AROUND THE WORLD, Buenos Aires to Panama (1DE1577)

07.-09.03.2016 Colon (Panama) Apparently, 3 seems to be THE magic number here... In march (03/2016), we are here to finish our southamerica tour. Procedures and bureaucracy in order to get vehicles from 3 different transports out of a port are quite time consuming! Registrations, controls, libraries full of papers to fill out, signatures, stamps, running from one to the other office (actually TAKING A TAXI, to get there - distances are enormeous), waiting here and there, getting 3 copies of everything, talking to agents and and and... We are hoping to get the bikes and the van today - on the 3rd day, being here (at the port). The last vehicle, we should get today - after... take a guess: ...3 p.m.! Yesterday, Domenico and Marc were taking "their" group (3 remaining customers) out for our last group dinner and to say good-bye. We spent (almost) 3 amazing months together and enjoyed MORE than 3 ;-) countries, landscapes, cultures, kilometers and more on the motorcycles!!! We will now take the chance to say the most essential thing to our Edelweiss customers (in 3 words): WE THANK YOU!!!   The group got new members (do we really have to mention, how many?! OK: 3) and is continuing through central america to Los Angeles with new guides. You, dear reader, please stay tuned over the next weeks - as there will be more awesome pictures and interesting stories here on a blog (concerning the next leg)! 06.03.2016 Cartagena - Colon And here we are, after 77 days we finally reached Panama, final destination of this great tour! Once we reached the hotel, we had time to visit the famous Panama Canal, that connects the Atlantic and the Pacific ocean, one of the wonders of modern engineering! We went to see the Gatun Locks, a system that lifts a ship up 26 metres to the elevation of the Gatun lake. Once reached the lake, ships can then proceed to the other side, where they will be lifted down. A very interesting visit! Our next task will be to take our vehicles out from the container and from the port... the tour is not yet over! 02. - 05.03.2016 Cartagena rest days We have to spend a few days in Cartagena, in order to ship our bikes to Panama, so we have some time for enjoying the historical centre, the hotel, the beach... and also do some maintenance to our van!   01.03.2016 Monteria - Cartagena Last riding day in South America, we did it! Today we reached Cartagena de Indias, on the Caribbean sea. From Buenos Aires we did approximately 17.000 km, we crossed this huge, magnificent continent that fulfilled our weirdest expectations and filled our memories with plenty of stories to tell! Cartagena is one of the most beautiful cities in the Caribbean and its historical centre is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Once arrived, we also organized a "Goodbye dinner" for Wolfgang, who tomorrow is going to fly back home. Wolfgang, it was really a pleasure to meet you and ride with you! Wishing you all the best! Next task will be the shipping of all vehicles (and of all of us, of course!) to Panama, stay tuned!   29.02.2016 Medellin - Monteria Another long riding day was waiting for us: 400 km north, to our second last destination in Southamerica (before going to Cartagena). But first, we went to BMW Medellin ("Ruta40") and with Pablo's help, our motorcycle could be fixed! After that, we went up curvy roads (with maaany slow trucks), got into fog again in the altitude and then into a jungle-ish climate, when we came down again. 28.02.2016 Rest day in Medellin What a nice surprise today! Our colombian friend Pablo, who did the Grand Alps tour last summer, was looking at our blog and he saw that we were in Medellin. She came to greet us in the morning, he showed us a bit around his city and we also met him again for a very nice dinner. Thank you Pablo! Edelweiss is like a big family around the World!  We also discovered the city a bit (one can definetely NOT see everything in one day...). Today, Medellin is famous for its orchids, or as the second biggest city and industry centre in Colombia (after Bogota, the capital) - but in the past, it was known for its drug cartells... But Medellin is much more than that: it is a modern, vibrating, beautiful, clean, big,... city, that deserves more than one visit. 27.02.2016 Manizales - Medellin The plan was, to have a nice ride over twisty roads and enjoy the coffee area. Reality was a bit different: 30 minutes after start, the tourguide bike lost power and we spent almost 2 hours to fix the problem - just to end up with loading the bike into the van. Then we had a beutiful road ahead, winding along a river and leading us through beautiful nature.  