FIN DEL MUNDO

 

USHUAIA, ARGENTINA

We have arrived at the end of the world. The southern most road in the world and the end of the road for us. What an awesome road it has been.We have been through a lot. Rain, Hail,Snow Wind, Cold, Hot, Dirt, Gravel, Long, Short, Winding, straight. We have a bit of mixed emotions arriving here. We have been on the road towards here for a total of 8 months and 17,000 miles.  In ways we feel that we have accomplished a goal. We have reached that destination and we have literally reached the end of the road. We are a bit sad to see that road end. Always heading in the same direction, South to Ushuaia. Someone once told us, “Don’t go north if you are headed south”. We have lived by that the whole way south So now the question? “What next”?. We always roll with what the road brings us. We’ll keep on keepin’ on with what life rolls out next.

We made it to Ushuaia 2 up on the White Rabbit. Down sized our load dramatically. It is amazing how little we can live with. It was still a little tight at times but luckily we like each other and we only had to be that way for about 300 miles. I had a hard time riding on the back after being in control of my own motorcycle. It was a different experience. We had a beautiful ride getting here the last few days. We arrived in Tierra Del Fuego, meaning the land of fire. We stopped and saw a small penguin colony of emperor penguins, the only ones in South America. We are not quite sure why they are here but for some reason they have left Antarctica and are now staying in Tierra Del Fuego. What beautiful birds. We were able to get really close to them, they do not seem to be scared of human presence. What a beautiful, once in a life time experience. We have had a lot of these experiences and we are grateful and always in awe with everyone of them.

 

Tierra del Fuego. Our hotel for a night.

 

Border crossing from Chile to Argentina.

 

Traffic Jam in Argentina.

 

 

 

 

What a long, strange trip it’s been…THE END

3-18-2012 The Shooting Star’s last RIDE.

 

  All Shooting Stars fade out after an amazing show.

 

 

After 30,000 Miles, all kinds of roads and trails, ups and downs, wind and rain The Shooting Star ran out. She had a good strong run. She ran farther and saw more than any other 1995 KLR 250. She fell short by about 380 miles to her destination.She will be missed.

We took her to the local mechanic to make sure if we could replace the rocker arm that the rest of the engine would still alright. We found that one of the exhaust valves was bent and unmovable. It would take a lot of time,(which we are running out as it’s turning to winter)  to find all the parts if we could even find them for this rare bike in this part of the world. After much deliberation  we decided that the best thing was to try and sell her as is. We were able to sell her in a few hours to a local who thought that he might be able to bring her back after a lot of time and love. Maybe with a whole new engine. He had the time to do it and had a daughter to give it to. I’m happy that the shooting star is going to another girl. She is a girls bike that only a true women can handle. I hope that one day she will fly again.

Luckily We still have the strong White Rabbit that we can both ride for the 380 miles left to Ushuaia and 2 awesome VW buses that can hold my gear. We are still south bound and enjoying what the road brings with it.

Just some of the great times she had with us.

This photo is from her last ride!

Bye Bye Shooting Star.

Handing over the keys to the Shooting Stars new owner.

Amazing Patagonia

 

March 13 2012

Perito Moreno Glacier- El Calafate Argentina

   Today were rode into The Glacier National Park  in Argentina with our friends Simon, MC, Jason, Angela, and Bode.  It was a nice change of pace to actually sit back in the VW bus and have someone else drive for a change.  The ride was about an hour of beautiful scenery. We decided to have all the girls in one bus and the boys in another.  The Moreno Glacier flows to the valley floor where it meet the lake.  We stayed here at the glacier all day long until the park closed.  You never get tired of watching a 90 foot wall of ice come crashing down into the lake.  For sure it was one of the most spectacular thing that we have ever seen.  Just another one of those moments when you really feel small in this giant planet we call earth.  Everyone should witness this sometime in their lives.

March 15 2012

El Calafate Argentina-Torres del Paine area Chile

167 miles mostly dirt.

