Feb 23 through the 26th

Feb 23rd
We leave Chaiten with gas tanks full heading to La Junta, Chile. Once there we'll gas up and get a local update on fuel and the political unrest south of us.





We stop for a lunch break along the way, while talking to a family on vacation we find out there is no gas in La Junta, at all.


With no gas in La Junta, and protesters keeping the road closed further south, we back track to Esquel, Argentina.
Continuing to see long lines of cars at the filling stations in Argentina we fill up every chance we get.
While looking for a room in Esquel we meet up with Greg from Toronto riding a big dual sport Honda not available in the US. He got stuck in southern Chile with a number of other people due to the unrest and had to take the ferry out.
Being a hard core republican he had no sympathy for the protesters demands, but did say they were polite but firm in their dealings with him.


We stay at kind of a rat nest Hostel, you know, just clean enough but they have secure bike parking, Internet and we were the only one staying there other than the manager Oscar

Feb 24th Friday.
Esquel AR
Greg headed out to continue his adventure.
Max is trying to figure out how to sell his bike before we leave Argentina. He's getting some good responses to his ads.
Jim and I work on bike shipping and airline tickets for the trip home. Today it seems suddenly close to the end of the trip yet we still have 7 weeks to go.

I get a email from BOA telling me they've changed my acct number, crap!
As I know this has happen to most of you I won't list all the hassles involved but add to this it will be impossible to get my replacement card till Knikki actually brings it down when we meet up in Seattle in 7 weeks. Just another challenge on the journey.

Feb 25th Sat
We ride from Esquel to Rio Mayo
Beautiful open county, mountains in the background, scattered rain, nice riding.


We arrive in RioMayo and "get dem ol KTM blues again momma, oh yea"
We stopped at a shop to have the muffler welded up. Then as we are getting ready to leave Max starts the bike and it begins to make some very expensive noises. Very expensive noise requiring professional help.
Of course as with most of the KTM stories there is some humor involved. We roll the bike in to the garage and try to figure our next move when Max turns around and says "oh shit, it's a priest". Sure enough a priest walks in unaware of the perfection of his timing.
Max ask him to bless the bike, I'm thinking last rites. A sign from above.....
The priest obliges us with photo's and takes off.
Jim finds us an awesome place to stay with huge amounts of great food and a great host, most excellent.

Feb 26th Sunday
I clean up my bike, adjust my chain, touch base with my Knikki. Max and Jim find a truck to haul the bike to the next KTM dealer along the way, only 140 miles away. We'll leave at 3:00 heading to the Atlantic Side of Argentina.


We load up the KTM and with some confusion leave town. Great pavement riding. The mighty KLR, my bike, and I struggle to keep up with the convoy, the guy hauling the bike thought we where in a hurry I guess. The scenery is like Utah and the western slope of Colorado but a touch greener.


Comodoro Rivadaria is an oil town trying it's best to be something else. Good to see the grey swells of the Atlantic crashing against the sea wall.
KTM shop seems to be your basic motoshop with one KTM on the floor.
Had hoped to find muffler material for my bike here, doubtful.
A local older couple living next to the shop, Nestor and his wife, adopt us. Our bikes get stored in their down stairs hobby room. Mrs. nestor gives us maps and directions for hotels and a place to eat. Nestor says be very careful in town "peligroso".
We find a hostel with only hot water for cooking privileges and no Internet. We'll research a better place tomorrow.
Oh yes, as today is Sunday and tomorrow is a holiday the bike will not see the shop Tuesday.
Good news or not, local biker says Ushuaia is a two day ride from here. We are that close.
I miss Knikki.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chaiten, Chile to Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina

Feb 20 through the 22nd

Feb 20th
Time for my riding challenges to resume, gravel roads hmmmmmm. I'm learning and will get better as we'll be on them for the next couple of weeks.


Camped at Jorge's fly fishing Hostel in the cow, cow patty pasture.
Such a pull of old ski places where we would stay in northern Wisconsin and the UP when I was a kid.
Cooked dinner on the outdoor wooden truck grease rack, a most excellent smoked salmon pasta with the an accompanying bottle of cheap, but good red wine. Fell asleep looking at the stars.


Cow, cow patty pasture

Breakfast in the Hostel with Jorge, nice little kitchen, warm, eggs, bread, Nescafe coffee. He's a fly fishing bum that made it work, like some mountain and ski bums I know. Great little house, a couple of rooms, a camp ground, boats, fishes everyday and smiles easily.

