Top of the World - a trip to the Andes

17th March

We decided that this would be a most appropriate day to break the world record as it was St. Patrick’s Day.
We had breakfast and the boys started to get ready.
They needed to take off their gloves to apply the sunscreen!

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And then apply lip sun screen!

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Even getting ready took a lot out of them. You know how hard it can be to get boots on and closed at the best of times, add altitude to that and it’s tough.
So it took a little longer than usual. I got some pics of the boys, lined up with Mont Pissis behind them.

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Off they went, on their first ride up the mountain. I had decided that I’d chill out, do a spot of sun bathing and read my book. First, I went to the loo about 50m away from camp. Then spent 10 minutes recovering from the walk there and back!
Then I washed up after breakfast. Baby wiped everything, followed by wiping them down with a piece of wet kitchen roll and then dry kitchen roll
I had only just sat down when I heard a bike coming back.
It was Séamus, he was exhausted. He’s been gone an hour. The higher they went, the harder it was to breath.
I think the busyness and energy expended getting ready didn’t help, but there’s not a lot you could do about that as once ready, it was too hot to sit around getting your breath back.
Kev and Jim came back about an hour later, both exhausted.
They were all quite dejected at how difficult it was. The path to the right of the glacier wasn’t accessable as the glacier was too big. They needed to find another way.
We had lunch and then Jim and Séamus went back up the mountain for another hour or so. They were much more upbeat when they came back later.

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Full of plans for the next day’s ride. We lit a great big fire that night. It was lovely to have the fire to sit around.

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The longest time of each day was from sun down til bedtime. It was the longest 2 hours, in fact many nights we were in bed before 10pm.

18th March

There was a lot of frost on everything again in the morning. After breakfast, the boys got ready and headed off again.
They went off in a different direction this time, in the hopes that they could approach the ridge from a less difficult way.
It was a beautiful, sunny day. It was so warm, as long as the wind didn’t blow. When the wind blew, it was cold.
The boys had a great days riding. They got up to about 5600m. This was the first time we came across penitents.

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These are snow formations found at high altitudes. They take the form of elongated, thin blades of hardened snow or ice close together and pointing in the general direction of the sun.

The ground was hard to get grip in. It was very loose, shaley gravel.

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They also decided that evening that it was time to go back to Tinogasta and have a rethink.
They didn’t think they could get any higher on Pissis. We were going to pack up the following morning and start the long journey to Tinogasta.

19th March

We got up the next day and both the stoves were causing problems. Luckily the boys are useful for this kind of thing :)

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The boys suggested I have a quick ride on the bike before we left.

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So Kev and I rode up one of the mountains closest to us. It was terrifying!

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I just kept thinking, don’t stop, you’ll never get going again. It was so steep.
The views from the top were stunning! Really fabulous. The adrenelin probably helped.

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When we came back down again, I was so happy I had done it. Kev and Jim rode their bikes back out to the main road and Séamus and I stayed in the jeep.

The road to Tinogasta was starting to get familiar. We arrived and found a hotel on the corner of the main square. We checked in and first things first, had a very overdue shower!
Then, got some wifi, caught up with family and friends, and social media Then we went to try and find somewhere for dinner. We eventually found a funny little café type place where we got snitzely type dinner. There didn't seem to be any other restaurant open in the town.


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"About a year ago, Séamus asked Jim and Kev if they wanted to go to the Andes to try to break the altitude record on a motorbike."

bloomin' marvellous
:thumb


 
Great write up and some stunning photographs.....drums fingers on table awaiting next installment. Many thanks
 
20th March

We had yet to decide our next move. Were we going to go back to Pissis or try a different mountain? What were our options? We were staying in the hotel for another night so we spent the day looking at maps and plans and getting our laundry washed

Kev and I had done no research at all before we left home so Jim and Séamus had all of the options.
Pissis had originally been chosen as it looked like we could go up the right hand side of the glacier, onto the ridge and then back up towards the top. The current record was won on Ojos de Salado, which is higher than Pissis, but the summit is impossible on a bike.
The record was held by 3 men who got one bike to 6471m. The boys hoped to ride 3 bikes higher. Having been on Pissis, they thought that it was unlikely to get much higher than they had already been.
Cazadero and Nacimiento were 2 more mountains that were in the same turning off the main road as Pissis but we had to turn right instead of left when we got in there.

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We had also figured out that shops in Tinogasta opened from 9 – 1 in the day, closed til 6/7 and then stayed open til 10/11pm.
There was a cafe that became our regular lunch stop. They did some good empañadas there. There was a little friend who came in one day and joined us there:)

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Restaurants didn’t even open til 9pm. We had a fabulous dinner that evening, steak and chips, one of the best of the whole trip.

