Welcome to the Coolest Zoo I have ever been to.

I walk past this at the entry…

And go straight to the Tigers!

Tigers!

Is this cool or WHAT!

I was in with the elephants all of about 1 minute when they broke out (see the tine electric wide holding them in place?) and the  guy shouted for me to get out of the elephant area. I wasn’t too concerned for my welfare, as the poor beasts really just wanted some fresh grass an trotted away. Pretty cool, but being underfoot would not have been.

Next I visited the camels. I declined a ride on one, instead I opted for petting and feeding them. Thanks, Carolyn, for the introduction to them in Texas. I wasn’t scared when they sniffed me real up close and personal.

No too much excitement here…so I didn’t go in.

Ducks bathing in the buffalo water…

This gal cracked me up…a little disheveled are we?

The on to the BIG tigers!

These are the two year olds…6 tigers with 1 lioness thrown into the mix.

Seems innocent enough in the picture…

But then the female lioness started growling and rubbing on me like a house cat. Now unlike a house cat, this lioness rubbed on my HIPS and not my ankles…further, I did not understand the grumbling noises she was making…Further, the handler kept telling her to knock it off.

OKAY, ENOUGH FOR ME! I asked to be let out of the cage before some instinct of mine, or worse, theirs, took over and things got ugly.

But dang! Talk about a once in a lifetime experience!

OK, so on to the bears:

I took a whole bunch of pictures of them, but mostly had fun feeding them raisins.

What a day!

If you ever get to Buenos Aires, make it a point to go to the Lujan Zoo. It’s an hour and a half out of town, but there’s a bus, and  it is so worthwhile. Try to hit it on a weekday, too. I was able to spend an hour in with the 6 month old tigers, whereas marty went on a weekend and spent 5 minutes in with them.

http://www.zoolujan.com/

May 9-18, 2010

Well, let me tell you, 10 days is a looooooooooooooooooong time to sit in one spot after traveling for over a year (and 7+ months of it in Latin America for me)!

Let me tell you, 10 days is a looooooooooooooooooong time to stay in a city when you are not a “city” person!

Let me tell you, 10 days is a looooooooooooooooooong time to sit in one spot after traveling for over a year (and 7+ months of it in Latin America for me).

Let me tell you, 10 days is a looooooooooooooooooong time for someone used to being alone to be c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t-l-y in the shared company of others.

Let me tell you, 10 days is a looooooooooooooooooong time to be with a bunch of guys, not many of them very neat, OR very considerate, sometimes 10+ at time, living in a motorcycle repair shop with 4 bunks and a shared kitchen in it!

And, let me tell you, 10 days is a looooooooooooooooooong time to sit waiting for a flight back to the USA to be reunited with your boyfriend that you have not seen in 7+ months!

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I entertained myself by going downtown with Jonas and Eduardo.

ha! This is INSIDE the Burger King! (NEVER in the USA!)

Swedes are the BEST!

Jonas enjoying the free internet (Swedes are the BEST!)

The Swedes (who are the BEST) and Justin bring their bikes to the airport the day before I do. The Swedes are on Dakar 650’s they shipped over and rode in Argentina and Chile for  6+ months, and Jeremiah is pictures here with his Triumph Tiger. He shops his motorbike to the States the day after I do. Busy week at Dakar Motos I guess. They help all motorbike travelers who request their services coming into and out of Buenos Aires. Sandra helps with import / export and Javier is a great mechanic. They’ve developed quite a business and a good reputation there in the outskirts of BA..

Here’s Justin shipping his interim KLR back to the States:

Eduardo.

Jonas (Swedes are the BEST) (the reason I developed the irritating “Swedes are BEST” habit)

Justin.

Yes, now there’s more room in the workshop to admire MY ride…

So while they are at the airport, I go and bet my bike cleaned for travel. They charge me $8 and it is s-p-o-t-l-e-s-s!

Next day, here’s my pre-airport beauty shot…

Last ride in South America…BA freeway!

