Trans Americas 2009 - The Blog

Yet another early morning as the sun streamed through the window waking Jim up then I woke to the sound of him in the bathroom. Today is the final “real” day of the trip before I fly home on Wednesday, as we complete the process of getting the bikes into the hands of the freight agents and say goodbye to them for 6-7 weeks. First step in this process is to complete a “power of attorney” form with a local solicitor handing over legal control of the bikes so the local agents can deal with customs etc. This involves listing any personal effects being sent back with the bike (such as motorcycle boots, although I'm bringing mine home in case I need them), then signing an official form, and putting our signatures and thumb-prints in an official book. With that done the next step is to ride the bikes round to the docks and put them into the bonded warehouse. This naturally involves riding as a group through downtown Buenos Aires, and the chaotic traffic. The first stage of this journey is to line up all the bikes outside the hotel ready for the off, and so I fired up my incredibly loud bike (which effectively has no exhaust as it's split) in the underground car park and riding it up the very steep ramp onto the street. Naturally I revved the engine lots making a deafening racket and scaring the passers-by as they waited for the Messerscmitt to emerge from under the hotel... Once lined up we created the usual stir as people stared when wandering past, or stopped to chat... I'm really going to miss our “minor celebrity status”...





When ready for the off we pulled out into the chaotic Buenos Aires traffic and riding in a very tight convoy managed to lose 14 bikes at the first set of traffic lights. They caught us up a little bit further up the road, and we stuck together closely until we arrived at the docks. The sound of my bike made this a little easier, as even the buses moved over when I blipped the throttle, the deafening racket causing the driver to think there was something much bigger than El Monstro coming through. Once at the docks we parked up whilst Kevin went to check with the warehousemen, who told us it would be 30mins to an hour before they had cleared a space in the warehouse for the bikes. With nothing to do we hung around chatting, well aware that the ride was now almost over and soon we'd be going our separate ways...





Finally we were given the all clear and rode the bikes the final few hundred yards into the warehouse. The local warehousemen gathered and took pictures on their phones as we arrived, many encouraging me to rev El Monstro so they could laugh at the noise. With the bikes all parked up we waited whilst Jeff unloaded Ozzy Andy's bike from the van (the parts swapped back with Chris's bike for the return journey, his bike being pushed into the warehouse) and put on a pallet. Then it was time to say farewell to El Monstro... an emotional moment for sure, as this battered bike starts its return journey to the UK having successfully carried me so very, very, far...





Leaving the bikes and catching a taxi back to the hotel really did feel like the trip was over. Just as it had felt that it was about to start when I dropped it off at James Cargo's depot in Manchester all those weeks ago. Back at the hotel I whiled away some time doing nothing before meeting up with Aaron, Nick, Pertti and Late Guy to go out for dinner. I'd found a Thai restaurant and vodka bar in town that looked good and when I told Richard & Karen and Max & Christine they decided to join us, first we went to a local café where we'd had lunch and where they served draught beer for a couple before getting taxis across town to the restaurant. Once there, Richard started selecting some very nice vodkas for us to try, Aaron discovered some of the best mojitos ever, Pertti selected some very nice white wine and we all ate some fantastic Thai food (and for once it was proper spicy!). Eating and drinking with these wonderful people has been great fun over the past 19 weeks, and I'm really going to miss them...





After a great meal and with some of our party having perhaps had a little too much alcohol (I was still taking it easy) we wandered round the corner to the Orleans café for a coffee and to people watch. This is one of those cafés where the working girls hang out to pick up clients, which made for an entertaining few minutes before we left for the hotel. Nick, Late Guy and I walked whilst the rest fell into taxis, the night still warm. On the way back Nick started chatting with the guys sifting through the rubbish at the roadsides, bundling the cardboard into bales they could then recycle for cash... guess you just can't stop him thinking about the best ways to make money from scrap!

And so to bed, but first I snuck past a snoring Jim and closed the blackout-curtains... perhaps now I'll get a full night's sleep!