almost a lap of South America

wanderingmerv

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Hi folks,

I joined this forum as I've recently gotten back into Motorcycling, and just spotted this wee section. I know there are a lot of folks who have been to, and even more that would like to travel though South America so I thought I might share a few memories with you all. My wife and I traveled there in 2012 till 2014. All i can say is that it was fantastic, and that I would love to go back again on 2 wheels.

We traveled in our 4x4 motorhome/truck/tractor. I think we may well have the record for the slowest machine in South America, even the Honda 50 brigade were passing us out. Even getting there took a while as we sailed over from France to Uruguay on a transporter ship on a voyage that took a month. When we were in South America we covered 44,983 kilometers, and averaged 64km per day.

Anyway, this was our little lady, less than the price of 2 1200GSA's and bought off ebay.
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This is how we got to South America, the Grande San Paolo.
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These ships handle a mix of contains and some roro traffic, and will allow (for a fee) up to 12 passengers to go with them. Seemingly if you have 13 or more passengers, you need to have a Doctor on board. More info on the crossing on our blog.

Once we got there, we decided to head north, to Iguassu falls. Quite a bit of our travel was determined by the weather, and we wanted to be in Ushuaia for Christmas (best weather of the year, about a 2 to 4 week window where it's good). We quickly learned that we could plant our discreet camper in town squares if we parked late enough, right outside the town halls. Brilliant overnight spots as there was usually free wifi that would reach our truck :)
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The advantage of going slowly is getting to see more stuff. We stopped off at “Esteros del Iberá” on our way to the falls.

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Even the birds had to be wide awake...
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And when we did try to go into some of the official camp sites, we had to watch the height restrictions, nearly got caught a few times.
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I was tempted, but I did'nt get my hair cut here.
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Next stop, the falls.....
 
We went North from Uruguay to Iguassu to see the falls, but ended up really enjoying a few days there. The Iguassu biker home was just about to open, and we were there in time to help carry in the furniture:
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This is them on Trip Advisor:

They are actually in Brazil, but the border there just waves you though and back if you say your just going into Brazil for a day or 2 to see the waterfall. Very relaxed spot.
But this is what we had come to see.
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More on the waterfalls.

I got to see my first construction-bike, This one was used for haulage mainly as he had a trailer "attached"
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That part of Argentina had loads more to see, particularly the Jesuit missions.

The missions made us understand exactly where we stood on the foodchain.
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Quite a special spot.
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Not bad for building something in the Jungle in the 1600's
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NOTE: I've not gone into the whole truck thing as it's a bike forum, but if someone dares me to don my anorak, I'll be more than happy to talk camper / truck'n.
 
Cowboys as we might know them. Think John Wayne, not Dell Boy. They are Gaucho's and have an annual festival in the City of Salta each year.

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Yeah, I'm a little unsure about these two as well.
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Loads of cakes for sale at this festival, meat was saved till dinner time.
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In the evening, it felt very Irish with the music and dancing more familiar to me than I thought it would be.
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And all wrapped up with a street concert. Deadly.
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Salta has a stunning sense of style, and no shortage of paint. This is the cathedral.
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Great stuff Merv - thanks for posting :aidan
 
Superb pictures... :thumb
 
I'm just about done for today, I'll leave you with a teaser. It might be about getting a truck stuck, and how we got it pulled out...
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Just how fresh do you want your fish? North Brasil.
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We parked up here for a few days with a german couple in the Man truck.
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Water we had to wade through to get to the bar.
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Cool bar though. The only problem was they set it up in a different location every day!
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Sarah happy with her cold beer.
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Stunning sand Dunes. Still in the North of Brasil.
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Storm coming. Back to the truck.
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If anyone had to ask why such a truck, This was why. Just ahead you can see some white sand just over the high tide mark. That was home sweet home one night too.
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We took a few months to travel down south in Argentina. As we were in no big hurry, we stopped off for a couple of nights at a finca (Fruit farm) near Mendoza. It is owned and run by and English couple who rode bikes round the world,and ended up settling in Argentina. We hit it off with them, and ended up staying about a week! As it was harvest time, we got stuck into harvesting grapes and plums.

