Technical dificulties

The last five days have been full of incidents. Not a single day has ended without problems!

Day 1, Tierra del Fuego national park, pic 1 and 2:

After admiring the sights in the park, I returned to the bike only to find the rear tire flat. I began looking after the replacement tube and I found out that the correct tube has been mistakenly installed in the front wheel (during the last visit at the tire shop) so actually I had to remove two wheels and take two tires out. In addition to this, I only had compressed air for ONE tube. So I had to ask a tourist to call the park rangers, take the wheels to the fire brigade and use their air compressor to complete the repair.

Day 2, en route from Ushuaia to Rio Grande

Again, flat tire. Air reserve depleted, so once again take the wheel out, hitch-hike back to Ushuaia and then to the bike etc.

Day 3, en route from Rio Gallegos to El Calafate, pic 3 and 4

After riding some 80km suddenly I lost power. After inspecting everything I found out the chain (purchased brand new just 8000km ago and made in Japan) was missing. After a 20 minute search and rescue operation spanning over 1000m we found the chain in the bushes with the master link broken. Of course I had no replacement (since the new chain came with only one master link and the old one was OEM endless type) so I had to stop an empty truck (that took nearly one hour) load the bike, take it back to Rio Gallegos, solve the problem. The driver was so nice, he didn’t even accept our money for the trouble, all he wanted was a bill of Romanian currency for his collection!

Day 4, en route from Rio Gallegos to Caleta Olivia, pic 5

Again, labor strike! I don’t know who and why was protesting this time, but as a result the tankers supplying gasoline to Rio Gallegos area were not allowed to pass. One day earlier, waiting lines at gas stations have been longer than the ones I saw during the first gulf war! But on that day, there were no more lines because there was no more gas to wait for. So we left with only 60% of a full tank, hoping to make it to the first gas station. That was not the case, and we ran out of fuel while in the middle of nowhere and during a storm. But this situation was more tricky than you might think it was: since there was no gasoline in that area, there were also no gasoline fueled cars on the road. Just diesels! So I had to hitch-hike once again until I reached a restaurant were I was lucky enough to find a gasoline powered car that spared 9 liters with us. Nine liters of gasoline might not seem much, but when you are with an empty motorcycle in the middle of nowhere, that’s a fortune!

Day 5, Puerto Madryn

As I stopped in front of a hotel, I noticed the water pump that I replaced in Peru is leaking!!! 🙁 Somehow, everything that is related to Peru is causing delays…

Tags: repairs