Going North

Posted on October 11, 2018 by Andy

Things we learned:

Hedgehogs are adorable little creatures. Everybody knows that.

They walk funny and they breath really heavy when they sniff around in your garden.

They curl up real nicely when they are afraid. Isn’t that what we all want to do… In spite of the pointy needles they look so cuddly.

They are really cute…

Not so much in New Zealand. Here they are seen as fierce predators. A plague that is hunted down by the government. An introduced enemy of the number one New Zealand symbol: the Kiwi.

Hedgehogs really kill Kiwis (not the full-grown ones of course, it is the eggs or the very young ones they are after). Hard to believe with the middle-European image we have of the little animal that it is a pest here in New Zealand. But along with other introduced animals such as cats and possums, they are the main reason for Kiwis to be on the endangered list.

Stuff we saw:

Christy is taking us out of Auckland – Juhuu

Cows – just in case you didn’t know what’s looking at you

The lakes looked fantastic for swimming, we didn’t try though

The Kaiiwi Lakes, south of Kaihu

it was a wonderful day

a short little hike and we had a stunning view

fantastic colors

salty air

a short drive and we ended up at an endless beach

In the Kauri Forest

everything is fighting for the best light. what a chaos

Dead trees are just more ground to live on…

moss everywhere

This is Kiwi zone…. later we found one

Detail in the chaos

thick vegetation

a mighty Kaori

The father of the forest, one of the biggest trees

fern, the national plant of NZ

Stuff we did:

Christy was brave enough to do the first driving in our brand new rental car. We crossed the city going north. As usual we didn’t really plan where to go. We ended up in Kaihu in Northland. We found a fantastic campsite and rented a cabin for two days. It was cold at night and Christy’s birthday was coming up.

We got a couple of things from the hardware store (camping chairs, a cooler, etc.) and got some food. So now everything was set up for our travel.

We enjoyed the drive. What a landscape. Green hills, with wild forests and grasslands with cattle and sheep. The forests are quite something here: very thick, you couldn’t walk through the wild growing vegetation. In between the huge kauri trees: giants of immense size. There is a whole little world of little plants living on these mighty branches of the trees. In between the leaves of all the big and small trees the fern trees add a palm tree optic to the green jungle.

As the kauri trees are heavily endangered there are very strict shoe-cleaning procedures enforced in order to limit the spread of a fungus which attacks the trees’ roots and kills these giants of the forest.

We had a birthday drive to the Kai-iwi Lakes. The area is very hilly partly green grassland and partly covered in thick forest. A little hike offered a fantastic view on two of the lakes with the open sea in the background. The lakes are of such dark blue and turquoise and the surrounding hills offer such an intense green that the contrasts are stunning.

In New Zealand they have a very radical tactic for gaining wood from the forest. Unlike central Europe where single trees are being taken out of the forest, they take down entire forests and leave a devastating area of destruction behind. Brown hillsides with branches and single trunks chaotically scattered on entire mountain. It looks terrible and remind me of pictures I have seen on WWI pictures in Verdun in northern France.

On the way back we had our first encounter with the mighty kauri trees. Some short hikes through the forest surprised with a lot of birds and a very thick vegetation. It was walking through the fantasy of a Hollywood production. It looked unreal, and we came to understand how a The Lord of the Ringsstarts to look very natural to this wonderland of plants covering this country.

The day ended with a highlight of this vacation, we can say that even though it has just started: we saw a kiwi bird. They are really shy, most New Zealanders haven’t seen one in the wild. We took a guided tour and the guide was fantastic: in his broad Kiwi-English he explained what our tactic would be (red lamp, no talking, listen for sneezing noise when Kiwi is getting the dirt out of its nostrils or a sound like “a fat guy walking on cornflakes.” The kiwis are not exactly quiet when they stumble through the forest.

After following the guide for one hour we finally found one: very close. Very cute. Christy was in heaven.

PS:

Christy got a little book about the different birds in New Zealand and we started to look out for them.

