My two only planning constraints : first to be getting out of the Altiplano before that rain season gets to its highest (full shower in january/february) and makes impassable the tracks of this superb AMZ (Adventure Motorcycling Zones) as said by Chris Scott - which I've been enjoying and warmly recommend the guide "Adventure Motorcycling HandBook (v6)", particularly this year with a record El Niño announced ; second is to reach and get through Patagonia & Tierra del Fuego at the hottest of its austral summer (6 to 8 weeks max around january), having already been in position to appreciate its contained heat during a short visit to El Calafate (Perito Moreno glacier) & Ushuaia between christmas 2012 and new year's day.
Another option would have been to leave beginning of summer starting with Patagonia and then north to Colombia with an Altiplano crossing in autumn, but the tracks would most probably have been damaged, and I couldn't wait more and fired as soon as financies critical threshold has been reached !
My only real limitation : the available budget for this project after some years saving money and investing in its preparation. Being single and with no children (have to say it helps for this kind of wild idea, some will recognize themselves :D), and recently free of any credit or other engagement imposing to maintain a fresh income, I'm finally fully able to enjoy this offered life time to visit some of the marvels made available to us on this little planet lost in infinity, starting with this gorgeous andin continent.
Without entering in details now, the order of magnitude of this budget is around 1.000 US$ / month in average, to be confirmed and refined along the trip (and at the moment I'm writing these lines it seems I'll have to struggle to not overpass it...). I hope I'll be able to camp quite often and limit the part dedicated to hotels & hostels, knowing me already a bit greedy and lazy about food, which more often that it should brings me to go and taste local culinary art in terrasse, watching living the surroundings.
The very first frenzy on GoogleMaps did a 50.000kms loop following Pacific up to south coast of the United-States through Central America and going back down through Caribes, Venezuela, and Brazil... A quick estimation of corresponding planning & budget soon washed out these audacious sights, and I'll thus settle for a shorter ride brushing each of the north and south continent's tips excluding in a first time the whole east coast, from Venezuela to Uruguay.
If I can, I'll make up with this zone after having sold the bike in BsAs at the end of the loop, heading then north through Uruguay and Brazil by hitch-hiking & bus until Amazone river, from Belém to Manaus by boat, and then through Venezuela to join Cuba and hang around in the paradisiac caribes before a trans-atlantic in sailing boat... at least if I manage to concretize this second phase of the trip that up to now is nothing more than embryonic.
And despite I had renounced to a detour initially foreseen through Uruguay and south of Brasil (until Rio de Janeiro), realizing that rain constraint wouldn't let me time for this, an appreciable late program modification finally restored this opportune little test loop : my friend and mechanic Carlos - alias Pingo - was preparing a riding week in Córdoba's sierras from 18th to 25th of september.
My departure being then already fixed to beginning of september (flat restitution), I could find room for a 3 weeks fly-over ride along the uruguayen coast until a short entry in Brasil and back to argentinian sierras (3.000 kms in 18 days).
Here's a brief insight to global journey route, a bit limited on this GMaps trace by the maximum of 10 intermediate stops in a single itinerary (if someone knows about an alternative solution, I'm interested !). It's thus in 3 steps that I'll present it here and with some approximations (first time through Peru for example should be without touching the coast, foreseen on the way back down).
The exact route isn't fixed yet anyway and will be evolving along the trip with the people met, but it still allows a quick insight :
1) Buenos Aires - Rio Grande / Pelotas - Córdoba
As you can guess, those first kilometers were really magic by the symbolic of departure and the emotions induced, and outrageously often with pure banana under my helmet ! :)
This introductive getaway allowed me to test the motorbike preparation (and pilot's one, that I must admit having a bit neglected), as well as bagage's selection and their repartition/accommodation. As you'll see along the narration, the "bagage's selection & distribution" subject deserves a chapter on its own... At the moment I'm writing these lines, after a bit more than a month on the road, I'm still in experimentation phase and looking for optimization ! :P
To synthesize this great classic of motorcycle journeys : before leaving I was striving to carry more, and now that I left I'm striving to carry less"...
