This is a gondala that you can take up to a mountian that over sees the city of Salta, Argentina.  If you have google earth take a look at Salta, and zoom out a little and you can see how amazing the mountians are around here.

 

Well its 3:30am, can’t sleep so I figured it was about time I update the web site.  Not sure if you all noticed the video I made, hope you liked it.  Well Liz and I are still in Salta, yep that’s right still here…  Liz’s bike broke down and we are waiting on the parts from Canada.  I have been amazingly disappointed with shipping companies.  The items all ways seem to make it to South America really quickly but once it touches ground in South America it takes forever.  Liz has been really sick for the last week, so I have been rooming the streets, making videos, buying her chicken soup and reading.  Without riding at this point Liz and I both feel a little lost.  We are both cut out for this and now it seems like I was just born to ride (I think Liz feels the same way).  It’s such an amazing wonderful free feeling.  Sitting in the open air speeding a long.  To those of you that have been on a bike you understand how I feel and to those of you who haven’t… go and get one!  Trust me you will love it.  Since this trip began my friend Lisa is getting her motorcycle license, my dad is buying a bike, my best friend Tom is getting his license and my Mom is even considering it.  It’s great, when I left last fall I had nobody to ride with except for Liz and now when I get home I’m going to have a motorcycle gang, including my mother! How cool is that.  Okay well, back to the trip.  Liz is finally getting better and ready to ride again, as you all know we are out of time and money so the goal is to just haul ass home.  We are going back up into Bolivia then cutting into Peru and back to Ecuador then Colombia to search for a boat.  That’s the plan anyway, it will more likely go like this, we will get robbed in Bolivia and be held up for a week, then get sick in Peru another week, then break down in Ecuador then make it to Colombia just in time for the election and be held up there for a month.  But it will make for interesting reading.  I said to may dad the other day on the phone that we should be able to make it home in 60 days if we don’t have any hold ups and he laughed and said yah but you will have hold ups… That was 20 days ago and in in the same country that conversation took place.  So he was right. Salta and Argentina for that matter is a great place to be stuck.  Argentina is an amazing country, they have great info sturcture, phones, roads, internet, etc. but things are still cheap.  To give you an idea of the price every thing is about the same as Canada but instead of Dollars its Pesos and 1 dollar is 3 pesos.  So a much easier way of saying that is it’s about a third the price.  In Argentina to shake a girls hand is an insult down here, you always kiss them on the cheek.  This is fine but I never find myself in the situation that it is needed; however every guy seems to be able to put themselves in a situation that it is required for them to kiss Liz.  It really is funny how things like that work.  Internet Cafe’s in Argentina are great as well, you can smoke, they serve great coffee, and you can spend about 8 hours on the internet (or one nights sleep to most people) for about 2 dollars.  It’s great.  The part is once again supposed to appear tomorrow, but that’s not to likely.  Liz is feeling much better so if it doesn’t arrive we are off once again on my bike to go check out the rest of Argentina (or a little more).  I have to say it’s nice to stay in one place for a little while; you quickly build community and become a regular instantly.  When I walk down the street now I have to wave to local venders, or go in to an internet café and they go and make me a coffee just how I like it before I have a chance to ask.  I was reading through the paper today and realized that it would have been cheaper to rent our own apartment then to stay in a hotel.  You can get a nice 2 bedroom house here for about $100 a month!  Just makes me question more and more why I live in Canada.  Life is peaceful here, people seem to have there priorities in order.  It’s nice to go and buy fresh food to cook every day; it’s nice to sit and read, to take the time that we all as humans need to think.  I don’t know about you but when I am in Canada life just seems rushed, never seem to have time to do anything.  Not sure what I do or why I do it but I do it a lot.  Just love this sense of community and tranquility.  It’s wonderful.  But on the other hand I can’t wait to get back on my bike and ride like a crazy man and make it home before the snow falls and I don’t have a job anymore.  Well, I hope that next week I will be able to post an interesting story about riding and not waiting around.  Thanks for taking the time to follow the website even when it gets a bit dull.

 

Caleb

Caleb, I know exactly what you are talking about with the "sense of community." I have experienced the same feelings before, most recently when I was in Peru for the two weeks. And just like you, there were people whom I would wave to and exchange greetings after being there only a few days. And also just like you, I sometimes want to live in a place that somehow seems much easier in many ways than where I do. If it were not for my kids and grandkids, I would probably move out of the US, to Mexico, Costa Rica, or even perhaps Peru.

Anyway, I really enjoy your writing and I hope you get Liz's bike back in working order real soon.

Hi Cal & Liz,

I know how it is when your waiting for a bike part, but when you want to be on the move, it must really drag.

About riding fast... I'll tell you short story. When I was in my first or second year of riding, (1978 or 1979) I used to love leaving work at midnight on a friday night and ride out to my parents cottage on West Lake, near Picton, riding from Pickering, it takes about 2 hours.

This one great summer night I was flying down hwy. 33 near Picton at about 1:45am on a pitch black road going about 75 mph, (it was mph in those days), when all of a sudden, in the blink of an eye, a huge raccoon bolted across the road and plowed into my gear shifter. The impact jerked my to the extreme edge of the road and nearly made me lose it.

I stopped and found that my gear shifter was ripped off and my foot peg bent backward, however my foot itself was unhurt. The raccoon was nowhere to be seen.

I'm not trying to preach or anything like that, but I may have seen that coon on the side of the road if I wasn't going so fast, (and 75 mph isn't that fast), so take your time, you've got a long long way to go still, and who knows what might be lurking ready to jump out at you, but at normal speeds you'll have a much better chance to react. By the way, the posted speed limit on that road was 40 mph.

Ride safe, Have fun, Gord