Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA
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Deane's Motorcycle Trip In SOUTH AMERICA |
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April 8 - Santa Maria, Argentina 270 Miles, Chilecito to Ruinas del Quilmes |
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Yah Hoo!! - I rode over 100 miles of gravel roads and rode through 7-8 small rivers and one LARGE one! Quite a ride today, first through mostly desert and small Argentine towns. The little towns were interesting, but relatively poor. Then at the last town the pavement ran out. That's where the tough riding started. Thanks to my good friend Dennis Elliott, having taught me much about dirt, gravel, and sand riding, I was able to move right along, and did NOT crash anywhere. Then came the fun part. Numerous small "rivers" crossed the path of the gravel road, and one had to ride through each one. These "rivers" were like many in the Southwest US, being dry most of the time, and then having a lot of run off from intense mountain storms. The first one was about 10 yards wide by one foot deep in the middle, and sand on either side.. Made that one! In magazines or on TV, if you have ever seen motorcyclists riding through impossible streams, that was what these were. In several cases, the river had already emptied its runoff from last night's or a couple of night's ago storm, but left puddles as large as a pond. Still they had to ridden through, and that was no mean feat. The water in these various streams or ponds were from ankle deep to nearly knee deep!! Then came the "BIG" river. It was flowing fast, was maybe 100 yards wide, and more than mid-calf deep. That was the Yah Hoo!! one. I made it, getting soaked only up to above my knees - I have high top riding boots and riding pants must for such occasions. Sorry I didn't get a photo of that to show here, but there will be plenty more times to capture water crossings. After those hard parts, we reached the high planes called the "Altiplano". This is a plain at about 7,500 ft. elevation, between two mountain ranges.
There we saw what in the US we call "Pampas Grass" - big clumps of 4-6 feet high and 4 ft. in diameter. Also, most interestingly, our tour guide / photographer, Henry, had us stop on impulse, at the small home of some "Gauchos". These are a hardy group of people, with only their horses, mules and donkeys to try to raise cattle on these high, wind-swept plains.
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