We left Canada in mid-November and flew back to Mendoza, Argentina to pick up our motorcycles. Our friends Juan Pablo and Juan Luis were both out of town but Juan Luis made arrangements to have his girlfriend Ampora take us to pick up our motorcycles at the cement company where they were stored. Mendoza had a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in September so we expected that they might be sitting at the bottom of a pile of rumble.

Instead, the only sign of disturbance was the arm of a manequin laying on the floor between the two motorcycles. We took the covers off and found them exactly as we had left them. Deb´s battery was completely dead and Dave´s headlight came on but the bike wouldn´t start. We rolled them down a ramp made of cement bags from the room in which they were stored into the larger building where Ampora pulled in her car and jump started Dave´s bike. Deb´s bike would only run when connected to the car battery so we had to leave it there and Dave took his bike to the BMW dealer, removed the battery then took a taxi back to put the battery in Deb´s bike. Luckily the dealer had a new battery.

Ampora´s brother owns a small farm in the mountains just outside of Mendoza from where he runs horse back riding tours. One evening he came to pick us up and we had a wonderful time riding in the mountains and then had a picnic with wine, cheese, wild boar and ostrich pate at his quaint home on a hill overlooking the city.

Horse back riding in Argentina

On the day we planned to leave Mendoza for Santiago, Chile we woke up to a steady rainfall and decided to delay our departure for one day. Our visas for our motorcycles expired on November 20 so we weren´t leaving ourselves much time for other delays. It was only a couple of hours ride to the border so it wasn´t a problem. The day we left was beautiful - sunny and warm and the mountains were covered with a fresh blanket of snow.

Andes Mountains outside Mendoza, Argentina

We got stopped by the Argentine police and thoroughly searched.

Dave and Argentine policeman

On the way up to the pass, we went through several small tunnels and then one really long one which was half in Argentina and half in Chile. When we popped out on the other side, we were at the border crossing at about 13,000 feet.

This is a very busy border crossing with lots of buses and people milling around so Deb stayed with the bikes while Dave went in to get us through immigration and customs. He came back after a half hour and we were delighted to be done so quickly. We got in line to leave and discovered that they were searching every single vehicle and every bag in each vehicle. We waited in line for eons and when it was our turn to be searched, were told that we didn´t have enough stamps on our paperwork. Deb once again stayed with the bikes while Dave went back to get more stamps from the Argentine side to satisfy the Chilean customs. We he got back they took the paperwork and told us to go on, we didn´t get searched!

The ride down from the pass was a series of about fifteen 180 degree turns with trucks moving at about 10 mph or less. It went like this - pass a truck, take the curve, pass a truck, take a curve, pass two trucks, pass the third one in the turn...

We didn´t want to go to Santiago right away so we spent a several days riding around north and west of Santiago. On one road, we were on our way to the coast and just before getting there saw a sign that said ´Dangerous Curves´ for the next 2 kms. No big deal, we see them all the time, then we saw the sign ´End of Pavement´. Deb hates steep dirt roads but managed to make it to the bottom where the pavement picke up again. The road ended right at the ocean. We wanted to camp but couldn´t find a campground so we stayed in a nasty cabin. It got very cold at night so it´s probably a good thing that we were inside even though the place smelled like an old man (no offense to any old man reading this).

Pacific Ocean, Chile

I (Deb) was very concerned about getting back up the steep hill but Dave told me, ´it´s much easier going up´. I thought if I could just get through the first two turns, I would be ok. Just as I was coming around the first turn the road had several whoop-de-doos (hills and troughs). I let off the gas to go over slowly and my bike stalled. ´Oh crap!´ just when I was ready to bail off, the bike came to a stand still with the back tire sitting a trough. I was upright so I started it up again and gassed it. While Dave in front of me was using the skills we learned in our dirt bike course, (standing up and moving his little butt from side to side to shift his weight) I was flailing all over the place, afraid to let off the gas and cussing the entire way, almost certain that I was going to crash in every turn. Was I ever happy to get to the top of that hill!

German Restaurant, Chile

Eventually we made our way to Santiago and found the cargo terminal at the airport. Our bikes are packed and sitting in the warehouse waiting to be flown to New Zealand. Even though we had reservation, one guy told us the plane was full and they wouldn´t go out until next week while another guy told us they would leave tonight. We´ll see...

Deb pointing to our next destination - New Zealand