spam
Expert Class
Posts: 343
|
posted November 19, 2006 10:02 PM
 Edited By: spam on 22 Nov 2006 21:02
South America part 9- Ruta 40- Patagonia-Jan 20/05
This post was originally an email sent to our friends and family during our travels in South America Nov 2004-Feb 2005- please see the "The next big adventure.... and the previous one..." thread in The Dual Sport Zone for more details...
Ruta 40- Patagonia-Jan 20/05
Hi all,
We have now arrived in the Patagonian oasis of El Calafate where there is plentiful restaurants, banks and internet/call centers so we can bring you up to date a bit, but I can't do it all in one sitting.....
We last left you in Coihaique. After relaxing there for a few days, we headed back out onto the Carretera Austral.
the tire and axel had falled off this minibus moments before came along- the axel that rolled off was still on fire when we pulled over to make sure people were okay and have a closer look... and a chuckle
The first day back on the road was pretty much clear, definitely less rain than we had been having before but very cold. In fact, I was wearing all my warm clothing and was concerned that I would need to get more to go further south. I understand that this is a "La Nina" year and so the temps are lower than is normal all over. We have also seen pics of the snow in Vancouver so this seems to confirm it (snow in Van???? Quick, everybody drive their cars with their summer tires on....) Anyways, we drove around the Lago General Carerra instead of taking the ferry, this takes a few more days but was well worth it! The lake is hard to stop staring at, it is turquoise. We stopped in Puerto Tranquilo to see the Marble Caves- lots of natural marble in this area and there are islands of marble in the lake that have caverns underneath them, seemingly caused by erosion from waves on the lake (fairly windy across the lake. I didn't know that marble was soft enough to be eroded by water in this way.... Anyways, for 3 bucks each, we took a small boat out to several small islands with huge cathedral-like openings underneath them. Very neat, especially with the amazing turquoise-blue water surrounding you.
awesome roads and views
Capilla de Marmol- Marble Cathedral
The next day we completed the trip around the lake, leaving the Carretera Austral for the road over the Paso de Los Llaves, the road to Chile Chico, a town next to the Argentine border. The road is very narrow, very twisty and was very fun, high above the far side of the huge lake, which turns from turquoise to darker blue as it approaches the Argentine border. This was also our first taste of wind on dirt roads. And this wind, it turns out, wasn't even that strong....
look for the road carved in the side of the hill...
The next morning, we re-attached my licence plate, which I had taken off after we had found hanging by a thin shred of metal after a long day of rattling over dirt roads (close one!!), and then, not knowing what the facilities would be like on the other side of the border, we did some banking in Chile Chico and headed to Argentina. Turns out there was nothing to worry about though, a bank machine that was happy to take our cards and dispense Argentine pesos greeted us at the first small town, Los Antiguos. The border crossing was very simple, one line-up for people papers and one line-up for bike papers and we were on our way (stamp, stamp, gracias, ciao). We loaded up with some groceries in the town of Perito Moreno and started out in the early evening on Ruta 40 to an estancia 25km from town, where we camped. The first 25 km were not very easy- very high winds and construction to pave the road meant we had to travel on the terrible "desvio" or detour road for 15 km or so. We figure they get some Bolivian road engineers to come down and build the desvios for them as they are almost as bad as the roads (or lack thereof) that we encountered in Bolivia- invariably, there is some deep gravel and sand and with the high winds it is a bit unnerving. But the regular Ruta 40 dirt road was fine.
Just off Ruta 40 - Patagonia
All along Ruta 40 we found estancias open for tourism. These seem to all be working farms, usually sheep farms, that have rooms in the house and camping in the yard and serve dinners, breakfasts, etc. They aren't hotels and restaurants, they're farmhouses where you can eat the dinner meal with everyone else, or make your own if you prefer.
