Una Moto en Argentina!!!!!!!

My first night was spent in a little roadside hotel in Vicuña MacKenna. It was getting dark when I arrived so I just walked into the first place I saw. A single female on a bike attracts a LOT of attention and I don´t mean in a bad way. People walk up to me all the time and say ¿Sola? The first few times I said no, but who am I kidding? There is no other bike in sight.

So when I stopped at this hotel, the guy at the desk ran out to see Tranny.

“Una moto muy grande!!!” He then took me to see his car which had Dakar race stickers all over it. We chatted a bit about what I do for a living and where I live, etc. I must have had a look of total exhaustion because he told me I looked like I needed sleep. And right he was…. my body was whipped from the days riding.

In the morning, I woke up before sunrise, packed up, and loaded Tranny.

I wasn´t sure where I´d make it to for the evening. The plan was to try and make it to Mendoza to stay with a family who befriended a good friend of mine when he was riding through Chile and Argentina. So I set out.

I had read in the ol´Lonely Planet that there was a small town named Carolina (population 200), about an hour north of San Luis. The road to Carolina is the main reason for going there, not the town itself. Obviously, good riding roads are what I´m after, so I thought I´d check it out.

Did Lonely Planet ever get this one right! The road was in great shape and there was literally no one on it. It had twisties with beautiful vistas, hills, craggy rock formations, just remarkable scenery all around. I passed a car every 20-30 minutes and when I did see another vehicle, it was like we shocked each other. I´ll let my photos describe the area for me.

I was riding along for about 45 minutes or so when I came across a bit of water in the road. Two or three inches at most. I slowed down, but rode on through without a problem. About fifteen minutes later I came across a second bit of water in the road and did the same, slowed down and went on through. Unfortunately, there was algae at the bottom of this water and it was super slippery. I dumped the bike. Surprisingly, I wasn´t that shaken up. I knew exactly what had happened and reacted to get out of the way of the bike. I had my gear on so nothing was hurt.

But now how am I going to pick this thing up???

I unloaded the bike to make it as light as possible. I knew I´d have a bit of a wait, so I stripped off my jacket, gloves, etc. I had water and munchies to last me a while so I was in no danger of starving. Luckily, two cars came along no more than fifteen minutes later. I explained I needed some help to get the bike across the water. Unfortunately, I wasn´t able to explain which side of the water I wanted to walk the bike to so they walked it to the far side, which meant I would have to ride it through the water again. Stupidly, I hopped on to ride it across the water, unloaded, but also without my gloves and jacket. When I went back through the water the same thing happened. I dropped it again! This time I got some minor road rash on my elbow.

My helpers picked up the bike again, I checked it ran ok, and I thanked them profusely. I said I didn´t want them to waste their day on me and after a few minutes of insisting I was fine, they continued on their way. I repacked the bike, bandaged up my arm, and hopped back on for the ride back to San Luis. I handled it far better than I would have expected.

About ten minutes later, the adreneline started to wear off and I started getting nervous. I noticed my turns weren´t as confident and I didn´t feel in control. I found a nice spot to rest, stopped the bike, and pulled out the camera again. I took a walk around and waited out the aggitation.

About twenty minutes later I felt better and Tranny and I were off again. I got back to San Luis, called Marcos in Mendoza, and started the three hour ride to get there. I knew the road between San Luis and Mendoza was going to be an inferno so I packed lots of water and stopped at each gas station along the way to get a cold drink. It was hot and treacherous riding, but after hours of twisties, a highway was welcome.

When I arrived in Mendoza, the Astegiano family welcomed me. They graciously put me up in their Mendoza apartment, which had become a bit of a hostel because another American was staying there as well. The whole family rides motorcycles, so I was able to get top notch advice on what roads to take and what to skip. Local advice is SO much better than having to rely on a book or the internet. With my route planned out, I cleaned up and off we went to their cousins house for a late dinner and drinks. I got to have more asado, along with killer wine and a taste of Frenet. Frenet is the local alcohol. It smells like turpentine when not mixed but when you throw in some Coke, it´s really tasty! Finally around 2 we came back to the apartment and I fell asleep before I even hit the bed.

Before I sign off, I know my mother is freaking out, so here is a pic of the minor road rash I got. It´s really nothing major…

Keep checking back….

Tags: 1, Argentina, Mendoza, motorcycle, Tag Index

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 6:52 am and is filed under Argentina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.