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Day 70

Day 70

43,476 – 43,665  189 Miles today (20,965 Miles Overall)

Puerto Natales, Chile – El Calafate, Argentina

We decided as we were going to bed that we were going to be bored in town doing nothing the next day so we spoke to the hotel owner and they said we can leave today and come back another day to use our credit for the night. So we packed up our stuff in a hurry this morning before and after eating breakfast and decided we would head back to Puerto Natales to hang out there for the day before heading up to El Chalten the next day.

We took the ride back to the border which I did alone yesterday and had an easy border crossing. She loved the views. We took that same brutal dirt road except now with both of us on the bike with the added luggage as well the bike was really taking a beating. We stopped to see some pink flamingos in the middle of the dirt road portion. Back on the road we shot down the desert roads into El Calafate. We stopped for lunch and got a nice big steak with some beers in town and ended up finding a nice hostel with a private room right in town. We walked around town a bit and rode down to the lake to check out the turquoise water which was all coming from the glacier on the other side of the lake. We went out for some dinner in town with Lars and another guy named Justin that Lars met a few days ago. Tomorrow we were going to head to El Chalten so we called it a night pretty early which also means 11-12pm now since the sky is still light out until about 11:15ish.

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Day 69

Day 69

43,303 – 43,476  173 Miles today (20,776 Miles Overall)

El Calafate, Argentina – Puerto Natales, Chile

I left Calafate today to go down to Natales to meet Sameera. She’s finally flying in to meet me! I got on the road around 9am and god damn was it cold. I was on a nice paved road heading into the mountains and it slowly turned into a big windy desert. The view was sort of nice though, it wasn’t too boring.

The paved road suddenly turned into dirt for me. I could have taken a 50 minute longer paved road to not take the dirt road but I wanted to get there. I ended up riding this pretty bad gravel road for about 40 miles with a ton of big rocks and my suspension was taking a beating for sure. I had a rock bounce up off my front wheel which then hit my foot and would have definitely shattered my foot if I wasn’t wearing my Moto boots. I had to pull over and check my foot because it felt like it was broken. It hurt like hell. I eventually made it off the dirt road which I passed a few people riding bicycles on. I stopped for fuel at this gas station I’ve seen pictures of with thousands of stickers on it.

Off I went towards the border of Chile. The border crossing was quite simple and took a few minutes on each side. It was cake. I stopped to check out a nice lake on the way into Puerto Natales and eventually made it to the hostel. I walked around town for some food and went to a bunch of shops to try to get us a Torre Del Paine tour. Sameera had been wanting to do this for a long long time and we didn’t book anything mostly because everything was booked out months in advance. I didn’t really have any luck other than getting a campsite for a night on the western side of the park but was told they weren’t all booked up at all so i’ll come back to do that another day.

Sameera rolled into town around 7 and we went out for some food. The sun was setting here at 10pm and was still light out until 11:15 which was insane for her to see.

 

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Day 67-68

Day 67-68

42,867 – 43,303  436 Miles today (20,603 Miles Overall)

Perito Moreno, Argentina – El Calafate, Argentina

I got up quite early today to beat the high winds. Today was supposed to be the worst and most windy day to ride and the noise outside already woke me up at 6. I took a nice hot shower and loaded up the bike. I said bye to Lars and hopefully we would get to meet up again soon. I hit the road road and I had 5 hours to get to the Gobernador town to get fuel before I got on this dirt road which was infamous for hurting people. This road has 75 kilometers of deep gravel with some of the strongest winds in Argentina. People are waiting in this town for weeks to cross and downloading an app called Windy to check the winds. They leave at 5am to get through at the lowest winds for the day. I think three people on a Facebook group crashed in the last few weeks and broke their legs. These guys got me all jacked up for this ride. I’ve been worried about it for months.

So I was on the road and thank god I took my sun visor off because it was blowing even harder now. But I barely felt anything on my head which was great. I was surprised to not see any towns or gas stations for a while but this was the first time I didn’t do any research because I’m getting cocky with my big fuel tank and how far I can go on it. at one point I had a 50mph tailwind I assume. I was doing 90-95 and it felt like a 30mph wind or so on my helmet. It was really freaky to be going that fast and not hear and feel what I normally do. I stopped to pee and at one point and my bike almost blew over with how windy it was. I kept on riding and realized I fucked up. I’m about to run out of fuel. I slowed down from my 70-90mph run and started doing 40mph to save my fuel. I was probably gonna run out if I hit a headwind from this crosswind. I tucked down real low and was pretty nervous because I saw one car this whole morning. I also shaved down the ride from 5 houses to 3 with how fast I was going. I eventually made it into town.

