Leaving South America

Final days winding down my life in South America.  Gee whiz, since the time I arrived Cartagena, Colombia in January 2012, all the way down to Ushuaia, Argentina.. and everything in between, there have been the highest of highs (5,903 meters to be exact!) and the lowest of lows.

The time has come to prepare the bike for shipping to Auckland, New Zealand.  I've given myself two weeks here in Buenos Aires.  Not because I need two weeks to prepare the bike, but it's just for me to settle, to reflect on the last 14 months and to savor the last bits of this amazing continent in style.

Looking around, it's still all about Eva Peron (Evita) here.. even though she's been gone since 1952! She made quite an impact on the country in her short life, then died at the age of 33. If you want to learn more about her, click on the link of her name highlighted above.

The view from my little temporary home near Avenida de Mayo. I'm not usually a city girl, but I love being right here in the heart of it all.

While I'm out here on my balcony taking photos, I can't help but to take one last photo of my favorite jeans.  I've been sewing them and sewing them and even this morning, the material has become so thin, they keep tearing for no good reason.  Seriously, I'm just sitting at the table on the computer, I look down and watch the leg split again right above my last sewing job. What the heck, I didn't even move!! I did get my money's worth, so I'll be leaving these behind.  One last thing to carry on the airplane when I move on.  I'll miss these jeans!

I do have a very important job to take care of before delivering my bike to the airlines for shipping.  I didn't have the mechanics here fix the problem from Uruguay, but thankfully they agreed to let me store the bike at their shop. It's much safer than downtown Buenos Aires, and an ideal place to come in each day for the supersize cleaning job I need to do.  After crossing 48 borders, the country of New Zealand will be the first one who will not allow that bike through unless it's clean and spotless.  They have very serious quarantine rules. So to avoid extra costs on the other end, I take to cleaning my bike with a tootbrush.. seriously!

For three days in a row, I took the 40 minute train ride out to the suburb where my bike lives. 

Three years of dirt needs to be removed!

 Gee whiz, can you imagine if you have to do this at every border in the world!??

Every time I think I've got it perfect, I see another speck of dried dust in a corner.. ugh!

And then the train ride back home, I seem to hit rush hour no matter what time I go..

If I wasn't working on the bike,  I'd wander about Buenos Aires and see tango tango tango.. everywhere tango. Night and day, there is a true passion in the city for this dance.

This couple wasn't dressed up.  If I'm right, they were just out for a Sunday stroll when the music hit them.. They did one dance and then walked on!  I thought that was very cool...  In my imagination, they've been married since they were 18 years old and the passion still lives..!

I was sort of wishing I was the girl in the photo above...he looks like the perfect man to tango with!!!

I put this next tourist attraction off for most of my stay.. I eventually wandered in to the cemetary on one of my last days. I knew it was popular but it didn't appeal to me at first until I thought, why not. Everyone must want to come here for a reason.  And I found out why.  It truly is quite an impressive cemetary!

I didn't take a tour.  I just wandered about making up my own stories to the gorgeous sculptures here.  On this first one, it looked like to me that the man wanted to stay and is holding on to dear Earth.  But the Angel says, "No, no! You've got to go that way... UP!" ;-)

Big money spent on the plots here.  This modern marble structure had quite an eery Angel of Death.

This next one was my favorite.  What a beautiful sculpture of the young girl who died along with her beloved dog.

 The dog's name is Sabu. "Faithful friend to Liliana"

 Time ran out??

If I had to pick, the one above suited me.  Just a rock in a natural setting.. perfect!

Okay!  That will conclude your tiny tour of Buenos Aires! It's kind of weird to include so many photos of a cemetary in a blog post.. but I think of all the hard work and money put into the place, I might as well share. And to go even deeper into thought, it sort of represents the end of my time in South America.

We've packed the bike into to the truck to be delivered to the airline warehouse, where the plan is for the bike to take a lovely flight with Emirates to Auckland! And for me...well?  I should probably explain how this all worked out.

I've been researching the costs for quite some time on how to get myself and my motorcycle across the ocean to New Zealand or Australia.  Each time I tried to work it out myself or with helpers, the cost was coming up to about $5000 USD... !!!!  It was a real worry for this much money going out on my next transfer as you can imagine.

I think it was Mark who suggested I check my frequent flier miles as he was using his for the same reason.  I checked and thank goodness I have enough!  However, I can't just fly Buenos Aires to Auckland on one frequent flier ticket, the connections didn't work that way.  Lots and lots of playing around on websites, I figured out that it was cheaper to fly to the United States first, then New Zealand.  The next challenge, I couldn't use my FF miles to Auckland, only to Sydney, Australia!  Logistics!!!

But the flight from Sydney to Auckland is cheap.. So final conclusion, I'm going Argentina to USA (and taking a few days to visit my family.. that's going to work out well!) And from Indiana, I will fly to Washington DC (East) then DC to San Francisco.. to Sydney, eventually reaching Auckland for a grand total of $200 USD! Thank the Lord for Frequent Flier Miles!!

