Across the border to Argentina Jan 13th, 2013
Whoa, what a day… full of excitement as I left Puerto
Tranquilo on Lake General Carrera (as known to the Chileans- Lake Buenos Aires
as know to Argentines)… but in either case, the second largest lake in all of
South America. I left after a nice breakfast with Nellie on the lake and ahead
of any traffic hit the road by 7:30 AM.
Pure clarity but with dust when a car passed the other way. Not a
problem. I did the exit from Chile at the border and entered Argentina. I ran
into Randy and his wife at the customs office. On we went through the
procedure. They hadn’t prepayed the $160.00 it now costs to enter Argentina. I
had last night. While I proceeded through customs and importing my bike into
Argentina, they headed back to the closest town to get on line and pay their
entry fee. I was two hours ahead of them. The road was now paved as opposed to
dirt and rock and I sped ahead. Hitting 75 or 80 on new asphalt is wonderful. I
carried on until, once again the ‘ripio’ as gravel over dirt is know began to
interrupt the smooth trip but what the hell.That is what the trip is about.
Route 40 used to be all dirt and gravel and ran from the north to the south of
Argentina. It still does but as progress, progresses more and more is paved.
Mixed blessing. For those of us in search of a little ‘old school’ and
toughness, it is a shame… but if you lived here or as my sore butt chimes in,
we’d both love a little more pavement…especially after dumping the bike in
grooves of hard packed dirt with large piles of gravel to the side. Well I
wound up in the pile of gravel after surving several times, swearing that oh no
… here we go, watch out and I felt my foot get caught backwords under the side
of my bike then release only to suerve the other way and fall off. I quickly
got up unscathed other than for the dust but the bike I couldn’nt lift or move
so I waited for the next vehicle to come by. It did and lifted me up and I was,
once again on my way. I would rather be traveling with another rider to help
out in such circumstances but no other riders seen around .
A camping site in Chalten with communal cooking over several open fires. Here is Randy, wife Cindy and new friend Stan, from the Netherlands.
"Over the top" is what I'd call this tent. Can you believe it? Randy and Cindy travel in comfort. I met Randy in Nazca, Peru and we traveled together to Santiago, Chile
Cindy flew down to join Randy from Santiago, Chile to Ushuaia, Argentina
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