Chapter 6: The Southbound Expansion
Cover photo -
Salar de Uyuni
This chapter covers our trip from La Paz in Bolivia to Buenos Aires, two-thirds of it by bike, the other third by plane. As this section has taken us exactly one month, and lots of good things have happened, let's keep the words few and the photos plentiful.
La Paz - Sucre - Salar de Uyuni - San Pedro de Atacama - Santiago - Mendoza - Buenos Aires
La Paz from above, sitting in a teleférico. The city is huge, high in altitude (4100m where I'm sitting, 3800m where we're looking), loud, and dirty. The trucks were a main contributor to air pollution, as traffic is testing La Paz's infrastructure on a daily basis, and diesel vehicles are not required to meet any environmental standards. Now imagine being out of breath just walking down the stairs to the corner store, heavily breathing while the dense traffic engulfs you in a persistent cloud of diesel smoke - all day.
Valle de la Luna - La Paz
The dry and rocky parts of La Paz offer a surprising amount of views.
3 hours north of La Paz and into the jungle hides the notorious "Death Road" of Bolivia. Nowadays, the road is well-maintained for tourism, as a new road opened up to reroute
local traffic. An estimated 200-300 people died annually
while traveling on this road before the expansion, hence
its infamous name. Also, I am ashamed
to admit this, but about 15 seconds into the start of the death road, I slipped on the mud-covered trail,
covering the machine and myself in a thick layer of filth. Technically,
this marks my first accident on the trip
and all I have to show for it was some muddy pants. Is that all you got, Death Road?
Looking like sheer moss-covered cliffs, this is the actual Death Road trail. This section especially is not more than one motorbike wide. Don't ask me how they used to get all their traffic through this section back in the day. Tra
veling through these parts, it gets easier to understand how so many lost their lives here.
Fortunately/unfortunately, we chose a foggy day for this trip. Less visibility, more difficulty. The latter is considered a plus!
Bolivia is our introduction to the famous South American barbecue culture. Featured here is a cutting board overflowing with grilled and marinated bone marrow--the so-called "meat butter." Eat too much and your stomach turns into your enemy, don't eat it and the regrets will haunt you forever. Balance is key. The balance was not achieved that day. However, #noregrets!
Onward we rode through stunning landscapes, arid climates,
persistent high altitudes, and beautiful weather toward Sucre.
The clouds offered an interesting view that day. Can anyone describe this sort of cloud? Feel free to drop a comment.
Sucre,
a city full of history, colorful parks, and delicious food. The pride of its residents and their meticulously maintained architecture are key characteristics and add to the fun and safe atmosphere of Sucre.
Glorieta Castle outside of Sucre
A very extroverted young future motorcycle adventurer asked for a ride around the corner and without telling his parents we took off. Of course he was returned safely with a new love for two-wheeled travel.
El Valle del Cactus -
our views suspiciously lacked the cactus, so I guess it's just a valley? A very pretty one, though.
A dream come true. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce the famous salt flats of Bolivia - Salar de Uyuni. An incredibly desolate place where one can find their inner peace by foot, on two wheels, or in the form of a truck/camper expedition.
The also famous Island of Flags, blowing in the wind 24/7, some for many years already.
A different kind of freedom. No roads, just hard and grippy ground. Extremely well-suited for people who
reject the concept of pre-defined roads... not really looking at anyone
in particular ;-)
Did I say famous yet? This is the famous Incahuasi Island. A strange piece of land surrounded by an uninhabitable desert. Yet, you find birds, insects, and a variety of plant life
here.
The salt build-up can be quite harmful to a steel horse, so always make sure to wash your undercarriage afterwards, or it will leave a very salty memory.
Somewhere between San Cristóbal and the border of Chile.
Has
anyone else ever wondered what the middle of nowhere looks like? In two words - beautiful, peaceful.
