Adventure Traveler

Peru, Puno to Arequipa and the Peruvian Altiplano

2008-10-15T09:47:00.002-07:00

(Lake Titicaca from the Peruvian side)

Another day, another country.

To my surprise it turns out that the customs people required an insurance policy on the bike. Unfortunately, they did not accept any of my papers as being a valid insurance. Ok, might be because I don't have a valid insurance (at least not for this part of the world). Well, luckily for me, the customs officer was rather lenient and allowed me to enter the country with my bike anyway. So after a while we were finally in Peru.

The road followed Lake Titicaca and to our surprise was much move scenic and more interesting than the Bolivian side. In particular since on this side there is both a lot more to see and it follows the coast for a lot longer. On this side there was also a lot of more of the typical reed beds which is typical of this lake. Puno like Copacaba on the Bolivian side are the major points of embarkation for people taking cruises on the lake or visiting the islands (floating or not). As such they are similar in the tourist infrastructure (Puno being much larger of course). Having already spent a week on the lake, and not planning on doing any excursions, we just spent the night. Nevertheless, we found Puno to be pretty nice. The usual plaza and church, some interesting architecture, and plenty of tourist shops.

The best thing about such towns from our point of view is that we can spent a lot of money quickly as the prices are always higher than in non-tourist areas. Ok, maybe this is not really the "best" thing. That being the fact that we can sometimes find stuff which we don't get anywhere else. In the case of Puno, we found a bakery which had excellent bread, and croissants. Not only that but they had some smoked ham and Philadelphia cream cheese, and lots of really great desserts, including a good cheesecake. Can't always save money! So next time you are in Puno, don't forget to stop by Rico Pan. Oh, and while you are at it, don't forget to enjoy the free pisco sours at happy hour. If you are really a cheap skate, you can go from bar to bar and get a free pisco sour at each one, without actually spending any money on the next drink. Most bars offer the first drink free, followed by 2 for 1 for the following drink.

Continuing from Puno we headed to Arequipa. The road passed through a town called Juanica, which for my money wins the prize for one of the most chaotic towns we have been through in South America, regardless of size. Luckily for us things looked up once we made it through. The road goes up over 4500 meters before coming down again. For the most part the road is excellent and is extremely curvy at both ends (the middle part being pretty straight and boring). The Altiplano here has plenty of canyons, mountains, volcanoes and even a huge lake at the top. This being a major north south artery it had its share of traffic, in particular plenty of trucks and buses, but the views were worth it.

(Arequipa, Peru)

Arequipa is Peru's second largest city and this was immediately believable as its suburbs stretched for kilometers before getting near town. The town lies along a valley flanked by a large volcano and mountains to the north. The town is another tourist magnet with lots of churches and monasteries, and the usual palette of tourist offerings in the mountains and canyons nearby. Particularly impressive is the main square, with a huge cathedral on one side which takes up the whole width of the block. Behind the cathedral the volcano presides over the whole town and valley. Cobblestone streets and lots and lots of hispanic architecture complete the picture. One thing that stands out are the white stone blocks which make up most of the building in the old part of town. All the old building have large open courtyards, and a whole maze of passages, corners, stairs (although buildings are only 2 or 3 floors, due to frequent earthquakes).

To our surprise the first day we got here, there was a food festival in a park near our hotel. This was an opportunity we could not pass up, so we spent the whole day, sitting in the park and trying the various specialties on offer. This included stuff like Cuy (Guinea pig), stuffed peppers, rice with duck, and chicharron (fried pork). Check out the pics below!

Chicharon de chancho, Rocoto relleno, pastel de papa, arroz blanco, aji de habas, zarza de pata

Arroz con Pato

Albondigas, salsa de anchoeta, guiso de habas

pepiche de cuy (guinea pig)

crochetas de atun

pure de arvejas, chuño relleno de alpaca y higado de cuy, suffle de verduras con anchoas

torta bicolor, pie de manzana, crema de fresas

In addition to the great architecture and all the monasteries and churches, there are some very interesting museums. In particular, the university museum here has the frozen mummy of Juanita. An inca maiden who was sacrificed on the nearby volcano. This is the 4th or 5th mummy of this type we have seen. (The others being in the museum in Salta). All of them fascinating if a bit macabre. Katheryna visited the St. Catalina monastery and found it extremely fascinating. Not only the architecture but also the lifestyle of the nuns there turns out to be really fascinating. The nuns being the daughters of wealthy noblemen were allowed to live a very luxurious cloistered life, basically in the style to which they were accustomed, regardless of the fact that they now "served" God. Their quarters, reflected the riches which they were allowed to keep in their monastic life. After a couple of hundred years of this "lax" living, the pope finally sent a mother superior who clamped down and enforced a simpler lifestyle with less luxury.

(Plaza de Armas, Arequipa, Peru)

The plan is to continue south to the coast. Although we might be taking a little side trip to see Colca canyon near here, which is the "deepest" canyon in the world. Even deeper than the Grand Canyon apparently. After that we will check our Nazca and then back into the mountains to Cusco and Machu Pichu. But of course with us, one never knows. Too much planning is not our style.

Technorati Tags: Arequipa, bmw, motorcycle, Peru, Puno, south america, travel

Bolivia, a lot to see.

2008-10-15T09:47:00.000-07:00

(Potosi, and Cerro Rico)

After finally getting our gas we headed to Potosi. The roads head up into the mountains and pretty much stay up there. I found it amazing that the trucks and buses make it at all. The route is in really bad shape, and is pretty dangerous to boot. But there you are, people and goods have to be moved around. We made it to Potosi without any problems, other than some heavy wear and tear on the bike, but as I mentioned, it is nothing compared to what cars, trucks and buses have to deal with. Oh, and to prove it, every few km's there was a truck, car, or bus stranded. Sometimes with people working on it, other times, just abandoned there.

On the good side, the ride is very scenic, and goes through lots of little villages. One curious thing, is we found that in some parts the road was suddenly paved and in excellent shape, this would usually last a few km's and then suddenly we are back to some bone jarring rock and sand stretches. On one such stretch we even encountered an accident which killed the two inhabitants of the vehicle. Apparently, they had blown a tire while driving much too fast and lost control of the car, one passenger was thrown free of the car and was lying in the middle of the road. The other lost their life when the car was crushed like an accordion. So there is one thing to be said for bad roads, they keep the vehicle speed down.

(Traditional dancers, Potosi)

The final few km's to Potosi was on a great road, which is good, considering that the altitute is over 4000 meters, and at this hight my bike doesn't have too much power. Potosi and the area around is of course the center of mining activity in Bolivia. For over 500 years they have been pulling silver out of the hills and mountains around here. In particular Cerro Rico, which although heavily mined for all this time, apparently still has more silver in it than they have pulled out. Potosi is also the highest city in the world, and is spread out at the foot of Cerro Rico. In typical Mining town fasion, the streets are narrow, steep, slippery, and very confusing, with the usual South American love for one way streets and lack of signalization.

(Corn soup heated by hot rocks!, check out this link for a complete desc.)

Potosi turned out to be a shock for us, it has been a long time since we have seen this many tourists. I guess it is something that we are going to have to start getting used to. Nevertheless, the town itself is very traditional if you get a few blocks away from the central plaza and the pedestrian zone which accompanies it. We spent a few days here walking around, checking out the many churches and some museums. The museum we visited was fascination, Casa de la Plata, This museum is in a fantastic building which used to the mint where, coins where made with the silver dug out of Cerro Rico. It is a very interesting museum, with some great original machinery used over the centuries to work the metal. One of my favorite displays was a single commemorative silver coin from the treasure of Nuestra Senora de Atocha. If you know the story, this Treasure ship went down in a storm off the coast of Florida. Of course the joke is that the silver recovered from the Atocha came from here, and all they have to show for it was this one commemorative coin sent back.

From Potosi we headed to Uyuni as the political problems on which I have already reported have not eased up enough to allow us to go north. For example, according to all the information that we could gather, there wasn't any gas to be had in that direction. Anyway, this gave us a chance to go and have a look at the Salar de Uyuni, the largest Salt Flats in the world. So that is what we did. The road was pretty difficult, made worse by the fact that it was pretty much all under construction. On the up side it was a very scenic road. There isn't much but a few mining towns, plenty of sheep, and a some very beautiful vistas. If it hadn't been such a bad road we would have really enjoyed the ride. Tired and dusty we made it to Uyuni.

(Train graveyard, Uyuni)

Uyuni turned out to be really nice. A dusty, windy, rugged outpost of civilization in the middle of nowhere. Nevertheless it is another stop on the "Gringo" trail, so the town is full of tour bureaus and the usual tourist infrastructure. From here people book tours of the Salar and the lagoons along the border to Chile. We skipped the lagoons but headed to the Salar.

(Uyuni Salar)

The Salar is a huge expanse of white with a few islands here and there. The whole area is dominated by a volcano on the north shore. The Salar is criss crossed by tracks used by cars crossing the Salar. They stand out like veins and although you can drive/ride pretty much anywhere, in some places you are better off if you keep to the tracks. The reason being that in places, in particular near the edges, there is a thin crust of salt, below which is usually water. As a matter of fact in a number of places near the edge, water is bubbling up through the salt, making what they call the Ojos del Sala (eyes of the Salar). We spent a couple of days riding around and camping out on the sand. One thing I learnt about camping on Salt is that it is harder than steel. I pretty much bent all my special tent stakes putting up my tent. The thing which I will remember about the night on the Salar is the night sky. With no light or towns nearby, and the added plus of no clouds, you could imagine that you were floating in the middle in the stars. Unforgettable.

(The road to Huari)

From the Salar we headed north around the volcano through some spectacular scenery, volcano on one side, salar on the other. We met some really nice people with whom we had some interesting conversations. In particular regarding the political situation, which is on everyone's mind. Now we got some perspective from the local farmers point of view. Apparently they are really happy with Morales, and are expecting a lot of the government. They feel that the Civic Committees are being very unfair in their demands. It definitely seems that the government has their hands full keeping the subsistence farmers happy, if they loose that base then they will be in serious trouble. One example is that a couple of the people we talked to who raise Quinoa (a widely grown grain in this region), said that the government "owed" them a tractor, which they had been promised during the election time!

(On the road Huari)

Again, the road we took north towards Oruro was under construction. A new record for the worst road went to this stretch. Nothing but deep dust and sand. We found out that all the road building was due to the fact that they were going to be building a new airport in Uyuni and wanted to have some decent access roads. Well, they aren't there yet! In Huari, we met an Austrian couple on KLR (Kawasaki), and a Swiss guy on a XT600 (Yamaha). We spent a nice evening talking about riding and traveling. It has been a while since we had met fellow bikers.

(A festival, Oruro)

Oruro is another mining town. Some interesting museums, but not much else. Unlike some of the other towns, it doesn't really have very nice "old" town. A lot less touristy than Potosi, but there were still plenty of tourist around. Here we visited the mining and folklore museum, as well as the Archeological museum, both of which were interesting. In particular the mining museum, where we went into a mine shaft, and got to spent some time talking with an ex-miner. He provided a lot of valuable information and first person account of how the whole mining system works in Bolivia. The salient points are that, most of the mining is done by co-operatives, which are responsible for the sale of the mineral, but little else. Mining is still done by these people in the same way as it was for hundreds of years. The main reason is financial, they simply don't have the money for proper equipment and safety gear. So rather than using masks to avoid lung problems, they chew cocoa leaves and use breath through the mouth. The cocoa leaves serve both as a stimulant and as an air filter!!

(Getting on a ferry, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia)

Continuing on, we headed to La Paz and then to Copacabana on lake Titicaca. La Paz is a huge city, and very steeply built. It lies in a river valley (or canyon) and has grown up and along all sides. Horrible traffic and steep, very steep hills. We were happy to just spent a single night here before continuing on to Copacabana, which lies on lake Titicaca and is just on the border to Peru. The town is another very popular tourist destination. People come here to do cruises on the lake, and visit various islands. I really enjoyed the road along the lake and all the small towns. As with most lakes it is pretty scenic but other than the altitude and the fact that it is lake Titicaca there is not much to differentiate it from other lakes. Ok, maybe the reed boats that are on display in some of the villages we rode through does differentiate it a bit. But not much.

(Lake Titicaca and Copacabana, Bolivia)

After a few days here we moved on to Peru, and the story continues.

Technorati Tags: Bolivia, motorcycle, travel

Boilvia, Tarija, Pando, Santa Cruz, A civil war brewing??

2008-10-15T09:46:00.001-07:00

(Between Tarija and Potosi)

It has now been a week since we got here. We "can't" leave because we haven't been able to get gasoline. Well, actually we can leave, as I have enough gas to get back to the border of Argentina, but of course we are interested in going into Bolivia. As you might have read previously the plan had been to head to Trinidad. Unfortunately Trinidad, which lies around 1300km north of here is in the middle of the Santa Cruz province, which along with a couple of others (in particular Pando), is in the middle of some serious civil un-rest.

The problems which the border police had mentioned to us on entering were fairly new, and had just started a day or so previous to our entry, at least as far as Tarija was concerned (the name of the province as well as it's capital). But further north and north/west problems had been brewing longer (around 3 weeks apparently). All in all there seems to be 4 provinces in which there are blockades, and general unrest.

(Between Tarija and Potosi)

The players are, on one side the central government out of La Paz, on the other so called Civic Committees, which to a great extent are the local government(s), and finally the farmers which support the government, and are mobilized by them, against the Civic Committees. Of course the Civic Committees also represent the farmers. But unlike the central government, which subsides (some would say buy) the farmers, the Civic Committees is committed to improve the general situation of everyone, at least that what they keep insisting.

In Pando over the weekend there was a massacre where members of the Civic Committee allegedly shot women and children with the police just standing by. At least if you believe some of the news reports. Some of the people I have talked to say that the government armed, or is arming, the farmers to go against the Civic Committees. Regardless of which side you believe, the "facts" seem to be that a number of people were killed. Of course tactically it is totally understandable that the government prefers to use farmers than it's own military or police organs against the "uprising".

Here in Tarija the situation isn't as bad. There were some serious unrest the day previous to our arrival, and the first few days we were here, but everything seems to have settled down. This in the wake of various discussions that the Civic Committees from Tarija and Santa Cruz were having with the government. Also, possibly due to the religious festival which was taking place during the last week or so. In case you are curious about, when I say unrest, what I am talking about is blocking roads, burning tires and such, throwing rocks and general destruction of property and the looting which always seems to accompany such things. At street level, there are protesters on one side (Civic Committees), police and or peasants on the other. As long as no-one moves there is no problem, everyone respects the blockade and there is no violence. But when one side or the other gets too close then all hell breaks loose. Most of the time, it seems to me that young people are looking for excuses to destroy something, and do some looting, and provoke a confrontation. In some cases the Police steps in and grabs a demonstrator or looter, only to be violently set upon by both sides. A bit curious if you ask me.

(Potosi)

The Civic Committees are supported by a large number of the populace, in particular, the middle class. Most of the various government agencies, all of which are closed, with the employees standing around outside the offices, also seem to be supporting the Civic Committee. At least as far as we can tell. All around Tarija, you see stickers with the logo "Si a la Autonomia". Which is pretty self-explanatory.

The core of the problem as far as we have gathered is that the government wants more taxes collected on the resources produced by the various provinces. At the same time they are reducing the government expenditures in these same provinces. The Civic Committees are arguing that the government is not investing in infrastructure projects in the region, an are only taking the money out. Specifically, road building, this being one of the core infrastructure items which is necessary for the development of the country.

The solution they are seeking is more Political Autonomy. A greater say in how the resources are distributed. The feeling of the people (to whom I have spoken) is that the government is mismanaging the wealth of the nation by using it to maintain "their" hold on power. The words Narcotrafficantes and Communists is bandied about a lot when describing the government. The latest example of government mis-management, was a recent referendum which was held on Evo Morales. Apparently, the agency which was in charge of the voting, rigged it by ballot stuffing, going so far as to register and casting votes on behalf of a number of people which at the time were deceased (and still are for that matter..).

On the government side, they are accusing the provinces of trying to usurp presidential power. This as a result of having lost the elections, and the various referendums. In addition they are also accusing the opposition of refusing to sit down and talk, electing instead, civil unrest. Not to mention being greedy. When the president came on tv he threw around some number and the one that stayed with me was that the per capita income in Tarija was around 7000B$ whereas in La Paz it was only around 300B$. On tv there are a lot of ads from both sides.

As I write this (18.09.08), all the blockades have been lifted both in Santa Cruz and in Tarija, the Civic Committees are in discussion with the central government in Cochabamba, and joy of joys, today the Gasoline arrived. I stood in line for 1 1/2 hours to get a tank full of gas (at around 0.40$ a liter). The situation in Pando remains very tense, as the government has arrested district chief (illegally some say), but the rest of the country seems to be getting back to normal.

(Potosi)

We are dropping our plans to head to Trinidad, and instead will head towards Potosi and then possibly the Salars near the border of Chile before heading back north towards La Paz and eventually Peru. We are not really worried about the civil problems, because unlike in other parts of the world, the issues here are strictly internal, and there is no movement against foreigners (the U.S. ambassador being a notable exception; he was kicked out of the country by the president for siding with the Civic Committees a few days back).

(Potosi)

As you can imagine there is a lot more stuff going on, only some of which we notice or get to hear about. But one thing that the populace has been laughing about is the antics of Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela. Apparently at the hight of the tensions he threatened to come in (militarily) in defense of Evo Morales. He said that he would not tolerate it if anything happened to Evo. This of course brought out the nationalism in everyone, including Evo Morales, all of whom condemned the statements. The people on the street seem to have taken this as another proof, that the "Narcotrafficantes" are sticking together to stay in power...

Technorati Tags: Bolivia, motorcycle, south america, Tarija, travel

Bolivia, The Saints come marching in; The Festival of San Roque, Tarija

2008-10-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

(Iglesia St. Roque, and procession)

San Roque the patron Saint of Tarija is celebrated for a week ending on the 16th of September. We were lucky enough to catch the last few days of the festival. Below you will see a few of the pictures we took during this time.

(Katheryna in the middle of things)

The festival (at least from our point of view) consists of daily parades of "Chunchos", preceding the Saint as he is paraded through the town. This is a very colorful and noisy procession, as the "Chunchos" are accompanied by drums and a couple of wind instruments. First a short single reed flute (not the andean multi-reed flute, but similar sounding), a short and very shrill sounding thing. In addition something which to me looked like the South American version of an Alp horn, though much lighter, as each musician carried his in the air while playing it. The instrument is called "La Caña", and is basically a long hollow tube, topped by a "horn", and doesn't have much of a sound, just a low hollow bass rumble, more or less. Unfortunately, the music, is very monotone, there is little variation, as there is only a basic rhythm with few notes, and after a few hours of this, you pretty much have had enough.

(The idol being paraded through town)

Some background on the San Roque festivities:
In 1875 "San Roque" "appeared" here in Tarija, Boliva (548 years after his death in Europe) and apparently his apparition healed a number of people of Leprosy. San Roque was himself miraculously cured of the plague in Italy. After having healed a number of people of the plague, he himself was afflicted, and kept alive by a dog while living in a cave, after having been expelled from the town. The owner of the dog noticed that the dog disappeared every day with a loaf of bread. After following the dog, he found San Roque in his cave. For the full story check this link. Wiki: Saint Roch

(The "Caña" instrument visible over the heads of the marchers)

Here in Tarija he is worshiped as the patron saint of the town, and every year there is a week long celebration. The daily celebration is higlighted by marching "Chunchos" in brightly colored garb preceding the statue of the saint as it is carried all around the town. The "Chunchos", 2500 strong this year, are made up people (exclusively male, but of all ages) who have made a "deal" with the saint. They are asking for relief for themselves or a family member from some sort of illness or other event which have befallen them. In return, they march in honor of the saint the 8 days the festivities last.

(Chunchos marching)

On the second to last day, there is a big party in front of the San Roque church, with all the "Chunchos" doing a dance and paying their respects to the Saint. As well as a fireworks, and a folkloric concert, there are some traditional events, such as the "Baile del Toro", in which someone dons a small headdress in the form of a bull, festooned with fireworks, and dances all around the plaza while the fireworks light up the bull. All in all this goes on into late into the night.

(Chunchos)

On the final night, the festivities are brought to an end by a final parade through the town ending with the Saint being brought back to the San Roque church, and all the "Chunchos" paying their final respects to the Saint for this year. The last day was also marked by a notable increase in the hangers-on and spectators. The plaza and the surrounding streets were jam packed hours before the saint made it back to the church.

(Chunchos)

On thing which I only noticed once I went through the pictures, is that the Saint is dressed differently on each day (at least the days that we saw him). Also, there were no tourists. This seemed to be an exclusively local festivities (at least this year). Though I think the political problems had a lot to do with the fact that there were no foreign tourists.

(Chunchos dancing in front of Iglesia San Roque)

Technorati Tags: Bolivia, San Roque, south america, Tarija, travel

Argentina, goodbye Argentina, Bolivia here we come.

2008-10-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

(Iglesia San Roque, Tarija, Bolivia)

Well, all good things come to an end, and our end in Argentina had finally come. We left Salta and headed for the border, despite some stories about road blocks and lack of gasoline. The border we were interested in crossing was the Aguas Blancas/Bermejo border. Apparently, according to the latest reports, there was not supposed to be any problems here, as the border currently affected was further north east at Pocitos. Apparently, the farmers are up in arms again, and had been blocking roads and there was no gasoline or diesel in the area, forcing hundreds of trucks to wait either for the road blocks, or the fuel.

But as I said, the border we were headed for was not supposed to be affected, so off we rode. It only took a couple of hours for us to run into the first road block. Here at the entrance to one of the many small farming communities along the road, they had parked a road grader across the road, and there were a larger number of farmers and hangers-on just standing around. Nearby, some police just watching, everything very relaxed, all the drivers of cars and trucks, just sitting in their cars waiting or standing around talking. As we neared, some of the drivers motioned us to pass either on the right or left, and as I stopped, they said it was no problem, the bike could go through. So that is exactly what we did, we headed to the front of the line, an as we neared the people manning the road block, stood aside and let us through a small gap in the road. Everyone waving and smiling as we passed and asking where we were headed.

In short order we had passed two or three more of these. So we figured it was no big deal, although, I was now starting to worry about the gas situation. My plan had been to fill up at the last major town before the border at the main north/south - east/west road junction, Pichanal. This town was still hundreds of kilometers away from where I had heard of problems. But before we got there, we ran into an "un-usual" road block. This time, it was just a few cars (by this time we had passed 4 other road blocks, and there just wasn't a lot of traffic coming through), but rather than an "organized" blockade, it was just some bushes across the road, manned by a couple of elderly ladies, and some masked youths, never a good sign. Ahead of us on either side of the block were a couple of cars and some busses. While we watched, a couple of the people went up to the bus, and came back with some soft-drinks, and snacks! After that, they opened the road block and let everyone through! Hmmm. Very curious. They didn't go to, or ask for anything else from any other vehicles other than the two buses, and before I really thought about it we were on our way again. I guess that it was just a minor "shake down", with some people taking advantage of the current situation.

(Fast food stands, Bolivia)

At Pichanal, as I had feared there was no gasoline, luckily for us, the attendants told us that there was gasoline in the direction we were traveling, at a town called Oran. So in the end it turned out pretty good for us. We found gas, and a nice camping at a place called Hipolito Yrigoyen, a few kilometers before Oran. so we were all set before heading to the border. Unfortunately, the whole area was swarming with bugs. Small biting flies, I can't remember anything as bad. Must be all the water around here. Since leaving Salta we had been getting increasingly into very productive farming areas, all irrigated by rivers in the area. So we covered ourselves in bug spray and spent as little time outside as absolutely necessary.

Now it was time for Bolivia, we got a good start, and there were no more road blocks or other problems in getting to the border. The border it self was totally deserted. I was the only one there. The Argentinian police started by telling me that the road was blocked on the Bolivian side and that I could not cross the border. Hmm. This didn't sound good. Nevertheless I persisted, and after a little back and forth, they reluctantly agreed to stamp our passports and let us pass. As I was getting the customs stuff taken care of, Katheryna told me that a number of Argentinian's who had showed up by car had been turned back by the same police who had tried to stop us!!

The crossing itself was simple, just a bridge across the Bermejo river and we were at the Bolivian migration, which incidently was also deserted. The usual formalities taken care of and we were officialy in Bolivia!!!

We had a quick look at Bermejo, where we spent an hour or so looking for a map of Bolivia. If you have followed our adventures, you know that in Mendoza, when we got robbed, they also took all my wonderful maps. Including of course the Bolivian map, so we had to find a replacement. We have been looking for one since Salta, without much luck. Apparently not too many people travel this way, and if they do they don't need any maps. The funny thing was a few of the people we asked regarding, where we could get a map, would invariably say that we didn't need one. There aren't that many roads and you couldn't get lost anyway. Well, we continued trying, and unfortunately, in Bermejo we didn't find one either. We even stopped at the Municipal building and asked there, and of course, they were on strike, but nevertheless a couple of people rifled their cupboards, and filing cabinets, and eventually came up with a xerox copy of a political map of Bolivia, as A4 format. Not very helpful, but I gave them an A for effort and willingness to help.

(Casa Dorada, Tarija, Bolivia)

In case you are curious, Bermejo isn't much, a small town, lots of clothing shops, a few dirt streets, a bank, a couple of hotels/hostals and that is about it. Lots of little boats along the river, with which people would cross over to Argentina. A functional border town, without any pretentions of being anything else.

We continued on our way. On my GPS when I planned this route I did so because the road looked awsome, it followed the river and had lots and lots of curves. For some reason I had the feeling that it would be over a mountain, but I was not disappointed to find that the road was not only as curvy as it looked on the GPS. But, the road was also paved and for the most part in excellent condition. Not only that there was no traffic. So with huge smiles on our faces we spent a few hours riding along the Bermejo river. Once we left the river the road climbed up and over some "mountains" and we eventually made it to Tarija.

