1.26.2018 The new hotel in Tacna I moved into was nice and I was able to chill while waiting for Jules and Christine to arrive in town. They would be coming from Arequipa a day later, so I had a day to explore the nearby square and upload a couple of blog posts. Tacna was the last town in Peru before crossing into Chile. It, as most of the other coastal towns, was not attractive or picturesque, however there was a tranquility to the dusty place and it seemed to draw a fair nu

2.07.2018 From Copiapo, the next day saw La Serena, another coastal town about halfway to Valparaiso and the following day, Valparaiso itself. The hostels and hotels have been much more expensive than in Peru, and as mentioned before, they book up very quickly. There isn’t much infrastructure or towns in northern Chile, so possibly travelers keep them booked up daily. I managed to find a homestay in Valparaiso for about $20 a night, and it sat high on the hillside overlooking

2.09.2018 I arrived late in the day to Concepcion, a bustling town that was in rush hour, finding my hostel and a parking area loaded with trekking bicycles. It wasn’t long before I was talking with six or seven guys from England about their trip. They had flown in with the bicycles to Santiago and were heading south. They'd only been on the road a week when one of the bicycles had broken and had subsequently had to wait another week in Concepcion for the part to arrive by DH

2.12.2018 Despite crossing back into Chile being my destination that day, I still needed to get insurance for Argentina in Esquel before leaving if possible, since I'd be crisscrossing the border a few times. I hit 5 places, all closed for holiday of course, then gassed up and gunned it for the Futaleufu border crossing and praying I wouldn’t get stopped. I’ve heard consequences are severe if you are caught without it and Jules had just met two Chilean riders whose bikes had

2.13.2018 The next morning I left La Junta early for Coyhaique, the larger town further south. As I gassed up, I watched a few adventure bikes stop on the roadside for a conference. There had been a lot of bikes - well, relative to the few I’ve seen overall on the trip - and it seems that Brazilian, Argentinian and Chilean riders really love the roads of the region. My favorites are the MotoViajeros however, the Harley-inspired looking bikers on small adventure bikes. A great

2.17.2018 The next morning we’d planned to ride together and take the road that looped Lago Gral Carrera, hitting Puerto Rio Tranquilo and Puerto Guadal, then to Chile Chico for the crossing back into Argentina again. The road was great, running through the national park of Cerro Castillo, just a superb ride. At one of the photo stops, I noticed an oil stain on the side of my rear tire and then saw where oil had begun to leak from the right side of my final drive. A sick feel

2.24.2018 The next day I awoke early and caught a glimpse of Mount Fitz Roy with the golden light of the sunrise on it. By the time I got outside its grey cloud had hidden the face again. Canuck and I decided to visit the glacier by boat like real tourists, taking the bus out to the launch. It was a very windy morning as the boat sliced across the water. You know you're in Patagonia when the stern flag is pointing to the front of a moving boat. As the boat neared the glacial

2.25.2018 The ferry across the Strait of Magellan to Porvenir, provided by Austral Broom, was scheduled to leave at 9:30 am on this morning and I was up early to get there before 8 since the line could be long. It was cold and crisp outside and I caught the manager setting up the continental breakfast to ask him to unlock the parking gates of the hotel. I snuck a couple of rolls from the plastic wrapped platters and a couple of bananas for the road and rode the bike to the fr

3.04.2018 The town of Ushuaia was far more upscale than expected, the downtown being filled with outdoor clothing stores, a boutique Triumph Motorcycle shop and even a Hard Rock Cafe. It certainly has a lot of tourist traffic which makes complete sense of course, but it was enjoyable though expensive. It is the jumping off point for excursions to the Antarctic and research vehicles. The hotel I chose was based on another rider who said it was nice and relaxing, and that was t