Just like Che Guevara, Alex Che-con is finally leaving Argentina! Don’t cry for me Argentina!

After 4 weeks of being in Buenos Aires I am finally leaving. Spending so much time here I have acquired a bit of an Argentinean accent, learned Tango, lived on a pizza diet and even made friends. I have indeed become a little Argentinean inside.

 I never in my wildest dreams imagined spending so much time here, but I must say it was incredible and productive.

The most recent and important news is that after many weeks of struggle and negotiations, I have finally sold my motorcycle. This may come to a surprise to many; it may be sad news for some, heart breaking for others.

As for me I am indifferent about it, I had the tuff choice to either pay a large fee and many headaches to ship it back home, spend more time and money figuring it out in Brazil (my next destination) where I don’t speak Portuguese’s and costs are much higher, or sell it to a worthy individual while in Buenos Aires. I am very neutral on it, but am slightly happy that this burden is now off my shoulders of my decision on the bike. Although I haven’t completed my journey yet to Brazil, it was in my best financial interest to have let the bike go at this time.

The individual that got it from me is from Canada and will be driving it back up to his home country. But because he is a bit unfamiliar with the border crossing process and such, I volunteered to help him out anyway I could.

To make a long story short, we will be departing Buenos Aires together on the bike to reach Iguaçu falls where I will continue my trek on foot/bus or any other means, while he will turn the opposite direction and head to Ecuador. I was even fortunate enough to sell him my equipment to facilitate his journey and lessen the load on me having to carry all the stuff back.

So the bike is basically brand new for Chris, brand new engine, brand new tires, new radiator hoses, new oil and filter, and the list goes on.

So finally after much bad luck, I got a bit of good luck with this arrangement.

Chris was hanging around Ecuador when he saw my ad on the interest and jumped on the motorcycle deal.

When I first met him, I knew we had a great connection. He’s an awesome guy with a great mind set very similar to mine. His personality and look even resembled a friend of mine.

We had lots to talk about, and even shared some philosophy on life.

I searched around town for a good backpack to put my entire life in, as I will now be living out of a much smaller backpack,

My new life

I no longer have storage room for luxuries like socks, underwear, or food-completely useless stuff I know! That I usual carry on the motorcycle.

The idea is to compact everything I can put into the this backpack, strap it on to the back of the bike for the few days we’ll be traveling together, and drop myself off in Iguazu, as I will be driving the entire way, and from there he will take the bike back to Canada.

So because of my limited space, I had to give away lots of my stuff as you can see.

All the stuff I had to doanate to charity

Mostly clothes and things I wish I could keep but I can’t.

Had to say good bye to my tennis shoes I purchased in Colombia that smelled atrocious.

My awesome pair of Colombian tennis shoes had to be donated

And I realized how many spare keys I had for locks I had lost throughout the journey that I no longer had.

I must say I will miss spreading the family name around the world

And I will miss the only sticker on the bike that was forcefully put on there by a random guy in Argentina.

And I will also miss parking the motorcycle anywhere I please

After repacking my life into a single bag Chris and I went around town looking for a helmet for him as well some motorcycle gear like pants and a jacket.

In the process we got some tires and changed them

And you wonder how people transport tires on a motorcycle

Lots of other used up tires

22,222  miles all the way to BA! No bad!

Saw some crazy dog walking in BA

We also got a chance to visit the hippie fair in Recoleta.

Met another fellow biker that lived off selling his jewelry.

He was nice enough to keep an eye on the bike while we roamed around.this guy. He had  two friend that joined the in conversation. Once guy was missing all his teeth except for his two front canine and was dressed in what looked like medievel scotish clothes that included a kilt, and the other gentleman suffered from elephantitis on his right hand, which made his fingers the width of carrots and his hand the size of a frying pan.

They were really friendly and they were so nice I hung out with them for over an hour. Quite the colorful crowd they were. I wish them all well.

Also saw the cultural center full of art.

Some interesting stuff

Some funky stuff

Some boring looking stuff

And more stuff.

So it’s pretty funny to see everyone crammed to the front on an open air bus when it starts to rain, the hippie guys and us were getting a good laugh.

On my way from there I accidentally joined a soccer hooligan caravan running red lights and chanting for their team that was about to play.

Chris and I hung out at the hostel Palermo where he was staying later on. It was a funky place full of life. Met some cool people, had some fun and called it a night.

Tomorrow the journey continues as we go visit Uruguay and our way to the wondrous Iguacu falls!