Life from Behind the Visor: Aye Ca-rumba!

Nov. 11^th Buenos Aires to San Antonia de Areca

Now the morning of the 11^th, we ask the hotel manager about changing USD$ for Arg$ pesos. There is a blue market for this that provides better rates than at the bank. Currently the posted bank rate is 8.5:1, the blue market rate fluctuates and today it is 12:1, so that represents a 50% increase in buying power after conversion. That should help offset the costs of hotels.

So now here we are sitting in the insurance office, patiently waiting for our insurance policy to be created. The ladies in the office are friendly and buy us a coffee from the local restaurant, the waitress carried her tray down the street with two cups of coffee and two glasses of sparkling water and two of the tiniest cookies you have ever seen. Very nice of them to do this and we enjoy our coffee while we wait. It seems the glass of water is for freshening the mouth after drinking the coffee, there is only about 2oz of water so that is all I can come up with. The policy for 6 months cost us $88USD for both bikes, that is alot cheaper than Alberta that is for sure. What burns us is that we will never have to use the insurance, it is really just to smooth things over with the police if we get stopped.

The tranquil morning is soon replaced with a rather eventful afternoon of city traffic. We have decided to go to the historic small city of San Antonio de Areca, which is to the northwest of BA. I punched a marker into the GPS so that I would have a rough guide to follow instead of blindly trying to find our way out of the city. This proved helpful for the most part but it also provided another distraction that got the best of me today. We were following along in traffic at about 30kph when I looked down at the GPS to see if we were still on track, when I looked up a van had stopped due to a speed-bump, I did my best to avoid him but ultimately it was too late and I caught the rear passenger corner of the van with my handlebar. Between the aggressive braking and the snagged handlebar it proved more than I could manage to stay upright and a short slide on by ass later I came to a stop. The bike was still running so I jumped up, put it back on its’ wheels and turned off the engine. Brenda had safely stopped, blocking traffic so that nobody ran me over and with full adrenaline pumping I pushed the broken bike off the road and parked it under a nice big shade tree. The van took off but a couple of cyclists stopped to see if I was ok and I was. No broken anything, just pride and ego damage. The bike was a bit different story, I had managed to break the left side body panel and neatly remove the end of the radiator, this of course caused a big cloud of steam as the coolant drained onto the exhaust pipe below. I had seen this before when Brenda did a similar bike alteration in the Arizona desert by Phoenix, I also instantly remembered that this was not a good thing to break. In Arizona I had to buy a new radiator and that took some effort as the parts are hard to find, plus it took the best part of a day to replace once I did get the parts. Things were not looking good for the 4^th day of our 4 month holiday. The main thing was that I was not injured and was reminded of how quickly things can happen when distracted by something that is almost second nature at this point. I probably glance down at the GPS a thousand times per day out of habit. This time I got caught, just like the distracted driving commercials back home regarding texting and driving etc.

Anyway, now what. I assess the situation a bit while Brenda picks up pieces of plastic and such. Traffic is moving again like nothing happened. The end of the radiator appears to have separated where the aluminum finned section joins the plastic end piece. The plastic is not broken and neither is the aluminum. I pull out my leatherman and a pair of needle nose vice-grips from my tankbag and try to accomplish the impossible. Mending a broken radiator on the side of the road with two pairs of pliers. First I have to remove what is left of the side panel and finish removing the fluid expansion tank (scratched but not punctured), then after about 30 minutes of clamping plastic and aluminum together and bending of tabs it appears that the end piece is back in place. Great, now to reattach the expansion tank and go find some anti-freeze.

We had passed a Yamaha shop about 3 blocks back, hopefully they have some as I did not remember seeing a gas station for some time. The walk proved successful and the caged corner store had a bottle of water, good to mix with the coolant and the rest was nice and cold for drinking. At this point the guy form the Yamaha shop pulled up on shiny new bike and offered his shop if needed to complete the repair, we have found the hospitality of the Argentine people to be second to none. I thanked him and after a brief exchange of where the bike was he returned to work and I carried on walking, looking back I should have asked him for a ride, damn its hot. Brenda waited patiently with the bikes while I went on this journey, she made a friend with a stray dog who was laying just out of her reach when I returned. Maybe he was protecting her, or she him? Anyway, I said a quick prayer and poured the coolant into the rad, hoping it would not leak but half expecting the fluid to pour out on the ground. Son of a bitch, it held. Steve you would not believe it if you were here with us. I pushed the start button and the bike fired up like nothing had happened, I let it idle for a bit then shut it off to see if a leak had developed and to top up the fluid if it didn’t. Nope no leaks and the fluid level is topped up. After a little happy dance it was time to perform plastic surgery on the body panel, let’s see where is that roll of Red Green Special, ah yes and some zip ties for stitching. A little duct tape here, a zip tie there and there...good enough for me. Chicks like scars anyway, even if they are on the bike, and now I have a real conversation piece as well.

I finally relax as the trip is not a bust anymore, at this point I also realize that I have a rather large hole in my riding pants, a couple new small holes in my jacket and some road rash on the bottom of my new Altrider Luggage. The luggage is built very well and the only damage is to the holster piece, the inner waterproof bag is not damaged at all but I will have to move the 1liter fuel bottle to this side as my tire tool will likely fall out the hole.

Funny, all this happened ½ block from the Auto bar where we ate lunch yesterday. Back on the road we make our way to SA de Areca without further incident. The side panel proves to be a conversation ice breaker at the next gas stop as another friendly local can’t contain his curiosity.

SA de Areca proves to be our kind of town and we stay an extra day to laze around and unwind after the chaos of BA. The bikes are parked in the lobby and we enjoy being the only guests at Hostel Areco, a fantastic little spot right on the center square.

We enjoy a tourists afternoon of walking the town, looking at Gaucho artisan work (knives, leather, silver smiths, that kind of stuff).

Yerba Mate sippy cups

I figured I should get a patch sewn onto my riding pants as well, there must be a seamstress in town, a short walk later and we find out that two blocks away at the house with the green door, lives a seamstress. We drop off my pants and by 6pm they are ready, she did an awesome job and charged only $30pesos ($4CAD).

We are also humored by a couple of dogs who escort us on our walks. The one fella seems to be our guide and patiently waits at the door while we look in shops, the other just follows along a pace behind to make sure we don’t get lost. They look healthy so maybe they are pets and not strays. When we return to the hostel we notice that they pick up with another couple who is walking. The lead dog announces with a few crisp barks, and the second dog picks up the rear. They seem to have a system.