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
After travelling through Peru we were slowly getting the hang of how all things work, one such example was the collection of road taxes etc. We often came across booths similar to the one in the photo where a tolls officer inside his booth would charge the trucks and cars the appropriate toll. Motorbikes were […]
Day 11 started with a visit to the floating islands on lake Titicaca, these islands are famous for the life that the local indigenous people live. There are around 40 of these reed islands floating on the lake. These islands have been in existence for over 2000 years and have been refuge for many of […]
We descended into the huge crater in the earth that is the location of this metropolis. The sun glinted on the roofs and windows of basic houses hanging off the cliff sides of the huge bowl but we couldn’t take our eyes of the road. Traffic chaos to the untrained eye seems to get everyone […]
Today was meant to be a rest day after a week on the road, an opportunity for the girls to kick back and do some local shopping. Well that’s what they thought, Chris on the other hand had booked us on a little mountain bike excursion. Yes just a little one…. the most dangerous commercially […]
From Nazca we decided to take a short cut to get up to the Andes and Cusco. We’ve heard there may be helicopter rides going into Machu Picchu & while the direct road from Nazca is cut, there is an alternative to going too far south to Arequipa and up, and that is to go […]
Down the coast to Nazca, home of the Nazcans who settled here 1,000 years before the Incas did their stuff. A desert tribe they were engineering whizzkids, building subterranean aquaducts to bring water down from the Andes out on to the dry pampas where they did their cool ceramics, artisan skills that survive to this […]
After 2 days waiting around, signing another form every couple of hours, the Peruvian authorities released our bikes. What a circus – but totally expected. In 2002 when we came into Peru on motorcycles from Chile we were held up at the border for 30 hours. Eight years has seen little progress with the make-work […]
The bikes are locked and loaded, as much of South American bureacracy and red tape that we can clear from here has been done, we are itching to go. Just have to stay for our chrissie presents and then the countdown really starts. Jabs and documentation all done, GPS’s loaded, carnets sorted, bike spares and […]
