...back to the beginning

42,000 km and 11 months of holiday later...last leg home from Sydney to Perth via Darwin and Broome...

Paso Del Jama into Argentina and back to Santiago...

Time was running out to get to Santiago in time for the flight so we pushed on to cross in to Argentina so we could get back on Ruta 40 and head through the wine regions. We left from San Pedro de Atacama early in the morning an embarked on what would be one of the hardest days of riding we have had on the whole trip. Passing over Paso De Jama which sits at about 5400m above sea level we experienced freezing cold, drove through falling snow, had 100km/hr winds and sand storms. Once through all this though, on the other side in Argentina, the weather was warmer and sunnier and we had a great time travelling through the small towns.

Some highlights from Salta to Santiago include...
the many tasty steaks in Argentina, the road up to Catchi and then down to Cafayate, great Malbec and Temprenillo wines of the region, meeting another KLR650 rider on Ruta 40, Puente del Inca and the ride over Paso del Liberator into Chile, the relativly hassle free freighting of the motorbike back to Australia, getting a set of Metzeler tyres for about 200 ozzie bucks in Santiago, drinking lots of Kunstmann beer...the best in South America and getting spoilt by family freinds in Vitacura.












So after 30,500 kilometers over here its hasta luego to South America for now and looking forward to more adventures to continue back in Oz...

The Road from Cusco to San Pedro de Atacama...

The Peruvians love striking and protesting so when we heard that there was a two day road strike we didn’t think too much of it when we decided to leave Cusco on the second day of the strike. So we set of with Trisha and Cholly towards Nasca hoping to make it pretty close to the 600kms. However to do a short 80kms of road took us all day as there was massive disruptions on the roads with trees, rocks, burning tyres and human blockades. We struggled throughout the day having to go off roads and on farming tracks, lift the bikes over the obstacles, create bridges and talk our way through at times mobs of people. The four of us where exhausted when we came across a very angry mob as it was getting late. The group of men had machetes, sticks and rocks and stood in front of our bikes demanding money which we happily gave to them to let us by, and whats 2 bucks to get through... Surprisingly this was the only angry group of people we met all day with most of the locals happily helping us or giving us directions. But once we got safely through this drama the rest of the way to Nasca was relatively uneventful… thankfully! but very beautiful with views of kilometer high sand dunes ect...

The Nasca lines are parallel and geometric figures as well as designs such as dogs and birds cut into the desert thought to be started around 900-200BC. These lines are a pretty amazing site and are best seen from the air so we took a light airplane trip over them. Despite feeling pretty green with the pilots flying technique it was a great and mind boggling trip as the lines we so accurate and it was amazing that they didn’t have a Dampi level… or perhaps they did.


After Nasca it was time to split up with Trisha and Cholly as they headed north to Lima to fly back to Europe and we started our south bound journey towards Santiago. The ride south was amazing with sand dunes and the driest desert we had ever seen. Not a thing survives except in the occasional valley where a small supply of water exists and people had set up olive trees and fruit trees somehow. The first stop was Arequipa, and with a new crack appearing on the rear rim of the motorbike we had to spend a very relaxing 3 days waiting to get it welded yet again. Once this was repaired we headed into Chile spending a night in Arica and then onto San Pedro de Atacama. We visited Valle del Luna but the weather we had there was incredible with + 80km/hr winds and sand storms making it very tricky on the bike. We were literally blown away by the landscape of the area and it can really seem at times like you could be on another planet.

Lake Titikaka to Machu Picchu...

Leaving La Paz we headed for Lake Titikaka which sits between Bolivia and Peru. We spent the a couple of nights at Copacabana and caught a boat over to Isla del Sol with Simon and a lovely Oz/New Zealand couple, Trisha and Cholly touring on their very impressive BMW GS1200A. The full day hike we did from the north of the island to the south was absolutely stunning with amazing views over the lake. From here we headed to Puno for a night and saw the floating islands which are home to a number of people. Now days the people tend to use the islands as floating souvenir shops to supplement their traditional way of living but it was still enjoyable to be out on the lake.

We set of with Trisha and Cholly to Cusco early the next day and thoroughly enjoyed the scenic ride despite a few rocks getting pegged at us by local kids, the ride went by without a hitch. Cusco is truly beautiful city in the old center but like most of the towns we have been to, the outskirts leave a lot to be desired but once in the middle the good Ol’ Spanish had done a great job with the architecture. Throughout the center you find yourself surrounded with Inca walls, with ruins on just about every local street. Although pretty touristy and relatively expensive is a still a great town to spend a couple of days. Also in Cusco is Norton Rats tavern, a must go to place for motorbike travelers with a massive visitors book filled with stories of adventures. Most of the people we had met on bikes along the way had their mark somewhere on the pages of this famous book! Jeff the owner was more than happy to pass on lots of info and advice as well as entertain us with stories of his travels over the years. With great burgers and good beers, we spent a lot of time here with Trisha and Cholly.