I filled up my 24 Liter tank with 23.5 liters. That’s how close I was to running out. I drank the rest of my water from my 2 liter bottle and filled that up with fuel as well. Not taking anymore chances I don’t need this anxiety anymore nor do I want anymore stories to tell. I had to make a decision here on what to do. I don’t want to be that cocky asshole to get hurt and be stuck out there with a broken leg after what I’ve heard about this ride. Of course I realize half the people out there in this world are a bunch of idiots and don’t belong out here on this trip anyway. I’m gonna go for it.

10:30am I was leaving the town with a 50 mile paved section and then I would get to the dirt. So now I’m doing the ride at the worst time of the day. Smart. Sounds like I might have a story to tell. I got on the road and told Lars my plan. I hauled ass on the straight boring paved road and then I hit the dirt. It was hard packed dirt with some gravel for the first 35kms and it was a bit sketchy. The winds were probably 40mph from the right and blowing hard. It was blowing me all over the place. After 35kms of packed dirt I hit the deep, deep gravel. My bike felt weird yet again as soon as I hit the dirt, My tires felt like shit but I got my confidence back after a few miles. On the gravel I decided I would nail the throttle and keep my avg speed at 60mph. I kept the tires in a small rut made from cars about 6″ wide. I couldn’t come out of this rut because the gravel was super deep and with the wind I’d probably crash. I was hauling ass. Yak would be proud. I’m even proud of myself. I’ve come a long way with my riding skills on stuff like this since the beginning. I ended up seeing some other adventure bikes up front and decided to push my luck. I want to blow past these guys doing 70 and then stop for lunch and the next town to see what they would say to me. The winds hit me twice and pushed me out of the rut and scared the shit out of me. I thought I was going down but just let the bike do its thing and didn’t fight it. I got it back in the rut and blew past these adventure bikes and boy was I laughing my ass off under my helmet. These guys were doing about 10-15mph standing up. Two of the bikes were from Germany and one from Chile. I blew past a bunch of bikes and cars coming head on and they were all going 10-15 as well. I was really wishing that I had my go pro on the handlebars to film me passing these guys but unfortunately I didn’t think I’d have anything good to film today.

One guy on a 1200 was either cheering me on for going so fast when I passed him in oncoming traffic or was pissed at me and probably calling me dumb for going so fast. I don’t know which one it was nor do I give a shit. I ripped through this section so fast it was awesome. These guys are gonna be on it for 3 hours at the pace they were riding. At the end of the section I hit the strongest winds I’ve ever ridden in my life. It was absolutely a steady 50mph crosswind. My bike was on a serious angle and I was nervous of the front tire getting swiped out from under me but I kept riding pretty fast. I was all over the road in both lanes and after a little while it calmed back down to 40mph of a crosswind. I passed the first town where I was hoping to get food and see these guys I passed but nothing was open.

Onwards we go. I had about another 1.5-2 hours to El Calafate. It was a beautiful ride. Glacial lakes everywhere with glacial rivers. The water was incredibly turquoise. I couldn’t believe this color. I’ve never seen anything like it. I wonder why it’s so dark and no see through at all. It looks like someone dyed the water this color. I eventually made it into El Calafate and checked into my hostel. I was beat. I went to Patagonia Brewing co for a beer and a burger and walked around town a bit. I dropped off some laundry and then had some ice cream. I couldn’t do much in this town because Sameera is finally arriving in two days and was supposed to come back here to go see the glacier 50 miles west of here and then head up to El Chalten to see Fitz Roy. So I just am kind of sitting around at this point killing time until she gets here.

I rode around town looking for oil with no luck. I got some dinner at a steakhouse and it was delicious as usual. Back to my hostel to crash for the night.

Day 68

I was on a mission to find oil and with luck I found it quite quick at another car shop. While I was changing my oil I remembered that yesterday I noticed some oil around the oil pan. I took a better look and noticed my front shaft seal was leaking. I officially hate this bike. This is some pretty shitty timing as Sameera is leaving today and there’s no way she can get her hands on the part to bring it down. I ordered some parts for the bike to a guy’s house in Az who will be flying down to Santiago on December 28th so I’ll have to figure out how to get it from him. I’m hoping it even lasts till then. After I changed the oil I took another look over the bike and everything was fine for now.

I met up with another rider from Australia who broke his spark plug a few days ago and will probably be stuck here for two weeks. We watched the game and thank god Argentina won. These guys in town were losing their shit. The after party wasn’t nearly as big as it was in Bariloche but it was still cool to watch. I didn’t do much the rest of the day except work on my blog and walk around a bit more. I went to a crossfit class at 8 pm which was nice to get back into and then got back home and watched some movies and passed out at 1:30am because this shithead next to me was snoring like the world was about to end. I was tempted to punch him in the mouth and pretend like nothing happened. I can’t wait to share a private room with Sameera for ten days.

