Final Post

The trip officially ended on November 1st. Brooke flew down to Ecuador to meet me in October at which point I completely abandoned all blog related activities. We travel together on the bike for a few weeks and then visited the Galapagos Islands and the Amazon Basin before heading back to the USA.

I'll post a few photo's as a finale and hope that I can meet you in person and show you a "small" photo album of the entire trip. Only the best photo's will make the cut I promise.

There were no major personal discoveries or life altering moments during this trip, just the reinforcing of some preexisting beliefs. The importance of friends, family, relationships, love and kindness can not be overstated. They are the core of what brings me joy, and the experience that adds color to my life.

Caspar.

Enter Bolivia

San Pedro de Atacama to Iquique

If you ever want to simulate driving on Mars I recommend the road from the mountains of San Pedro to the Oceans of Iquique. 

Purmamarca to San Pedro de Atacama

The road leaves from Puramarca and climbs over a mountain at 4,200 meters, 12,600 feet. The Bike loses power at this altitude. The road drops down into a salt flat before climbing back to a higher altitude and continued beauty. I tried to stop and have lunch but gale force winds made it difficult to eat anything. I also was afraid to leave my motocycle parked on its kickstand because it came close to blowing over several times. No exageration.  

I was surprised to find an Argintine boarder crossing near the Jama pass. The post was at 4,200 meters, the pass at 4,400. I had problems with the customs agents over a lack of paperwork for my motorcycle. It was my fault that the customs agents at the Brasil boarder let me in without the required paperwork. Even though they knew the motorcycle was mine and was leaving the country, the lack of paperwork made it illegal. I had to wait in the customs office for about 2 hours with no explination of why I was waiting. At one point of my wait I was taken into a private office and shown a pair of handcuffs that "Oscar" said I should be wearing. Oscar was the head customs agent, a tall, fat, bearded mad that reminded me of Bluto from Popeye cartoons. He was also a grouch. Fitting name no? After I signed several documents I was allowed to cross into Chile. I was so happy to be released that I charged out of the office with my passport and motorcycle title still in hand, which I then dropped. The gale force wind grabbed ahold of the motorcycle title and blew it away. In one second it was gone. Forever. My passport was heavy enough that it stayed put. 

I was pretty upset about losing the title to the bike but was more worried about the fact that the sun was setting, I still had a 13,200 foot pass to cross, and about 2 hours of driving before I made the next town. I froze my ass off all the way to San Pedro de Atacama and was too worried about time to stop and take photos of the green and red salt lakes, the frozen rivers, and scale like ice formations that the wind created by freezing water at 45 degree angles to the ground, layered like fish scales.

Salta and Puramarca

Salta is an old colonial town in Northwest Argentina. A small climb into the foothills makes for warm days and cold nights. The plaza in Salta is immaculate, although no photos are shown here. There are some good photos of cheese vendors and the butcher with cuts we don't usually see in the US. Photo of tamales, goat with potato and cheese, and two young Peruvian guys who are on a motorcycle adventure down to Patagonia.

 From Salta its a several hour drive to Puramarca, a small town mostly constructed of mud bricks and inhabited by a more indigenous population. It's at about 7,500 feet in elevation and is famous for the multi-coloration of the hillsides.

Photos: Ancient girl sacrificed to the gods. Her frozen remains were discovered in a tomb on top of a 22,000 ft high volcano. One of the many golden dolls buried with her. Hillsides around Puramarca.

Iguazu through the Argentine Chaco

3 days from East to West and from Jungle to Dry scrubland.

The Waterfalls

The falls are located at the intersection of Brazil's, Argentina's, and Paraguay's borders. The water is the convergence of 30 upstream rives who's flow is between 1,750 and 12,750 cubic meters per second depending on the rainfall. There are significant hydroelectric power-plants nearby.