Archive | Up the Andes

Up the Andes

Riding the World’s most dangerous road

Riders: Gareth Morgan, Jo Morgan, Dave Wallance, Tony Armstrong,Brendan Keogh, Chris Stephens
Motorcycles: BMW F800GS
Distance: 16,856km
Countries: Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil

Trip description: A ride from the Alto Plano of Bolivia and Peru to the frozen tip of Patagonia; on the world’s most dangerous road, where the stakes are high, on to Argentina’s fabled Ruta 40, where the steaks are large and cheap.

Across salt pans, into mud holes, up the Andes and down again; past the ruins of the ruins of Macchu Pichu, and finding themselves on the edge of the epicentre of the Chilean earthquak


Blogs from the trip


Resize of DSC_4545 E

The little things etc

When you are riding along things catch you eye so about 6 weeks back I saw a crab like thing going across the road and then wished I had gone back to see what it was. On the road into Puerto Piramides where we have been for two nights, again, the same thing. I was […]

Continue Reading
Resize of AWA_2415

Bottoms up and then there were two

Well we have to leave Ushuaia and Teirra del Fuego now, time to head north. Just 3,000 kms to Buenos Aires up the east coast and across the pampas. But we’ll make a push first to get 1,000 kms up so we can break into some new country and back to warmer climes. Also this […]

Continue Reading
Resize of DSC_4336

Tierra del Fuego At Last

12,000 kms after starting in Lima, Peru we have reached the southern extreme of this leg of worldbybike. Ushuaia, the capital of Argentine Tierra del Fuego is a beaut wee city on the shores of the Beagle Channel. Last port to the ships that these days bring 45,000 tourists a year down here for their […]

Continue Reading
CS Day 52 Rio Grande to Ushuaia 15

Ushuaia

As I rode my bike south for what might be the last time, I remembered as a child of 9 diving into the deep end of the diving pool with the aim of touching the bottom. Here I was 40 years later in near freezing conditions driving my bike to the bottom to touch the […]

Continue Reading

We are there, Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego

OK we have been here for a day and already had lots happening. The southernmost city in the world. It is beautiful with pretty little houses (like the Faroe Islands) surrounded by a semi-circle of snow capped peaks and overooking the Beagle Channel. We arrived to beating drums and a harbour full of tall sailing […]

Continue Reading

One more ride before we hit the bottom

We are over-nighting in Rio Grande about 200 km from Ushuaia, Argentina. This means we have a short ride on tarseal to the “southern-most city in the world”. Chile is disputing this and would have us believe that their Puerto Williams with 2000 residents (mainly Naval staff and families) is a city, but Ushuaia rightly […]

Continue Reading

Red Skye in the morning at the 50th parallel

Well what a title.We have woken to another glorious day but red red sky in the east is supposed to mean Bad weather. We are at Calefate, Argentina just below 50 degrees and have had a couple of days to catch up on the administration back home. This is especially needed for the guys running […]

Continue Reading
Resize of DSC_3966

Our last Glacier – Perito Moreno

Just as Chile boasts of San Rafael, Argentina has the Perito Moreno glacier to skite about. And it’s a beauty alright, slightly easier to access than via a 5 hour each way boat ride. In fact we rode the bikes from El Calafate to the face, or at least to where it faces off against […]

Continue Reading
Jo sheepishly returns to the pack

Her view

Tony, calling me one of the members sounds fowl, don’t be a chicken Tony name the culprits. We will. Yes it was me who overshot the corner and didn’t even realise there was going to be a corner that day. I saw Gareth standing by a cattle stop and continued as a nice girl does […]

Continue Reading
AWA_1790

A great day for an Adventure

Chile to Argentina via Mt Baker We awoke to a fantastic sunrise over lake General Carrera and the alps of the Cerro Castillo national park. The plan yesterday was to travel around the lake and cross the border at Chile Chico, one of the more common and more used border crossings. One of the previous plans […]

Continue Reading