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Day 66

Day 66

42,369 – 42,867  498 Miles today (20,167 Miles Overall)

Bariloche, Argentina – Perito Moreno, Argentina

We got up at about 8am and I was worried I’d be leaving alone since Lars took a nice woman back to his hostel room he met last night. But he got up on time and we got to leave together. Although he was so goddamn slow getting his shit together that I had to wait around for about 40 minutes for him to get his shit together. I got out of town at about 9:10 and it was 14 hours to this town called Gobernador Gregores. We thought we had a good shot at making it to the town but after riding for a few hours we said fuck it we should slow down a bit and get some food and relax on the ride. The ride was quite boring but beautiful. Long straight roads for hundreds of miles. The winds were blowing like hell the whole way. We had a steady 30 mph cross wind for the entire ride. It sucked. I pulled ahead of Lars and put a lot of miles between us so I would wait for fuel in the long lines and by the time he would catch up he would sneak up in line and we would fill both tanks and pay together. Trying to save time on these long days and these little things help out a lot.

We pulled over for lunch in this small town. I saw a good review on IOverlander. We had soup of the day and some meat as usual for a very cheap price. It was delicious. Back on the road and the winds were even stronger. My helmet was pushing into my temple so hard it was actually hurting to the point where I had to ride for hours holding my visor with my hand to keep the pressure off my head. I’m going to remove that thing tonight. I do not need it anymore down here with these winds. I found a nice trick where we hide behind an 18 Wheeler for a few minutes because they block the high winds for us. The drivers were cracking up. They knew exactly what we were doing within seconds of us parking our bikes on their left side in oncoming traffic. We stay until we’re ready to keep going or until oncoming traffic heads our way which is pretty rare. Coming back out of the burble from the truck into the strong winds is scary because the force is so god damn strong and hard in one big shot. The wind was so strong at one point that it broke my windshield extension I’ve had on the bike for 80K miles.

We pulled into a town called Perito Moreno for fuel and I wanted to get my first coffee on the road because I was falling asleep with how boring the ride was. As we were pulling into turn I heard his bike clicking every few feet. I knew it a few seconds later. His chain was done for. I told him to move up a few inches very slowly and I saw it in a second. One of the links on his chain busted and the roller fell off. I don’t know when it fell off but we were so god damn lucky it happened in town. We filled up with fuel and worked on getting him towed to the next town. I said he should get to the next town because It looks like I found a decent mechanic on IOverlander. We decided I would go ahead and figure out what to do for him while he would work on a tow. He had no service here which sucked. I got on the bike and hauled ass to the next town. I got there 1:45 later with some even stronger winds. I found the mechanic and figured out we can get him a chain here in two days from the east coast. It would be a bit complicated but not bad.

Next I bounced around to 10 hotels and hostels to try to get the best deal for him in case he’s stuck here for a few days. I eventually found some cabanas that were like $15 a night I think. It was a big log cabin with a few bedrooms, shower, kitchen and it was beautiful. I waited around town for him to see him pull into the town with the tow truck but he ended up texting me at 9pm saying he was in town on the tow truck. I met up with him and guided him to the cabanas. He was stoked with everything that I set up for him. He jumped on my bike and we went into town to meet the mechanic and they can plan their shit out. Next I took him to dinner on my bike and had a few beers. We went back to the hostel, showered and went right to bed!

 

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Day 65

Day 65

42,319 – 42,369     50 Miles today (19,669 Miles Overall)

Bariloche, Argentina

First thing this morning was to get my ass down to western union and get some money which I did. Breakfast came after. Delicious. I went shopping in the town for some xmas gifts and just walked around a bunch enjoying the town and the lake it’s on. Lars and I did some bike maintenance. I cleaned and tightened my chain, moved my GPS tracker under the panels since the mechanic turned it off and put it in the wrong spot. My top box is rattling apart with all the bumps and off-roading so I tried to fix it and we will see if the pads under it hold up for a bit.

I did a light workout on the grass at the hostel and waited a few hours for Lars to get done with a phone call and we went for a ride to Patagonia Brewing Co. We got a steak burger with two cups of beer and fucking christ was I in heaven. We hung out on the mountain side and enjoyed the view of Patagonia while drinking our beer and eating our burger. Life couldn’t be any better. After we left we went for a loop around this nice road at the end of Bariloche. I lost Lars quite quickly and decided to do my own ride. About 20 minutes later I stopped for ice cream and decided to wait by the road for Lars to drive by but he never showed up. He texted me that he found a classic car show so I rode bak to go see him and the car show. He ended up giving a female hitchhiker a ride back to Bariloche on the back of his bike with no helmet on! Hah

I got back to town, showered and waited out front of a restaurant many people raved about. After the meal I was pretty disappointed. Back at the hostel I went to work on the blog and listen to live music until pretty late in the night.

