We are back at home in Calgary having arrived safe and sound. Both of us are back at work and wondering where we'll go for our next adventure!
Some closing thoughts about our journey:
The early part of the trip was the best as far as experiencing different cultures and third world countries. Once we crossed into Chile and then Argentina, most areas were quite modern though certainly not as clean as North America.
Why do the speed limit signs on the highway slow down to 40 kms/hr whenever a secondary (gravel) road intersects with the highway? Absolutely no one on the highway slows down!
Also, in town, uncontrolled intersections are a crap-shoot. Does the vehicle on the right have the right-of-way? Sometimes it seems that’s the case, but other times not. Luckily there are usually speed bumps so no one can really speed through the intersection. Still it's very unnerving for us North American drivers.
Policia do not seem to care about speeders nor drivers who don’t obey traffic signals. They spend their time at check-stops. We’re not sure what they look for at these check-stops – Drugs? Weapons? Stolen vehicles? At some of them, the officers wrote down the details of each vehicle – owner’s name, license plate, etc. At others they simply asked where we are going and waved us through. Somehow this seems like a waste of valuable police department resources.
The air in the countryside everywhere we rode was clean with no smog, other than diesel fumes from passing trucks. In the cities however, the diesel fumes were often overwhelming.
Too bad the land wasn’t pollution free. The most striking pollution we saw was in Nazca where the riverbed was dry and absolutely covered with garbage. We imagined the rainy season when that garbage would flow downstream to the next village.
The early part of the trip was the best as far as experiencing different cultures and third world countries. Once we crossed into Chile and then Argentina, most areas were quite modern though certainly not as clean as North America.
Why do the speed limit signs on the highway slow down to 40 kms/hr whenever a secondary (gravel) road intersects with the highway? Absolutely no one on the highway slows down!
Also, in town, uncontrolled intersections are a crap-shoot. Does the vehicle on the right have the right-of-way? Sometimes it seems that’s the case, but other times not. Luckily there are usually speed bumps so no one can really speed through the intersection. Still it's very unnerving for us North American drivers.
Policia do not seem to care about speeders nor drivers who don’t obey traffic signals. They spend their time at check-stops. We’re not sure what they look for at these check-stops – Drugs? Weapons? Stolen vehicles? At some of them, the officers wrote down the details of each vehicle – owner’s name, license plate, etc. At others they simply asked where we are going and waved us through. Somehow this seems like a waste of valuable police department resources.
The air in the countryside everywhere we rode was clean with no smog, other than diesel fumes from passing trucks. In the cities however, the diesel fumes were often overwhelming.
Too bad the land wasn’t pollution free. The most striking pollution we saw was in Nazca where the riverbed was dry and absolutely covered with garbage. We imagined the rainy season when that garbage would flow downstream to the next village.
Perito Moreno Glacier was awesome. Of course Machu Picchu was too.
The Salar! Oh the dreadful salar. We almost perished there. We'll never forget that!
The Salar! Oh the dreadful salar. We almost perished there. We'll never forget that!
What a trip!