But wait... there are some roadworks waiting for us on the last 70 kilometers and we had to stop several times for quite a while. And all this with humid 37 Celsius. Finally, we were happy to arrive Medellin and enjoy the well airconditioned hotel. 26.02.2016 Cali - Manizales We did not know it - but this was our last day, riding as the complete group (well, after Roland had to leave us in Brazil already). Unfortunately, Wolfgang will leave us as well after Manizales. Leaving Cali was much easier, than entering it: the roads were empty and after Cali, well paved. The ride was excellent and at the end of the day, we were climbing up to Manizales on a curvy road that gave us a smile. Speaking of climbing... The last bit IN Manizales, the GPS led us to the hotel through narrow streets that were so steep, that the van had to follow busses in the first gear. 25.02.2016 Pasto - Cali Our first complete riding day in Colombia led us from Pasto in the altitude to Cali - means from cold to hot, from cloudy to sunny, from south further north... Entering Cali is.... ...lets say "interesting": the traffic is insane and more than once, we wished to NOT have the panniers on our bikes, so that we could sneak through the endless lines of cars and busses and trucks - just as the millions of local bikers did. 24.02.2016 Otavalo (Ecuador) - Pasto (Colombia) Bye-bye Ecuador - today we entered Colombia. The landscape was amazing and the roads twisty and in good condition - almost. Riding on well paved road, one gets surprised all of a sudden by roadworks, where they compete/renovate parts and this leads us probably to our last "offroad" experience. 23.02.2016 Quito - Otavalo Today, we just had a quick and short ride of 150 kilometers, to get to Otavalo, from where we eill head towards Colombia tomorrow. 22.02.2016 Rest day in Quito Today we all had plenty of time to explore this beautiful city. Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is known by several exalting names. It is called "The Florence of America" for the artistic wealth of its museums and temples, and "Light of America" for having been the hotbed of the seditious ideas which eventually led to the indipendence of America. It also has the distinction of being the first World Heritage Site on the planet! 21.02.2016 Quilotoa lake - Quito Another spectacular ride in the morning took us from Quilotoa back on the "Panamericana" road. From there, Quito was very easy to reach and, since we got there quite early, we decided to visit the "Mitad del Mundo" before reaching the hotel. Mitad del mundo, or "the middle of the world", is the monument located just a few miles nort of Quito which highlights the exact location of the Equator (from which the country takes its name). Reaching the hotel was also very interesting, because it is located in the heart of the city and very close to its most beautiful sights, so we had to ride through some very narrow (and some also steep!) roads. A little walk through the centre and tasty dinner together to finish this beautiful day. 20.02.2016 Baños - Quilotoa lake We are in the volcanoes region of Ecuador, but unfortunately these huge mountains seem to be a little shy in these days and we could not see any today, since their summits were all covered by clouds! Anyway the ride was really beautiful, especially the last part before reaching the spectacular Quilotoa lake. This is a water-filled caldera and the most western volcano in the Ecuadorian Andes. The caldera was formed by the collapse of a volcano following a catastrophic eruption about 800 years ago and has since accumulated a 250 m deep crater lake, which has a greenish color as a result of dissolved minerals. Our hotel is located on the top of the caldera, very close to the viewpoint, from there it is possible to hike down to the basin bottom, but not everybody thought it was a very good idea! 19.02.2016 Cuenca - Baños Today we left Cuenca and took a sidetrip through the Amazon jungle. We crossed the Andes in the morning, a great road that unfortunately we had to ride very slowly because of the fog (here called "neblina") and some rain! Reaching the other side of the mountains, the temperature changed very quickly, we were in the jungle! Another beautiful road took us to Baños, located on the foothills of the Tungurahua volcano. Baños is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Ecuador due to its amazing natural beauty (it is home to more than 60 waterfalls) and its plethora of available adventure sports. 