21st March

We went shopping straight after our breakfast of sugar dipped croissants and tea/coffee. Got more provisions and petrol and once again went back through Fiambalá, topping up the petrol on our way through.
Back out the road to the turning for Pissis. We turned off and Jim got his bike off the trailer and he rode in.
Kev, Séamus and I drove the jeep. We didn’t really know where we were going.
Jim was in front, checking out possible routes for us.

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Eventually, we realised that we wouldn’t get to base camp so we needed to find a place to camp.
The wind had been fierce all day and finding somewhere with shelter was going to be hard. We stopped once or twice at possible camp spots but it was too wild.
We eventually went back about a half hour to the entrance to a mine we had passed earlier. We figured that it would be sheltered if we went down towards the mine.
Jim went first and we followed, half afraid someone would appear and kick us out of there. We found a place that was somewhat sheltered, far better than anything we would have found up outside the mines. But we lost the sunshine early as we were in a deep valley.

We set up camp, ate and then sat in the jeep watching Séamus’s tablet. He had downloaded all but the first 4 minutes/last 4 minutes of fawlty towers, only fools and horses and most, but not all of Hitchcock’s film, Shadow of a doubt. This was a colder night than any we’d had so far.

22nd March

We got up the next day, packed up and went back up out of the mine.
We managed to find the right route and got to base camp in the afternoon. Again, it was hard to find a decent campsite.
It was very windy and the valleys were deep, but we didn’t really have a lot of choice. We pitched our tents, and took everything out of the boot again, and made up the kitchen again.

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The stove was still playing up but was still working. We’d settled into meals that consisted of bread/crackers with cheese/tomatoes/bananas on for breakfast and lunch and, tomato, onion, sausage omelettes for dinner with copious amounts of tea.
We also had to drink a lot of water while at altitude. We should have been drinking 3 litres of water each a day.

23rd March
When I got up in the tent this morning, my head rubbed off the top and ice fell off and landed on Kev’s face!

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He spent the rest of the day talking about being woken up with a snowball in the faceIt was absolutely freezing!

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The temperature in the car was reading -15 . We had boiled eggs for breakfast again, delicious.
The boys headed of up the hill behind us. They were going to try Cazadero today, also known as Walther Penck.
Even though we were only at 4500m so that first ascent wasn’t very high, they could feel the drop in power as they pulled away up this steep hill.

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I had a little wander around, there were some skeletal remains of what we imagine were vicunas.

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Because of where our camp was, we were losing sunshine long before sunset again.

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This was also the coldest place we had camped, whether it was because we were losing heat from the sun going behind the mountain or that it was just a colder place, we don’t know.
I was wandering around taking photos and I noticed them coming back down the mountains. Jim first, Kev second and Séamus at the back.
By the time Kev got down the mountain, Jim had gone up the valley, a really rocky, messy, difficult stretch of boulderyness.
Kev and Séamus decided not to follow and they figured he’d realise and come back. They waited for ages and then came back over to camp to wait. Jim eventually came back, he had been waiting at the other side for them to follow.
They set off again, this time going in the other direction. Kev had his Delorme inreach with him and I presumed Séamus had his, but as it turned out he had left it behind. I had a wonderfully relaxed day, chilling out, reading my book.
The boys had been gone about 5 hours and I was conscious that they should be home shortly when Séamus’ delorme beeped. It was Kev, asking the boys if they were back at camp yet. I panicked! Why was Kev alone? Why were the boys coming back? Had he had an accident?
I was wandering up and down wondering which way they’d come back when eventually, I heard a bike. It was Kev. I was so relieved.
They had got separated earlier on and he’d been looking for them but made his own way back. Then, I started panicking about the other 2. What would they do if there was a problem? They had no way of communicating with us as I had the Delorme.
Then we heard their bikes. Whew! They came back a completely different way, they came up the river. Jim popped out and over towards camp, Séamus managed to get his bike stuck in the bog.
Typical Tipperary man, goes to the Atacama desert(driest place in the world) and gets his bike stuck in a bog! They reached over 6,000m today.

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24th March
Jim decided to change his rear tyre this morning and Kev remembered that he had a smaller front sprocket, so he changed that.

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They got out their Irish flags and set off. Today, they were going up Cerro del Nacimiento.

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I had another fabulously lazy day, sitting in the glorious sunshine reading another book. I had to keep moving my chair though to keep out of the wind as the wind was really cold. So, it wasn’t all fun and games for me.
They were gone most of the day again. They came back in good spirits and again had got higher than 6000m. The ground was very loose and sandy and stony when you got up that high which made it very difficult to get traction.

