Again, around every corner there is something new

Pretty obvious actually

I sure wouldn´t want to live out here…

Thankfully the rain was limited to light showers

Quite strange to see nothing but huts for a while then this

Hooray

First stop was the Uyuni Train Graveyard, quite famous but I didn´t find it all that exciting and there were hundreds of tourists so hard to take a good photo

Afterwards we visited a salt museum, quite boring in my opinion

Then we drove out onto the Salar, the sun was strong and was extremely bright reflecting off the salt, I couldn´t remove my sunglasses for longer than a few seconds.

The infamous piles of salt, I couldn´t understand my tour guide so I have no idea where they come from

Yum, turistas

For lunch we had llama in a Salt Hotel

In the middle of the Salar there is an island covered with Cactuses, it´s called ´Fish Island´however there are no fish. We didn´t visit the volcano in the background unfortunately

They don´t call me Gigantor for nothing!

The Argentinians started passing around ´Mate. The straw was metal and it burned my already sunburned lips (sunburnt from the Atacama).

The areas covered with water were quite surreal

Not quite sure how the Argentinians could resist?

There were several issues which concerned me with option 3 mainly being the the isolation but also the high altitude (4000m is very high for a 200cc motorcycle), lack of any petrol prior to Bolivia, lack of tread on my tires followed by the quality of the roads not to mention the weather as it is the wet season in Bolivia and the altiplano is renowned for being relentless. Of course being the impatient person that I am I put these things in the back of my mind and decided to dart across the next morning.

The directions were simple, from Calama to the border town of Ollague then to Uyuni from there. I have not heard of anyone doing this in one day, particularly solo therefore I was quite concerned.

Salar de Ascotan was very remote but also very beautiful. It had been a while since I had seen other people but here there were miners (or are salt harvesters called farmers?).

Ollague had a train station and a train graveyard but no petrol

After about 300kms there was a small town called ‘Villa Alota’, I managed to find some petrol here

LLamas were everywhere and a hazard I hadn’t considered.

Not far to go now… this is when I realised I would make it there before nightfall

Final stretch, riding towards a storm

Hooray, Uyuni! (taken the following day)

Copiapo was my next stop and as it was quite far away I set my alarm for 7am. Sure enough, I hit cancel when it ‘alarmed’ me and slept until 9:30. Again it was quite an uneventful ride however I found Copiapo to be a nice town and the hostel was excellent. I stayed for one night in a quaint little hostel with many kids running around and a man playing a guitar (or was it a banjo?) then slept early for Antofogasta the next day. Of course, again I didn´t wake up in time and after packing my bags, filling up with petrol I hadn´t hit the road until midday… keep in mind that Antofagasta was approximately 550 – 600kms away!

Motorcycling to Antofagasta was far different to what I expected. When you look at a map and see a tarmac road you automatically think, hey this won’t be a problem! Usually it’s true but Antofagasta had 205kms between fuel stops! My tank gives me only 230kms and with 44kms on the clock my ride suddenly became a very nervous endeavour. Trying to keep the revs down is very painful on a long trip, with a 200cc moto you travel at approximately 80km/h and being a couple of hours later than expected I could see myself camping in the middle of the desert, a very lonely feeling. After making it to a petrol station and filling up with 8l (my tank is 8.5l) I filled my empty water bottles with petrol from my tank and refilled, then decided to race towards Antofagasta. I managed to arrive at 9pm, just as the sun was setting. This was a very close call as I refuse to ride after dark.

Antofagasta was far bigger than expected which is very strange as there’s not much out here, I assume it thrives on it’s mining exports as it has a large port. I stayed in a very dark and lonely hotel, glad to have a McDonalds across the road. This time I packed my bags before bed and raced off at 9am. I arrived at San Pedro de Atacama in the early afternoon, giving me a chance to explore. San Pedro is popular with tourists but I found it to be an very interesting town.

I have helmet camera footage of riding in San Pedro but am unable to upload it from my current location. Expect it soon!

In response to my previous post, the bike I am riding is a Brazilian made XL 200. It seems to be almost identical to the XLR250 which I believe was made by Japan in the 1990s, I noticed this today when parking next to one.

Anyway, a minor update here and additional posts will be far more frequent once I finally hit the road!

So I thought I’d take the XL for a test ride away from the bitumen and decided to head to a small town called ‘Laguna Verde’ which was located about 30 minutes ride from Santiago. When riding along the Ruta 68 highway I saw a sign which said ‘Laguna Verde 300mts’ and at approximately 300 meters I took an exit and began wondering why there were so many people queued up at the gates. Upon reaching the gates I was approached by an uzi-wielding guard whom informed me that to reach Laguna Verde then I must go derecha (right). When he said Laguna Verde out loud the people in queue found it hilarious, it was only when I reached the top of the hill that I could look down on what was actually a prison. No photos of this unfortunately.

There were some great views however I didn’t really find it the holiday town which people told me it was although I think that is to be preferred. In fact it was unnervingly quiet with an exception of the children playing video games at the local shop. The beach did not look fit for swimming as there were factories sitting at the waters edge.

