Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA
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Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA |
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April 5 - Mendoza, Argentina 249 Miles, Vina del Mar - Mendoza |
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We finished last night by finally getting the container with the motorcycles from customs at about 10:00 PM. So we had to open the container and retrieve the motorcycles in the dark, with the help of some light from the out-of-the-way storage yard in which many, many containers were stored. We had trouble starting some of the motorcycles, but my Suzuki V-Strom started right up, after connecting the battery. We had one other motorcycle fail, due to a gas feed situation, and babied it home at about midnight. A rocky start, but finally done. We got a late start on our first day of the tour. Two motorcycles still had problems, and our tour guides finally got them running. We then rode across Chile (it's quite skinny) and entered Argentina by crossing the Andes Mountains. The road up the Chilean side was marked by very rocky, very dry mountains, with little vegetation above the start of the final climb. The highest point of the pass that I checked with my GPS unit was 9,458 ft. elevation.
On the way down from the summit, we passed through two long tunnels, the first one was 2 miles long, and the second one about 1 mile long. It's tough to ride a motorcycle when you have very little visual reference. The rest of the way was all down hill, to the city of Mendoza. We arrived in the dark. and had to find our hotel from our tour guide's written instructions. Not too bad, but keeping a group of motorcycles together while hunting a hotel in the dark in a strange city was a bit anxious. |
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