This is a quick update post by Gideon, with unfortunate news.

From Peru, we made a quick transition across – not down – Chile, to Argentina. We expected to return to Chile at some point south.

But, after only a few days in Argentina, Clare had an accident. She’s not badly hurt (thanks for asking!), but has a broken collarbone and cracked rib. At the very least, she can’t ride for many weeks.

The Argentine emergency and medical services have been effective and helpful. No other vehicle involved, so no complications with las policias. Who very helpfully recovered her bike to the station, for retrieval later. No charge for this excellent service. The ambulance and hospital also very easy to deal with, even with my limited Spanish. some fees, but very modest. After a few hours with the medics, Clare was discharged into my care at a convenient hotel. Travel insurance engaged quickly, but it doesn’t look like it’s any sort of claim scenario, as the costs have been negligible.

The accident was rather hard to explain. We had just come out of some roadworks onto tarmac, in a sparse queue of traffic, which was slowly gaining speed, but still at maybe 25-35kph. I was behind, Clare’s bike suddenly started to fishtail and swerve, before falling on its right side and sliding across the road to the verge. Luckily no traffic coming the other way. There was a strip of thin, slimey, mud from the water-sprayed roadworks, and I guess there was virtually zero grip for a little bit. Neither of us spotted it coming, although I wasn’t directly behind and didn’t see or traverse that muddy bit. Neither bike nor Clare hit much solid. So really quite a minor tumble, she’s quite unlucky to break stuff. Maybe the Helite saved some injury, maybe not as she might have hit the ground still seated. A lot of bikers do apparently repeatedly break collarbones. I dropped my bike on the verge and ran over. Someone stopped. One guy called the emergencies, I cared, a lady prayed. Bike is ok, BTW, a few scuffs.

Clare can’t ride in the time left available to us. And maybe won’t want to afterwards. Or maybe it’s just not wise, after this warning, to continue into the known difficult riding conditions in Patagonia – we are quite old, and not expert riders on loose surfaces, after all. We have some awkward choices to make.

• Stash the bikes, fly home, and return in either 3 or 7 months. If riding more seems ok.
• Send the bikes home, then continue in a hire car. Shipping is very expensive though.
• “Sell” the bikes, then continue in a hire car. We can’t actually sell them in Argentina, but we can lend them to another foreigner on a poder (like an English Power of Attorney). The poder is needed to take out insurance and cross borders. Once they exit Argentina we can sort out the Alaskan title and registration.
• The dominating factor is, bizarrely to UK eyes, the Argentine (all of SA, actually) regulations appertaining to foreign vehicles brought in by non-residents. Still, we’ll find a (legal) way through.

Decisions – But these are still first world problems. We’ll sort it out.