(Gas station, Tarija, Bolivia)

There had been no road blocks as the police had warned us. In addition, there had been not much of anything else. Only a few small villages. Tarija, was different, as we came in to town we were greeted with little traffic, and huge, but huge, lines at the gas station. The gas station itself wasn't pumping any gas, but cars where lined up for km's. Not only that, on closer look, there where hundreds of people standing in line with their LP gas cans. Apparently the gas station was next door to the distribution point for LP gas (which is what most people here use to cook with), and they weren't distributing either!

(Tarija, Bolivia)

Past this, we came into town proper, with treelined 6 lane avenues, and our first road block. The bike got around some and in a couple of cases we just turned around and headed along another road. We eventually found the center of town, and took a rest. Everything was pretty quiet as it was siesta time, and the Tarijenos take their fiestas very seriously. We found ourselves an relatively cheap accommodation and a place to park the bike and we could relax a little. We have made it to Bolivia!

Our first impressions have been favorable, the road blocks not withstanding. Everyone has been universally friendly and helpful. It is a poorer country than Argentina, at least from our experiences to date.

The plan is now to head to Trinidad, and maybe do a jungle cruise. Who knows....

Argentina, goodbye Mendoza, the mountains await.

2008-10-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

(Gauchos at Valle Fertil)

Finally leaving Mendoza, seemed almost surreal. We had only spent a few days here this time, but over all, we spent nearly a quarter of our time in South America here so far. But now it was time to head north. The general idea was to hit some of the tourist spots on the way to the border of Bolivia, pretty much straight north. Due to the weather, we weren't really in the mood to cross the Andes into Chile and do the Atacama or Uyuni circuit which is so popular with the tourists.
On the way we wanted to have a look at the "Valle de la Luna" and "Cerro de los Siete Colores", but other than that we didn't have a plan (as usual).

(Near Valle Fertil)

Our first day brought us to a place called San Augustine del Valle Fertil, which is basically an oasis in the desert. The fertil part is supplied by a lake and the fact that they have a river which has water all year, but other than that they are pretty much in the middle of the desert. We spent a couple of days here as there was a festival and some "sights" to see. The festival was in honor of San Augustine, and the most interesting part was the blessing of the gauchos. A whole troupe of which had shown up from the outlying haciendas and small pueblos. They paraded around on their horses, and were blessed by the minister. The tourist sights around here included some petroglyphs and a few depressions in rocks which the indians used to grind flour. Nevertheless it was a nice little walk through some of the valley. After this we headed to Valle de la Luna, a national park just north of here.

(Valle de la Luna, NP)

Valle de la Luna (also known as Ischigualasto) has some of the oldest geological formations and dinosaur remains on the planet. Together with the Talampaya National park further north this is a Unesco world heritage site. The Triassic period is extremely well preserved here, and gives geologists a very good insight into the state of the planet at that time. To me the name is a misnomer, but apparently some people think that some parts of the park resemble moonscape. Nevertheless, there are some wonderful colors and rock sights here. The museum was "cute", but interesting nevertheless. All in all worth the small entry fee.

A bit further north is the Talampaya national park. Unfortunately we decided to skip it. Mostly because like Valle de la Luna, you are not allowed to wander around freely, and have to take a tour. In this case they wanted A$ 20.00/person, plus A$45.00/person for the tour, and a trivial amount to camp. From the brochure that we saw, it is basically a canyon trip with various rock formation along the route. So we decided to skip it. In the case of Valle de la Luna it was only A$30.00 for us both, and we could at least drive our own vehicle. In Argentina there have been a number of such parks, and to date we have pretty much boycotted them all. I am not even going to get into the fact that they charge tourists at least double the rate that they charge locals. In the end we camped for free a few kilometers further up the road at a YPF Gas station (in the rural part of Argentina there are lots of these Gas stations which allow you to camp and use their facilities, and are set up for this, with tables, and grill places).

(Laguna Blanca)

The following day we had another highlight, by going over a great pass, with some awesome rock formations and beautiful colors everywhere. Cuesta de Miranda between Vila Union and Sembradio is absolutely spectacular. The road is dirt and very tight, but has some spectacular vistas on either side of the pass, well worth a look if you are in the area (ok, it is pretty far from anything else, but it was worth it). The day ended in a place called Belen, where we spent a couple of hours trying to camp, with no luck. The camping was open but there was no-one there, and in the end we gave up and went to a cheap hotel in town. The reason for coming here was an Archeological museum and Inka ruins in nearby Londres.

(Inca Ruins, Londres)

We spent two days here, checking out the museum and the Inka ruins. There turned out to be two places to see artifacts exhibited. The first was the tourist hotel/complex (which we did not stay in, as it much too expensive for us), the second was the regional museum. There were lots of interesting things displayed, funeral urns, jewelry and lots of every day items. In Londres the Inka ruins were interesting, and in particular the small museum attached to the whole thing. The lady there gives you a very good explanation of their history and culture, and there are a lot of very interesting artifacts. The site itself requires lots of imagination (the model in the museum helped), but was definitely worth the effort.

(Antofogasta de la Sierra)

From Belen we headed north on a route which turned out to be the hardest we had done so far, and which went through the most scenic part of Argentina, and that is saying something. The RP43/RP17 which goes north from Belen through Antofogasta de la Sierra up to San Antonio de los Cobres is very rough in places, and when we went through it was bitter cold and windy, making it even tougher for us. There is basically nothing here but volcanoes, rocks, sand, mountains, and a few Vicunas (a type of Llama), but the vistas are out of this world. The whole area runs along the border to Chile and lies on the lee side of the Andes mountains. The whole plateau is at an altitude of between 2500 and 4000 meters (with temperatures around 2C and winds of 100km). The colors of the mountains changed by the minute and if we weren't freezing so much we might have spent a lot more time admiring them. We camped wild at the foot of some hills, and this is one of the few times that the Hilleberg tent had a chance to show its strengths. Although the wind was howling the tent went up in a few minutes, and stayed rock steady throughout. Of course everything was covered in blowing sand, but hey that is life on the road.

(On the road to Antofogasta de la Sierra)

The following day we made it to Antofogasta de la Sierra, which lies at approx. 3800m and is flanked by two volcanoes. As luck would have it when we got there there was of course no more gasoline to be had. We planned to spend the night anyway, but in the end it turned out to be three days before a truck made it through with gasoline. Apparently the truck with the fuel could not make it because of the wind!! Anyway we used the time to check out the Antofogasta volcano, which we climbed late in the afternoon when the wind seemed to have died out a little (not really, it almost blew us off the mountain). We also enjoyed a Mineral museum by a local artist. The gentleman has spent around 16 years collecting rocks and other interesting stuff from the area around here. Together with his son they polish and work the minerals into jewelry and other stuff (statues, etc.) All in all very worthwhile.

(On the road to San Antonio de los Cobres)

In due order we got our gasoline and were able to continue. The road from here north was the worst so far (by the way before Antofogasta we were aghast to find a perfectly paved road for more than 100km in the middle of nowhere!!). But if anything the area was even more scenic than before, but still bitter cold and windy. The road goes through a placed called El Salar del Hombre Muerto (Dead Man's salt flat), shortly thereafter, it becomes a wide dirt road made the mining company which is active in the area. So the road did not improve as the big trucks make huge holes and ruts making it a job just to get through without crashing. By the time we made it to San Antonio de los Cobres we were in the early stages of hypothermia, it was that cold!! There isn't much to this town, but we found a little hostel, which charged and outrageous price for what they provided (La Posta de los Andes), but it was nevertheless the cheapest in town. (under any other circumstances I would just have camped!!) There was actually a tourist complex here which was charging over 60 US$ for rooms, unbelievable. We just crawled into bed and tried to warm up as fast as possible. With our sleeping bags and their heavy wool covers we managed to get warm after a while.

The following day we made it down the from the mountains to Salta. The road is pretty spectacular nevertheless, coming through a huge valley before it opens up into the plains where Salta lies. There were so many mountains, with so many colors that we decided not to even bother with going to the Cerro de los Siete colores which lies norht of Salta.

(Humitas and Empanadas)

Salta, is an old colonial town, with some very nice architecture. We spent a few days sightseeing and recovering from our ordeal in the mountains. Eating, empanadas, tamales and humitas, all of which have a national reputation to recover our strength. Empanadas are pastries filled with meat, chicken, ham and cheese or some other mixture and baked. Tamales are a mixture spices, mashed corn and a piece of meat, wrapped in corn leaves and boiled. Humitas are similar but have a different shape and contain egg and ham, also wrapped in corn leaves and boiled.

(Main square, Salta)

In addition, to relaxing and recovering, I also had to weld a broken frame on the bike. I guess one of our crashes did a little more damaged than I would have liked. Overall though it was one of the highlights of the trip so far. We just wish that it hadn't been so cold and windy. I hope some of the pictures give a good impression of what we saw.

Argentina, Iguazu to Mendoza a long and sometimes winding road..

2008-10-15T09:00:00.001-07:00

(Katheryna at Iguazu waterfalls)

Well, Iguazu turned out to be very nice, if a bit touristy. It is kind of funny that all in all we have managed to stay out of the tourists path. Even when we are in touristy areas we are usually out of season and so we don't get the feeling of being in a "Tourist" area. Anyway, apparently Iguazu doesn't really have an off season, just a low season, which this was. Nevertheless, to us it seemed like a lot of tourist.

("The House of Bottles", Iguazu, AR)

The park it self is a few kilometers out of town, and when we got there there were tour buses galore, at the ticket booth, long lines. Somehow the whole thing reminded me of Disneyland. The entrance consists of souvenir shop(s), and info stand and a ticket booth, as well as the usual necessities (a snack bar and toilets). Once inside there is more of the same, with some tour operators thrown in. You can also do river rafting, boat tours below the falls, jungle tours and more, so if you didn't book anything in town, you can do it here.

(Katheryna enjoying some adventure tourism!)

In order to get to the falls you can take a narrow gauge train or walk a km or so to the start of the "lower trail" or "upper trail". In addition the train continues on to "The Throat" at the far side of the falls right in front of the Brazilian border. There is also some "Jungle" trails in the park for those so inclined. Because of the long lines at the train we chose to walk.

(La Garganta, Iguazu, AR)

The "Lower Trail" takes you along some of smaller waterfalls, and in places has some spectacular views of the river below, and the "Throat" further up the river. Then you come around a corner an you have a spectacular panorama of all the major falls. This is when you really get a feel for the size and width of Iguazu. The Island of St. Martin is right in front of you, to the left in the back, the "Throat", and to the right, a whole line of falls, with the major one just to the right of the island. I particularly liked the smaller falls covering around 700 meters of cliffside to the right of the island. Some of the pictures attached will give you an idea of the whole thing.
The upper trail takes you along the top of these secondary falls, and a free boat ride will take you to the island. From the island you get a very close-up look at the falls from various angles and is well worth it. (yes, you have to stand in line for the boat ride, but at least it is free). On the beach at the island young people take advantage of the hot day and go swimming or sun-bathing in the water.

At the end of the day, we had walked quite a bit and so decided to take in the jungle walk and the "Throat" on the following day. As a bonus, if you chose to return for a second day, the ticket is half priced. The second day we started by walking to the "Throat", again to avoid the long lines at the train. The "Throat" turns out to be a walk across the river which feeds the falls, and you get to see some of the wildlife, in our case we caught a small alligator sunning himself, as well as lots colorful birds. At the "Throat" there were a lot of people and a lot of guys with step ladders who for a tip will take a picture of you from an advantageous position. The view is spectacular and very wet. You are right in front of where all the water goes over the horseshoe shaped falls, and the mist will soak you in seconds. One of the spectacles here are the birds which live in the cliffs along the falls, darting here and there through the mist.

We ended the day by walking the jungle trail on the other side of the park, which comes out at a waterfall along the river down from the "Throat". As this is a pretty long walk, and it had started to rain, so there weren't a lot of people on the trail. Luckily for us, the rain stopped, and we got to see a number of animals, including a monkey and a nutria like animal, whose name I forget. The small waterfall and the little pool at the end weren't really all that special, but a nice place to relax and have a picnic.

After Iguazu, we continued on towards Mendoza. We stopped for a day near Iguazu to check out a mine, which Katheryna wanted to visit. Unfortunately she was pretty disappointed, as it turned out to not be much more than an excuse for you to buy rocks and souvenirs. The following day we stopped at a small village which is a popular fishing destination, and here we had a spectacular campside right at the edge of the river Parana, very memorable.

(Rio Parana, AR)

On our way to Corrientes we stopped for gas and were approached by a family who wanted to take our picture. We got to talking, after which we knew where the campground was in Resistencia (Corrientes didn't have one), and had someone to help me change the front wheel bearings which I had planned on getting done in Corrientes! So off to Resistencia it was. Resistencia is across the river from Corrientes and although smaller turned out to be much more interesting. Amongst other things it is the capital of sculptures in Argentina. Every year they have a contest with sculptors from all over the world. The results of which can be seen all around town, and at the museum where they have the competition. Both the government and private citizens join in the fun. The government putting up sculptures at intersections and plazas, individuals putting them in front of their houses, and business putting them in front of their buildings. An example is the local Carrefour, which has two sculptures in front of its entrance, as well as a few more inside the shopping complex.

(Carlos Hortt & Family, Resistencia, AR)

We ended up making some really great friends here, starting with Carlos Hortt, and his whole family, who pretty much adopted us. As well as a number of other people whom we met here. Carlos turns out to be a former successful rally racer from the area. He even spent a year in Japan working for a Japanese F1 motor manufacturer. He has a nice workshop where amongst other things he restores cars and does all manner of mechanical work.

(Bike Rally, Resistencia, AR)

There was a motorcycle rally the weekend after we got here, and we were invited to stay and join the fun. As Katheryna has never had the pleasure so we decided to stay. Motorcycle rallies are basically an excuse to show your bike, enjoy some camaraderie with old and new friends, music, food, drink and entertainment, and this was no different. A very relaxing if loud gathering. My bike was very popular and everyone who saw it basically said the same; they wish they could do the same thing!! We participated in a convoy to Corrientes which had around 150 bikes. We were also awarded a "Special Mention" award for our participation.

We spent many a dinner with Carlos and his family which gave us a chance to sample some specialties of the area (and Argentina), the standard asado of course, and once we had an excellent Sabalo, grilled slowly over coals. Yum, yum.. It was difficult leaving, but we eventually got back on the road.

The ride to Mendoza was un-eventful, but for a couple of interesting communities which we passed through. First was Hasenkampf, which we saw on the map and decided to ride through to have a look. It turned out to be a community of grain and dairy farms, founde by two German brothers, but otherwise pretty much a standard farming community. While we were in the central plaza we were greeted by an elderly gentleman, who used to be a local doctor before he retired. He regaled us with many stories of how the town came to be and of course the current political problems, something everyone likes to talk about, ending by inviting us to an asado, which we politely declined.

(Laguna de Mar Chiquita, AR)

Next was San Jeronimo Norte, which turns out to be another farming community founded by a group of Swiss immigrants. We just missed the 150 year anniversary party which they had had the previous week. All over the town there are Swiss flags on all the buildings, and what drew our notice was how clean it was, just like home! We had stopped for a short break at a roadside restaurant, where the owners were astounded to find out we were Swiss. The called the local community center and informed them of our presence. We stopped by and were given a welcome pack, including a plaque, some stickers, and information on the community!! Too bad we missed the party!

(Just outside Parque National El Condorito, near Cordoba, AR)

The ride since leaving Missiones has been pretty monotonous, wide open country, farms as far as the eye could see. But just west of Cordoba things changed. We were getting into the mountains, and what a ride it was. From Lago San Roque to Villa Dolores, going through the Condorito national park, was one of the best roads we have ridden in Argentina. Almost as scenic as the south of Argentina, but with a well maintained road, which really makes a difference on such a loaded bike as ours.
From Villa Dolores to Mendoza, it is basically desert so there was not much more than a very straight and long road...

(Back in Mendoza, and Carlos Desgens making some final adjustments on the bike)

Technorati Tags: Argentina, bmw, mendoza, motorcycle, travel

Argentina, finally on The Road to Iguazu

2008-10-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

(Rio Uruguay at Monte Caseros, Argentina)

On the road again, oh, what a wonderful feeling. In the end it was nearly a month in Montevideo. What had started out as an emergency family visit turned into a restocking and re-arming expedition, with a little sightseeing thrown in. (see the previous blog). The packages from home had arrived. There was only a problem with our Olympus camera which we ordered from the U.S., as the local price was, believe it or not, 3.5 times more than getting it from Amazon.com via family relations in the US. The package was sent via courier, and to our surprise, the courier rather than delivering the package, showed up with a couple of documents which we had to take to the Airport customs clearance to get our package. Ok, so the next day we got on the bus and headed to the airport, a trip of around 30 minutes costing around 25 Sfr. At customs we were sent from one line to another, and after 1 1/2 hours and visiting a number of functionaries, who duly checked our documents, either stamped, appended it, or replaced it with other documents, our package was produced and inspected. Unfortunately, two pieces of bad news were to follow. First, they would not release the package without a power of attorney of the person named as the recipient of the package. In this case Katheryna's grandmother, Olga. Second, they calculated a tax of 60%, based on the price of shipping added to the declared value of the goods. The goods were in this case valued at 100$ and the shipping was listed by the courier company as being $40 although both values are fictitious. The shipping was 105$ and the camera cost 260$, even so we were looking at another 68$ tax. Ok, still cheaper than buying the camera here, but we found it a bit un-reasonable, considering the camera was imported as used. My brother had actually used it, and only sent the camera without any packing material or instructions. This didn't impress the inspector.

(Near El Palmar, NP, Argentina)

Maybe, I should at this point mention that at the time, the customs office in Uruguay, specifically the port and the airport customs officers, were being charged by a federal judge of taking bribes to facilitate the handling of goods. In the previous weeks, they had already indicted 13 officers of taking bribes and were still at it! Anyway, we went home the first day without the camera and with some (unwanted) insights into to the workings of the customs system in Uruguay. Which in my opinion is a vicious circle, in-efficiency, feeding in-efficience, with some unreasonably nasty customs charge to pay for all the inefficiencies. Basically, it employs tons of people and probably pays for itself by the customs duties. The government doesn't profit, and the end consumers certainly don't either. Hmm. Makes one wonder. I also had the pleasure of listening to an interview the head of the customs did with a television reporter. It was a travesty, the gentleman alternatively trying to defend and condemn the goings on in his bureau. What I really got out of the whole thing, was the guy came off as being completely incompetent, both as and administrator and as a politician. But of course this is deviating from the story.

Katheryna wrote a nice little note which her grandmother signed, and the following day we took the local bus (2 of them), instead of the expensive intercity bus, to get to the airport paying a total of 3 Sfr. for a ride which in the end only took 10 minutes longer! Well worth it.
This time, we managed to get the package and as an added surprise they cashier waved the customs charge levied by his colleague the previous day, saying that the camera was obviously used. So the only cost for getting the package besides the transport costs, was a handling charge of 2 Sfr. Nevertheless, I still don't think much of the system. At this point sparing the reader long winded discussions of similarities to the Brazilian port customs, or detailed discussion of the necessities of customs brokers etc. seems the only humane thing to do. So onward with our tale.

Of all the roads leading to Iguazu, which is in the far north east corner of Argentina, around 1700km from Montevideo, we chose one that first took us to the western parts of Uruguay which we had previously not visited. Followed by crossing the country and exiting into Argentina at Paysandu, Uruguay. Turns out that this part of Uruguay is pretty similar to the rest of Uruguay, for the most part, flat and boring motorcycling roads. With a small exception between Melo and Tacuarembo which was lovely, being partly forested, with rolling hilly terrain through which unfortunately passed much too quickly, or the stretch was just too short.

(Katheryna along the Rio Uruguay, Monte Casero, AR)

The crossing in Paysandu was un-eventful, but the bridge was spectacular. The Rio Uruguay is particularly spectacular here and the bridge is provides excellent vantage point to enjoy the splendor. Unfortunately I couldn't stop to get some pictures. And once again we are in Argentina.

(Piray Mini river, Missiones, AR)

We followed the river north into Missiones state, which is where the sub-tropical area of Argentina is. Only one small problem on the road, on the second day after getting into Argentina, my bike starting having problems. We stopped at a town called Monte Caseros, which lies just on the banks of the river Uruguay, looking across into Uruguay (logically). Here I diagnosed and fixed the problem; which turned out to be a bad coil. Having a spare made it a simple switch out the old, put in the new, and we were back on the road. Only one day lost.

Missiones was great, finally some hilly terrain, very lush and green, a lot different than the rest of Argentina. Unfortunately the roads were not all that good in places, and we were advised to take a different route to our destination, which in the end we did. It didn't matter, it was still excellent, very similar to the Amazon regions of Brazil. Deep red earth, and very green foliage, with lots of hills and curves. Luckily for us it was pretty dry and only rained once or twice, and even better the further north we got, the warmer it was. It is also an area which is very developed as far as tourism was concerned, so we got plenty of information on "un-missable sights", which we duly missed. So we got into Puerto de Iguazu in fairly short order and for a change both dry and warm.

Technorati Tags: Argentina, bmw, south america, travel, Uruguay

Uruguay, Notes from Uruguay

2008-10-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

(Whales at Punta Ballena, Uruguay)

After almost 6 months we find ourselves back in Montevideo. In some ways it is like a homecoming. The reason for being back here is that Katheryna's grandmother, Olga, who was having some health problems and we were asked to stop by and keep her company for a while. As we were planning on coming this way anyway this fit well into our plans (we are heading to the Iguazu falls in Eastern Argentina). It was really great to be back on the road again after being stuck in one place so long. The ride from Mendoza was mostly straightforward. There is a major highway which goes East from Mendoza straight to Buenos Aires, going through the central grain growing, and cattle raising areas of Argentina. In Buenos Aires we took the first ferry to Colonia and retraced our steps back to Montevideo. There was only one slight hiccup on our way to Uruguay. Namely, we had gone over our 90 day visa by exactly 1 day. In my case they charged me 50A$, and were not interested in hearing about robbery, bike problems or anything else. Luckly for us, Katheryna's immmigration agent was more leniant, and let her go without paying the fine.

(Around Montevideo)

In Montevideo we found Olga doing well, so that was a load of our minds. She had spent a few days in the hospital with problems in her legs, so it was nice that we were able to give her a hand while she got better. Besides keeping Olga company, we spent days looking around Montevideo for replacement stuff for our stolen camping gear, with no luck. There is basically nothing really useful to be found here, and rather than settle for junk which would not last or is to bulky to carry around we decided to replace it with decent gear from home. This fit well with our plans, so our visit with Olga turned into a resupply and wait session. We used the time to visit friends and do some sightseeing and plenty of reading. Have I mentioned recently that the biggest fights we have is about who gets to use the Kindle (if you missed my Kindle entry, a Kindle is an electronic library which we carry around, rather than books. At the moment we have around 4000 electronic books on it, and the list is growing).

Our visit also co-incided with the whales who come to the warm waters along the coast here every year. On one of the best days we had, we took a ride up to Punta Ballena, where sure enough, we caught 4 or 5 whales frolicking in the warm bay. We spent the whole afternoon watching them, first from a look out above the bay, and later from the beach where they had come really close at high tide. There were no major acrobatics, but it was really peaceful watching them undisturbed in the huge bay in front of Punta Del Este.
Of course no ride around this area is complete without a comment on the beauty of the coast and the resorts. First, it was the middle of the week, in the middle of winter, so there was no-one around, and to top it off the day's weather was perfect. The houses all shuttered and closed, the streets empty, the beach deserted, no traffic and plenty of sunshine. This is the best way to enjoy any beach resort, at least in my opinion.

(Whales at Punta Ballena, Uruguay)

Of course I might have to mention a little accident that happen when leaving Metropolitan Montevideo. Stopped at a light an elderly gentleman hit us from behind. Luckily, there was no damage to the bike. The guy in the car just threw his hands up in a gesture of "oops sorry". I checked out the damage, and when I was satisfied that the bike had not suffered adversely from the collision, we got on our way again. Even this little mishap did not dampen our spirits, and by the time we got the whales we had almost forgotten about it.

(A military monument, near Treinta Y Tres, Uruguay)

Our package still hasn't gotten here, so we continue our vigil, interrupted rudely one morning by a loud banging. Which at the time looked like the wind had slammed closed an open window. Unfortunately in the morning on closer inspection it turned out that someone had broken the wooden shutters on two of the windows. Olga was convinced that it was someone trying to break-in, although we were not so sure. It looked more like an act of vandalism to us. Nevertheless Olga contacted the police, who duly showed up and took Olga's statement. After living 42 years in the same house alone, and never having had any problems, she was understandably upset and nervous. I don't want to think about what it would have been like if we had not been here to calm her down and help her cope.

(Northern Uruguay)

Oh, and before I forget, the bike is running perfectly, and although because the weather has been so cold it has not been possible to really test it, I am very hopeful that the problem has been fixed permanently.

(Vale del Eden, Uruguay)

Technorati Tags: bmw, ebook, Kindle, Montevideo, motorcycle, travel, Uruguay

Argentina, Robbed in Mendoza and other stories from the road..

2008-10-15T08:24:00.000-07:00

(The police report)

Good news and bad news are often intertwined, and so it was for us.

The bike was finally finished. Now the only thing left was to take it for a test ride to make sure that everything was functioning ok. Some last minute washing and a few last e-mails and we would be leaving the following day.

(Uspallata pass)

The test ride took me up to Uspallata along a river which apparently is very popular for rafting. Upsalla, is right at the foot of the Andes and the pass going to Chile. The way back to Mendoza took me over a 3000 meter pass and a great dirt road which made it's way back down the mountain along many switchbacks which to my surprise were snow covered whenever they were in the shadow side of the the mountain. At the bottom there is a thermal spa and from there the road goes straight across the plains back to Mendoza. Back in Mendoza, Carlos and I did some last minute adjustments on the bike before I went and picked up Katheryna and a pizza, and we headed back to the campground. Now, what had been a great day, looking forward to leaving in the morning and getting back on the road was rudely interrupted by the reality of finding our tent open and for the most part empty!

