hola amigos
the road from concepcion,tucuman to andalgala,catamarca,is a must if you love ripio and scenerie,lot's of hair pin bends and loose gravel.
in conection with cafayate,tafi del valle, concepcion,andalgala,belen,cafayate it's a nice round trip and wortwhile a detour.
all the best geri

Just went from the border with Ecuador at Ipiales to Popayan yesterday for a lovely 300+kms of muchas curvas peligrosas y sinuosas, with some potholes, rockslides and oncoming lorry action to add some spice - a lovely road and highly recommended....

...all the way to Medellin from Cali is pretty spectacular too....

The road from Huancayo (in the Peruvian Andes) to Ayacucho to Andahuaylas is rugged, yet awesome! Here are a few pics:






Toby (charapa) Around the Block 2007 |

__________________
http://www.aroundtheblockmotoadventures.com/
'We build the bike (in Peru) for your Epic Ride of South America.'

The road around Volcano Tungurahura in Banos, Ecuador to Puyo.

Tungurahua, Ecuador. photo - rtwrider photos at pbase.com

Nice twisty riding. Make sure you stop at the little Italian joint for lunch.

The only downside is the long dark unlit tunnels with buckets of water dumping from the ceiling.....I certainly did not ride through them mumbling MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY in a high pitched voice.

AR Ruta 68 from Calayate towards Salta to Alemania the Qubreda de los Chochos was super fun a couple of days ago. Brilliant twisties amongst stunning redrock scenery. Take a relaxing ride through seeing the sites the turn around a buzz straight through all the curves. I had so much fun in a 5km strech that I found myself going back to take pics, but ended up going through twice more.

AR ruta 33 from Cachi to Salta is also special. A spectacular (some ripio some asphalta) pass leads from redrock desert to verdant forest in about 50 km and finishes with 50km more of brilliant tight twisties. Going from Calfayate to Cachi you get a little sand, charming villages, strange sandstone formations, a serious mountain pass and verdant forest in a single day.

AR Ruta de Siete Lagos from San Martin to Bariloche is spectacular. It could take 4.5 hrs ridden through, but I ended up taking the better part of two days.

__________________
India Himal, 3mo,2x; Kazak/Krygyz/Tajik, 3 mo; Kashi-Lhasa, China 219! 6 wk; Nepal, 4 days/trekked 55; Santiago-Ushuia-Cusco, 7 mo; Peru, 3 mo; Chile-Medellin 3 mo; Medillin-Arica, 3 mo

I'll list three because South America is too big for just one.

The road from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, to Jama, Argentina. 100 miles. I liked it so much, I did it three times. I left San Pedro at 6 AM, arrived in Jama at about 10- stopping for tons of pics. I had a cup of coffee (with a fly in it- made me vomit), then I rode back to San Pedro de Atacama. I gassed up (thanking the gods of gas tanks for my 11 gallons) and rode as fast as I dared (100 mph, baby!) back to Jama. I think the road tops out around 16,500 feet.

The road from Nasca to Cusco. Holy shit this was ****ing epic. I've heard it described as beautiful but it kicked my ass. At one point coming around a curve there was a bus down a cliff a few hundred feet. People were building a shrine. They said 28 people died. I hit a bad stretch of potholes and broke my speedo cable. I rode the whole thing in one sitting- 660 km. I saw my first flamingos. Amazing and the hardest ride I have ever done.

The road from Rio Gallegos to Ushuaia- and back. On the way back, leaving Ushuaia, the snow on the mountains is amazing. The views were kind of like the Rocky Mountains in the fall- only more beautiful and more amazing. Snow covered jagged peaks and red forests and perfect road, except for about 100 miles of ripio in the rain with the mud coming off in a fine bloody mist. And it was windy. I finished the ripio completely covered in red mud. The mud stuck to the exhaust on the bike and it's still there, even though I'm with the bike in Wisconsin. The mud baked on like fancy ceramic.

There were other great roads- if we can count Central America, I really liked the road from San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, to La Mesilla. And the coast in El Salvador was nice. Add all of Colombia.