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Day 64

Day 64

42,046 – 42,319  273  Miles today (19,619 Miles Overall)

Zapala, Argentina – Bariloche, Argentina

I was woken up at about 6am by the winds. It took me a while to figure out what the noise was. I called Lars and told him we should leave asap instead of 8Am because the wind was forecasted to get worse. We met up and hit the road. The winds were blowing harder than they were yesterday. We had 4 hours to get to Bariloche. I stopped maybe 30 minutes into the ride to put my down jacket on along with my winter gloves. The temp was supposed to hit 96 in the town we just left so I thought it would warm up quickly but I was wrong. I saw dark clouds up ahead with some rainbows so I figured it would get colder and stay cold.

I was right. The temps dropped to about 48-52 most of the ride and it didn’t look like it was getting any warmer. We were about 1.5 hours into the ride and GPS said to get off of Ruta 40. I didn’t like this. I had a chat with Lars and suggested we stick with Rt40 even if it’s longer. The Ruta 40 turn off ended up riding through the 7 lakes drive which was incredibly beautiful I heard. My plan was to leave Bariloche the next day for a day trip and do this drive but we should just do it now since we’re here. We wanted to get to Bariloche by 2pm to watch the soccer game.

We turned back onto Rt 40 and got some fuel. I couldn’t get my GPS to give me an ETA on the long way around on 40 but I hit a town where it wouldn’t tell me to take the shorter route and the drive way 2 hours longer. I assume the rest of the ride would be 5 hours instead of 2.5 and we would be tight on time. I broke the news to Lars and we were positive we could shave some time off of that.

We hit the road and lost Lars in about a minute. Since I’m from NYC and ride like a maniac all the time, not a lot of people can keep up with me. Mostly because I break every rule that exists for the road. When I’m in South America there are absolutely zero rules in my opinion. Anything goes. So poor Lars was riding behind slow traffic and he’s just way more conservative than I am. I did my thing, passing everyone and everything on the road. I texted him the address of where we were going and took off even faster. I stopped for a few pictures here and there. I was riding like an absolute maniac on this ride. The views were beautiful, the air was cleaner than you can imagine and the roads were just perfect. There were a ton of people on mountain bikes riding along the road and I came by them bouncing my bike off the rev limiter. They would all turn around if facing the other way and throw their arms up in the air cheering me on. I couldn’t believe how pumped up they were to see me blasting through these turns. I had the right music playing, I was wide awake and just living in the moment. Nothing else mattered here. These people on the side of the road get it. They’re all here enjoying being in the moment living life as well.

I stopped for my 10th time to take a picture and this time on a beach with some snow capped mountains in the distance. Here comes Lars a little late to the party. I snap some pictures of both the bikes and he gets some of me. He tells me some guy nearly ran him off the road. hence why I just pass everyone. We ride! I start tailing him from behind and turn my go pro on. I got some cool videos of him riding his bike through the turns with the scenery. I pass him on the inside on a turn. We stop for a few more pictures. The vegetation here is beautiful. It’s like something you see on Nat Geo when it’s time in Patagonia. Well it actually is, and we’re watching it all happen. LIVE!

I pull over for another picture and I let Lars get a head start on me. I beep the horn right behind him telling him to pull over for another picture at a beach we’re about to pass but he keeps riding. I pull over and pull my bike up to the beach. Snow capped mountains in the background again and the water is just crystal clear like glass. I’m in heaven here. I just want to pitch my tent and sleep here. I take a few pics, take the view in and get back on the road. I catch up to Lars in about 5-6 minutes and we keep riding together. We finally got to a small town after quite some time and this place looks like a small Swiss town. but here is when i’m putting a stop to calling it that. From now on I’m going to start calling places like this a town that looks like Patagonia. I like it more. We decided to stop for a quick bite to eat here but everything was pretty much closed. Some guy came up to us asking us where we were from and he was Slovenian. I chatted with him in Serbian for a few minutes and then I found a little deli with fresh meat and cheese. I ordered a few hundred grams or Prosciutto and cheese along with two beers and we had a lovely little lunch on the side of this beautiful town. The beer was delicious along with the fork and this was perfect.