(A student protest coming out of the front gate of St. Martin Park)

We had been robbed! The reputation which we had been reading and hearing about had finally caught up with us. The following hours flew by with the police and the owners of the camping. There was of course nothing anyone could really do at this point, the stuff was gone, and Kathy and I spent a while to sort out exactly what had disappeared. It is amazing how much stuff we actually have. All the police in the vicinity showed up and did a quick search around the area, unsurprisingly they found nothing.

(Around Mendoza)

The thieves had taken all our cooking gear, the pots and pans, a bunch of clothes, two backpacks, a small camera, an I-pod and speakers, two pairs of tennis shoes, all our electrical cables and charging gear, some books and lots of odds' and ends which they could easily carry. Basically they had taken their time and made off with everything. They even took out stuff out of my backpack which they didn't want. What they left was the sleeping bags and mats and the two ortlieb bags which we carry on the back of the bike.

(Bicycling in the park)

The following morning in the light of day, after a sleepless night we had a look around ourselves. We found that the thieves, and there had to be more than one considering how much stuff they carried away, had dropped a belt on their way to the back fence. On the other side of the fence I found my shorts and a bit further on some papers which they also apparently dropped on their way to the road a 100 meters further on. Unfortunately here the trail went cold, I found nothing more. So depressed and tired we slowly broke camp and for the first time in nearly 3 months we were back on the road. The weather mirrored our mood, cold, damp and dark, and this is unfortunately the image that we will take with us of Mendoza.

(Plaza de Italia, Mendoza)

After a few days reflection, we think that the thieves were helped if not directly at least indirectly by someone at the campground. We had asked them specifically at least three times to keep a closer eye on our tent (we were for the most part the only campers there over the last 4 weeks or so..), as we had had some problems with a stray dog which had started to get into our tent whenever we were away. Something which they had definitely neglected to do. The thieves had plenty of time and didn't seem to be in a hurry, they had not damaged the tent, and had looked at what they took. For example, the took the South American guidebook we had, but left a history book. In addition, I am not a great believer in coincidence, they were the only ones who knew that this was our last day!

(St. Martin park)

All in all we were of course lucky, we had not been robbed at gun point, we had not lost anything really important. For example we had all our money and papers on us. A large part of our clothes were with us as we had just taken them to the laundry, and on the test ride I had also taken my tank bag which contained my big camera and lenses. This had been sitting in the tent for two and half months!! Nevertheless, once we got to Montevideo we did a complete inventory and found to our surprise that the replacement value of all the goods they had taken, amount to 10,000$!! This is not the worst part, the worst part for us is the fact that most of the stuff has little or no value to these people, and we have spent a long time collecting the stuff we used. In the end I see them just throwing away most of the stuff which I doubt they can sell or would use.

(Bicycling in Mendoza)

And to put everything into perspective, three days after we got robbed I got a mail from Robbie, a friend who we met in El Chalten. Robbie is also on a bike and after we left him in Argentina he headed into Chile, back into Argentina and over to Uruguay and then up along the coast of Brazil. The mail informed us of his run-in with some pretty bad people north of Rio. Apparently, he was stopped along an empty stretch of road by a car sporting police lights but otherwise un-marked. Four people then forced him into the car at gunpoint. With one of the guys riding his bike, they took him and the bike to a nearby field. There they tied him up on the ground, waved a gun around and proceeded to go through all his stuff, putting what they wanted into the trunk of their car. They took all afternoon to do this, and even sent one of the guys to bring some food. Once they had gone through all his stuff, they asked him if there was anything he wanted from the stuff they had discarded, and even let him keep a backpack to put the clothes he salvaged in. In the end they drove him back to Rio and dropped him off at the bus station giving him 20 Reales (12$). He is back in the states now, and has understandably lost his appetite for traveling, at least for a while.

(A handicrafts market, Mendoza)

We will continue, replacing some of the more important stuff, but the trip will certainly not be the same, and much shorter to boot. The cost of the repairs on the bike and the replacement costs of our equipment have all taken a heavy toll on our travel budget.

(Tango, Buenos Aires)

Technorati Tags: Argentina, mendoza, motorcycle, south america, travel

Argentina, Still in Mendoza, its a dog eat dog world.

2008-10-15T08:10:00.001-07:00

(Pegleg and Shy)

This entry finds us in still in Mendoza and still dealing with motorcycle issues. But rather than bore everyone with more stuff about what can and will go wrong with a bike, I thought I would relate a little story about dogs and try not to bore you too much.

As I might have mentioned previously, we are camping in Mendoza, in the large and very nice Parque San Martin. The park has everything, a football (soccer for you Yanks) stadium, a large lake, a museum, a camp ground, and of course lots of green spaces everywhere. It has also a reputation for being very dangerous. For example most take-out places won't deliver anything here after dark (if at all)!

Nevertheless the campground is excellent if a bit loud, it also doubles as a place where pretty much all of Mendoza comes to grill on the weekend. They are usually full by mid-day on Saturday and Sundays. So what has all this to do with dogs, you might be asking. Well, the campground has a watchdog, a beautiful collie called Bruno. In addition to Bruno there are a number of other dogs which hang around, since the campers or actually the picnikers tend to give them scraps (not always voluntarily as they are pretty sneaky if you turn your back), much to the dismay of the management. Also, this being a park and pretty secluded people actually bring puppies and kittens and just leave them here. When we got here, there were two young puppies which hung around just outside the campground fence and would sneak into the camping when there weren't a lot of people around. Also a very pregnant dog seemed to have adopted them, along with another one who would often be seen playing with the two pups. As all of this was taking place near our tent, we ended up pretty much adopting the whole dog family. This of course contrary to our standing policy of never, ever, under any circumstances feed the animals.

(Peg and Shy, sooooo cute!!)

In short oder we were buying dog food, and giving them regular meals. The dogs then started sleeping in the tent, the first 2 or 3 days we would be kicking them out at all hours of the night, but we finally relented, and let the big dogs sleep in the back of the tent and the two puppies in front.

(Peg and Shy sleeping in the tent!)

Of the two puppies, one was very shy and the other less so. In the beginning the shy puppy would at the slightest provocation run and hide in the tent, and then stick his head out from underneath to keep a watchful eye on the situation, it took a long time before you were able to pick him up and pet him. The other a bit more reckless, and would let you pick him up, and would go wandering around looking for food. One day he went over to visit Rene and Axel, a couple from Lichtenstein who were camped a couple of spots over. Axel, put the puppy up on the top of his sidecar and he fell and caught his leg in the wheel spoke, breaking it. Axel and Rene then took him to the vet, where he got an injection and in the morning he returned to get a cast on. Poor puppy.

After a while it was clear that we were going to be taking care of these guys for a while (since we weren't going anywhere), so we decided to give them names. Since one was in a cast he got the name Pegleg. The shy one was logically called Shy. The pregnant dog we called Snow, as in Snow White and the seven dwarfs. The last stray we called Dwarf, or Zwerg (depending on what language we happened to be speaking), since he was so short.

Then things started getting complicated. First, Peg got an eye infection, so we had to take him to the vet and get him some drops for his eyes. A few days later he stopped eating, and we got really scared. We were taking him to the vet everyday getting him injections of vitamins and anti-biotics. He apparently caught something pretty serious. After 5 days he finally started to get his appetite back, but he looked really, really bad. So we were now spoiling him with his favorite foods, roasted chicken, and ham!! (We were eating plain pasta!!), to try and get him to put on some weight.

We also got Shy vaccinated during this time. He also got an eye infection and did not like his drops, so that got to be a daily fight (every 8 hours).
During all of these visits to the vet (most of which Katheryna did), Katheryna started asking around for shelters for the dogs. Rene had also made up a note which she put up in the vets office in case anyone was looking for pups.

(Snow and newborn puppies)

In the middle of all this, at 2 o'clockl in the morning we were awoken by some strange noices at the back of the tent (this is the side where our heads are). As I took a peek, the Snow was giving birth. The first had just made its entrance when I looked, and over the next two hours it was followed by 7 more! We would sneak a peek every few minutes to see how things were going. In the morning, we found 5 pups suckling, 2 dead, and one dying, rejected by the mother. Well, Katheryna of course was not pleased with the situation and decided to lend nature a hand. She put the dying pup to the mothers breast, and everytime the mother pushed it away, Katheryna would put it back. After a while the mother relented and cleaned it up and let it suckle. Katheryna 1, nature 0.

(The newborn puppies)

Our dog family had now grown considerably. We were now caring for Shy, Peg, Snow, Dwarf and 6 new born pups. Luckily Katheryna's search for shelter or someone to take a puppy was starting to bear fruit. There is a group who gives away puppies every Saturday in the middle of Mendoza and collects money for their shelter. Katheryna spoke with a lady there and explained the situation, apparently they didn't have room for more dogs, but as we were tourists she would make and exception and would take Snow and the new borns. So the following Sunday we took Snow to the shelter, amid lots of barking (there were dogs everywhere), and plenty of tears we left poor Snow and the puppies (which were just starting to open their eyes). The lady said that she was sure that she could find homes for the puppies without much problem, and Snow should also not be a problem as she is young and fit.

A few days later, through a contact that the vet provided we found a home for Shy. The guy didn't want Peg as he was still very thin and had his cast on, but he liked Shy. So plenty of tears and another dog had found a home.

Now we are down to Peg and Dwarf, and Dwarf we weren't going to worry about, since he is grown and could take care of himself and anyway he would often disappear for days at a time. The people at the camping were very happy that we were taking care of the situation and not dumping more dogs on them. Then it was Pegs turn to go to the shelter. By this time he was pretty fit, his cast was off, and he had put on considerable weight. Katheryna had not been able to find a home for him, and we were getting too attached to him, so we had to take him. More tears and Peg was gone. It had been a long and hard fight to get him fit and we had been really worried about loosing him, so we were at once relieved and sad to see him go.

(Dwarf, Zorro and Peg taking some sun.)

At the campground, there were a number of new dogs around, at least three very big dogs, and one puppy around 5 or 6 months old. The grown dogs were seen around for a few days but then were gone, but the puppy stayed. So guess who adopted him!! Yep, you guessed it. But this time, we made it clear to the people at the camping that we weren't going to take responsibility for him, and after a week or so of back and fort, they agreed to keep him. So now we could feed him without feeling bad about it, the campground even provided food for him. So the story ends, Bruno and Zorro (the new puppy) are well, Dwarf hasn't been around for a week now, but I am sure he is fine. There are still a few other strays who come around now and then, but we all discourage them from staying around, in particular as they often get into a tangle with Bruno. Zorro sleeps just outside the tent, and is a great watchdog. He now gets two good meals a day, and on Sunday stuffs himself with food he scrounges off the picnickers. He was seen carrying around half a chicken the other day, after stuffing himself, he sleep it off with all four paws pointing to the sky, and he didn't even stir when I cooked. Today the vet is coming to give him and Bruno vaccinations. The dogs may come and go, but we seem to stay..

An update, Bruno and Zorro are doing fine, Zorro is now sleeping in the front part of the tent. The vet has given him his first vaccination. He seemed to have a bad reaction as the following day(s) he had problems with his eyes. After three days it got a bit better, and the vet says that is should clear up by itself. We let him sleep in the tent since the weather was so cold (it started to snow) and miserable, that we just couldn't leave him outside. Bruno gets to sleep in the lounge, although the people at the campground try to discourage it.

Since the weather was so miserable they even offered to let us sleep in there, but we turned them down. We are "serious" campers. When I received my new mattress from Cascade, I put the old one in the front part of the tent so now Zorro, is not only dry and warm, but he also has a mattress to lie on. Who says we are spoiling him?

Kindle on the road or how to take all your library with you.

2008-10-11T18:08:00.000-07:00

This post deals with a new tech toy which we have acquired, so if you aren't interested in tech, toys or books, then you can skip it.

First a little background. Last year Amazon announced that they were bringing out a device to read e-books (electronic books). This in itself was no major issue, as readers have been around a while, Sony, Franklin, and a few others were already in the market. Not to mention that pretty much every handheld device, Palm, Blackberry, Nokia etc., could also be used to read e-books. At the time I though little of the device as I had a laptop, and also a Palm, so if I wanted to read books I could do it on either device. Add to this the fact that I never read books (other than technical books), on my computer devices. As a matter of fact I didn't even have any "regular" books in e-book format.

Now we jump to spring 08, Katheryna ran across a mention of this device and asks me about it. Katheryna reads voraciously, so we always had an issue about finding material, and space for all those books. We only have room for 1 or 2 books, which she would of course read in a couple of days. So if we were not able to find books in that time she had nothing to read. So I decided to have another look at the Kindle and e-books in general.

What I learned was that, although not perfect it seemed to fit our requirements perfectly. It is a simple device which does two things exceedingly well. The first is it presents e-books in a very good format (size, and readability), the second is store a large amount of content in a small space. In addition, battery life was touted to be excellent. The additional features were of little interest to us. Things such as Whispernet, and wiki access, instant download, blog reading, newspaper subscriptions, were not going to be available to us, and so weren't an issue in the decision to purchase this device.

Now that we had decided that the main features where important enough to us to drop the 399$ on this toy, we went ahead an found out about getting a device. Here is where the fun starts.

First, Amazon will not ship the device outside the United States. Ok, no problem, I have a brother in the states so I bought the device and had it shipped to him in Florida (thanks Rick).

Second problem, even though they allowed me to purchase the book, I could not purchase content for the book, because the credit cards tied to my account are all on banks outside the U.S. Not being employed and having no credit record in the U.S. makes it impossible for me to get a U.S. based card. So that option is out. Having already purchased the device I wasn't about to let such a small matter keep me from getting some content.

But before I get into that, I should mention the following. There is basically three types of content you can put on this device. The first being, content purchased directly from Amazon and downloaded or wirelessly delivered to the device. The second is free content from places like Manybooks or Project Gutenberg both of which offer books which can be downloaded for free, and then uploaded to the device by a computer. The third is user generated content. Which can be converted by Amazon for a fee or free depending on how you do it (they charge .10 cents a page for wireless delivery, but it is free if sent to your e-mail account), or which the user can convert using tools like MOBIPOCKET eBook Creator which one can download free from MobiPocket.

The device supports content in ".azw" (Amazon Kindle format), ".txt", ".mobi", or ".prc" format. So if you already have content in these formats (and they are not protected by DRM) the device will be able to present it directly. In addition to these formats it can also play music in .MP3 format, and display pictures in .jpg format.

I use content rather than e-book as it doesn't just need to be "books", it can be text files, web pages(html), or PDF which can all be converted to the correct azw format by the tool mentioned above (or sent to Amazon for conversion).

The first thing I did was have a look at all the free content I could find, just google ebooks and you will find plenty of content (mostly paid). The free content is pretty much duplicated all across the web by Manybooks and Project Gutenberg and others. These are books which are no longer protected by copyrights, or produced specifically as public domain works. Nevertheless there is a lot of very "interesting" free things out there.

As Katheryna wanted some current novels and did not just want to have to read "old" classics, so I had to find a solution to the Amazon restrictions.
My solution was to use someone else account in the U.S. In order to purchase content for the Kindle, I had transfer the registration of the Kindle to that account. Now with the permission of the account owner (as I was using their credit card), I could easily purchase all the content directly from Amazon and load it to the device, or download it to my laptop and upload it to the device from there.

When the device was delivered in Florida, my brother just turned it on and it downloaded the items which I had purchased. Although not without some problems, apparently there were a number of "timeouts' in the delivery process, so that it had to be re-started a couple of times. But in the end all the 31 items which I had bought were on the device when it was shipped to me in Argentina.

Once we received it here (without any hassles from customs), the device turned out to be the size of a paperback, all in white. The screen is excellent and is large enough to be easily readable. In the beginning the buttons were more of a hassle than anything else. But surprisingly after a few days you get used to it. The main problem is that whenever you pick up or put down the Kindle, you will invariably hit a button by accident. You also have to get used to holding it so that you don't hit a button by accident, but so that you can still page forward or back as required.

The battery life has been around approximately 16 to 18 hours. It probably would be more if we didn't spend so much time reading it outdoors (in our tent), where at the moment it is around 5C (41F).

In the meanwhile we have already purchased more content, and I continually comb the free sites for more stuff to download. Since the Kindle is out of the U.S, and there is no access to Whispernet, the content has to be purchased and then downloaded via the internet, and then uploaded to the Kindle by the included USB cable. Because the size of the files is so small this works really well.

One of the most important things for us was the fact that the kindle has extendible memory, in the form of SD memory cards. At the same time I bought the Kindle I also bought a 4GB card. The internal memory of the kindle is around 180MB for user content. The normal azw books you buy will be pretty small. For example the last 17 novels I bought all in all only took around 9MB, so depending on how you plan to use the device the internal memory might be enough. For us this was certainly not going to be the case. At the moment, the Kindle internal memory is empty (ie. I have 180MB free), all my content is on the chip card, which now has around 2GB of data on it. The space is being taken mostly by a lot of converted PDF's, also music will take a lot of room, depending on how much you load. A note on the music, this is not a device to listen to music on. The music which I have loaded is used as background music when reading.

All in all we are really happy with it, and our major problem is that we keep fighting about who gets to use it when. And finally, what have read? Well, Katheryna finished Tuesdays With Morris, and The Sky is Falling, and has started on Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues under the Sea, and Dan Brown's, Angels & Demons. For my part, I just finished Pillars of the Earth, and have started on World without End. So after a week we are getting some pretty good use out of the Kindle!!

Update, it has now been 4 months since we got the Kindle, and yes we are still fighting about who gets to use it. At the moment, I have two 4Gb cards both nearly full of content. Approximately 5000 books. One cards contains all English books. The second card contains books in Italian or German (for Katheryna who sometimes prefers to read books in Italian or German if they are too "complicated" in English), as well most of my reference (technical books and articles) material.

In the last week I have read 4 books by Douglas Adams (Starship Titanic, Mostly Harmless, Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul). I am in the middle of two others (Brian Green's, The Elegant Universe, and Goedel, Escher, Bach and Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hoffsteadter). I can't list all the books that Katheryna has read, but suffice it to say she is not running out of material any time soon.

One of the things I enjoy the most about this device is that it functions as a "Library" or Bookstore, I just turn it on, and start to browsing among the 248 index pages, looking for something interesting to read. Amazon continues to publish new novels in Kindle format, and of course there are thousands upon thousands of older titles also available in this format, so it is in the end just a question of when can I use the Kindel!

Technorati Tags: Argentina, bmw, books, ebook, Kindle, library, motorcycle, travel

Argentina, Mendoza and technical problems!

2008-10-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

(Carlos Desgens working on Cecilia's Bike)

We finally made it to Mendoza. We had agreed to meet Cecilia here to do some work on her bike, and also to take care of the nagging problem with my bike. Peter Roemer highly recommended a mechanic here called Carlos Desgens. Apparently Carlos is one of the best BMW mechanics in all of South America, so it seemed a logical place to go and try to sort out something which could turn out to be a major problem.

(Scratched oil pump)

Frst things first, Mendoza, turns out to be a very nice town, and is the center for the Argentinean wine industry. There are wine cellars all around the area. To the west are the mountains and Chile, to the east plains. It is very arid here and apparently the ground is excellent for the cultivation of wine. The town itself is very green, most streets tree lined avenues, with parks around every block or two. It is also the center of outdoor activities in the area, from here people go skiing up in the mountains, kayaking or rafting down the rivers, trekking, mountain biking, and horseback riding amongst other things.

(The skeleton of my bike)

Unfortunately for us, we had other issue to deal with, first on to Cecilias bike. It was suffering a number of ills, including leaking transmission fluid, a bad final drive, the steering head bearing were bad, and so on. In the end, with the help of Carlos, we took care of pretty much everything. Cecilia had brought a number of spare parts with her, and the rest Carlos had, so it was basically, just the time it took us to dismantle everything, and switch the parts out and then put everything back together. She then took a test ride for a couple of days up into the mountains, and when she returned we did some minor final adjustments. We also did a double oil change, since she had apparently gotten some bad oil in Laos. Then it was off into the sunset for Cecilia, who rode off to Chile and north.

With that taken care of, it was time to have a look at my bike. All of my efforts to correct the oil pressure problem had born no fruit, so it was time for more drastic measures. We started with the items that I had previously corrected, and Carlos agreeded that those measures should have fixed the problem, and could not continue to be the cause of the problem. The next candidate was the oil pump. This was indeed damaged, a piece of metal seemed to have gotten into it and scrached up the cover and the rotor pretty bad. So we replaced it and tested the new pump. The problem was still presenting itself. (see my previous blog for a description of the problem). So it was time to dismantle the motor and have a look at the major components. The crankshaft, the main bearings, and the connecting rods. (in the interest of brevety I am just going to go over the salient points..), were all taken out and measured. Sure enough, there parts are all worn and exhibit more play than allowed in the specifications. So now the question is what to do. It is possible to fix the crank, but this is a pretty difficult thing to do, and could go wrong, leaving me either with a worse problem, or only getting me a few hundred kilometers further. In addition, there is the issue of a number of additional parts which all have to fit together in order to insure that the problem is fixed. So because, we didn't find a smoking gun (all this extra play may or may not be the cause of the problem, or only part of the problem), we decided to go ahead and replace the main engine parts. Of course these parts are not available here in Argentinia, so I spent a more than a week, e-mailing back and forth to the U.S and Europe trying to find someone who had the parts (used, but in good condition) and could send them to me here. Not quite as simple as it sounds. My favorite supplier, Eurotech in California no longer does this type of work, so Chris Canterbury referred me to a couple of other places. Long story short, in the end, I am getting the parts from Europe for quite a bit more than it would have cost me to get them from the states, but unfortunately, they did not respond in time, so I had to make a decision.

(The motor being taken apart and cleaned)

Then the waiting began.

(Katheryna at the Ice cream shop)

In the meanwhile, we have found a decent place to hang out and enjoy our days here. There is an ice-cream parlor with free wifi where we spend most of our days surfing the net, or reading books. On Thursdays we go to the movies as that is the day that the new movies come out. Usually we will see two or three movies, and that takes care of the new releases for the week. In case anyone is interested, you can find my "mini" reviews here.
As we are camped in the park just to the west of town, we have rented two bicycles to get us around. Mendoza is pretty flat, with the exception of the part outside of town where we are staying. This as it happens lies on a slight elevation which runs around 5km to the center of town. So going to town was fun, all downhill. Going home on the other hand, was not so much fun. We noticed very quickly that we are hopelessly out of shape. The first couple of times, we ended up having to walk the bikes more than we rode them. After two weeks of bicycling we were doing much better, but it was still a fight. One nice thing though, depending on which way you come, there are some really nice views of the town, in particular in the evening when all the lights are on.

The time passed quickly, we acquired a Kindle (see the Kindle blog entry), so suddenly we were really busy finding content on the web, and downloading stuff to fill it. The rest of the time was fighting about who would get to use it. Then of course a little bit of work on the pictures and blogs, and websites, all contriving to keep us pretty busy. We haven't really done much as far as touristy things are concerned.

(Andre cleaning the motor block)

Katheryna also took a little trip to Buenos Aires by bus. Some friends of hers were passing through on their own world trip, so she decided to go and spend a few days with them. This also gave her a chance to visit some family in the city. For my part, I decided to stay in Mendoza and really try and get some work done on the website. The result of which was the posting of the Brazil pictures.

The weather continued to get colder and colder, whereas it was around 30C during the day when we got here, after two months we were happy if it was 10C to 15C during the day. At night it would get cold enough that they had to turn off the water in the camping in order to insure that the water pipes didn't burst. In general though, I find the climate here quite agreeable. We only had snow once and that only briefly. For the most part it is dry and nice if a bit cool.

(The starting point for rebuilding the engine)

In due time the parts arrived, unfortunately there was still some problems with the new parts. So it would take a few more days before we got around to starting on the rebuilding of the engine. During the time that we were waiting a number of other projects were also being undertaken. For example, my rear shock was sent to Cordoba to have a new hydralic line installed. My seat is being re-apolstered, the valves, guides and springs were changed in the heads. Finally, my transmission also got re-worked.
How things are going to turn out is yet to be decided. But things look pretty good.

Argentina, the cordillera and route 40

2008-10-10T16:09:00.000-07:00

(Along the cordillera heading north)

Leaving Ushuaia was a lot harder than we thought. The weather was co-operting, so there seemed to be no reason to leave. As I have already mentioned, everyone we knew that had been down here, and everyone whom we told we were heading here told us the same, mainly that there is a lot of wind coming down, and lots of wind going up. In addition most complained about the "unstable" weather. For our part, we had nothing but calm weather, no wind, sunshine during the day, and cool evenings. In a word, perfect. But of course eventually we had to get back on the road. The plan was to head north along the cordillera. We had reliable information that the Route 40 was the most scenic road in all of Argentina so we were looking forward to checking it out. Also, on the route was the Perito Moreno glacier which was something I had wanted to have a look at for many years. So on a beautiful day we had our last look at the Southernmost City in the World (tm), and headed north.

(View of Lago Roca & Perito Moreno glacier)

We headed to Porvenir, Chile, where we wanted to cross over to Punta Arenas and from there north back into Argentina. The road is dirt and to our surprise had little traffic, and even better some great vistas. When we rode along Bahia Inutil we saw dolphins which was really nice. At Porvenir we found that the ferry didn't show up until late at night, so we skipped it and continued by road around the peninsula, heading for the ferry crossing that we had used coming down. The following day we crossed, straights of Magellan, and shortly thereafter the border back in to Argentina at the same place where we had come in, and continued north.

(On the road to El Calafate, it is cold and rainy!!)

From Rio Gallegos (the first town in mainland Argentina after the border), we headed towards El Calafate. Calafate is the town from which you go and visit Perito Moreno, and other glaciers on the Lago Argentino. We got wet and really cold getting there, but once there the temperatures got better. We skipped the town and headed to a campground at Lago Roca which we had been told about by the tourist bureau. This was the campground nearest to glacier, although it was still 50km away. Unfortunately the other campground at the glacier were no longer open, so this was our only choice. It turned out to be the best campground we had been in yet, and in fact one of the only ones which we would actually consider going to just to vacation, it was that good. Right on the lake, with a beautiful vista, quiet, relaxing, and still it has all the amenities which one needs (eg. hot water showers, a shop, restaurant, etc.). As a bonus, we got a rabbits and foxes trotting by everyday.

