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Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia



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  #36  
Old 10 Mar 2016
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Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 36
Most important thing you bring on a motorcycle trip is patience espacially when you bring an old bike. After three weeks waiting in antofagasta chile my rear suspension finally arrived from germany two weeks later than expected.

In colombia werner and i decided to ride together her further south. First we wanted to get out of the heat as fast as possible. From carthagena medellin is a little more than a days ride. When found a very basic truckers hotel along the rode and made it to Medellin where my cardan u-joints broke again in he city. After stopping at a few auto-hotels we found one that would let us stay for the night. An auto hotel is not really set up for sleeping but the rooms are usually quite luxurious. The people at the hotel let me replace the cardan with the one i brought and within two hours i was ready for the road again. My panier rack had broke somewhere along the road so i figured i might try to weld it together again. For around 4 dollars a local guy did a quick job which would keep the panier on the bike for a while.

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Once ready we decided to head further south and try to make the border with ecuador. We spend the night in popayan where i made the foolish mistake to get cigarettes on my own at 21:30. Two persons approached me for a cigarette and after i gave them one they asked for money as i refused they insisted with showing a knife I got away with giving them around 10 dollars. With the time i feel sorry for those people as they robbed me but took enough with 10 dollars while i was carrying more and did have my ipod on me but they did not insist on taking everything from me. For being robbed did not have not have major consequences but for them it was a desperate solution to get money to survive. I feel criminally lucky to have grown up in an environment where i had possibilities to develeop myself. One thing was sure i freaked out and have been more cautious going out late at night. Werner and I drove to the border the next day where we met with Alenjandro whom we had met earlier in colombia. In ecuador we got some tyre problems and had a hard time getting cash outof the ATM. But after four days we had finally crossed the country and had seen some wonderfull roads driving thru the fog.

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At the border with peru i decided to continue alone from that point as i wanted to sleep a longer in the morning and make Usuhuia within a couple weeks. Peru was mostly straigh roads in the north where the only adveture was finding a new front tire in Chimbote Peru. The mecanic helped me out and hosted me that night. In latin america a lot of motorcycle owners are part of a club. Usually such a club hosts you and can be of great help if you have mecanical problems.

South of lima i stayed in the city of Ica after the road and climate change from straight hot roads to fresh curvy coast roads. It was a delight to drive in a fresh climate and it definitely made me enjoy peru a little bit more.

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Right before crossing the border into chile i decided to cross thru a rice field to get back on the main road which led to being stuck in an irrigation ditch for an hour. Luckly i could convice some local guys to help me for exchange of a couple bucks and i was bak on the road and rode into chile later that afternoon. My panier hopder broke again but i figured that would not be a major problem for now.

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Chile was a relief to enter there where roadsigns again and in the hostel that night i had a clean room with hot water and breakfast. I felt more comfortable walking on the streets at night again and i was going to get to my final destination within a month. The next day i headed for Antofagasta and road 700 km on straight roads in the dessert. I don't mind driving straight roads as i can cover good distance and speed up a little bit. 100 km north of Antofagasta i did not realize In time that the road was broken up and at quite a high speed i flew thru the air. Luckly i landed on both wheels but i discovered later that my rear suspension had taken a serious hit. It turns out that Antofagasta has plenty motor cycle shops but a suspension is hard to fix espacially in the holiday season. I decided to order a used one from germany with express mail. A long story short DHL consideres a three week delivery time normal for express mail, i don't but they don't give a shit about that. The good thing is that i dicovered that one of the bearings was also broke and i was able to replace it before any further damage. The BMW dealer there was not able to help me because the bike was too old. They however send me too Luis who let me fix the bike and change the oils and though me the BMW perspective of mechanic. Thanks for that!!

Tomorrow after three weeks the adventure continues and we will see where it brings me next.

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