Motorcycles

[motojobobo]

Hey @Aetas ! Thoroughly enjoying these valles! When were you here?

Curvy mountain roads…perfect motorcycle enviro.

Exclusively 1st and 2nd gear ONLY on this 140 km super curvy gravel road through Aconquija national park.

Amazes me how this bromeliad manages to look so healthy and beautiful in such a dry, dusty, windy unforgiving environment.

A tasty and hearty ‘locro argentino’ stew at day’s end erases and compensates for any inconveniences endured at altitude. I guess the wine also helps.

Hot springs anybody??

Never before saw cactus growing as an epiphyte on a tree…. Had to take a pic.

I can’t avoid using these rocky monochrome backgrounds for my bike.

Beautiful late afternoon warm light in a typical Andean setting.

Turquoise colored lake with a bit of snow still around it in early spring. 4600 meters, 6 deg C, very windy. Tough ride there and back…Pissis lake.

One buddy destroyed his front tire that day…was quite a nightmare but eventually we managed to get him back safely.

[jimcasey]

@Matt nice one. In 15 years we'll all be on electric (if the planet hasn't fallen into some dystopian horror show).

[jimcasey]

@motojobobo excellent pics man. Looks like an amazing ride.

[steelworker]

@Matt thats perfect for Baltimore ! You can evade the light & stop sign runners

[Choko]

All my Harley bros, check out whites boots Instagram story. These collab boots look perfect. I love crepe soles

[Denimhead 0]

@Choko Thanks for the tip brother . take my money now

[JunkPants]

@motojobobo That looks amazing. Pissis lake looks beautiful. Very cool riding at 4600 meters, some serious mountains in Argentina.

Love that cactus as well!

[motojobobo]

Typical Andean backdrop, but I just love these monochrome bkgds

One of my travel buddies. I love the framing of the bike and road against the grandiose backdrop.

This is Las Lenas ski resort, southwest from Mendoza. This was the last week they are open this year. Still beautiful.

[tody]

@motojobobo Great photos, as usual. This is so vastly different from anything I see here in Europe, I really enjoy this!

[Aetas]

What tody said @motojobobo

[Brock]

Not a road bike… but I picked this 1982 XR 500 up last summer and rip it around off-road any chance I get! It’s no Snowbike… but it’s fun!

[derek111]

@Brock that rig is a thing of beauty. Hell of a pick up.

[Brock]

@derek111
Thank you! It’s quite the time capsule for sure

[dinobarnesberlin]

@motojobobo absolutely amazing scenery there! Looks more like you were on a National Geographic photo shoot! great stuff.

[motojobobo]

A very cool gorge between Mendoza and Malargue

Road traffic

Very old Araucaria tree, closely related to the Californian redwoods.

Hot tubing (again) in a repurposed wine vat.

After Argentina’s arid landscape and dry, chilly weather; Chile has cold, drizzly, overcast conditions and a super green, lush environment.

Downtown Puerto Varas in full IH outfit:

Guzzi began lightly leaking oil at the final drive joint. Water had made it’s way in. Drained, flushed and refilled. Not sure WHY it happened. Will need to keep a close watch on it for the remainder of the trip.

[SFMCfranky]

I sold the KTM. But all the others are still in my garage.

[motojobobo]

I’m back with a new batch of pics from the last few days. These next ones are from our last days in Chile. Did a 220 km loop in the Puerto Varas/Puerto Montt area. That included a 30 minute ferry ride.

This ferry ride got us to the kick off point of the well-known (amongst motorcyclists) Ruta Austral.

This area is awash with volcanoes, the one in the background is Yates.

We had two buddies squirming due to stomach bugs…we assume it was bad seafood. They were both better the next day.

Lake Tagua Tagua

Volcan Chabuco in the background of the old church.

Hope you like volcanoes…this one is Osorno. Probably close to a perfect cone I’d say. And that is lake Llanquihue, a HUGE lake.

And we leave Chile, heading back into Argentina.

[Tago Mago]

@motojobobo fantastic pictures. Thanks for taking us along on your journey

[JunkPants]

@motojobobo Amazing scenery!

[motojobobo]

This is Paso Internacional Cardenal Samore, at 1350 mts, the customs/migration check point.
I froze all day…not sure why. Temp was always in the 5 to 12 deg C range and I was dressed as warmly as ever. I’m guessing it must have been some stomach or flu bug I could’ve been battling. Weird, next day I was fine.

Typical forest type around here. On our way from Villa La Angostura to San Martin de los Andes. Someone is fond of long names around here…

Yep, here are my IH by Vibers hikers which I bought off @mclaincausey quite a few years ago. I love them! They are ALWAYS the spare footwear (aside from my bike boots) which come along an all my bike trips.

Snow began to show up again as we neared a ski resort, Chapelco.

Two guys from our group skied that day. The rest chugged hot chocolates.

This is rio Hermoso, apparently a fishing hotspot. We saw many groups fishing as we drove on the dirt road along the river.

We came across this road sign. It had snowed 9 days ago and the road people hadn’t had a chance to do maintenance nor inspect the road. Nobody policed odedience to the sign so we went ahead.

Beautiful scenery lay ahead. We were headed toward a spot called Paso Cordova, the highest point on that road at 1380 mts. An old cattle herding route.

Only snag on the route showed up 200 mts after Paso Cordova. About 20 mts of snowdrift. Lucky it wasn’t more, but we made across with a bit of leg work.

Things got greener as we went down the other side of the pass.

Today, Sunday, I decided to take it easy, enjoy the view and don all my IH gear.