(The Perito Moreno glacier)

We spent a few days here, having a look at the Glacier and doing a little hiking. The glacier was really fantastic. We spent the whole day there, just staring wide eyed at the natural spectacle in front of us. At the glacier there is a visitor center where they have various galleries from which you can watch and listen to the glacier. Even from the parking lot you get a good panoramic view of the glacier and the lake. At the time we where there the glacier came all the way across to the to the peninsula cutting off a part of the lake. This is something which apparently happens pretty regularly, and eventually the lake water will break through and restore the flow of water to the part of the lake which had been cut off. The Perito Moreno glacier is one of the few glaciers in the world which is growing. It is moving into the lake and as it does, it calves (chunks break off) creating small icebergs. This is the spectacle which everyone comes here to see, and no-one is disappointed. Not only that but the noise from moving glacier is fascinating. It is easy to spend hours and hours watching and listening to the glacier, truly a once in a lifetime experience.

(Lago Roca)

A really enjoyable outing from the campground, was climbing the mountain across the road, Cerro Crystalo. It took us the better part of an afternoon, but it was well worth it. The views from there go as far as Torre del Pine peaks in Chile to the Perito Moreno glacier and the flat lands in the direction of El Calafate.

(On the road to El Chalten, Fitzroy is in the background)

The next stop was El Chalten a bit further north. This is the main walking, climbing, hiking, and mountaineering area of Argentina. It is also the location of one of Fitzroy, one of the most difficult mountains to climb. There are a number of other mountains in the area, and of course plenty of nice walking and hiking paths. The town itself is under construction, but has all the requirements for the massive amounts of tourists who come here to enjoy the natural beauty. We spent a few days and walked some of the trails before continuing north.

(Road along the Cordillera)

Once we left El Chalten, the roads changed drastically (for the worse). There is not much of anything but wide open country, and too our dismay the first day we had a lot of wind. As I mentioned previously we had pretty much avoided all bad weather down here up to now, but as we left Tres Cruses just north of El Chalten, we got hit by a 60kph side wind and to make it worse, this is where some pretty bad dirt roads started. In addition to the bad roads, there was also plenty of construction going on in various stretches, making it even more trying. We battled through and made it to Bajo Caracoles which is basically a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. The town had a total population 32, but they had 2 places to camp and gasoline. From here we deviated from 40 and headed towards Lago Posada and then north along route 41. The stretch between Lago Posada and Los Antiguos, which lies on Lago Buenos Aires right on the border to Chile, is one of the most scenic roads we have taken so far. It goes up and along the mountains which make up the border to Chile. There is a little of everything here, green fields, desert, high plains, salt flats and more. The road is challenging but did not pose any major problems. Our motto is basically, "easy does it". A lot of these roads are extremely dangerous and damaging to both man and machinery if one goes too fast. Traveling slowly not only lessens the wear and tear, but also allows more time to enjoy the traveling, and of course much less dangerous to boot.

(Along the Cordillera on the way to Los Antiguos)

Los Antiguos is a pleasant town, the center of Cherry production in Argentina of all things. This being Argentina, they have turned this fact into a tourist destination by offering tours of the various orchards. Most larger orchards offer not only tours but all sorts of additional attractions, like handy crafts, accommodations etc. This wasn't really the season, so everything was pretty low key. Unfortunately for me, a toothache which had been bugging me for a few days finally got bad enough that I went to the Hospital. As luck would have it, I had to get a wisdom tooth pulled, but as it happen to be a long holiday weekend, I had to wait 4 days. The dentist gave me some drugs and told me to come back at 7 on tuesday to get an appointment.

I spent the weekend looking for the oil pressure problem which I had first noticed in Rio Gallegos. Unfortunately at the end of the weekend I was not any closer to fixing the problem, and my toothache was only getting worse. The problem with the bike was basically that with low revolutions and a warm engine, my oil pressure light was coming on. Low oil pressure is one sure way to kill an engine. I did some research, asked everyone that I could think of, and implemented a number of solutions. They all failed spectacularly to solve the problem. So Tuesday morning I got my appointment, and at 10:00, I got my wisdom tooth pulled. Despite the lack of a solution to my technical problem, the following day we continued on into Chile and the Carretera Austral (Southern road).

(Looking back south and the Carretera Austral, Chile)

The Carretera Austral is a very popular route as it runs along the Cordillera on the Chilean side. The main difference to the Argentinian side is that it is green and fertile, while the Argentinian is usually dry and desert like. What was surprising was how green and scenic it was, kind of reminded me of Switzerland. We came back into Argentina a few hundred kilometers north and continued on along the Argentinian side. The main reason being that everything in Chile is more expensive, from Gasoline to food.

(On the road to Bariloche, and sunrise over lake Nahuel Huapi)

Once back in Argentina, we continued to head north on the route 40. There is not much here, plenty of sheep and cattle country, and a few towns dedicated to tourism. Esquel for example is a major ski destination. A bit further north is Bariloche, a playground for the rich, poor, partying teens, and sports lovers from everywhere. It is spectacularly situated on the lake Nahuel Huapi and is in the middle of national park of the same name. There are a number of lakes and forests all around so it is truly picturesque. I found it extremely touristy and for some reason very "fake". There is a road along the lake which is always full of traffic, there are lodges, hotels, restaurants, and stores. One good thing, there is a good camping along the lake, where the morning sunrises are absolutely unforgettable. So I guess you have to take the good with the bad. One interesting fact about Bariloche, is that teens from all over southern South America (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Brazil, Paraguay) come here for their Class trips and birthdays. Something like Yucatan or Florida for college and pre-college students in the U.S. where they go on their "Spring Breaks". As such it has the infra-structure to support this (Bars, clubs, discos, etc.). In addition it is also a Winter playground, as it gets plenty of snow.

(Traffic problems in the mountains..)

Between Zapala and San Rafael we even discovered fossils during a short lunch break. In addition the road takes you through plains dotted with volcanoes which along the mountains. Incredible sights, with some really incredible distances, few people, lots and lots of sheep and Guanacos.

(Lunch on the road)

Further on, south of San Rafael we start getting into the wine area of Argentina. The vistas don't really change much, flat sandy country, backed by the high spines of the Andes. But nearer San Rafael, besides the winyards, there is also lots of fruit cultivation. On nearer analysis, you start noticing the canals everywhere, which make all this possible. By the time you get to Mendoza you hardly pay attention anymore, to the fact that this is all desert, but it is still green. All in all an incredible ride from the southernmost city in the world(tm) to the center of Argentine wine production.

Technorati Tags: Argentina, bmw, calafate, chalten, motorcycle, perito moreno, travel

Argentina, Ushuaia and the end of the world.

2008-10-10T15:28:00.000-07:00

(At the entrance to town)

Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world (tm). We had finally made it. I wasn't sure what to expect, but this wasn't far off. A little more "comfortable" and touristy but other than that it was as rugged and pristine as I would have thought. The city itself is at the base of mountains facing the sea which comes up in an arm off the Beagle channel. The mountains in the background sported snow and a glacier with lots of forest all around. Small and compact it has the feel of a weather worn town at the end of the world, pretty fitting as that is pretty much exactly what it is.

(At the end of the road)

A closer look reveals that it is actually a tourist mecca. Cruise ships in the bay, tour buses along the port, and a whole strip of tourist shops and restaurants make the true nature of this town clear. Nevertheless there is a very "remote" vibe to the town, and it is a lot of fun just walking around and looking at people and the shops. A few km further south is the end of the road (literally). Here in the middle of the Tierra del Fuego national park the road which starts in Alaska comes to a screeching end, and after over 17,000km I could not think of a more fitting end. A rugged bay with stunted pine trees bent by the constant wind and weatherworn rocks is where you find yourself if you make it here. Somehow I would like to imagine that the start of the highway is pretty much the same, but I will have to make up there before I know.

(Cruise ships and the bay)

Surprising was finding that the area around Ushuaia has plenty of ski lifts and ski resorts. Of course this being summer everything is relegated to wandering and hiking in the mountains and hills. Even the campground had a small lift, but by the look of it, it hadn't been running in a while. After talking to some of the people here, it turns out that the lift stopped running a few years ago due to lack of snow. Pretty surprising considering that a few kilometers further away is a glacier! It was then explained to me that the heat of the town was the cause. As the town grew every year there would be less and less snow for these lifts as the town is nearly at it's feet.

(A view of the town and the bay from up high..)

In addition to the ski lifts there is plenty of adventure tourism, hiking, climbing, canoeing, horse riding, mountain biking and fishing seem to just be a few of the many activities which the tourists come here for. Not to mention the boat tours around the bay and of course you can book tours here to go to Antartica. The boat tour around the bay is excellent. You get really up close and personal with the wildlife around the bay. The boat gets close to some of the islands which dot the channel where the seals make their home. As a bonus you get some great views of the town when you come back in.

(Around the bay)

We spent our time here relaxing and touring around. Checking the tourist shops and just wandering the town. A couple of friends of Katheryna's from Switzerland, Maura and Mavi who were in Buenos Aires came down to spend few days with us. We visited the National Park, took a boat tour, Katheryna and Mavi went horseback riding while I took Maura on a bike tour. In the evenings we cooked huge meals on our fire at the campground and enjoyed the evening views of town from the campground.

(Katheryna, Mavi and Maura, and dinner!! Yum, Yum)

On a completely different note. Once you enter Argentina you will find that pretty much every town has a plaza, a monument, a road, a billboard, or at least some signs stating "Malvinas son Argentinas", and/or something commemorating the war, or the fact that they consider the Falklands part of Argentina. Usually, you just note it in passing, but here in Ushuaia, it is not possible to miss. Pretty much ever car, house or corner has the slogan proudly displayed, either as a sticker, graffiti or a flag. It doesn't help that the 25 year anniversary was recently, and the whole town got decked out in patriotic colors. Of course the islands are still independently governed as part the commonwealth, but this is not something which you should discuss too loudly. I was mildly surprised to find, that Argentina gives automatic citizenship to anyone from the island who wants it.

(Hiking above the campground)

All of this notwithstanding I found it a very pleasant area to spend some time. The only issue is that it is very, very, very far from anywhere else, so getting here is an adventure in itself. Of course I am talking about coming overland, you can also fly here or take a cruise, and spare yourself all the trouble, but then that is not really the point, as for us "the road is the goal".

(Some wildlife around Ushuaia)

Technorati Tags: Argentina, bmw, motorcycle, south america, travel, ushuaia

Argentina the road south.

2008-10-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

(Old town Colonia de Sacramento, Uruguay)

The time in Uruguay finally came to a close. After leaving Montevideo we headed to Colonia where we spent a night before boarding a ferry to Argentina. Colonia by the way is a great little town. Pretty touristy but well worth a visit. In particular the old part of town is really very scenic with plenty of little cafes and bars to hang out in (should you so be inclined). There are also ruins of the old city here which make for some interesting sightseeing. Otherwise I really enjoyed the beach promenade on the upper side of town which runs for miles along the river.

(Buenos Aires Skyline)

In the morning it was time to head for the ferry. Even though it was before 6:00, there were already people in line. The procedure was fairly simple, get your passport stamped, and at the customs get the Carnet stamped, It is a three hour ride to the other side, which ends in the middle of Buenos Aires.
The buildings could be seen for miles away, and it basically gives the impression of a normal cityscape. Unfortunately other than just riding out of the harbor and straight out of town there we didn't see much more of the city.

(A roadside shrine to Gaucho Gil, seen all over Argentina)

The harbor area has been refurbished and seemed to contain plenty of restaurants and bars as well as upscale housing nearby. With only a slight detour we managed to find the right road, and by 10:00 in the morning we were on our way south. There is a large well maintained highway heading south so we made good time. As soon as we got out of the metropolitan area it was basically pasture land all around.

(Mar De Plata skyline)

Our goal for the day is the coast, so we made all haste to get to a nice little beach town. The one we found was called Pinamar, which had all the trappings of being very popular holiday destination for the people of Buenos Aires. Nevertheless this is the off season, as all vacations were now over, and it was therefore nearly deserted. So we found a campground and spent our first night in Argentina in relative quiet. One thing I really liked about this town was the little cottages everywhere, very similar to what we had seen in Uruguay. The water is too cold and dark, and there is way too much stuff to do here (discos, shopping etc.), so I doubt I will be planning a return here, but for one night it was fine.

(Along the southern coast of Argentina)

Onwards, south, south, south... We followed the coast road, which did not have any vistas, or went along the coast for the most part. Through places like Mar de Plata, Bahia Blanca, Viedma and so on and so forth. Not much to say about all this area, it is basically flat, flat, flat, shrub land, punctuated by the occasional town or gas station. We were getting into the pampa, although we were still pretty far north. In San Antonio Oeste, a non-descript town on a bay, we got to see some Southern Right whales for a few minutes before they disappeared. A lot of people camp along the sea shore here, but we elected to camp at a campsite in town.

(Puerto Madryn bay)

The next stop was Puerto Madryn. A major tourist stop for tourist from Cruise ships as well as people who fly in to visit Peninsula Valdez with it's walruses, penguins and sea lions colonies and to visit the very large penguin colony of Punta Tomba a little further south. Riding into town you come down from the plateu into a large bay in the middle of which sits the very picturesque town (for me most towns on the coast are picturesque in one way or another!!). The main industry here is a fish packing plant, and of course the tourists, with the tourists probably being the most important. We spent a few days here, using Puerto Madryn as the base to explore the peninsula to the north and the penguins in the south. First we visited the penguins in Punta Tomba to the south, which was very amazing. If for no other reason, than, although it is a national park, they have a trail which goes through the middle of the breeding colony of Magellanic Penguins. Oh, and they have right of way, but if you stand still sometimes they will come up to you and peck on your shoes. They build or dig holes in the surrounding hills and the female lays her eggs in these small caves. The whole area is covered in small caves and holes, and if you take a peek in there is usually a penguin looking back at you.

(Penguins & Guanacos, Punta Tomba, and Sea Lions, Peninsula Valdez)

The following day we headed to the Peninsula Valdez national park, which contains breeding colonies of Seals, Sea Lions, Walruses and Penguins. It is a pretty long ride all around the peninsula, but very interesting. When we got there early in the morning we heard that there had been sightings of Orcas hunting the Sea Lions on the beach to the north. Unfortunately by the time we got there they were gone. But of course the Sea Lions and Walruses were there. Further south we also saw the another colony and also colonies of Penguins. The vantage points are well up on the cliffs so the animals are not disturbed, but you are still near enough to smell and hear them, and boy do they stink. My favorites where the young sea lions as they walked up and down the beach on some unknown errand. Oh, one thing I have forgotten to mention. Once we passed San Antonio Oeste, on the flat plains we started spotting Guanacos (a type of Llama). And they were also plenty of them around Puerto Madryn, Punta Tomba, and Peninsula Valdez. In fact, they seemed to share the same space as the penguins on Punta Tomba.

(The Pampa, long, flat, featureless...)

One day coming back from a tour, we were followed to the campground by Carlos. A local who is absolutely nuts about everything German. He has a Mercedes Benz, and has been dreaming about getting a BMW like mine for years. So the first thing he asked when he came up to us was "Is the bike for sale?". Unfortunately it wasn't but nevertheless we chatted for a while and he invited us to his home for dinner the following evening. Just one example of the openness and generosity of the Argentineans. We spent a wonderful evening with his wife and son, discussing biking, all things German of course, and his dream of one day getting his hands of one of the "old" BMWs.

There is also a story about bike problems, starting with the fact that I had to replace an engine stud here. It took a little over a day, as we messed up the heli-coil and in the ned had to fabricate a whole new stud. In addition, during our tour of Peninsula Valdez, we had a couple of flats. The fairly new tire had gotten ripped and the tube kept peeking through the carcass. The second patch held as I put some material between the carcass and the tube, and with this we limped home at around 50km/h. Back in Puerto Madryn, I really lucked out, in finding a shop who had a tire my size and of all things still open, as we got back pretty late. So the following day, as planned we managed to get back on the road.

The further south we got, the more barren the landscape. For the most part, the road ran straight through the Pampa, and only on a few occasions ran along the coast, such as south of Comodoro Rivadavia, at least for a while. This is also the main petroleum producing area of Argentina, topped off by the most souther refinery in the world which is in this area. To our great surprise there was little to no wind. It seemed that when there was wind it was a tail wind, and certainly nothing like what we had been warned about. Everyone we had talked to about going to Ushuaia, had told us the same thing, wind, wind, and more wind. Oh, and rain too of course. Basically they all said that on the way down we would have wind from one side, making you ride at an angle and on the way back the same thing. So far so good, no wind, great weather, and plenty of open country.

(Petrified forest and area)

We made a quick detour to check out the Petrified forest national park, and spent the night next to a camp of oil workers. They had their own trailers for sleeping, eating, cooking etc. and looked a lot like a gyspsy camp. The park itself was ok, nothing too spectacular, lots trees made of stone. If you haven't seen these before it might be worth the time, but what I really like was the area where the park was. In the middle of nowhere (like everything else around here), with spectacular vistas, wide plains, empty desert, and small mountains in the distance.

(Peter Roemer)

Continuing south we were astounded to find Peter Roemer coming in our direction. Peter is an old friend from Germany, as a matter of fact he made the aluminum boxes on my bike 18 years ago! I knew that he was down here, but we had failed to make any arrangements to meet on the road, and yet here he is. We spent an evening with him in a nearby campground, catching up and talking about South America traveling. The following day he continued north and we south.

A few more nights on the road before we finally made the border to Chile at Monte Aymond. As we got there early it was no drama, and the piece of Chile that we had to pass through was not to big, so we did two border crossings in a day. The way to Ushuai goes through Chile as there is no land connection to Tierra Del Fuego from mainland Argentina. So we crossed the Straights of Magellan and took a little detour through Cerro Sombrero, as someone had told us that the best way to get to the border at San Sebastian was not the normal road that the buses and trucks use, rather the road that goes through this little village. Once across the Straights the road is a dirt road, but this one was in good shape and was a lot of fun, at least until we joined the road going to the border, where it was in pretty bad shape, and the situation was made worse by the large amount of trucks and buses who use it. Getting back into Argentina was no problem, and in a short time we were back on good roads and headed south. We made it from Rio Gallegos to Tolhuin without much drama.

(Crossing the Straights of Magellan)

Once across the straights of Magellan the country starts to change, less flat pampa, to forests and hills with mountains in the distance. Very similar to Norway or even Switzerland in places. So for a chance the distances seemed to shrink as there was always something to look at. In Tolhuin we found an excellent camping right next to the lake, and in town the Panaderia had some of the best bread and empanadas that we had tasted. Finally, we were in Tierra del Fuego. Only a few hundred kilometers way was Ushuaia, and tomorrow we would get there, the end of the world!!

(Heading to the border at San Sebastian, Tierra del Fuego)

Technorati Tags: Argentina, bmw, motorcycle, south america, travel

Uruguay, a different Carnival

2008-09-25T13:54:00.000-07:00

(The opening parade of Carnival Uruguay 2008)

Now that we are back, it was time to get into the carnival spirit. On the program were of course the Llamadas of which we had heard so much. But in addition to that there was also the Teatro de Verano (it is named after someone, and doesn't mean Summer Theater as it might have if you translated it from the Spanish) and plenty of shows all around town.

(Teatro de Verano skit)

Before we left for our Uruguay tour we did catch the opening parade of the Carnival. We bought tickets to seats along the route. Something I haven't seen anywhere else (at least not on this scale). They set up rows of chairs along the carnival route, making for a pretty orderly viewing experience. Of course you might miss the walking around and catching the show from various vantage points. The advantage is that everyone gets a good view, including those vertically challenged. The opening parade included, floats, marching bands, dancing and lots of color and noise. All the children in town seem to also take part either in the parade itself or playing among the floats and the marchers. All the carnival troupes took part, so it was a very long parade.

(Homer and co, selling Mobile phones and liguid yogurt drinks)

One thing that to me seemed to stand out was the comercilization of the event. Lots of "comercial" floats (a float is a car/truck or vehicle, decorated and used as a platform for people, music, or other entertainment).

(Some more Teatro de Verano skits)

The various troupes would do shows of various types, comedy, musical, dance or a mixture at various venues around town during the duration of the carnival. In addition to this there were also "wandering minstrels" who would do a "show" on a bus, or in the middle of a crowd or pretty much anywhere where they had an audience. The bus guys had a captive audience and would often include the passangers in their routines. As we rode the buses around Montevideo extensively, we caught a few of these. A lot of the humor would be political or social satire, so we missed some of the jokes regarding current events, but the rest of the passengers seemed to find it pretty funny. Of course at the end, they would solicit a donation.

(Teatro de Verano)

Teatro de Verano is an open air theater in a huge park in central Montevideo near the beach. Here during the carnival season the various carnival clubs put on "shows". Depending on the type of club that it is they will put on a musical show, a theater piece, a satyrical show or something in between. The show we caught consisted of four troupes doing their, songs, skits and music and dancing. It is very colorful, loud and funny. The music is a major player in all of this, and most of the troupes release a CD with the years music. So on this night we were treated to theater skits, comedy routines, carnival music, plenty of dancing and singing, and some good food thrown in.

(The Llamadas)

The Llamadas turned out to be a parade of dancers followed by large assembly of drummers. Again, very colorful, each troupe has it's own costumes and colors, but the music is always the same (or similar). Very rhythmic if a bit monotonous or is that monotone? Unfortunately, just as we were getting into the spirit, it started raining. We got out of there just as a torrential downpour began. Once back at the house, we watched the rest of the happenings on tv. Turns out we didn't miss anything, as they broke off the parade when the rain started in earnest, although as the troupes are in competition those who had not yet paraded wanted to parade, and did so. Unfortuantely for them, the judges had already packed their bags and headed to drier ground. In the end those who had not yet marched when the jury took off, were invited to march on the following night (the Llamadas runs a couple of nights as there are so many troupes involved they can't all parade in a single night).

(Opening night, and the Llamadas side by side)

With that our Uruguay Carnival experience came to an end. As with all carnivals around the world, very colorful, very loud and boisterous. This carnival, had a bit of Brazil, and bit of New Orleans and lots of Uruguay.

Technorati Tags: carnival, llamadas, travel, Uruguay

Getting to know Uruguay

2008-09-25T10:36:00.000-07:00

(Some views of Montevideo)

(A beach in central Montevideo !!)

(The view of Montevideo from "El Cerro")

After the festivities of New Years were over it was time to do some maintenance on my bike. Remember the problem from Casimiro de Abreu? Well, now that I have the correct part it was time to put it in, as well as a number of other things. So that is what I did for around two weeks during the day, and in the evenings we might go to a movie or have dinner with some of Katherinas family. The time passed incredibly fast. At some point we decided that we would stay in Uruguay until after Carnival which would mean the end of January. A short while later we were informed that the best part of Carnival in Uruguay was the "Llamadas" which took place around the 8th of February, so we decided to hang around until then.

(La Paloma)

During this time we spent a few days at La Paloma, which is a beach resort up the coast. The beaches in Uruguay are very nice, for the most part wide open expanses of sand, with some very nice towns alongside them. La Paloma is one such place, although of course Punta Del Este is probably the best known resort town in Uruguay. Punta Del Este is where all the celebrety have vacation homes and during the season it is basically a non-stop party. For my money, a sleepy place like La Paloma is miles better. I might also mention that thought the beaches are very nice, the water is freezing. Nevertheless a few hardy souls could be found in the water.

(The Carlos Gardel Museum in the rain)

We also did a little ride around parts of the country. Specifically we headed north from Montevideo, to have a look at the famous Gardel Museum in Tacuarembo. For those of you who don't know who Gardel is check this link out: Carlos Gardel The museum is in a beautiful part of the country, green valleys and small hills everywhere. The museum itself is a testament to the lenghts that the people of Uruguay will go to dispell the notion that he was born anywhere else than right here! There are letters, and documents on all the walls, all which serve to show that he was born, and grew up near here. These include copies of passport applications etc. Besides that there are some newspaper articles on the walls which show Gardel in his various travels, and movie roles. The documentation is certainly convincing but in the end I was more interested in what he did than where he was from, and for that this museum wasn't really very good.

(Camping above the Salta Dam)

From here we headed west to the Salta where there is a huge dam across the River Uruguay, providing electricity for both Uruguay and Argentina. This took us through the heartland of Uruguay. When people ask me how Uruguay is, I can now confidently answer; pretty boring! Basically it is flat to roling grassland, with varying amounts of wind. The main commercial enterprise is livestock. Either cattle or sheep. There is not much industry other than some mining in the north, and general industry around Montevideo. Making the country pretty much a sleepy backwater, with some stunning beaches, few people, lots of cows and just generally relaxing.

(The dam at Salta, Argentina is on the left)

From Salta we headed south, along various paths and visited some of the villages along the river which also serves as the border to Argentina. In one place we ran across a park, which had at it's center, a piece of the Berlin wall (a very small piece at that, not much more than a large rock!). Surprising in the least. Ok, maybe not, the name of the town was Nuevo Berlin!

(In Paysandu, Postre Chaya)

With the exception of some pretty hefty rain showers we had some really nice weather, the roads were good, and it was just really nice to ride around this sparsely populated area. North of Colonia we found what turned out to be a particularly popular beach and campground. This being the middle of summer it was packed with tourists, mainly Argentinians who come here for the river beach. As luck would have it it had been raining on and off for the past few days, and as we drove in there was a very ominous cloud hanging over the area. Sure enough, just as I was finishing putting up the tent, the sky went totally black, and the wind picked up. After that the rains came, we are talking serious downpour, coupled with strong wind. Almost as quickly as it came it disappeared, all in all it lasted maybe 15 minutes, but the change was incredible. Where before there was nice green fields, or empty culverts, now everything was under water. Many tents were flooded and or had washed away. Our tent of course had no such problems, there weren't any quality tents, so it was to be expected. The things that pass for tents around here are barely more than a couple of thin aluminium poles holding up some thin fabric. Across the road from us was a guy with a much more brilliant idea than a tent. The guy had a medium size truck which was empty, inside he had his furniture, including a refrigerator, sofa, table and lamp. When the storm hit, he just closed the back door and rode it out. Pretty cool.

