Orchard

The dust storm has brought much needed relief from the heat. We slept amazing last night. Of course it helped that we found a big ole apple orchard to make camp in. We met a wonderful woman named Maryte who runs the orchard (we presume) and allows camping right up in the middle of it. Outstanding. Beautiful starry night and great conversation with some locals who camp here often. Headed south again this morning.

True stories from the Twilight Zone

Hard to believe it has been two weeks since we we in Miami. Though the
trip has flown by without having bikes, we've already seen so much.
Two days of camping (now with bikes) have produced two epic storms.
One of wind, rain, and downed trees, and last night a massive sand
storm. In both cases we were very fortunate to find a safe and
relatively protected campsite before we we even knew the storms were
approaching.

I ask myself, was it only just yesterday that I was in the strangest,
most eerie, beautiful and quiet and isolated community that felt like
dream (or maybe a horror film)? Turning off a random, unmarked, and
desolate road let us by a seemingly random cemetery of massive graves
built like castles. Around the curve let us to endless, neatly planted
tress. All painted from the ground to five feet up, it was stunning.
Here was a strange village with fancy street signs marking roads paved
with grass, lightly used. The building a were old and though some were
in decay it was all so clean, pretty, and well manicured. The part so
strange was that we couldn't see a human anywhere, provided that you
don't count the statues and busts found dotting this chilling ghost
village.
The lighting was becoming perfect. Tree lined streets, white trunks
for as far as you could see, all without undergrowth and backlit in
the golden hour. In the distance was the gargantuan tower of a huge
cathedral which we would later find out was also an even larger
compound.

We rolled up on a tiny building which was the hospital; outside was a
restfully sitting nurse and a young man. Josh asked about camping and
it was made clear that it was not a matter of police permissions but
instead needed to be approved by 'Walter'. The friendly nurse called
Walter and after he was told of our arrival and attentions he said
camping will be allowed under specific conditions and only in a
specific area of the park. We drove around looking over all of the
areas of the park until a young man on a moto appeared and directed is
into a small entrance to a quarantined area of park. Lined with tall
fences and topped with barbed wire facing inward, we now were in a
triangular shaped cage with a small opening at the tip about the size
of a small car. The locals began to come out. A few at a time they
would drive or bicycle by ogling is and the disappear. Naturally, this
is when we had a blast drumming up wildly imaginative scary stories of
out demise. What we didn't know was that our night would become a
nightmare but not due to a cannibalistic commune or an ancient monster
released only by Walter.

Before bed we made friends with some local kids, swapped motorcycles
for a while, and started making attempt to sleep though the kids were
loudly playing about on their motorbikes too excited seeing new faces
to go to bed themselves. We asked why the trees were white. They
replied, "because they're painted". We asked why again and they said,
"because paint!"

It was only about an hour after we hit the hay, a storm swept in fast
tearing down branches from every tree and bending our tent poles to
our noses. We all ran out of our tents picking up gear once draped
over our bikes and were now blowing about in our little zone. All in
all our gear and bikes held up through the night and in la mañana de
la mañana we rode off into the endless Pampas from what will always
feel like a dream. I know I'll never forget that crazy place but will
also forever question if it really was true.

These moments are why we are here. It is inky here, pursuing adventure
through hardship that one can wake up in the twilight zone (found in
Aaron Castellanos, Santa Fe, AR), a reality unreal and later that very
same day watch a massive and violent sand storm black out the sun in
an instant. So powerful, steams of sand and dust pushed through every
crack of the doors and windows. Though the power was out, the ever
bottles still cracked open and the fire beneath the grill was still
hot. Candle lot steak dinner is a fine way to deal with a several hour
long Haboob.

Steaks. Solved.

Just had the best steak ever at this tiny one table kitchen. We are inquiring about how to say certain cuts of meat in Spanish and the owners are drawing us a map of a beef and labeling the parts and cuts in Spanish. This could be delicious. We now posses the MAPA DE VACA!

Off to Mendoza

Leaving Dakar Motos. Adios.

Finally

We have got the bikes. It took all day but Sean, Luke and myself can join join Mike in the ranks of bike owning travelers. As you may be able to see from the photos, our front tires had all the air let out and handlebars had been removed. The port guys had a couple wrenches for the bars and by amazing luck I had stashed my cig lighter powered air compressor in my cases that were with the bike. We leave at 8 am and will head towards Mendoza AR where we will then head south into Patagonia. Hopefully we will find some cooler weather there to make camping/riding more enjoyable.

Off to get the bikes

We are out drinking our morning tea, which is obligatory due to the British influence in our group, and the rain just started coming down hard. Pairing the Bluetooth on the helmets and off to the airport to get them in 30 mins. Hopefully this rain is relief from this heat!

Bikes are here!

Great news. Today the bikes landed in Buenos Aires, as did our titles. We will be off to pick them up and get them thru Argentine customs first thing in the morning and hope to be on the trail by end of day tomorrow. Getting thru Argentine customs can be a tricky thing, but we are confident all will go well.

Iguazu Falls

Absolutely no words to describe this place. Supposedly Elenor Roosavelt's first words were 'poor Niagra!' and I can understand why. It goes on forever, makes 2 national parks as it is the border between Argentina and Brazil. Around the next river bend is Paraguay, so it's a really unique opportunity to be hit with international roaming charges in 3 countries while standing in one spot. Seriously, this happened to all of us, and the best part is that out phones aren't even working. We hope to resolve that tomorrow as we kick Movistar in favor of Claro in hopes that we can keep in touch better with y'all.
The top was absolutely breathtaking as unimaginable amounts of water fall from on high into a white mist so far and so big you can never see the bottom from the Devils Throat overlook.
We also took the boat ride that goes very close to being under the falls. Amazing. We understood what our friend Jack from the first nights hostel meant when he told us that when you are on the boat tour, you could get out of the boat and it would be the same. Couldn't have been wetter. This was alright with us tho as temps climbed to 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) and it was jungle humidity.

To the Jungle

We have been without communications for a couple days but lots have happened. We found that out bikes will arrive Monday and be available to us Tuesday. Although this is not ideal news, we decided to make the most of our time by renting a car and spending a few days traveling to Iguazu Falls on the border with Brazil. We made it approx half way Thursday night and stopped at a fuel station in rural Argentina to ask about a place nearby to make camp. The station was owned by an amazing family who allowed us to camp in their yard.
We hadn't even set up the tents yet when the two boys in the picture approached us with a soccer ball and invited us to play with them on a great field on their property. All was going well (if you forget the fact that Nicolas 13 and his brother 8 beat us soundly while being undermanned 2 of them vs 4 of us) until I did what I do best while playing sports, get injured. I went with the ole standby, spraining my left ankle in proper fashion. It felt like déjà vu as I have sprained that same ankle many times before at incredibly inopportune times. I was quite worried I would be out of commission for a long while, however I am very happy to report that after only a few days I am getting around pretty well and am confident it will not be a problem going forward.
The falls were absolutely amazing, easy to see why they are one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. Pictures of the falls will follow this post, as soon as we can find enough internet to upload more pics...