Argentina

The Journey North – 2

1993

February 15, 2015

Puerto San Julian > Comodoro Rivadavia – 441km

There is obviously not a lot to do in this small town – last night the young men around town drove their cars up and down, up and down, up and down the main street, right outside our window, until after midnight. It took us about 1/2 to 3/4hr to walk it, and its not a through road to anywhere, it just goes to the waterfront 🙂

Here is a spacesaver idea for a bathroom – don’t have a shower curtain – it’s like having your bathroom in the shower. Oooops I missed getting the shower rose in shot.

So this is pretty much what we have been travelling through since Tierra del Fuego, except at this point this was an interesting bit because we had a hill coming up. Now we have beautiful blue skies, temps definitely getting warmer, and I think after this morning, we may have left the wind behind – happy about that!!

We met up with the coast in the afternoon

Comodoro Rivadavia > Esquel – 586km

First part of the day was an oil area with lots of small derricks pumping away. Later we passed through pockets of farmland with horses and cattle, but mostly it was more of this

However we are heading back towards the mountains so towards the end of the day we were back into hills. Coming into Esquel is some stunning scenery – it is a ski/outdoor type of area.

We stopped for gas at one town but soon realised the queue went right around the block and in the 10 minutes we were there, we only moved one car space. There was one guy on the pumps and he was in no hurry. So we decided to top me up with our onboard supply and ride to the next town. This was the short queue we joined there which only took 40 minutes to get to the pumps – the last place was at least 4x longer.

We have often seen small motorbikes on sale sitting between the bedroom furniture and kitchen appliances.

Esquel

In Argentina the shops (including supermarkets sometimes) all close about 12:30/1:00 and don’t open again until about 8/8:30 or later so can be hard getting something to eat. If all else fails we have been able to get a hamburger at the gas station.

We were originally intending to airfreight our bikes out of Buenos Aires but have now decided to ship out of Santiago so that’s where we are heading.

Esquel >San Carlos de Bariloche – 296km

What a fabulous ride today, sunshine with warm temps, a good road, some twisties, and the landscape was so enjoyable all day. It’s good to be heading back to the Andes, and around here with all the trees it is particularly beautiful. It was one of those days where we were enjoying the ride too much to stop for photos.

We decided to just do a short run to Bariloche today because we don’t know where the next accommodation would be after there, and with a border crossing and a mountain pass it could otherwise end up a long day. We visited Bariloche last time we were in South America and although touristy, it’s a relaxed town beside a lake.

Central Plaza full of people