Images and thoughts from Patagonia...

The variety of both the scenery and the riding is truly amazing. Each day and ride overloads my senses and leaves me wondering just how can one describe this wonderful place? Over the course of even a shorter few hour ride, you might be carving up wonderful twisties hugging a riverbank on smooth asphalt or throttle steering around endless gravel switchbacks over a pass. There seems to be an endless amount of wonderful riding.






After heading out of Mendoza, we went down to San Rafael and spent a few days on the finca of John and Annette, two travelers who have settled into a small grape, plum and walnut farm. They are proof that adventure is in the spirit, not in the travel. After purchasing a neglected farm, they are planting and pruning and building it back to productivity. What great hosts!



Chris and Erin spent time here (before John and Annette moved down) on their last trip, and left a swatch of friends as they usually do. The local motorbike shops and mechanics all where surprised to see them and decided to throw an 'adada' to celebrate. Consisting huge pieces of meat and entrails on an outdoor grill and cooking to perfection, Miguel, an excellent bike mechanic and asada chef, Edwardo, his shop-mate engine rebuilder machinist (who lathed up a perfect shock preload spacer when the KLR's adjuster busted), Juan Carlos, the honda shop owner all conspired with 20 of their friends, coworkers and relatives to stuff us silly and pour more wine than consumable.








Heading south into Patagonia, we opted for some less-traveled roads through the back country. Amazing scenery was sometimes distracting as the road had more than a few places with extreme washouts, or even an occasional bit where the entire shelf was washed out and a detour up the hillside was the new route.