We had a simple breakfast with the local type of pastry that is very dry and Andrew compared it to a multi-layered sayo biscuit 😂. Andrew managed to have a video chat with his kids during breakfast.

We had 386km to get to Salta on Ruta 16 which was more of endless long straight roads through more farmlands and we saw storks and finally managed to get one of them on video just as it was flying off. We fuelled up in Joaquin V. González. We continued riding until we turned onto Ruta 34 where there was a stretch of divided 2 lane highway which was a much better road for most of it but the right lane had big potholes. We fuelled up at the intersection where Ruta 9 turned off to Salta and I charged my phone. The mechanics where we had the bikes booked in said they would wait for us to drop the bikes off that evening although they initially wanted to leave by 5:00pm but we could only get the bikes there by 7:00pm. We arrived at the hotel and parked the bikes in an internal under cover courtyard. We unpacked the bikes and took the dry bags off and then rode the bikes around to drop them off. Daniel and his nephew who spoke English welcomed us and we discussed what needed to be done – they looked at the brakes and said they would change all of them with the brake pads we carried except for Andrew’s rear brakes which had been changed in Concepción. We confirmed that they would use 10W-40 Motul oil and we gave them our last set of oil filters and gaskets to use. They were also supposed to clean and lube the chains and check and clean our air filters if required and to call us or check with us if they had any questions or found anything else. We also discussed with them about the carburetor settings and whether we should change the jets for the altitude but they recommended to not make any changes to the jetting and if required adjust the idle speed at altitude. We had to take the panniers off which took a bit of time but we could leave them there as well as our jackets and helmets.

We walked back to our very nice hotel room which had a fridge and a kettle and a toaster and a chandelier and a great view of the Andes. We got changed and walked for dinner to a seafood restaurant where we ate seafood paella and had a carafe of red house wine before passing out dead tired after the long day of riding.

The next morning we had breakfast and returned to our room and made use of the fast internet to finally get the first blog of the Brazilian side of the waterfalls out. We got a text from the mechanic telling us that they could only get 15W-50 Motul oil or 10W-40 Gulf oil. We told them it is more important to use the correct viscosity and to go ahead with the Gulf oil. We also tried to plan our crossing of the Andes and booked accomodation in Purmamarca and Susques in order to allow a slower ascent and acclimatisation to the altitude and to cross into Chile by Friday since the weather forecast was for extremely high winds up to 80km/hr for the weekend and continuing high winds for another week. This meant that we had to ask to check out one day early from our hotel in Salta which we had already paid for 3 nights. We were just getting ready to walk to the centre of town to Plaza 9 de Julio with the cathedral basilica de Salta, when Andrew hurt his back putting the pink socks on – he heard a pop in his back and was in agony – I gave him neurofen and we waited for it to kick in. We eventually walked to the cathedral although Andrew’s back was not good and he could barely stand up straight. We got to the plaza and took pictures of the basilica but it was locked and we did not get to see the inside. Along the plaza were many restaurants and coffee shops and street venders. We saw a guy dressed in black with a bullet proof vest and armed come around and he collected money from all the store owners and street vendors which we thought was strange and looked like they all paid some protection money. We then had coffee and icecream and got some cereal and milk from a Carefour shop before returning to the hotel and we had a message that the bikes were ready for pick-up. Andrew took some panadol for his back and we put our motorcycle clothes on and walked to the mechanic.

There were our two good looking steeds washed and ready for the next and last stretch of our trip – so we thought. When I tried to pay they did not know how to send a link so I could pay on card but one of their friends knew how to do it and after several attempts we managed to pay via credit card. Meanwhile we went over what they did and found – they gave us the old brake pads which still had some life in them, they found a snapped off Schellenring on my exhaust and replaced that. They said they washed the chain with petrol and then lubed it and the air filters they told us they cleaned but did not have any filter oil so they sprayed them with WD-40 😳. We asked whether they took them on a test ride and they said they had not done that. By the time we had the panniers back on and taken pictures and rode off, it was after 7pm and dark and Andrew’s bike kept stalling and would not idle – which was strange since his bike always ran great. We managed to get the bikes back to the hotel and did some searches and everyone says not to use WD40 on air filters and to wash it out in hot soapy water and lube with the correct air filter oil. We also looked up cleaning O-ring chains with petrol and that was also a no no – we messaged the mechanic about the chain and use of petrol but he replied that they had used diesel to clean them not petrol – must have gotten lost in translation. We did not message them about the air filters as we had decided to cancel the booked accommodation in Purmamarca (for free) and stay a third night in Salta to give Andrew more time to recover from his back injury and to take the air filters out and replace them with the brand new pre-oiled ones we were carrying with us ourselves the next day. I was quite annoyed as we had the air filters and if they had communicated with us, we could have told them to install the spare ones we had – we would have definitely told them not to use WD40 on them. If you want a job done properly, do it yourself – lesson learned 😉😂 We went for dinner and wanted to try a highly recommended meat place but the place no longer existed – so we went to the same seafood place as the previous night for dinner.

The next day we had breakfast and they offered us eggs as well 🤗. We started taking the altitude sickness tablets in order to work out if we had any side effects. We then returned to our room and booked a tour in Peru to see Machu Picchu . We both noticed the diuretic action of the altitude sickness tablets and Andrew experienced some tingling around his face and pins and needles in his hands. After noon when it had warmed up outside, we went to our bikes and took the air filters that were soaking wet with WD40 out and installed brand new, pre-oiled filters in each bike. We also lubed the chains using the stand to prop up the bike since Andrew could not lift them with his sore back. We started the bikes and let them run for a while and they ran better than before – “selbst ist die Frau”😂😉 We then thoroughly washed the air filters in hot dishwashing water and let them dry over night.

We then re-packed all the gear and put our liners back into jackets and riding pants and took all our extra warm clothes out for the upcoming Andes crossing. We went for dinner and tried a new place to have meat which was quite nice and we watched the first half of a local soccer match on TV. We returned to our hotel and tried to get a good night sleep before the first big day of our last Andes crossing in Chile.