Plate

Mine somehow tore off. This is my new obviously fake one. Fingers crossed that the Chileans don't care and/or notice.

Mountains and Lakes

We are currently in the thick of what's referred to as the 7 lakes region of the Argentine Andes. Absolutely breathtaking, these mountains are unreal and the lakes are nestled into the high places to create a scenery that I've never before seen. Mid summer with snow capped mountains above crazy massive lakes.
The lake we are camped on now, right on the outskirts of Bariloche is called Nahuel Huapi and is one of the deepest lakes in the world at 1523 feet. Deeper than Lake Superior, and at the top of a mountain. Makes my head spin for sure. This is our second night at this spot, as Bariloche serves as a base town for Patagonia and we have used it as an opportunity to stock up on supplies and prepare ourselves for what's ahead. The plan now is to depart tomorrow and head towards Chile and cross over to take some ferries down the fjords of the Chilean coast. Hopefully I don't have any problems at the border as my license plate broke off a few days ago in a rough dirt section and I've replaced it with a poorly constructed laminated paper one Mike and I designed today at a copy shop in town.

So much has happened!

Sorry for the absence, we've been in the land of volcanos.

Josh mandated pressing 10 miles further in hope for an epic campsite.
I stood corrected as we set up by a massive, river-creating, natural
spring. Shortly thereafter, I thought I was losing my mind, fully
going crazy because through Mike's binoculars, I was seeing PINK
FLAMINGOES? This couldn't be true. Sure enough, we hiked closer and
there they were, bathing in the fresh water!

Surely things couldn't get more epic until we witnessed the most
stunning sunset across the Andes as a badass Gaucho rode by. Then, we
were invited to drinks and dinner at a 4th generation rancher's home.
Outstanding chibo/goat stew with potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots,
with the most delicious fats on braised vertebrae, tail, with marrow
oozing from cracked bones.

Josh suggested a need for a sheepskin cover for his rock hard
motorcycle seat. It wasn't long before papa gaucho brought him his
very own saddle cover. Josh kissed him on both cheeks; a bold move
with a real cowboy. Good thing we brought them that American whiskey!

I could hardly fall asleep, mind blown by the clearest stargazing I've
ever seen and not really knowing for sure if anything I've been
experiencing is real. I am the happiest man alive.

Last night

Best campsite yet. By far. Found an off shooting trail off the road to Las Leñas (famous ski town) last night and struck it rich. A mountain stream in the most gorgeous valley was gonna have to do. We built a fire and prepared for what was to be a pretty chilly evening.
Awoke this morning to attend to some bike maintenance, both myself and mike are monitoring an oil leak on our bikes, and I think I got mine fixed this morning by removing and resealing my cam chain tensioner. Fingers crossed. Things things are however, part of a motorcycle trip. Without these machines there is no way we found that campsite.
So we've jumped into the stream for a swim/bath and are back on the road. Heading towards some volcanos now, should have some nice photos by tomorrow.

At last, INTO the Andes!

Drive west across a continent, headed for mountains; that's what we do
best. We poked around their foothills and enjoyed the cooler weather
until finally, we just dove right in. Also, there was a dam before we
got there. I'm not gonna say that we threw stuff off it but if we
would have, it would've fallen for 8 seconds and made an explosive
BANG! when it hit the bottom.