Lobsters to Llamas, Maritimes to Argentina

[Kedgi]

Originally Posted by skibum69

Nice work! I'll dig into this RR a little more when I have more time. Haven't been through Shediac in a year or so. Happy travels.

Cheers and thanks

Dwight

[Kedgi]

Originally Posted by roadholder

Have been enjoying this RR. Never thought summer in SA could be so cold!
Ride safe!

Me either. 13 was the high today.

kedgi

[Kedgi]

We all had a good time. here's the proof




Thanks to Camelia for the photo!

Dwight

[slide]

Originally Posted by Kedgi

Me either. 13 was the high today.

kedgi

Probably people in S.A. can't believe Canada gets that cold either.

[Kedgi]

Originally Posted by slide

Probably people in S.A. can't believe Canada gets that cold either.

You know, the people I have met down here that have asked about Canada seem to understand we get severely cold, and what they ask about is if we can heat our houses. They seem relieved when I tell them SI!

[HDen]

Last night was -26C (-15F) here so, Si, we had to heat the house

[yellowknife]

Originally Posted by HDen

Last night was -26C (-15F) here so, Si, we had to heat the house

Imagine if it wasn't for global warming it might be -26.1C...

Great RR - I always check into this one every chance I can. Your candid writing puts a ride like this in perspective. Keep it up and don't hurry home cause like the ole fellar said the wind ain't blowin - this place just sucks...

Massive blizzard lining us up right now and the temps are a little testy even for this former Northerner.

YK

[riverman]

So, Kedgi, we are going to have to put up with another 8 weeks or so of this cold weather in New Brunswick which means that you are going to have to stay on the road for at least another 8 weeks. Otherwise we may just lose our sanity if we do not have your report to look forward to each day . It is so funny when I mention to someone some tidbit of information about a country down there and people ask me how I knew that and I just say - "Nightly on-line geography lesson from my buddy Dwight - who I have not even met yet".

[Kedgi]

Originally Posted by HDen

Last night was -26C (-15F) here so, Si, we had to heat the house

SI!

Kedgi

[Kedgi]

Originally Posted by yellowknife

Imagine if it wasn't for global warming it might be -26.1C...

Great RR - I always check into this one every chance I can. Your candid writing puts a ride like this in perspective. Keep it up and don't hurry home cause like the ole fellar said the wind ain't blowin - this place just sucks...

Massive blizzard lining us up right now and the temps are a little testy even for this former Northerner.

YK

" The wind ain't blowin' this place just sucks"

OMG!!!! I laughed til I cried, I wish I'd heard that one many years ago! hahahahaha

Thanks

Dwight

[Kedgi]

I had an outstanding night tonight, played pool with Chris and Stephanie then spent a good bit of time talking to Vasilie and Camelia. I took pictures. I'll post them later. Nice people.

Camelia told me, just between us, that last night when they went to bed, Vasilie said "It was so cool to meet Dwight, there's no age difference between us, we both speak bike"

How cool is that?

Dwight

[Kedgi]

I had a Marathon Day yesterday. (I'll post some pictures later. This hotel works on 220V and I can't recharge my computer so I'll keep it brief this morning)

I left LaPaz at 8 am yesterday headed for the Chilean Coast, following my GPS, which for some reason yesterday, couln't find it's way to the floor if you dropped it and seems to think I have traded Trusty in on a mountain goat.

The ride out of La Paz with no map and a GPS with no clue was interesting to say the least. What a crazy city. Really bad drivers, incredibly steep hills, no signage, all I had to go on was I knew where the highway I wanted was and it was at the top of the bowl that is La Paz. I climbed one street, it was so steep, I swear if I had to stop I never would have got going again without flying over back wards. So, of course, what happens? A little mini van cab with no brake lights or signals stops right in front of me in the middle of the road. I squeezed between him and the curb to keep going, with the obligatory horn on of course.

After an hour or so of switchbacks and turns at intersections just too steep to make on a loaded Klr and U-turns and round the blocks to get a better run at a hill I finally surfaced at the highway right by a radio tower La Paz has that resembles the Eiffel Tower, and I was on my way.

I should have known it was going to be a long day as soon as the GPS started increasing the distance to the next turn, as I rode toward it. It sent me south on Rte 1 out of La Paz and said all I had to do was turn right on Rte 11 and that would lead me right to the Chilean Coast. Simple!

So away I went. On the way I got my first speeding ticket of the trip. Not sure what happened there, but I was pulling onto the gravel of one of many many patches of construction and I didn't think I was going that fast (The cars were passing me like crazy because the gravel was pretty coarse and not friendly to my street oriented Metzlers and any way about eight cops waving big red flags pull me over.

The one cop, who appears to be in charge tells me I was speeding. They had a radar gun there but they never showed me my speed. He takes my licence and then shows me a highway rule book that does say the fine is 200 Bolivars. I saw that myself. He then tells me all in Spanish that the speed limit on the pavement is 80k and on the gravel, construction 40k. Good enough, unable to converse well enough to really argue with him, and him giving me the option of paying on the spot or contesting it in La Paz, at least that's the drift I was getting I paid the fine (About $30) and left. I had a long way to go. No paperwork, no ticket, no nothing. Done. I wonder where that money went?. As I rode away several cars blasted by me at well over the 40k limit without ever being stopped. I gave the officers a "salute" as I left.