     Today the caravan was up and moving again.  We have heard that the short cut way of hwy. 40 was suppose to be one of the worst sections of road in all of Argentina.  So of course we must go that way and check it out for ourselves because its hard to take anyone's advice as everyone has a different view on things.  As it turns out it is actually one of the best dirt roads that we have been on in quite a long time.  If not the best one of the whole trip.  Goes to show you that you have to go  and see for yourself and not really listen to other.  We are usually pretty good at doing this so it wasn't to far out of the norm for us. We stopped for lunch at a small river for a lunch break.  Simon tried his luck at fishing while I made a hot dog cooker out of an empty beer can that I strapped to my muffler.(Thanks for the idea Kris). 

  Now it was time to cross the boarder back over into Chile.  This was a very small boarder on a very windy dirt road.  It was the smoothest boarder crossing ever for us.  It went so fast for all of us it was kind of a surprise.  After the boarder we headed towards Torres del Paine park.  We stopped short of the park because we found a great camping spot on a lake with an awesome view of the peaks.

March 16 2012

Torres del Paine national park Chile

23 miles o dirt

     Today we woke up to heavy clouds,light rain, and never without our friend the WIND.  Our plan of hiking in the park was out today and it was time to find some kind of a shelter out of the rain and wind.  We entered the park and went to a camp ground with a shelter to pitch our tent under out of the weather.

March 17 2012

Torres del Paine park

     This morning we woke up to a beautiful blue bird day.  These days seem to be few and far between anymore and we decided to take full advantage of the day and go for a hike.  Simon,MC, and Camille and I drove to the other side of the park for our hike.  We hiked just about what seemed like all day. 18 kms towards the famous spires of Patagonia. The walk was beautiful, but as some may know I'm not much a walker and it was a little farther than I usually like to go.  This is the end of the busy season here and I still could not believe how many people we passed on the trail.  At least 100.  I would really hate to be here here during the busy season.  No wonder the trail is so wide here. None the less it was a wonderful day and good to get out and get some exercise and fresh mountain air.

March 18 2012

Torres del Paine- Puerto Natales, Chile

100 miles of windy dirt roads

We pulled into town today and saw that one of the buses had a flat tire again due to the rough rocky road. The spare was already used due to a blowout on a rough road a couple of days earlier. All the tire shops were closed because it is Sunday. The other bus we are with stayed behind to do some fishing. So now we don’t have a  tire or a way to get one fixed. So Paul and I decide to drive a around and look for a room close by. As we were looking around we were being chased by a lot of dogs. I Gunned the shooting star to try and scare off  the dogs and then heard an explosion.  I got off my bike and saw oil all in places oil should not be. We pushed the bike towards the gas station to the bus with the flat tire. We had to push the bike up a hill to a hotel room and started pulling it apart. We found chunks of metal missing from the top engine cover. We pulled that off and saw that one of the screws was missing from the valves and the other two valves had completely broken off with some pieces missing down in the engine.  We are now trying to figure out if this is a fixable problem. Being that there or few if any other KLR 250 down here it is hard to get parts. We will see in a couple of days.

March 19 2012

Today we went around town to find out the bad news about our shooting start.  The valve rocker is so different than all the others that the part is not available here in Puerto  Natales, or maybe not at all here in Chile.  Klr’s are not a common bike down here and klr 250’s are even more rare.   He also says there is no shop around here to get a new one machined. The mechanic says you should be on a Honda.  We will try and get the “falling star down to the next city which is 100 miles away.  Punta Arenas is a city of a few hundred thousand people and we may have better luck there.  If nothing works out there for us we may continue 2 up on the White Rabbit for the last 250 miles to Ushuaia”the end of the World”

Simon riding the roof.

Perito Moreno Glacier.

Our Crew.

Hwy. 40 cooked dog. Argentina

Big air with a full loaded bike at Torres del Paine Chile.

Torres del Paine.

The top of the shooting star engine.

Route 40 Patagonia,Argentina. Wind, Rain and Friends.

 

7 March 2012

125 miles  of dirt  Cuevas de los Manos

Today we visited the cave of hands. A “cave” that displays 9300 year old paintings of hands. Made by putting their hands on the walls and them blowing the paint out of their mouths leaving outlines of hands all over the cave.

Leaving the cave there were 2 VW Buses in the parking lot, one with California plates the other with plates from Chile. After talking a little we waved goodbye and said see you down the road.

