Table of contents

• Motorcycle trip across the Andes, Northern Argentina / Chile Far too real an adventure
• When Murphy strikes …
• “Hopefully they’ll make it across the streams”
• That can make you queasy …
• “Why doesn’t the fuel evaporate??”
• Four-hour chicane from a lieutenant
• Information about motorcycle tour Argentina
• Argentina

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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Even with good organizers, you can experience quite a few adventures here.

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Horses are the first choice for the gauchos. You don’t need gas stations.

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The landscape becomes greener and more fertile. The best white wine in all of Argentina grows in Cafayate.

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Llamas are trusting and popular pets because of their thick fur. In some places they end up on the plate.

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At the Puente del Inca, a naturally created bridge, sulphurous thermal water colors the rock red-yellow.

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Beggars can not be choosers. Or: where no super is available, you can also fill up with diesel. He had to get out again!

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At an altitude of 3854 meters between Chile and Argentina, the Cristo Redentor watches over the peace between the two neighbors.

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Water passage of the easier kind on the arduous way to the highest Andean pass, the Abra del Acay.

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Patricía bakes the bread, which comes to an abrupt end as a giant sandwich.

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Done! Even without a trailer, the group is looking forward to the highest pass!

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In the main valley of the Valles Calchaquies. The road winds very high up to 4895 meters to the Abra del Acay.

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School uniforms are compulsory across Argentina. You avoid the envy factor among students.

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The road to Tocota, without a Toyota: the bus had to evade, but the troop had fun! And a nasty broken leg.

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This trip to the high Andes made high demands on people, machines and the MOTORRAD action team.

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The deep blue sky over the Andes always looks downright ruffled by the wind.

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So has to be a kiosk: Here you can get everything from sandwiches to ice cream to information.

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… Mild sweet peppers are laid out here to dry.

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Looks sharper than it is …

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Outrageous cliche: shiny white churches against a bright blue sky.

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The Quebrada de las Flechas, the gorge of the arrowheads.

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Like on the moon: Geologists’ hearts open up in the Valle de la Luna.

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Abundantly gifted nature around Salta: It leads to fertile valleys in which almost everything grows, even citrus fruits.

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The pictures for the report “Motorcycle trip across the Andes – Northern Argentina and Chile”.

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Motorcycle tour Andes Northern Argentina Chile

Motorcycle trip across the Andes, Northern Argentina / Chile
Far too real an adventure

He knows no mercy. And he doesn’t know his way around. Worse still: he does not recognize the motorcycles’ papers either – Eduardo Dias, head of the Paso Sico border crossing. By the way, almost everything else went wrong on this trip:

Daniel Lengwenus

01/22/2015

He knows no mercy. And he doesn’t know his way around. Worse still: Even after insisting several times, he does not recognize the correct papers of the motorcycles. “They won’t get over this border like that!” Eduardo Dias, who has been the new head of the Paso Sico border crossing since yesterday, does not allow himself to be softened. Here, in the no man’s land between Chile and Argentina, nobody can get past him.

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Far too real an adventure

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But it was almost clear that a lot would go wrong on this tour. On the very first day, still in Mendoza, the air conditioning in the support vehicle failed. O. K., angry, but no broken leg. But this was just another three days in coming. The road to Tocota was fatal for Peter, a doctor from near Zurich. The international troop had to go really off-road on a track that was getting more and more lost in the pampas due to the heavy rains of the last few weeks. Because first the piste disappeared, then every marked path. Only an iron will and the rough direction of the compass helped.

When Murphy strikes …

Where there were once bridges, the river bed, which luckily had dried up again, had to be crossed deep below, where the road had washed away, one often had to dodge through lush fields of deep sand in order to get back onto something like a real dirt road later. Where this was finally recognizable again as a one meter deep ravine and largely passable, it became a stream bed with corresponding silt and mud and stones the size of a child’s head. One of these then had Peter turn right into the embankment at a brisk 70-degree angle. Which subsequently caused the cracked ankle. As a doctor, Peter could best take care of himself right away. Because, it’s always good to have a doc around …

No matter how well prepared you are, when Murphy strikes, it will always be exciting. A sharp loss of power and pitch-black exhaust fumes from the 2.5-liter diesel engine in our Renault Master didn’t bode well. On the south ramp of the 4895 meter high Abra del Acay, the highest pass in the Andes, an extremely bad place for attacks of engine weakness. Mauricio, good soul, mechanic and owner of Brasil Adventure Tours, tried again and again to cool the quickly overheating engine with the help of additional spray water on the crackling radiator, which was necessary at ever shorter intervals. It was already getting dark when we decided to leave the big trailer, which can hold twelve motorcycles, behind us. We absolutely had to reach San Antonio de los Cobres in daylight, because driving in the dark increases the risks many times over.

