A taste of Route 40

Nov 25 San Julian to Rio Gallegos to Rio Turbio

We overnight in a nice Bed and Breakfast, Hosteria Ketty, and then make tracks in the morning for Rio Gallegos. Another day bucking the wind of Patagonia and fueling up more often that usual because of it. We are also noticing alot of motorcycles along the route, probably more that we seen all last winter in the northern part of the continent combined. At one gas stop we bump into two Portuguese riders who tell us that they were in Ushuaia and there was a travellers' meeting there just a few days ago. This explains why so many bikes are being seen.  A nice exchange of travel stories is shared then it is back into the wind for the last push to Rio Gallegos. It was a total relief that when we turned East for the last 10km into town we could finally rest a bit while riding, the wind was finally at our back. 

Rio G is a unattractive town, mainly due to the wind blowing debris around and the general feeling that this town is past its' prime. Maybe it was just the bad first impression from the striking workers burning tires at the traffic circle that has tainted my view but either way we were not sad to be leaving in the morning. 

There was a lengthy discussion about the feasibility of going all the way to Ushuaia for a picture by a sign. Lets see, 5 days round trip, 1500km each way from here, not much to look at from our research, and all the Ant-arctic tours are full, not much motivation there. The final straw was the police check point on the edge of the city when we were leaving. The officer asked where we were going and then told us that the border has been closed on the Chile side, no entrance today and only a 50/50 chance tomorrow. Well that was the sign that we were to head West across to the Andes instead of South to the sign post, the only issue is that today there is a 45km/h wind with gusts to 75km/h and we are going straight into it. 

We take a short cut across through a pasture to connect back to Rte#3 West, then it is tuck in behind the windscreen and hope for no rain. The next 250km is going to be grueling.

We had already packed an extra 12 liters of fuel for expected trip south and a good thing because at the 175km mark my bike was done, we still have 100km to go to reach Rio Turbio which has the first services. I think at this point we had seen 3 vehicles since leaving Rio Gallegos, and one was upside down in the ditch. We poured in the extra fuel and kept going much to the delight of the sheep that were watching all this action. That is one of the amazing things about Patagonia, it is all fenced, which to me means that someone owns all this land. It is literally like riding on Hwy 22 south of Longview, but it goes on and on for 3000km, similar distance as from Calgary to Phoenix. All flat, all fenced, no tall trees, the occasional sign for an Estancia (ranch), and then a few cities sprinkled about. This is truly a barren landscape.

That is just a couple of the things you think about while hunched over the gas tanks for hours on end. Then we join up with the famous Routa 40, whose claim to fame is intermittent pavement broken up by deep rutted gravel roads, washboard gravel road, strong cross-winds, construction in an attempt to join the pavement sections, and if you are really unlucky—rain. The rain held off and the construction equipment was not in use today so there were no added delays there. I do not understand why a country would try to build 200km of road all at the same time, why not tackle small sections at a time?? Again, something that crosses my mind as I am navigating through endless construction detours and deep soft gravel. 

Brenda feels she earned her Gravel Badge today, I guess that is a peak into what she was thinking about. In any event the bikes handle this terrain like champs, they seem to like it more than constant highway speed for hours on end, and before you know it we are enjoying a nice freshly paved road into Rio Turbio. Not too bad, 6hrs of travel time and 300kms completed, plus almost two full tanks of gas each which is almost 50% more than usual. Damn wind.

There are not many options for hotels, actually we could only find one, and it was $70USD and a dump. You would not likely stay here if this was in Canada, again everything is just a little bit broken. The light fixtures in the dining room either have burnt out bulbs, missing globes, or paint splashed on them. The tables have random chairs, the floor tiles are cracked, the curtains don’t match, the toilet in our room requires removal of the tank lid in order to flush, you get the picture. If it wasn’t 5C outside we would have pitched the tent. The saving grace is that the people are very friendly and courteous. They make us some coffee to help warm up and one of the other guests chats me up while I am doing my daily bike maintenance. Rio Turbio is a border town with Chile, and a coal mining town, a lethal combination in any country I suppose. No biggie, this is just an overnight stop before attempting to cross the border into Chile tomorrow, country number 18 of our bike journey. Sure hope that the border is open.

Gaiman and Tea Time

Nov 21-24 Gaiman to Comodoro Rivadavia to Puerto San Julian

Gaiman is an oddity in Argentina, it was founded back in 1903 by a group of Welsh settlers that were looking to start fresh away from all the rules and regulations within the English colonies. They set about homesteading and farming in the rich valley that even today is a green oasis in a sea of Patagonia flatlands. Our first impression when we seen the valley was that it looked like Drumheller with the badlands and hoodoos as a backdrop. We are not disappointed by the town, it is very well kept and has numerous historic buildings to look at. Along with the Welsh came their traditions and one of the most prominent is High Tea. There are a few very traditional tea houses, that serve up afternoon tea, scones, finger sandwiches and pastries, all on fine china by ladies dressed in traditional black and white servants’ uniforms complete with lace trimmed aprons. 