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Annette, who runs the place with her husband, John.
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At the end of the harvest, they threw a big Asado party for all the workers. Yum um!
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We also met with with an English couple that live in Wales when not on the road. We ended up meeting a few times over our time in South America. This was our wild camp.
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And of course, we checked out a few of the brilliant wineries in Argentina. This was one time that a big arsed tuck was magic - we could buy by the case :)
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Lot of time on your hands lately Merv ? :augie

Cracking read and of course beautiful photos. In your own time.... :popcorn
 
Lot of time on your hands lately Merv ? :augie

Cracking read and of course beautiful photos. In your own time.... :popcorn

As jockser subtlety hinted at, I am home recovering from a broken leg from my first decent bike holiday in Morocco. I dropped my 800gsa on myself. No worries, I'll stick with the tale of South America.

Say jockser, are you not supposed to be there around now? 😜
 
Ok, Back to Argentina and the trip south. Bikes do not have the monopoly on mechanical hiccups along the way. We hit our first big one in Argentina when we needed to change the rear wheel bearings. Without going too far into it, the wheel bearing in a mog runs directly on the drive gear in the wheel hub, and it does not have an inner race. That means the rollers run directly on the drive gear, so when the bearing is wearing out, it also damages the drive gear......

Anyway, we spotted the problem over near Esquel.
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We had to get parts shipped in from the UK, from a great company up north called Atkinson Vos. we discussed the issue with them, and in the end we bought a complete rear hub from them, pre-built and ready to bolt on. It was a second hand re-furb so was perfect for us. They shipped it with USP. And then it all went to hell in a handbasket. We learned a lesson that everyone needs to know - Argentina has an embargo on 2nd hand parts.

We ended up having to get an overnight bus to Buenos Aires (1800KM away) to try get this issue **ahem** massaged and sorted. We got brilliant help from Sandra in Dakar Motors (Bike shop in BA that helps bikers ship bikes in/out), and got our parts. This whole fiasco cost us a month! Full blow by blow rant here.

The only good bit was getting to see BA while we were there, and met up with a really nice biker from the UK called Kevin who took us to the Polo. Deadly!
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Once back on the road, we went back across the country to peninsula Valdez to do some whale spotting. Due to our breakdown we were a little late, but still got to see and hear a few of them.

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Commerson Dolphin.
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and the coolest, the Rock hopper Penguin.
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Giant Penguin nest.
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We made to the Hubb Argentina meet, good fun, and we ended up meeting quite a few of these folks again since.
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A few weeks after that we hit Ushuaia. Time for some fun, and a holiday from the serious business of travelling. :)
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When in Ushuaia we met up with loads of other travelers there for Christmas. We had a proper Christmas dinner that Sarah cooked in the truck, and a second one in the campsite with everyone else as a large christmas party. Great craic! The owner got one person from each country to make a little toast, so we learned a lot of sayings and got pretty merry just on the toasts! When we were leaving, we gave him an Irish number plate for the wall in his camphouse, and he rummaged for a while, and gave us the plate from his first car ever! That plate now hangs in our Kitchen.

Anyways, this is Tierra del Fuego nat park.
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With some very hardy flowers.
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While there, we decided to sort out one of our alternators (the 24V truck one, the 12V camper one was fine), it was way down on power. We couldn't find a replacement but in Argentina they fix everything. We ended up with a full rewind, and new face plate.
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Yes, thats our alternator with the posh new wires in it.
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The view down into Ushuaia from the surrounding hills. This is just below a glacier.
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When we were in Ushuaia we were visiting travel agencies daily looking for last minute trips south, and one found us a trip that suited. We had befriended a great German couple, and the 4 of decided to go. to.......
 
So, We moved out of our truck for 3 weeks, packed up and headed to the harbour for our ship South. Thats Sarah on the left, and the Jurgen and Ruth on the right.
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Leaving South America.
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First stop the Falklands. And first photo stop, and flipping phone box!
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of course a beer in a proper pub! Beer was warm and soapy, so I figure it was as English as it gets ;-)


And of course, a few landrovers.
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Seeing the Albatross on the wing was amazing. They are seriously huge.
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From there we headed to South Georgia, which was especially brilliant for me as a Kildare man. You see there was a famous traveller from Kildare who was there before me. In fact he is buried there. His favorite poem is what is on the back of his gravestone.
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Myself and Sarah having a wee whisky to mark the occasion.
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For anyone who explores a lot, there is a grand wee pub down in Kerry that you can warm up in, that used to be run by Tom Crean. in South Georgia, there is a little church with this in it's library. I thought it was nice.
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Frank Hurley was the photographer on Shacketons Endurance. we tried to recreate one of his photos.
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