Yep I'd have to agree, Dillon went to length in sorting my 950 S to the point where he gave me parts off his own bike to get me on the road faster rather than wait for ordered parts, salt of the earth kinda bloke.

I was on a mission heading south and hopefully catching up with you mob, Neda & Gene (lightcycle) and others on my 12 month tour but.........

It seems the oxygen thief is obviously related to the retard who rented my home, another marked to be removed from the gene pool! I got robbed blind, they left such a mess its taken me 2 months to rectify and I'm still not done! Not to mention the cost of returning form the Copper Canyon, having to buy a car drive from Melbourne to Darwin ect ect ect. The bill is enormous, consider yourself lucky you got off relatively light!

However the joint will be on the market soon and I'll pick up where I left off. Might even go the SE next lap ! I'll just have to live through threads like yours and the like, keep up the good work and enjoy, Cheers Dave.

Heya Dave, yeah there always seems to be someone who will trip you up eh.

Sounds like you have had it way worse than us though.

Good to hear you are resuming your travels as well .... SE ... not a bad option too

__________________
Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Spectacular photo's as always ,i think the shot of Ellen jumping on the road would have been a good one to enter too.No the bloody house is not sold yet ,just no buyers ,market has gone to crap,getting frustrated .was thinking when i saw your shots of Bolivians that i can't recall ever seeing one of them smile in a photo .oh by the way i have voted for your shots ,i recognized them straight away although i think number 2 would be my pick of best shot ,you guys are up there though.YDF Noel.

Heya Noel

Thanks man, great place to take photos, so much to see.

Well that is a bugga about the house mate, rental an option till things pick up?

Cheers for the vote, yeah there are some good pics for sure, we are stoked just to even get to selection, if we can make the calender then real cool

__________________
Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Tire, battery, insurance all on the list to do.

Insurance, done, tire .... no .... have to sell the bike to buy a front tire in Argentina, battery.... Chinese yes but we want the Yuasa Japanese as they have been more reliable over time for me.

Loki Hostel, our gem.

They have a promotion on with free accommodation in the dorm rooms so that fitted our budget nicely.:clap

Loki is situated 20 km out from town central in a nice quite spot, set 100 meters just off the main road the place is secure and out of sight.

There is a swimming pool, Ellen took advantage of this however I stayed on the sideline keeping the deck chairs company.



Their rules are no food or alcohol to be brought onto the premises, at first we thought bugger but the reality is their bar and food price are reasonable and the quality of their beef bar b que up with the best of them.

Now Loki is known as a party hostel which we were a bit worried about us old folk being kept up at night however the accommodation rooms are far away enough that yo do not hear the music so you can retire at the hour that suits and not get drummed out all night, all in all a very good set up.



Thanks Loki Hostel, we very much enjoyed our stay and will be back on our way to Bolivia. :clap

__________________
Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Hitting Paso Sico the road 51 that the hostel is on meant we just turned left from the hotel and headed for the hills.

The road was party tar and partly a dentists dream, the second half of the day which is only 124 km turned into a 5 and half hour ordeal of seriously bad sandpits linked together by corrugations from hell.

A nice smooth bit :clap



At the half way point I just wanted the road to finish as I had had enough and Maya felt like she was gonna fall apart at the seams, I know Ellens arse took a hammering too.

So much was the vibration that one of the screws in my new sunnies vibrated out and got lost, a self dental check count showed all fillings were in place ... that was lucky. :lol3

Upon reaching the Chilean border we found out we had a further 100 km of gravel to do and the border guard advising us of very bad sandpits ... ouwh no...this however does come with rewards



More OMG moments of treasure



Shadows getting longer



By this time it was getting later in the day, still at 4300 meters we were very keen to drop elevation as it was very cold, we punched through the 100 km of gravel road and sandpits knocking off when the sun knocked off so setting up in twilight ...easy done.

Not too bad when you have company and these guys rode with us for the last 100 km



Again sky TV sponsored by the Atacama Desert giving us a great view of the Southern Cross again.

Our campsite with a very orange Mars like tinge from a firey sunset .. was looking for the Rover but couldn't see it :rofl



Turn 180 degrees this is what we had to put up with.



The following morning we had to go back up to San Pedro Atacama as the Aduana is situated there rather than the boarder.

Legally back in Chile the road on the opposite side of the salar was appealing, it started out as a shocker, we use our 5 km rule and applied it here, most people tend to go about 5 km up a gravel road then say bugger this and turn around and the road gets better, today was no different and the gravel road improved....luckily as it was shaping up to be another horror.

Soon enough we had the place to ourselves, making a lunch stop amidst stunning salt lunar landscapes, the camera simply can’t capture the stunning starkness yet beauty of the naked meca.





Ever changing colours from Ozzie red dirt, white salt and grey schist turning to brown sandpits and dust, this is one road only



On completion of another wow road we hit the semi sealed mine road complete with literally hundreds of mining trucks and utes, this end of Chile is thick with mine of all sorts being pretty the single biggest earner here, down side is a lot of mining towns have no got money and the price of EVERYTHING is very spendie. :eek1

Antofagasta was in our sights for a new battery (still nursing it along) and a new front rubber, our MT21 turning into a winter tire with cords hanging out of it.

Three moto shops only in a reasonable size city and one front tire that was very road oriented so no good but surprisingly one small shop has a 150/17 -17 Heidenau so an oddity there.

Now we are at the Suzuki & Llamaha shop, the owner has a 990 adventure S, he didn’t have a new tire but promptly jumped on his facebook buddies list putting it out to the local lads and with 5 - 6 minutes a reply came in, yes I have a TKC 80.

He said 30 minutes ... perfect we were not really going anywhere so waiting not knowing if it were new or what.

Soon enough he arrived with an 80 % spent TKC 80 and gave it to us, perfect, plenty to get us to Santiago where our new rubber awaits us.

Picture here, dude on the left is someone, middle is Raul the shop owner and his good friend Mark have gave us the tire ... great guys :clap



We decided to change it right there and then, unknown to me the shop owner went down the street to see if they could change the tire, mean time I had wrestled the front wheel off, whipped the tire and tube out, remounted the new (secondhand) TKC 80 and was starting to put the wheel back in the forks when he returned, this was the conversation that followed, O = owner A = Andi.

O...they should be able to do it
A....do what?
O....change the tire
A....already done

He looked again realizing the new tire was already on and going back in, next words were “do you want a job”.

He was quite taken that we just did it and in the time it took, 15 minutes.

For us this is the norm but seemingly not for them, now it is 8.00pm, closing time, he kindly took us along the waterfront where we could camp, talk about an outstanding moto service for no gain other than to see us right.:clap

The spot was great, right beside the sea, the only bumma was some party animals who pulled up at 3.07am deciding the whole beach needed to hear their sounds and our ear plugs no match for the booming base that was enough to vibrate the whole place.

A quick chat and a pleasant ask to bring it down to about 120 db they obliged still no sleep until they moved on quite some time later.

Next ..... need another hand....

__________________
Cheers Andi & Ellen .... https://twomotokiwis.blogspot.com/ Two Moto Kiwis Alaska - Argentina - April 2012 -> Somewhere

Bugger about the party goers ,mate the first few shots of this posting are magnificent .spectacular region you are traveling through.until next time YDF Noel