From Cusco we headed to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, which includes beautiful scenery and Inca ruins of Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Pisac and countless others. We spent the day rinding through the valley and ended up in Ollantaytambo for the night where we organized a train ticket to the final town of Aguas Callientes before Machu Piccu. With a 5am start the next day we went with every man and their dog to Macchu Picchu. Although crowed, expensive and very touristy you cannot get over the beauty and setting of the ruins as well as the amazing amount of work that would have gone into the buildings.

Sucre to Uyuni and La Paz...

Simon decided to stay in Sucre for another week to take advantage of the cheap Spanish lessons on offer while the rest of us headed off to the salt flats via Potosi.

Potosi, only a couple hundred K’s away along some windy sealed roads is a very grey city, definitely no Sucre. We had been spoilt with Sucre and Samaipata before that. We opted for some 20 boliviano accommodation and got straight out of there the next morning. Most people head to Potosí to visit the old silver mines. This was not over appealing to any of us. Granted the conditions are pretty terrible and the small groups of co-operative miners are paid very little, but crawling around in a shitty mine 250m underground does not sound like too much fun. Good move Simon staying in Sucre!

Only another couple hundred K’s to Uyuni, this time on dirt roads with a never-ending amount of road works. It was another 10 hour ride and again all very scenic, very different from the 10 hour ride from La Higuera to Sucre. This area of the Andes is very dry with only a few little valleys with water running through them. You find large herds of alpacas and llamas in these areas all with their colorful ear tags.

Great view of the Salar and Uyuni from the mountains. It is a very vast and barren landscape. Upon closer inspection of Uyuni it looks like a bomb has hit it…it's not a very appealing town, grey, cold and our 20 BOB accommodation was like a little crack den, or at least it turned into one. Our first impressions were to get out on the salt flat ASAP and get out of the town and La Paz bound…only this was easier said than done.

We planned to go out onto the Salar for a two day one night trip on the bikes and camp at Isla de Pescado about 80km from the edge of the salt flat. All the prep was in place including lots of warm gear as it apparently gets as low as -25 degrees Celsius out on the salt. Unfortunately we all, apart from Kate, got a nasty stomach bug. So we spend three days doing stuff all except lots of games of Yaniff and eating ‘rice and flavor’.

We did eventually get out onto the salt, only for a day trip unfortunately but it was still spectacular nonetheless. We rode out to Isla Inkahuasi and back. It was great fun and a ‘must do’ place to see in Bolivia.



So after our troubles with Uyuni we pushed on towards Oruro, and then onto La Paz. The corrugated roads took a toll on Matteo’s bike and a massive crack appeared on the rim about half way thought he dirt section. After a road side coffee and a bit of araldite glue on the rim we proceeded at about 50kms/hr to try and get to the next town and put the bike on a truck for the rest of the way to La Paz. We pulled in to a town called Challapata as it was just getting dark, however although there was plenty of trucks that we could put the bike on for the last 300 or so K’s to La Paz, all the truck drivers appeared drunk as it was Saturday night. So this idea was quickly canned and we moved onto finding somewhere to stay. This town turned out to be one of the strangest places we had ever been in and every hotel in town refused to take us in. with all these troubles we decided to take off towards Oruro, in the freezing cold darkness. It is not recommended to drive at night in Bolivia and we soon found out why. We were forced off the road by trucks and scared shitless by drivers coming up behind us with no lights on. All the drivers appeared drunk or high… a truly frightful night. At about 12pm we pulled into Oruro and treated ourselves a very expensive hotel, glad to have survived.

The next morning after reassessing the rim we thought perhaps if we went slow we could make it all the way to La Paz, however 70kms out the crack was spreading so we pulled over a truck and loaded the bike on to get us to La Paz.

People from La Paz claim it to be the highest capital city in the world, with the airport sitting at 4000m above sea level. The result of this is severe breathlessness every time you climb a flight of stairs or the many hills around town. La Paz was the last destination for David, Kate and Matteo to travel to together. From here the journey separated with Dave booting ahead to get back to Santiago for his 25th of May flight out to Sydney and Kate and Matteo, having an extra month till 21st of June, continuing at a slower pace.

We were unable to order a new rim as the earliest they said they could get the rim in was 30-40 days so we settled for the rim being welded and hoped for the best. It the meantime while the bike was in the shop, Matteo, Simon and Kate took a bus to Rurrenabaque to the Bolivian Amazon. We spent 5 days wildlife watching, swimming with the pink dolphins, piranha fishing, trekking through the jungle and taking boat rides. A truly worthwhile trip. As the bus ride was so traumatic for Kate and Matteo, used to their own transport, took a very easy flight back while Simon, braver than most persisted with the bus.

Before leaving La Paz, we did the ‘Death Road’, a 30kms mountainous track, only one lane width, considered the world’s most dangerous road. It used to be the main road from La Paz to Coroico before they built a new tarmac road and apparently about 200 people used to die on it every year, including several tourists. The road is actually one of the most beautiful roads we have done. With stunning drop offs , waterfalls on the sides of the mountains and spectacular views. However this road was done on a very wobbly rear rim on the bike as after the welding the tyre came back completely unbalanced and not so round.