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Our campsite is down there in the valley

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We were almost out of provisions so we were going to be going back to Tinogasta the next day.

25th March

By now, we had tried Mont Pissis, Cazadero and Nacimiento. They boys didn’t think they could get any higher on any of them.
We needed to have a chat and see what our next move was going to be. We packed up the bikes, there wasn’t enough petrol to ride the bikes and get the jeep back to Tinogasta. Séamus was driving, like a rally driver, it took less than 3 hours to get back out onto the main road, with only one puncture! In the trailer.

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The spare wheel didn’t really fit but it did the job and got us back to Tinogasta.
When we were getting the shopping the last time in Tinogasta, we had met a guy in the queue. He spoke good English and asked where we were from and we had chatted for a while. Turns out he owned the other hotel in Tinogasta and he had given us his card. When we arrived, we went to his hotel and it was so much nicer than the first one, and it had a swimming pool!

Again, the first stop was the shower That evening, we went back to the steakhouse, but this time the food wasn’t so good, we were so disappointed as we’d been looking forward to it for 4 days.
On the way to the steakhouse though we popped in to the sports shop to buy me a swimsuit. We’d come to buy one earlier but the shop was closed between 1.30 -8.30, then it was open til 11.30pm.
Very few people spoke English there and our Spanish was limited. Someone had told us before we left that in Chile and Argentina they spoke Spanish like the Scots speak English.
So whatever Spanish we had was not really understood anyway. So, we were using a lot of sign language, and smiles.
We had arrived into the shop and Kev had sneezed and let out an unmerciful fart. The girls behind the counter tried very hard not to roar laughing. Jim and Séamus left the shop.
Kev just apologised sheepishly, giggling. Then he asked them for a swim costume for me. We had a laugh with the girls.
It’s amazing how much conversation you can have without understanding each other’s language. We asked them for a recommendation for somewhere to eat, and they wrote down the name of a new restaurant. It belonged to one of their brothers. That was the plan for tomorrow evening.


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Brilliant Mide.
Cannot wait for the rest.
 
Mide, most enjoyable write up and pictures so far. Well done one and all,following with interest. Thankyou for taking the time and effort to put this together. Makes my armchair adventure dreaming all the richer :beerjug:
 
Thank you very much for putting this together, mighty trip and mighty write-up!! :aidan
 
Hey.


Really interesting write up. Thanks for taking the time 'so far'........any more instalments?
 
26th March
Mother’s Day. The postman managed to get my Mother’s Day cards to me - even in Argentina.

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We had a dip in the pool;)

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And chilled out in the hammock

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We needed to plan what our next step was going to be.
Mont Ojos de Salado was the most obvious choice now, it is the second highest mountain in the Andes.
It was halfway between the Argentinian and Chilean borders.
We needed to buy a new tyre for the trailer and some provisions for a couple of nights at Ojos.
There was a refugio at the first base camp there.
There are in fact 3 refugios on Ojos. The first one, Refugio Murray is at 4,530. It’s just after Laguna Verde with the pink flamingos.
Having made the plan to go to Ojos, we went back to the main square to people watch.

Tinogasta had really grown on us by now. This was our third visit and we had figured out how everything worked. The main square was where everyone gathered.
The kids rode around the square on their motorbikes and mopeds. Round and round.
Then they’d swap places and ride around again. The girls posing for the boys and the boys for the girls.
As the evening wore on, the cars would come out too and circle the square. Windows down, one arm out, music playing.
Round and round they’d go. Then, when it got dark, we could see the leds on the bikes, in the rear mudguards or under the chains. Red ones or green ones. Jim decided he wanted orange ones, to match the bike, you know.

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27th March

We packed up and left Tinogasta for the last time.
The road north was very quiet. There are 2 graveyards in Fiambalá. One in the town and another on the outskirts.

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One for the rich and one for the poor.


The customs guy had told us that they have maybe 100 cars a day on their busiest days in the summer, but at this time of year there were only about 10 cars a day going through.
The road on the Argentinian side was so easy to drive, mostly straight, wide well surfaced roads.
We arrived at the border well before 5pm. The border crossing was very straightforward.
It only took about half an hour. The tarmac ended very soon after the border crossing and the gravel road began. Then the horrible ruts began. It took just over an hour to get to the turn off for Mont Ojos.
We got to the Refugio and had a look around. It was quite big, there was a room with a big table and some shelves, several bedrooms downstairs and then a dorm room upstairs and another bedroom.
The mattresses were in a bad way, but we put our mattresses on top and figured they’d be more comfortable and warm than being in a tent on the side of the mountain.

