19.01. – 23.01.
On the curvy Ruta 7 we ignore the solid lines, overtaking long lines of cars, stuck behind trucks. We wanted to take a different route, but it was closed because of an event. So we had to go all the way through Mendoza again. So we were fed up going slowly behind a column of cars. On a road like this, it seems pretty clear that the police are waiting somewhere. I wondered why everyone was driving slowly behind the trucks. All of a sudden I realized why. A female and a male officer were waving at us to stop.
For me it’s not the first time. I have only one copy of my driving license left, but that one does not look very good, so I gave them the original one.
Here in Argentina they keep the driving license as well. The police officer showed us on a ticket that it will cost something from 200 to 400 USD per person. Ridiculous. The “usual” discussion in very broken Spanish: It’s Sunday, we have to continue, where can we get our driver’s license back, blah blah blah.
After a short time it was clear that the police officer was not interested in issuing a ticket. For 100 USD – 50 per person – we could continue.
Andi has contact with a local person via his blog/forum. From him we learned later that 100 USD was pretty cheap. Looks like the penalties are really that high here.
The next few days we drive on the Ruta 40 and often smaller roads north. We stay in Barreal, San Jose de Jachal, Villa Union, San Augustin de Valle Fertil.
I was thinking that I can not get impressed very easy anymore, that I have seen „everything“ after more than 6 months on the road. I was wrong.
Nature surprises me again, that I sometimes get goose bumps. We are moving forward at an altitude between 1,000 and 2,000 meters on a vast plain close to the Andes. Left of us the mountains stand out dark, growing high with their snow-capped peaks. On the right we are accompanied by lower mountain ranges. The landscape shimmers in all colors, red, brown, light gray, green. Some parts are called “the painted desert”.
Shortly before Barreal we visited an observatory. The view reaches far into the vast country. Rarely have I experienced such a silence like here. Sometimes it is the soft wind that gives a gentle sound. Every now and then the buzzing of a fly disturbs the silence. I dare only to whisper, because I fear disturbing the peace and quietness.
When we arrive in the villages in the early afternoon, it seems like we are entering ghost towns. The temperatures are close or above 40 degrees C. All the shops are closed.
In San Jose de Jachal we sit at around 8pm at a kiosk and have a beer. They told us in the hotel that the restaurants open at 9pm. The streets are still swept empty but life slowly comes back. We sit there and watch. All the shops and restaurants open again between 9 to 10pm. The restaurant put the tables and chairs on the street. From the ghost town it changed to an anthill.
The restaurants are full and at midnight 2 to 3 year-old children drive around with their tricycles.
In Villa Union, we are looking for accommodation. I stop and ask a woman where to go. Soon, the whole family is with us, giving us direction. The lady then takes her bike and takes us to a hostel. While I ask at the hostel for room and prices, Andi lets a boy sit on his bike, who passed by with his grandfather. We met the grandfather again when we ate at a restaurant at a gas station, where he worked as a waiter.
We visit the Talampaya National Park, a canyon, which is shaped bizarre by wind and water and the Valle de Luna in Ischigualasto National Park. A desolate landscape. At 46 degrees C, we die a thousand deaths, when we follow a convoy at a speed of 15 to 20 km/h through the 40km round trip. In addition to the 5 sights in the park, Andi and I are the 6 one. If we would get 1$ per photo that was made of us, it would be a lot of money.
24.01.
Overnight it rained. From about 40 degrees C, it cooled down to 18-20 degrees C.
As we see in the news this evening in Chilecito, a landslide, about 300 km west of us, has devastated a village and caused nine deaths and a couple of missing people.
25.01.
Ruta 3, “our personal Dakar” or “road to perdition”
When we left Chilecito in the morning, we did not know what we had to expect today. Today should be so far the biggest challenge on my/our trip.
The ride starts good, the weather is with us. Our goal was Fiambala in 200 km distance – a short, nice tour. Somewhere my GPS device says, we have to take another road. Unfortunately, it does not know the new road yet. It is a dirt road. The road is very sandy and often destroyed by rivers, which are dry at the moment, sometimes a bit muddy. Very slowly we move forward. We each fall more than once. Andi buries his motorcycle half in the sand, I pinch my leg under my motorcycle one time. It is a painful tour. After about 4 km there is a turnoff, but where my GPS device shows a track, there is none anymore, only a landscape destroyed by water. So we take the other track. After another 3 km we stop in the middle of a huge river bed, no track can be seen. We turn around. For the 14 km we needed about 1 1/2 hours. Exhausted, we are glad, that we are back on paved roads. A strenuous adventure in between.