And for the bike?  The fees and charges added up to around $1450 USD for the size and weight of my bike.  They do NOT allow you to send personal items along with the bike, so I'll have to carry everything myself on my own flight.  Anyway, the black market is crazy for United States dollars in bills, so I was able to exchange my emergency money on the black market for such a good price, that it brought the price of my motorcycle shipping down to just under $900 USD.  Woo hoo!!  So my $5000 trip has been officially reduced to $1100 total for both.  I am happy with THAT result!

Dear ol' Tony get's a shrink wrap job at the airport.  I might borrow the idea, maybe to lose some weight myself!

Ciao, Tony.. Thanks for getting me this far, and see you in New Zealand.......

Christmas in Ushuaia

I made it to the bottom of the world, Ushuaia Argentina alone.  Ushuaia is a very expensive place to be.  Not only for taking advantage of the tourists, but it's a long way to get supplies delivered. When I organized the cabin for us, both friends James and Mark agreed to do it, but to help keep costs down, we had one more bed to anyone else who might be interested.

The next day James came in on his motorcycle and was very very cold.  It was a tough ride for him, but I'm glad he made it without issue.  Mark Donham will be arriving tomorrow.  He's got the big bucks (;-), so he came down early for a cruise to Antarctica.  It's something I've always wanted to do as well, but it's crazy expensive and will have to wait for a future Sherri Jo adventure.

While James and I were settling in, there was a knock at the door.  I open it, and there is a man with a big "HELLO!" in his riding gear.  "Who are you??"  Well, WHO ARE YOU??  "I'm Slow Phil.. from Canada"  G'day Slow Phil, come in... Do we know you??

Mark, knowing we had an extra bed available put the info out online, ADV Rider and the deal sounded good to Phil, so he responded to Mark.  Since Mark was out of reach on the Cruise Ship, we didn't know about it, but that's okay.  We got the story, and it all made sense, and we are glad to have a new roommate, OR ARE WE??

Lord have Mercy!  It's the Hulk!?  It was James who kept thinking that Phil looks like Hulk, looked up a photo online (in the left hand corner) and got Phil to make an imitation of it.. Which he did perfectly. Brilliant!

Phil is here on his Suzuki V-Strom. Mark came in the next day from his cruise and I have a goal to complete.  Many of you know, but for those that don't, Kevin was killed on his Buell Ulysses motorcycle on his way down a few months ago.  Our goal at the time was to get to Ushuaia together.  He didn't make it in person, but I have a piece of his helmet from the accident site and it has been my goal and mission to get him here in any way I could.  Now that all the boys are here, it's time...

Kevin's brother in Scotland, Ian, suggested we share Scottish whiskey. I surprisingly found a small bottle in Ushuaia and we all had a good drink, shared a bit with Kevin with lots of cheers and tears!

This was like a big closure thing for me.  I feel a bit of weight lifted.  Kevin's plan was to go back to Canada for 6 months for his job while I explored through the Amazon and down.  Then he was coming back to "finish the job" as he said to Ushuaia. I was worried I wouldn't make it either with the recent bike trouble, but we got you here Kev!!  I really miss Kevin and wish so much he could have enjoyed this in person.

While the boys are together we decided to stop by the grocery on the way back to the cabin.  We have very limited resources and cooking facilities, so this will be interesting!

Yep, there we go..  My four MALE roommates over Christmas looking very lost and confused in the grocery store... hahahaha!!!

Left to right:  Claude, Mark, Phil and James

The fourth person in our little house is Claude (who I keep calling Cloud for unknown reasons!)  He's a French-Canadian from Florida that told me he was coming to our Christmas dinner..... while he was still in Florida!  This man rode through Mexico, Central and South America so fast on his motorcycle, I'm not sure when he slept or when he managed to see anything he was riding past.  But it's good to meet him and have him here.  Since my bike is still up the road, he's my driver/rider for today on the back of his BMW 1200gs .. yay!  Whew!  I now know how he got here so fast, a very quick and whippy rider. I think my back is still suffering from jumping over the road speed bumps! ;-) Very talented and comfortable on his bike that's for sure.

Look boys, forget the groceries. This is all we need.... !!!

I'd like to, but I can't take the credit for the line up on the kitchen table.  We bought the wine together.  They are for Christmas, but I think a few of those bottles didn't make it.. gone the first night!  We did manage to save some for tomorrow.. and thank goodness there are more friends coming over with spare stash! And hopefully, without holding my breath, there is a shop that sells wine open tomorrow.

Christmas Day... We have invited people to come around 1 pm.. so what does a household of men (and me) decide to do with our time?  Young James is travelling with a Santa Suit, which we found in a small shop in San Rafael (northern Argentina).  Dressed him up and took a cruisy ride around town.. Santa on a BMW!