Then I ride into the high high Altiplano in Pouring cold rain and finally break out into a sunny day. I arrive at the turn, make it, take some pictures of the distant rain i had just ridden through and proceed down highway 11 only to have it end in a muddy farmers field. I'm in a sketchy town call Eucalyptus. A cop, who I think knew I was lost and was worried about my safety (I really got the feeling this wasn't a good place to be) came right over and talked to me as I took a picture of a church in their town square. He was very nice, I explained as best I could how I eneded up there. He gave me directions to a town called Oruro and said I could turn to Picasa there and make it to the Coast. I thanked him after a brief chat and I was on my way back out to the highway and turned toward Oruro. I knew it, my friends the night before had expressed an interest in a Carnaval taking place there. I rode toward Oruro then I got thinking I have had so many bad directions on this trip, I better get my maps out and figure this out. I looked at Oruro and there was no obvious way to get through the Andes mountains there, The GPS was telling me to U-turn too but was still insisting I use the non existent Rte 11.

I looked at my options. The map showed a good road about 120kms back to the coast at a town called Arica, I could just continue south through Bolivia, I could go back to La Paz, 190kms away and call it a day.

In the end I back tracked 120 kms toward La Paz in the same pouring cold rain I had just left behind me and arrived at the turn to Arica at 4PM. I had passed the sign for Arica earleir in the day, in fact I stopped and had a banana and a piece of bread for lunch there at noon. So I had lost 4 hours.

I decided to go for it. I wanted to get to the Coast and not waste a day trying. I blasted off for Arica, 380 kms away. Decent road, some potholes but long straight stretches and easy to fly along at 110K. I figured with the border i might have to ride an hour or two in the dark, The time change was in my favor so it was all good.

On that road you climb to what must be 15000 ft. You are right up at the snow line on huge mountains. I have the pictures. There was even snow banks at the side of the road, freezing cold. Holy Crap. I got to the border. A cluster as ususal.

First the first guy, doesn't bother to ask my direction of travel, has me fill out a form before I can get my Migracion stamp, them gives me crap when he finds out I'm going into Chile, not Bolivia. Pretty typical. It's happened to me before. Then I have to ride another 20 k to the next part of the process. You're well into Chile at this point and I get my Chile Migration stamp after a long wait in a long line of two sets of tour bus passengers. Then i have to go to Bolivian Aduana to stamp the bike out of Bolivia, why there office is in Chile will forever remain a mystery to me. I tried another Bolivian Aduana office on the Bolivian side and they said i had to go to the Bolivian one in Chile. (I must remind you that these conversations take a long time, a lot of hand signals and you leave still not sure of what you were told or if they understood what you were asking)

So, in Chile I wait outdoors in sub freezing temperatures and wind for almost two hours, in a long line as it gets dark waiting on this obviously over worked Officer. When I finally get to talk to him, he speaks English very well and asks me if I live in La Paz. No, "Canada", "Well how did you get your bike here?" "I rode it." He was a non believer. I told him I crossed at Kanasi Feb 5th. He asked where is this form? Holding up a form I had never seen before. "No idea" I said. I told him when I crossed , no one spoke English and I just took what they gave me and that's it. He wanted me to ride back 20kms in the dark to get a photo copy, then ride the 20 kms back to give that to him.

I'm glad he spoke English because he understood when I said. "Look Man, I'm on a FN motorcycle. I have been waiting in freezing temperatures in the wind for two hours just to talk to you, I am FN frozen. I need to get off this mountain. If you need photo copies you should have a FN photocopier" He relented and let me go.

I still had one more step. Chilean Aduana. They were pretty good and spoke a bit of English. they had concerns about some piece of paper, that I was supposed to have stamps on that I didn't have. (All the others I had seen had failed to give me that) I asked what stamps, they told me. I had all the same stamps in my passport, on my release from Bolivia etc. (I'm getting better at this after more than a dozen borders, and learning a bit of Spanish) They finally relented and I left. The Chilean guy warned me the road was bad.

Of course the road was bad! It was dark, freezing cold, lots of trucks, construction, potholes, piles of rocks in the road. It always happens that way when you end up riding after dark.

I got to Arica, Chile, on the coast at 11:30PM. What a day. I found a reasonable motel and I am sitting outside in tropical heat typing this, enjoying a McDonalds coffee. Does that ever feel good after a month or more in the mountains. I got up at 5am just to enjoy a walk in the warm weather.

Today, further southward. stay tuned.

Kedgi

[Hevy Kevy]

Wow Dwight, you continue to rock it. My son and I are reading your post, googling locations and just really enjoying your adventure. Wait, f**k, gotta go shovel the 36cm of snow that fell yesterday.

[Toadride]

Settles it for me Bud. If I ever head down there I am taking mind control lessons from a Jeddai. You; 'You will let me thru.' Border Turkey;'I will let you thru.'

[KLRJRS]

Originally Posted by Kedgi

Jim

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.

I lived through 6 Newfoundland Winters, never again!

Dwight

Hi there buddy! Just arrived back in St.John's after 4 days in central nl.was minus 37 wind chill last night and around Mid 20 wind chill all week. There wasn't any snow but all was frozen solid. Today the snow has hit and supposed to be 40 plus cm in next few days in central and we are going to get nailed as well. Guess that the shovel will get a workout over next few days ! So even though you are cold, you are on your bike on a journey that we can only dream of while we wrench our backs trying to shovel tons of snow in the next few days! Keep focused and keep the report coming, you are an inspiration to us all ,!
Thanks for letting us see South America through your eyes on a KLR.....I am at McDonalds having a coffee in the warmth of a fireplace after walking the dogs through 6km of a blinding snowstorm that is upon us reading your report.......a nice diversion from the tons of snow that will soon face me.....
Keep safe and enjoy your journey ,,, as its a journey for lots of your readers,,,,new are with you All The Way,..
Jim