we got out of town yesterday after stopping at a pizza place and consuming a pizza. We were going to stop at a big mall and have a good meal but after zooming around under this big parking mall, with Jim’s loud exhaust making all the cars with motion sensors start screaming like hell, we finally got out on the main street and after a few illegal turns and jumping a few parking barriers, we made it to a cheap pizza place. We ended up getting two for the price of one and took the other one on up the hill to give to the kid who I talked with last night and let us stay outside the gate. As it happened, there was a large group of people there and when his boss found out that we intended to stay another night outside the gate, he told the kid to have us go on up the road a ways and camp there. we did that but not before I gave him the pizza and a liter of coke to go with it. he said he was not going to get in trouble for letting us stay there. a really nice kid he is and I hope he enjoys the pizza.
We went up the road about three more clicks and found a nice place to camp. When it got dark I noticed that Orion was upside down!! The seven sisters, the Pleiades was upside down too. Hell, we couldn’t find the North Star and having never seen the Southern Cross were unsure of what that looked like. Humm, will have to find someone down here who knows what is up there.
The ride off the mountain and out of the canyon was wonderful in the early morning and we got to town early and got out and down the freeway, well pay-way in good time. We made good time all the way south and finally called it quits in a little town called Collculli. We couldn’t find a hotel in the little town so had to go out to the highway and get a motel room. There was a restaurant next door and went over there and had some supper. We had the special, which turned out to be some sort of corn mush with chicken in it. it was really good and we had some bread type biscuits to go with it.
The highway was very good and fast. Most of the way was marked 120 kph which is about 70 mph. The big yellow bike turns 4750 rpm at that speed and likes it. Jim said his klr was running about 5200 I think. He had his oil changed at the bike shop and he got some special oil that they were selling that claimed to make your engine make music. The oil is called Motorex. It is an SJ oil and comes from Switzerland, I think.
The ride south of Santiago was mostly like driving down the Sacramento Valley in California. This is farming country and a lot of fruit is grown here. I saw a lot of grapes and fruit trees as well as a lot of corn grown. There were huge fruit packing plants along the highway like Dole. I really don’t like these huge farm growing areas as I think of all the chemicals that are in constant use. There was a layer of smog that followed us south as well since we are in a big long valley. One interesting thing I saw along the way was some of the corn grown had this weird tops on them. The tops or tassels on this cornfield were long and bushy. It was only a few miles down the road when I saw along the highway several folks selling brooms. They were nice new corn brooms and I finally put it together that that was broom corn that was being grown. I had never seen it grown before but had looked at the catalog offerings of broomcorn seed.
One other thing that I noticed was the advertising billboards along the road almost without exception featured blond very white people in them. Even the women that had black or brown hair were just as white as refrigerators. As I drive along, I look at the people in bus stops, driving cars and trucks, and just in the towns and they are all brown skin and black hair.
1-28-06
We really hauled ass down south on that expressway. Most of the time we were going the 120 kph. The agriculture changed along the way. The further south we got, there were more and more tree plantations that must be planted for wood production. This was mostly hilly country and there were several types of trees planted. Most I think were pine type and a lot of eucalyptus with some deciduous types that looked like poplar. Every now and then we would come back into an area where they grew fruit of some kind. Grapes and other berries as well as maybe peach and apple trees were along the road. Way south the country opened up and there was a lot of grain being grown. It was a heave crop that they were growing and I saw a lot of it that had lodged and was laying down in the field, what a mess that is…..
At Osorano we headed east and toward the mountins and we stopped at a rather fancy restaurant because we were very hungry and we didn’t know if there was anything else for fifty miles or so. We gorged ourselves, I had salmon and Jim had Cordon Blue or however you spell that as well as cheese cake for a treat. Wow, we were stuffed and our wallets were much thinner after.
We made it to the border a little after noon and we both were pleasantly surprised at how easy and stress free the border crossing was.
Parque National Park X
It is a Natonal Park both sides of the border and it reminded me of Yellowstone, Glacier, Teton and all those other national parks that I have been too. There was something different but I couldn’t put my finger on it for a while, but finally figured it out that there were no signs telling you NO you cant do that, and look over here, it is beautiful. You had to pay attention and just enjoy the scenery. There were very few people as well and the road was wide and plenty of places to pull off and park if you wanted. You don’t have to park in a designated parking area.
Mountain Dog X
Lake Dog X
We made good time and made it to Gubernador Costa which is near Jose de San Martin for the evening. There is a restaurant as part of the hotel and we had a steak supper tonight. It was great…..it is the first steak I have had in I cant remember when, well maybe it was at Charlie and Jeanne’s. nothing is as good as Jeanne can cook, but it wasn’t bad for Argentina. It will be good to check out the steaks in Argentina as they have the reputation for being the best.
Ruta 40
I gotta make this short again as I want to get down to the internet place and get this sent before they close.
ok here are a few photos i will cram in herer at the end. we are stopped in a little town and fouind this internet place, could be a library or something.
rex food
parque
open sky
karl from Austria on his KLE.
flowers for my friends
citron CV2?? i have not seen one in over 40 years.