We all sort of agree the super size town Santa on the left is a bit disturbing.. but let's see if James can do one better for the town.

The people are thrilled!  Here comes Santa Claus..on a motorcycle!

Lots of people taking photos.  This role is made for James.  I think he should do this every year.

One very important photo we must take is of Santa James in front of the British Pirate sign.  James is from England and there is an ongoing heated government 'discussion' of who should own the Falkland Islands, off the coast of Argentina.  Known in Argentina as Islas Malvinas, the locals want their islands back. There has been bloody battle (The Falklands War in 1982), and still remains a lot of passion and animosity to the Brits.  Luckily the Argentinian people that we have met, and learn that James is from England, have been good to us.

So this is James little British invasion photo in a Santa Suit down by the pier. I don't think it's enough to scare off the Argentinian troops though!  The sign says, "British pirate ships are prohibited from mooring."

 

One last little photo with Santa before heading back to get the party started!

I was flabbergasted at the amount of international riders that showed up at our little cabin.  We all invited people, however I think Mark takes the award for inviting the most. We'd be walking down the street in Ushuaia and he'd yell out, "Hey wanna come to our Christmas party?"  to random strangers.. as long as they had two wheels, they were invited.

We referred to them by country.. The Greeks showed up first, Stavros and Thanasis from Athens.

Young Ollie, also from England, who came along with some other riders.  Ollie was so amazing to meet as he just showed up in Ushuaia on his motorcycle.. and he's only 18 years old!  He had a lot of great questions as this marks the beginning of his first ride to Alaska.  I was enjoying having the experience to answer!  Until the other boys came up, piped up and they ALL filled poor Ollie's head with tons of advice. I think everyone in the room has ridden a motorcycle from Alaska down with many opinions to offer.  Ollie was gracious and took every bit of it in..  good for him, really cool kid.  I still can't get over taking on something this big at his age.  Just awesome.

Young James feeling very content with his wine.  He has been through a lot over the last few weeks riding with me. The Santa suit is really perfect for him.

We originally guessed we might have about 10 other riders come to our Christmas?  At last count there were over 40~~!!  It was amazing, such a surprise and such a fun great day!!!!! World travellers, UNITE!!

Sherri Jo and The Hulk (aka Slow Phil..)

 How good is THIS??!! Now that's what you call a "Merry Christmas".

There's still a few more days to enjoy Ushuaia, and since I couldn't afford the Antarctic trip, I learn that we can go see some penguins about 60 km south of here at Estancia Harberton.  It's privately owned, very controlled and we can only go there if we agree to the bus tour.. no motorcycles. ;-(  Not ideal, but I've seen nearly everything else around here, so I'd like to go.

Estancia Harberton homestead

They have a great marine museum here, and was perfect for the quick education of the penguins and other marine life here.

Just a few whale bones laying around the front yard.  I guess you can do that if the whale dies on your property!

Now, I'm going to go into penguin photo overload.  They were just so funny and easy to photograph and I couldn't decide which ones to keep.  So I kept many!

We take a little aluminium boat from the farm to their penguin island.

And the photo taking marathon begins!

 Lovers.. they were  k i s s i n g..  ha!

I'm guilty of talking to penguins. "Hi, my name is Sherri Jo, I come from the north."  "Huh?"

There was a little baby bird in the field all alone.  Not a penguin, a sea eagle maybe? Little fluff ball..so cute!

I am the headless penguin............. 

Walk this way... talk this waaaay.....

Dancing.. Doing the do ce do!

 Singing!! Laaaaaaaa!!

These penguins are really fun and entertaining.. Who'da thought!?

Our guide tells us we are lucky and have a surprise visitor today.  The majority of penguins here are called Magellanic Penguins.  There are two King Penguins visiting from Antarctica.  Our guide tells us this is very rare for them to come up this far to Argentina. So we are very lucky to see them!

Definitely a King Penguin.  He instructs his Magellanic followers to "Do as I do, stand as I do..Don't speak unless spoken to!"  Si, Your Majesty!

Kisses!!

Two little spys....

Soooo cute!!!

Penguin prayers..

Hey, what type of penguin is he?

Don't look now, we're being followed...

I took so many penguin photos, it wore me out.  I decided to just sit with them for a while.

As we were headed back to our little boat on the beach, this super size tourist boat pulled in.  This was the other optional tour, to come here from down town Ushuaia on a cruise boat rather than bus.  Thank God we made the right decision!  Look at all those people! On top of that, they are not permitted to walk on the island.  The only photos they get is from the deck of the boat, of which the people are all fighting for space.. yuk!!

A view from my window back in Ushuaia.  Not a bad place to be in the world... ;-))

It's been a pretty tough year. Thank you to everyone who came to make one of the best and unforgettable Christmas's ever..! James, Mark, Phil and Claude (Cloud). You guys rock!!