The Long Way Down, Up and Around: May 14

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So today was big day... drove a good 10 hours all the way to Argentina. Even though there´s still over 1,000 miles to Santiago, it feels like I´ve done the equivalent of summited and the rest of the trip is a descent to base camp. Bolivia really was the most challenging bit, and once I´m in Chile I´ll practically feel like I´m back home. No risk of getting stuck somewhere for weeks waiting for parts - at that point its just a truck ride back to Santiago!

I actually didn´t expect to make it to Argentina today, but about half of the unpaved roads turned out to be paved roads and the going was good. The road from Potosi starts out high and bitter cold. There was frost in the air and it might have been below freezing. You descend a bit on a good paved road and then it turns to dirt about 90km out.

The road is under construction, and sometimes it is great new concrete or asphalt, sometimes solid groomed dirt, and sometimes nasty riverbed type of stuff with creek crossing and big rocks sticking out of the dirt. But anything that´s passable for a public bus is easy game for a 650... you just have to take it slow sometimes. I actually drove along a river bed so long that I thought I had gotten lost and asked a passing truck to make sure. Yup - it was just a long long detour while they were paving the real road. I wish I could shake that feeling of anxiety, of not really being sure you´re on the right track - but when you´re on dirt in Bolivia it´s hard to know. Mental note - a GPS with good tracks is crucial for this part of the world. I mistakenly assumed road signs would be adequate.

The only town of any real size between Potosi and Argentina on this route is Tupiza, which is a wild-west kind of town with limited services, one gas station and dirt roads in a river valley. It´s beautiful countryside but there´s not a ton to do... I decided to push on to Argentina, about 100km further down the road.

I made it around 4 - not bad! And the Bolivian exit was a piece of cake.

Getting into Argentina was another story - I don´t think any of the dozen customs people on duty had ever dealt with a rented Chilean motor bike driven by an American and they made a big fuss about it. Copies of this and that, talk to my boss, etc. etc., and then finally a phone call to some supervisor cleared it up. I have to say, on the 2x2 of competence and arrogance Argentina gets the bad corner. Bolivia and Peru weren´t too quick either, but they were very very nice. Chile is nice and efficient (and very thorough... which means there are usually lines). But this wasn´t the first time that a bunch of Argentinian border guards puffed out their chest and were rude and ridiculous when they had no idea what they were doing. Sigh. World famous Argentinian bureaucracy and machismo meet at the border.

At this point in the trip I was so used to the Bolivian countryside that Argentina seemed rich by comparison! Town squares with a cafe or two... a nice restaurant in a hotel on the edge of the map. It is crazy how quickly your brain gets used to one thing. Coming back to the US is going to be interesting.

And from here the plan is to make it to Chile tomorrow - it´ll be one of the longest days of the trip (almost 700km), but it´s all beautiful road at altitude, so it should be a breeze.