Strewth, the big day has arrived.
Ol Kiwi is about to hit the road for a 2000 Km drive to cover the FAI F3A world championships in Argentina. Yep video camera, still cameras, laptops, were a travellin CNN guys.
Let me tell you a few stories about Argentina.
First off they have darn good beer and darned good wines available.
The eye candy is kinda sweet and not too tough on the old eyeballs at all.
If you ever get invited to a BBQ dont be a mug. Never say no as these dudes know how to make a feed from dead cows and birds.
Oh did I mention they have some pretty good beers and wines available.
If all goes to plan we will roll out of here tomorrow afternoon and head on into the Atacama desert as far as San Pedro de Atacama. This is a really old community and they have found ruins that date back over 12,000 years. Actually that puts the kybosh on the theory about the dudes migrating down through Alaska from Siberia etc unless they had a bullet train to get here in those days. DNA evidence points to the most likely or closest DNA match coming from Egypt. Maybe that explains the pyramids and temples and stuff found down this way.
Well we will camp out in the old hillbilly truck someplace in the desert Friday night so we can attack the Andes passes with some sparkle in the eyes early in the morning. The pass we are taking on is all paved road but it runs along for a good few hours at 15,000 feet. Thats high and lesson No1 is dont turn the old diesel off up there and let it get cold. If you do it just might not fire up again for you without a lot of effort.
Once we get over the hump and into Argentina we will pass by Salta and with luck be able to add to the blog from there. Hopefully we can make it to within 600 or 700 Km's from Santa Fe on Saturday so we get an easy run into the competition field Sunday afternoon.
Were all pumped up ready to go. RED BULL in bulk is on the ice. Santa Fe look out, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Ol Kiwi is about to hit the road for a 2000 Km drive to cover the FAI F3A world championships in Argentina. Yep video camera, still cameras, laptops, were a travellin CNN guys.
Let me tell you a few stories about Argentina.
First off they have darn good beer and darned good wines available.
The eye candy is kinda sweet and not too tough on the old eyeballs at all.
If you ever get invited to a BBQ dont be a mug. Never say no as these dudes know how to make a feed from dead cows and birds.
Oh did I mention they have some pretty good beers and wines available.
If all goes to plan we will roll out of here tomorrow afternoon and head on into the Atacama desert as far as San Pedro de Atacama. This is a really old community and they have found ruins that date back over 12,000 years. Actually that puts the kybosh on the theory about the dudes migrating down through Alaska from Siberia etc unless they had a bullet train to get here in those days. DNA evidence points to the most likely or closest DNA match coming from Egypt. Maybe that explains the pyramids and temples and stuff found down this way.
Well we will camp out in the old hillbilly truck someplace in the desert Friday night so we can attack the Andes passes with some sparkle in the eyes early in the morning. The pass we are taking on is all paved road but it runs along for a good few hours at 15,000 feet. Thats high and lesson No1 is dont turn the old diesel off up there and let it get cold. If you do it just might not fire up again for you without a lot of effort.
Once we get over the hump and into Argentina we will pass by Salta and with luck be able to add to the blog from there. Hopefully we can make it to within 600 or 700 Km's from Santa Fe on Saturday so we get an easy run into the competition field Sunday afternoon.
Were all pumped up ready to go. RED BULL in bulk is on the ice. Santa Fe look out, you ain't seen nothing yet.
10th of November and over the Andes for the first time.
Posted 11-24-2007 at 09:41 PM by Kiwi
With a good nights sleep under the belt it was a dingoes breakfast (pee and a quick look around) and into the frontier post for the formalities. Customs, immigration all Ok and off we sailed.
Now the road from San Pedro is all paved and weaves its way along the borders of Bolivia and Argentina. You can take your pick which country you want to visit. Just turn left for Bolivia. But we were on a mission to make Argentina, again with no map, a Garmin handheld GPS that had some roads marked in the map but still no idea what we were heading into at all.
Departing the frontier the road was all uphill. The night was spent at 8000 ft and we soon topped out at over 10,000 soon after leaving SP. Thinking we doing OK son N01, who was commissioned to take the photos, decided hunger was no way to die and proceeded to knock up a sandwich. Luckily I had topped up with Red Bull in the morning so was in autopilot and not hungry.
Well we passed 10,000 in short time and soon seen 12,000 go onto the GPS screen. Then the sandwich hit. Something had been a bit crook in the filling and the young one called me to halt while the barfing went out the window. Thinking the barf had cured him I carried on, no mercy shown. Well soon we passed 14,000 and the lad sick from the crook tucker was now stricken with altitude sickness. Crikey he was not looking to cool at all but again Dad is about as merciless as a darned hangman so I told the little bugger it would not be long and we would be dropping altitude and he would be OK.
Stone the crows, soon we had the GPS showing 15,000 ft above sea level and still I could see we had some more up to go before got to go down. He was crooker than a robbers dog by this time but Dad, thats me, reckoned if we were going to make Argentina and the world champs then he better hang in.
Finally we hit 15.800 feet and I could see we were on the down hill run. All this had us about an hour or more so I figured that seeing as we were going down hill it wouldn't be long and would start breathing again.
WRONG!!!!!! assumption. Two hours later we arrived at the Argentinian frontier post. Still at 13,000 feet ASL. He was puking foam by this time and I think he must have been close to an inverted sphincter failure. Well we passed customs and immigration and the guys reckoned the young one needed some local herbs to conquer the altitude effects. So out we went to the little lady sitting in the tea shop, all 4 ft by 4ft were he was promptly dosed with a big mug of hot tea made from Coca leaf. Yep the stuff those guys sniff up the nose, same plant, but in tea form it really helps combat altitude sickness. Its quiet legal and sold in shops in the tea bag form. Well that helped and he went from barfing foam to barfing up luke warm coca tea.
