2008 - Buenos Aires to Machu Picchu

October 2nd: 
Flight to Buenos Aires Well I made it to B.A (just over 11 hours of flying). Groggy from no sleep, I arrive at the aeropuerto and passed through customs around 6:30 in the morning. I had been told by Mariano (of Motocare) that a taxi to their shop would cost about 30 dollars. Well at that time of the morning and in comatose conditions I ended up paying over 100.00 to a taxi driver in suit and tie. Go figure. I guess is should go well from here. How can I get taken any worse that that? I leave tomorrow morning (Saturday the 4th) The bike looks good and I'm loaded up and ready. Buenos Aires, at least the part I'm staying in is rather different that I expected. Except for major streets, many intersections don't have street signs. The two taxis I've taken today both had problems finding the addresses given. We definitely should consider ourselves lucky to have basic things like stop signs or lights. Many intersections here have neither. Mariano Calderon has been wonderful to rent the bike from. I'm sure he has his fingers crossed that I get the moto back in good condition. He has even loaned me a cell phone. Motocare has a very good web site: http://www.motocare.com.ar/rental

Day One (Oct.4): 
B.A to Villa Maria Crossing Kansas? Long straight road with a brisk cross-wind. Lots of hawks of all things! Many hawks. I've never seen so many even when I've been training my homing pigeons at home I've never imagined these numbers. I estimate that I saw 40-50 today. About a third of all winged critters out there. Otherwise mostly cows and horses. Argentinians must love horses (I haven't seen any Gauchos however). Villa Maria is a rather large town. I needed help from the hotel staff to find my way out of the confusing downtown. Once again most intersection have no stop signs or street markers. Thank goodness the major ones do! 

Day Two (Oct. 5): 
Villa Maria to San Miguel de Tucuman Being the genius I am, I chose a route to Tucuman that by-passed another very large city and took me closer to the mountains. Well I saw the mountains off to the left as I again crossed Kansas. Absolutely straight and flat for about 250 miles then some rolling hills and more flat. Not particularly attractive part of Argentina. This was a day of the "goat". Yep! By my estimate I saw over a thousand goats grazing by the highway. From 10 to 100 feet from the two lane blacktop were goats. Some groups were small, about 20-30 head while some groups were 75-100 in a single group. Oh and I saw a few sheep but very few horses and cows. Route 9 took me straight to Tucuman. At about 4:30 I was tired and thought about getting lucky with finding a decent hotel somewhere in the coming miles. Sadly I think the "coming miles" were about 200! No town in that last half of the day was big enough to have a hotel. The towns reminded me of Central American villages with dirt roads and shacks. And dogs. When I finally arrived at about 7:00 it was getting dark and I drove about 3-4 miles through seriously impoverished (we call ghetto back home) area. I managed to ask two young guys on a moto if they would show me where there was a hotel and after abut two more miles of this huge city we arrived "downtown" Wow. The hotel is first class! I've never stayed in one this posh. I'm so tired I don't think I'll even "spell-check" Tomorrow will probably be a short day. 
Day Three (Oct. 6): 
San Miguel de Tucuman to Jujuy This day was as different as possible from yesterday. I leave Tucuman until around 10:00 after a visit to three banks. The first two wouldn't accept my ATM card that I got from AAA. I didn't have any problem with these cards in "06 through Central America but today. . . another element to the adventure. The ride to Jujuy was not straight and not flat. Mountains were just a few miles to my left for the majority of the trip. Although its early spring here, today was HOT. The first two days topped out about 65 degrees but today must have been 85. Jujuy like Tucuman was seeming endless streets without signs. I spent a half hour driving around looking for the "city center". And when I found it, it was awesome. Chaotic one-way streets without stop signs. Only on highways are there occasional stop lights. Not within the towns. You really don't want to ride a motorcycle in cities like this. Maybe I'll get out tomorrow in one piece. Note: almost didn't get out with the motorcycle in one piece. The hotel had visitor parking in a space which amounted to a basement. The ramp going down was short and steep. I worried about getting back out and sure enough just as I got to the top of the ramp the bike died and fell over. It was still on an incline and it took four of us to get it up and ready to go. It didn't appear that anything other than the mirror being twisted and a couple of small scratches that the bike was hurt. Of course my pride was really hurt.

1. Man and his daughter wanted a photo with my bike. Two nearby boys came to join the fun. 

2. My Honda Transalp parked in front of a hotel. Most hotels, like this one, had secure parking. 

3 & 4. Street images from cities heading north.





















Adventure Beginning

bobforsee@yahoo.com


In 1968 I read a story in Cycle World magazine about a fellow that rode from the U.S to the tip of South America and I was psyched to do the same. However, over 35 years passed and I hadn't taken that journey. So after retirement, I began to consider the possibilities.

For 12 years my wife and I put over 9,000 miles on our bicycles. We greatly enjoyed our two-wheeled activity, particularly the Katy Trail which covers over 200 miles across Missouri. However when it comes to adding a motor to the two wheels, I'm all alone. Brenda doesn't feel the same comfort on a motorcycle that she feels on her bike.

Beginning with that first Honda I bought in 1966 (only 160cc) I have always enjoyed the feeling of adventure that motorcycling gives you. In the 60's I traveled a number of times by motorcycle including two trips to the Rocky Mountains, once to New Orleans and once to Los Angeles.


In early November of 2006 after spending a year of planning and trying to digest a bit of Spanish, I joined Harold Brooks and we traveled through five Latin American countries totaling 4200 miles.


In 2008 I flew to Buenos Aires where I had arranged to rent a Honda Transalp and headed north through Argentina, Chile and Peru. The ride to see Machu Picchu in the Andes totaled over 5100 miles.


In 2013 I planned a ride from Jo' Burg, South Africa to Victoria Falls. The trip through Botswana, Zimbabwe and back to South Africa was wonderful. The Falls were amazing, but seeing elephants and other big game while traveling down the highway was a treat.


I got another bug to do another ride in 2015. Not so much an adventure, but none-the-less exciting. I joined nine other riders for a tour of Eastern Europe. Adriatic Moto Tours (of Slovenia) provided guides and bikes and our group traveled for eight days from Vienna to Prague and South to Salzburg and then back to Vienna. After that, I arranged to continue on with the bike and travel on my own. I rode into Hungary to Budapest, spent an additional day there, and then South past lake Balaton and returned the bike to the tour company in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This ride provided many amazing sights with the Alps and beautiful land of Austria and the Czech Republic being among the most memorable.


In 2018, I took on what may have been my final adventure. At age 74, I rented a small Honda motor bike in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and rode North to Hanoi. The 23 days of travel was everything I expected. Wonderful people and God-awful traffic. Truly an amazing ride.


PREPARATION

In preparing for each of my trips I found a great deal of information on Horizons Unlimited web site. This amazing site has journals, health info and active bulletin boards that allow for contact with other travelers. http://www.horizonsunlimited.com




About Me

My photo
Professional: Graphic design for Steven mfg., Art Director -MFA inc. and Missouri State Parks. Teaching: Stephens College, Columbia College, Virginia Commonwealth U. and Rolla Technical Institute.

Translate this site