Arriving in the Kiwi-Land: Auckland

Posted on October 8, 2018 by Andy

Things we learned:

If you want to see some culture: go to the War Museum.

Auckland has a fantastic museum. Most of it shows the culture of the Maoris, the indigenous people of New Zealand. And yes, the Maoris were very aggressive warriors. So much of their history is quite violent.

But still we found it very disturbing to go to a War Museum to see Maori culture. There is a little bit History about WWI and WWII. Just enough to justify the name maybe.

Stuff we saw:

The flight with Emirates was really relaxing… long though 8 + 15 hours + overlay in Dubai…

Auckland is not a particularly pretty city, very busy, loud and lacking any kind of nice architecture.

the calendar-girls just opposite the street, one of three strip clubs in our street. other than the music bars and the traffic this one didn’t keep us from sleeping though

nice view from one of the “city-volcanoes”

Auckland is surrounded by sea

view to the marina

next to rugby this is Kiwi nationalsport: Cricket

strange roots, you see faces and figures everywhere….

hanging around in the parks… Kiwi style

wonderful trees and roots in the parks of Auckland

hide and seek paradise

more flowery trees

Nice Flowers in all colors

trees are blooming

more flowers everywhere

big parks in Auckland. and the nice war museum

Maori weapon…

Maori art

Maori housing

Stuff we did:

We had a very pleasant flight. And I do not say that very often about a long flight (this one took 8+15 hours in the plane plus a layover in Dubai). But the Emirates flight made it possible. The A380 has nice seats, and I was even able to sort of nap through part of the time and ruin my eyesight by watching some movies.

We haven’t looked up a nice place to stay in a guide book and instead just booked one online. A new item on our improve-on-next-travel-list.

Our place happened to be to the busiest party street in Auckland (busy K-street as the locals call it). Three strip clubs within 200m, the “calendar-girls” just opposite our window, a band playing with speakers full-volume, people screaming, singing, and a four-lane intersection couldn’t keep us from sleeping the first night after the long travel. We fell into our beds in the evening and slept a sedated-like sleep. But the second night was a Friday, we were not near-to-coma-tired and that opened our eyes. Literally. Through the whole night. No sleep was possible. At 4:00 am the music stopped and we got a different room the next day, one that was not facing the busy road.

The long night offered us the chance to watch a local movie; very recommendable: “The Hunt for the Wilder-People” is a very funny Kiwi movie.

Auckland turned out to be a nice city, not downtown though which is too busy and not very enjoyable, but all the parks that are spread around the city, a fantastic museum of war and Maori tradition and some volcanoes which you can climb to get a nice view over the city.

The layout with hills and water surrounding the city is fantastic. The traffic is not though. Most streets are four lanes, making it very loud in the city.

We enjoyed staying at a very vivid hostel with people from all over the world. Everybody is having a good time, some are living in the hostel, working in bars in Auckland with their work & travel visa.

We walked our feet off all over the city. Down Queens Road, the busy main shopping road, to the harbor which is not very remarkable.

We were not very convinced on the first day. That changed by walking the parks of Auckland. There are several parks all around the city. And they show the typical attitude of the Kiwi folks: live your life.

Everywhere dads show their little kids how to throw a cricket ball, friends gather to do some sports together, others prepare a barbeque. There are people strolling in the park, some run, others sit in the fantastic trees or walk their dogs. They all enjoy their time. It is very peaceful. Very laid back.

We loved the parks.

The trees with their wild roots and strangely shaped branches look like they just don’t like straight lines. They all grow in crazy curves in all directions forming wonderful creatures.

Arriving at Thursday we took our time to adjust to the new time zone and relaxed before we got our rental at the airport on Monday.

Travelling in New Zealand? How to come up with such an outstanding idea…

Posted on October 4, 2018 by Andy

After almost 3 years of commuting for more than an hour to my work I decided that this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Until I startet my job in the Herrsching area I had jobs within 15 minutes of my home. That is a quality of life thing and I decided to look for a closer job to my home.