(A typical view of central Uruguay)

Once the thunderstorm was over the sun came out and we had a look around. There wasn't actually much to this beach, a brown wide river wasn't exactly appetizing after the virgin beaches of northern Brazil. Plenty of children seemed to disagree with me though!

From here we passed through Colonia which is a very picturesque town on the convergence of the Rio Uruguay and the Rio Plata. We just rode through and headed to Montevideo and some more Carnival fun.

(At the racetrack in Montevideo)

(Mercado del Puerto, Montevideo, Yum, Yum)

Technorati Tags: bmw, motorcycle, south america, travel, Uruguay

Montevideo, Uruguay and New Years

2008-09-25T10:28:00.000-07:00

(Sao Paulo Skyline at X-mas eve)

(X-mas Dinner)

Christmas in Sao Paulo was great, we had a wonderful dinner on the 24th with Dom and his family as well as the few guests who were in the Pousada. Dinner consisted of pretty much everything. Turkey, ham, roast, salad , so no-one went hungry. All in all it was really great, the next best thing to being at home. The following day we got a sneak peak at the new property that Dom is building in Guaraja, a beach city across the bay from Santos on the coast. The house is being totally renovated and expanded. When it is finished it should be great, and it is only a few blocks from the beach. We had a look at the beach, and it was packed, lots of activity, a real difference from the last time we drove through here with Claudio and Claudia, when it was cold, dark and totally empty, did I already mention cold?

(The whole gang having x-mas dinner.)

(Dom studying the plans of the Hostel)

Once I got my passport on Thursday it was finally time to get moving. The plan was to get to Montevideo by New Year, so early Friday morning we were on our way again. Unfortunately, so was half of Brazil. Everyone was leaving and although the road was great for the first 20km or so, once outside Sao Paulo it turned into a two lane road with lots and lots of trucks in addition to the holiday travelers. The result was km's, and km's of traffic jams. Luckily nothing like the 172km traffic jam coming into Sao Paulo a couple of days before Christmas that we had heard about. Nevertheless it was pretty hard traveling, which is really too bad as the scenery was excellent, up and down lots of hills and valleys in the direction of Curitiba. It would be a great biking road if there had been no traffic. With the bike I was able to keep moving and get through the worst of it, but it was still not a lot of fun. We passed through a lot of some great places heading south, but as we were on a mission, we didn't get a chance to enjoy much of it. In some places the road went along the coast and you had some really nice vistas, but due to the traffic, you really couldn't enjoy it. Oh, well, next time.

(The results of a car hitting the back of the box.)

The next major event was on Saturday, where we got into an accident with the bike. Luckily it was a minor scrape. We were coming off the main road about to take a break, and as we took the exit ramp at the bottom there was an intersection. We had right of way, and the traffic to right and left stopped. Well, not quite. A car approaching the intersection to my right was slowing down and had come to a rolling stop, as I passed he accelerated and hit the bike at the very rear of the box frame. He then continued on his marry way and left us to deal with the broken box frame. To boot, it had started to rain! It looked like Brazil, didn't want to let us go. Luckily the accident happen just a few meters from a gas station and a Borracheria (workshop). So we rolled in and explained the problem. The mechanic came out and had a look, I explained what was needed, and got started with the work. In short order we had everything more or less back in shape. With a bit of cutting, welding and hammering not to mention a crowbar. It is amazing what you can do with metal! Katheryna still had weak knees by the time we were back on the road, but the shock quickly wore off as the kilometers rolled on. By the time we stopped for the night we were hundreds of kilometers away, and the accident was just another experience in Brazil.

(It's not too difficult to fix a BMW)

The following day we went across the boarder into Uruguay at a place called Chuy. If you were to look at a map you would see that the road to Chuy runs along a long long stretch of wetlands, with the coast on the one side and various lagoons on the inside. The whole area is a protected nature area, and as such has a lot of birds and other animals (many dead on the road unfortunately), and few houses. It was a really nice ride through here, we saw turtles and lots and lots of birds of course, but also plenty of Nutria, both alive and dead, despite the many signs warning of their crossing. If you don't know what a Nutria is, it is something like a large beaver without a tail and a flatter face.
Crossing the boarder was a breeze, specially considering that it took 3 weeks to get my bike into Brazil. On leaving I just had to give them a copy of the paperwork, they gave me a receipt, stamped my passport and we were on our way.

(Katheryna in central Montevideo)

Uruguay was about the same, an entry form or two, get the carnet filled out and 20 minutes later we were in Uruguay. Hurray.
First looks was great, good roads, and little traffic so we made good progress. By the time we got to Montevideo we had crossed a good third of the country! What a difference from Brazil. The people here are much more European, both in looks and mannerisms. Driving through the outskirts of Montevideo you could be coming into any "smallish" city in Europe, or North America for that matter. No slums or shacks to be seen as in every city in Brazil. (There are slums of course, they just weren't readily visible coming into town..) Montevideo as the rest of Uruguay so far, turns out to be completely charming. Smallish, clean, orderly and easily maneuvered (ok, lots of small one way streets..), with a little help we made it to our destination pretty easily. As we had said that we would make it on Tuesday or so (after New Years), showing up on Sunday made for a great surprise. Katheryna's grandmother and aunt and uncle who happen to be visiting were overjoyed to see us.

(The new years lamb roast)

(It was excellent)

The following day, New Years, was spent with the whole family in a ruckus Uruguayan New Year celebration at Walter Luis's (a cousin) house, featuring fireworks, kids running around, a huge barbeque and plenty of drink. Sounds pretty much like New Years everywhere. Walter Luis's house happens to be near a park which has a great vantage point over the city, where you had a great panoramic view of the city around you. As midnight neared I had a look around, and it was spectacular. There is no single, central fireworks display, rather everyone in the city was setting their own off, having the effect of a huge fireworks celebration which lasted a good hour and a half. The whole city was lit with explosions coming from every corner and the noise echoing and reverberating from the buildings. Definitely one of the most impressive fireworks display that I have ever seen.

(Some fireworks in the street at New Years)

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, Montevideo, motorcycle, south america, travel, Uruguay

On The Road Again, Rio and the coast south...

2007-12-21T17:35:00.000-08:00

Well, much to my amazement, and a few other people as well I am sure, we are back on the road.

On monday as previously stated we headed to Macae where we went looking for a suitable bearing. Rodrigo was sure we would fine one, I was a bit more pessimistic but what the hell, I didn’t want to depress him too much. Sure enough, the first place we went to didn’t have the bearing, but said that they should be able to get it by tomorrow. Ok, sounded good. Just in case we checked a couple of other places, but little luck. So we headed back to Casimiro empty handed. I spent the afternoon, doing some additional work on the bike so it wasn’t a total loss.

The following day we headed back and picked up the bearing, it was of course not the correct one. The bearing I needed is a 61917C3 bearing, the bearing I got was a 61917 which was close but not quite correct. If you have read my blog/web you may remember the transmission work I did last year where a C3 bearing was required. Basically, a C3 bearing has a larger internal clearance, allowing it to work with high heat, and not wear as quickly. I had explained all this the previous day, to no avail apparently. It turns out that they had called around to all the importers and there was simply no such bearing to be had in Brazil!! So I had to take it. The alternative would have been to hang out here for the next 10 days or so and hope I could get it directly from Europe. I decided to take my chances and try to continue and have the correct bearing sent to me in Montevideo. Luckily the seal was available, so we now had the parts necessary to put everything back together.

While in Macae, we decided to see about getting me a new rear tire as Rodrigo didn’t have one in his shop. We checked a couple of shops and finally find one. Not just any tire, but a tire I had been looking to try for quite a while now, the Michelin Sirac tire. We asked for the price, considering ourselves lucky to have found a tire and getting ready to take it and head home. Not quite that simple. The salesman said that he couldn’t get the price since the internet connection was down! What? Sure enough, after checking around, asking someone in the back, he came back with the same line, no internet, no price, no tire. Rodrigo and I could just look at each other and laugh. Ok, we would wait a bit and see if they got their internet back. After an hour we had to give up and head back. No internet, no tire, no sale!

Back at the shop I got everything back together, with a few minor problems, but nothing that a machinist and a lathe couldn’t solve. Not to mention a press and a cooking stove. The first was that the brake guard had to be re-machines as taking it out had been damaged a bit. They weren’t able to machine a new one, but we cleaned up the old one and made a tool to help install it. Next was that we used a press to put the bearing on the gear and the cooking stove to put the bearing into the cover. Nothing to it.

The following days, the bike was back on the road. We had decided to take a day and test everything, not to mention try to get the tire in Macae, maybe their internet would be working. The test ride was north to Nuovo Freiburgo. A city founded by a group of Swiss who had migrated here. The ride was fantastic, it went up along a valley and followed the Sana river for a while before crossing some hills over to another river. The town itself is pretty much a typical Brazilian town with few hints of its Swiss past, such as some of the street names, or a few building here and there. The main thing that you notice about Nuovo Freiburgo, is that is seems to be the lingerie capital of Brazil. Something which was completely unexpected, but there you have it.

After Nuovo Freiburgo, we headed back down to Macae and low and behold, after speaking to someone else, who apparently didn’t need the internet, but did need a telephone and someone in the back, came back with a price. I ended up getting the tire for 150B$ which is around 50% of what it is worth. Not bad, we took the tire and hightailed it out of there before they came after us with another price. The bike was running fine, there was no vibration or any other sign that the bearing wasn’t working, so we decided to get on the road again.

As luck would have it, rain had caught up with us again. The morning dawned wet and dark, we said out goodbyes to everyone and headed out in the direction of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Too bad that it was raining so much. Rio was awesome. From Niteroi you go over a long bridge from where you have a great view of both the bay and the city of Rio, and the hills around the city and the bay. Then you head into town on an elevated highway where you glimpse some beautiful architecture downtown, the port on the opposite side and finally you end up on the world famous Copacabana beach road. It really is a very scenic and interesting town. We will have to come back one day when we have more time and hopefully better weather. Not to mention that I will avoid it during the x-mas shopping rush.

After that the next highlight (I will avoid discussing the miles of strip malls and traffic south going in Barra and Recreio) was the road south of Itaguai. Just fantastic is a good start. The road goes along a rough coastline, full of hills, valleys, islands, bays with some very scenic towns, a nuclear powerplant and a road that gives you some fantastic views of everything. Too bad there are so many great curves that you have to choose between enjoying the ride or enjoying the view!! It is something like a cross between northern California, the east and the west coast of Canada. Enjoyable even in the rain.

Although the rain didn't let up during the two days it took us to get back to Sao Paulo, it is a ride I will not soon forget. I can only imagine what it all would have looked like in dry sunny weather.

Luckily for us the welcome that we got at the Pousada dos Franceses made us quickly forget all the rain. It was a real "homecoming" for us, and it should be a wonderful x-mas among our extended family here.

So we hope that all of you enjoy your Christmas where ever you might be in this world.

Merry Christmas from Katheryna and myself.

Stuck in Casimiro de Abreu and stories from the Litoral

2007-12-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

Merry x-mas

Ten days after leaving Cumbuco and our kite surfing career behind we find ourselves in Casimiro de Abreu, a bump in the road in the state of Rio Janeiro. After three or four days of making "strange" vibrations the final drive on Strider finally died, almost leaving us stranded on the side of the road. Luckily even after having lost all the oil in the final drive due to a blown seal, the bike made it 10km back to the last town we passed, namely Casimiro de Abreu.

This is how a bad day can start...

Here we were directed to the only bike mechanic in town, where I took the bike and waited while Katheryna checked the hotel situation. After checking all 3 hotels in town we ended up taking a reasonable pousada right across from the mechanic, so we unloaded everything and I got started dismantling the bike.

Rodrigo and I hard at work, and finally the offending part..

With the help of Rodrigo, the friendly mechanic we got the final drive apart, and after having a look at the parts, he seemed certain that we would be able to get the bearing and seal in Macae, the next larger town, 60km away. Unfortunately it was now Saturday afternoon so everything would have to wait until Monday, when he would drive me and the parts to Macae to see if we could find what we needed. In the meanwhile I got to do some other minor work on the bike (re-soldered the brushes I had to install in Canoa Quebrada for example), and spent much of my time answering questions about the trip and the bike from all the customers who had heard that a couple of travelers were in town, and had found an excuse to come by and have a look. As always the bike is a real people magnet.

Marcos Szerman

One of the customers Marcos, who was having some work done on his bike invited us to a beer later which we took him up on. Turns out he has a ranch nearby and he had been to Switzerland 8 times to buy cattle for cross breeding. This turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg. Over a few beers and a pizza in a local restaurant, we talked about his career as a financial lawyer which he gave up in order to do some ranching. He also spent some time in the U.S. as an exchange student, and later buying cattle for his breeding operation, so we also got to talk about places we both know. In return Katheryna and I regaled him and his girlfriend Allessandra about traveling abroad and in Brazil.

Waterfall on the Sana

The following day Marcos and Allessadra invited us to take a ride to the nearby town of Sana, where there are some great waterfalls and pools on the Sana river. The area is a former hippy hangout, which still has a collection of people leading an "alternative" lifestyle, i.e. neo-hippies. The area was really beautiful, with hills and the river running through everything. There was even a house which had two streams of water running through it, to a pool with a fountain in the middle.

Katheryna enjoying the cool waters of the Sana river.

We spent a wonderful afternoon, walking along a path along the river having a look at various small falls and pools along the river. Marcos regaled me with more stories of his fascinating life, which included, among other things running a real estate business, looking for breeding cattle all over the world, running a construction company, managing a number of properties and of course his first career as a financial lawyer, which he abandoned in order to concentrate on his real passion, his farm. The farm on which he now mainly produces feed for horses, and fattens up beef cattle for other people is his great joy as he doesn't enjoy living in a large city anymore. As he is sure that we won't be leaving too soon, he has promised to take us to have a look at it on Monday or Tuesday and give Katheryna a chance to do some horse riding.

Canoa Quebrada

Getting to Casimiro de Abreau has taken us along some of the nicest and most interesting part of Brazil, mainly the Littoral or beach road(s). The highlights being places like Canoa Quebrada, south of Fortaleza. With sand dunes, red sandstone cliffs, some nice beaches and a distinct hippie "vibe", is definitely a place where one could spend quite a bit of time. Unfortunately, like many other similar places along the coast, it is also relatively expensive and upscale for us, mainly due to the fact that a lot of foreigners and locals have discovered that these places are a "must see" on the coast tour. Other similar places, Praia da Pipa, Porto da Galhina, the beaches south of Ilheus, Arraial d' Ajuda, and Caraiva are all similar in the clientel if not necessarily in scenery. Praia da Pipa, has some cliffs, coves and nice beaches. Porto da Galhina, has a protected lagoon, wide beaches and plenty of barracas. Ilheus has lots of very nice looking accommodations south along a very long stretch of wild beach, and also has a nice lagoon in the middle of the city. Arraial d' Ajuda, has a narrow beach and lots of beach side accommodations. Caraiva has no cars, dark water and empty beaches (oh, and a pretty nasty 30km dirt road to get there, where in the end you have to park your car, and take a small boat over to the village). More to our tastes were for example Praia Tabuba, where we found one of the nicest accomodations we have had anywhere, the Pousada Arco Iris, build and run by Heinz Widmer a swiss, who has been here since the mid 90's. In all of Brazil, this is the best value for money accommodations we have seen, and although a bit dear for us, was definitely worth the visit. The beach is a wide bay, which during the week is deserted, and on the weekend (as everywhere else on the beaches in Brazil) full of locals.

Port da Galinhas

In addition to these "highlights" there were plenty of other places which we would have liked to spend more (sometimes less) time in. Natal had plenty of beaches which looked pretty nice, but we would definitely have skipped Ponta Negra, which turned out to be a spot packed with tourist and locals along a narrow strip of sand, if we had known what we were getting into. But of course Ponta Negra is an "in" spot. The beaches of Joao Pessoa, looked pretty nice, but we had no time, we only came here to have a look at the western most spot on the contient. We also went through Olinda and Recife. Olinda was pretty interesting with some very nice architecture, but no real beach. For that you needed to go further south to Recife, which we just drove through.

Caraiva

On this quick journey we met some interesting people a couple of which I would like to share with you. Besides Heinz, who I mentioned above, we have met a couple of other interesting Swiss on the road, for example a gentleman from Geneva who came over to us in Cumbuco at the gas station, and after a few questions and comments he was so impressed with our trip that he pulled a 50B$ bill out of his wallet, and put it in my hand and said he was sponsoring us a tank full of gas, and then drove off. In Arraial d' Ajuda we met Pedro, or Peter from Biel, who has been here for around 20 years. He flagged us down as we were riding by and invited us to a beer in his little seaside workshop. Turns out he has travelled all over the world in various modified buses. He showed us the bus he was working on now, which if he finished it would be taking off in October for a few months of South America touring with room for around 8 to 13 people (www.magicbus.ch). Turns out that besides the workshop where the bus was, has three houses and a restaurant on his piece of land. During the hour or two we spent talking I had a look at his travel maps on the wall of his shop and was duly impressed with his travels. The map of South America had so many routes marked that they looked like rivers running all over the continent, very impressive.

So now it is just a matter of waiting for Monday to see how the story continues, stay tuned...

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, motorcycle, south america, travel

Kite surfing conclusion and tips.

2007-11-26T08:52:00.000-08:00

After a hard kiting session!!

Well, I though I would put a few pictures of me kite surfing up, so that you can see that the course has indeed brought some results.

I'm on my way...

In addition I believe a few comments regarding kite surfing and the course should be mentioned, in case anyone else gets inspired by my results.

First you have to pump up the kite..

The most important thing to remember about kite surfing in my opinion is that this can be a dangerous sport, and not to treat it too lightly. Of course that said, I think pretty much anyone who has the mind to it, can learn how to do it.

Make sure everything is ok, and lay out the lines..

First, find a good teacher. This sounds simple, but can be pretty complicated affair. A good starting point is to find out if they are accredited by an organization (IKO for example).

Time to practice..

Second, when meeting them, ask them a lot of questions and if they answer competently (or appear to) and communicate in a patient manner which you understand, then the chances that you can get along with him/her is good.

This isn't so hard after all..

Additionally, have a look at the equipment, have them show you the kites, boards, bars, flotation device, and harness. If it fits and is in good shape then you are off to a great start.

Lastly, discuss costs up front, know exactly what you are getting into. How many hours, what is included. Options after the course; can you rent from them, and what additional services can they provide. For example after the course, it is not certain that you will be surfing, but all you may need is some additional practice, how much will this cost, and can they provide someone to help or supervise you, should it be necessary.

Alex the Kite Cabana kite surf teacher

As far as my course was concerned. Alex is very competent, and the Kite Cabana Kite Surf School is a pretty small operation, so you get a lot of personalized service (this can be good or bad, depending on your point of view). One of the best things I found was Alex would make sure that you could master the various exercises before allowing you to move on. The course is not about just completing the 10 hours, regardless of your confidence and competence. Rather, he makes sure that you are ready to move on to the next stage before letting you continue.

Up and moving, and sometimes just moving...

On the downside, his equipment is in rather poor shape (read the previous blogs for examples of broken lines, kites etc..), and the choices are definitely limited. Also on the downside Alex would often get called away or interrupted by other students/teachers or whatever while giving class, leaving you there waiting.

Finally, there were two things that I missed in this course. The first was a syllabus. It would have been nice to have an outline of how the course is structured at the beginning. Of course if this is required, you can just ask. Nevertheless, I think that it is a good idea that they provide it up front.

Getting dragged along in the water is easier than standing up..

Also, I think some more time should be spend on explaining the equipment itself, in particular, care and maintenance, different setups, advantages and disadvantages and other details regarding the sport itself and what you need to know to practice it safely and competently.

All in all, would I do this course again at the Kite Cabana Kite Surf School, the answer is yes.

It isn't all about kite surfing...

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, Cumbuco, kite surfing, motorcycle, south america, travel

Kiteschee surfing for idiots and middle age people: Day 7

2007-11-23T09:27:00.000-08:00

Kite Cabana Kite surf school

This is the last entry in the kite surfing saga, not because I can surf, just because there is nothing left to do but practice, practice and more practice.

Today started out good. I got to use a "C" kite. The "C" kite is a bit different than the bow kites I had been using previously. The main difference is that is has a much more limited wind range than the bow kites. The reason for this is that the "C" kite uses no rollers on its lines, it has just 4 straight lines from the bar to the kite two on each edge, where the bow kites has also 4 lines but these connect do not connect directly to the kite, but rather to other lines which use rollers to adjust the form of the kite based on how much wind it is getting. This makes the bow kites much more flexible and also it doesn't steer as directly (quickly). So the first impression of the "C" kite was that is that is very "nervous".

The cabanas at the Kite Cabana

Once I got the kite set up and in the air it was off to practice standing up and surfing. Unfortunately the wind was dying down as the morning progressed. So I actually managed to crash the kite a couple of times because I "lost" the wind. Another thing with the "C" kite, it seems a bit more difficult to get back in the air and it likes to flip around on itself, making it necessary to get back on land and untangle the lines. To be honest, this might (just might) also be due to my lack of experience.

As far as surfing is concerned, I can get going fairly well, but I am not moving the kite around quickly enough (or there isn't enough wind / kite too small?) to really surf. So my surf sessions are limited to getting up, moving along until the momentum stops sinking back down and then repeating the procedure. Sometimes is goes pretty good, sometimes less so, but the end result, is that I can't quite get going. My session ended today by breaking the strap on the board. At least it came of in mid launch. Once I got back to shore, it turned out that the screw holding the left foot strap had come loose, so it turned to not be me a major issue (unlike the ripped kite, yesterday!!)

The bar at the kite cabana

Regardless, I am having a blast, and looking forward to more practice. This might be the time to mention that even though my training sessions are only a couple of hours at the most, by the end I am pretty dead. This is a lot of work, and even if you aren't holding the kite back with your arms, you still have to work quite a bit, not to mention the sun, sand, and waves. Yeah, I know it is a pretty tough life.

Katheryna back at the hotel enjoying our "apre" coke next to the pool..

From now on Alex is just giving me the kite and board and I am on my own. Welcome to kite surfing....

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, Cumbuco, kite surfing, motorcycle, south america, travel

Kiteschee surfing for idiots and middle age people: Day 6

2007-11-22T06:08:00.000-08:00

Kite surfers of the main beach in Cumbuco

This is turning into a never ending story, or maybe nightmare (at least for Alex). Our lesson yesterday was cancelled due to lack of wind, and so we were to try it again today.

Everything started out good, there was a bit more wind than yesterday, I got the 12 sq meter kite up, and had another go at standing on the board. I was having some problems with bar as the stopper was a bit loose and at the slightest gust the brakes would be released (the first safety feature, which is when the bar is pushed up past a stopper which then releases all tension on the kite). Making controlling the kite a bit more difficult as I would have to do it with two hands and still try and get the board on my feet. After a round of this and crashing the kite into the water (a first for me) Alex made a slight adjustment so that the brakes wouldn't release on their own.

Kite surfer at the weekend competition

By the way, my first real kite crash and in the end I didn't manage to get it up (ok, in the end it basically reached the beach with me in tow), before getting to the beach, as the waves were moving me closer and closer to the kite and I didn't manage to get any pressure on the lines. In deeper water I would have swam diagonally away from the kite to get rid of the slack and the kite should come up quite easily.

Kite surfers at the weekend competition.

The next round everything went fine, I stood a couple of times before sinking back down, and on what proved to be the last try of the day, I got up leaned too far back, landed on my back as if I had slid out on ice. The kite went down, and when I got it up it had a large rip on the left side, it flew but that was clearly it for this kite, so back to land. Some more material failure. Alex was clearly not too happy, and we agreed to give it another go tomorrow with another 12 sq meter kite.

It is getting pretty annoying not being able to practice, as each time is like the first time. But I have stood, if not quite surfed yet, I am getting the feel for the kite, the rest I think is just practice, practice, and more practice.

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, Cumbuco, kite surfing, motorcycle, south america, travel

Kiteschee surfing for idiots and middle age people: Day 5

2007-11-20T11:04:00.000-08:00

Cumbuco beach during surf competition

Well, this was supposed to be the last day, but things turned out a bit different.

Today I got a larger kite, 12 sq meters to be exact. Now I had a kite which could really lift me up if it had half a chance. The difference between a 9 and a 12 is huge. With the 12, I felt that it could turn nasty any moment, but as long as I kept it under control it worked great.

A competitor at the kite surf competition

To get a feel for the larger kite, I took it out for a body drag, and it really made a difference. The kite was pulling a lot more even at positions where the other kite barely made itself noticeable. After successfully completing this trivial exercise, I got the board and it was time for the real thing.

Even the pros crash

After getting in past the waves (which were pretty high) and into the swells, I tried getting the kite on my feet. By the time I had the board on right, I was out of position and as previously I haven't yet figured out how to get into or stay in position with the board on my feet. So I got rid of the board behind me and the kite carried me forward a bit, so I had to start doing my best superman impressions to get back to it. During the second turn things turned sour. For some reason I lost complete control of the kite, and it pulled me very rapidly downwind, spinning in the process. As well trained as I was, I let go of everything, this should insure that the kite stopped pulling as fast as it should have gone slack. No such luck, the kite hit the water and immediately wanted to rise again. I tried getting hold of the bar but it did not do anything. The bar seemed jammed in a twisted position with one of the control lines wrapped around the brake/power adjustment. The kite kept trying to rise and turned crashing into the water repeatedly. As it is doing this, it is also pulling me very fast downwind and towards the beach. As the bar was of no use I had to release the main line to give the kite more slack and hopefully slow it down. Now the only thing holding us together was the leash. As the kite and I neared the beach there was little let for me to do but release the kite completely which I then did.

