For the past several months I have been finding a minute here and there to plan and set in place my upcoming trip from Sandiago Chile to Ushuaia Argentina by motorcycle.
As the date looms this planning time is quickly ramping up as we begin to lay out the gear that is coming along and figure out the gear that needs to be added to the pile.
The plan is we fly to Santiago in mid-January 2014 and several days later pick up rental motorbikes (KLRs) from http://www.ride-chile.com/ and then we will have 22 days to ride. We in this case is with my son Alex who was planning to ride the whole way from Edmonton to Ushuaia. I had been invited to join on the final leg that would end up as far south as you can ride in South America; on established roads anyway. His plans changed last autumn but the final leg was preserved in a slighly revised form.
The company we are renting from will help us set the detailed itinerary once we arrive but essentially we expect to ride about 1000 km straight south in Chile and then cross eastward into Argentina for the remainder of the trip south. Google maps does not believe this is possible and responds with "Impossible de calculer l'itinéraire entre Santiago du Chili, Région métropolitaine de Santiago, Chili et Ushuaïa, Argentine." However I have it on pretty good authority it can be done and in fact there are numerous routes on both sides of the mountains. The challenge may be choosing only one.
But for now the challenge remains to bring just enough stuff, but not too much. More to come.
b