Feb 21st Chaiten, Chile, 43 degree south
Rain, misty, so, so SE Alaska like


Riding alone today through a large open valley surrounded by glacier capped peaks, Jim and Max ahead. The chase is over now, I ride for myself, we've agreed to discuss the route in the morning, pre determine check in points and ride as we feel, take pictures and truly enjoy where we are.
However the KTM is struggling for control of the trip again. The head set has now developed a problem, feeling like a missing bearing, notching the steering straight ahead.......hmmmmm. And somewhere along the way the end cap of the muffler fell off....... My vote is, ride it till it self destructs and then we'll give it a decent drunken burial.
LMAO recalling after leaving the last KTM shop Max said "I think the KTM Is now at it's best short term reliability" so true, as in "short term."



So much like SE AK

We find a nice little place to stay in Chaiten with a small kitchen. Red wine beer and rain, cozy room with hot water and heat.....yeah. With a kitchen Max cooks up a great breakfast and we have real coffee.

No Internet is perhaps a gift, perhaps it is a chance to collect, evaluate and ponder the meaning of life......he says laughingly. Pondering the power of a relationship for sure. Out touch is different from out of connection. Everyday there are moments when I feel a connection with my lover.


Feb 22nd


Looking down the street at the mountain, Corcovado I feel myself stepping into the movie "180 Degrees South". I can see it's pull.
Eerie and fascinating the town of Chaiten was evacuated in 2008 during the eruption of a nearby volcano. In the end 50 people returned leaving some buildings deserted while others show every sign of life. The town is now developing into a tourist destination complete with cruise ships dropping passengers off to tour the volcano.
Watching a cruising sail boat come in....ah cruising this archipelago would be fantastic, awesome.


We decide to do a tour today and head out to hike the local volcano.
First trail food at the market then the bank, with a no Visa ATM, crap, then a line at the gas station so we skip it. It's not far so we go.


Somewhere along the way Jim and Max pick up two girls hitch hiking the way we are going. They say they know where the trail is which will be helpful. We ride till I'm on reserve and Jim and Max are low on fuel and no trail head. Figuring these girls have no idea where the trail is and just wanted a ride further down the road we drop them off and head back towards town. We see a sign for a ranger station and head in.


We talk to Arron, the ranger there, he tells us where the trail is, back closer to town. We feel better when he tells there's no sign and unless you know where the trail is you'll miss it. As we did.


We run into two Belgians touring on bicycles, that we had talked to in Chaiten earlier, so cool. We talked about Belgian beers and invited them to Alaska for there next trip. Hope they make it. Great energy.
Back towards town again we find the trail. Jim decides to keep going to town, Max and I hit the trail.
On the hike up we run into a local couple. Talking about the town mentions other than tourism the only industry is salmon framing much to his disgust.......yeah!


The blow out area of the volcano


Steam from the top of the volcano.

Max and I have a good hike up to the volcano, nice to stretch my legs out.
I ran out of gas just as I rolled to a stop at trail head so we put our spare liter of fuel in the tank then tip the bike to the left to move a little more fuel to the pickup side of the tank. Heading back to town I'm unsure how far I will make it. Using every fuel saving tactic I could recall I make it just past the first round about entering town then push my bike a block to the hotel. So close.
More KTM tails. This time from a Brazilian Adventure rider we met at our hotel. "Yes, I had a KTM 990 that I really liked but then it began to give me problems so I got rid of it". "Really?"
Dinner at the place next door. Talked to some new friends from Santiago I met outside the Market earlier today (he went to school in Muncie Indiana) about the soccer game on tv. I asked them about our route only to find out that southern Chile is in a state of political unrest. Bridges are closed which means gas trucks are not getting through even if we could. So tonight we reevaluate route and tomorrow get as much gas as we can.



Morning coffee, disconnected from my lover, feeling the space.
Loving my IPad listening to my music, wishing I could hook into the Internet.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Los Alerces National Park, Argentina to Chaiten, Chile

Feb 20 through the

Feb 20th
Time for my riding challenges to resume, gravel roads hmmmmmm. I'm learning and will get better as we'll be on them for the next couple of weeks.


Camped at Jorge's fly fishing Hostel in the cow, cow patty pasture.
Such a pull of old ski places where we would stay in northern Wisconsin and the UP when I was a kid.
Cooked dinner on the outdoor wooden truck grease rack, a most excellent smoked salmon pasta with the an accompanying bottle of cheap, but good red wine. Fell asleep looking at the stars.