It was very hot and not all that much left to do so I decided to head back to the hostel.

I met Adam L on the Hubb in a discussion about the Dakar rally and he came to meet me at a hostel in Valparaiso. Valparaiso was a very charming place and Adam L cooks a mean kebab!

We decided we would stay in Valparaiso for Christmas but then head out prior to New Years. Our plan was to ride to Mendoza which at 430kms away should take approximately 6 hours we figure. We loaded the bikes and departed at noon knowing that the sun sets at approximately 9pm so there should be no problems.

Chile seems to have many tolls on their highways but for a motorcycle they aren’t expensive, approximately $200-$400 pesos depending.

Argentina requires 3rd party insurance on the motorcycles before one can enter so we had to purchase some along the way. It was hard to find insurance which was cheap so we visited a couple of places and finally picked some up for about $40 or $50 AUD. The insurance was sold from sheds in very picturesque locations.

Not long afterwards we found ourselves in the middle of the Andes, attempting to chase our destination before the sun falls. There were many trucks and often passing them on my tiny 200cc bike felt very dangerous.

Notice something about this photo? The sun is now rising… the paperwork I had for my moto was insufficient and in Chile there is a waiting period of one month before one can obtain the Inscripcion which says that I am the owner. Speaking to the lady in charge at the Argentinian aduanas she informs me that I need to obtain a temporary inscripcion and power of attorney from the previous owner. The sun was setting and I had no choice but to quickly dart back to the Chilean aduanas where there were some shops and a safe place to keep my bike. It was very cold in the Andes at night time and I had to sleep on a steel bench inside customs however the staff were very helpful as many Chileans seem to be. The next morning I returned to Valparaiso followed by Santiago a few days later. I have a few days left before my documentation is ready in which case I will move to Bolivia very quickly!

First stop was to head to the market which I spotted from the taxi prior to checking in, I wished to buy some food as I hadn´t eaten in almost 2 days!

The market is very cheap, a kilo of cherries is 450 pesos, which is about $1AUD. I stocked up on fruit, nuts, some travel chargers and a butterfly knife I saw for about $2AUD. The market was a good way to learn to deal with money when you don´t speak the language as charades will certainly see you pay gringo taxes! My advice is to always purchase products with pricetags if possible, if you can´t understand them then give them a pen and paper and ask them to write down the price. Always confirm the price prior to handing over any money. After figuring this out it became very easy to barter with them too, I bought a crappy watch at half price.

A couple of days later, after undergoing some vegetation recovery and some major culture shock, I met my new roommate who was from back home, not far at all from my house. We elected to hike up San Cristobal which is a mountain overlooking Santiago.

There is this big statue on top of the mountain

People leave their messages of thanks here

Well we didn´t really ´elect´ to hike, we arrived and the cable car was closed for repair

Many animals roam freely in Santiago, this mountain is a nice place for them

There was a neat little church nested into the side of the hill

Santiago was an interesting place but I was eager to move on. Therefore I was glad to purchase the motorcycle which I will be using for my trip and load her up for Valparaiso.

It´s certainly not a KLR 650… but could you guess what it is?

This place is huge, in every direction there are more buildings and more shops and every street is packed with pedestrians, cars, trucks and motorbikes. Only half the riders here wear helmets too but for some reason they seem to carry them on the fuel tank? Must be to avoid fines or something. The roads are crazy here too, a real free for all with people shoving themselves into the smallest of spaces just to get half a second ahead.

The reason I was able to spend time in Buenos Aires was because Aerolineas Argentinas cancelled our flight so they put us up in the El Presidente hotel, which was quite nice and very central.

This is Alberto, he helped me greatly as he was bi-lingual and a really cool guy who puts others needs in front of his own. It was very hard to end up in Argentina with no Spanish and no idea what was happening, especially since I didn’t know where my luggage was either. Thanks Alberto, I hope you got your bag back.

So anyway the bus came to pick us up at lunchtime and take us to the airport, from there everyone was reasonably worn out and worried that our flight would be canceled or delayed again (Aerolineas Argentinas aren’t very punctual, if at all). On the plane I received some Spanish lessons from a very friendly Chilean couple! Cheers guys it has come in handy many times already.

In the end my journey to Santiago de Chile ended with spending 3 1/2 hours flying to NZ (hola trevor!) 8 hours at Auckland airport, 24 hours in Buenos Aires, a very confusing time around the Buenos Aires airport, about 17 more hours flight time but I made it here! Purchasing my bike in the next few days so stay tuned. Oh also a tip, if you plan to travel somewhere with a one-way ticket and they require a return ticket then simply go to your travel agent and have them print the itinerary before you pay for the ticket! This worked a treat.

Also I found this amazing footage on YouTube which shows how strong the jeans are, please check out their website if you’re interested and as they’re a local Australian company (like the Andy Strapz saddlebags) you can rest assured they’re tough as guts.