18.02.2016 Loja - Cuenca First riding day only in Ecuador! Today we rode between 2000 and 3000 metres of altitude on the Andes, the roads in this country are really good and well paved, unless you choose to ride on some backroads like Wolfgang and Josef did! Cuenca is really a nice city and its beautiful historical centre (protected by Unesco) offered at evening plenty of options for a tasty Edelweiss dinner! 17.02.2016 Piura - Loja As you will notice, not many pictures for today! We left the hotel at 7am in order to reach the border as early as possible. Leaving Peru was very easy and fast, but the customs officer in Ecuador was the slowest ever! It took him an average of 25 minutes to do the paperwork of each vehicle, so in other words we spent there almost three hours! Anyway Ecuador welcomed us with beautiful roads and enchanting landscapes, we can't wait to discover more of this country! 16.02.2016 Chiclayo - Piura Another short riding day, but as we had to cross the "Desierto de Sechara", it was a quite hot day. Piura will be our last overnight stay in Peru and tomorrow, we will enter Ecuador. 15.02.2016 Trujillo - Chiclayo On our 3rd last day in Peru, we continue north to Chiclayo. On our way, we visited the "Lord of Sipan", a fairly young archeological site, where they found untouched tombs of an ancient leader, priest and more... 14.02.2016 Trujillo restday ... 13.02.2016 Huaraz - Trujillo Another spectacular ride today! Leaving the hotel we rode between the "Cordillera Negra" and the "Cordillera Blanca" until we reached the Canyon del Pato with its steep and arid walls! And well it was not only the steep and arid walls, but also the (quite many!) kilometres on gravel road and the dark tunnels that we will always remember! Back on asphalt, then, beautiful windy roads brought us to the coast again and then finally on the Panamericana towards Trujillo where we will spend the next 2 nights. 12.02.2016 Barranca - Huaraz From zero to 4800 metres of altitude, from the sea to the mountains, from the desert to the glaciers, from 30 to 2 degrees, all in one day! What a day! Words can not express the feelings after this ride! 10.-11.02.2016 Pisco - Lima - Barranca Around 200 km from Pisco to Lima, that we decided to do as soon as possible in order to reach BMW Motorrad Peru and have our bikes inspected! Then, after a free afternoon, a nice dinner together and, on the next day, back at BMW to wait for our bikes! We were told that the bikes would have been ready by noon, but we left Lima after 5pm, so... no time for any breaks until Barranca! 09.02.2016 Nazca - Pisco When did we last see the ocean? It was in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, around one month ago, we were on the east side of this continent... and today we finally reached the west side and the Pacific Ocean! What an emotion! On the way, to Pisco, we could also visit the Huacachina oasis, one of the most famous tourist attractions of the Peruvian coast.   08.02.2016 Nazca Pick-up time 9:00 am to go to the little airport, check-in and then fly over the famous Nazca lines. Since we are all quite big (and heavy!) men, they had to split us in two different aircrafts! The Nazca lines are a series of ancient geoglyphs located in the Nazca Desert, created between 500 BCE and 500 CE. The hundreds of individual figures range in complexity from simple lines to stylized hummingbirds, spiders, monkeys, fish, sharks, orcas, and lizards. The largest figures are over 200 m across! The flight was not the most confortable ever, but fortunately it lasted only 30 minutes! 07.02.16 Chalhuanca - Nazca  Following the road, we climbed almost 4600 meters, rode in rain, sun, clouds, having temperatures between 5 and 35 Celsius, passed areas, where actually just Lamas can (want to) live - and again: CURVES! Then, we saw the huuuuge dune (2000 meters high) in the haze (or was it mist?) and had a nice descend (again with millions of c.u.r.v.e.s.), down to Nazca. The city with its population of approximately 20 thousand (but at least as many tourists) is dry, hot, not too much to see - but the famous Nazca-Lines, that we will see tomorrow: from an airplane... 06.02.16 Ollantaytambo - Chalhuanca We are leaving the Sacret valley (Valle Sagrado), to cross the Andes to the (west) Atlantic coast. Our next destination is Chalhuanca, before we reach Nazca, with its famous lines. Nice weather and awesomely curvy roads are waiting for us on our way there... 05.02.16 Machu Picchu - Ollantaytambo Today we finally reached Machu Picchu, the most familiar icon of Inca civilization. Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca site located 2,430 metres above sea level and most archaeologists believe that it was built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti. The Incas built the estate (in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls) around 1450, but abandoned it a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Although known locally, it was not known to the Spanish during the colonial period and remained unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911. Machu Picchu was declared a Peruvian Historical Sanctuary in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. In 2007, Machu Picchu was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World in a worldwide Internet poll. 04.02.16 Ollantaytambo - Machu Picchu  The next exceptional experience is waiting for us: Machu Picchu! Today, we leave Ollantaytambo, to take the train to Machu Picchu Town (formerly known as Aguas Calientes). There, we will discover the town a bit and spend a night, until our day tomorrow will start very early (again at 05:20 a.m.), as we will climb the WaynaPicchu as some of the just 400, that are allowed per day. 03.02.2016 Cusco - Ollantaytambo Today, before leaving Cusco, we visited the SOS Children's Village. This is an independent, non-governmental international development organization which has been working to meet the needs and protect the interests and rights of children since 1949. It was founded by Hermann Gmeiner in Imst, Austria and has nowadays many villages in all South America. Then we proceeded to Ollantaytambo, the basecamp for visiting Machu Picchu, one of the highlights of this tour! 02.02.2016 Cusco rest day 01.02.2016 Puno - Cusco As we were told at the border, Wolfgang and Josef have to get a local insurance at Puno - then we can continue our ride to Cuzco, the former Inkca capital, where Pizarro won against Atahualpa and ended the inca culutre. Cuzco and its surrounding has a lot of inka and colonial buildings and remainings, that one simply cannot discover in one day... 31.01.2016 Copacabana (Bolivia) - Puno (Peru) Goodbye Bolivia. Thanks for some very interesting days and many beautiful impressions! Hello Peru, we are hoping for an exceptional time within the next 2 weeks... Today after crossing the border, a short ride to Puno allowed us a visit to the famous "floating islands", where the Uros tribe have been living for many centuries. The Uros islands are a group of around 80 man-made totora reed islands floating on Lake Titicaca. Way before the Inka empire took over, this tribe made the wacky decision to move their village out into the lake. The problem is that Lake Titicaca doesn’t have that many islands. The Uros solution – build new floating islands! 30.01.2016 La Paz - Copacabana (Bolivia) Leaving this crowded city with its immense traffic was not easy. Today, we were heading north west to the Titicaca lake. The beautiful town (actually beautiful coast) is quite close to the border to Peru, where we will cross tomorrow. Copacabana is very touristy, for backpackers as well as for southamericans, who pilgrim to this place, that gave the more famous Copacabana in Brazil its name. 29.01.2016 La Paz - Coroico - La Paz Today our goal was the famous "Routa de la Muerte" (Death Road), but due to bad weather conditions (rain and fog) we had to give it up and, after reaching Coroico, we came back to the hotel the same way. A very nice riding though, that took us up to the "La Cumbre" pass, at an altitude of more than 4500 metres! Did you think the Alps were high? :) 28.01.2016 Cochabamba - La Paz Sucre is the capital of Bolivia, but all the administrative institutions are in La Paz. It is a city, The 2 million city of La Paz was waiting for us. Approaching on a flat plateau and crossing the poor outskirts of "El Alto", one reaches the city at the top. All hills, going down into a basin are covered with houses, built of red bricks. Before crossing the immense traffic up there, we turned right, "surrounding" the city in noth east and going down on nice roads and through beautiful landscapes with interesting rock formations again. Our hotel was located in a richer part of La Paz, where we stay for two nights, as tomorrow, the "death road" awaits us... 27.01.2016 Sucre - Cochabamba Saying bye-bye to the "white city", we had quite a diversified route to Cochabamba. Pavement, solid earth, gravel and stoney roads were waiting for us. Also, road blocks (again....strike, what else?) were challanging the bikes and the van, to find a good way around them... But: all in all it was