Una Moto en Argentina!!!!!!!

Here he is! My first male motorcycle.

I felt it was only appropriate to name the bike Tranny, as he´s a Honda Transalp. And of course you can´t have a female tranny, so well, he´s a guy. My biggest worry during the planning of this adventure was “Am I going to fit on the bike??” This morning when I got to MotoCare, Mariano told me he had put on the low seat I requested and lowered the front forks a bit as well. Well done. I hopped on, and good news. All is well! We did all the paperwork and an hour later, I was packed and following him to Ruta 7. Of course, in true Claudia style, when he told me “go right, then right” I went right, then left. Mariano chased me down on the highway and set me back in the right direction. Thanks Mariano….

So, my feelings about Tranny. He´s heavier than I´m used to, but also much smoother of a ride. The front brakes are a double brake as opposed to the single on Beemie, so there is some serious brake action going on. Also, I have to be extremely careful about where I park him because if there is any sort of grade, I don´t have enough contact with the ground to muscle him around. I´ve already had to ask for help once on backing up. Ahh well, smile and bat the eyes.

Riding out of BA was simple. It was Sunday morning and there was minimal traffic. Learning the style of driving here was quick and isn´t really any different to home on a two lane road that you can pass on.

I´m about to be kicked out of the internet cafe, so here are a few pics from the day.

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I touched down in Buenos Aires and decided right away that this was my kind of town. The people were hip, generous and generally friendly.

My taxi driver caught me off guard by being genuinely helpful. I am always suspiscious of taxi drivers. Always. But this guy was unable to find the address right away so he asked if I had the number of where I was staying. We were right around the corner but somehow his GPS wasn´t reading correctly.

Javier from Dakar Motos came and found us and showed us the way. Once inside his moto shop, I met Pierre and Celine, a French Canadian couple that are riding a pair of matching BMW 1200GSs. They had ridden from Quebec to Ushuaia and were now on their way back north so Celine could be there for the birth of her sixth grandchild. I still can´t believe she has 5 already! The cold weather must be a good preservative because she certainly did not look old enough to have any. They both shared their experience and tales, and I picked their brains on roads up north.

About 30 minutes after arriving, Javier announced that the asado was ready. I have NEVER tasted meat like this before. It was simple backyard grilling, but OMG. Soooo tasty. I had a few different types of meats and I even tried some of the scary looking black sausage. I have a new respect for the culinary potential of just about any dead animal. Just give it to an Argentinian to prepare….

After being a glutton, I settled in for a nap, followed by some grocery shopping. I was still pretty exhausted from the flight, so I turned in around midnight, hoping for some rest. It wasn´t to be. Mosquitos. They LOVE me. The ones in my apartment in NYC must have sent some smoke signals down to the ones here in BA because they feased on me just as viciously as their northern brethren. I tossed, I turned. I heard the bbbbbBBBBBBBZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz all night long. Eventually, my body was too tired to notice it anymore and I finally passed out.

It was just the kind of day I needed before a big journey. I got rest and got extremely well fed. Woo hoo!!! On to tomorrow…