“Hopefully they’ll make it across the streams”

And night fell. Mauricio had a short sleep and set off at four o’clock with a Toyota pickup and its local, helpful driver to recover the trailer on the other side of the pass. All of our spare parts were on this, without it there would also be no possibility of taking everyone in the support vehicle at any time. Always a reassuring alternative just in case. When Mauricio arrived at the trailer with Manolito, everything was initially OK. But around 6:30 a.m. Murphy seemed to wake up and struck mercilessly. The trailer hitch did not fit. No drama for Mauricio and his craftsmanship, he improvised and adapted the parts. Then the four-wheel drive of the Toyota failed, it could not be activated at all. The two tried it with the mundane rear-wheel drive of the decrepit pickup. Lo and behold, the Toyota pulled the heavy trailer uphill, but not without running over Mauricio’s satellite phone, which had slipped out of his pocket during the recovery.

The result of the cold mechanical adaptation of two different couplings then caused around two hours of sawing and hammering until the ball mount of the original trailer coupling fitted again. The troops did not leave the hostería until 2 p.m., instead of at 9 a.m. as planned. It was decided to take the old Ruta 40 under the wheels. A new, expanded route now runs further to the east, replacing the old one from San Antonio. Which means that the number of exciting off-road stages on the no longer maintained Ruta 40 was undesirably high and difficult to master. Apart from creek crossings that are extremely tricky for two-lane vehicles with a steep rise in the bank, this slope later awaited in the flat, semi-desert-like part with nasty, unexpectedly deep and also treacherous sand passages of over 30 meters in length. In some particularly difficult places, one saw again and again motorcycle-shaped impressions in the deep sand, which showed that the people in front had not got through without a geological soil sample.

The troops met on the asphalt road as agreed. It all seemed fine. Had Murphy slept? Or was he just taking care of our escort vehicle? We had left that far behind us, which is actually a no-go on such an expedition, since you could be dependent on support, and indeed on mutual support. But we were under enormous pressure and had to arrive in San Pedro before dark. “Hopefully they’ll make it over the streams and through the sand passages.” An anxious wait, then a decision. “Let’s drive to the border to the big gas station, there we can wait and refuel – crew and machines. Waiting for Mauricio and Peter, staring at the street shimmering in the heat, the pounding of your own blood in your ears. A drop of sweat hangs on your nose, in your head you can already hear the sound of an agonizing whimpering harmonica … that’s what eternity feels like.

That can make you queasy …

We have never been so happy to see you again. “Everything went well?” “Yes, we drove a super well-developed route, here the parallel to yours”, Peter showed me his card – proud as Oskar! One can get queasy if one realizes in retrospect that the support did not follow suit at all! The relief, however, outweighed the fact that the force was reunited. So hook it, everything will be fine! And Murphy? He must have forgotten us…

It would be nice. Because the Paso Jama with its 4200 meters is by no means the highest point in the direction of San Pedro de Atacama. The driest high desert in the world, the Atacama, with its volcanic cones to the right and left of the fantastic, flawless asphalt strip swings up to over 6000 meters, which has the indirect consequence that the road also climbs to almost 4900 meters for the purpose of crossing! Without making the slightest effort here on the Chilean side to even inform about these passes, let alone their height. The XT 600 equipped with carburettors only groaned so far up at a maximum of 80 kilometers per hour, which was only noticeable because you could easily have driven 180 km / h here. On the graveled Abra del Acay, which is peppered with many serpentines, the lack of performance was not at all apparent, because speeds over 60 kilometers per hour would not have been possible anyway. But here it was all too obvious how thin the air can get for an engine.

“Why doesn’t the fuel evaporate??”

And again the bus didn’t make it. At least not including a trailer. In addition, the V-belt tore and Mauricio just made it to about 500 meters from the hotel. So, thanks to our motorcycle clothing, much acclaimed as supposed Dakar heroes, we pushed the last few meters. It’s good that we stayed here for two days. Time enough to take care of the broken V-belt and the worn-out pulley.

After the trailer was recovered in a Toyota the next day with the help of the local Adolfo – unfortunately the name does not come from coincidence in Chile, which is affectionate in Germany – Mauricio was able to take care of the bus. He got a V-belt, but no role. Quite Brazilian, he straightened the old one as best he could. However, there was no help whatsoever with regard to the defective injection, the real problem. To make matters worse, the trailer was now badly damaged! Because said Adolfo wanted to couple with too much momentum and pushed him robustly towards the valley. At an estimated 50 km / h it hit a natural gravel bed about 300 meters further down. Mauricio was still hanging on the drawbar for the first 50 meters because he had tried desperately to hold the trailer. Yes, this treacherous mountain air, it sometimes turns off the minds of those who breathe it.

