My mantra: "Ride the world"

You might wonder about the title of this blog, but there are good reasons to call it like this.

1. Being back in Europe since a couple of days now, I still do not perceive this journey as „finished“. Of course, I could say „Been there; done that!“, but this would not express the mode I have. There were so many things that I experienced, that I have seen, listened to, tasted, smelled, … it will take a while to order and store that in my brain.

2. My motorbike is not back yet. Honestly, I have not even asked the company, when it will arrive (currently the weather in Europe does not really cause any motivation riding a motorbike at all). But once back in the harbour, it still needs to come home; either by tire or by trailer. I see that as a part of this journey and I am sure it will cause some emotions too.

3. When dropping the bike at San Antonio and jumping on a flight to Leipzig, I promised Vivi and myself that this is not a break-off, but only an interruption of the South-America-adventure. In a few years, we will ship two motorbikes to South America and jointly continue with the journey towards Bolivia, Peru, and maybe some other countries.

Nonetheless, I am happy to give some kind of summary covering the past weeks.

Metrics

From the beginning of December until the end the of January I drove on 32 days through South America. Overall, the motorbike made 10‘417 kilometres on that part of the globe. This is a mean of 325 km per day. However, the variance was enormous: the minimum km per day was approximately 40, whereas the maximum was 780. Another 16 days I was not driving at all – I used this time for recreations, as you can imagine 😂

I drove approximately 2’000 km on gravel roads. That sounds nice and easy, but I can confirm that not every of these kilometres was joyful!

Overall, I burned more than 500 litres of fuel and used two sets of tires. You can ask, whether it was worth doing so. I will not answer that question, because I have never thought about the cost of this journey and will not do it; neither now nor in the future.

I crossed the border between Chile and Argentina six times. Every time the process was a slightly different: in San Sebastián I had to queue for two hours, whereas at the Paso Roballos I was the only person at the military checkpoint and only the sixth person crossing this sector of the border during three consecutive days.

Memories

When looking back, I do not care so much about the metrics, i.e. quantities, during this journey, but more about quality of experiences. At this point, I have to admit that I learned a lot along all these experiences, and first and foremost I am extremely grateful for all of them!

As already mentioned earlier, I feel stronger and clearer in mind, persuaded to reach an aim, when I want to. I also revised my definition of „value“ – in regards to time, space, money, etc. Especially the latter one doesn’t help you at all, when there is nothing around apart from steppe. A small shelter, some fresh water and a little bit of food is all you need before having a good sleep at the end of an exhausting day. That usually does not cost a fortune, but might require some trust from a landlord or owner of the only premises around you.

The beauty of Patagonia was overwhelming! Also the riding of a motorbike in that area is absolutely amazing. The mind-blowing sceneries caught me and left strong marks in my memories. Once having been there, you always want to come back again. I am curious for the period I can withstand.

Last but not least, I learned a lot about my relationship to Vivi. Although we discussed many things beforehand like the great opportunity of doing this once in your life and the necessity to start this journey for various reasons, real life comes along with surprise and rarely follows your plans. We already anticipated that being separated by 13000 km is a challenge, which requires some kind of „good management“. However, it turned out that both of us finally reached the individual limit of what can be managed. Long story short: we started counting days and hours before reunion. This order of priority – better being at home together than exploring the world alone – was not new but became more obvious during the journey. I am extremely grateful to Vivi, who pushed me into this adventure and let me endeavour not only South America but also myself. Certainly a “once in my life” that I will never forget. Vivi, I love you 😘

More?

Most likely this is my last post about my trip to South America. If you want to read, hear or see more about South America, you can follow some of those people I met during my trip. They also provide nice pictures, exciting videos and valuable insides.

Jaime is living in the area of Rancagua. He is mostly riding in Chile and perfectly knows, what kind of terrain is good for his BMW R 1200 GS Adventure

https://youtube.com/@moto.explora

Eric is from Germany and currently travelling somewhere in Argentina (initially I met him in Chile). His videos (usually in German language) are full of information and very helpful in case you are planning a similar trip!

https://youtube.com/@spurwexel

Marisa is travelling in South America on her BMW R 1200 GS. She sometimes looks like a local in her videos, but she’s from Spain. Her videos (in Spanish) nicely depict the beauty of Chile and Argentina. I am curious to see, where she is heading to in the next months.

https://youtube.com/@Moto_adicta