As we're crossing into Chile, I'd like to conclude that the experiences we had in Bolivia were all wonderful. Personally, the landscape, especially the deserts and rock formations, made my day, every day. In terms of cities, Sucre has officially moved to my top small city in South America. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to meet many locals, but the ones we met I will remember. Also unfortunately, and against my buddy Joe's recommendation, we didn't visit Santa Cruz, but I'm keeping that in the back of my mind for future travel. I was introduced to Joe through Morgan's mum Cynthia (thank you for the connection!). I was lucky to meet him and his lovely family back in Ecuador, and he was able to provide many insights and recommendations for my travels through Ecuador and Boliva, as well as help me out in terms of bike storage in Quito. To Joe, I hope to meet you guys again, and I wish you good luck for the future!
Hello Chile!
On the Chilean side, the flamingos are posting up along the salty lake shores.
One of the big challenges on motorcycles is vibration. And here is a great example of all the things that can break from it. An aluminum license plate, bolted on tightly. Maybe too tight?
Here at the Geysers of Tatio, the ground is very active. We learned it is the biggest geyser field in the world. We figured it was measured by points of activity, which reach into the hundreds.
Close to San Pedro you can find the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a group of telescopes positioned strategically far away from urban light pollution. In my mind, it only made sense to visit such a wonderful piece of science. Well, easier said than done. The plan was to be there around midnight to admire the stars at the same time. Little did I know that the site is situated at 5000m/16400ft, locked-up and guarded, the only access to it is a 30km long dry road, dusty and bumpy AND it gets to about -10°C at night. So here I am, about to lose a couple of fingers as I didn't bring my snow gloves, head aching from the altitude, and defeated by the realization that I probably shouldn't break into the site after passing about four signs stating "security clearance required", each accompanied by a gate. Remembering the day a buddy and I broke into the Puerto Rico Telescope, I wasn't feeling so incredibly lucky now and turned around. However, the reward of watching the stars offset some of the bodily pains.
Unfortunately, there are no photos from this adventure.
This one is interesting - the Llareta plant is a slow-growing, ultra-dense, cushion-forming moss-like plant. It is as hard as a rock, grows about 1.5 cm a year, has pretty little flowers that fall off when touched, and (the best and weirdest thing) it smells like pine tree resin. It even has sap pushing out in certain spots. Because it is able to form such a hard top layer, it is capable of conserving water, which makes it the only plant in this whole landscape that's actually green.
It had to happen one day, Césare ran out of gas and used the Husky spare tanks to get us to the next city, avoiding any bike-to-bike
towing.
The Hand of the desert - I
servus you! (The Bavarian way of saying hello)
Upon arrival to Santiago, I was greeted by the many helpful hands of my Venezuelan friends. I ran into these guys on my desperate search for a KTM repair shop. The "professionals" were all unable or unwilling to help with the issues I had until I walked into Franco's and Titino's garage. We quickly became friends and I ended up staying with them and their friends and families for 4 days.
First we stripped the bike down to the frame and started addressing the smaller and the bigger issues, ordered parts, took the rear shock to the specialized shop in the area, and cranked and grinded and welded and cut and glued and screwed ...
...until it was all back together, better than ever and ready to tackle the longest and toughest stretch so far, as there are no major cities in between: Santiago - Ushuaia - Buenos Aires.
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu class hosted by a professional black belt who traveled down from Austin, Texas. The phoney in blue? Ignore him, that's just Nico from Munich who travels the world to train mixed martial arts. Also a very fun travel motivation and the first time I've come across someone like him. We met in a hostel in Santiago, but I have a feeling we'll meet again someday!
A workout in the parks, some running, going out to eat, and a BBQ in the mountains made the time go by rápido over the few days while the machine was getting its facelift.
Btw, why am I always on kids duty? Must be that I am refusing to grow up myself. Stay young? Play like children!
For the Venezuelanos, a historical moment occurred during the time I was there. The capture of Maduro, their "not-so-beloved" president. We were all glued to the TV and social media that day.
Thank you all. I hope that one day, you can all return to Venezuela safely to build the future for your families that you have all been dreaming of for years.