The next town we came to ,Bajo Caracoles, to get gas was out of fuel and the two buses and us all needed fuel. The gas station owner said the next fuel truck was due to arrive in 15 to 30 days.  Now I know we are not really in a hurry here,but that is just a little too long for us to wait around. The next town that hopefully has fuel was 140 Miles south. We all luckily had a little fuel that we have been carrying but knew that it was cutting it close to get to the next town. We all decided to ride together just in case any of us needed a little help getting down the road.We had to camp out a little while down the road for it was getting late and dark. The buses made for an excellent wind block for the bikes and our tent.

8 March 2012

92 Miles of gravel

We all made it to, Gobernador Gregores, the next fuel station! but they do not have any fuel until 4pm. We go into town make lunch with plans to fuel up at 4 and hit the road. At 330pm they say no gas until 8pm. Well we can not go anywhere. We set up camp and waited…at 8pm they have gas and a line and they are rationing gas to $100 pesos per vehicle. Motorcycles are full along with all the extra containers but the buses had to make a couple of trips through the line.

9 March 2012

186 Miles total. 102 of deep deep gravel.

El Chalten

Full of fuel we all hit the road again and decide to ride a little farther together for we all seem to be traveling at about the same pace. So we are now 2 Motorcycles, 2 Volkswagen's, 7 People and a whole lot of fun and a new kind of adventure. We never thought we would be the same speed as the VW vans but it all works out.

A lot of Gravel road today Thick gravel that just pulls the bike all over the road. One bus had a tire blow out and another had a rear shock break. So it was a rough road today and we were all happy to arrive at a town where the road turns to pavement but still no fuel at the station.

The next town El Chalten has fuel but at a much higher price. El Chalten is a beautiful mountain town with huge glaciers, crystal rivers and lakes, granite spires and trout. We decide it is time to catch some fish.

10 March 2012

We drove past the town today and camped by the river with high hopes to catch some fish and have a big fish fry. With Paul’s second cast he hooked a small trout. Big enough to keep and eat. Wow that was fast we now have really high hopes. That was the only fish that was caught that day.

11 March 2012

Woke up with rain. Our favorite. instead of ride in it today we all decide to hike in it! We hiked up to one of the glaciers nearby. a short wet hike. It did clear so we were able to get a good view of the glacier. Rode back to town to dry out all of our gear.

12 March 2012

130 miles

El Chalten-El Calafate, Argentina

Still headed south. Since we can not decide what is worse to ride in, strong wind or rain we got them both today at the same time. Gotta love Patagonia! Funny with all this wind we still have to find a place to dry out.

 

Cuevas de Las Manos

Our Caravan

 

Beautiful road to

El Chalten. Lucky to see it on a clear blue day for the next days it was raining.

First Glacier hike.

El Chalten area.

Route 40.

Slow Train.

 

March 2 2012  133 miles

Aguas Caliente Chile- San Carlos de Bariloche Argentina

     Today we crossed back into Argentina.  This pass that we rode over today was like none of the rest that we have crosses so far.  At the bottom it was a lush rainforest with fern leaves bigger than our motorcycles.  Halfway up the pass we entered what looked like a forest full of giant oak trees.  The forest floor was void of vegetation.  As far as you could see it was just gravel.  Towards the beginning I thought”wow they really use a lot of gravel on this road during the winter”, then I started to look around more and the gravel was everywhere throughout the forest as well.  Very very crazy looking place.  I’ve never seen anything like it before.  At the top of the the pass giant peaks are poking out of the above tree line gravel.  Today was the first day in quite a while that we didn't get rained on.  It was a very beautiful day of riding. Oh yeah today I also bought a new pair of hiking boots.  My old one’s were getting my feet to wet and stinking really really bad.  Camille bought a pair of fishing waders to keep her dry, as her rain gear couldn’t handle the load anymore. Thanks for that idea Julie.  The waders are working so good I think I’m going to get me a pair also.

March 3.  23 miles

Bariloche Argentina

We have an amazing 2 story room overlooking the lake here.  Full kitchen and everything!  The whole side of the room is windows from top to bottom.  Today we woke up to blue sky's and sunshine.  This has been a rare  thing in our lives lately.  We decided to take advantage of it and go for a hike in some of the beautiful basalt spires around the area.  So we rode up to the ski area outside of town.  WOW what a great looking place to ski.  SO so many lifts with good looking terrain.  Above tree line as well as tree skiing. Kind of with it was winter here now.  We hiked up the area a bit for a better view.  Skiing around spires sure would be fun. They did have some downhill mountain biking here but since it is towards the end of their summer season all the rental shops were already closed.  After we left the ski area we took a little dirt road around towards yet another lake where we hiked to a small waterfall.