another sunny and beautiful day! 26.01.2016 Potosì - Sucre Today we did just a short riding through the Andes of Bolivia, so we could reach Sucre by lunch time and we had the whole afternoon to  enjoy this beautiful city. Sucre, ‘la ciudad blanca’ or white city for the color of all its historic buildings, is the constitutional capital of Bolivia and its centre, with the typical Spanish colonial architecture, is really a gem. 25.01.2016 Colchani - Potosì As we mostly used yesterday for relaxing and fixing, we started the day with a ride on the salt lake and visited the train cemetery, before we left Uyuni towards Potosi. Potosi is mainly known for its mining for silver but even more interesting was the curvy route on best pavement to there! What a difference to the ride to Uyuni, two days ago...!!! Climbing another 1000 meters, we ended our day in an altitude of more than 4000 meters. 24.01.2016 Rest day Colcani (Salar de Uyuni) Today, we took the time to relax a bit from yesterday, to fix our bikes and some had a quick ride on the Salar. 23.01.2016 La Quiaca - Colchani Colchani is a little village at the border of  "Salar de Uyuni" (thze world's biggest salt lake), north of Uyuni city/town. To get there, first some challenges were waiting for us: One, which we did not expect was the border crossing from Argentina to Bolivia, which took us FOUR hours. Reasons were a big crowd, people interpreting the end of the waiting line "differently" and not enough personell on the bolivian side to handle all this. If Wolfgang wouldn't have brought some "german Ordnung" to the whole chaos, we probably would STILL be waiting there... The second was the road itself, which began with harmless pavement, then changed to gravel and finally to sand...! Some minor trouble and this kind of road led to the fact, that we reached our salt hotel in the dark. Everybody was well proud but also very exhausted. 22.01.2016 Salta - La Quiaca Our last complete riding day in Argentina led us via curvy and small roads in a jungle like environment, impressive rock formations that were colored like rainbows and finally a flat and hot area to La Quiaca, which is directly at the border to Bolivia, where we will enter tomorrow. 20.01.2016 Termas de Rio Hondo - Salta Today we finally could say goodbye to the plain! The Andes seemed to appear suddenly and then the route began to fold in serpentines leading us up to Tafi del Valle, located on an elevation of over 2000 meters. Having passed Cafayate, we entered then the Quebrada de las Conchas (canyon of clams), a deep canyon created by the river of the same name. Surrounded by impressive walls of rock displaying a multitude of red hues and different formations, one feels so small and the only thought is gratitude to be able to see such a place! Reaching Salta, we brought the Tourgiude bike to a mechanic... and tomorrow it will be ready to ride again! Fingers crossed! 19.01.2016 Quimili - Termas de Rio Hondo Another long and hot day, it could have become a boring one but a "nice" big hole gave us a bit of thrill today! Domenico unfortunately could not see it because of a truck lifting a lot of dust in the air, and riding through this hole, some spokes of the front wheel were damaged. So we had to load the bike and, tomorrow, we have to try to get the wheel fixed when we reach Salta. 18.01.2016 Corrientes - Quimili A long, hot and straight ride through the "Chaco", which is a region that is known to be hot, flat and dry. Surprisingly, we found it not as dry as we expected, but in a few weeks, the green will be gone. The route takes us west towards the Andes and there is no other way, than crossing these dry lands. 17.01.2016 Posadas - Corrientes Still following the Parana river, we rode west today. The road yesterday was straight and with some more "hills", whereas today was straight and flat. The vegetation is still very green and due to the heavy rains, many fields look a bit like a swamp. Temperature didn't change much - at least, it didn't get colder! 16.01.2016 Puerto Iguazu - Posadas Our way led south, following the Parana river and visiting the ruins of an ancient mission, founded by Jesuits in 1610 and meanwhile declared as UNESCO world heritage site. As we already faced in Iguazu, the temperatures were between 36 and 40 Celsius - but without the refreshing swim in the pool. The wind, while riding, was not helping either - it was like from a hair dryer... 