Luckily for me there were a couple of people near the kite when it got onto the beach, one of them grabbed it and secured it, as I climbed out of the water. By this time Alex was also running down the beach and when he got to me asked what happened. I tried explaining that the kite just went out of control. At the time I though that one of the lines on the bar control must have jammed in the roller or something. As I had done nothing out of the ordinary, and I was in complete control of the kite until it spun out of control, it must have been something "technical".

We unravelled everything and Alex took the controls and wanted to get the kite airborne to check everything out. As I was securing the kite, I noticed that one of the rollers was loose at the end of a cable, so I signaled Alex to come back in while I secured the kite on the ground ground again. When everything was secured, we had a look at the lines, and sure enough one of the outside control lines had broken, and the corresponding roller was hanging loose. This explained everything. Material failure and not human error was to blame. So my record remains clean. I still haven't crashed a kite (or had to get one airborne out of the water...).

And another crash

As he had no other 12 sq meter kite available after 20 minutes, my lesson was over for the day. Alex would try and get the kite fixed by tomorrow so that we could have another go at it. I must say that I really liked the 12, it lifted me easily, and though being more difficult to control, it is slower to react to input, so everything moves in slow motion, almost.

Kiteschee surfing for idiots and middle age people: Day 4

2007-11-20T03:26:00.000-08:00

One of the competitors getting his kite out of a tree...

Due to a kite surf competition here we had the weekend off before continuing the course on Monday.

But before getting to that, a couple of words about the competition. It was really interesting, lots of great tricks, some drama and spectacular crashes. These guys did jumps, flips, and spins which were incredible, but they also crashed, lost their kites, and fell getting up, had to do supermans to get their boards, got their kites tangled together, and one even got his kite tangled in a coconut palm. Making me wonder if this isn't a lot harder than it looks!

A couple of other competitors getting tangled up...

For some human drama; apparently one hot-shot got disqualified, and then went out on the course during the following heat and disrupted the proceeding to a point where they had to cancel the heat and call in the police! Once he finally came back in, he was running around trying to get away from the security people who were trying to keep him off the competition grounds. The whole time he was followed by a bunch of kids and hangers-on, all wondering what he was going to do next! By the time the police showed up he had run off somewhere, and the competition could continue.

After all these fancy tricks I was really looking forward to the next lesson and finally trying to get up on the board. Once I got my gear on and the kite up, Alex went through the explanation and some demonstrations of how it was done.

The first thing is position. You have to position yourself and the board correctly so that you are facing downwind, with the board facing the direction that your kite will be pulling you. Ok, this is pretty straight forward (at least on the beach).

Next, you move the kite to 12 and control it with one hand while holding the board with the other and putting it on your feet. Again this works fine on the beach.

Now, with the board on your feet, and with you and the board in the right position, the next thing is to get the kite to pull you up and move you on your way. Sounds simple (and looked really simple during the weekend competition), for the beach exercise you sit on the ground and move the kite slowly to one side and then back to the other and slowly let the kite pull you up. The trick is to move the kite enough that you get enough wind to pull you to your feet, and not too much that you go flying uncontrollably down the beach, or little that you just sit there. The key is control. You are basically looking to put the kite in the position where it catches enough wind to haul you up but not too much so that you are out of control. This "sweet" point turned out to be a lot more elusive for me than I would have thought possible. Nevertheless, after a while practicing this on the beach, Alex announced that it was time for me to try it in the water.

A water start turned out to be much, much more complicated that it looked. The first problem was just getting the board on my feet, with the waves (we were beyond the break zone, but I still had to deal with the swells), and kite moving, both keeping me off balance, made this a lot more difficult than it looked. Then once the board was on my feet, I had to make my move before I got out of position, which would happen very quickly. Alex showed my how to hold position with the board, something about moving your legs and pointing the board in the particular direction that you wanted to be in. Something I didn't really understand and didn't quite managed. Once the board was on my feet that was it, I had to start in that position or abort and take the board off an move around until I was in the right position before trying again.

Crash, getting dragged along by the kite (I have some experience in this...)

Nevertheless, after a couple of attempts, a few aborted attempts, some plain disasters, I did manage to stand up and get pulled around 5 meters downwind. Then I ran into my next problem, after the initial pull, I would loose momentum and sink. I was not moving the kite enough, or fast enough to keep a steady pull. When I moved too quickly the kite would rip me from the board and I would land 10 meters downwind with the board swimming gaily 10 meters behind me. So I got to do plenty of supermans to retrieve my board and try again. By the time the lesson was over I had stood or partly stood a half dozen times, but never really surfed! I had done maybe 20 supermans and swallowed half the Atlantic in the process. Additionally, I had a kite from another student come down on top of me when it crashed into the water (something which can be very painful, and very, very dangerous). In order to keep from getting tangled or hit, I dove under the kite, when I came up for air the kite was still on top of me so down again and when I finally came up I was clear of the kite. The miracle is that during all this, my own kite was in the air the whole time. As a matter of fact, to date I have yet to crash my kite, either on land or in the water. This doesn't do me much good, but I think it is pretty cool.

One of the competitors doing a superman to get back to his board...

While attempting to stand you are getting constantly pulled downwind, so after a few attempts, aborted, crashed or otherwise, I had to get out of the water and walk the kite and board back up the beach, this was to avoid getting too far downwind and into a zone where there was a lot of traffic. A couple of times of this and you get pretty tired, so although I was ready for another attempt, I was kind of relieved that the lesson was over for the day.

In the end I think one of the problems was that I was doing this with a 9 sq meter kite and this is not only too small for me, but as the lesson went on there was less and less wind. Now a pro would have no problem, but for me a small kite meant that I had to do a lot more work with the kite in order to get the required amount of pull. This meant that the kite had to be moved a lot more and a lot faster, required a much larger degree of control, which I don't yet have. So I was either getting too little pull or too much, I couldn't find and keep enough wind in the kite to get surfing, but tomorrow is another day...

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, Cumbuco, kite surfing, motorcycle, south america, travel

Kiteschee surfing for idiots and middle age people: Day 3

2007-11-17T01:58:00.000-08:00

Some great manouvers during a kite surf competition..

This morning it started out too windy to kite surf, so when we got there, there was no-one kite surfing. Luckily the wind settled down, and we were able to do our class. As we were setting up a lot of other people were also coming out. Today's lesson consisted of learning the signs used by kiters, getting the kite airborne and getting it down again. Together with one new exercise and some more practice with the old ones the lesson went by pretty quickly.

Getting the kite up and down is a fairly simple affair as long as one remembers not to try and do it too directly into the wind. Rather as long as it is done perpendicular to the wind, i.e. both you and the kite are parallel to the wind it will both go up and come down in a controllable manner.

Some great manouvers during a kite surf competition..

Now to the signs, in kite surfing you need someone to help you get the kite up and also to get it down. Alex did mention that it is possible to get it up alone, but it is pretty difficult and takes lots of practice. Getting it down alone is not that big of a deal, but it is better to have help. The main issue is that once the kite is down it needs to be turned and secured otherwise it will fly off on its own. The same when getting it airborne. The kite is not just going to lie there and wait for you to be ready. If you have enough wind to kite surf, the kite will want to take off or tumble down the beach with or without you.

The signal to get airborne is a thumbs-up. The person securing the kite will then just let go of it, and if you are in the right position the kite will slowly climb as you gently pull the bar in the opposite direction. You are now ready for your kite surfing session. No too complicated. Some additional tips, in the wrong position i.e. the kite is too far down wind, the helper will have a lot of problems controlling the kite. Also, make sure there isn't any slack in the lines when the helper lets go, otherwise the kite goes directly downwind and will more than likely take you with it.

When you are finished with your session and you want to get the kite back on the ground, the sign is touching the top of your head with the fist of one hand. Assuming that there is someone on the beach who is a kite surfer, they will know what you want.

Bringing the kite down is simple, it wants to come down anyway, you just control that it doesn't come down too fast, and once your help grabs the kite take a step forward to put some slack in the lines, while your assistant turns the kite over and puts some sand between the ribs to keep it from going up on its own. That is it.

After practicing take off and landings a couple of times, Alex sent me off to do figure eights again. By now I am getting some good speed and I am nearly coming out of the water when turning around (I am using a kite smaller than I need, otherwise I really could be getting airborne when doing this exercise). After a while of this, Alex sent me off to do some more superman exercises. For some reason, I think that yesterday I did them better, as today I wasn't able to hold the position as closely as yesterday. Nevertheless, Alex was satisfied enough that he put me on a new exercise.

This exercise has no name, at least none that he mentioned, and involves taking a board for a ride out and back. Not riding the board out and back, but carrying it out and back. First he had me holding the board with one hand and then crossing over and holding the board with the other hand on land.

Here I should mention that all the time that you are on land you are controlling the kite with one hand, either right or left depending on where the kite is. At the 12 o'clock position you switch over to the opposite hand. When the kite is on the left side you control it with your right hand on the right side of the bar (the dark colored side), when the kite is on the right side you control it with your left hand on the left side of the bar (the lighter colored side). So now I got to practice carrying something in the (previously) empty hand.

Not all manouvers ended well..

Once he was satisfied that I could move from right to left holding the board, he sent me off to do body drags carrying the board out and back. The hard part was getting in and out of the water over the waves carrying the board. Once in deep enough it wasn't a problem. Just hold the board in one hand, keep the kite steady and off you go. The cross over was a bit tricky but not too difficult. I just had to do it a bit slower than before to avoid too much drag from the kite while moving the board from one hand to the other. The key being, to do everything nice and slow.

That was it for today. A few more of these and Alex called me in. Apparently I am now ready to try and ride the board, which will be the next lesson.

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, Cumbuco, kite surfing, motorcycle, south america, travel

Kiteschee surfing for idiots and middle age people: Day 2

2007-11-16T09:21:00.000-08:00

Some great manouvers during a kite surf competition..

Body drag redoux, figure 8's, and superman, the path to enlightenment is sometimes long and winding. The second day started out with the usual delays of interruptions, which didn't get better over the couple of hours of today's course.

Despite the idiot proofing and yesterdays lesson, I managed to almost put the lines on wrong. Dark color to dark color, light color to light color, even that seemed too complicated for me. The teacher noticed my error and corrected it, so at least he was paying attention. If that wasn't enough, once the kite went airborne one of the lines was crossed. This was not fatal, but I had to bring the kite down and correct the problem before continuing. Maybe I should be paying more attention?

Ok, once these "minor" errors were corrected and the kite was up it was time for some more body drag exercises. I actually enjoy these things, the sensation of being dragged back and forth in the water is pretty cool, and not difficult. Today I got a larger kite, 9 sq meters, so it has a bit more pull than yesterday, of course there was a bit less wind today, but at least it wasn't gusting.

Some great manouvers during a kite surf competition..

After a while of this the teacher called me over and gave me a new exercise, figure 8's. What I had been doing was keeping the kite steady at 2 o'clock or so while dragging me out, and then 10 o'clock to drag me back. This is all fun and well but pretty slow and boring. Figure 8's give you more speed as the kite is moving around getting more wind. To go out I would do small loops with the kite, from 1 o'clock to 2 o'clock and back, then turn and do the same from 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock to get back. You are now moving quite a bit faster and so is the kite across the sky. The best part was the cross-over where you were turning back, here the kite would lift me out of the water. Weeee... The more I did these the faster I would move the kite around and the faster I would go, now this is fun. Which is of course why after a while the teacher called me over and gave me a new exercise. This one was called Superman.

The point of the exercise is to be able to retrieve your board after having lost is upwind. He explained that when you loose your board, and you will, many times over the course of a days kiting. The board is dropped behind you as the kite is always pulling you forward. This necessitates that you go upwind to retrieve it, or at least not go too far downwind, while the board comes to you. So the exercise teaches you to steer the kite with one hand while using the other as a rudder to steer against the wind. Now as you are steering against the wind while holding one hand in the water and the other hand controlling the kite. Keeping it nice and steady at 2 o'clock or 10 o'clock coming back, you body is positions directly into the wind and waves, so you will find out very quickly that the second object of this exercise is not to drown or drink half the ocean.

Not all manouvers ended well...

Now this, though not being really hard, is certainly more work than fun. Pick an object on the beach go out steering against the wind with one hand, turn, come back steer against the wind with the other hand and see how close you manage to get back to the object you picked. I did manage to get back to the same house but that is about it. Maybe 10 meters? But there is certainly a difference between just being dragged downwind and steering against the wind. In the end the work in the water at least kept me from having to walk too far back up the beach to do the exercise again!!

That was it for the second day. It would have been much better if I had not made those stupid mistakes at the beginning but hopefully I have learned something, which is why I am here.

Technorati Tags: brazil, Cumbuco, kit surfing, motorcycle, south america, travel

Kiteschee surfing for idiots and middle age people: Intro & Day 1

2007-11-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

A great manouver during the kite surf competition..

This blog entry is a blow by blow description of our 5 day kite surfing course and how we got into it and what we got out of it. Enjoy.

After a long and complicated deliberations we finally decided that we had had enough of just touring around and watching other people having fun in the sand and the surf, so we decided to try our hand at Kite Surfing.

Ever since we first hit the beaches in Mosqueiro we have been surrounded by Wind surfers and Kite surfers. The poor surfers and boogie boarders are in the minority due to the lack of waves and the fact that they (the waves and logically the surfers) only come out when the tide is up. The wind however is relentless, there is a strong and steady South Easterly blowing all along the coast.

A case in point would be Jericoacoara. The central beaches at Jericoacoara were so packed with wind surfers that it looked like they were surfing on top of each other. The northern beaches had kite surfers going downwind for kilometers. You would see them start a few hundred meters down from the kite surfers and then surf until they went around the point and out of sight around 5km down the beach (there are special buggies labeled "kite taxis" to go and get them). The surfers and boggie boarders would come out late in the afternoon when the tide was up and hit some of the waves at the southern beaches, which were ok, but nothing too impressive. In the central bay they would also hit the waves with long boards and ride the small waves coming in. All in all it looked like the wind surfers and kiters were having most of the fun.
Further along the coast it would get worse, in various places like Paracuru north of Fortaleza there were some gorgeous stretches of sand beaches covered with kite surfers as far as the eye could see.

A good landing after a great manouver at the kite surf competition.

By the time we made it to Cumbuco beach we had decided that we would either have to learn to kite surf or wind surf. Cumbuco being a relatively trendy beach resort just north of Fortaleza had the infrastructure necessary. After having a look around it was decided that it would have to be Kite surfing as wind surfers were in a minority around here. We found a relatively in-expensive pousada in Tabuba beach (a not so trendy beach town next door to Cumbuco), and started too look around for a kite surfing school which would meet our budget and requirements (budget = none, requirements = not laugh us out of town).
The fist two things we quickly noted were, first, that it is an expensive sport to learn and second, that it is a sport for young people. By young I mean in their early 20's.
On further study though, I must admit that it is actually not all that expensive when compared to scuba diving or even skiing. The equipment is expensive but not overly so, and like scuba diving or skiing the major expense is getting to (and staying in) places where you can actually practice the sport.
After having checked every kite surfing school in the area we choose one run by a local, called appropriately Kite Cabana Kitesurf school www.kitecabana.com (website is at the moment not on-line but I assume it will eventually be..), which also has a very nice pousada attached (much too expensive for us unfortunately), and is 50 meters from the beach.

The first day started well. Alex our teacher and apparently the owner of the school, greeted us warmly and started the conversation with "I have a problem". Turns out that he would not be able to hold the course on Saturday and Sunday as there is a kite surf competition and a lot of people would be expected. So not only would everyone be busy, but there would be no room on the beach for beginners (the beach is 750 km and stretches to Natal, but that is another subject!). But of course for us this is not a problem, the course would be split into three days (today was Wednesday), and then continued on Monday for the last two days. Overall the course consisted of 10 hours over 5 days.

Once this intro was over, we headed to the beach, after finding a spot in the shade we commenced with the theory. Kite surfing theory is fairly simple, there are two basic rules. The first, you need room, lots and lots of room. Something which a quick look at the beach did not confirm, as there seemed to be kite surfers pretty much on top of each other everywhere. The reason for the room, is that the kite is 30 meters away from you, so you need to take this into consideration before doing anything in close quarters.
Second, there are three types of wind, on-shore, off-shore, and side-shore. Two of which are ideal for kiting, off-shore, and side-shore. The other, on-shore wind should be avoided at all costs. A quick explanation might be in order. On-shore wind, blows from land to water, off-shore from water to land, and side-shore parallel to land. So if you go kiting with an on-shore wind, you won't be coming back. Simple.

The remaining theory consisted of a couple of cards showing the positions in which the kite pulls the most, namely low to the horizon downwind (obviously, or maybe not). The neutral position of the kite being 12 o'clock (straight above you). The cards show how the kite is an arch and that moving the arch from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock vertically is where there is the least resistance, and when lowering it horizontally there is more resistance (ie. pulls the most, also known as the "Power Zone").

Ok, after this, it was time to have a look at the kite.

The first piece of equipment is the "bar". This is how the kite is controlled and consists of a bar to which the kite is attached with 4 lines and you to the bar with one line. The bar also has the control lines rolled up on to it, so were shown how to unroll it and make sure that the lines where untangled. The bar is also divided into two parts the right and the left. Which are color coded. The color is irrelevant, but important is that the right bar will always have a dark color, and the left bar a light color. This is to make sure that in case the bar twists that you know which side controls the correct side of the kite.
The ends of the lines are also color coded to match the bar, left a lighter color, right a darker color.
Once the lines where laid out it was time to unroll and pump up the kite. The particular kite we used was 7sq meters and has inflatable ribs as well as an inflatable leading edge. In essense the front edge of the kite is a tube as well as 4 ribs to which the kite material is fastened. This all gets pumped up until it is nice and ridgid.
Alex then showed us how to turn the kite and how to secure it on the ground to insure that it doesn't fly away. Something very important as 5 minutes previously, we watched an unsecured and unfastened (to the bar) kite take off and roll/fly down the beach with people chasing it. So I guess not everyone paid close enough attention to this part of the course.

To carry it around invert it, and hold it by the leading edge. To secure it on the ground lay it down in the flying poistion and throw some sand on the kite between the ribs to keep the material from catching any wind. So far so good.

Now we were ready to connect the kite to the bar via the control lines we laid out previously. The four control lines (two right; dark, two left; light) are connected via a knot and loop system to the kite. Alex kept explaining that this is where the most of the accidents. Apparently it happens that people connect it incorrectly, and when they first try to fly the kite goes out of control taking the person with it. Assuming you remember to connect the dark to dark, and light to light, and with the addition that the lines are set up so that of the two right lines one has a knot and one has a loop, to match the line on the kite it is nearly impossible to go wrong. Nevertheless, once everything is connected, it is important to do a double check and make sure that everything is ok.

After the kite and bar were connected and everything was checked, it was time to go to the rest of the equipment.

This consisted of, a helmet, a bouyancy vest, and a harness to connect you with the kite. The equipment was neither in a very good state of repair nor did it fit very well. But it was functional.

In between various explanations Alex would continually be interrupted by other students or teachers to take care of some detail or other, something which is annoying to say the least but we managed.

The next thing is getting the kite airborne. A simple procedure as long as you follow one simple rule, don't try to get it airborne downwind, rather side-wind. What I mean by this is you need to stand parallel to the wind with the kite in front of you, so it goes up from the three or nine o'clock position, that is it. If you try to get it airborne downwind it will more than likely drag you and the kite into a building or worse.

Once the kite was airborne, Alex showed us the controls in action, including the "power move" which is when you pull the bar towards you, which in effect gives you a quick shot of lift, as it makes the kite more wind resistant, and of course, stressed that we were not to do that! Kind of takes the fun out of it. The controls are simple, pull left, kite goes left, pull right the kite goes right. With the additional notation that on sand/land we were only to use one hand to control the kite. Why is that you might be asking. The reason is that on land you have to carry your board with you, so you only have one hand to control the kite. Obvious, if there was a board nearby, which at this point there wasn't.

He also then explained the various safety features, of which there are three. The first is to push the bar forward, this loosens the pull on the kite and it goes slack. The second is a quick release button on the harness connection line which will detach the kite from your harness. The last one is a leash which is also connected to the harness connection line, this he explains is a safety feature not for your safety but for that of others, so that the kite doesn't go flying solo down the beach and hurt someone.
Additional the kite has an two adjustments for more or less power, a red ball and a black ball tied to a central line which controls the shape of the kite. Basically the flatter the kite is the less wind resistance it has, the more curvy the more it catches the wind and hence pulls more. The safety features basically remove any tension on the lines and thereby leaving the kite slack and it would just drop with minimal pull.

I must admit that I was a bit nervous the first time he tied the kite to my harness, but once the controls were in my hand it was a piece of cake. The kite reacts pretty slowly, so you have to make adjustments before they are necessary, and although there was a bit of a pull, keeping the kite level at any particular position was not all that difficult. The main difficulty was the wind, occasionally gusty, which would make it necessary to make more corrections than normally. Anyone who has flown a steerable kite will know what I mean. Also unlike a steerable kite, (mine is around a meter), this is much slower and predictable. The steerable kites are extremely fast and can be pretty quirky.

Once I got used to the kite, the controls, and the pull, I got to do exercises, consisting of moving the kite back and forth across the sky. Quite interestingly, it was more difficult controlling the kite when on the left (inland) side than when it was on the seaward side. I assume it was the angle of the wind. Katheryna also noticed this when it was her turn.

The day ended by doing body drags the first one accompanied then after that alone. Basically you walk into the water with the kite and once you are deep enough let the kite drag you out 40 meters or so and then turn the kite around and let it drag you back to the beach. The only problem here is making sure that you stand up before the water gets too shallow, otherwise you get dragged onto land, which can be painful. One thing I can say about this, is that it is much more fun doing the exercise alone. The not so fun part is having to walk up the beach again to do the exercise again as you are walking up against the wind and an ill fitting harness makes it pretty uncomfortable.

This was the first day, and I must say it was fun, and so far not too difficult, although I have a feeling it will be soon...

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, Cumbuco, kit surfing, motorcycle, south america, travel

Beaches, Beaches, and More. Mosqueiro to Cumbuco (Fortaleza)

2007-11-16T01:34:00.000-08:00

Rural Brazil..

The center was dry, Diamantina was cool, Lençois was touristy, Belem was hot and humid, plenty of the "real" Brazil, mostly no tourists or associated infrastructure (with the exception of Lençois and Diamantina), now it was time to head for the beaches and the "other" Brazil. Many say the most interesting part of Brazil.

Beach strip in Mosqueiro, PA

We started by heading to the campground in Mosqueiro. As I noted previously Mosqueiro is an island near Belem. It has some excellent beaches which have waves and a tide although more than 150km from the Atlantic ocean. It is also one of the places Belem goes on the weekend to get out of the sticky and hot city. During the week though it is deserted, and the only action is the daily market when the fishing fleet comes in. The beaches range from empty stretches punctuated by a few "Barracas" (Kiosks) selling food and drink, to the city beaches with high rise apartments across the street. Our preference was Praia Paraiso on the norther end of the island. Conveniently the campground was less than a km from this beach! The campground was run by a couple who acted as caretakers for the owner who only came out on weekends to watch over his restaurant on the premises. The beach was nicely deserted during the week, and tolerable on the weekends.

The Brazilian beach preference seems to run to somewhere where they can park their car play music out of the back and have plenty to eat and drink to accompany the tunes. Particularly on the city beaches where they would be cars parked all along the strip, all playing music at deafening levels, making for a very interesting spectacle. The funny thing is that few people were actually in the water. As most other places, this would be reserved for the children.

A steady wind also allowed the wind and kite surfers to practice their art along various stretches of beach, and of course plenty of people playing sand futebol (pronunced futscheebol also known as soccer).

In the end we spent two weeks here, and looking back at it, I am hard pressed to explain why. It was just relaxing, we spent plenty of time on the beach, shopping for food at the market in Vila (Vila de Mosquiero, the main city on the island), practicing our camp cooking, and enjoying a bottle or two of Cachaça (over the two weeks!!). Trying some of the "stranger" delicacies available, such as Açai, maniçoba, tapioca and a variety of fruits available at the market, whose names escape me.

Açai has a very fruity bitter taste and is used in a variety of things from drinks to a sauce served with pretty much anything. Maniçoba, which we tried at a beach kiosk, where they assured us that "tourists" don't like it, was a black soup/sauce with meat in it. It has a salty bitter taste, but is definitely palatable (accompanied by rice). Apparently it is made from the leaves of a plant which have to be cooked for 7 days as it is poisonous otherwise. In Vila there is a whole row of stands selling tapioca in various flavors and methods. Apparently a favorite breakfast food of the locals and tourists alike. We tried "wet" tapioca with coconut, and a "dry" tapioca. The dry tapioca was fried and both were served like a rolled up pancake. I preferred the wet version which had a sauce and therefor easier to get down. The other was chewy but otherwise pretty tasteless.

All good things must come to an end, and we finally dragged ourself away from Mosqueiro. It helped that it has started to rain more and more as the weeks passed. The next stop was 300km away at the first Ocean beach in the area; Salinopolis, or Salinas for the locals.

Corvina beach, Salinopolis, PA

Salinas was great, first it was empty, second the beach was pristine, no kiosks or Barracas to ruin the view (or the sound of the ocean). The beach we stayed at was Corvina beach, a stretch of beach which had a large lagoon in front of the ocean, effectively making two beaches. The lagoon is shallow and can be waded easily at low tide (a little deeper at high tide), to get to the ocean. The waves made us return to town and buy a boogie board! Which we then made good use of during the week that we stayed, so much so in fact, that I had to make various repairs to the board.

There are a couple of other beaches, particular Atalaya beach a few km's away but none had the deserted feel of Corvina. Atalaya turned out to be a wide beach which could be driven on at low tide, with plenty of barracas to provide the necessary liquid refreshments. After a week practicing with out boogie board it was time to move on. The next stop was Sao Luis, which we had been told was a very nice town.

Mosaics in Sao Luis by night, MA

It is indeed a very nice town. The old town is a world heritage site. Not only that, but the beaches are only a couple of km's away. Additionally I read that it is the Reggae capital of Brazil! Something I couldn't confirm, although I did see a couple of "Reggae bars".

