Crossed the Andes (1st time)

  USPALLATA, Mendoza, Argentina
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

We left Santiago this morning. Much to my surprise everything Karyn brought in the 3 suitcases fitted into the bike. Her leather vest and extra top which I said would need to be left behind, she was wearing. Her comment, if she wears it, it should not count as luggage. I can not be sure, but I expect she was also wearing 3 pairs of panties.

I know the bike is loaded heavily, based on how it handles and what the baggage weighed at the Airport. I am not sure just how overweight we are, because I am not sure what Karyn weighs. I do know that she would probably have to weigh about 40 pounds to bring the total weight within spec for the bike.

15 minutes after leaving the hotel we took the wrong exit on the freeway and got completely lost in some sort of residential area in Santiago. We were unable to find our way back onto the freeway, and not even sure what freeway we were to get on. The good news is we came across a motorcycle police officer who offered to lead us out of town after finally giving up trying to explain to Karyn in Spanish what freeways and what exits to take. Felt pretty important following the police on the big BMW winding through the traffic. Would have been nice if he turned on his flashing lights and sirens, but I guess they save that for Presidents. Anyhow, in 15 minutes we were on the expressway heading North. I can not help but wonder, if that same Police Officer in North America, would have been more concerned with the illegal U-turn I made on my approach to him, than on helping me find my way out of town.

The ride across the Andes from Chile to Argentina was spectacular. There is one climb where the road zig-zags steeply through a series of 29 hairpin curves. The mountain roads have many tunnels the longest of which is the Redentor Tunnel which is 4 KM long.
Immigration and importation out of Chile and into Argentina took less than a hour. A real treat, very efficient, compared to our experiences in Central America.

Picture taken at the Chile - Argentina Border Crossing high in the Andes. This was Leonard and Karyn Dolezsar's first of several crossings over the Andes.
 



We arrived in Uspallata, Argentina mid afternoon, and soon found out everything we read about Argentina being very inexpensive was certainly true. We found our $25.00 Hotel and could not believe how nice it was. Now I am starting to wonder if a $15.00 room would we acceptable to Karyn. And food is also very cheap. The best steak on the Menu was the equivalent of $5.00 America. The other thing we read was that people eat supper very late, and we found this also to be true. In fact, the restaurants close mid afternoon and do not open until 8 PM. The restaurant we chose to go to did not open until 8:30 PM. We waited until 8:40 PM, so as not to look like tourist. Did not work, we were finished dinner before anyone else arrived. Do not know how I am going to handle supper time being the same as my bedtime.

Stores also typically close around 1 PM and then reopen around 5 PM to 9 PM

Based on this one day, we are falling in llove with Argentina, and the people!