14. - 15.01.2016 Rest days: Iguazu waterfalls Today, Heiri, Joseph, Otto and Wolfgang went for a visit of the brazilian side of the Iguazu waterfalls. A taxi brought them from the hotel in Argentina through the border to the waterfalls - and back. THE highlight of the day was a helicopter flight (1 hour), that went over the "tres hitos" (the point, where the 3 countries meet) to the Itaipu dam and then to the waterfalls. A final hike and a boat trip into the waterfall completed that adventure. On the second day most of the group took it easy and Domenico went to see the waterfalls from the argentinian side, very impressive as well! 13.01.2016 Cascavel to Puerto Iguazu (Argentina) Today, we said good-bye to Brazil and re-entered Argentina, close to the famous Iguazu waterfalls, that we will visit during the next 2 days. Before leaving Brazil, we stopped by at the world's second biggest dam: Itaipu. A guided tour out- and in-side the dam taught us about the immense building, its capacities, energy production, masses of water, etc. One can feel really tiny, standing at and in this giant (one of the 7 new wonders of the world). 12.01.2016 Ponta Grossa to Cascavel This was a long, straight and hot day for riding... The initial plan in Cascavel was a group dinner (check) and after that, some cocktails, to celebrate Marc's birthday (no check - as everyone was quite tired). We are all looking forward to Iguazu, tomorrow!  11.01.2016 Capao Bonito to Ponta Grossa The group decided against a long ride on the motorway, but for a (bit longer) very, very beautiful country road with uncounted curves in a wonderful landscape - as far as we could see it in the rain and clouds...! Must be awesome to travel, when it's dry! Close to our destination, we wanted to visit the "Parque Estadual de Vila Velha", which is a natural reserve with stunning stone formations. The website says "open until 5.30 p.m." - basically... Arriving at the gates, we were told, the last entrance was at 3.30, 15 minutes before we got there. No chance, to get in. NONE. So, we unfortunately missed that spectacle and moved on to our hotel. But Universe is just! In the evening, some bikers from a local club went by to say hello and to invite us for a local beer, some good food and nice talks... Obrigado!!!!! 10.01.2016 Atibaia to Capao Bonito As we are actually in the rainy season, we were quite lucky the first days, but now we are riding our motorcycles in a bit sun, but mainly in rain showers and strong rain. Today, our lunch break was a perfect timing - before the worst rain, we faced so far. The route was not too long and took us via motorways, country roads and finally (for some real fun) a bit offroad... 09.01.2016 Rio de Janeiro to Atibaia After leaving our most eastern point of this journey, we were heading back west, to Atibaia. As we are now moving on towards Iguazu with its famous waterfalls and there is nothing "special" between Rio and there, we (just) have to make distance in the following days... Most of the almost 500 km were motorway and rain. 07. - 08.01.2016 Rio de Janeiro What an impressive mega city - with a population of almost 12 million. Founded in 1565 by the Portugese, it became capital of both, the state Brazil and Portugal from 1815-21 and when Napoleon overran Europe, it was the residence of the portugese Monarch (1808-22). After 1960, Brasilia became capital of Brazil. Rio has a tropical savanna climate with long periods of heavy rain from December to March. In Inland areas of the city, temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius are common during the summer, though rarely for long periods, while maximum temperatures above 27 can occur on a monthly basis. Along the coast, the breeze, blowing onshore and offshore, moderates the temperature. It is headquarters to Brazilian oil, mining, and telecommunications companies and (together with Sao Paulo) the most important economical and financial city of Brazil. Nevertheless, poor and rich are living closely, but the less priviledged are mostly residing in the so called "Favelas" - quarters, built of very simple and cheap materials. Rio is well known for Carneval, (especially the beaches of) Ipanema and Copacabana, the sugarloaf, the Christ statiue - just to name some of the highlights... The Maracana Stadium held the final of the 2014 Fifa World Cup (with Germany as the current champion). Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2016 Summer Paralympics. 