We are just regular tourists without our motorcycles

Having visited most of the places we wanted to in Buenos Aires and with still no better lead than the poor offer of the two American guys, we were getting a little hopeless. We've had a lot of interest from Argentinean riders since they could get for almost nothing a bike that is worth $15,000 here. We decided to pursue more seriously the shipping option: it may not be as bad as we think. In addition, we had the address of a bike shop called Dakar Motos that many of our rider friends had sent us as it was well know within the international riding community to be the place to go in Buenos Aires. Maybe they would have tips for us to sell the bikes or we would meet other travelers there that could help us. The other thing is that they had a cheaper accommodation and parking option that would save us some money now that we had no longer a need to be downtown.

A deceptive place that brought us back to La Plata
Dakar Motos was in the north suburbs of Buenos Aires and without a detailed map, despite having written down the detailed directions from Google, we got lost. Some taxi guys put us in the right direction and we actually were not that far. The owners of the shop were super friendly and we saw in the garage the bike of our friend Gus, who had stored it there until he would come back to continue his trip. As we talked to the owners, Javier and Sandra, they frowned when we told them we wanted to sell the bikes: impossible with an Argentinean and good luck for finding a foreigner that would buy it. They could help us with a shipping quote though and we measured the bikes thoroughly. There was only one other biker there, waiting to receive his credit card by mail (he had it stolen) to continue his journey. He could not really help up but Chad and him were exchanging good stories. We also had a look at the accommodation option: it was very very basic and separated from the garage where all the bikes were only by a curtain. The previous travelers who had just left were not really clean and Sandra was struggling cleaning the place up. In a nutshell, we had no desire to stay in the motorcycle shop.

It just happened that we had told Teresa and Lucrecia that we would not leave the Buenos Aires area until we had figured out what to do with the bikes. They had kindly invited us back to their house mentioning as well that there was a birthday party on Wednesday that we should go to. Still remembering their tempting offer, we gave them a call back and in no time we were back on our bikes towards La Plata where they live. It felt like being back home as we pulled our bikes in front of their apartment. The dogs seemed to be overwhelmingly happy to see us. After we shared our stories from the four days we had been apart, Teresa broke the good news: one of the guys who had seen the bikes at the local motorcycle shop seemed to be interested in buying. He was Argentinean and knew the legal situation of the bikes but seemed to have the connections to make it worked. We gave him a call and would meet him the next day at the shop where apparently the owner was interested in buying the other bike. Our day had radically changed as soon as we set foot in La Plata to optimistic, even more when we shared for dinner the delicious risotto that Teresa had cooked.

The day we gave up our two-wheeled beasts
Full of optimism the next day, we continued checking our emails to see if anyone else was interested in the bike. We had another email from a guy who had expressed interest in the bikes and whom we had told to meet us at Dakar Motos the day before. We did not think he was going to show up there but he actually did and had missed us by a minute, actually seeing us driving away in the distance as he was parking in front of the store. He asked us where he could meet us to see the bike and apologetic, we sent him Teresa's phone number to arrange for a meeting. This may be a good lead after all. We left the house with the girls to meet up with Adrian, the other potential buyer, at the bike store. He was there on time, looked at the bikes, asked us some questions and discussed a little more the paper issue with the girls. We asked him if he wanted to sit on the bike and he said no but confirmed he was interested. He had US$4,000 to offer us for a bike and gave Lucrecia his phone number so that we could follow up with him. When he left, we were certain that he was not that interested but the girls told us he was crazy for the bikes and ready to buy. We laughed at how differently we had interpreted what just happened.

It turned out that the owner of the bike shop could not come to see the bikes due to some family issue but was ready to make us an offer for one. Waw, this was awesome. We drove back home and bought groceries for a French dinner: Caroline was going to cook her famous Onion Pie along with a Chocolate Mousse for desert. We were continuing our culinary festivities. We were all in the house when the phone rang: it was Andres, the guys we had missed in Buenos Aires. We axplained him where we were and he said that he would come to La Plata the next day and buy one bike, potentially two. We just had to find a notary so that we could sign some official papers for the transaction. Lucrecia found one and we were to meet Andres the next day at 11am to buy Chad's bike. We also called Adrian back in the evening and told him that we wanted to accept his offer and he was going to meet us the next day too in the afternoon to buy Caroline's bike. When it rains, it pours... We just had three buyers confirmed for the two bikes.

Early morning, we got a phone call form Adrian: he had thought it over in the night and was too nervous about buying the bike, afraid that the police would confiscate it. He was terribly sorry but would not buy the bike. This was a bad way to start the day but we were still on for 11am with Andres. He was actually one time and had brought a friend. Teresa offered to stay with us and the two guys in case our limited Spanish would not be sufficient or if we needed some help. Hugo and Andres looked at the bikes and we showed them the different accessories. They asked us if the red one had already been sold because they were ready to make us an offer for both. We could not believe it! Teresa told them we had another potential buyer but that since they were here and if they could give us the cash, we would consider their offer. After long discussions, we came to an greement about a price for both. The way it was going to work is that we were going to sign an agreement to let them drive our bikes an keep them at their house for an unlimited amount of time. In exchange, they would thank us for this kindness by giving us a “gift”. They called a friend of them to bring cash and in the meantime we went to a lawyer to do the paperwork. It actually took a very long time but at the end, all the papers were signed and the friend came with the gift. We took some pictures, having a hard time to believe that this was it: they were leaving with our bikes. After a last hug to our bikes, we sat in Lucrecia's car holding our motorcycle gear now useless, with this mix of sadness and happiness.

We celebrated at the house and shared a bottle of Champagne with the girls. We were now free to go home whenever we wanted. Teresa contacted her travel agent friend to see what was available: there was no reason now for us not to make it to Chad's family beach vacation on June 13th. That night, we went to the Birthday party too and the girls transformed Caroline in a "girl" again by lending her clothes and nice shoes. What a transformation: the bikes barely gone, she looked like a lady again. We had so much fun at the party, enjoying a delicious fondue dinner, a typical dish of La Pampa where neither oil not cheese is used but liquid cream with garlic and anchovies. Simply delicious and wine was flowing. It had been a crazy day and for now, we were enjoying a true Argentinean party with our friends who had been so helpful in all this process.