I am considering taking a month off in February 2010 to bike sole (and possibly two up, wife) in Patagonia (BMW GSA 2008).

This is the rough itinerary so far:
1. Shipping myself + motorcycle to Santiago, Chile
2. Head down to Ushuaia (route 40 or carretera austral)
3. Head back up through route 3 to Buenos Aires (
4. Head up to Sao Paulo through the coast (motevideo, porto alegre, florianopolis, curitiba)
5. Ship myself + motorcycle back to NYC

The total length is around 9186 Km.

- Is 4 weeks enough for that? It seems a bit tight since that would be a daily distance of 300Km. What is a good average for an easy going pace?
- Is NYC-Santiago and Sao Paulo - NYC good options in terms of shipping, specially costs? Last time I checked it would cost me around UDS 2K each way.
- The idea is to cross the aconcagua towards mendoza and south through route 40. Is is better/worthwhile go south straight from Santiago and cross over to argentina somewhere around bariloche and then continue down route 40? Or should I take route 40 south from mendoza and then cross over into chile in Chico Chile and then back through roballos?
- Is is a better option to go from El Calafate to Puerto Natales then Punta Arenas (are there ferrys?)? Or a better option to take route 5 to Rio Gallegos and down to Ushuaia?
- Should I bother with Mar del Plata on the way back up through route 3?

I am expecting to be flexible while on the trip, just want to have a sense of what are the better options based on your experiences.

Sorry for the barrage of questions and thanks for any help (first timer here).

-- lemao