Back on the bikes we go and we both realized we cut the ETA down from about 2:30 to 1:10. Right on schedule for how we were riding. We stopped a few more times for some pictures and drone shots. I took a little walk down to one of the big lakes we were riding around and just enjoyed the view. It was fucking beautiful guys. We pulled into town riding like assholes and stopped for fuel. I said to Lars “ Well it looks like you’re loosening up a bit acting like you ride in NYC now” He agreed! Haha

We got to our hostel to check in and I got shafted and ended up paying more than what it cost, which I wasn’t happy about . We were in a rush to shower and get to a bar to watch the soccer game. We got to the bar to meet up with Milou that I met in Mendoza and we were hanging out with her dutch friends watching the game. Lars got right the hell out of there and I figured out why 3/4 of the way into the game. The Argentinians don’t take soccer as a joke. It got quite heated in the bar and as soon as the game was done I left. I went down to the town center and the Argentinians were going absolutely bonkers about this winning game. Hundreds of people turned into thousands and thousands of people. There was a band playing an Argentinian national song with drums and trumpets. Thousands of people jumping, screaming, lighting road flares, singing, crying, laughing and going nuts all in one big group. There was so much love and happiness it was absolutely beautiful. Thousands of people just surrounded these few small bands and were partying for hours and hours and hours. I met up with Lars in the group and he got the drone out to film the crowd. I was climbing up trees and all kinds of structures in the streets filming everything.

This right here is by far one of the coolest experiences I’ve had this entire trip. This was incredible. I wouldn’t have traded this night for anything. I am so lucky I am in Argentina for this game to witness this. I cannot wait for the next game to see what happens if these guys win. After a few hours of being in this wild crowd jumping around having a blast Lars and I got a steak at a delicious restaurant in town and then headed back to the hostel to check in finally and get our rooms at 11:30pm. Were officially locals eating past 10pm. The sky is still pretty bright out at 10pm. It’s lovely. Anyway we got our rooms, the parties were still going on in the streets and we crashed real hard.

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Day 63

Day 63

41,502 – 42,046   544 Miles today (19,346 Miles Overall)

Mendoza, Argentina – Zapala, Argentina

I was up quite early today. The mechanic told me he would have the bike ready last night late but that never happened. He sent me a picture of the bike gutted with everywhere being individually checked coming out of the ECU but did not find a thing. But seeing this guy’s work I am convinced he’s the best mechanic that has ever touched my bike. This morning he texted me at 9am and told me it would be ready at 10:30. I packed everything up and left it by the hostel door. I hung out with everyone downstairs saying bye to everyone and was so so sad to leave. Made my way over to the mechanic two blocks away.

He still had the front wheel off and was installing the new bearings. Bikes for 41,500 on it and I got the new chain and sprockets installed, new rear brake pads, new front and rear wheel bearings and I think that’s it. He decided to swap out the rear tubeless set up I have because air was leaking out of the plug from that nail. The hole was too big so he threw a tube in the ewer wheel which I’m not thrilled about because it’ll be a long day when I get a flat in the rear tire one day. I’ll keep the tubed set up until I buy another tire in Chile in a few weeks. He told me he’s pretty certain that my throttle body needs to be replaced and that’s the problem. I called up Pierre who is in Peru. he picked up my throttle body I brought down and left in a hostel in Huacachina and gave him the mechanics address. The plan is for him to mail it to Mendoza to this mechanic and on my way back up from Ushuaia I will stop back here for him to swap out the throttle body. He literally pulled apart every wire and removed the rear suspension to check every inch of every wire and didn’t find anything. I have a feeling this guy is right. He is supposedly the best mechanic in Argentina and I have a lot of faith in him. I guess we will see around New Years when I get back up here and get that TB installed.

I paid the man a cheap $300 and went back to the hostel and loaded up the bike. I had 2 days to get my ass down to Bariloche where I wanted to watch the net soccer game. I figured if I did 10 hours today and 4 tomorrow would be golden. So I said bye to all my friends and I was very very very sad to leave. I hit the road and had a long ride in front of me. It was hot as fuck at 96 degrees for most of the day. The first part of the ride was quite boring with long straight roads. But the views were still beautiful out in the distance.I was thinking about a lot of things on this ride. More importantly, my new plan for this trip. I was going to ship the bike back home from BA in January but I found out in the last few days that I can get a TIP for my bike for a year in Uruguay and a lot of people store bikes down there. I talked to Sameera and she’s cool with me coming back next winter and the one after for another trip. So the new plan is to get to Uruguay and leave my bike there for a few years. This makes me really happy as I don’t have to rush anything on this trip anymore. I’ll see what I see and whatever I don’t I can always come back to. Argentina is way too big and beautiful to rush it like this in one trip.

