Santa Barbara to Buenos Aires, and then some...

We're heading home.  We've promised to return. We learned a lot about future destinations - NOT during the rainy (as in every day) season.

There is a large thunder storm over the region we were to ride today.  Not going to ride a dirt twisty in the rain so we've booked an earlier flight and are out of here.  Mire photos to follow. 

Back in Salta. We needed some work on the motos and we're staging for the hardest section of Ruta 40 tomorrow.  Steep downhills and twisties.  

We had been surrounded by storms for the past days.  Weather was great today, as we've ridden to a remote little community called Iruya which is in the far north of Argentina close to the Bolivian border.  The pueblo is 50 km (30 miles) off the highway reached buy a single track dirt road - we forged a small river and a couple streams to get here. Its famous among Argentinos, partially because its a beautiful little pueblo and soo soo remote and difficult to get to.  We're stayi g at the nicest place in town on a weekend at the peak of tourist season and there are 6 guests. Recomended!

German has taken some amazing photos. See his pics and a new video: @gplessen on Instagram 

An uneventful ride of 100 km through the altiplano and around a Salar (saltflat). It had rained the day before and we had to cross several streams and one river - the river was a challenge as the muddy water was rushing and had dormed bars of mud and sand.   After 100 km we hit pavement for the first time and headed towards the beautiful little pueblo of Puramarca where we treated ourselves in an amazing botique hotel.  

We pushed the bikes up that bank before the 4x4 failed.   End of a long day

Germán meets mud Left Tolar Grande , elevation 3445 meters (11,307 ft) expecting a few challenges - an understatement.   We rode 196 km (121 miles) in 7.5 hours IN THE MUD to San Antonio de los Cobres , 3,775 meters or 12,385 ft. The road was closed for washouts and deep mud - but we are macho...  The weather service promised clear skies - they lied, we were chased by a storm and high winds all day.   We finally crested the Andies at 4,700 meters (15,519 feet) IN THE MUD.   At one washouts we had an option - turn around or push the motos through a rushing stream and up a steep bank. We chose option 2.   A 4x4 followed us and couldn't make it.   Did I mention the last portion of the route is populated by convoys of monster semis servicing the lithium miners - we probably had to pull over or maneuver around 50 monster truck-trailer rigs (in the mud). I'm  attaching a foto of German after the only fall of the day.  We ...

We're two hours late leaving Tolar Grande - all the routes in and out of the pueblo are dirt and storms have left them washed out.  We're giong to push our luck and see if they'll let moto through...

Started the day at 6 AM with a 75 km excursionto Campo Piedras Pomez.   At 10 am we Rode El Piñon to Antofagasta de la Sierra on pavement (where we topped off fuel, none available for the next 6 hours) then rode gravel and dirt to Antofalla. There we  departed civilization for a two-track trail for 155 km.  We crossed two peaks hitting 4817 meters (15,655 ft.) elevation. We crossed two salt flats Salar Antofalla and then  the Salar Arizaro. Ending the trip at Tolar Geande.  Total ride 286 km in 7 hours 4 minutes.

An early morning excursion.

Nick Neuburger shared an item Nick Neuburger ( nick.neuburger@gmail.com ) has shared the following item: Fiest view of salar and Tolar Grande VID-20260122-salar.mp4 This email grants access to this item without logging in. Only forward it to people you trust. Open Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA You have received this email because nick.neuburger@gmail.com shared a file or folder located in Google Drive with you.

Nick Neuburger shared a video. On the road near El Piñon VID-20260121-el-piñon.mp4 This email grants access to this item without logging in. Only forward it to people you trust. Open Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA You have received this email because nick.neuburger@gmail.com shared a file or folder located in Google Drive with you.

Germán Plessen

Rode 270 km passing elevation 13,500 ft to El Piñon. Adter lunch of llama steak we tried to ride to circumfrence of a volcano but a nasty storm blew in so we've booked a 4X4 excursion for 6AM tomorrow. Today was surface of the moon; tomorrow will be surface if Mars- we're planning all dirt roads crossing a huge salt flat ending in Tolar Grande. Fotos follow in next post. 

The route we're planning.

Flew Buenos Aires to Salta where Germán and I picked up a couple baby Yamaha XR300's. These are great motos for high elevation mountain roads; we rode them in Columbia last year.  We headed south through wine county to Cafayate where we found a great bodega for lunch.   A couple hours later we pressed on to Santa Maria in Catamarca province.   A good day!