Hi Bob,

I forgot to mention that the guys at James (I can't remember the chap who did my bke, Giles comes to mind, very helpful) know Sandra at Dakar Motos, which made things even simpler. They faxed the airway bill straight to her when they received it.

In a nutshell, the idea I had for getting south whilst avoiding the VERY boring Route 3 down the east coast was the following:

- head from BA to Mendoza
- go south to approx Bariloche or San Martin de Los Andes
- cut into Chile to Puerto Montt
- take the Navimag ferry south to Puerto Natales
- ride north along Route 40 / Careterra Austal
- continue north to Santiago on the Chilean side.
- thereafter, take your pick - Arg or Chile or zigzagging through both

The advantage of this route is you get to ride more of Route 40, you don't retrace your steps at any point (effectively doing a figure of 8), you save a couple of thousand km riding, and if the weather is good on the ferry I'm told it is an amazing experience, navigating through hundreds of islands in Patagonia. I met a group in Torres Del Paine who had befriended each other on the ferry and were now thick as thieves, travelling together.

The obvious disadvantage is the cost - it'll set you back several hundred more dollars.

Also, I remember seeing a post recently about the Navimag ferry, saying one of the passenger services had been changed into a freight service, so you'd need to check what is going on on that front to be sure the ferry is still running.

I didn't know about the ferry when I road south - had I done, I would have ridden the route I describe. It's 3500km from BA to Ushuaia on Route 3. Perfectly doable in a short period of time if you set your mind to it and see Ushuaia as your actual start point, but it really is just riding for the sake of it.

Happy to share more thoughts on the route north from Ushuaia. I've so far made it to Peru, though am back in Santiago for a bit (distracted by a beautiful Chilena!!). So by the time I get back to Peru I'll have driven all of the Chilean and Arg/Bol sides of the Andes.

All the best,

Paul