With my new job I will spend a whole working day less in the suburban train…per week!

So plenty of freetime next year…

It was not planned like this, but 3 days after announcing my leaving to my bosses, we took off to our summer vacation in Norway (of which we eventually write about at some other time). So plenty of time to think about what happens next.

Well, changing job in my world means taking some time off between the jobs. And since Christy is in between jobs as well, we suddenly had time together to do some nice travelling. Very quickly ideas popped up: there are some nice areas in Southamerica we haven’t seen, there is a whole continent to explore: Africa, there are wonderful countries in southeast asia…

But for these things there was a whole lot of planning and organizing involved. And we were not up for a lot of planning: I was busy getting a good transfer of my work to my successors at work and there was not too much time left either. So sending the motorbikes was not an option and therefore Arica and SA didn’t seem a plausible solution to our “what could we do with all our freetime Problem”

Well, New Zealand doesn’t need a lot of planning… a flight, a hired car… that’s it.

A working colleuque has been there five times already. He gave me a quick overview of where to fly to (Auckland back from Christchurch) and where to go (North Island and South Island… doesn’t really matter where you go, its pretty everywhere).

So we booked a flight and a rental car. We packed our stuff the weekend before we left and we were ready to go.

My working colleugues gave me a very nice farewell and so we started with great excitement to our wonderful Kiwi-Adventure.

Shipping Bikes to Ecuador

Posted on December 6, 2015 by Andy

For our trip we have planned to start in Ecuador. After the trip I can say a great choice.

Now how did we get the bikes there, what were the problems, what the choices.

We decided to airfreight. To Ecuador by boat is really difficult and not cheaper when summing all up. I did quite some research on that. Here are the main reasons why we think airfreighting is better:

Shipping procedure super easy from home
Crate the bikes at home and have them picked up at your house
You know the exact date and time when they arrive (by boat that can be +/-2weeks)
Picking up the bike done in 1 day (boat: up to 1 week not unusual in Ecuador)
Picking up is really relaxed and no nightmare (boat: running around a huge port with papers you don’t understand and don’t know where to go next)
Bikes are safe

So we airfreighted. We used intime from Hamburg/Germany. A good solution. Olaf, the expert there for bike shipping helped us to get everything sorted out with very little effort from our side. We crated the bikes in boxes ourself which was the biggest trouble.

The costs:

The overall cost for shipping the bikes from Munich to Quito were:

Shipping F650GSDakar: 2425 Euro
Shipping G650GS: 2321 Euro
Transport Insurance (both bikes): 320 Euros
Pickup of the bikes from our house by truck: 275 Euros.
Crates for the bikes: approx 250 Euros each
Shipping paper in Quito: 18$
Customs in Quito 210$ for both bikes.

So to sum it all up: 5784 Euros for two bikes. You could have safed easily 500 Euros by taking the front wheels off, but i think it is worth to have as little to work on the bikes as possible once to get them out of customs.

Olaf told us though that this price can change a lot from year to year, so it might be cheaper or more expensive in the meantime.

Crating the bikes:

That was quite some work. Well, I am an engineer, and I was overdoing it a little bit. You may have used them as anti-tank obstacles as well, but i wanted to be on the safe side.

You cant use normal wood to crate the bikes. You either need specially treated wood (so that there are no bugs in the wood) or you use simply plywood, which is treated anyway and surely has no bugs. This means you need to make posts out of planks that you screw together though. You have to disconnect the batteries ( I secured the cables and batterie poles with plastic tape so they would not accidently re-connect with vibrations) and get the fuel out of the tanks.

Here are some pictures:

DSCN9555 dscn9558

The crates have been picked up, we got our gear together and flew to Quito. After our bike arrived (we planned it so that we would have one week without the bikes to relax and enjoy the city) we picked it up. Super simple if you know where to go (which WE didn’t but you will after you read this through.

