The Plan

OK, we had decided to go, but when, where, and for how long?

South America is huge, roughly equal to Canada and the USA combined. A 2 to 3 month trip seemed like the minimum. It also made sense to go during our winter when it would be summer south of the equator. However, Dave and Anne lived in Chile for a couple of years in the late 80’s and pointed out that the summer high season starts with the Christmas holidays. Things would be less crowded and less expensive if we started earlier. And we could enjoy spring in the Andes.

As the pandemic wore on, we talked and dreamed, batting ideas back and forth. We decided to focus on Chile and Argentina. That would give us time to explore in depth rather than rushing from place to place. Our goal is to experience the land, people and culture, without spending too much time traversing vast trans-continental distances. Chile and Argentina are also the most developed South American countries, on par with most European nations.

A rough plan began to take shape. We would leave home at the end of October and spend two to three months “on the road” all together – Dave & I doing “Easy Rider” on our bikes, and Liz & Anne in a rental car doing “Thelma & Louise”. Well, hopefully without the driving off the cliff bit, robbing gas stations, or shooting anyone… Anyway, you get the idea.

As the saying goes, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him about your plan.” We’ve had to adjust things continuously as Covid restrictions, airline schedules and other conditions changed, but here’s how things stand as of now.

Peru wasn’t originally on the itinerary, but we got an excellent deal on flights to Lima. And it’s on the way. So we’ll begin the adventure with a week visiting Machu Picchu, and the nearby city of Cuzco. Put another big check mark on the bucket list.

We’ll fly from Cuzco to Santiago, Chile’s capital. Hopefully, the motorcycles will have arrived in the nearby port of San Antonio. Dave and I will deal with customs, registration and insurance, while Anne and Liz pick up their rental car. We’ll head north first, into Chile’s Atacama desert, the driest desert on earth. It’s home to some of the world’s best astronomical observatories, salt flats & flamingoes, vast reserves of copper, lithium and other mineral wealth, vineyards which produce a type of brandy – the Andean firewater known as Pisco, and thousands of kilometers of Pacific coast.

As spring edges into summer, we’ll turn around and will head south of Santiago, through the alpine beauty of Chile’s lake district, wine country, Chiloé Island with it’s wooden churches and rugged coast.


Then we’ll head south along the Carretera Austral, a 1,200 km road through Chilean Patagonia. It’s as far south as you can drive in Chile. (Dave and I have this thing about going to the end of the road.) The road is rough, the area sparsely populated, but the scenery is reputed to be spectacular, with ragged glacier crowned mountains and a string of National Parks along the Carretera’s length. That should take us roughly to the middle of December.

We were recently informed that rental cars are no longer allowed to cross the border, so the plan now calls for Liz and Anne to drop off the car and cross over the Andes, to Argentina by bus. We’ll all rendezvous in the Argentinian resort town of Bariloche. Bariloche is a lot like Banff – skiing in winter; hiking, golf and outdoor adventure in summer. Anyway it looks like a lovely place to spend Anne’s birthday.

One way car rentals are brutally expensive in Argentina, so the ladies will fly north to Mendoza, while Dave and I start up Argentina’s Ruta 40 – another legendary adventure road. The ladies will have to do without us for a couple of days, but seeing as how Mendoza is home to South America’s finest vineyards, I’m sure they’ll manage.

Anne and Liz will pick up another rental car in Mendoza. We’ll spend the weeks over Christmas and New Years touring north-west Argentina. We’ve booked a house in the colonial city of Salta, for Christmas. Other than that, we haven’t set a rigid itinerary. Experience has taught us that being open to suggestions and spontaneous events often leads to the best travel experiences.

Liz and I have decided stay where the weather’s warm and sunny, rather than return to the Canadian winter. So, we’ve rented a house back in Mendoza, Argentina from early January, until the end of March. But, more about that later…

Dave and I may use the Mendoza house as a base for a ride into Bolivia, or perhaps a quick jaunt into Paraguay or Brazil. But he and Anne have children, grandchildren and other obligations, so they’ll return home sometime in mid to late January. I’ll see what kind of trouble I can get myself into as a solo rider for the last couple of months. I hope to make it to Ushuaia, at the southern tip of Argentina, the southern-most city in the world.

We’ll see. As I said, we’re trying to keep things as open as possible. This is truly the trip of a lifetime. Who knows if or when we’ll pass that way again.