…and I gauge my gas usage perfectly…the bike runs out of gas in the cargo area!!

I wasn’t supposed to take pictures inside the airport, but I snuck a few…I took the front wheel off in order to make the bike “smaller” and hopefully cost less money in shipping, since they measure actual weight and cubic weight, and charge you whatever is more.

After the bike was secured, battery disconnected, riding gear thrown in,and “inspected” by Argentinian customs,

they shrunk-wrapped the bike…

Then they put these labels on it…

Whoops! Bike’s not going to Denver, it should be going to Seattle!!!

Then the guys took me to this crazy office  where all the customs brokers work…

From here I called one of the fellows I’d met in Bolivia (see THIS post) that invited me for Parilla when I got to Buenos Aires. I met them for lunch at the airport–turns out that two of the four work at the airport.

Then made my way back to Dakar Motos, and the Swedes, since they are the BEST!

And for some reason Justin decided to do some bike maintenance after dark (I think alcohol was involved, too!)

Javier working late fixing a traveler’s bike…

Next day, I went back into Downtown BA to pay for the shipment. I tell you it was VERY nerve-wracking to be walking around with $1500 in my pocket! I felt like a target the whole time.

Here’s the famous obelisk.

7 lanes going one way? Eek?

I ended up taking myself to a Hollywood movie, “Robin Hood” with Russell Crowe.
(Countdown to seeing Edward: 8 days)

It was after dark when I re-emerged from the Cinema, so I took a leisurely stroll along the pedestrian mall (holding tight to my camera and wallet!)

Next Day, Parilla with the Argentines!

It was kind of a blustery day, but that did not stoop the wind-warriors on the lake.

A powered bicycle!

My friends. Sheesh, they are so fun, such good friends with each other, and so hard to understand! Even a week in Argentina and I am still having trouble with the Argentinian accent. Usually “ll” is pronounces “y”  but in Argentina it’s pronounced “J”.  Oofa.

Then it’s back to Dakar Motos.

And Jonas the Swede (who is the BEST!)

And sometime in all of this Marty shows up. Marty  is  this cool kid (I can say this because technically I am old enough to be his mother) and is larger than life. Literally, at 6.4 I met Marty in Cali, Colombia, where he was just starting his trip.  He’d ridden with Ben (www.afewmoremiles.com) who I’d met up with in Central America. Marty had an incredible adventure in the Salar, barely getting out alive, and here he shows up at Dakar Motos at the same time as me.

Marty tells me about a zoo he’s heard about where you can pet the tigers. I’m in!

And that’s tomorrow’s adventure…

http://rumbum.com/1009-argentinian-shakedown

May 8, 2010

Believe me, I was eager to get everything all set and get out of Posadas (Paraguay) after being robbed.  Big Bridge separating the two countries.

One of the MANY things I enjoy abut traveling on a motorbike is all the, er, liberties you can take.

Take this line, for instance…loooooooooooooooooooooooooong. With a motorbike? PASS THEM ALL! Ha! Shaved an hour off my border crossing, and at that point I was just feeling ornery enough to not give a hoot…

Well, here’s a darned civilized way to cross a border…nice orderly lines (except those crazy motorbikes that pass everyone), everyone waiting their turn rather than cleverly cutting each other in line, etc.

Welcome to Argentina! Welcome to order. Welcome to a funny accent that takes a bit to train your ears to.  Welcome to high prices!

Welcome to flat, straight roads.

Welcome to…………………

……………………………………………………………….PARILLA!

Parilla is loosely translated as Bar-B-Que (although without the BBQ sauce).

Oofa, I did not realize that this on was all-you-can-eat. I got STUFFED!!!

No more pics that day, I was in a just-been-robbed funk.

http://rumbum.com/1138-the-kindness-of-strangers

May 6, 2010

I’d spent about 4 hours on the internet last night, then finished off a cheesy novel in my room reading until the wee hours. Next morning I went to breakfast a little on the late side, wrote some emails over coffee, then went out to my bike.

