Trip to Argentina & Chile

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peter stuyvesant

Race Dog
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Oct 1, 2006
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Location
Somerset West
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AJS (all models)
Here's a short summary of a trip that Fiireblade and I did in February 2006. 9016km's in 3 weeks. First decided to ship our GS12's to Buenos Aires but found the paper work and hidden costs a pain in the a**e, so we hired Honda TransAlps in B.A.
Armed with a map of South America and very little else in the way of trip planning, we set off in search of adventure. Ahead lay the Andes, Chile , the Lake district of Argentina,the glaciers of El Calafate, Patagonia and our final goal, Ushuaia, the southern most point of the world.

We hired bikes via the internet from "Mariano" in B.A, after having paid a deposit to secure them. When we arrived at B.A international airport, nobody was there to meet us.Great start. Was this the begining and ending of our big trip?

An hour later some dude rocks up in a f****d- up Fiat to fetch us. We go and meet Mariano at his shop and check out the 2 scoots. My red Transalp has about 25000km on the clock but Fireblades black bitch has 75000km on the clock. All in all we had very few problems with both the bikes, not 1 punture in 18000 km.
We decide to spend 1 night in the city as Fireblade is a bit of a "poeff" and wants to take in a Tango. Next day we're at the shop bright and early to pack the bikes. 2 small plastic side boxes, a tank bag, fuel can and a barrel bag on the back rack and we're off!
Starting the trip from B.A, a city with 14 million people, driving on the wrong side of the road, and only a vague idea in which direction to to travel was rather nerve racking. The bikes wobbled uncontrolably for the first few days for some reason, but settled down eventualy. It's quite an adjustment to ride a heavily laden 600cc bike after a GS12.
We installed intercoms in our helmets [which worked when they felt like it] so we could talk crap to each other while we rode.
OK, enough typing for 1 night. Part 2 to follow with pics if anybody is interested.
 
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