MOTO ADVENTURE - ROUND THE WORLD BY MOTORCYCLE: UYUNI - DEATH ROAD (BOLIVIA) TO PATAGONIA (ARGENTINA)

Uyuni was and is a tourist hub. That means expensive food, drinks and general living. We spent one night there relaxing and stocking up on supplies for the road. Here we also tried llama for the first time, it was chewy at best but maybe we can blame the cook. The next day we rode out onto the world’s largest salt flat (11,000 sq-km), this huge expanse of flat-ness was such a dream to ride on... as the crow flies being my favourite type of navigation to date! That night was a windy camp next to Fish Island near the centre of the prehistoric lake.

Just before leaving Uyuni we had a look at the train graveyard, well until I got distracted...

Heading out onto the huge salt flats, so excited!

Wish we could be here for the 2016 Dakar but the timing is just slightly off.

Lots of flags at the information centre at the edge of the flats!

Lunch time, what a cute picnic!

Huge cacti everywhere, each one more impressive than the last.

Freddy having an 'inspirational photo moment'.

An almost idyllic camp location that night!

The next day we had 550 km to ride in order to make it to La Paz. Our first decision of the day was a bit of a sketchy one. As the crow flies being the new preferred way of travelling we were smashing it across the salt flats making excellent time towards a minor road along the Northern boundary of the old lake. All of a sudden the bikes slowed, salt started flying everywhere and the entire thing got very boggy... with momentum, full throttle and a few tense moments we made it through the final 10 km to the gravel road. Both bikes were now totally drenched in wet salt, like icing on a cake! That afternoon we had some mystery meat (turned out to be llama again) and in the evening we made it to our destination. Overall a pretty damn successful and exciting day.

Washing off the salt that was caked on every inch of the bikes!

La Paz on the horizon!

Surprise surprise, La Paz!

Parking in the lobby, never gets old!

For almost 2 weeks now I had been heading North. The reason for this was that my dad had flown in to Peru, bought a motorcycle (Honda XR 650), and was heading South-East to meet me. At this stage I was in contact with him and he informed me that the bike was not running well and wouldn’t make it the 13,000 km we’d planned (we have until end of January together). So he flew to Santiago de Chile and hired a newer bike (Kawasaki KLR 650). While in La Paz I did death road with Freddy and then said my farewells as I started smashing it South again to meet my dad.

En-route to death road, not sure what to expect at this stage.

That day we climbed and descended over 8 km of altitude within a few hours.

600 m cliffs with the road only being as wide as 1 car in many places... it exceeded my expectations, as I was very skeptical of all the hype.

Heading back from death road we were denied petrol 4 times before eventually receiving the local rate. Bolivia has an interesting law where there is a foreigner price for fuel (approx. $1.50 vs. $0.50 local price)... many petrol stations straight up reject foreigners because they cannot be bothered with the hassle, others haggle and pocket the extra cash whereas some don’t care and just fill up your tank as if you were a local, very strange indeed.

Freezing, cold and more freezing is the way to describe this day. Snow-rain was falling for most of the day whilst the road never dropped below 4000 m. Around the 300 km mark I tried to fuel up but as was typical by now, rejected. I continued on and didn’t manage to get fuel until the 560 km mark, I fueled up 32 litres (only 3 left in the tank!), lucky! Just before reaching Potosi, my destination for the day, I was pulled over by the local cops for doing 76 in a 60 zone. I think my bleak expression and uncontrollable shivering convinced them to let me off with a warning.

Wet feet, wet hands... everything was soo cold. At this stage I had already come out the other side of the storm.

Last views of Bolivia before the dash for the border with Argentina!

After a border crossing that took 4 hours I made it to Humahuaca in Northern Argentina. I received a nice discount for being a biker in the hostel there and then made my way to Santa Maria along Ruta de Vino (wine country). The new challenge in Argentina is withdrawing cash, usually taking around 5 attempts before receiving cash out. Interestingly the official rate of 1 USD to 9.8 Argentinean Pesos is easily beaten on the “black market” with a 40% better rate! But eventually the US dollars in my pockets will run out...

A thunderstorm to greet me in Argentina!

Huge gorges with strange little huts along the route.

More Argentinian beauty!

The road straightened out and I was almost there!

25 km of off-road before I could meet up with dad!

That night I arrived just in time to celebrate dad’s birthday, we had a great dinner in a local restaurant and did plenty of catching up... it had been almost a year after all! The following day we did a round trip of the local ruins and got the map out to plan our trip South to Patagonia and the “Land of Fire”.

Dad! Oh and some ruins...

They knew about 5 sentences of English, I knew about 5 sentences of Spanish... but they were adorable.

The road south was long and flat with occasional gravel sections, 500 km plus days were completed with relative ease. We saw many cyclists along the route, a few French overlanders in big rigs and of course a bunch of other motorcyclists, always nice to see people doing similar travels! Hot, dry but fast progress was the summary for those first few days until we got South of Mendoza. Insanely strong winds and a chilling drop in temperature made thermals and layering necessary even during the day.

The road South, along Ruta 40!

Eating our cheese and salami sandwiches...

More straight roads, making good progress.

Ravioli in cream sauce, amazing after a 10 hour ride!

Petrol station line all the way around the block, I'm under the tree on the right!

Ruta 40 occasionally turns to dirt, more fun times!

First oil change in South America... many more to come!

Admiring this hectic cloud... great roads through the mountains here!

Snow down at 1500 m, yep it's definitely getting cold now!

See the angle of that lean? This was a mild wind compared to what is hitting us daily!

Setting up camp just before the rains came...

There was a 2 hour lull in the rain so we got to enjoy our camp fire, we needed it as it dropped to 3 degrees that night.

As we crossed the border into Patagonia the scenery was absolutely spectacular even though it was raining. It was a shame as the photos could have been better, but nonetheless it was an awesome ride. Tomorrow is Christmas and as a present to myself I get to run around town trying to find someone to weld my broken pannier rack, replace my shot front bearings and fix my GPS that keeps losing power. So far Argentina has been an amazingly hospitable country with people greeting us on the streets and almost every car and truck giving us a wave, what a great feeling you have being a visitor in this country! Its Christmas tomorrow... Happy holidays!