Get the bikes out of customs:

Here is an overview of the different locations at Quito Airport.

Get the SOAT (see below); you may get it later as well, but you have less trouble and discussions with the customs.
Go to Cargo Area (there are signs at the roundabout)
Go to your forwarder ( e.g. Iberia, Lufthansa Cargo…)
You have to pay a fee there (for 2 motorbikes it was 18$ for us; cash only) and receive the shipping papers.
Go to Customs
6. At the receipton there show your papers (you need passports, shipping papers, registration, SOAT)
Be ready to wait … read a book
They bring you to the crates and so you have to open them (bring the tools with you, there are no tools there!)
They check the chassis and engine number (we always said this motorbike does not have a engine number “its the same like the chassis number”)
After that be ready to wait some more (read another book)
You have to pay customs (for us 210$ for both bikes) Have it cash! No ATM at customs, only at airport and you need a taxi to get there.
Take your bike out. We asked the workers there if they would like the crates.
You have to roll it out of customs. In the front there is a parking where you can work on the bike, but you are not allowed to work on the bike within customs.
Connect batteries, fill up gas with a canister you brought.
When leaving customs, the sign tells you to go left to Quito. Thats a really small steep , bad and very busy road. Take a right instead, pass the airport, and enjoy the ride into Quito on a new large and broad road.

It took us a whole day to get the bikes out, but mainly because we ran from airport to customs to cargo area because we did not know the procedure described above. Don’t expect european effectiveness though. Be patient and relax. Your trip is just about to start :-))

In front of customs filling up the bikes and reconnect batteries.

Get the SOAT:

Even if you have an international insurance you need to get the local insurance. It is very cheap and required. You need to have it BEFORE you get your bikes from customs. We did not know that and discussed with customs quite a bit before we were allowed to get our bikes from the airport.

It is cheap, required and (when knowing where to go to) a matter of minutes to get it. So here is how to get it:

DON’T try to get it any other place than the one describet. A lot of places say they do it, but after waiting 15 minutes they find out that this is only for renewals (=locals) and that they can not help you.
Go to QBE Seguros Colonial
Adress: Av. Eloy Alfaro N40-270 y José Queri PBX
Tel: (593)3989800 /(593)3989700
Bring your passport, driving licence and registration of the bike. Also bring the paper that you get when entereing the country. It will say how long you are allowed to stay.
There are different options you can choose from: 1 month, 3 months, 6 months , 1 year. We paid $6,85 for 1 month and 2 bikes
The whole procedure took no longer than 10 minutes.

The last stretch…

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Andy

Azul – Buenos Aires

We said good bye to our new friend Pollo and left the LaPosta around noon. It was boiling hot and the road to Buenos Aires was somehow unremarkable. This would be the last part of our incredible trip. Sadness slowly crawled upon us.

With the carneval going on the roads were surprisingly empty. Later we learned that the whole city goes to the beaches during these few days. That made the ride into Buenos Aires real simple and easy.

We found a hostel very close to the centre of town. We had a nice welcome from the great crew of the hostel and parked the bikes securely in the garden of the hostel.

The next day we went to DakarMotors who are very well organized in shipping the bikes. We spend an afternoon talking with Javier and Sandra and they gave us all the necessary information. All we had to do is to bring the bikes to the airport and pay the shipment the day after. The payment turned out to be a little bit a hassle. Due to the crisis in Argentina all major payments have to be made in cash. Problem is: you only get the maximum amount of 1500Ps (around 150€) at a time out of a ATM. So the next few days we ran around town to get the money for shipping the bikes. Since we had to pay around 20000Ps per bike we ended up with a whole backpack full of 100ps bills…. I never felt that rich!

In between we enjoyed Buenos Aires, good steaks, rode around the city on rented bicycles and did some sightseeing.

We enjoyed the last few days, even though our hostel wasn’t that good after all. The rotten smell in the bathroom didn’t hide long, but all the animals we shared our bedroom with only showed up one after one. At least the cockroaches seemed to have a sense of cleanliness. They took a bath in our shampoo..