__________________
Latin America Ride Report
Wisconsin to Alaska Ride Report

I have to agree but would extend the recommendation from Jama to Purmamarca (Ruta 52). This route, over the Passo de Jama, must certainly be one of the most scenic routes in SA.

I completed this route yesterday and took 2 days to do this ride. My average speed was dictated mostly by the amount of stops I made for photos. It is certainly doable in one day. The whole route is paved.

I stayed in a nice hotel in Susques, located next to the highway.

There are plenty of service/gas stations on this route: Tilcara (20 km north of Hwy 52), Susques, Jama, and of course, San Pedro de Atacama.

Argentinian Immigration & Customs are at Jama and the Chilean officials are in San Pedro de Atacama.

Enjoy!

__________________
» “What do you expect to find there? Well, if I knew, I wouldn’t go there!” — Jacques Cousteau

on the map this just looks like the shortest way from the argentine border to uyuni, but it is a great road if you up for an adventure and can hack the 40-odd km of grotty corrugations at the uyuni end.
it's dirt all the way, goes over 4000m and stays up there, gives you every surface from good gravel to clay, bulldust, some deep sand (and plenty of other sand) river crossings, llamas, mining traffic, a welcoming town (atocha) at the 200km mark, and best of all, about 15 or 20km of sandy riverbed, with flowing water! first you go downstream, then up! not to mentiond mad scenery.
we just did it two up on an r11gs. lots of fun.
cheers,
andy.

__________________
www.outforaspin.blogspot.com

Thank you guys. It will help to finalise my route ( I don't know how many times I am going back to drawing board:confused1.

Just done this road and it was stunning. Alpine quality blacktop through sweeping mountain roads, surrounded by cloud forest - highly recommended!

Just done the off road trails, turning off of the Costa Rican Panamericana at San Ramon, past the National Parque at Monteverde and then through Tilcaran to the shores of Lake Arenal at Fortuna. Challenging trails and brilliant views - highly recommended....

This road of death reputation must be of interest. I would very much prefer to be on my own bike on this road than couped up in a bus, or any other vehicle - read on.

News from today's date is:-
British cyclist killed on 'Highway of Death'


© ITN 2008



A British cyclist has been killed in a crash which claimed the lives of nine people in Bolivia.
The man, named by the British Embassy in La Paz as 22-year-old Tom Austin, was involved in a collision with a Toyota Land Cruiser with 13 people inside.
The vehicle then left the road and rolled 300 feet down a rocky embankment, killing eight people inside and injuring the five others.
Louise Taylor, vice consul at the British Embassy, said two other British cyclists were injured. She named them as Daniel Roberts, 23, and James Marshall, 22.
She said: "He died on the road between La Paz and Coroico.
"Two other British citizens were injured at the same time. They were quite minor injuries."
She said the riders were not taking part in a race as far as she was aware.
Lieutenant Colonel Agusto Angulo, head of the La Paz transit police accident division, said the accident took place just minutes after the cyclists began their tour on a paved section near a 15,400-foot Andean pass.
Mr Austin was the second tourist to die on the notorious stretch of road, nicknamed the Highway of Death, in the past week.
The highway east from La Paz - the world's highest capital city - winds dramatically down the face of the Andes, dropping 11,800 feet in just 40 miles.
The narrow, largely dirt track earned its macabre nickname for the frequency with which Bolivian buses would plunge off its 3,300-foot cliffs, killing hundreds a year until a new paved highway opened in 2007.
But the old route's stunning vistas and hairpin turns now draw an estimated 25,000 thrill-seeking mountain bikers from around the world. At least 13 cyclists have died on the road in the past ten years.
On Monday, Kenneth Mitchell, 56, of Fullerton, California, died when he tumbled from his bicycle and fell over a cliff along the road.
A spokesman for the accident division of the La Paz police refused to speculate on the causes of the latest accident and declined to give any more details about the British casualties.

__________________
Dave

hey off for a year in june loving reading this anyone got any more please.............

All around the lake is a great ride too. Lovely scenery and a real variety of road conditions - all twisty but ranges from sand, dirt, rocks, potholed road to Swiss Alpine quality silktop.