Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA
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Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA |
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April 7 - Chilecito, Argentina 214 Miles, from San Augustine |
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Today we rode our first gravel road. First we went to "Ischigualasto Nat'l. Park", which is abut the equivalent of the "Badlands" of south Dakota. The unique thing about this area is that it shows two un-connected periods of geologic time, without the middle period. Apparently, this happens only one other place on earth.
The road was dirt and gravel, for about 30 miles, but in pretty good shape. My bike tipped over, but I didn't have any crashes. I've been apprehensive as to how I will do on dirt and gravel, but the first day went fine. The more adventurous riders pushed a little farther on a really bad road, tried to cross a muddy part of a normally dry river, and ended up in a mud bog. One rider, trying to miss the mud pit, ended up in a thorn bush, with a thorn causing a flat tire. Luckily, the park ranger had accompanied them into the river area, and was able to bring the motorcycle out to the park headquarters where the "chase truck" was, with tools. So that's our first flat tire. We saw our first wild Llama, standing on a big "spire" of the badlands. Then on the way out, I saw a second wild Llama, only about 40 yards off the road.
After lunch at the park headquarters, (Empanadas, Gator Aide, and a local cookie,) we continued our journey north. We took another dirt and gravel road, about 60 miles, to get to our city for the night. I was pleased that my Suzuki V-Strom performed well, and I didn't crash. One of our members did have a small crash, but other than a couple of scratches on his bike, he was OK. I'm doing better as we start the combination of paved and unpaved road riding. On that ride, we had an interesting meeting. At almost the summit of the big mountain we crossed, we met a group of Gauchos, on their horses, and on their way to a party. We had no idea how far they had come or how far they were going, but the contrast of horse riders and motorcycle riders was quite interesting.
My yellow bike is the hit of the bevy of bikes. Every one of the motorcyclists thinks it is a really neat bike, especially the photographer, Henry, and the National Geographic contributing editor, Matt. I can be assured that my bike will have a prominent place in the article that is being worked on.
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