South America Motorcycle Expedition Stage 2

On motorcycle trips through South America, you experience the enormous diversity of the eighth largest country on Earth, Argentina. Argentina stretches over 3,700 km from the tropics in the north to the sub-Antarctic islands and Tierra del Fuego in the south. From tropical rainforests to endless pampas in the west and center, to snow-covered mountains in Patagonia, almost all types of landscapes are represented in astonishing dimensions. 160 km beyond the border towards Salta, we pass the beautiful colonial village of Humahuaca. In Cafayete, we take the time to visit the Museum of High Mountain Archaeology. Here, there is an incredible find to marvel at, namely three children who were found frozen on one of the highest volcanoes in the area! These three frozen children have been recovered and are now on display in a huge refrigerator. In Cachi, we join the famous dream road Ruta 40, which starts a little further north and winds along the Andes down to Patagonia throughout Argentina. Between Cafayete and Chilecito, we follow and cross some routes of the various Dakar Rallies that took place in South America from 2009 to 2019. Along the way, we pass the amphitheater, a rock massif. The so-called "white desert" and other bizarre desert landscapes were stages of the Dakar Rally. We drive a marathon stage of almost 600 km to Mendoza through the Talampaya National Park and through deserts with giant rock sculptures. We take a rest day in Mendoza and can visit a vineyard nearby to taste the Argentine Malbec wines. Another marathon stage of over 630 km awaits us and leads us south into the mountains. We cross the Andes from east to west and pass the border into Chile.

We have arrived in the vast plains of the Argentine Pampa and it becomes abruptly dry. At an Argentine Estancia, we will prepare a typical “Cordero asado” in his “sheep hall” in the evening together with the owner and enjoy it. Across endless Pampa, we repeatedly cross turquoise, wonderful rivers that originate from the glaciers of the Andes. Endless areas where you only occasionally see a few sheep, which are the only economic source of income in the area besides oil. We increasingly approach the snow-capped mountains, where we can see the mystical Fitzroy Mountain in the distance. In the Perito Moreno National Park, we look at the famous glacier of the same name. This is a glacier that pushes against a mountain nose and thereby forms a huge lake on the left side, which then rises over the years and eventually breaks through when the water level has reached the necessary height. This is still one of the few glaciers that flows forward while most glaciers in the world only melt away.

At the border crossing in Tierra del Fuego from Chile to Argentina, we have to carry out all border formalities again, which will take us some time. From the border, we are heading back into the mountains one last time over the Andes Cordillera, climbing westwards to the Garibaldi Pass. Here we have a magnificent view of the fjords of the southern continent. In Ushuaia on the Beagle Channel, we have then reached, after about 7,000 km, the southernmost navigable city in the world.