegness! - I liked it! - Em)

The view over my book

Em at least made it off the beach

Both keen to visit Easter Island, Isla de Pascua or Rapa Nui, depending on your language persuasion, we soaked up our week there exploring the island both above and below the surface. Other than its isolation, wonderful barren landscape and friendly folks, Easter Island´s draw card is of course the mystical Moai, the massive stone figures that dominate the horizon.

Hewn from a dormant volcano between 800AD and 1600AD, the Moai were then lowered down to the base of the volcano, final carving completed, before being transported to their respective Ahu or platform at various locations around the island. Sounds straightforward, however these statues can be up to 20m in height, weighing in excess of 100 tons...and no cranes, hoists or low-loaders to transport them the kilometers required back in them days! There are of course as many theories as there are possibilities, most employing wooden logs in some configuration or another. Hence the reason for the lack of trees, so it is believed.

Anyway, however they were produced, transported and erected is irrelevent when you sit and take them in; the sight is really quite something.

Spot the Hamish!

As a result of fighting between tribes over declining resources (some things never change), in this case, the Long Ears and the Short Ears (I kid you not), all Moais were knocked over and production abruptly ceased. Hence the volumes of Moai in various states of completion seen around the Moai birthplace, Rano Rakano.

In an attempt to restore order, someone dreamt up the Birdman philosophy. Instead of fighting for leadership, select members of each clan would tear down the slopes of a volcano, swim through treacherous waters to an uninhabited island to retrieve the first egg of the season from a particular sea bird. The winner would be the first to retrieve the egg via the reverse route. Not entirely different to the cult ´70´s TV programme, The Great Egg Race.

So when we weren´t learning about stone statues and birdmen, we took to the water to explore the crystal clear depths. Did I mention visability? 30m +! Diving to a depth of around 25m and looking up as if wearing aqua marine coloured sunglasses on a sunny day. Spectacular.

H & E get into rubber!

Change of transport 1

Change of transport 2

All too soon it was time to pack up the tent and hit the airport again. Fortunately this would be our last flight for a while, instead relying on our bike to carry us across borders, not planes. Em was on the ball and reserved window seats on the left side of the plane, providing us with our own live mountain documentary as we flew alongside the Andes approaching Santiago.

The following morning Jesus, our freight agent, collected us and drove us to the airport to be reunited with Bertha. Having taken almost two days to clear the bike upon arrival in Australia, we were expecting the process to take some time in Chile.

However, having the Saviour on our side helped no end. After a few hours of shuttling from desk to desk we had Bertha loaded onto the smallest truck in Chile and off to Jesus´s warehouse for unwrapping. Christmas came early.

(Jesus is the one on the left)

After a day or two in Santiago to re-organise our gear, realise how little Spanish we know and catch up on the blog (you know how long it takes to write this stuff?!), we´re off tomorrow across the border into Argentina. Already our plans have changed, we´re heading towards Viedma on the East coast for our first HU (Horizons Unlimited) meeting, where we hope to meet up with like minded vagabonds. It´s then South towards Tierra del Fuego for Christmas. Well that´s the plan at present....

(Hamish)