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We left the trailer with the bikes on them in the garage and drove up to the second refugio, Refugio Atacama, 5,300m.
It was 22km away and it took us 40 minutes to get there in the jeep. There were some climbers there who told us that we didn’t need a permit to go up the mountain which was good news. We went back to Refugio Murray and when we got back there were 2 climbers there.
They told us that we might need a permit! We all cooked dinner and sat around chatting all evening.

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We were wrong about it being warmer in the Refugio than in a tent. It was freezing! This was the coldest night we had spent up the mountains.

28th March

After a bad night’s sleep, waking up cold many times during the night. We went out onto the balcony to boil the water and have breakfast as it was just too cold inside. While it was cold out, the sun was shining so that warmed us up.

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The plan was that the boys were going to do a recci, come back with an idea of what the mountain was like and make a plan for the next day.
Then Séamus said that I should go with Kev and Jim and he’d stay at the Refugio.
I wasn’t really keen but I knew that if I didn’t go that day I probably wouldn’t get the chance tomorrow.
I was really, really nervous as I knew what the terrain was like.
There was deep, deep sand and many, many rocks! We set off early and after about 10 minutes I started to relax a little.

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Jim was in front, so I followed his lead. I knew there was a big really deep sandy bit as we had got stuck in it the day before in the jeep.
We knew where it was and managed to avoid it. But there was still a lot of sand around and I was really struggling with it.
We made it to Refugio Atacama, the climbers were still there.

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There was some bad wind forecast for the rest of the week, but they were heading up to Refugio Tejos that day.
It was only about 3km away but was 500m higher.
We wished them well and off we went. Then we came to some penitents.

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We couldn’t get past these penitents, so we had to go back a small bit and up over a ridge.
We stopped and had a few biscuits. It’s really hard eating at this altitude.

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The next kilometre was some of the scariest riding I’ve ever done.
There was a really steep hill, with deep sand and twisty turns with high drop offs at the side.
We came over the brow of the hill and down a little valley to another climb. We got to Refugio Tejos, 5839m.

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We got off and went inside to have a look. It was much smaller than where we had slept last night.
There was a bunk room with 6/8 bunks in it and a small sitting area.
We didn’t stop for long, we got back on the bikes and started the last ascent. Up and hill, flat for a small bit, then up another hill.
At the top, there was a wide strip of ice, with big rocks strewn across it, followed by a steep climb, not very far, but deep, sandy gravel with football sized rocks all over the place.
I have to admit, I did lose my sense of humour here a bit.
I got off the bike and pushed it over this bit as I was afraid to ride it.
The boys couldn’t help, I had to do it alone.
Once I got past the rock field, it was just deep sandy gravel, which is a lot less scary when there are no rocks in it. I couldn’t go much farther, we were nearly at the top of the peak we were on, so the best I could do was go as far as I could and hope it was high enough. I rode another 50/60m and then got stuck in some sand. I looked at the gps and it said 5918m. I had broken the world record! Highest altitude on a motorbike(female).
I had my flag in my bag, so Kev got it out and we got some pictures and a video, woo woo woo!

https://recordsetter.com/world-record/highest-altitude-reached-riding-motorcycle-female/51962

The ride back nearly worse as I knew exactly what I’d just come up.
Deep, sandy ruts going downhill are no fun at all.
We got back down to Refugio Tejos and Kev and Jim went off a different way to do a bit of a recce to see if they could get higher going a different way.

I sat in the sun, but was actually quite cold as the wind was fierce. They were only gone for about 10 minutes and they came back and said they’d taken a load of pictures that they could inspect later for a route.

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So, we started back down the worst bit of the whole trip. I think I only fell off twice, didn’t hurt myself, didn’t even hurt my pride!
We passed the climbers walking up to Refugio Tejos.
It’s got to be really hard walking uphill in that altitude.
We struggled to eat and breath, never mind walk miles. We managed to avoid the big sandy bit by going through another rock field.
It took such concentration that I forgot to be afraid. After that it was fairly straightforward, reasonably flat so easier to stand for the sandy bits. Riding in and out had taken about 5 and a half hours.