Also very easy to recognize by some other heroic deeds. The attempt to oblige a completely stoned hippie with a 70s glass-fronted bulli as a luggage driver is just as much a part of this, as is the approach to refuel the almost empty XTs in absolute desperation and lack of other more sensible lubricants with Fioul. “Why does the fuel not evaporate?” Was a good question that led to the realization in the further course of the discussion that Fioul had to be diesel after all. And the air was shimmering again …

Four-hour chicane from a lieutenant

However: Adolfo was again reliable. So he didn’t let us down on this difficult day and brought the ailing trailer all the way up to Paso Sico. And here we are still now. As at the beginning of the story. And Mr. Eduardo Dias turns day into night for us. After four hours of harassment, the first lieutenant managed to do it and issued our motorcycles with completely superfluous papers: with which they are still allowed to enter Argentina with us. At 11 p.m.! Thus, the last 120 kilometers of the Ruta 51, which is already dangerous during the day, to the destination San Antonio have to be mastered in the pitch black night. Not an easy undertaking, especially since the headlights of the XTs emit about as much light as a flashlight with a weak battery. The only real bright spot on this amazing stage is the starry sky above us. As if under a sparkling, tightly slipped cheese dome, you think you can touch the firmament with your hand.

What an irony of fate: Just because Murphy didn’t want to let us pass in peace and Mr. Eduard “during the day” (as his name could be translated) from the local customs office, we discover, completely unexpectedly, the fantastic universe in its entirety Glory. It shouldn’t really go that high …

Information about motorcycle tour Argentina

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Pictures: Motorbike trip across the Andes in Northern Argentina / Chile

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Flights: If you want to go to South America, you should try to head for the main destinations. Airports that are served by all airlines are always cheaper to reach because of the strong competition. São Paulo is a good example because the flight distance is comparatively short. The domestic flights are then again quite cheap due to the overall lower price level in South America. If you have flexible flight dates, you can save a lot.

Motorcycles: The tour operator Brasil Adventure Tours is currently switching from the old XT 600 to the new water-cooled and injected XT 660. It was not least this trip that made this decision. The GS shown is a private motorcycle. The opening photo was taken on the day the author was allowed to drive it. The crucial question of whether it makes sense to rent motorbikes locally or to transport your own from Europe cannot be answered across the board. However, there are reference values.

A rental motorcycle is definitely the better alternative for a two-week trip. For trips of two months or more through South America, your own motorcycle and logistics are cheaper. Everything in between must be considered depending on the situation. If you want to travel to selected regions of South America in a short time by rental motorcycle, you can also join a tour operator. It’s a lot easier – and much safer.

Traffic: Even if it doesn’t seem like it, road traffic in Argentina and Chile is pretty defensive and surprisingly considerate. Of course, this shouldn’t prevent you from always riding your motorcycle defensively and, if in doubt, let the stronger road users have the right of way.

Money: Argentina’s currency is currently in free fall. Since the country was declared insolvent, inflation has galloped. If you take enough US dollars with you, you have a stable currency in your pocket. The value of the dollar increases reciprocally with the development of the peso every day.

Tour operator: The trip described here was the scouting tour for the “High Andes” tour of the MOTORRAD action team, which used to be called “On the trail of the Dakar”. The Dakar has long since moved on, but this trip still has a lot to do with the spirit of the modern orientation of this rally. You drive where the off-road heroes used to be, just not on the difficult stages, but rather on good asphalt roads or sometimes on dusty slopes. The tour will certainly never be entirely free of gravel. And that’s just as well.

The trip currently costs 6590 euros. Request information on this by telephone: 07 11/1 82-19 77. www.motorradonline.de/actionteam

Literature: The Bible for South America is without a doubt the purely English-language South American Handbook from Footprint Verlag for 44.90 euros. “South America for little money” by Lonely Planet also provided valuable services in German for 29.90 euros, even if the selection was very much tailored to low budget.

Cards: The Marco Polo map on a scale of 1: 4,000,000 for 9.99 euros is recommended as an overview map for southern South America. The water-resistant sheets Argentina (1: 2,000,000) and Chile (1: 1,600,000) from Reise-Know-How Verlag at EUR 8.90 each are perfect for navigating on site.

Argentina

Capital city: Buenos Aires area: 2,780,400 km²
Founding: July 9, 1816 (independent from Spain)
Currency: Argentine peso
Population: 40.5 million.

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