The second day, we stopped in Bajo Caracoles at the gas station (and by this I mean the only gas station that reliably has gas for the next 350km of Ruta 40). There were a couple of Swiss guys there on a XR650 and KLR600 when we arrived and by the time we finished lunch, there were a total of 7 bikes out front, including an old BMW with Beautiful BC plates! This was ridden by a guy from Williams Lake- he rode it all the way down (minus Darien Gap, of course). Very nice guy, a photographer heading North again after having spent Christmas and New Years in Ushuaia. He said it was weird to be heading North after heading South for so long-all the way down, he could tell people he was going "South, all the way", but now he isn't sure where to tell people where he is heading when they ask....
That night, we stayed at an estancia recommended by the Swiss guys and had dinner there- roast lamb and potatoes and several salads and veggie casserole and a fruit salad with at least 10 different fruits in it for dessert. Really, really good, and as much as we could eat, it was put in front of us. There was a French family staying at the estancia that night too and I found that I could no longer speak French properly. My French vocabulary is now hopelessly mixed up with my new Spanish vocab that I have been trying desperately to expand over the last 2 months. But the funny thing is that we were hanging out with an Italian guy touring Argentina on a rented Honda Transalp the other day and he spoke some French, some Spanish, but only a little English, so when we were talking, it wasn't a big deal to speak in half-French-half-Spanish, because he was doing the same thing too.....
The next day, we tried to go to El Chalten, to see Mt Fitzroy. We eventually got there.... I have to save that story for my next update though as this report is getting far too long and it is dinnertime (10 pm in Argentina). We should be in Ushuaia within a few days and I'll be sure to send an email from the most Southern city in the world....
Cheers all,
Scott and Pam
Note: For the sake of my parents reading this email, I did not mention at the time that John, the guy from Williams Lake that we met in Bajo Caracoles, looks a heck of a lot like my brother Ed.
Ed was the one who originally had the idea to do this trip- he bought the KLR for his 26th birthday in June 2003. 4 months later he was one of the people killed when the bridge between Whistler and Pemberton that collapsed into the flooding river. When I inheritied the bike, I figured I should take it on the trip he intended to do with it.
John had left BC only a few months after Ed's accident and drove his bike all the way down from BC, just as Ed would have done if he had the chance to do this trip. When John walked in the door, I just stared at him. Of course he came over to talk to us fellow British Columbians and while Scott talked with him, I just stared. I tried to make conversation but had to get up and leave. When I came back, I explained that he looked just like my brother and explained the accident that had killed Ed. John knew of the bridge collapsing because his sister lives in Whistler. He mentioned that he had just cut off all of his curly red hair days before (which would not have made the resemblance as striking). He let us take a picture of him and I with Ed's bike and was generally really cool about the fact that I was being so weird. I mean, the guy could have been like- wow, freak show- and left, but he didn't. When we went to leave, he put on his sunglasses and I couldn't believe it- he looked even more like Ed. I asked him and he allowed me to take one last pic of him up close with his sunglasses on before we left. When I got home, I was anxious to develop my film, to see if he actually looked like Ed or if it was just the way I perceived him that day. What do you think?
My brother Ed (with his girlfriend Kylie)
The "Ed" I met in Bajo Caracoles
____________
get both sides of the story
  
|
Miklos
Expert Class
Posts: 246
|
posted November 22, 2006 11:56 AM
Some great pics there!
Very sorry to hear about your brother Ed.
____________
The problem with other countries is they are all ran by foreigners.
|
frEEk
Administrator
ummm... yeah
Posts: 9660
|
posted November 22, 2006 12:14 PM
more spectacular pics. can't believe that huge chunk of marble doesn't collapse on those small pillars.
VERY trippy about meeting Ed's double down there. you do seem to have a knack for incredibel coincidental meetings For me personally the connection hits home that much more cause of the williams lake locale and the pic of Ed on teh mountain where i spent so much time this summer (litterally standing at that very spot for hours on end). it really is a wonderful thing that you made that trip in memory of your brother. can't possibly imagine a better tribute.
|
sagot
Zone Head
Posts: 779
|
posted December 01, 2006 07:44 AM
hey gang- with apologies, I ran out of time posting re: South America and now we're leaving today for Africa for a month, so tune in again in Jan.
Cheers,
Spam
____________
Blank
|
|
|
|
|
HOME
NEW TOPIC