And here we go again! Another much-needed vacation for the most important person in my life. Together we've explored Santiago and the surrounding areas, Mendoza, and Buenos Aires. So here we go:
Mirador Acantilados de Quirilluca
Valparaíso,
near the home of Pablo Neruda.Typical Chilean Rodeo - a bit south of Santiago.
Huesillo con Mote - this traditional Chilean drink features dried and rehydrated peach in its own nectar with cooked wheat kernels. Deeply inGRAINed in Chilean culture! Delicious, but very sweet.
As life sometimes works out, I met
Cris during a beach workout, found out his parents had a winery, and booked a tasting experience at their property. We learned about their ways of wining and dining, but also how weirdly similar their lifestyle is to Germany. Great experience overall!
An impressive spread at winery Lacre Rojo.
Around Christmas, many places in Chile tend to be closed, which offers the perfect opportunity to pack the bike and go for an Andean picnic.
Though it is hard to see in the photos, the mountains
in the Cajón del Maipo presented themselves in shades of black, grey, yellow, red, and even green in some parts.
Carefully collected at the overwhelming food markets (mainly La Vega Central) in Santiago, this picnic did not see the light of another day.
As soon as Morgan clicked into rock-finding mode and even sacrificed her hat to the strong currents of the glacial river, we were dedicated to bringing home some pretty mountain candy. Featured here is my favorite. To all the mineral nerds reading this, if you know the name of the rock, please comment.
It's hard not to be entranced by the clear and vibrant blue waters of Embalse del Yeso.
This marks the end of Morgan's visit to Chile, and we're headed off to Argentina...
...to Mendoza to be precise!
...and good meats are as common as good beer and bread in Germany.
We ventured out of Mendoza city for a day into the Uco Valley, the heart of Malbec. While there, we indulged in a wonderful lunch at Bodega La Azul (with bottomless wines), followed by a tour and tasting at Bodega Salentein.
A small group of BBQ enthusiasts
gathered together on a rooftop in the city, enjoying drinks and food until late night. What a great time!
Thank you Fede for your hospitality; we recommend his asado to anyone else traveling through Mendoza.
The next flight got us to Buenos Aires, the cultural heart of Argentina.
Confitería La Ideal
A fun feature I'd like to highlight about Buenos Aires are the so-called "notable cafes."
Some are rustic,
some are ornate, but all are beautiful.
These old, but nicely maintained, cafes
stand proudly in the city of 14 million people.
Palacio Barolo
Lots of the architecture might remind you of Barcelona, Paris, or Madrid.
A very unique feature of Buenos Aires is the Recoleta Cemetery. A collection of mausoleums of rich and famous
families over the centuries. Bankers, poets, politicians, and high-ranking military are all buried here. Some of the mausoleums are worth over $1 million with artistic masonry work, unique stone, and statues, some even resembling small churches. The oldest grave site dates back to 1823...you can find some weird stuff here.
Some graves got broken in, robbed, and destroyed, with the bones and skulls of the buried out in the open! In this photo, you can see a coffin full of bones in the back and a skull in the foreground.
A strange place to spend your vacation, but for those who are interested, you can probably stroll around for 4-5 hours and not get bored. Bring snacks! As long as you can stomach the atmosphere.
Happy New Year everybody? Seems ironic in light of the burning man in front of us, but that is one South American way of leaving behind all the bad energies and welcoming a brand new year. We'll take it, atmosphere was great as about 200 people were celebrating around the fire.
As for the last night, we ended up at a live Tango and dining experience. Wonderful way to conclude this vacation.
Thank you Morgan for planning so much of this and for bringing your unlimited enthusiasm to make all of this a great time!
Good-bye for now, I thank you all again for staying tuned during these exciting times. This time I'll leave you with this:
If your next decision is guided by fear, maybe it's time to shift a gear!?
Next up: PATAGONIA and TIERRA DEL FUEGO aka THE END OF THE WOOORLD!!!
Comments
Rührend, wie immer wieder Kinder auf dich abfahren. Echt süß!
Weiterhin gute Reise. Ich bekomme auch Lust auf Südamerika (südlich von Kolumbien!).
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