06.01.2016 Paraty to Angra dos Reis Before leaving Paraty, of course we had to take a look at its beautiful historical centre, famous for the cobblestone-paved streets and untouched for more than 250 years. As we soon realized, the streets in the centre are so bumpy that we could enjoy a very good motorcycle riding training! By the way, despite the bumps and the heat, Paraty is really a beautiful spot and has a unique flair! After a very pleasant ride, we reached then Angra dos Reis, a much newer town where we could take advantage of the facilities of a modern hotel and relax a bit! 05.01.2016 Santos to Paraty Today we had to face some traffic leaving Santos and passing by its harbour, the biggest of all Latin America! And, when we reached Paraty, we discovered that the hotel had simply "forgotten" our reservation! So, since it is high season and we could not find any other accomodations here, we decided to stay one night in two different "pousadas" and move tomorrow to a bigger hotel in Angra dos Reis. 04.01.2016 Curitiba to Santos The weather, temperature, roads and traffic became much better today on our 440 km ride to Santos. Not all of us could enjoy the ride on the motorbike - Roland had to join Domenico in the van. He damaged his arm, when he tried to hold his bike from falling, 2 days ago. After a visit at the hospital, we unfortunately will have to leave Roland here, who has to fly back home and get a surgery on his arm. 03.01.2016 Blumenau to Curitiba The ride to Curitiba was a long day on motorways, which were extremely crowded by people, driving back home or to work after a long weekend with new year's eve celebrating in Florianopolis... 02.01.2016 Florianopolis to Blumenau Our route took us 300 km through hills, clouds and rain until we reached Blumenau.   The city is well known as typical german, and famous for its architecture and the biggest Oktoberfest in Brazil. 01.01.2016 Recovery day in Florianopolis... 31.12.2015 New Year's Eve in Florianopolis (Floripa)! Florianopolis is a city, of which a small part is on the main land, but most of it is on the island of Santa Catarina. It is known for having a very high quality of life and has a population of 461.524, according to an estimate in 2014. The economy is heavily based on IT, tourism and services. The city has 42 beaches, is a center of surfing activity and the most famous area for recreation, nature and radical sports. The New York Times reported, that "Florianopolis is the party destination of the year 2009...".  Today was a day for relaxation, a short tour, or some fixing...and a nice party! The relaxing bit was easy. The fixing was successful. The short tour became kind of a torture, because of unbelieveable traffic jams and heat, combined with high humidity. Finally, the end of 2015 and the welcoming of 2016 was great!   30.12.2015 Porto Alegre - Florianpolis Today, we extended the initial route to Florianopolis from 450 to 602 km. We started along the coast in 35 Celsius - with a short break at a beach, to get some refreshments. Instead of just following a quite straight line, we implemented the "Serro do Rio do Rasto", which is a very well known and beloved road, up into the mountains, that has maaaany curves and turns. It is surrounded by a wondeful landscape. Up in the mountains, it was much cooler, as we were arriving in the clouds (1412 m). From there, we decided, not to go back down the same route on wet surface (because it started raining, meanwhile) and even more traffic than on our way up. So we stayed "up there" and did a nice and steady descending with many curves, too - but also with partly rain... Reaching the Florianopolis region, the traffic became more and more, until it became insanely crowded. After a long, exciting and hot day, we finally reached our hotel - tired but happy.   29.12.2015 Welcome to Brazil At 7 a.m., we started a short distance from Punta del Diabolo (Uruguay) to the brazilian border at Chui - but in total, a 580 km to our today's destination: Porto Alegre. Following straight roads along farm and swamp land, we could see the typical animals like horses and cattle but also herons and giant capibaras.  Tonight, the agenda is to rest and be prepared for the tour tomorrow, that will lead us another 600 km to Florianopolis, where we will have some rest days and will celebrate new year's eve...   28.12.2015 Start of our Tour - Montevideo to Punta del Diabolo Finally, we packed our bikes and the support Van, to ride a distance of 320 km to Punta del Diabolo, which is a beautiful town in the dunes "Dunas del Diabolo" and close to the brazilian border. In summer time, this place is crowded by people, who spend their holidays here. It is a mix of touristic shops and bars but on the other hand still an old fishermans village. The beaches are inviting for swimming and sun bathing-  embedded in a breathtaking environment of sand dunes and stone formations.   