Salta and Mendoza, ArgentinaTo Santiago, Chile

Attempt number four to post this blog.   I managed to salvage some of the pictures of the Bolivian altiplano.  This is the Martian/lunar landscape I was talking about in previous blog.

        I figured I would mix it up a little with these black and whites of northern Argentina

My Australian friend, Rob has been riding on these tires or close to 1000 miles.  How he made it through Bolivia, I don't know.

 

In Salta, Argentina he finally replaced both tires, the chain and both sprockets.

Thes are some of the Irish backpackers at our hostel LOKI in Salta. Needless to say, they were quite entertaining for a few days.  This is mild... Leave it at that

              Another Austrailian riding inside the bar/restaurant

                We left Salta for Mendoza through more desert

    

          About to ride into another sandstorm up ahead

Mendoza is famous for wine, but instead of a bodega I found a leather shop where this man, Eduard Rastrilla has a 15 X 15 room in the back with his antique motorcycle collection.  I wasn't paying attention to my photos, so I missed a lot of information on the motorcycles.

                                        1950 Garelli    38cc

                 Not sure what this is,  possibly Norton.

This bike was hidden up on ashelf,  I reached up and took the shot.  Like the bike below, it is a bike in a box,  dropped by Airborne parachutists then assembled and ridden.

                                               1936 Excelsior      125cc

                         Ramanot- that's all of the information

                         175cc  Norton     Work in progress

                         No information at all

                                1962 Parilla Sport.    350cc

       One of my favorites     1924 Douglas Speedway   0 to 60 in two seconds, no brakes

                       Complete with small aircraft engine

          My other favorite.   1907 Triumph    500 cc

                   I about fell over when I saw these next two bikes        1948 Indian Chief

Did you notice the wicker sidecar in the Triumph picture?

It belongs to this.    1917 Harley-Davidson

While the rest of the crew went on a bicycle tour of several local wineries I went on a ride to this nature reserve.  It started in the desert on a nice, straight, flat concrete road,  but that's not why I was there.

   This is the start of the fun stuff.  A nice rugged dirt road with 365 curves, uphill

           This was about a third of the way up then the road disappeared below.

Just over the top was this overlook.  The mountain range in the background is the highest point in South America at 22,841 feet

When the dirt road  ended in Uspallata,  I jumped on a nice smooth ribbon of asphalt heading toward the Argentine/Chile border to check out an Incan Bridge.

              Tough day on the job for this guy.   Think. PENNDOT

        I made it to the Incan Bridge thinking it was like the one at Machu Picchu.   Wrong!!!  

                                            Read this for information

   

          This is the scenery around the hot spring

   I returned to Mendoza along this river.   Check out how high/wide the banks are from erosion.

                            A few crazy vehicles on the streets of Mendoza

                            Check out the fuel tank under there

                                Ford Motor Company would be proud

         Could there be Amish in Argentina?

               We headed for the border crossing where these pictures were taken

                 Traffic jam due to construction held us up over ahour maybe two

We processed through the border fairly quick and made our way down the mountain when Rob blew a front tire  hit the asphalt in this hairpin turn.  We just finished changing the tube and cleaning up.  Rob was alright,  ATGATT -  All The Gear All The Time

After that delay and another two hours of riding we made it to Santiago, Chile.  Chile is famous for seafood so Judy and I split this 45 piece Sushi dinner for four.  $35,   I don't know the price for Sushi so I don't know if was a good price or not but it was deliciousness in 5 flavors

We usually take a double decker bus tour but they wanted $40 each in Santiago so we took our own walking tour.

                                           Government building

One of the lights outside the  government building

      Reflection of one of the cathedral towers on glass building

Stone sculpture in central plaza

 Light post at a park we went to

    They have pitchers in their hands, it's a public park

         Hidalgo Castle built into the rock in the park

             Views of Santiago from the park

                       Judy doing some posing

            Random scenes in the park

This was a Japanese theme in the park, too bad there wasn't any water in it

We stopped for a cup of coffee on our walk

Yes, they rock and roll in Chile

We came to this Funicular and took it up the mountain,  the rest are pictures from the top

  Passing zone

I tried do use the panorama feature on my point and shoot but that didn't work out to well

These next shots are from left to right, maybe somebody can stich them together and send it back I'll post it if possible.

Back on the street we saw these flowers -bird of paradise

 Check out the dog. What a poser.

Since you asked, the spare tire I was carrying around was an emergency spare I bought in Ecuador because I couldn't find the right size tire for my Harley.  I finally found one in Peru and still carried the tire until Bolivia.  Finally I found  somebody that needed that size tire and gave it to him.  

   Judy lew home from La Paz for personal reasons and re joined me in Santiago approximately one month later.  We are now riding our way south and presently holed up in PUCON, Chile for a few days of adventure and relaxation also.  From here we will be going up over the mountain into Argentina and riding south through the lakes district towards BARILOCHE and the rest of Patagonia.  We hit a pretty cool NP on the way here and already took a boat ride out on the lake in Pucon. Haven't seen the pictures yet but I'm sure one or two should be good.  Stay tuned.