GoPro Footage from the trip.

Check out this 5min video from the trip.


Also it seems like some of the google map links seemed to have broken. Sorry about that!

Buenos Aires Final destination!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014. Montevideo to Buenos Aires

We woke up early with plans to catch a ferry back to Buenos Aires.  Several hours of waiting only lead us to discover that it would cost approx $5000 Uruguayan pesos ($250CAD each).  No thanks!  We started retracing our steps by driving back to Argentina.

Border nap...

Looking pretty tired...

Argentinian steak dinner with the gang from the apartment.  Dinner consisted of Asado, steaks, sausage, blood sausage and liver and a few other treats.    

Trevor's friend Matias runs an apartment in central Buenos Aires.  We parked our bikes in a parkade a block away.  From the apartment it was a 3 blocks to grocery stores, parks and the subway system.  Great location.

https://www.airbnb.es/rooms/2087059

Statues everywhere.

Free bike rental.  

We pedaled to the Observatory, Japanese gardens and the zoo.

Aussi's handling the heat like champs! haha

Friday night we headed to Luigi's house for a party.

Party

After the adventure in the taxi... we opted to walk the last few blocks home.

Cemetery in the centre of the city.  They are like little houses, probably costing more than houses in some cases.

Cemetery streets...

Weird...

Motorcycle cop... on a blacked out bike. Sweet

We took the train and subway a lot.

Getting lost and finding out the hard way... you are only allowed the bikes for one hour at a time, you need to refresh your time at one of the many stations scattered throughout the city.  7 day ban!

One day we set out to find a skating rink.  A lot harder than you may think.   The second one had ancient skates.  After a few steps we headed elsewhere as the skates were incredibly dull.  It was almost impossible just to stand.

The third stop was the largest rink in the city (still small) but at least the skates were better.  We had a great time.

Bidding goodbye to our Australian friends, Jackie and Oscar.

Outside the cargo terminal at the International Airport.

Trying to make the bikes as small as possible which taking the rear shock completely out helped the most.

Dave Ranson told us about two people that shared his Panama/ Columbia boat crossing.  Guess who we met at the airport!  Suzzane and Pavel's bikes all loaded up and ready for their flight back to Germany/Czechoslovakia.  Suzzane's airhead BMW has over 500,000kms!  She has had a few problems but she is more than capable.  She works as an engineer for Audi, Pavel rides a 350 two stroke with an unknown amount of km's (a lot!).  He just mixes the cheapest oil he can find with the gas.   Cool people.

Time to say goodbye! 

Uruguay

Wednesday January 29, 2014 La Plata to Buenos Aires, Argentina 60km

We arrived in Buenos Aires.  It is a huge city!   At one point the road was closed due to protesters.  It was near our destination.  We had to get creative, riding  on sidewalks..etc.  All while sweating profusely.

Lots of cops these ones with little plastic shields!

Special motorcycle parking at the front of every stoplight!

Matias(culo) and Candelaria!  We spent the night here before heading into Uruguay tomorrow.  We will be back!

This afternoon we decided to take the subway to visit one of Trevor's friends. Unfortunately, it was rush hour.  The first train pulled up and it was looking pretty full.  We tried to get in but really only managed to get our heads in under the door,  we looked at each other and said this isnt gonna work.  We must have been quite the sight.  When the third train showed up we managed to squeeze on board.  It was tight and hot like a sauna.  Quite the experience. 

Thursday January 30, 2014 Buenos Aires, Argentina to Fay Bentos, Uruguay 250km

Last night camping. Beside a bean field just past the border.  We had a late start, leaving BA around 2pm.
As we rode through Uruguay we noticed a lot of farming, some modern farming equipment, fields of dairy and beef cattle and rows of silage in bags.

Grabbing gas @ $2.20/litre,  everything is very expensive in Uruguay.

We arrived in Juan's hometown of Minas (approx 40,000 people). Juan toured us around with his brother and girlfriend. 

Everybody everywhere was sitting around drinking Matte similar to tea which is a traditional thing in Argentina and Uruguay as far as we've seen.

7 full size adults in a Mercedes!

Tiny ancient Fiat 500?

South America's largest Horse Statue

Trevor and  Ernesto the little celebrity

We parked our bikes at the family business.  One afternoon they gave us a tour of the place.

Push starting the neighbors car.

On weekends it is normal to stay up until 6a.m - 10a.m in the morning partying and just staying up. We were definitely not used to this but ended up doing alright staying up till 6 the first night and five the second day. Good times though.

Kalimba the Asador

The crew

Watching the Superbowl and celebrating a birthday with pizza and beer.

After a few great days we headed back in to Montevideo to visit Trevor's friend Majo (from New Zealand) and her new baby Tito!

We had a great night with tons of laughs. 

Tomorrow back to Buenos Aires for a week or so to sort out bike shipping.

Juan y Luciana! (La Plata)

 Took off from the heat in Mendoza and drove around 250-300km towards threatening storm clouds which didn't let us down. We pulled up an abandoned looking mine road with no trespassing signs everywhere just outside of San Luis and found a nice little corner in the hills. We managed to set our tents up as dusk was falling and started making our specialty stew when the storm finally decided to go off.

Bottle of Mendozian wine and dinner on the stove; can't go wrong.

Lightening everywhere!

We got up or more or less just packed up as we never really slept at all and drove down the road through the sweltering heat. It felt like driving through a furnace. Stopped in at a shell with wifi for a cold drink and decided to call it a day in Junin. Found a campsite with a pool and gave in paying the entrance fee for a chance to cool off for a few minutes!

 

 

 As it turned out the pool area included the tenting area as well. We had gone for cover and cooked supper while the storm hit.  Later we headed back to bed to find 3 inches of water and our bikes swimming on their sides as the side stands had sunk into the mud.

We packed our soggy tents and things moving in beside the ping pong table.

Heaps of mosquitoes and beetles but good times.

Next morning drove to La Plata (just outside of Buenos Aires) found the place no problem as they actually have fairly well organized street signs and number on buildings! After a few minutes and some nice people with a cell phone... we were welcomed with warm arms into Juan and Luciana's place!!  (Trevor met Juan and Luciana in New Zealand)

Spent many a hour learning new words and practicing spanish/english with them!

We spent 4 or 5 days in La Plata relaxing and hanging out.  We had driven almost daily since Christmas and needed some downtime.

Juan and Luciana are almost done building their new house out in the countryside! Beautiful place.

We were toured around to all of the hottest places in town...

We spent an afternoon at Luciana's sisters place for another amazing asada!

Argentinian drink of choice! Me gusta! Fernet and Coke.

Feast

 

Sisters!

The dudes!

Thanks again for everything Juan, Luciana family and friends! We had an awesome time with you guys and your amazing hospitality!