Day 2: Orsono to Bariloche, AR
Day 2 was the first day on the motorcycle. About 153 miles from Orsono to Bariloche. Into the Andes mountains!
First job of the morning was to head to the company our motorcycles are rented from. Paperwork to be signed, bikes checked out, and gear added to the bikes if it was brought by the rider. The black bike is the one I'm riding, a Honda CBX 500 twin cylinder, the smallest on the tour. Others include BMW 700's and 1250's, and three Triumph 900's. There are 9 of us on bikes, including our guide, Jeff, a retired Policeman from Los Angeles. Victor is a Chilean who is driving the white pickup chase vehicle. With all our luggage that we do not need on the bikes during the day.
After all the bikes were loaded we headed out. We headed out of town, through farmland, to the Andes mountain range. As we climbed in the mountains it began to rain lightly. The mountains were lush and green. We saw a waterfall. Eventually we came to the first of two large natural lakes in the region. Very picturesque mountains. We also went through two border crossings which involve extensive paperwork, one packet per rider and motorcycle. Border crossings will be a regular part of this trip as we cross back and forth across the Andes from Chile to Argentina and back.
A border crossing station. I got yelled at for taking a picture of the crossing station.
we arrived at the town of Bariloche on the southern end of a very large lake. It is a town geared towards outdoor activities. In the summer there are activities such as white water rafting, etc. in the winter it is near ski resorts and has lots of ski and winter sports stores. There are lots of chocolate shops since the area had a lot of Swiss people immigrate to the region in the 1800's.
We arrived at our hotel, which has an interior courtyard where we could park our motorcycles.
this very nice skateboard park was just down the street from the hotel, and is one of the nicest skateparks I've seen.,
A bit of the Main Street.
After dinner and walking around we came to the old town square, which does have a Swiss feel.
