Multiple injuries at 15,000 feet!

The Argentina side of the high plains are full of green
The Chile side is barren

Chile's high Andes have lots of glaciers



I still love the high plains even though the Chilean road tried to end my trip.

Mile after mile of flatness surrounded by mountains

El Salvador, Chile to Tinogasta, Argentina- 320 hard miles

Kevin, the leader of Globebusters decided to change our itinerary when he discovered that we could ride a portion of next year’s Dakar rally (you must realize that Dakar riders are seriously deranged Most entrants do not finish due to injury or death). He didn’t offer it as an option. It was mandatory. Unfortunately, it was on a very bad gravel/sand road in the high plains that separate Chile and Argentina. The plateau is over 15,500 feet and is 85 miles long. We were told to replace our tires in Columbia with road tires front and back. The problem of course is that motorcycles cannot ride on sand without knobby tires, and even then it is extremely difficult. I went down in a deep patch of sand on a switchback turn coming up the mountain in the morning. My front tire lost all traction and I was down in an instant. The bike landed on my left ankle. I think it is only a bad sprain. It’s in an ice bucket as I type this. Others were less fortunate. We had three of our best riders go down hard. Nick was rushed to a hospital 160 miles away in our back up van. He’s in a lot of pain but we hope it is only broken ribs. Paul, my room mate went down at 40 mph and hit his head. He blacked out for a while and may have cracked ribs. Alvaro also sprained his ankle in a fall. In total 13 out of 21 bikes took a spill. Besides the bad road the other problem was the high altitude. We came from sea level yesterday morning and worked the bikes through the pass for over 7 grueling hours. I was so tired by the time we reached the paved Argentinean side I could hardly see straight. I had a throbbing altitude headache and nausea. Once we got through the 85 miles of gravel we still had 150 miles to our hotel. I left at 7AM and got here at 9PM!