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.

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.