The motorbike preparation in contrast went out well so far, which is quite a relieve for having done the "great departure" without doing any test ride (it's strongly recommended to get out a short week in the surroundings, just to see, before the real departure).
2) The Sierras of Córdoba
A fantastic week riding around in a splendid zone with a group of 4 others riders really good vibes ("buena onda" here), which brought me back to memories of the pleasant group getaways from my motorbike beginnings in the region of Toulouse (only the wild races were missing), improvised barbecues at night while the moto's seats were struggling to get back to their initial shape, and this so special mood of "riding whatever" that brought us so close to "Pueblo Escondido" (the "hidden village") despite the unfavorable weather... Thanks to you all Carlos, Toto, Chincho, y Dany ! :)
But it was also a really opportune week discovering dirt tracks riding at least in my case, fortunately without the bagages left in the house - base camp of Tantí. And it really wasn't any luxury, considering the 200kg of the Kawa (+80 from the pilot) and the Pirelli MT60 front tyre I still regret to have resigned buying for not being able to find the Metzeler Enduro3 I was looking after...
Actually to be precise, I already had 2 contacts with dirt tracks in the past : a first unintentional in France on a Triumph Street Triple R dressed in Pirelli Diablo SC2 (not really foreseen for it) during a good old straight-forward for having understood a bit late that the paved road was that one making a curve - a miracle that I managed not to hit the ground ; and a second highly exhilarating about 2 years ago, on a Honda XR250 then recently bought in Bariloche, where I shot from the Cerro Otto the Nahuel Huapi's lake picture covering this blog's background. This little nicknamed "Tornado" weights nevertheless about 130kg all wet, which is clearly more comfortable to leave the paved roads, and furthermore had the good taste to be dressed with true enduro tyre on the front wheel (and intermediate one on back wheel, easing slides with "cornered handle" as we say in french :D)
Anyway, the KLR650 deserves its "Jeep" nickname and will be perfect for this journey (the Tornado would have agonized below the 160kg of pilot+stuffs), but I'll have to learn to utilize it considering the some frights I gave myself these few days... Not even a single fall nevertheless despite those little frights, definitely kind of a satisfaction after having learnt "by the hard" those last years to push against curiosity's limits with my two new friends "Wariness & Parsimony".
3) Córdoba - Cartagena
It's in this third phase that I am presently, around Villa San Agustín del Valle Fertíl (prov. of San Juan), having recently visited the splendid Ischigualasto's Parc - alias Moon Valley - and now waiting to get better from a backache to go on with Talampaya's Parc and finally reach the famous Ruta 40 at Villa Unión's level, to then go on heading north. :)
The idea is to stay as much as possible on the uplands of the Cordillera for this ascending phase, to take at best advantage of this zone's roads and tracks most probably made impassable from december and ahead by the heavy rains brought by El Niño.
4) Cartagena - Ushuaia - Buenos Aires
If I manage to stick correctly to the planning, I should be doing in & out in Ecuador-Colombia-Ecuador in december, to leave me a chance to reach Ushuaia before february and the end of the summer.
In between, the road trace should this time be more along the Pacific coast and Cordillera's feet, a zone less vulnerable to climatic aleas. After having crossed Peru for the second time, I'll pass to Chile through Atacama's desert until Santiago's latitude, coming back at this level in Argentina for a Mendoza - Bariloche ride on the ruta 40. Then back to Chile to go on down on the Carretera Austral, hanging around the Patagonian volcano's feet until Villa O'Higgins, and ending the bit south to Ushuaia on the argentinian's side with a highly probable stop to marvel once more in front of El Calafate's glaciers.
And I don't know yet how I would start heading north to BsAs, being quite few interested by the nightmare of the ruta 3 option along the Atlantic coast, swept by powerful lateral winds for hundreds of desert kilometers...
More news on the next episodes !
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