The architecture is very interesting (building covered with colorful tiles, and my favorites the street lamps everywhere) and I took tons of pics. The beaches were nice and wide, with plenty of room for quads and 4x4 cars to run around, at high tide there were waves for the surfers and boogie boarders. The water was a bit murky but otherwise very nice. Being a world heritage site, there were plenty of tourists and attractions/shopping for them. A few days of this was enough for us and we continued on to Lençois Marahense which is a national park with huge sand dunes.

Lencois Marahense NP, MA

We made it as far as Barreirinhas which is where the road effectively ends, as past this you need a 4x4. From here we took a tour to the dunes and dune lakes nearby. The price was outrageous for the 10km off road ride to the dunes. The "tour" consists of a walk to two of the lakes, and the ride back and forth, that was it. The price of 20$/p was in our opinion pure highway robbery. Luckily it didn't take anything away from the dunes, which are very beautiful. The lakes between them are very interesting. Apparently, water filters through the dunes and collects in various lakes between the dunes, most of which dry out over the season, but a couple which always contains water. The most interesting sight is where the dunes end directly in the water, making for some spectacular pictures. Also the color of the dunes; snow white, gives the whole area an almost surreal feel.

Sete Cidades NP, PI

Since the track between Barreirinhas was un-passable for us, we had to back track to the main road going to Sao Luis, from there we headed to Piripiri, where we wanted to go and visit the Sete Cidades national park. After passing Piracuruca we entered the park and found out that they had camping there, so we didn't make it to Piripiri. We stayed in the middle of the park and camped at the hotel grounds. The following morning we took a 6 hour walk in 40C heat checking out the park sights. A guide is required, and the one we got is apparently the only "native" guide in the area. Something he would mention on a number of occasions. Native meaning he was born in the park (the last people to leave the park left in 1976, although the park was established in 1961). The park itself was pretty interesting, we saw some animals and plenty of rock formations, which with a lot of fantasy, or a 6 year old could be anything you liked. From giant serpents with scaly skin, to huge elephants, or the profile of some long gone ruler of Brazil. There were even plenty of rock paintings, in mostly geometric shapes, which we speculate were a bunch of pre-historic kindegarden kids just doodling, but what do we know.

Luis Correia, Atalaya beach, CE

Ok, enough sightseeing, now back to the beaches. From Sete Cidades we headed straight north to Luis Correia which was supposed to have a beach camping. No beach camping, but we found plenty of vacation condos for various government institutions, from police to military. In one they allowed us to stay the night for a very reasonable fee, and though the place was a dump we took it. It had an excellent view of the ocean and beach, and had plenty of room for us to spread out. The beach, Atalaia, was for the most part deserted, and looked like it had had its best days quite a while ago. Most of the installation along the beach and across the road were in a pretty bad shape. Empty, abandoned, and being taken over by sand. There are also some spectacular dunes just as you get into Luis Correia from Parnaiba.

After settling in, we went to Parnaiba to have a look. Parnaiba turned out to be a delightful town, with a nice central square, some wide boulevards and is fairly small and compact. it used to be a major port, but since the river silted up and the port moved it has gotten pretty quiet. Nevertheless, it is doing pretty good, judging from the fancy stores and huge houses along the road headed to the beach. When I mean huge, I really mean huge. These compounds take a block, have three entrances and three to four buildings spread around. Must be nice.

Nearby was one of my favorite spots; the Pedro do Sal beach to the north. A long empty stretch of beach which the surfers (all 4 or 5 of them...) take over when the tide is high, otherwise completely abandoned. Even the main area where the kiosks are is overrun by sand, giving it an abandoned look. There are plenty of large sand dunes along the road leading to this beach also.

The day before we left we were stopped by a group of people blocking the road going into Luis Correia, there had apparently been and accident, and when we drove through we saw a small child lying dead on the road. The ambulance and police were there as well as lots of on-lookers, but for some reason no-one had bothered to cover him up. This was to say the least, a horrible sight that I will not soon forget, and made our stay here memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Things didn't get any better, as three days later traveling between Gijoca do Jericoacoara and Cumbuco we saw another accident, this time a young man was lying dead on the roadway early in the morning.

But I am getting ahead of myself, after Luis Correia we headed to Gijoca do Jericoacoara. We took the road along the beach which had some spectacular dune vistas before turning inland. The ride was uneventful, other than the last 70km which was on a very bad sand track, which as anyone who has ever ridden a bike will know, is not fun, specially not on a fully loaded bike. I managed to make it 69.5km before dropping the bike, and twice at that, this only 500 meters from the campground, very annoying. Luckily only my pride was hurt.

Jericoacoara dunes at sundown, CE

The following morning we took one of the frequent trucks to Jericoacoara and spent the day walking around this trendy beach spot. There is little that is Brazilian about it, other than being in Brazil obviously, otherwise judging from the people and languages spoken this could be anywhere from Hawaii to Tahiti.

There are only sand roads in town, but plenty of boutiques, and coffee shops, as well as pousadas and upscale hotels. There is large bay and a constant wind which attracts wind and kite surfers from all over the world. There is also a surf beach nearby. The sunset during high tide in the bay is magical. A lot of people climb up to the nearby giant sand dunes and watch it from there (along with hundreds of others...), we preferred the bay.

It is definitely easy to see why Jeri is so popular with wind surfers, you can literally go 10 meters from your room and jump on your board and off you go (at least during high tide). The apre-surfing is also first class, at least from the look of it. For our tastes though, too many tourists and too expensive. So after the day there we decided to continue on.

The next stop was Cumbuco beach. Someone had recommended that we stop there on our way south, as it has some nice beaches backed by beautiful sand dunes. As I noted previously, on our way there we passed another fatal accident. Something we both hope is not going to be a trend. Cumbuco turned out to be pretty nice if a bit glitzy/ritzy for our tastes. Luckily for us there is a much more affordable beach just next door, namely Tabuba beach.

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, Cumbuco, Lencois Maranhense, Luis Correia, motorcycle, Sao Luis, Sete Cidades, south america, travel

From Xique Xique to Belem, A lot of Km's and not much to tell.

2007-10-29T15:31:00.000-07:00

Sunset over the Sao Francisco, Xique Xique, BA

Once Lençois was behind us the next goal was a place called Xique Xique. When I think back on it, I see that when we left Sao Paulo we had the following goals in mind. First, Diamantina, then Sao Francisco, Lençois, Xique Xique and finally Belem. Not much a very full schedule when we consider that there is at least 5000km between the beginning and the end. But there you have it, we keep our goals fairly moderate. Now you might be asking why Xique Xique, if you ask this question you probably don't find anything unusual about the name. Luckily for you dear reader we weren't of the same opinion. Xique Xique sounded like a very interesting place to visit. What in the world would we find there? The answer is a bustling fishing port on the Sao Francisco river. Getting there was an adventure, the road being more holes than anything else,the whole area some of the driest and windiest that we had yet seen, and if truth be told, it was a pretty boring ride getting there, since the road was straight as an arrow for miles and miles. The town itself was pretty interesting as it was right on the river and serves among other things as a fishing port, and supply center for the farms in the area. During the day the town is pretty much dead, but come night time, everyone comes out on the street to eat, walk, socialize and people watch. The town is separated from the river by a high retaining wall. The river having been dammed and creating a large reservoir which in turn (I assume) created the town. The reservoir is pretty low so the wall is on dry land having nothing to retain. The main thing that interested me was that it seemed like a relative wealthy town, considering the area and the other towns we had gone through getting here. Nevertheless, 1 day here was enough. The following morning we left and headed south along what on the map looked like a road along the reservoir, in actuality turned out to be turned out to be a road miles from any water. The water level was so low and had been so for such a long time that in places there were what looked like palm plantations on ground which looked suspiciously like it should be under water, at least at some time during the year. There is practically nothing but scrub land in all directions here, and I wonder that it supported anything let alone cattle which require lots of water and feed.
From Xique Xique we headed west to Barreiras, a large town in an area which had some huge cattle farms in the vicinity, after the quiet of Lençois, Diamantina, Sao Francisco, not to mention Xique Xique, this was the first large town we had seen in a while. From here we continued west before turning north and pretty much made a beeline for Belem, which we reached after a week or so on the road. There isn't much to tell about this area. We passed cattle farms, followed by more cattle farms (where ever you see everything fenced in you can assume that they raise some type of animal). The area then changed north of Barreiras, to huge grain farms, soya, rice etc. The give away, besides not being fenced in, was the many billboards and the type of hardware being sold and maintained in the towns we passed. A sign which noted that the area was the Soya capital of Brazil also helped. Further north, once we passed into the State of Para, the farms went back to being cattle farms and everything started to get a lot greener, not to mention much more humid. The roads also changed once we got back on the main road 150km south of Xique Xique, the quiet back road feel was gone. This is a main east/west highway and had the traffic to prove it, afterwards we hit the main north/south highway and had more of the same. Nevertheless it was fairly painless and uneventful traveling.
A few kilometers before Imperatrix we ran into a group of local bikers on big bore japanese bikes coming back to Imperatrix after a weekend outing. Due to import costs, these bikes are very expensive and therefore pretty rare. We exchanged plesantries and business cards before riding off. They had recommend that we camp in Beira Rio in Imperatrix when we got there, so that is where we headed. After a few minutes they passed us heading home and one of the guys did a power wheelie at 90km/h in the middle of traffic! No wonder that one of the guys came back from their outing with some serious bruises on his leg and hands, ripped clothes and no bike.

Ito & Aracy, Imperatrix, MA

In Imperatrix, we headed for the area they had recommened. And we were again to find that what the Brazilians consider a suitable camping spot isn't the same as what we would consider suitable. In this case, Beira Rio, is a park and bar/restaurant area along the river. Very nice and scenic, but not suitable for camping (at least not for us). So we retired to a nearby park to have a drink and decide what we wanted to do. While sitting there we were approached by Ito, who offered us a can of Coco water as an ice breaker. It turned out that he and his wife Aracy had seen us arrive and were very curious about us. As the bar had nothing more suitable as a local specialty, he chose Coco water as a way to approach us. We sat and talked with him for a while, his wife joined us, and they then invited us to spend the night at their house. Something which we eventually agreed to. Their house was nearby and we got seattled, before being taken on a tour of the touristic sights of Imperatrix. This included Beira Rio, and the oldest street in town, which goes by the oldest church in town, and that was it. Imperatrix turns out to be a town only devoted to making money, and seems to be doing very good in that area. It is the administrative center of mines, and farms in the general area, but has nothing to offer tourists. Even the hotels, are business hotels and too expensive for the casual traveler, so in the end we were very happy to have this chance to see how the average Brazilian lives. Turns out that Ito is an administrator at a local business and Aracy is works as a accountant for another local company. They share a house with Aracy's mother who was recently widowed. They cooked us a typical dinner of rice and beans with some fried meat. Then we headed for a local restaurant to have a few beers. The following morning we had breakfast at a local bakery before heading out. Very enjoyable encounter, with us sharing a lot of our travel experience with them, and they telling us of their lives, and desire of one day to traveling outside of Brazil.
Belem started for us many km's away as the traffic got heavy and it congestion and the heat became very noticeable. By the time we got near to town, there was a major traffic jam as one of the main roads into town was blocked, the temperature was in the low 40C, and the humidity off the scale, so it was not a pleasant experience. Nevertheless we eventually got into town by following the cars which were moving the most. A few had found some ingenious back roads and we just tailed along, no idea where we were going, other than noting that the GPS was pointing in the generally right direction.

Estacion Do Docas, Belem, PA

Belem is spread out quite a bit, but the old part of town is pretty compact and fairly easy to maneuver, nevertheless it took us a good 3 hours to find a hotel we could afford, not to mention finding a decent place to park the bike. This is to be expected in a city, but never a pleasant experience under the best of circumstances. The heat and humidity of Belem didn't make it any better. The only event of note, was that I experienced my first tourist hustle. While Katheryna was off checking the price and availability of hotels, I was guarding the bike, a guy walked up and asked if I spoke German (in German), and then started his pitch. He was a German who was here on vacation and had been robbed, and there was no-one who would help him, would I be willing to help out. I must have given him a real strange look, because he didn't really try very hard and just kind of walked off mumbling something about that I should be careful! This is such an old scam, that I was very surprised that anyone would still try it, and even more that it actually pays off enough that someone would continue to use it. Later at the hostel Katheryna found I noticed a note pinned to the bulletin board, warning of this guy. Apparently he is a German who lives here and tries the scam on tourist, the board noted that the Scottish couple how had been approached actually gave him 90R$ (50$).

Tourist boat, Para river, Belem, PA

Belem wasn't all that interesting, with the saving grace that it is on the Para river. Giving it a very rich history as a port town and gateway to the Amazon. Unfortunately I wasn't really here for jungle tours. The historic part of town was pretty run down, and an afternoon was enough.

Ver-A-Peso Market, Belem, PA

There is a famous marked, Ver-A-Peso where you can get all manner of goods only available here. It had such a touristy feel that I had enough after 20 minutes. It is nevertheless very colorful and aromatic! The most interesting thing I found was the boats unloading the fish, freshly caught, both from the river and from the Ocean 200km away.
While in Belem, I took care of some things for the bike, new tires, replacing the spare steering head bearings (which I had installed in Diamantina), and some other miscellaneous things. We also got a chance to stock up on Pizza hut pizza which we found in a nearby mall!

Jaguar, Belem Zoo, Belem, PA

To see some of the local wild life, we skipped the Jungle tour (always uncertain, and expensive, not to mention strenuous) and headed to the Belem Zoo. Where we managed to catch a glimpse of a number of animals rarely seen in the wild. Yeah, I know, that is cheating, but it was cheap. Also for those who think that Belem is in the middle of the jungle, I have some bad news. The only remnants of the Amazon to be seen here are in a nature park in the middle of the city. Many, many years ago, everything for miles and miles around had been turned into very lush farm and ranch land.

Paradise Beach, Mosqueiro, PA

While here, we had been told that we should go to Mosqueiro island, so we took a ride out to this island just 70km north of Belem, which has some great beaches on the Para river. The island is a major weekend/vacation destination for the 1 million inhabitants of Belem. The day we were there all the beaches were empty, but you could see that they must do a booming business during the "season". We also noticed that there was a campground there, so we decided to come back here after we left Belem. Which we did a few days later.

Technorati Tags: Belem, bmw, brazil, south america, travel, Xique Xique

The Touristic Center of Brazil Diamantina (MG) / Lençois (BA)

2007-10-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

Road to Diamantina, MG

Another entry finds us in Lensçois, Bahia. After our uneventful first camping in Itutinga it was time to head to Diamantina. I had read about Diamantina in various books, and it was billed as an ideal example of the early mining towns on which Brazil flourished during the 18th century. Not only that but I liked the name, so off we went (another draw was the fact that it is a World Heritage site). To get there we rode through what I can only describe as some pretty desolate small towns. Maybe it was the time of day that we rode through, but there certainly wasn't much going on. A dog or two and maybe a stray donkey was all that was to be seen in many of the small out of the way places. When there were people, everything stopped as we rode through, and people gave us their full concentration. (I am skipping getting through Belo Horizonte, which is pretty much the same chaos as any large town anywhere). Once we neared the Serra Do Cipo national park we rode some of the way along the Camino Real, which is a rode built by slaves to bring the riches of the interior to the coast, and as far as I could tell, is in the same condition as it was 200 years ago.
The Park and the nearby towns were totally deserted, and eventually we found an open campground which didn't charge an exorbitant price and stopped for the night. The area is gorgeous, low lying mountains, with some nice forests and rivers nearby. Great area for camping, and hiking, as well as some climbing apparently. No time this time around but it might be worth coming back some day and enjoy the natural wonders (in the low season, as I have a feeling it is over-run in season).
From here it was an awesome ride along the Serra do Cipo to Serro. The road along the mountain was both curvy and in good shape, and to top it off nearly empty of traffic. From Serro, it was a short hop to Diamantina. The first thing that you will notice in Diamantina is that the roads are the same as the ones the Slaves built 200 years ago, literally! Huge stone blocks make up the roads in the town, and make for a very bumpy and slow ride, and to make it more eventful, the town is built on some very steep hills. The second thing is that there are a lot of churches everywhere. We spent a few hours looking for accommodations which fit our budget, this being a tourist town, something that wasn't all that easy. In the end we gave up for the day and headed out of town to try and find a good wild camping spot. Our research had told us that there was a camping spot somewhere near town, but no-one had heard of it. The other camping spot a bit outside of town was closed and deserted, so wild camping was the only option left. We found a nice spot overlooking the town and had a nice evening.
The following day we checked out a couple of other Pousadas and finally found one that was relatively affordable. Then it was off to check out the town.

Main Plaza, Diamantina, MG

Diamantina turned out to be a charming if a bit soul less town. Maybe because half the town was closed (low season), and there was a deserted feel to it. Nevertheless the architecture was interesting, the area around the town was also pretty interesting. Of particular note was the "shanty" town on the Camino Real out of town, somehow it seemed completely out of place with the tourist center a few hundred meters away, where tourist pay to get into see the churches. While here we also went out and had a look at one of the caves nearby. This was a near total waste of time, a small hole at the end of a hundred meter walk was all that we found. Guess they have to try and find something to keep the tourist around and entertained?
The one thing that the area was good for was rock climbing. I clambered around some rocks and to my surprise found some climbing routes. I miss not having my climbing gear with me. The rock being very porous it was possible to do some simple climbing without gear.

A view across the valley, Diamantina, MG

All in all we found it to be worth the ride there, and gave us a good impression of what the towns of the period were like. I could do without the strenuous climb to get my daily Pizza though, it seems to me that no matter where I wanted to walk I had to climb a 30° hill, and on my way back the whole town would rotate so that I had to do the same climb again!! Does wonders for your condition though.
From Diamantina we headed for Sao Francisco, which we had picked out on a map as being an interesting place to visit. The ride there was long and strenuous as the road in places was pretty bad, but we eventually arrived.

Sao Francisco river, Sao Francisco, MG

The Sao Francisco river is the third largest in Brazil, and the town must be among the smallest. There isn't much there, apparently people come here on their vacations and weekends to fish. After riding around town and not finding any interesting accommodations we headed to a fish camp outside of town where they let us camp on their volleyball court (what do you think the kids are going to be occupied while daddy is out on the river fishing?).

Dinner, Pousada Do Peixes, Sao Francisco, MG

The person in charge was incredibly friendly, first he refused to take money for the camping, second he insisted on feeding us dinner (twice), and breakfast, all at no charge. I love Brazil! The views over the river at sunset and sunrise were incredible, well worth the ride here.

The road out of Sao Francisco, MG

From Sao Francisco, we headed along the river on some of the nasties roads yet, bar none (between Sao Francisco and Januaria, and then again between Itacarambi and Manga). Dust, sand, rocks, the only thing missing was mud, which would have made it impassable for us. So we had to take it very slow and easy and eventually reached Manga where we re-crossed the river and got back onto some decent roads.

The towns and region we passed through were mainly cattle ranches and small towns associated with these activities, with no touristic activity other than seeing the true Brazil. There isn't much mention of these areas in the tourist literature, making it a true adventure and a paradise for individual tourists (at least my kind). One thing that was universal was the friendliness and openness of the Brazilians everywhere we went, which was really enjoyable.
Once we left the river region the area turned drier and drier, as we neared Lençois it was a virtual scrub desert.

Near Lençois, BA

Then we hit the mountains. Everything turned green again, and there were rivers and forests along these low lying hills (sorry guys there are no "Mountains" in Brazil..) In one place we hit rain, and were freezing for a while until we came down again and the rain stopped. Two days after leaving Sao Francisco we made it to Lençois.

Main plaza, Lençois, BA

Lençois was recommend to us by Dom (the owner of the Pousada Dos Frances in Sao Paulo), as being a place he had visited years earlier and found very nice. Noting that people didn't even have locks on their doors. Well, times change, there are no door without locks in Lençois any more, and today it is the center of all tourists activities in the national park next door. Rightly so, the area is gorgeous, and the town is a cozy little place (if a bit packed on the weekends). In many respects it is very similar to Diamantina, but lacks the obvious shanty town and is a smaller and more touristy.

The atmosphere is very laid back, and since it had a camping we could afford to spend a few days, which we then did. Not really being in the mood for hiking or trekking or any of the other tourist activities we spent time checking out the town, honing out camp cooking skills and doing some tours around the area on the bike. Before heading north to Xique Xique...

Just outside Lençois, BA

Technorati Tags: Bahia, bmw, brazil, Diamantina, Lençois, Minas Gerais, motorcycle, Sao Francisco, south america, travel

Brazil, onwards wayward son

2007-09-07T11:28:00.000-07:00

Picnic in Ibirapuera Park, Sao Paulo

Well, hard to believe but I finally made it out of Sao Paulo. Not only that, but it isn't any longer I, rather we, as Katheryna has joined me for my continuing sojourn. As Strider (my motorcycle) was only set up for a single person, we spent a few days making some modifications, and re-packing everything. Somehow, in the end we actually managed to get everything packed (leaving 3 bags of stuff at the pousada), and got on the road.
Before leaving I had promised Dominici that I would take part in a talk with students that were coming to his Youth Hostel to hear about running a hostel and hostels in general. He asked me along so that they would get an idea of what kind of people one meets in this line of work.

School children in Sao Paulo

The students turned out to be high school kids from two different classes, many of which, luckily spoke some english. Dominici spoke of hostels and I talked about traveling and living on the road. Then the kids joined in and asked a lot of questions, from why I travel, to questions about my family and friends, favorite places, least favorite places, my work etc.
In all they spent a couple of hours asking questions and hearing about traveling and far-away places which most only know from geography classes, if at all. The best question of the morning went to a couple of girls who asked Katheryna if one met a lot of guys traveling. The same girls asked me if the Gold Coast of Australia was nice, I told them that it was a concrete jungle with nothing but hotels, bars, clubs and beaches, and if they really wanted to see some nice parts of Australia to go to Perth, where the beaches are empty and there is plenty of space to turn around. Well, it turns out that teen-age girls are actually looking for places with clubs and discos. Who knew!! I think I am getting old..
Ok, so along comes Sunday, the bike was prepped, test rides and last minute adjustments all done, so we headed off towards Belo Horizonte. As it was early there was little traffic, and with only one wrong turn we made it out of Sao Paulo and motored along a nice free-way out of the city.
Once outside of the city, Brazil turned rural very fast, lots of ranches, and agricultural areas. The few towns we rode through were pretty sleepy, and as the road is a main highway there were few chances to get lost. Trying to think of something to say about the country is difficult as there wasn't anything at all special or particular about it.

First camping spot in Brazil, Itutinga, MG

The first day we were headed for a campground south of Belo Horizonte, for our first camping day in Brazil. The first place we found was closed, but luckily, another one was just down the road, and it turned out to be very nice. The place was a bar at the edge of a brook, which also allowed camping. Once the bar was closed we were all alone, and locked in until the morning when the guy returned. Nevertheless it had everything we needed, and the first camping excursion in Brazil was un-eventful, and thanks to a full moon, very beautiful with a babbling brook in the background.

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, motorcycle, Sao Paulo, south america, travel

Final shipping information

2007-08-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

Now that I have the bike, and all the costs have been tabulated, I have made the final update to the shipping document, in case anyone is interested, check out:Shipping a Motorcycle from Kathmandu to Brazil

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, motorcycle, puppy, Santos, Sao Paulo, south america, travel

A happy end, Brazil here I come...

2007-08-11T16:24:00.001-07:00

[Coming into Santos]

Well, Friday was a pretty hectic day. Starting off with Eliana and Bravo Customs Brokers, who had the necessary paperwork prepared, first for the bank and then for Marihna Mercante. With the usual burocratic delays, Marihna Mercante was presented with a document they liked, I signed, she stamped it and entered the data in her computer and that was that. Not too hard ( of course it helped that Eliana from Bravo knew exactly what to prepare and how!!)

Next, the payment to the bank, and once that was done, the payment was registered electronically with Marihna Mercante, and the receipt printed out and I was ready for Nivio and customs again!

So after lunch that was where I headed. Again, with the correct document, things went smoothly. He signed everything off, and the papers were off to the inspections department.

Here the papers made the rounds and around 17:00 I was taken to the warehouse where the extremely nice Claudia worked overtime to get my paperwork processed on the spot, and together with the inspector we went and opened my box.

[Someone broke open the tank and stole my air pump and some odds & ends!!]

Yes, it was here, and I finally got to see my bike, for the first time in nearly 3 months! First off, it had been opened. Where, I have no idea. But when I looked inside, there was oil everywhere. The tank had been forced open, and the instrument console had also been pried open. So, I wasn't exactly in a good mood after seeing that.

[and, someone pried open the instrument console!]

The inspector got the frame number and looked in one of the boxes and he was satisfied. With that the customs was finished. The bike was now cleared by them. The next hurdle loomed.

[Claudio gets his hands dirty]

Ok, Claudia informs me that it will not be possible for me to unpack the bike and just ride out of the warehouse. Silly me for thinking that since everything had been cleared it would be that easy.
Turns out that in order for the warehouse to clear the bike (cargo), it had to be registered in their system as having left the premises. This was not possible since their system could not handle the registration information for my bike.

[Unpacking Strider]

So, I had to either truck the crate out, or find someone with a car who could help me out. With this information I returned to Allink, where Claudio was waiting for me to find out what happened. I informed him, and gave him the contact information for Claudia, whom he then called. He confirmed what I had said, and then started looking around for a truck. Turns out that hauling it out of there would cost me another 250$.. When will this end?
So Claudio then volunteered to accompany me to the warehouse in the morning, and provide me with the required alibi. Hey great. Maybe we can pull this off after all. I went back to Sao Paulo and crashed, it had been a long day, but in the end Claudio felt that we should be able to get the bike out on Saturday.

[After 3 1/2 hours, and help from practically everyone it is back together and packed..]