It was something like out of a bad movie…all my panniers were open, and I just stood there staring at it for a few moments…how could my panniers be open when I had not been out to the bike yet…

then it hit me: I WAS ROBBED!

I ran back into the hotel and told the front desk guy to call the police. he didn’t rather he followed me out to the bike, which I’d parked in the hotel parking lot, where the owner was just pulling in. SHE told him to call the cops and he finally did. Then she yelled at ME!

I guess I can say they were nice robbers because they left my credit cards and my passport…but they stole all the souvenirs I’d bought for people back home, plus my cold weather clothing, plus some cool tools, PLUS about $1000 in cash. Everyone asks why I had that much cash on the bike, and it was because I needed $1500+ cash for shipping the bike back…and the ATMs would only give me $190/day for some reason, so I was stockpiling. At any other point in the trip the most they would have gotten was less than $200.

Why did I have the cash on the bike? Because two travelers had told me how their hotel rooms were robbed. I had the money split between my person, my luggage, and on the bike. Ugh. What a blow. I spent the day filing a ‘denuncio‘ with the police, getting my locks fixed, canceling my credit cards (I did not realize yet that I still had the credit cards) and getting the bike locks fixed since I did not want to go through the border with an UN-lockable bike.

At one point the police got a call from the hotel owner and we went back to the hotel–it looked like the robbers tried to take my goody bag an throw it over the fence to hide the evidence, but it got caught in the barbed wire so the bag fell back into the back lot of the “secure” parking lot. Here’s what I found:

The nice guy at the locksmith charged me $6 to fix all three locks…it took him two hours because he had to go all over town to find cylinders that were close. He still had to drill out the locks so the new cylinders would fit!

Here I am at the police station:

)(*(*^&*&%$$%$#@!!!!!!!

Leaving town (finally!)

Leaving Paraguay:

http://rumbum.com/1122-detours-to-machu-picchu

May 3, 2010

It was a lovely, and long, and rather hot ride to Tebicuary. Robert Rolón  had invite me to stay with his family there, and tour the sugar can mill he worked at. I was really impressed my the countryside–gone was the dismal, trash-strewn roadside, but clean, kept, and with large ranches proudly displaying their names and the products they produced. German influence  meets Latin America, and it kept me wondering why other areas I’d traveled through had such a hard time keeping themselves organized and clean, when Paraguay, the poorest country in South America, was so neat and orderly.

Because I love bathroom humor.  But really.  Just WHAT was I supposed to do with this hose?

Mennonites.

Note to self: NO MORE BEEF!!!

I got completely and utterly turned around in Villarica. I was supposed to meet up with the folks that I had dinner with in Concepcion, but that went out the window with my 5 laps of Villarica. I ended up asking a taxi driver how to get out of town, and he was nice enough to lead me (for free) to the highway. Sheesha. I was in a state by the time I left town.

I got to Roberto’s late, and he’d arranged for me to speak at the local high school. So he bundled his family into the car and I followed them on the bike to the school where I met with about 50+ kids in two separate groups. We talked about cancer prevention, supporting your loved ones through a diagnosis, a bit about my travels, and about wearing all your protective gear while riding a motorbike.  It’s a real problem in Paraguay ALL the kids seem to have a scooter, and so few wear any protective gear at all.

May 4, 2010

Roberto and his family are so lovely–I was so tired that night as we went to bed about midnight. The poor people kept the house and kids so quiet in the morning that I slept until 9:30!!! I was mortified, but I guess I was in sore need of a good bed and a restful place to sleep.

Here’s the little one with her Terere:

A tour of the sugar mill:

On-site church

Cane Trucks waiting to gain entry into the mill.

LUNCH!

I got a late start that day — I think I left around 2 or 3. Hindsight says I really should have stayed over another night, but I did not want to be a burden on the family. Plus, I counted the days and I still had much of Paraguay I wanted to see. Too bad, because things went from bad to worse the  next few days.

http://rumbum.com/1104-broken-bones

http://rumbum.com/1085-mechanical-meltdown