came across, to experience them in
the first person. To experience their
culture, their gastronomy, their idio-
syncrasies.
Approximately 6 months later I
reached the end of the world, Ush-
uaia (Tierra del Fuego), after having
crossed Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile
and Argentina. All of them with spec-
tacular places to get to know.
The first country, Ecuador, with its
hundreds of volcanoes surrounding
you every day. Good memories.
Then, Peru and with it, Machu Pi-
chu, one of the main attractions with
its peculiar architectural and land-
scaped features, supported with great
literature regarding the site. This has
made it one of the most popular tour-
ist destinations in the country.
Then came Bolivia and its unfor-
gettable Salar de Uyuni; a sea of salt,
worthy of the best dream a rider can
have about riding a motorcycle. It was
perhaps one of the most extreme situ-
ations I have lived; an accident, walk-
ing several kilometres and being lost,
alone in the desert. I’d also run out of
gas and lost my sleeping bag. A per-
fect day!
Those days that you will never for-
get and that teach you so many things
about life.
The next country was Chile, arriv-
ing in San Pedro de Atacama, one of
the jewels that this country has.
Chile allowed me to ride by one
of the most interesting roads of the
whole trip, the Carretera Austral. Un-
til now quite virgin, but with plans to
pave it and take away all the mysticism
it has. I recommend going as soon as
possible to ride it.
Ushuaia, in Patagonia Argentina, is
in the southernmost part of the plan-
et and it is where the last road of the
continent ends (Route 3). In front you
only have Antarctica. Also called Tier-
ra del Fuego, the area harbours a wild
nature worthy of knowing. Roads of
asphalt and gravel are interspersed
between Patagonian plains and green
TRAVERSE 102
mountains. The only drawback, the
cold.
I continued touring Argentina until
I arrived in Uruguay, a quiet country
that offered the best it has; its people.
Then came Uruguay’s neighbour,
Paraguay, travelling from south to
north until entering the Mato Grosso
do Sul, Brazil.
This immense country was waiting
for us to continue living the adven-
ture with its spectacular and numer-
ous landscapes. I travelled all over the
coast, trying to avoid staying many
days in the big cities (where my ex-
penses increased a lot). Arriving in
Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon
River and deciding to return to Colom-
bia by boat. I had to endure 17 days of
navigation (two Brazilian boats and
2 Peruvian boats), with stops in San-
tarém, Manaus, Tabatinga / Leticia /
Santa Rosa, Iquitos and Yurimaguas.
More than 2 weeks discovering the
ports and villages, where I had time to
think and meditate like never before.