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When we got back Séamus said that he’d been thinking about it and that we should go to the border and cross back into Chile.
It was 24 hours since we had left Argentina and we had no permission to be here, we didn’t even know if we needed permission.
We decided it would be better to go to the border and come back, than to stay another night.
We left all our food in the refugio as you can’t bring food into Chile.
We would go over the border and on to Copiapó for the night and then maybe come back and tell them at the border that we were going to Ojos and the boys could go for another ride.
It was about 5pm when we left the refugio.
When we got to the border there was no electricity, they weren’t expecting us and they didn’t really know what to do without electricity.
No one spoke English, so we were guessing a lot of what they were telling us.
They stamped the passport and came out and inspected all the luggage.
They didn’t find the contraband irish teabags.
The road surface was absolutely dreadful after the border. It was about 175km to Copiapó but it took almost 3 hours.
We went back to the same hotel we had stayed in on our way to Argentina and booked in.
We were all exhausted. I think it was a combination of a bad night’s sleep, the excitement and stress of the day and the long journey in the car.
We went to a Chinese for dinner and it was definitely closer to dodgy than not.

29th March

Because we had stayed in this hotel before, we knew where everything was and how it all worked and we all connected automatically to the wifi.
We were going to decide over breakfast whether we were going back to Ojos or not.
Having looked at the photos and chatted back and forth we decided we were finished on the mountains.
It wasn’t an easy decision as although all of us felt it, nobody wanted to be the first to say it.


Having made that decision we then had to decide where we were going to go and what we were going to do as we still had 2 weeks til our flights home. Many people had suggested Bahia Inglesa as a place to go to chill out and relax so we left for there after breakfast.
We found a lovely hotel, with a fabulous view, right on the sea front.

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It was fabulous. So nice that we booked a second night here.

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Excellent tale Mide.

Well done on the record.
 
Thanks guys for all the comments only really one instalment left!


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30th March

Séamus and Jim decided that they wanted to go home a week early so they changed their flights. We had another lovely day chilling out in Bahia Inglesa. It was exactly what we all needed.

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31st March

We started the trek back to Santiago. We got as far as La Serena and again, stayed in the same hostal as we had stayed in on our way up.

1st April
We arrived back into Santiago, back to Hostal Casa Matte.
We had a few days in Santiago as we had to organise shipping the bikes, so we did some sightseeing.

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We went up on the cable car to see the big statue at the top of the big hill.

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We went down the the funicular

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We made some more new friends, caught up on the whereabouts of the new friends we had made a few week previously when we had been there last.

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There was lovely camaraderie in the group of bikers there.
The second night there, we had a communal bbq, which turned into a massive piss up!

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The next night Tamaaki, a Japanese guy there, cooked a japanese curry for everybody there. It was delicious.

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Then it was time to pack the bikes up and get them to the airport.

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Again, Cristian from Hostal Casa Matte was a great help. His friend, Julio, owned a shipping company.
Brett, the Australian we had met the first day we arrived, had used him to ship his bike to Oz.
Catharine and Israeli Les were having their bikes shipped to Arizona, Tavo’s 1200 GSA was going home to Mexico (he had actually been on a short trip with Julio who also rides a 1200GSA) and Lyndon Poskitt had his shipped to South Africa.

We were sitting in the kitchen in Casa Matte and this guy walked in, he's a Spaniard touring the world. He and Kev recognised each other.

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Turns out they had both stayed in a Hostal in Ulaan Bataar last August.
Small world!!

Séamus and Jim packed up and we headed to the airport with them and the bikes.

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It was sad saying goodbye to Séamus and Jim. We'd spent 4 weeks together, in very close proximity.
We'd spent most of everyday together, 10 nights up the mountain in tents, and there wasn't a cross word between any of us. There were no huffs and puffs or sulks. All in all, I think we made a great team

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Kev and I spent the last week touring in Chile. We didn't travel far from Santiago. We went to Valparaíso. We stayed in a fab hotel, very modern and funky.

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It had a rooftop terrace:)

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Boat trip around the bay!

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Then up to Maitencilloanother fab Hostal.

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The owner of the Hostal suggested we go north just past La Serena to an island that had penguins and dolphins living on and around it.

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Another boat ride.

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Our last stop off was in Los Vilos. Another amazing hostal

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Best breakfast of the whole trip!

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We went back to Casa Matte again as Sascha was meeting us there to pick up the jeep.
Met more new friends

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Sascha was actually meeting someone that day and sold the jeep. He's hoping to buy another camper type jeep with the intention of renting it to overlanders.
He has a fb page and website called Pickypalla. He helps people with routes when they travel to South America and also sells some fabulous photos.
We couldn't recommend him highly enough if you're looking to rent an overland vehicle

We got a taxi to the airport to begin our long journey home. The taxi mans sister lives in Dublin and when he heard we were from there he called her so we could have a chat with her

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Brilliant write up - what an inspiration.
Congratulations on the record and many, many thanks for the RR
 


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