The roads here were quite empty. I was in the middle of nowhere again. I fucked up and didnt buy any water so I was empty. If I get a flat right now I’ll be screwed. Quite a vulnerable feeling out here all alone but I feel better and better about it as every week passes. More confidence? More trust? More of just not giving a shit? I have no idea what it is but I’m ok with it out here all alone now. If something happens it’ll all work out in the end. And if it doesn’t…..well I guess i’ll have another story to tell. I have too many stories to tell I don’t want to have anymore to tell! Hah

Whenever I got service on my cell I would check in on Lars on the Life360 app and see where he was. The bastard left at 7am and I was hoping to catch his ass at the end of the day. He doesn’t do long days and rides a bit slower. I didn’t stop for any food at all and was only stopping for fuel every 130 miles or so. I didn’t want to skip too many fuel stations in case the next one or two were closed or broken then I would be screwed. I came upon a long 50 mile dirt section which wasn’t great. it was quite shitty and I read some bad reviews about it on Ioverlander but it ended up not being that bad as they said it was. I passed a rider on an older Tenere and made him look like he was standing still on the road. When I got on the road my bike was riding like shit so I pulled over to make sure I didn’t have a flat. I didn’t but maybe the mechanic changed the Psi in the tires. After about 10 miles my confidence was back and I was ripping along on the dirt/gravel.

I came to a town at about 5pm and saw lars had stopped. I was hauling ass to get there. The winds were fucking brutal. 30-40mph cross winds just crushing my helmet into the side of my face. I must have looked like an idiot with the faces I was making whenever the winds got even stronger. The ride sucked with the strong winds but it’s only going to get worse. I got to the next town and Lars kept on riding. I’m gonna kill this guy. IT was another 1:40 to the next town he’s heading to now. I got fuel and back on the road hauling ass. I pulled into the next town and the bastard took off again onto the next. I texted him and told him to stop fucking moving so we can get dinner together but this town was the last one he said. I got some more fuel and rode another 40 minutes and finally caught him. This was perfect because I wanted to ride till 9pm and then camp so tomorrow would be an easy day. I got my own hotel room and met up with lars for dinner. It was nice to stop in one of these shit hole towns with a friend and not be here all alone. We got an ok meal and then went to bed quite early. We had a 4 hour ride to Bariloche tomorrow. What a long day today was. Almost 550 miles. We were exhausted.

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Day 60,61,62

Day 60,61,62

41,502 0 Miles today (18,802 Miles Overall)

Mendoza, Argentina

Well for three days I got to relax and get bunch of pool time in. I made a lot of new friends. I met an Irish girl from Serbia which was interesting. Mark the Irish man as well was fucking awesome. We went to Crossfit one day together and worked on hand stands by the pool. He’s quite the character. One of my favorite people I have met on this trip. It was so nice to just relax here and meet a bunch of people. I went out to a lovely steakhouse once a night and one night I even went twice. The food and ice cream here is ridiculous. I met Lars who is another rider on the group chat im in and we hung out for a few days as well. Literally just stayed by the pool soaking in the sun thew entire time and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

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Day 59

Day 59

41,092 – 41,502  410 Miles today (18,802 Miles Overall)

Villa Union, Argentina – Mendoza, Argentina.

I got up at 6 today and cleaned up to go outside and load up the bike. I got some nice shots of the bikes at the hotel with the mountains in the background getting lit up by the sunrise. The guys eventually came out and noticed my rear tire looks flat. I pushed on it with my feet and they were right. It looks like my plug I put in a few weeks ago in Huacachina was leaking air. I pulled the plug out, doubled up the new plug and put it in the tire. Looks like it was holding air now. But when I removed Pinchos portable compressor the valve looked like it was broken and air started pouring out. I had him take the valve cap off the front rim and put it on the rear. It seemed to be holding the air in from leaking. I’ll change the valve stem if I have to fill up on air today again but I didn’t want to do it with his portable compressor since it took a while and I didnt want to kill his battery on it. I said bye to the guys and was on my way.

I was going to follow Pinchos route he gave me which made my ride a few hours longer but it was supposed to be beautiful. It started off with a sort of boring straight road but with beautiful scenery all around with snow capped mountains. I came to a turn and had to detour off of Rt 40 to take his route. Well god damn im glad I met him because I didn’t expect to see this beauty back here. You’ll see in the pictures when you scroll down shortly. The roads went up in a mountain of desert and red rocks with cactus everywhere. Eventually coming down into a valley with a huge river flowing through it. The roads were freshly paved for most of it and there wasn’t one straight section for a while in the valley. I was ripping along on my bike having a grand time all alone. The views, the temperature, the roads, everything was just perfect. I realized I was getting low on fuel. I tried to stop for fuel where he told me to but the gas station was closed. I barely made it to the next town with my fuel light on and thank god I had this big tank on my bike or else I would have been stuck in the desert. I filled up on fuel and tried to refill my SIM card with luck in the small town.