After we have sent our motorbikes we switched to another hostel which was just on the other side of the road. Clean beds and airconditioned room made the last 2 nights a lot more comfortable.

On Thursday the 26^th of February we finally boarded our plane back to Europe…

Our great adventure has finally come to an end.

It was fantastic and we are so glad that we did this.

Buenos Aires was quite empty during carnival… we enjoyed empty streets.

Javier trying to fix Christy’s fork seal. It lastet 10km… :))

The old harbour is a nice pedestrian walk now…

There is nice architecture everywhere…

…

We renter some bikes to fly through the city.

A great way to explore a city.

Paying the shipment of the bikes… we were glad after we got rid of all the cash ….

Blue sky…

Long beard…

We got quite wet one time…

We liked the city and the food

Tango shows everywhere…

We were less disgusted when we saw that the cockroaches clean themselves with our shampoo…

La Posta

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Andy

Azul – Argentina

It is sooo relaxing. We hang around in the garden, read, take a nap and eat cookies. The two bunnies hop around and pop up their ears once in a while. The ducks do their parade along the little pond and the flamingos just stand there and enjoy the sun easily balancing on one foot the whole day. The sun is warm and a little breeze is creating the perfect weather condition to hang around and do a lot of absolutely nothing.

We heard of this place before. And indeed it is a little paradise. Jorge aka Pollo welcomes motorbike travellers here since almost 25 years. All the famous names of world travelling have left little remarks and greetings on the wall. Many travellers of all over the world have been here. Especially many Japanese and they seem to have a talent for nice drawings. For hours we were standing in front of the walls of La Posta’s dining room and reading the comments from other travellers.

Jorge lives in his little house in the backside of the garden, together with his family. He is working on the garden the whole day. He loves doing it. The garden is full of neat little things (like the windmill built out of oil barrels) Jorge is a very special person: he is so kind, so gentle, so welcoming, that just hang out in his garden with all the animals gives your mind a very peaceful rest.

We enjoyed it a lot and according to all the comments on the wall we were not the only ones feeling like that.

We arrived here on a Saturday. BIG MISTAKE, since on Fridays Pollo makes his (literally) world-famous barbeque. He immediately asked for how long we would stay and thought of making another BBQ for us on Monday.

Unfortunately we had to go on to Buenos Aires to get our shipping for the bikes organized. So we can only guess by other guests comments of how special it must be.

So after one day rest we continued to Buenos Aires, our final destination on our half a year trip.

We were glad to have the opportunity to stay here and have a calm day before we hit the mega city Buenos Aires.

Thank you Jorge for putting up and keeping such a fantastic place.

Peaceful campsite in Jorges garden

The garden is really nice…

We followed the example of the flamingos and took a rest… not on one leg though…

Some food was the only interruption of doing absolutely nothing.

“I think I have an itch somewhere down there…”

Who came up with this nose design?

There are a couple of other birds and animals running around in the garden.

Comments from other travellers everywhere ….

The japanese are especially creative

Jorge has a little house for parties, hanging around and enjoy the evenings.

Nice made-up licence plate…

Going east

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Andy

Villa La Angostura – Azul

The following day was offering a great surprise as we expected a little bit boring riding. Instead we followed the Rio Limay north in an amazing valley. Rocky needles and walls on both sides of the valley accompany a green winding river. The road is in good condition and so riding is a blast. When we stopped for gas the whole valley was covered in dust. The fine dust was everywhere in the air. A small and dusty dry riverbed crosses the valley of Rio Limay and the strong wind blows up the particles in the air and into the valley. We followed the cloud of dust for many kilometers until the valley opened up and formed a huge lake. The landscape became less and less hilly until it became what we expected: vast, flat, boring.

We stopped in little roadside hotels in little towns with nothing to offer. Except one thing: it is Argentina here! So we enjoyed the great steaks for dinner.