Cow, cow patty pasture

Breakfast in the Hostel with Jorge, nice little kitchen, warm, eggs, bread, Nescafe coffee. He's a fly fishing bum that made it work, like some mountain and ski bums I know. Great little house, a couple of rooms, a camp ground, boats, fishes everyday and smiles easily.

Feb 21st Chaiten, Chile, 43 degree south
Rain, misty, so, so SE Alaska like


Riding alone today through a large open valley surrounded by glacier capped peaks, Jim and Max ahead. The chase is over now, I ride for myself, we've agreed to discuss the route in the morning, pre determine check in points and ride as we feel, take pictures and truly enjoy where we are.
However the KTM is struggling for control of the trip again. The head set has now developed a problem, feeling like a missing bearing, notching the steering straight ahead.......hmmmmm. And somewhere along the way the end cap of the muffler fell off....... My vote is, ride it till it self destructs and then we'll give it a decent drunken burial.
LMAO recalling after leaving the last KTM shop Max said "I think the KTM Is now at it's best short term reliability" so true, as in "short term."



So much like SE AK

We find a nice little place to stay in Chaiten with a small kitchen. Red wine beer and rain, cozy room with hot water and heat.....yeah. With a kitchen Max cooks up a great breakfast and we have real coffee.

No Internet is perhaps a gift, perhaps it is a chance to collect, evaluate and ponder the meaning of life......he says laughingly. Pondering the power of a relationship for sure. Out touch is different from out of connection. Everyday there are moments when I feel a connection with my lover.


Feb 22nd


Looking down the street at the mountain, Corcovado I feel myself stepping into the movie "180 Degrees South". I can see it's pull.
Eerie and fascinating the town of Chaiten was evacuated in 2008 during the eruption of a nearby volcano. In the end 50 people returned leaving some buildings deserted while others show every sign of life. The town is now developing into a tourist destination complete with cruise ships dropping passengers off to tour the volcano.
Watching a cruising sail boat come in....ah cruising this archipelago would be fantastic, awesome.


We decide to do a tour today and head out to hike the local volcano.
First trail food at the market then the bank, with a no Visa ATM, crap, then a line at the gas station so we skip it. It's not far so we go.


Somewhere along the way Jim and Max pick up two girls hitch hiking the way we are going. They say they know where the trail is which will be helpful. We ride till I'm on reserve and Jim and Max are low on fuel and no trail head. Figuring these girls have no idea where the trail is and just wanted a ride further down the road we drop them off and head back towards town. We see a sign for a ranger station and head in.


We talk to Arron, the ranger there, he tells us where the trail is, back closer to town. We feel better when he tells there's no sign and unless you know where the trail is you'll miss it. As we did.


We run into two Belgians touring on bicycles, that we had talked to in Chaiten earlier, so cool. We talked about Belgian beers and invited them to Alaska for there next trip. Hope they make it. Great energy.
Back towards town again we find the trail. Jim decides to keep going to town, Max and I hit the trail.
On the hike up we run into a local couple. Talking about the town mentions other than tourism the only industry is salmon framing much to his disgust.......yeah!


The blow out area of the volcano


Steam from the top of the volcano.

Max and I have a good hike up to the volcano, nice to stretch my legs out.
I ran out of gas just as I rolled to a stop at trail head so we put our spare liter of fuel in the tank then tip the bike to the left to move a little more fuel to the pickup side of the tank. Heading back to town I'm unsure how far I will make it. Using every fuel saving tactic I could recall I make it just past the first round about entering town then push my bike a block to the hotel. So close.
More KTM tails. This time from a Brazilian Adventure rider we met at our hotel. "Yes, I had a KTM 990 that I really liked but then it began to give me problems so I got rid of it". "Really?"
Dinner at the place next door. Talked to some new friends from Santiago I met outside the Market earlier today (he went to school in Muncie Indiana) about the soccer game on tv. I asked them about our route only to find out that southern Chile is in a state of political unrest. Bridges are closed which means gas trucks are not getting through even if we could. So tonight we reevaluate route and tomorrow get as much gas as we can.



Morning coffee, disconnected from my lover, feeling the space.
Loving my IPad listening to my music, wishing I could hook into the Internet.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Los Alerces National Park, Argentina to Chaiten, Chile