Back on the road I had a few more echoes to Mendoza including the detour he told me to take. He told me there were some dirt roads coming up and it was only 10kms. I ended up getting to the section after the police stopped me to check my papers. I was a bit nervous as I still haven’t gotten insurance but they didn’t ask for it luckily. I hit the dirt section which ended up being about 30 miles. I was ripping right along doing 70mph on it. I’m starting to get really comfortable riding on dirt and gravel with some sand. I let the bike search a bit with the front wheel but I stayed relaxed and loose on the bike and just let it do its thing. Last year I probably wouldn’t go over 20-30 on this road. Here I am doing highway speeds on it for 30 miles blasting over loose gravel and sand. I make it out back to the paved road after a while and I stop to take in the view. I couldn’t believe my eyes. This view in front of me looked fake. Absolutely fake. So many mountains full of color with clouds floating over them for miles and miles in the distance.

I was riding through some small towns, this is what Patagonia feels like for some reason. High elevation, pine trees filling up my nostrils with the smells, cleanest air you could imagine in the middle of nowhere. Couple of girls walking through a vineyard waved to me and I waved back. What a lovely day this was. Everyone walking by looked so peaceful in the middle of nowhere with small houses here and there.

I pulled into a packed restaurant in the next town and got myself a lovely Argentinian steak now that I know what to order. I watched the soccer game on tv with Poland which they lost. The food was delicious.I got back on the road and did the shortcut into Mendoza that he gave me. I passed a huge blue lake where people were sailing and chilling on the beach there. The mountains going into Mendoza were wild. I was anxious to get to the city so I could get to the hostel and jump in the pool. I made my way into Mendoza, checked into my hostel and got right in the pool. I made some friends here and went out to dinner at the best steakhouse in the city with another rider. OH MY GOD. These steaks put steaks to shame everywhere else in the world. The price was like $12 for a 2.5 pound steak that we split along with drinks. I came back to the hostel and crashed super early because I was tired from the three long days of riding I just did.

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Day 58

Day 58

40,738 – 41,092  354  Miles today (18,392 Miles Overall)

Cayafate, Argentina – Villa Union, Argentina

The bed I slept on felt like it was made out of those little sticks you eat ice cream off of. Luckily this thing didnt break but swayed quite a bit whenever I blinked my eyes. I got up at sunrise and packed up as quietly as I could, missing my tent and all the noise I could make packing up. I hit the road and filled up with some fuel right around the block. I love this feeling. A full tank of fuel, a beautiful morning and a long ride ahead of me.

This morning felt extra lovely. It reminded me of Europe. The smells, the temperature, the vibe of the town. I was really excited and I was even more sad to leave. This town smelled like home in a way and I really wanted to stay but onwards we went. There was something about this morning that was quite different than any other I’ve had this whole trip to sum it up. Most of today was going to be paved roads from what I assumed.

The roads in the morning were absolutely beautiful but slowly turned into long and straight desert roads which were quite boring but I was still having fun with the mountains in the distance. I had about a 14 hour ride today if I was going to make it to Mendoza but who knows if I was going to make it. I had to stop for food. I ended up taking some super twisty roads and I didnt stop too long for photos today because it was mostly highway desert riding and I was on a mission to get to Mendoza. I saw a few guys riding road bikes pedaling down the desert roads and pulled over to ask them if they needed any water or anything. The guy was Dutch. We chatted for a bit while riding next to each other. It was quite a funny scene. He was talking shit about how Serbia lost the soccer game the day before. Bastard! hah

I stopped at a small town for fuel and didn’t see anywhere good to eat and kept on riding. Eventually I opened up the Ioverlander app and noticed there were some desert swimming holes coming up ahead. I parked in the dirt lot and saw a red car parked. I made my way down to the swimming holes and saw a tent and some sleeping bags. Looks like the people in the red car were camping there with a little baby. I went up to the second swimming hole and supposedly they got bigger as you go up but I didn’t want anyone stealing stuff from my bike right next to the road. I went for a swim for about 15 minutes and washed my clothes I’ve been wearing for the last three days that were pretty stinky. I set up my phone on a timer to take a picture of me in the water and out came this woman from the bushes with her kid over her shoulders. I said hi and she was putting the baby to sleep under the tent. I made my way back to the bike and was changing next to the river and she came up to me and told me that if I go up like 3-4 swimming holes the last one has a 5 meter waterfall and it’s beautiful. I told her I couldn’t because of the bike. I went back to the bike to pack up and realized I lost a sock so I went back down and met her husband. We chatted for a minute. They were from Patagonia and said they’ve been camping there for a few days and haven’t seen a single person. I told them how jealous I was of them and I made my way back to the bike as I heard her jumping off the 10′ wall into the swimming hole.

