Wednesday, March 16, 2011

..getting to an end..

..so that´s it.. two more days of riding and then chilling out for a little while in Cochabamba and hopefully having a job waiting back home.. we will see.. :)

so after 1 1/2 year, I met my friend Renzo along the way!! :D that was really cool!!! took forever until he catched me up, but hey.. I got a headstart of almost a year ;)
there were local elections in town and everybody was partying.. gave us a nice background to have some beers ;) ..funny, they get money to vote.. and it´s not even called corruption ;)
we also exchanged bikes for a ride and since then I enjoy my BMW even more ;) the KTM is probably better Off-Road, but makes a lot of noise and vibration and compared to it, I got a real couch under my ass ;) couldn´t be more comfy! and having put a sheep skin on top of it, I could ride forever, would not my back stress me from time to time :( ..got a bit better, but never really healed.. and it´s two weeks ago, I guess since that started.. ahh.. whatever, being a badass traveler and biker, I can live with that little flaw ;)
..with some 97 octane gasoline and probably the height or RPM I´m riding, the consumption of my bike turned out 3lt/100km.. can you believe that!?!? then even at 4000m.a.s.l. it runs fine with it´s fuel injection. Met a guy today on a BMW 1200 and he told me, the 800 GS was also giving some issues (as his 1200) and that the 650 GS would be the perfect bike for the trip.. I actually believe him! :) the 800 is very young, so might still have some issues, but the 650 is well proven.. so I`m more convinced than ever :) has about the same power and speed as the KTM (not surprising, they´re both 650 ;) but was really worth to feel another bike as well!

So I drove out of Mendoza and along the Route 40.. after 54 000km, it was my final exam and I mastered it flawlessly! :D I took rivers as they wouldn´t be there, had lot´s of technical driving, along steep slopes, lot´s of dirtroads.. sandy parts that made me slide from one side to another and I had some close calls (and some super-duper-close-calls ;) but I just got that bike on it´s wheels and I couldn´t even say how I did it.. must be mussle memory! :D ..I feel, I know more than 10 years riding bikes in Switzerland :)
The road is really beautiful.. crossed some people on bikes, and even push-bikes (must be a lot of shaking on these roads ;) even for me it was pretty bumpy, but the bike and I made it! :D even hit a deeper bump and almost threw me off (it actually did in Alaska, in my first weeks ;) but this time, I stayed on it ;)
..then I got rewarded by quite some fauna along the way.. even an armadillo was running across the road in front of me :) hundreds of Llamas (eat one of it with some patatoes.. tasted good, almost as cow ;) --> sorry, had to try how they taste.. I know, they look super cute!
there are also wild donkeys and horses .. dropped down through a sea of clouds (that was pretty freezing ;) and this morning, where it was very clouded where I was.. I just rode up the mountain and got blue sky until Bolivia :) ..here it´s not too bad, but got cloudy and some rain drops. Still.. the rainy season is supposed to be over. I hope for 2 nice days at least to reach shelter in CBBA.
..yes.. can´t complain.. have been blessed by many, many hours of sunshine and nice temperatures (well.. got colder further north, but still.. nothing to what I experienced along this trip ;) hehehe ;)
then I had to clean out one of my boxes, because a bottle of wine broke :( ..was not the 2 USD of the wine, but the work to clean it and .. oh boy.. the home made peach jam I got gifted broke as well :´( this really *sniff* ..I wanted to tell at the boarder about the wine, but they didn´t ask and I forgot.. so I assume, it´s no big deal to bring some wine from Argentina :)
Yesterday was a pretty long day, because after seeing some train-bridge and looking for hotsprings (they were so small, you couldn´t take a bath ;) there was no hostal where I thought to find one and it took me over an hour more to find a place to stay.. and was getting dark and cold :/ and I have to admit, my eyesense sucks at night :P so I was happy to have found a place and eating some Llama and veggie-soup ;) to lower my stress-level.
the place, don´t even know how it´s called, is very, very, very touristy, but I was happy to have a bed (even without sheets ;) but also no bedbugs ;)
tonight I´m the big spender and stay in the biggest hotel in Tupiza.. it´s 20 USD and I gladly pay the price, because you don´t get so much in Argentina.. in fact, I payed more many times having less.
also had great food here and all in all was 2.50 USD and even cheaper than CBBA.. also lot´s of tourists here.. another printed-in-bold-place of the lonely planet. Well.. can´t blame them.. it´s beautiful around here!! just don´t have time or energy to talk a lot to these folks ;)
..hmm.. had quite some riding days lately and made also some pictures.. will upload them in CBBA, once I have more time to do it..
my tyres are completely down, but I´m pretty sure that I´ll make it to CBBA.. would have been way easier and more relaxed driving on the Route 40 with off-road tyres ;) hehe ;) but with improved bike-handling skill, I can still ride it that way..
there is anyway some things that have to be done, so I´ll find a lower price to sell it.. ..that´s also an open point.. have to see, what happens if you sell it and leave the country and for how long you can´t go back.. :/ or let´s see.. there will be a solution (and praying to the gods that my job may come through!! :D
what more.. hmm.. sorry.. that was all crazy random the way I listed the events. Was quite a while for not writing stuff down and keeping it all in my mind ;) but had lot´s of hours of epic riding! I guess that was what the last days were about.. just hit it and enjoy the ride!! :D haha! ;D

..I had a lot of thoughts along this trip.. about me, about life and the universe.. I can say, I came quite to some ideas about it! ;) ..once you realized that there is no objective reality, that it all depends on the observer (you) and that you activly create your reality, then better start to create it in a beneficial way! :D (beneficial for all of us)

okay.. cu all soon! (let´s see what Switzerland holds for me! :D

1 comment:

  1. Hy Markus,

    Yea it was fun to meet you, the longest persuit of my life came to an end :-) (so KTM is faster)
    Also my trip comes to its end... (Valparaiso at the moment) in a month i will enter the plane in BA. This trip is a milestone in my life, and you where inpiring my to do it. Thank you...

    See you in Switzerland,

    PS: Hope you dint loose your Backwheel on the road...
    PSS: Didnt realize that the Ruta 40 was bumpy, probly because of the better suspension :-)

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