At 8:30 Claudio picked me up at the bus station and after having dropped his wife with the promise that he would pick her up at 12:00, we headed off to the warehouse.
With the papers which were processed the previous day, my passport, my vehicle registration papers, my CPF number, Claudio's car registration, Claudio's drivers license, and a release form, dictated by the person in charge, and written down by Claudio, and signed by me, they had all they needed to start entering the data into their system. One and a half hour later (as the office closed), we were done, and were allowed to enter the premises to start unpacking the bike. Of course, this sounds simple, but let me tell, you Claudio had animated discussions with practically every employee there, including the warehouse manager. Incredible, but somehow he managed to sort it all out. There were naturally some conditions, mainly, I was not allowed to ride out of the compound. The bike had to be pushed to the gate, and I had to exit via another gate, and then return to this gate where I could finally push the bike outside. Hey at this point, nothing surprised me.
We entered the warehouse and got started. The crew there were extremely helpful and curious. At one point, they even came over with a fork lift to lift the bike off the pallet instead of trying to roll it off without a front wheel, which is pretty difficult. (I need to put it on the center stand to put the wheel on, and I couldn't do that while it was on the pallet.).
Slowly I got everything unpacked, and mounted. The battery connected, and cranked the sucker up. Sure enough, it started, but the oil light was on and it sounded a bit funny. So I shut it down and checked. All the oil was gone! I assumed that the oil inside the crate was from the front fork seals, but on closer inspection it looked like engine oil. But there was no leak anywhere!! Where did the oil go?
I am assuming that they opened the crate either in Kolkatta or Singapore and removed the oil by pumping it out. The oil inside the crate being oil which spilled while doing this. The reason they did this was more than likely because of security against fire. I was aware of the fuel issue, but not engine oil. The didn't get the gear oil though.
First pump up the tires, both of which were flat, and since someone stole my air compressor I had to do it with my hand pump, which took a while.

Besides the air compressor, they also stole a set of mini sockets, an elbow connector used to put air in the back tire, and a can with a spare clutch cable. They had also taken a bag with charging cables out, and thrown it in the corner of the crate. What I am going to miss the most is the compressor, we have been together for the last 17 years or so, and they simply don't make anything like that anymore, this was a solid, heavy duty air compressor in a very small package. Everything today is just plastic and falls apart after a short while. Not to mention how difficult it is to fill and seat a flat tire with just a hand pump. But I will manage...

After the tire was pumped up we head off to the nearest gas station and bought some oil.
Once the oil was in, I started it up and let the bike run a while, everything seemed fine.
Was this really it?
Yes, it was. We rolled the bike to the gate, and the guys at the gate, threw caution to the wind and let me ride out into Brazil without making me exit and come around the whole building. Not bad. Met up with Claudio at the gas station where I had just filled out, and we were both smiling ear to ear. I am not sure which one of us was the happiest to finally be finished with this ordeal, you judge... (of course it was now 14:00, and his wife was still waiting!!)

[Claudio and I, finally outside the bonded warehouse and in Brazil proper..]

Marinha Mercante Catch 22

2007-08-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

Anyone still out there. Hey if you think it is boring to read all this, try having to do it...
Another day another adventure. The morning today was spent trying to pay Marihna Mercante the duties they levied on my bike. And yes, you guessed it, it wasn't the 5% we thought last night. Rather, 25%, I hate it when I am right. At this point, it doesn't really matter anymore, there is simply no way around it so I have to pay it. But how? Allink spent the morning trying, but had some technical problems (computers/accounts) so they tried paying over some associates at another company. No luck. So close to lunchtime, we headed over to Marihana Mercante to discuss the this. Mr. Anderson Silva (Allink) spoke to the manager there, and it turns out that payment is only possible from an account at Banco Do Brasil, to their account at Banco Do Brasil. Say what?
Unfortunately, Allink has no account at Banco Do Brasil, as they do not do any business over it or with Marihna Mercante directly. So I accompanied Anderson over to Banco Do Brasil where we spoke to someone who seemed like he knew what he was talking about (he had a suit on!). It turns out that you cannot just show up with cash and have them pay it into the Mahrina Mercante account. As noted above, payment is only accepted from an account at Banco Do Brasil! Ok, so lets create an account for me. Not so fast grasshopper! According to this person, it is not possible for me to have an account as I am not a resident of Brasil! Everyone got that. I have to pay, but I can't!
Great, now we have to find someone who has an account at Banco Do Brasil and try and pay this over them. After some more conversations back and forth, and contacting some more associates we got the contact information for a Customs Broker. So later in the afternoon I head over there with Claudio who by now must be wondering if it simpler to shoot me or himself to get rid of this problem.
The customs broker was very friendly and helpful, and the story will continue tomorrow with them trying to sort this out. As they have more experience with issues of this type, both Claudio and I think that this will be the best solution. It will of course cost a little, but as the only thing they need to help with is getting Marihna Mercante off my back, it shouldn't be too bad.
One thing that really helped was the fact that they had helped a couple of British bikers who came through last year, so they seem to have experience with exactly my type of case. Can't wait to find out how the story turns out, how about you?

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, motorcycle, Santos, Sao Paulo, south america, travel

Not on my X-mas card list: Marinha Mercante

2007-08-08T17:31:00.000-07:00

Ok troopers, another couple of days have come and gone, and it is official. I am not going to put the DMM (Department Marinha Mercante) on my christmas card list. These guys keep coming up with ways to rain on my parade. By the way these guys are the people who collect the taxes and duties on imports (probably exports also).
Yesterday was a pretty successful day. I got my passport translated, and with this document got my Brazilian Tax number, even though there was an error in the translation. Apparently, the expiry date of 2013, translated to 3013 in Portuguese. Go figure.
So today, the wonderful people at Allink went to Marinha Mercante and tried getting my shipment taken care of. No dice. They insist that I have to pay duty on my vehicle.
Hey guys, I am a tourist, just traveling through. How about, it is used for professional purposes? I am not importing anything, everything will be leaving... No dice. Everything was tried. The problem is that they do not have a procedure for handling a case such as mine. Therefore, no amount of argument is going to help. Not to mention that up to now these are the only people who have no interested in even trying to be helpful.
There is a way to get around this duty issue, and that would be by find a Brazilian sponsor, someone who guarantees that I leave the country with my bike. Hey come on guys, even a customs basket case like, Egypt, Syria, or Turkmenistan had no problem with me coming and going, and Brazil is supposed to be a rising star around here.
To be honest I just find the whole thing funny. If I were to come overland, none of these things would be an issue, same action, same result, but a totally different case, so the ladies at Marinha Mercante hide behind their "rules".
Ok, we carry on. At the moment, I am being told that the duty will be 5% of the shipping cost. A figure that is palatable. The problem is that I doubt that will be the end of it. It is too simple, and way, way too low for a duty. Normally these countries levy charges anywhere from 30% to 200% of the value the item in question as import duties. The reason is a protectionist governmental policy. I am not complaining, if it really is only 5%, I will accept it and carry on. I am not happy about it, but I can (have to) accept it. But is that really all??
Not to say I told you so, but I told you so. As soon as I got my tax number, someone wants to load it with debt...
Want some more good news. They don't take cash! It has to be by bank transfer, and I don't even want to know what that will cost or how much trouble that will be for me. So Allink to the rescue again (I hope). If I am lucky, they will take care of the payment, and I will pay them in cash. Tomorrow I will find out if this will work, so stay tuned. This is Brazil, who knows what can happen next. All I am waiting for now, is being told, that since I have imported my bike, I have to get it registered here... Who knows, it could happen!!

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, motorcycle, Santos, Sao Paulo, south america, travel

The Wheels of Burocracy continue to roll, slowly

2007-08-06T12:48:00.000-07:00

[Sao Paulo, Luz Railway station]

Well, a couple of words to the happenings of today, and a few pictures.
First to the CPF number. Together with a thoroughly overworked Claudio (who had to take time off from his busy schedule to help me) we went to the office which issues CPF numbers (Delegacia Da Receita Federal). After a quick explanation it became clear that my case was not a normal case, no surprises there. After a while we got to speak to someone, who after a additional round of explanations and consultation with some colleagues, came back with the following: Yes, I can get the CPF number, and would not have to pay the 5B$ fee. Also, I would get the number immediately, instead of having to waiting 2 days. But, I would have to bring them a translated copy of the passport! So off to the translator, where, surprise, surprise the cost of the copy will be 43B$ and it will take a day and a half!
So that is the story for the moment. The way it looks now, I should be able to get the translation tomorrow afternoon, and then immediately run over to the other office to get the CPF number.
Then, the following day I go to Marinha Mercante department, who is the one who needs the number in the first place; and clear the cargo with them. Once all that is done, then everything goes back to the customs, who should be able to finish my paperwork. The last step then is that a customs officer at the warehouse has a look at the crate and clears it, and I should be able to get on the road again!! Any one want to wager that this will actually work this way? I certainly don't...

[Sao Paulo, Parque da Luz]

Ok, enough of the bike already, but a couple of words on customs and port. This weekend I purchased the magazine Veja (Look in Portuguese). The title (as far as my Portuguese can make out) says, "Anchors which secure our growth", but the context is more likely, "Base" as in "the basis which secure our growth". Guess what, according to the magazine (see a copy of the article below, and practice your Portuguese), Santos, is the most expensive, slowest (only after Ethiopia), least efficient, and most obsolete port practically anywhere! Great, just what I wanted to know. The article on the port is a part of a series of articles on the general infrastructure of Brazil, which apparently is not in very good shape. Roads, ports, trains, airports, apparently are all in very bad shape as far as international comparisons are concerned. The magazine is apparently a very important weekly in Brazil, something like Time or Newsweek, and I bought it to try and learn a little bit of the language. But this wasn't exactly what I had wanted to read.

[Sao Paulo, Veja article about ports]

[Sao Paulo, Bela Vista streetfestival]

Now for something completely different, here are a couple of pictures from an Italien street festival going on down the road from my hotel. Apparently the 81st edition of the festival to Nossa Senora de Achiropita??
The festival consists of a number of food booths around the neighborhood block, and people just come to eat and drink. There is some speakers set up for music, but not a lot, and in a corner a few booths for games for the kids, that is it. Food, food, food.

[Sao Paulo, Bela Vista street festival]

At some of the stalls the locals line up around the block for a taste of the food. In particula the Fogazza stand is always really busy. Fogazza apparently is your basic Italina Foccacia bread with a slight Brazilian twist (they stuff more things in it), I haven't tried it yet, but I will see if I can get some soon, I will let you know how it turns out. What I have tried is the steak sandwich covered with diced tomatoes/onions, which was very good.

[Sao Paulo, Bela Vista street festival]

So everyone cross your fingers, this week could turn out to be my lucky week...

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, motorcycle, Santos, Sao Paulo, south america, travel

Another Week, and still no bike...

2007-08-04T13:43:00.000-07:00

[Santos, Port]

Yes, we are back, but the news is the same. I still haven't gotten the bike, although I have managed to get rid of a whole lot of money. Last weekend actually started great, the boat had left, the bike was now on land, customs had cleared the bike, now the only thing I was waiting for was a notice that I could come and get the bike. Call me an optimist, but I thought we were almost there. Well, as you have gathered by now it was not to be.

The fun started on Sunday afternoon, I received a mail requesting my CPF number in order to be able to continue processing my bike. I answered that I did not have one, and that customs had processed my paperwork without one. (A CPF number is the Brazilian Tax number which everyone has and is needed for practically anything which has anything to do with the government). Anyway after a few mails back and forth it was decided that they (Allink) would try and find a way around this with the officials in questions. Then on Tuesday I got a great mail, where I was told that the "operation with the container" was over. I took it to mean that my bike was ready, great. So I told Claudio I would come early in the following morning (Wednesday).

So bright and early the following morning I was there, and then the first bombshell. First I had to go and get some copies of the "new" bill of lading notarized. Huh? What "new" bill of lading? Well it turns out that the paperwork I had gotten done the two weeks ago was wrong, as it was based on the "wrong" bill of lading. The bill of lading which had been used to process my bike was the one for the shipment from Kolkata to Singapore. The bill of lading for the shipment from Singapore to Santos was never given to me.

[Santos, Port]

Ok, no problem, off to the notary public, and then together with Claudio we went to Customs, and deposited the documents. I was told to come back at 11 the following day. In the afternoon we then went to the "Bracenter Centro Brasileiro de Armazenagem E Distribuição LTDA", where some very nice ladies, after a long and protracted explanation by Claudio, found ways around the bureaucracy to process my paperwork. Thereby allowing me to pay the "Warehouse fees". They ran into the CPF number problem also, but with a little imaginative bookkeeping they made it work, and in the end relieved me of an additional 687.93R$ This is a "minimum charge" for storage and handling of my crate in the warehouse for 15 days. I don't even want to think about what happens if I haven't managed to get the bike out by then..

[Santos, Port]

Ok, the following day, Thursday, 11:00 sharp I was ready for my date with customs to re-do the clearance papers. When, even before getting into the building I met the customs officer Nivio, who told me I required the clearance from Marinha Mercante before we could proceed. Ok, so back to Allink, where Claudio arranged for Anderson to take me to this office and try to get the clearance paper required. So off we went, and of course it is the only office which closes at 11:30 instead of 12:00 for lunch. So back in the afternoon for another try. This time we go in and after a fairly short discussion, which even I figured was a bad sign. The answer was no, I required a CPF number to clear the paperwork with this office. I was still not sure who these guys are!

Anyway, we went back to Customs and informed them of the setback, and we agreed to go ahead and start getting the papers ready the following day (at 11:00 again), and in the meanwhile, Claudio and Allink would try and figure out if there was a way around this issue (again, but different department). It was decided that we would go and see the section chief of this department, and try and explain our case to her.

Friday, 11:00, customs office; I am told to come back in 30 minutes, which I do, and when I return, I then sign 4 pieces of paper, and am asked to return after lunch to do the rounds with the secretary of the additional registration offices as I had done last time with her. After lunch and together with the secretary we fulfill this in short order and then I sit with another customs officer while he fills out the forms I signed before lunch, and gets all the copies in order and sorts everything out. In the end, everything is done but the release from Marinha Mercante, without which customs can't finish.

So I go back to Allink to meet Claudio and Anderson for our appointment with the section chief, but as customs had taken so long, Claudio and Anderson, had gone ahead and had the meeting without me. Unfortunately the result, after much back and forth, was that I am indeed required to get this CPF number before they will clear the cargo. It is now after 17:00 on Friday, so there is not much more to be done. But we agree to meet on Monday and go through the process, which according to them should take 2 days, after which I should have my brand new CPF number.

If you, gentle reader haven't fallen asleep by now, here is some more info. I had actually heard about the CPF number, and was aware that it might be necessary. But I figure that having come this far (the first two weeks) without one, I might just sneak by without it. Another reason that I wasn't anxious to get this number is that, if they have such a number for me they might get it into their heads to actually charge me customs duties on my motorcycle and possessions! Something which is not, and will not be acceptable. So we will see what happens now.

Also, if you think I am loosing my cool or getting impatient, you would be dead wrong. I am having a great time as always. One of the reasons is that I feel that everyone has gone way, way out of their way to try and help me with this issue. With the minor exception of the lady at Marinha Mercante, which took the usual bureaucratic approach to anything unknown, or new, basically deny that it is happening!. But, it's ok, I actually understand, and am not bothered by it, she is just doing her job.

On Friday at customs again, I was force feed from a great buffet; as was the case the previous week, someone had a birthday and they really laid out the goodies. I really get the VIP treament there. People would be standing outside waiting for their turn, and I would be enjoying my food, and drink inside, with everyone wondering who the hell is that guy? They (customers), would never have been invited. Not only that but when I asked where the toilet was, they gave me the key to their facilities, rather than send me downstairs to the public ones.

Also, I have to say that everyone at Allink, have really done a unbelievable job of helping me at the cost of their own work load, which is not a little. Hopefully they won't have had enough of me quite yet, as the bike is still sitting in a warehouse somewhere...

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, motorcycle, Santos, Sao Paulo, south america, travel

Happy in Brazil

2007-07-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

It has come to my attention, that I seem to be "fawning" on Brazil and the Brazilian people. Why, if I seem to like most places and people I have met, is Brazil so "special" Well, to be honest this question has also been on my mind, and lo and behold I have an answer.

First, for the last two years I have had nothing but good impressions of both the people and the places I have been, with the notable exception of Russia (read the RUSSIA JOURNAL. Which to be honest, I am more surprised at, than anything else, as I have a number of friends who have spent a lot more time there than I, who have nothing but great comments on the country its people.)

Back to Brazil. Why is it so special, or why do I perceive it to be so special. For one, it is truly a very special country and its people help make it so. But for a deeper answer it lies in "core values". The moment I set foot in the country, it was clear that we shared something. In actual fact a lot of somethings. Since I left Switzerland, nearly two years ago, things changed. The countries outside of Europe, were a stark contrast from what I am used to. First the Arab countries of North Africa and the middle east, then the ex-soviet block countries of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan. Then to Russia, Mongolia, back to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and China. Further on to Pakistan and the sub continent, India, and Nepal. All countries in which have people and histories radically different than mine.

The fact that nowhere I went could I be mistaken for anything else other than an tourist. The difficulties with the language and the radically different cultures all lead to a sense of alienation as a traveler. People, were universally friendly (with exception of...), and it was really interesting to talk to people and take some small part in their lives. But there was rarely if ever real common ground on which we could talk, laugh, cry or complain. All the topics we discussed were invariably innocuous, weather, roads, the bikes, the trip etc. You get the picture. Somehow you were always a little scared or careful, maybe dare I say considerate, and refrained from discussing (other than in very general terms, what religion are you?), religion, unemployment, woman's rights, economy etc. If it was brought up you tended to simply nod your head and go with the flow. The fact is that in my opinion western solutions and criticism are not really useful here, and the fact that you could only look from the outside in so to speak, created a barrier to getting closer and maybe a better understanding. It simply takes more time than it was possible to spend in the various countries. It was simply not possible to carry on a discussion on topics which you could only speculate about how it really was.

Now, why is Brazil different. First for those of you who have actually read my Bio (all three of you) know that I was born in Panama. So for starters we share a lot of common history. Furthermore, Brazil is an extremely homogeneous country and has a culture that mirrors this. What does that mean, well, I can go anywhere, and not stand out as a sore thumb. Making it possible to very quickly or quietly to take part in actives an not become part of the attraction in the process. The moment I open my mouth the effect is spoiled, but nevertheless it is very refreshing and I truly enjoy the freedom that this provides. Something as simple as being asked for directions on the street, I find extremely enjoyable and satisfying. Never-mind that in the end we got get a big laugh out of the in effect we are both "lost". The end effect is that once they get past the language, we can try and talk about things we both know about, whether it is new world conquest or the "virtues" of a good wave (surfing). This makes getting a deeper understanding of what makes the Brazilians "tick" a lot easier, we both share a lot of core values or at least have a lot more experience with them.

The end effect is that I feel much more at home here than anywhere I have been so far, and I am a little surprised that it makes that much of a difference. So if could just learn a little Portuguese it might make it even more fun to be here, if that is possible.

Has anyone noticed that there suddenly seem to be a lot more blog entries? Enjoy it while you can, once I get my bike, I heading north to some warmer climes, and I doubt that I will have such good connectivity...

Technorati Tags: brazil, travel

Some more pictures

2007-07-30T08:46:00.001-07:00

Cristina Santos of Allink has generously sent me some pictures she had of Santos and Sao Paulo, you can check them out HERE. I really like the old postcards, really cool, and have a look at the pictures of the beach, it is really great. For those of you who know nothing of Sao Paulo, some of the pictures of the city will give you an idea of how huge it really is. Enjoy.

The Waiting continues, but Brazil continues to fascinate

2007-07-30T04:53:00.001-07:00

(Santos)

The few days last mentioned in the previous blog entry have come and gone, and still no bike. I decided to go to Santos on Friday to have a look around (according to the Internet, "my" boat was still unloading, so there was no chance of getting the bike) and spend some more time on the beach. It looked like it was going to be a nice day, so instead of staying in the hotel waiting for a mail that wasn't coming, a road trip seemed like a good idea.

(Santos beach)

Once I got to Santos I went by the office to talk to Claudio and he confirmed that it would take a few more days. In the end "we" agreed that it should be possible to get the bike on Monday and Tuesday, with Tuesday being the more likely candidate. No problem, I have time.

(Santos beach)

As the sun was just coming out it looked like a great day for exploring. So I walked to the beach side of the island and relaxed for a while, and even caught my first glimpse of the famous (infamous) Brazilian string bikini. (sorry no pictures...). Unfortunately as I sat there the weather turned, it didn't rain, but it got windy and cool as the sun disappeared behind clouds and wasn't seen again for the next two days (at least..).

(Church across from the beach)

Nevertheless, I walked around some more and checked out the fish market, and the port area. The port area is not somewhere I would not recommend for a leisurely walk, but I found it interesting. There is a pier for citrus, which is at least 1km long, and the pier to handle sugar, is a complex over 2kms long. It is huge. The most interesting thing was the fishing pier near the aquarium, from here you can watch the boat traffic coming and going, as it all has to pass the narrow straight here. Making it very easy to pass a whole day even if you don't have a fishing pole.

(Fish market, check out the birds on the roof..)

If I haven't mentioned it recently, I like Santos even better than Sao Paulo, and this little walk showed me a lot more, all of which I really enjoyed. The park along the beach is just a wonderful place to spend as much time as you have. If you are not inclined to partake in the all the sports going on, you can enjoy the time, eating, reading or just people watching. Now if we could just get some sun, so more of those bikinis come out of hiding, it would be a real paradise.

In the end I did a 17km walk around Santos before heading home to the hotel, and extending my reservation for another week.

With all this time on my hands, I have managed to do a lot of work on the website, most of it behind the scenes (little new content), but there are nevertheless a few new things. Check out the About page, which I have finally done. After reading it I am kind of wondering if it really has a purpose... Let me know what you think...

Technorati Tags: bmw, brazil, motorcycle, Santos, Sao Paulo, south america, travel

Brazil, the love affair continues.

2007-07-28T16:39:00.000-07:00

Bandeiras Monument, Sao Paulo

Well, I have been here over a week now and my bike should be showing up soon, very soon.
As I have been here so long I thought I would share with you some of my impressions of Brazil, and Sao Paulo.

Skyline at night, Sao Paulo

First, the Paulistas have a serious siege mentality, at least judging by they way they barricade the places where they live and how they act around "suspicious" characters (mainly myself). The largest occupation in Sao Paulo as far as I can tell, must be being a security guard. Followed by security gate/camera maintenance people. Based on what I keep reading everywhere it might be justified, but certainly not by what I have seen or experienced. So maybe it is just preventative? Every house, apartment, building, lot, whatever, has a guard and camera. You have to be buzzed into every building you wish to enter. Including for example the offices of Argentinean Airlines which I had to see about a refund recently. Ok, they were in a business tower, but still. Once inside, they take your personal details before allowing you to enter, so always carry your passport. In some building I got to be so well known that they just let me pass after the first 4 or 5 times I needed to get in (customs building in Santos, or the Allink office complex.. see below for more details).

Municipal Theater, Sao Paulo

The other thing that tipped me off, was every store I entered I was followed by at least one guard, on occasion two. Very, inconspicuous of course! Maybe it is the long hair. But come on guys, it is a supermarket, I just want to get some yogurt... After the first time I noticed it, I started to have fun with it, specially when they tried being inconspicuous about it. Ie. looking at something else in an empty isle with just me and them..(two of them...) So I would go up and ask in spinglish (half spanish half english, no portuguese) where the microwave popcorn is? Well, they worked here right, might as well give them something productive to do!

Ibirapuera park, Sao Paulo

Second, the Paulistas, have a very nice city, with some great subways and some really interesting neighborhoods, beautiful parks, and friendly people (even the security people). What more could you want. I have walked at least 50 kilometers around various parts of town and have have only seen a little bit, this place is huge. I have taken various metros (subways) to random stations or end to end and then walked around the area or back to where I started. The center of town has a lot of pedestrian zones, some nice parks where there always seem to be something going on.

Football (soccer), Sao Paulo

The last couple of weeks in the park down from the Theater there has been shows and amusement park for children, with music and dance. Last weekend I also saw an interesting Arts/Crafts show in the center of town. Or walking around, just stumbled into a weekend farmers market setup by blocking a street at either end. The market area downtown is a huge hustle and bustle with people choking off any traffic on the various streets leading up and away from it.

Street near central market, Sao Paulo

Also, last week I spent two days taking care of the customs clearance paperwork, with the help of the shipping agents, and while at it got a chance to spend some time in Santos. First the customs and shipping. Instead of re-writing here what I have already written check out the second half of this document suffice it say that it was surprisingly "easy".

Centro Portugues, Santos

Now to Santos, it is one of the largest ports in Latin America, but also a very nice town, with great parks and beautiful beaches, and more of those ever present friendly Brazilians. It is just great. In order to get to Santos I walk 500 meters to the metro station, take the green line for two stops, switch to the blue line and go to the end. At the end of the is the bus station for buses to Santos and the coast, there are two companies and they both run busses every 15 minutes. The ride costs 14.50Brl (around 7$), the buses are very nice, the ride is comfortable and quick (and hour). The old part of town has some great buildings and some very impressive architecture as well as plenty of "charm". This being a port town there are plenty of prostitutes, in this area, and in the park in front of the cathedral!, but it is quite charming nevertheless.

Cathedral, Santos

On the other side there are some great beaches and a beautiful beach front park which stretches for kilometers. They also have this great tram, which must have come straight from Lisbon, 50 years ago!

Tram, Santos

Again, plenty of things going on. During a lunch break from my customs adventure, I caught a cultural show, consisting of some samba dancers, alternating between samba rhythms and traditional? dance. Afterwards there was a demonstration of Capoeira (a type ritualized fighting) accompanied by singing and music performed on what can only be described as a archery bow, and accompanied by a tamborine and a large drum. The acrobatics involved was amazing, not to mention the speed and agility required.

Capoeira demonstration, Santos

The bike is still not here, but I am waiting patiently for news of its arrival. I can track the comings and goings of the ships in port, and have seen that my boat was two days late docking, and as I write this is being unloaded. So I assume that tomorrow or the following day I should be able to get my bike.

More soon...

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