We past an area where they produce a lot of fruits. On both sides of the road endless fields of apple trees. Heavy trucks transport the fruits on the road. The heavy load is often secured very poorly on the trucks, so we keep our distance when we pass them. On one of the stops we meet Karl from Türkenfeld, not 30km from Munich. He is a great guy travelling the world without speaking anything else than Bavarian. We shared a coffee and had a great chat with him. He had quite some stories to tell.

The more east we got the dryer and vast the countryside became.

We stopped 2 more times before we reached Azul a little boring town with nothing to see, except La Posta and Jorge. But that is something for the next blog entry….

Following the RN237 north.

The Rio Limay has cut a fantastic valley into the mountains here.

Christy is still using here crutches to get around.

It was very hot that day.

Great rock needles on both sides of the road.

We didn’t expect this at all and we were happy that we turned around the day before. We would have bypassed this road.

Fantastic contrasts.

Strong wind blew the fine dust into the air.

We followed the dust for many kilometres.

The landscape changed slowly.

Strong winds and the heat created many of these little wind funnels.

Great riding.

Little traffic and a joyful day on the bikes.

We rode till dark…

Break in a field of fruits.

Apples everywhere…

This road went straight for 130km!

No change all day long. Vast and flat.

Karl, a great guy with loads of stories. We already look forward to meet him in Munich.

More straight roads.

We see these windmills everywhere…

Back on the bikes

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Andy

Puerto Montt (Chile) – Villa La Angostura (Region 7 lagos – Argentina)

We are back on the bikes! Finally! It is fantastic! On a sunny day we leave Puerto Montt and ride the road back to the region of the seven lakes north of Bariloche in Argentina.

Christy is doing fine, but every time we stop we get funny looks from people. It is quite an unusual sight when Christy is taking her crutches off the bike and wobbling around on them in her biker dress.

We take it easy and stop for the night in a small roadside hotel. I will remember that place very well for the low door on which I bumped my head almost every time I passed it. Even though I got reminded of the low door with a quite painful event every time I just didn’t seem to learn it. It was great fun to put on the helmet the next day.

The boarder crossing to Argentina was quite busy but at least here Christy’s misfortune was good for something: we could pass the long line to get upfront so the crossing was done in no time.

We have seen it a couple of times on border crossings, that in between the Chilean and Argentinian customs there is quite some distance. But nothing like here. It is more than 30km from leaving Chile to entering Argentina.

Till here it was a pretty cold and cloudy day. But the Argentinian side welcomed us with nice and warm weather. We went 40km into the area of 7 lagos on the road to San Martin. The area reminded me a lot of the Black Forest, my home in Germany. There are many huge lakes and the road winds through them beautifully and making it a great day on the motorbike. A short gravel part stopped us (we didn’t want to risk too much gravel since for Christy’s foot it was still painful to get vibrations on the bike). So we turned back to Villa la Angostura. We found a nice campsite and had a relaxing evening with other local bikers.

Christy is checking the bike. We lowered it a bit so she would be able to reach the ground better with her foot.

One of the nice birds in the area…

It was quite a sight: Christy with her crutches and the orthopaedic boot on the bike…

Long lines at the border. We put up our camping chairs to make a little break.

The national park of Puyehue is very nice with a great road.

The clouds were low that day and it was cold.

Fantastic contrasts with the green forest.

Going down on the Argentinian side it got noticeable warmer.

The region of the seven lakes indeed has lakes.

Riding was fantastic: good roads, little traffic, nice surroundings.

Great views. This area is very famous for local tourism as well. There is even a ski area in winter.

Making a little break. The chairs we bought are really great for Christy. So she can rest her foot.

Christy wobbling back to the bike.

Since Christy is getting better we can even go camping.

More lakes and views.

It is a great area here…

Chiloe

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Andy

Island of Chiloe – Chile

After we gave back our truck we stayed in a hostel for a week. It was very nice with a great view on the harbor of Puerto Montt where huge cruise ships anchored and big birds flew by our window every day.

