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Other entries in Colonia del Sacramento

The day BMW tried to kill me!!!!

So, I arrived at Porto Alegre by bus on Saturday 20th October.

Richard and Tanya came to pick me up at the bus station. Richard, a Canadian gentleman, had retired to Brazil over 8 years ago with his Brazilian wife Tanya. Over the years, their home has sheltered many motorcycle travellers. They took us under their wing during our stay in town and Tanya was invaluable, dealing with workshops and translating!   

Being themselves keen bikers and the proud owner of a Yamaha Fazer 250, they had registered for a big Yamaha event and ride out on Sunday. And being great people, they worked their magic and convinced Yamaha to lend us a bike for the day! Understandably, Yamaha did not want us to show up on the BMW Dakar, fair enough, giving publicity to the competition!

So on Sunday morning, we registered with the dealer for the ride and lunch, and we were given the keys and papers of a little 125cc!  No asking for credit card or anything! It was unbelievable, thanks again, Motoryama! Then we were able to raid the breakfast buffet at the dealership! By mid-morning we were given the green light! It was time to get on the bikes and follow the police escort! Fantastic organisation. All Yamaha dealers grouped the bikers and we were about 500 to 800 (difficult to estimate) bikers on the road! It was a fairly long ride to our lunch destination, especially as I was riding pillion on this little bike. Argh my poor bum! The Fazers on the other hand did look like great fun to ride!

As we stopped in town, at our destination, we locked the bikes but then were given the signal to continue. Richard forgot to remove his disc lock (usual mistake to do, all bikers have been there!) and down they went! Poor Tanya did not deserve that! No harm done though!

The lunch was a great buffet.  Entertainment was provided by the local beauty queens and a German Umpah band.  This area is very "German" in architecture and names of towns (Novo Hamburg, etc).  There are even a number of towns which have an Oktoberfest.  Unfortunately we never went to any!

Richard and Tanya had another house guest at the same time as us (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) who was another keen biker! How can I describe Barry? Another Canadian! When not busy flying Boeings to Heathrow with a Canadian airline, he enjoys the hospitality of Richard and Tanya. Looking forward to retiring in Porto Alegre in few years time!  Not that you would guess he is approaching retirement age! He would usually disappear by mid afternoon from the house, to reappear in the early hours of the morning, like a naughty teenager! Enjoying the beauties and pleasures of a busy social life! Who can blame him? His social life was more interesting and entertaining than any of the Brazilian soap operas on TV.  No ordinary guy, but then, you would not meet ordinary people at Richard and Tanya's house!

On Monday we went to BMW with our hosts.  Tanya was wonderful at translating and making things clear for us. We asked them to check the bike as it had been stolen and we did not know the damage. They had also to replace the ignition lock that had been drilled out by the thief. Being a BMW workshop I was expecting a certain level of service and quality in their work. I was in for a shock!

On Wednesday morning we went to pick up the bike. I was expecting that a genuine BMW part would be used to replace the ignition but in fact a non-BMW part had been used that probably cost a couple of quid down the market, therefore the steering lock did not work. The only other thing they did was refit the broken mirror.  They charged me over 1000 USD for the pleasure (600 of it being the transport of my bike for 250kms). This is Brazil not Europe! But I can accept paying through the nose for outstanding work. However, BMW Porto Alegre did not even check the bike over. As a result I left the workshop on a bike that was dangerous to ride! The forks were mis-aligned, but worse, the handlebar was bent in 2 places, one being at the throttle. As a result, the throttle would be ''sticky''! For car drivers, imagine you press the accelerator pedal and it stays stuck were you push it so that if you want to reduce speed you have to pull it up! Same thing happened with my throttle. I was speechless and decided to ride out of there before they tried to rip me off even more!

I had a terrifying ride back at the house. Alistair wanted to fix it but we did not have the tools. Richard took a look at the bike, and despite being unwell that day, took us immediately to a local workshop. The lad there was also horrified by the state of the bike and the incompetence of BMW! He managed to fix it within few hours. I have not made a formal complaint to BMW Brazil yet but I will once I've calmed down on this! And as soon as I find the email address of the top guy in Brazil. It will be a pleasure to copy the board members of BMW in Germany! The way BMW dealt with me in totally unacceptable and very dangerous!  The last straw with BMW came regarding my faulty leaking boots. The customer services suggested to buy a new pair of boots from Porto Alegre dealership (which cost about 500 pounds thanks to import tax). A committee would then take few weeks to decide if my boots were leaking due to a manufacturing fault and refund me if they were! No doubt if I gave 500 pounds to the dealership in Porto Alegre, that would be the last I'd see of that!

BMW claim that as a global brand they will provide service and support worldwide. Well, it's a lie. Big on words, very short on action.  Unless you travel with a TV crew and you are Charlie Boorman or Ewan McGregor that is! They are going to replace the spark plugs they sold us in the UK (the wrong ones we found out in Bolivia). Their dealership in Buenos Aires will be happy to replace them free of charge.  I'll believe that when it happens!!!! It's the end of BMW stuff for me from now on!!! 