I wish I could camp here for a week. The water was so cold and clear it was perfect. I hope to come back here one day. Onwards I kept riding down the twisty roads. These roads were freshly paved and beautiful. So many turns, red desert rocks surrounding it, huge walls, cactus everywhere, rivers flowing through the valleys. This place is fucking heaven guys. I decided it was time to stop for food since I’m probably gonna pull into Mendoza at night time anyway. I found a small town coming up an hour after the swimming hole. I pulled into this restaurant which had two big adventure bikes out front. I sat down maybe 15′ from the riders and we started chatting. A few minutes later I was sitting with them.

My main question I had for Pinchon (Luis) was about the Argentinian steak I keep hearing about. He pointed to Bif De Chorizo. I ordered one. We were chatting about our trips we were taking and our bikes and how much of a POS my bike is. hah

Pinchon and Fanbian were from northern Argentina and were doing yet another big bike trip from Northern Argentina to Ushuaia and were not on their way back up north to go home. My steak came and fucking christ was I happy I finally found out what I needed to order to try this delicious thick Argentinian steak. I asked them where they were staying and Pinchon said up the block and for me it’s cheap. I asked him how much and it was 40,000 Pesos which is way out of my price range. I found a hotel up the block for 700 pesos if I was going to stay. After a few minutes he gave me his cell phone and told me to type in my passport number and my name for the hotel he’s staying at. I said no way man I can’t stay there tis too expensive. he replied with you’re my guest it’s on me. The bill came and Pinchon paid for my lunch and Fabians. I can’t believe it. I eventually typed in my info and we were on our way to the hotel.

I can’t believe my luck. This stranger meets me and is treating me to this expensive as hell hotel and food. What is my life? And why is this man being so sweet? I pulled into the hotel room and I couldn’t believe what i’m seeing. This is one of the nicest and most expensive hotels I’ve ever stayed at in my life. Huge property, vineyard on it, pool, everything is here. I got handed a room key and couldn’t believe how nice this place was. I took a shower after I jumped in the pool and rushed out to the fancy area where everyone hangs out to watch the Argentina vs Australia soccer game. We chatted a bit here and there about bikes and life. They called a bunch of friends to tell me what mechanic to go to in Mendoza which turned out I was already going to the best guy there. Pinchon slowly gave me all of his routes to take on my way south. He has done this trip many times in his life and I was getting the key secret routes to take through Argentina. Did I mention my luck?

After the game we went out to the pool and we chatted about all kinds of stuff. He kept giving me routes to take south and fuck was I happy! Pinchon is such a sweetheart. I worked on my blog after we all cleaned up in our hotel rooms while Fabian showered. Pinchon came out and we bullshitted some more. It was so nice actually hanging out with a local out here because I haven’t had that yet on this trip. He told me about how he made it this far and his story was beautiful. He’s 47 years young. When he was younger he went to Buenos Aires and found out about the credit card machine for how people pay for gas, food, clothes in the 90’s. He went back up north to his home and ended up running the northern part of the country with the credit card machine. He started to go to gas stations, grocery stores, clothing stores, and all kinds of stores trying to tell them about this new product and how people will be paying for things soon with credit cards and they needed this to accept payments. Fast forward to 2022 and he’s a very successful man.

We all got dinner, I had a thick thick typical steak and I was loving every single bite of it. Ugh was it good. We had such a good time and they are such great company. I asked him how he got into motorcycles. He told me he was young and broke and I think he was just starting the credit card company. His father passed away and he needed money to cover his fathers debt and pay for the funeral costs. He ended up selling his car and got a small scooter. On his way to the funeral home he had the biggest smile on my face. He said to himself, “Why the fuck am I smiling so much and so happy while im riding to my fathers funeral?”

IT’S THE SCOOTER! I FEEL ALIVE AND THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER HE SAID! Something clicked in his head and he and all of his friends slowly got motorcycles and they fucking loved it. I think most people feel this way, we feel alive, free, just out there. It’s brilliant. So simple yet so powerful. He figured it out pretty early on and now it’s his passion. He has done a few trips all over Argentina every year since he was young as well as around other parts of the world. I like this guy.

We chatted about Argentina and the lifestyle here, politics, and so many more things. He taught me alot.  I told him he better come visit me in NY one day and he has an apartment to stay at with his own personal tour guide and a motorcycle he can use while he’s there. I hope he and his Gf come visit to repay him for what he has done for me today! We called it a night around midnight and decided we would wake up at 6 to meet in the parking lot at 7 to say bye to each other.