COOKING AND BRAAAAPING AROUND THE WORLD: HEADED TO ARGENTINA 8/25-27/2012

DAY-296
8/25/2012

Woke up at 6am with only 3 or 4 hours of sleep and packed up. Headed for Gus’s house grabbed my bike and loaded it up. It was raining all morning but we were off. OF COURSE IT HASN’T RAINED THE WHOLE 3.5 MONTHS IN BOLIVIA AND THE DAY I LEAVE IT IS RAING.. HAHAHA

We went to Nicky’s shop one last time got gas and said our goodbyes with lots of pictures. I was very sad but held it together until I got my goggles on and then I cried a little as we left Sucre for good.. haha

I have noticed my riding style has changed since I left home, I have mellowed out a lot. Used to run hard all the time as fast as I could, but now I am more into slowing down and taking my time, just looking around and appreciating where I am. I also have to take it easy for about 1000km’s for the engine to break in. So I have been keeping it under 4k rpms for the first 250km now I am keeping it under 5k rpms. My bike is also geared lower for my dirt roads and tech riding then Gus’s. So he was flying and riding hard in front of me and I was taking my time, stopping for pictures. We then road to Camargo where we arrived at 4pm and we still had another 3-4 hours ride. Gus caught a flat maybe 100km into our trip.

We took a short cut Before Potosi which was nice and headed toward Tarija. The roads were very smooth and twisty asphalt in the beginning then was bumpy concrete to Dirt roads. We hit one part that was getting graded and the bikes were all over the place, at one point my back tire was in one rut and my front in another and I was riding sideways down the road haha. I saw a truck track and gut into it and was able to hold the throttle nicely and flew past ol’ Gus sliding all over, he saw my route and got into the track as well. We finally we rode dirt he rest of the way until we got to Beano, where we stopped for Banana’s and water. The rest of the way was freshly paved asphalt with no lines and we moved along pretty quickly. We came out of the shortcut to a small town and there was a local market so we grabbed a few bananas before heading toward Tarifa. Gus asked if we could pick up the pace, I told him to go for it and would meet him in the next town. I am still breaking in my engine and I am geared differently then you so I go slower. He laughed and said he forgot...

Gus was ready to keep going but I told him that I have a strict no riding at night rule unless I have to. So he said no worries and we found a place to call home. We went to get gas and they wouldn’t fill our bikes up with out of country tags. They were having a shortage so with my little 6 liter tank they would fill it up once for each of us, and using Gus’s ID we received local price. I had just enough to make it to Tarija, but Gus did not. We knew we could get another 5liters each in the morning. So I was not too worried, we looked for food but there was nothing open so we grabbed some Boulogne and Bread, we ate at the hotel and I took a nap. Gus was worried and pissed about the gas so he ran around trying to get some taxi drivers to fill up some gallons for him. Finally around 9pm he had a guy go and take a 20 liter tank and talk them into filling it up. Gus came back so happy and filled our bikes and my small 1.5 gallon reserve tank up.

DAY- 297
8/26/2012
        Got up around 8am and loaded the bikes up and headed for the market. I had a red bull, three bananas, and an orange for breakfast haha. We were off and the whole ride I wished I was on my Old CBR, the road was incredibly smooth and fast with some of the best twistiest I have been on in a long time. Up and down we rode through the hills. Incredible views as we approached a large mountain it was blue skis and warm. We came to a tunnel and there was a cable up in front of it. The guy told me it was closed and that we needed to take a long detour around. After a quick talk with Gus, he told us he would let us through if we gave him some money for more Coca Leaves for him. So we gave him 4 Bolivians, basically 60 cents and entered into the long Tunnel. The tunnel was pitch black, cold and went for just under a mile. We popped out on the other side and we were both blown away by what we saw, we both immediately pulled over. For as far as we could see was a lake of clouds with a few mountain tops popping up at the far end of the cloud lake. It was incredible and cold, so crazy how on the other side of the mountain there were no clouds and it was very warm. We took loads of pics and then headed down. The fog rolled in and was very wet and cold. I took the lead and was used to this type of weather so ended up getting through it a little quicker then Gus, stopped and waited for him outside of the fog and wet. Got a few pics of him passing by and some good pics of the view. We made our cold way into Tarija and found our Swiss friend Hans from Sucre who is also riding a bike, a 2002 Africa Twin. I got a hotel with safe parking for 7 bucks a night and we all headed over to an all you can eat steak restaurant for a late lunch, dinner. 9 DOLLARS ALL YOU CAN EAT!!! They came around with steaming hot medium rare meat fresh off the grill and cut slices for us right onto our plate. It is more then I like to spend I food but well worth the treat.
        I crashed out for a few hours, so cold here. Woke up around 8 and met up with Hans and Gus for a few beers and good conversations before passing out at 11pm.
        There is an Arctic cold front coming from Argentina, looks like it will clear up by Wednesday so we are trying to figure out how long to stay here in Tarija. I think Gus wants to leave on Wednesday and I want to get on the road Tuesday. So we will see what we decide to do...

DAY-298
8/27/2012
        Gus met me at a café and I worked on my computer and writings for awhile. We decided to meet up around noon to go out to a dam to check out the views and have lunch. We found beautiful views but no reliable food, so we headed back to town and grabbed some grub there. Gus needed to run around and work on his bike a little, so I went to another café wrote a lot more and worked on my pictures. We had a nice dinner and a beer and decided to call it an early night and we would meet in the morning to go to Argentina…..