I toured the continent of South America in 2016 from March to August.
Seeds of my journey were planted in year 2007 when my super boss, a Brazilian himself, heard my travel story of motorcycling from Kharagpur (West Bengal) to Jaipur (Rajasthan) India (in 2006 after my Post graduation).
It was a Department selection interview in my company and our directors was assessing all the trainee and after listening to my long travel of about 2000 km, he suggested me to read the book "The Motorcycle diaries" by Che Guevara. I purchased the book and read first two pages and decided "I am not gonna read this book , I am gonna live it.". Yes the ' Desi-Che-Guevera' style you may say :)
The book remained with me for ten years and reminded me, every time I saw it, of my self commitment to tour the Latin America. With a humble background and a need to earn for family, it was not easy to venture into such tour. Travel in general was a luxury and touring on motorcycle in another continent was unimaginable at that time. So milestones were set: first earn some money, secure the future and then only splurge on travel fantasies.
As the fate would have it, the time did come and I started to plan such a travel venture. First attempt at procuring Brazilian VISA resulted in rejection. Rejected, but not dejected, I gifted the book "The Motorcycle Diaries" to the embassy lady with my overload "emotional atyachar". I told her the story behind purchasing the book and my commitment to myself. And guess what, it did the trick, embassy saw and appreciated my passion for this tour. Initially they agreed to give me a 30 day visa, but how do one relive Che Guevera just a month? I requested to grant me at least 3 month visa, the maximum duration under tourist category. Time required to purchase the bike was an overhead. And enough time is needed to do justice touring a big-bold-n-beautiful country like Brazil. I never read the book myself but it did two things for me: motivated me to undertake this tour and got me the 3 months Brazilian VISA. What more can one ask for?
Getting visa for rest of the countries in the tour was all together a different story. I had, let's say, an interesting time getting lucky and unlucky at times. These will be covered in bit more detail in following posts.
I travelled around 19200 km through Brazil , Argentina , Chile , Bolivia , Peru and back to Brazil.
I purchased a 150 cc Suzuki in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Not an easy task if you ask me, but certainly very adventurous in itself. My blog entry for how to purchase a motorcycle in Brazil describes the details .
Crossing border from Brazil to Argentina was another big deal and I got lucky as I was told by Argentine embassy in Brazil that I need an international driving licence and insurance of the bike in order to enter Argentina. I had nothing, I mean absolutely nothing. Actually I inquired for international licence and I found that one can be issued an international licence only at home country or in a country where you hold a driving licence.
And for insurance I tried a lot and when finally I got one, they said it will take 15 days to get one. I didn't have much time as all my consecutive visas were time bound, entry as well as exit, so every day counted. I took my chance and reached the border after visiting the Igasu fall at the Brazil-Argentina border.
I crossed the Brazil-Argentina border without realizing. There was no fencing or any other markings. It was only when I reached a check post in Argentina, I realized it. There I was asked for visa and bike registration papers (no one asked for a licence or insurance). Once I got the entry stamp on my passport, I became confident that there aren't many hurdles left. I was one happy camper there on (or I thought so).
But then I was held by some custom officers. I pretty quickly figured out that all they wanted was some money. I was determined not to give up or yield to their unfair implicit demands. Persistence and honesty are the words: I just kept fiddling around with them all the time. Soon they got annoyed and let me go. But soon after, at a check post 50 Kms into Argentina, two policemen stopped me again. They check every single thing that I had, literally laying all my belongings beside the road. It was finally my mobile phone that caught their attention. They inquired about price, configuration and from where I bought it. Then they left me with all my belongings arranged in a line along the road. It took half an hour for me to collect all my stuff and pack them again to get moving ahead in my tryst with destiny: my journey.
Here is what I went though in Argentina next.
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