Close To The Sky

Over the mountains to the end of the world—a motorcycle journey through South America.

- Bettina Hobenrich

It′s 7 o′clock in the morning as we leave the international airport of Santiago de Chile. We are welcomed by dense fog and cold, damp weather. Not exactly perfect for motorcycling, but what can we do? We catch a bus and two hours later arrive at the port of Valparaíso, where our motorcycles await us.

A couple days of preparation and we’re ready to hit the road. The idea of traveling through a new and completely different continent with foreign cultures and languages makes each of us nervous and happy at the same time. What will we experience, how will we cope with the language barrier, and how will the locals approach us?

Our first day on the road is exciting. It’s the first time in our lives we are riding through the Andes Mountains with our own motorcycles. The winding road leads us nearly 10,000 feet up a mountain pass. The other side of the summit belongs to Argentina, so we must cross our first border after just a couple of hours on the road.

The immigration building is crowded with people, it’s absolutely chaotic and thanks to our lacking Spanish we don’t understand a single word. Nevertheless, we somehow manage to cross the border: ¡Hasta luego Chile! ¡Bienvenidos Argentina!

The thin mountain air makes it difficult for us to breathe and even our bikes are struggling with the altitude