March 4th  190 miles

Bariloche-Esquel Argentina

Started on the famous route 40 today. Route 40 runs the whole length of Argentina, from top to bottom. A lot of the highway is unpaved and sometimes we ride next to the fresh new pavement they are still working on.

We got to test out the fishing waders today and they worked great. I look silly but I am DRY. Paul still needs to work on his system. Just after the rain stopped the wind started. Gusts, blowing us all over the road. It is hard to ride in this because you are constantly fighting the wind in every direction. Have to love being out in all the elements on the motorcycle.

5 March    Esquel Argentina- camping on road side.

180 Miles

Windy again today. Not as bad as yesterday but still windy. Had to find a camp spot on the side of the road out of the wind. This is very hard to do out here, as there are no trees. The town we wanted to stop in  was very weird and I do not think they liked motorcyclist or maybe just us. Nobody would rent us a room. They said they were full but there was nobody around the whole town. Just a really creepy place that reminded us of the Twilight Zone. So we got the heck out of there and camped out on the side of the highway.

6 March

214 Miles

road side-Puerto Moreno, Argentina

We must fuel up whenever  can because the towns are few and far between and sometimes, or most of the time, the stations do not have fuel. So get it where you can. We ran into a couple other Motorcyclists at the one gas station. Jay from Canada on a 1200 BMW. 2 guys from Santiago, Chile. We rode with them most of the day. They are on the fast train and after 240 miles they wanted to keep riding until dark. Paul and I said that was good for us and stayed in town. The Chileans  only had 6 more days of their vacation and had ground to cover. We are on the slow train.

Crazy looking pass.

 

 

Bariloche ski resort.

 

Fall is in the air and this morning we had a fresh dusting of snow.

Beautiful roadside camping with a fullish moon.

New friends for a day, and our daily consumption.

100’s and 100’s of miles that look like this.

Leap Year…1 extra day

 

February 29 2012

(Leap Day) Ensenada 90 miles

This morning we woke up and were invited to a wonderful breakfast with Julie Mizener from Stanley Idaho.  Who would have taught we would meet a fellow Stanleite down here in Patagonia Chile.  Julie is down here doing some fly fishing for a couple of weeks.  She also gave us some very valuable information on where we wanted to go.  The first place we were headed is under serious protesting.  The roads are closed, there is no fuel, and no gas.  Guess we are on to our second choice.  Well the second one fell through also due to an erupting volcano.  Its all under smoke and ash now.  Both of these towns you have to take a ferry to from Puerto Montt.  Puerto Montt is at the bottom of Chile where it starts to break up into thousands of islands.  The only other choice we have now is to cross the boarder back over to Argentina.  We’ve gone as far south in Chile as possible at this point in time.  Thanks Julie for the valuable information.

     After breakfast it was time to head 30 miles back to Puerto Varas to look for a mechanic to fix Camille’s stripped out oil drain screw hole.  The first little shop we found took care of us right on the spot.  It did take 15 minutes to explain to him what was actually wrong with the bike.  After I was able to turn the screw with my fingers he suddenly got it.  He then threaded in some new threads, sent his son to the store for a new bolt, cut it down to size and now its as good as new. 10 dollars is what he asked for.  We felt like he just saved our lives so we gave him 15.  When people find out that you have ridden your motorcycle from the states to here they seem to be a lot nicer to you.  I really don’t think I can explain it.  They give you this look like your crazy and are more willing to help you out.  After this was all finished I went and tried my luck at some fishing.  Didn't catch anything but it was beautiful and not raining

1 March 2012 

Agua Caliente, Argentina. Chile 88 miles

Took off today with images of Hot Springs dancing in our head…After Rain and beautiful riding through lush, wet forests  we found that the hot springs and all accommodations surrounding were full. we rode back on the highway, through the rain, for a while and found a Cabana with a wood stove! Oh how those wood stoves know how to dry us out!

Fishing Hole.

 

Mechanic working on the shooting star.

Volcano Osorno finallly showed her face.