Me, once again having no darned idea what the heck was ahead just kept going. I mean FG had me on a mission, we had to have coverage of the world champs, altitude sickness or not, we could not be stopped.
Ok lets look back here. 1.5 hours climbing up to 15,800, two hours at over 13,000 until we got to the border. It had to be downhill from there right??
WRONG!!!!! Another two hours at 13,000 and we finally arrived at this horrendous zigzag decline. Hells bells when we broached the top and seen where had to go down I almost joined the boy with sphincter problems. It was no place for a brake failure so our trusty steed was placed in second gear and down hill she went. We entered the top of that decline at 13,800 feet and about 50 minutes later rolled out the bottom at 7000 ft. They say that part of the road is a world heritage thing. I believe them as man it must have taken some skill to build a road up it in the first place.
Funny thing about all this altitude stuff is between 11,000 and 14,000 ft the place is teaming with wild life. Vicuna's, ducks, Llamas, Alpacas and even Nandu. Thats a South American Ostrich that a lot of people dont even know exists. They do trust me. So Africa, Australia and South America have these large birds. New Zealand had them as well but the conservation conscious natives made them extinct even before the white blokes arrived there so it gives some credence to the fact that all these continents must have been joined together at some previous point in history.
Now the road from San Pedro is all paved and weaves its way along the borders of Bolivia and Argentina. You can take your pick which country you want to visit. Just turn left for Bolivia. But we were on a mission to make Argentina, again with no map, a Garmin handheld GPS that had some roads marked in the map but still no idea what we were heading into at all.
Departing the frontier the road was all uphill. The night was spent at 8000 ft and we soon topped out at over 10,000 soon after leaving SP. Thinking we doing OK son N01, who was commissioned to take the photos, decided hunger was no way to die and proceeded to knock up a sandwich. Luckily I had topped up with Red Bull in the morning so was in autopilot and not hungry.
Well we passed 10,000 in short time and soon seen 12,000 go onto the GPS screen. Then the sandwich hit. Something had been a bit crook in the filling and the young one called me to halt while the barfing went out the window. Thinking the barf had cured him I carried on, no mercy shown. Well soon we passed 14,000 and the lad sick from the crook tucker was now stricken with altitude sickness. Crikey he was not looking to cool at all but again Dad is about as merciless as a darned hangman so I told the little bugger it would not be long and we would be dropping altitude and he would be OK.
Stone the crows, soon we had the GPS showing 15,000 ft above sea level and still I could see we had some more up to go before got to go down. He was crooker than a robbers dog by this time but Dad, thats me, reckoned if we were going to make Argentina and the world champs then he better hang in.
Finally we hit 15.800 feet and I could see we were on the down hill run. All this had us about an hour or more so I figured that seeing as we were going down hill it wouldn't be long and would start breathing again.
WRONG!!!!!! assumption. Two hours later we arrived at the Argentinian frontier post. Still at 13,000 feet ASL. He was puking foam by this time and I think he must have been close to an inverted sphincter failure. Well we passed customs and immigration and the guys reckoned the young one needed some local herbs to conquer the altitude effects. So out we went to the little lady sitting in the tea shop, all 4 ft by 4ft were he was promptly dosed with a big mug of hot tea made from Coca leaf. Yep the stuff those guys sniff up the nose, same plant, but in tea form it really helps combat altitude sickness. Its quiet legal and sold in shops in the tea bag form. Well that helped and he went from barfing foam to barfing up luke warm coca tea.
Me, once again having no darned idea what the heck was ahead just kept going. I mean FG had me on a mission, we had to have coverage of the world champs, altitude sickness or not, we could not be stopped.
Ok lets look back here. 1.5 hours climbing up to 15,800, two hours at over 13,000 until we got to the border. It had to be downhill from there right??
WRONG!!!!! Another two hours at 13,000 and we finally arrived at this horrendous zigzag decline. Hells bells when we broached the top and seen where had to go down I almost joined the boy with sphincter problems. It was no place for a brake failure so our trusty steed was placed in second gear and down hill she went. We entered the top of that decline at 13,800 feet and about 50 minutes later rolled out the bottom at 7000 ft. They say that part of the road is a world heritage thing. I believe them as man it must have taken some skill to build a road up it in the first place.
Funny thing about all this altitude stuff is between 11,000 and 14,000 ft the place is teaming with wild life. Vicuna's, ducks, Llamas, Alpacas and even Nandu. Thats a South American Ostrich that a lot of people dont even know exists. They do trust me. So Africa, Australia and South America have these large birds. New Zealand had them as well but the conservation conscious natives made them extinct even before the white blokes arrived there so it gives some credence to the fact that all these continents must have been joined together at some previous point in history.
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Comments
 |  Some photos of the passage.Really we should have had a lot more but given the young one was dying from lack of oxygen I will forgive him a little. But hang in as I have a lot more of the trip down into Santa Fe, the event and drive back home. Yep another 15,000 ft pass but a different one this time. |
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Recent Blog Entries by Kiwi
- I am not too smart with these blog things (11-24-2007)
- 10th of November and over the Andes for the first time. (11-24-2007)
- Better late than never. (11-24-2007)
- Argentina Santa Fe or BUST!! (11-08-2007)