During our stay in Porto Alegre we also had to decide how to carry my luggage. We abandoned lots of unessential things in Imbituba, Alistair took most of the heavy spare parts, but I could not keep the Aluminium panniers. With the supporting  frame stolen (along with all our camping gear except for the tent) there was no way to fix the panniers to the bike. We could have had some sort of frame rebuilt, but it would have taken time, money, and in iron would have added more weight to the bike. We decided to buy a holdall and waterproof cover as a temporary solution until we get to Buenos Aires. So we decided to leave my panniers at Richard's house. I hope they will come handy for another biker one day.

I also contacted a biker in the UK, who was coming to Buenos Aires in November. I want to buy some Touratech straps and a Packsafe and asked him if he could bring them to me. He kindly offered to buy them for me as he can have a dealer discount. So he is bringing me all that. For the camping gear we will have two weeks to go shopping in Buenos Aires, apparently there are good camping shops there.  

On Thursday, we were sorted, it was time for us to leave. It was sad to say goodbye to Richard and Tanya. We will never be able to repay them for their help and kindness, all we can do is pass this on to someone else, the next generation of travellers, one day...I hope that we will meet hem again! I'm going to miss them. As for 'Bad Boy' Barry, ha Barry! As long he is flying Boeings to Heathrow he will be a very welcome guest in our house. If he can get away from the party scene of West London!

So on Thursday we were back on the road. It felt great to ride my poor battered old bike! For a while I thought I would never see it again! We did not go far that day, we only rode 100 kms north of Porto Alegre, to the very Bavarian looking towns of Canela and Gramado. The south of Brazil is populated by a vast majority of people of German descent. Until recently they mainly spoke German, but this is now changing. At least Alistair doesn't stand out anymore, as there are plenty of tall blond people around.  In Gramado, Alistair finally bought a sheepskin for a bit of extra  comfort on the bike. I bought some elastic band from an haberdashery shop and fixed the sheepskin to the seat of the bike. It has made a huge difference already, he reports.

Then it was time to leave Brazil and ride south. We spent our last night in Brazil in a lovely lake resort finding a lovely Pousada renting Cabanas (little wooden houses). It was a nice place for our last day there.  We were sad to leave Brazil. Despite so much trouble we found that the vast majority of people were warm, friendly and very nice! We've barely scratched the surface of Brazil, it is such a big and stunning  country, we will have to come back one day!

We crossed the border with Uruguay on a Sunday. The border crossing was uneventful, except for the part where the passport control in Brazil side was 1 mile away from the border bridge, while customs was on the bridge itself but we were unable to stop there as we would block the traffic! Then, on the Uruguayan side, we had to ride for 5kms inland before reaching the passport control and customs offices!

We decided to cross the country inland rather than following the coast road. This was definitely gauchos and cattle country. Millions of cattle and horses, but nobody (and best of all, no cars and lorries)... A completely empty country! Very rare farms, small towns every 100 kms if lucky... Where are the Uruguayans?

In Minas, we failed to find an affordable place with safe parking for the bikes, so we followed the tourist information advice and rode 10kms out of town to Los Nietos farm. They rented little tiny apartments. The place was peaceful and beautiful. Nothing can compare to waking up in the morning and having breakfast outside, near the bikes, surrounded by horses and a friendly dog... At night the fields were covered by thousands of fireflies, it was an amazing sight!

The countryside was lovely, it could have been anywhere in England: green beautiful gentle hills, lots of horses and farm animals...

We could not get money out of any ATM machine in town so decided to stop at Montevideo (the capital city) before continuing to Colonia. As usual, riding into capital cities is never fun but we found our way round, got cash from a bank at last, then rode the 200kms to Colonia under pouring rain. It was actually lashing down, and to make it worse had strong winds!  As usual my left boot filled with  water, as usual I cursed BMW! Must buy new boots in Buenos Aires if nothing else!!!!

We got stopped by the police at some point, telling us we were speeding, which isn't true, but they let us off in the end.  

So here we are in Colonia, beautiful old town, it was used for smuggling british goods into Argentina once upon a time... Today it is big on shopping it seems. The town is located on the edge of the River Plata, just in front of Buenos Aires. So we bought our ferry tickets today. On Saturday morning we will be crossing La Plata and we'll be in Buenos Aires, staying there for 2 weeks. I have already booked Javier, a trusted motorcycle mechanic, who repairs and offer shelter to most motorcycle travellers. A famous guys in our motorcycle travellers world. I'm sure he will be able to fix all that is wrong with my bike! As for arrival, Karl Hans, who is renting us the flat, will come to pick us up at the port, on his bike! How cool is that? That's the beauty, as a motorcyclist, you have friends everywhere!