Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA
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Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA |
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April 11 - Tilcara, Argentina 224 Miles, Salta to Tilcara |
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A thousand miles of gravel road with deep sand pits? Well it sure seemed like it! This was our toughest day yet. We started out on a paved road for a short way, and then rode the first section of gravel road - not bad - had some water streams to ride through, but minor. Then with excellent pavement, we raced up to a pass in the Andes that was 13,000 ft. in elevation - cold and windy at the top, but very scenic in the mountains getting there.
We had lunch at a copper mining town near the top of the mountains, and enjoyed that - empanadas, a local recipe vegetable soup, and flan. That's when we started the "thousand mile sand pits". I guess this deep sand only lasted maybe 30 miles, but it was very hard to stay up on the motorcycle. A few of our riders went down in the sand, including one seasoned rider and another who had four crashes in the sand pits. I had gained enough teaching and experience that I made it with some close calls, but without crashing. Along the way we saw herds of Llamas, and I guess some Guanacos mixed in. they are both really cute, especially the little ones. Apparently this herd had an owner, because each of them had a little red ribbon affixed somehow. Here's Henry herding them with his motorcycle, so I could get a better picture.
After we "conquered" (?) the sand pits, we found a very good paved road which took us up to another 13,000 ft. pass.
After riding down the very steep switch-backs, we stopped at a very nice little village, had coffee, and wandered around. All in all, not a bad day (except for those who crashed) - they were OK, and their bikes sustained little damage. Tomorrow it's off to the border of Argentina and Bolivia.
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