September 27 - Villazon, Bolivia - a beautiful ride north, amazing vistas - and then there was la frontera...

We left the church in the central plaza of Salta this morning and drove an old single lane route north for 90 minutes before picking up the highway.
We stopped in several places I was immune to on my trip south - this really is gods country up here.
In a bit over four hours we went from 2,000 feet to almost 12,000 feet altitude. Our destination was to be a few hundred km into Bolivia except the Argentinos ran into a bureaucratic nightmare at the customs office - I cleared both aduanas an migraciones in 20 minutes - and then waited 90 minutes for my companions. Its a mystery...
The Bolivian immigration officer tried to change me the reciprocity fee of $135 until I proved I had a 5 year visa - no fees.
As I was waiting for the guys a taxi backed into my bike - bent my luggage rack - we yanked it off and bent it back but the tubing is cracked so we will try for a shop with a welder in the morning.
We found a really nice point3 star hotel and wandered down to the bus station for warm beer and pseudo-pizza for dinner - mm mm yummy!
Nick
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The Journey has Begun

The trio at the start of a good day!
Nick
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September 26, Somewhere circa Salta

Walter and I tweaked his moto for about an hour this morning and then loaded the bikes with our traveling config to give them a workout and practice on the new tires. We set the GPS for a really twisty road north of the city in the mountains and headed out.
The city streets became rural roads, became rutted roads, became a well maintained dirt road, and ended as a kind-of fire road (aka bolivian highway).
We decided on a route even less traveled when we saw a narrow gauge train track - it was an immediate unanimous decision - we followed that for a few km. until we hit a tressel with planks spaced too far apart to allow our tires to pass. We headed back and found a river quarry access road and took that a few km to the end of the line - see photo.
Heading back into town after about 50 km of dirt and rocks we stopped in some wide spot in the road for some (truly) home cookin'.
After getting the dirt scraped off we headed out to the airport to pick up Gustavo - we are now a trio. Over dinner we'll finalize plans for the next stage into Bolivia.

Nick
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September 25, Arrived Salta.

Rolled into Salta at the same time Walter landed - he staged his bike here last week. I sent a message ahead that my bike was behaving badly (strong vibration) under load so he called a friend with a garage and I tore it down while he had the tires I brought down mounted. I'm going to give the shop a benifit-of-doubt waiver and guess that they just forgot to put in new spark plugs... Given that I found something - I checked everything - we got it all put back together as the sun was setting - didn't have anything planned for the afternoon anyway - c'est la vie.
I will take it into the hills tomorrow morning and push it hard and then its a half day off while we wait for Gustavo to arrive.
Walter ask me to explain that he looks like GeorgeBush because he has some disease - but that he's really happy inside.

Nick
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September 24, San Miguel de Tucuman - just a driving day.

I drove 714 uneventful kilometers north - arrived Tucuman about 30 minutes after dark. They're having some kind of celebration in al centro and the city center is cordoned off with police at every intersection so I pulled into a nice hotel a few blocks off the central plaza. I'll grab a shower and then wander in to see the sure-to-be-amazing sights.
I'm pretty spanked so I exercised the David Goldburg hotel rule - tip the bellman immediately & well and he'll take care of you - it worked. Within 5 minutes of delivering me to my room I had a couple mini bottles of fernet (an acquired taste, no doubt), some coke , a bucket of ice and an adapter for my phone charger. Not bad for 10 bongos.
My GPS saved my GeorgeBush today - I was over-optimistic and thought I might make it all the way to Salta when the sun started to disappear - I pushed a few buttons and it found 26 km of dirt road (hence the boring foto) that cut through nowhere allowing me to grab a back-roads-route into Tucuman - when you've got good maps and know how to use it (gps), its fantastic - neither was true when I came south 18 months ago. FYI, I ride with a Garmin Zumo 550 that's been attached to the bars for every mile I've had the bike - its seen more nasty roads, vibrations and freezing rain than any electronic thing should reasonably be expected to survive and has proven to be indestructible - so far...
Tomorrow I drive the last 304 km to Salta - Walter is on an 11 AM flight out of BsAs so the timing should be perfect.
Nick
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September 23, 2009, Rafaela (Sante Fe), Argentina - The start of another journey in South America!

I left Buenos Aires this morning heading north for the far reaches of Argentina. In Salta I will meet a couple of friends and we will continue north through Bolivia; this time I hope to see a few things - last time, on my way south, it hurt me pretty badly and I had to scamper home to recover. After Bolivia we head further north into Peru: destination Machu Picchu.
While I was in California my riding companion Walter took Mr. Moto to the Suzuki dealer where they did a complete service, tune up, changed all fluids, installed a new chain, and welded a crack in the crash bars. They also detailed it like I've never seen. Just before leaving Buenos Aires I installed a new battery, tires, and Ventura light guard - I also checked tight every bolt I could touch (I'm sure the dealership did the same - couldn't find any).
After 27,621 miles its still running strong - I think I bought the absolute best bike in the V-Strom 650 for these journeys!
I'm looking forward to a great trip and hope you will feel free to drop me a message, suggestion or comment.
Nick
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