Christy was getting better every day, but the doctor we visited here said she should rest another week before we can get back on the bikes.

After a few days I got bored and I decided to take the bike for a little spin on the Island of Chiloe.

So I packed some things together and rode on south to the short ferry crossing that would take me to Chiloe.

It was great to be back on the bike again. After the short ferry crossing I took the road to Ancud and further to a penguin colony. The ride was fantastic. A curvy road, the sun shining, little traffic and finally the rocky coast of the island. The road ended in a beach from where little boats take the tourists very close to the penguins. I decided not to join them and instead enjoyed the fantastic beach that ended on both sides in huge rock formations.

In kept going south and rode great gravel roads through forests and farming areas. All very nice and enjoyable. When I finally ended up in the little town of Castro I had a day full of great riding and I enjoyed a beer with some life music that was played in front of the colorful church of the town.

The next day I headed southwest to Culcao and Quilan. The road got a bit sandy and I enjoyed playing with the bike in the sandy bits. It was never difficult there though. The road ends at a parking spot from where you could hike 45 minutes to an outlook. The guard at the parking told me I may go there by bike that I intended to do immediately. The track was wide in the beginning and easy, but soon it turned into a very steep narrow track with big steps. It was great fun to ride it, but it would be unnerving if I met hikers on this track. There was no way to bypass hikers. So after a while I turned around and rode the steep track down again.

The landscape was incredible. The steaming and roaring sea covered the coast in a mist of salty water. Steep cliffs and flat sand beaches formed the coast. Riding was a blast and so I returned back to the north with a big smile on my face.

Short stops at some of the beautiful wooden churches contributed to these great days I had on that island. It is really great motorbike country here.

Sunset in Puerto Montt

We relaxed in a note with a great view on the harbour of Puerto Montt.

Big birds flying by the window real close…

Large cruise ships anchored in the harbour…

We were really lazy. We had to kill a week before Christy could go back on the road.

The ferry crossing to Chiloe is short, but lots of birds, sea lions and even penguins follow the ferry.

On the northern coast of Chiloe

The cost is pretty rocky at times…

A nice beach. Nearby are little islands with a penguin colony.

In little boats tourists are getting transported to the penguin islands. I passed this…

Rocky coast.

The inland of the islands has many kilometres of nice gravel roads.

Many old wooden churches are the main attractions of the island.

Very nice inside…

Castro has some nice houses and is a little clam town.

On the road to Cucao.

A gravel road led to Quilao, a nice lookout.

The landscape is stunning.

Partly sandy roads allowed me to play around with the bike… Yipiiieeehhh. It was great to be back on the bike.

Going north

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Andy

Ushuaia (Argentina) – Puerto Montt (Chile)

It was a strange feeling. After Ushuaia we would go north. Of course, there is no road going south from there…

We had arranged to bring the pick-up back to Puerto Montt. From there the roads to Buenos Aires are all paved and we hopefully wouldn’t hit strong winds. With Christy still hobbling around with here crutches we didn’t want to risk her not feeling safe on the motorbike.

We had to cover 2300km. It was mainly flat and vast country we drove through. Unusual for this area we had very little wind. And so it was a very relaxing driving. Little traffic, straight roads, no wind, nothing to destract you from driving. For some time even Christy took over, driving with cruise control. For me it was a nice break and I enjoyed not having to concentrate on the boring road.

But the landscape had its elements. The incredible vastness is something that just makes you dream and take it easy. It is like a visual relaxation program.

The last few hundred kilometers became actually really nice. The area gets hillier, and finally the hills become mountains. We didn’t stop in Bariloche but continued to a hotel next to one of the lakes in the Argentinian Lake District. A very beautiful area with dark forests and lots of lakes.

Finally we arrived in Puerto Montt where we dropped the car. For the next day we planned to visit a doctor another time to see what he says. He instructed us to wait another week and then we would have green light. Soon we would be back on the bikes again…