27.12.2015 Rest day Montevideo Today, we did not ride the bikes and everybody could enjoy the day off in Montevideo... 26.12.2015 Rest day Montevideo - Minas Today, we went to discover the hills north-east of Montevideo. The main town in our destination was Minas, which is named after the mining (especially gold) in this area. Close to Minas, there are several sights to see and first we wanted to visit the "Cerro Arequita" - a lava stone formation with a cave and a nice reataurant for lunch. Unfortunately, the location was closed and so we took some nice pictures and went on to Salto del Penitente, a very beautiful waterfall! Finally, after quite some distance on straight roads within the last days, we found some nice curves, leading our way there. While having lunch, we could see eagles gliding over the valley and enjoy a refreshing breeze. On our way back, we took the "Ruta Panoramica" and again, we enjoyed some curves on pavement, but also our first real bit of gravel, where everybody could test his adventure bike on 17 km, surrounded by untouched landscape. 25.12.2015 Rest day Montevideo - Colonia del Sacramento What might be a good plan for a day, where everything is closed for Christmas...? A ride to Colonia del Sacramento! Located by the Rio de la Plata, facing Buenos Aires, Argentina, it is one of the oldest towns in Uruguay and capital of the Colonia Department. It has a population of around 27,000 and is renowned for its historic quarter, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Founded in 1680 by Portugal as Colónia do Sacramento,it kept changing hands from crown to crown due to wars and treaties. On 10 January 1809, before the independence of Uruguay, it was designated as a "Villa" (town) and has since been elevated to the status of "Ciudad" (city). Due to its good location, the harbour was also used by smugglers, quite a while! 24.12.2015 Rest day Montevideo - Punta del Este We were told, Punta del Este "is like the uruguayan Monaco". In fact, it is quite touristy and some wealthy people seem to live there... ...but it is not like Monaco - it has its own charme. Approaching P.d.E., one first comes across nice new villas with a beautiful view on the skyline and the city, followed by long dunes and nice beaches (one with the stone hand). On the other side of Punta del Este, there is a harbour for both: fishermen and impressive yachts and surrounded by many restaurants. 23.12.2015 Montevideo After all the paperwork was done yesterday, today we finally had to go to the port to pick up our bikes and the support van! We reached the container where all our stuff was stored and everybody could not wait to have it open! Finally after a bit of waiting (very short time for southamerican "habits"!) we could unload everything... and now we are finally on track! A very big thank you to our local partner for completing the whole procedure in just 2 working days! 22.12.2015 Buenos Aires - Montevideo Wake up call at 5am today, the ferry to Montevideo leaves at 7:15 and we had to be there one hour earlier to check in the luggage... is that a plane or a ferry? Well it's a superfast ferry, doing 52 knots! We reached Montevideo under a tropical rain and honestly some of us were quite happy that today there was only paperwork to be done with immigration and customs, in order to get our bikes tomorrow! Let's keep fingers crossed that we get our things out before the port shuts down for Christmas! 21.12.2015 Buenos Aires Welcome to Buenos Aires, Argentina! This great city is often called the “Paris of South America,” for its soaring architecture and rich European heritage. Domenico does not really agree with this description, because most of the immigrants came from Italy in the 19th and 20th century. It is estimated that up to 17 million Argentines have some degree of Italian descent (up to 37% of the total population), so let's call it the Naples of South America, ok? Why Naples? Well of course because of the legendary Diego Armando Maradona, the best soccer player of all times, born in Buenos Aires and playing for the Naples soccer team in the 90s. Today we explored a bit this beautiful city, the crowded and picturesque districts of San Telmo and La Boca and then, after meeting all the participants in the afternoon, we went for dinner to a typical "parrilla" (grill) restaurant on the scenic waterfront of Porto Madero. Argentina is very famous for the meat, and we tried a "few" kinds! After dinner a nice walk back and straight to bed, tomorrow the alarm rings very early and we can not miss the ferry to Montevideo...