We arrive in Tinogasta around 2pm. For us it is too early to stop, 80 km to Belén, of which 60km is a dirt road. That can’t take longer than 2 hours. That`s what we thought.
At the intersection to Ruta 3, a sign says “Cuesta de Zapata on Ruta 3 is not passable.“ We can understand that. Perhaps there is a village on the track that can not be reached. We ask locals if the road leads to Belén and if the track is OK. We were sent to perdition.
In the beginning we had to cross two, three rivers, a few muddy parts, then a gravel road but the track was not too bad – still passable. Eventually it got a very curvy and rocky single track in the mountains. Here the trail was more of a challenge, but still passable. We hadabout 35km to 40km behind us and still about 25km in front of us, when we got into hell. Stones big as soccer balls were on the road, in some places the road was half washed away by water. The next 4 km should be an ordeal. Slowly we move ahead. We already crossed the point of no return. There is only one way – forward. With every turn, we hope that the worst is over. We’re falling, we are lifting the heavy bikes up again. We put stones away. Andi pinches his foot, which swells pretty much later.
At two points we must lend a hand to get ahead. One time we had to excavate earth and to fill a small ditch, the other time we need to fill a ditch about 1 meter deep and 1 meter wide with stones. We are tired and exhausted. For five hours we were on the track .. alone for the last 4 km we needed nearly two hours.
Just behind the ditch that we have filled with stones, it was necessary to steer to the right. Andi did the part. But when you are exhausted, mistakes happen, especially on a track that exceeds our capabilities. I was not able to turn right in time and hit a large stone with the left side of my motorcycle. Part of my water cooling system was damaged, the motor protector prevented worse.
It is 7pm, I am close to not going any further, when we started to seal the cracks with super glue. This helped, that we can move on. Fortunately for us, the road got better from now on. A few difficult passages later, we came back to a civilized area, where the local people were driving with their cars – it can not be that bad now.
Andi, the poor guy, has again a flat tire, this time in the front. We are still 23 km from our destination Belén. We worked into the darkness to change the tire, needed a headlamp and the light of my motorcycle.
Towards Belén we had to stop one time, because my engine was running hot. At slow speed, we did it to Belén at 10pm.
Completely done, but happy, that we have arrived.
26.01.
We are thinking about what to do. Our motivation is very low, Andis foot is extremely swollen. I urge him to go to the doctor. He does not want to. From the people at the hotel he gets an ointment. I get him ice.
We notice that Andis rear tire is flat too. 7 Flat tires in a month. Andi is completely on the ground, thinking about stopping the journey and going home. I tell him to wait a day. He writes e-mails to transport his bike back. I too think of where and how I can take a break. Yesterday and yesterday’s track was too much .. too strenuous .. too much damage to man and machine .. it was not worth it.
27.01.
We feel better. Andis foot looks much better than yesterday. He got his tires fixed. I’m trying to get everything necessary for my motorcycle to move onward. A super glue to seal the cracks and cooling liquid. It is about 400km to San Miguel de Tucuman, there is a BMW mechanic.
In the afternoon, an Argentine couple came to the hotel, we started chatting. They were from San Miguel de Tucumán and with the car on vacation. A tube of their cooling system broke in the middle of nowhere. They did not have water with them, but he was able to fix it. He is specialized in things like that and has a workshop in Tucumán, as far as I understood. Later that evening he brought some adhesive to seal the damaged area of my cooling system. We take pictures of us with him on our motorcycles.
28.01. / 29.01.
We chose to go to Salta. It is only a few miles more than San Miguel de Tucumán and many other travelers have told us that we should make a stop there.
My cooling system does not make any problems, you can see only a few drops of water. After about 200km I want to refill at a gas station. It lacks almost no water, apparently the cracks are very well sealed with the adhesive.
In Salta I pass by the BMW dealer. They say, it would be necessary to replace the whole radiator, but it would take 30 days to get the part. I don’t have 30 days. They have a look at the temporary solution and they say, it is OK. Looks like the temporary solution is the final solution .. for now.
We stay until 2. February in Salta. Andis foot needs a rest, even I need a break. Salta looks nice, has about 450,000 inhabitants, old historical buildings, culture. How I’ve missed that. It feels good to be in a bigger city again, after so long a time in the pampa and so many problems on the way during the last two months.
Thanks for reading, Jürgen.