DAY 65 - BUENOS AIRES - YEA!!

We made it! We are at "Dakar Motors" - everyone that travels internationally knows about this place. As you will see it isn't the Hilton. But, it is secure , priced right and Sandra arranges bikes shipments. There is a general transportation strike on Monday and a national holiday on Thursday and Friday so it wasn't looking good to get out of here. Sandra went the extra mile so it looks like we will probably get out of here next week - yea!!

As you can see, we did a little ride about before we got to Dakar Motors.

The inside of Dakar Motors.
 

More tomorrow - Thanks for riding along.

DAY 64 - TO AZUL

We made it a little over 300 miles today so we only have 180 for tomorrow. 

I have been getting some complaints about the lack of pictures recently (not mentioning any names), so here are a few:

 This is where we stayed last night.

These were in a pond out front of the hotel - no, they weren't plastic.

We are now in farm country - this is what it looks like to the left.

And to the right.  Pretty exciting.  Actually a lot prettier than the last several days.

And to finish the pictures for the day - this is our oversized bathroom.  The mop in the corner is to try to get the water to go down the drain in the middle if the room.  You want to put on shoes before going to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Buenos Aires - Here we come!

DAY 63 - TO PEDRO LURO

We are another 400+ miles closer to Buenos Aires and we should be there Friday afternoon since we have less than 500 miles to go.  In the US it would be a simple one day ride but with the winds and having to stop for gas almost everytime we see a station it really eats up the day.  We had 75 miles on a fill and came upon two stations - both out of gas.  Since we each figured we had at least another 100 miles worth of gas plus Joe has 5 liters in a jug and I have an extra 2 gallons in a container we felt safe continuing.  Just as we were on the outskirts of a town 110 miles down the road Joe ran out.  With the extra 5 liters poured in, we were on our way again.  I have included the close-up of the SPOT map to show you where our hotel is - down a dirt road about 1/2 mile.  Still pretty boring scenery so no pictures. 

'Till tomorrow.

DAY 62 - to Trelew

We got up this morning and loaded up in a drizzeling rain - yippiee.  We had rain off and on for a few hours and then just had some wind (what else is new in Patigonia?).  After about 400 miles we found a hotel with good security for the bikes and settled in for the night.  There are no pictures because I am sure most of you can visulize Eastern Wyoming - only not nearly as pretty - Ha.  We have about 900 miles to Buenos Aires.

DAY 61 - TO TRES CERROS

We got up this morning not knowing if we would be able to find gas - we did but it slowed us down a bit.  Fortunately we found gas often enough on the trip North to be able to keep going.  It was a bit chilly, a bit rainy and a bit windy but we were still able to cover over 300 miles.  The place we are staying is a combination gas station - resturant - motel in the middle of nowhere.  The next town was over an hour North and we don't like to push our luck.  Tomorrow we keep moving North.  Til tomorrow.

DAY 60 TO RIO GALLEGOS, ARGINTENA

We are at the upper right corner of this confusing picture.

We took off this morning in 37 degree temps, then checked out of Argentina then into Chile then onto 73 miles of the road from H___.  I had not been looking forward to today as this road was no fun on the way down.  It was much better today, I road it faster and it was dry plus the weather was not nasty like the other day.  I snapped this picture just as Joe was coming off the gravel unto the very welcomed pavement. 

Right after Joe came off the gravel we ran into the couple that we spent some time with in Equador with - Dachary & Kay.  It was fun catching up with them and their adventure.

Sign where we got on the ferry to cross unto the mainland from Tierro Del Fuefo.

Waiting in line for the ferry.

When we got to Rio Gallegos we were told that there was no gas in town - we will check it out in the morning.  That could slow us down a bit.  Night - Night.

DAY 59 - HEADING NORTH

As we rode out of Ushuaia I figured I wouldn't have very much to put on my blog since we were only riding 135 miles and we have already been on this road and we were backtracking to Rio Grande.  I was a little bit wrong.  We were about10 miles out of Ushuiai when I noticed Joes engine smoking and I thought that it was funny since it hadn't been doing that on the entire trip.  Then I saw a little more smoke and then I saw something that looked orange and I couldn't figure out what Joe had on his bike that was orange and then the orange area got a little bigger and the smoke got much smokier - Joes bike was on fire!  I hit the throttle and got alongside Joe and got him pulled over and yelled that his bike was on fire.  Before he could get totally stopped - He was on fire.  I got my bike stopped, me disconnected from the bike and went back to his bike to help get the fire out.  Joe wouldn't wait for me to get my camera so I could take a picture of him on fire - he insisted on puting it out as fast as he could - he is getting very hard to get along with - it would have been a great picture.  By now you are probably ready to see a few pictures:

Looks like someone needs a new set of Frogg Toggs (rain gear).  They are very thin and 100% polyesther and burn like a dry Christmas tree.

Even though it looks bad there is no serious damage - it is lucky we got stopped in time to get it out.

The yellow/green stuff on the ground is synthetic oil that was starting to catch fire.

I have a few more pictures but the blog site is not working well now so I will upload them later.  Oh yeh, Joe is fine - no burns  - just a few pieces of partially burned clothes.  We will see what tomorrow brings.

This guy just happened along on a bike just as we were getting things under control.  He is from Greenland and is not allowed to bring the motorcycle home with him - they have a law against them.  Also I don't thonk they have much of a road system since it is pretty much all ice.