Very upper crust, but somehow cozy at the same time. What would a tea house be without a rose garden you might ask? Well these folks are not willing to find out because everywhere we turn there are beautiful rose gardens. I did not know that orange roses existed, but they do and are striking to look at.

We stay for two nights which allows us to explore the area a little bit as well. We take a side trip West to a hydroelectric dam and are treated with a nice little village at the base of the damn. Not where I would choose to live but a nice village all the same. There is a scenic route along the river for a few kilometers then the road changes direction  out of the valley.  We turn around and ride it back into the village then backtrack our route to Gaiman. A great day all around.

The next morning we are once again treated to breakfast in our room, nothing fancy just toasted baguette with jam and a thermos of coffee but it is nice that the hostess brings it to our room. We have to backtrack on the dead straight 40km section then rejoining Rte 3 and it is all South from there. Everything is going well and shortly after we hit the pavement of Rte3 Brenda’s chain breaks and once again it is roadside maintenance.

The chain is not only broken it has also suffered a twisted link from being run over on the highway. I do my best to straighten it and it seems to be good enough to run for the rest of the day. Rte3 is called the Ruta Azul (Blue Route) because it follows the Atlantic coast most of the way south, and maybe because there is a whole lot of blue sky to enjoy. 

We are aiming for the destination of Comodoro Rivadavia to meet up with the young couple that drove a limo from Argentina to Alaska. We met them in Cochrane the day before our annual car show, they entered their limo and I think they got an honorary plaque for longest distance travelled to get to the show. Comodoro is an oil and gas town that reminds me of Fort McMurray, expensive hotels and a somewhat tired appearance. After checking at a couple of spots we find a rather dumpy medium priced hotel. It pretty much feels like a work camp inside, everything is a little too old and unclean from overuse and neglect.

The owner of course is a friendly fellow who makes up for the lack of house keeping, and his Marlboros cover the other odors as he show us around the place. Brenda is a little horrified but after a thorough check of the bedding for bugs settles in for an uneasy night's sleep. I on the other hand sleep quite well as my tolerance for this type of environment is a little higher.

This is also a long weekend so the town is pretty much shut down, including the money exchange place and we are in need of Pesos. A bit of walking around and trying different bank machines proves futile so we decide to try at one of the fancy hotels. Sure enough they are willing to help with a small amount of USD conversion to Pesos and we are set to leave town. Well first we have breakfast, then we get stopped on the street by a radio station reporter for a quick interview about our trip. That was fun, but it was also in Spanish and charades don’t transfer well on radio. 

During the interview a passerby stopped to see what was happening, turns out he knows a guy in the next town who changes money. We discuss where and when then we are off to meet “the guy”. Sebastian “the guy” runs a motorcycle tour business and motorcycle repair shop. He offers to change money at the posted bank rate which is a deal breaker but he did take us to a view point of town and beach. Because of the constant winds here the national windsurfing championships are being held at the beach here in Radda Tilly. Honest, I could not make this shit up.

So far today we have gone 20km, and it is 2pm, we had planned on going to Punta San Julian which is 500km down the road, man we gotta get going. Lucky for us the weather is holding out and we are treated to a tail wind for the first few hundred kilometers.  The last couple hundred were a different storey as the wind shifted and we fought a cross wind the rest of the day. This of course causes us to use way more fuel than normal and the jerry cans are put to use once again before we reach San Julian, even though we had filled up less than 200km from town.

San Julian is home to a replica of the sailing ship used by Magellan when he discovered Patagonia back in 1520, yes that number is correct. Other than that there is a naval base and a naval museum, and during the Falkland Island crisis back in the early 80’s it was used as an air base. It seemed that back during the crisis it was a world-wide news event and I can remember some of the focus that it was given even though I was in junior high. Looking at the location and that England was claiming it as theirs it proves that once again the bully on the playground sometimes wins. But I digress. 

Penguins are like gophers.

Nov. 20 Puerto Madryn to Gaiman via Punto Tombo

Now that we have seen sea lions, and whales it was time to cross penguins off the list as well. We have been told that the best place to see them is at Punto Tombo, which is 200km south of Madryn. The morning got sidetracked when I noticed another broken bolt in the skid plate on my bike. I have no idea why these keep breaking but it is getting annoying. I took the bike to a repair shop as the hotel did not have a drill. The first shop could not help me until 3:30pm as he was in the middle of putting an engine back together, he did suggest I try another shop up the street. When I pulled up the guys were all sitting around drinking Mate, perfect they are not busy. The shop is called Autopartes Capitol, which is actually a chopper and hot rod shop. The owner is very helpful and sends one of his guys to the hardware store to buy some long bolts while we drill out the frame. When the guy returns with the bolts they are too short and that was the longest they had; time for plan B. He had some ready-rod in the back so we bent them into a U-bolt, drilled a couple more holes in the skidplate and mounted it the best we could. I think this will be the last time I have to worry about broken bolts in the skidplate on this bike. It seems very sturdy so far and I guess only time will tell if it hold up.

Back to the hotel and load up the bikes again, our planned early start is now looking like 12:30. We take a dirt road Rte#1 from Madryn to Rawson in order to shave off a few kilometers, the road is in good condition and quite large and we figure it is a good indication of what Rte 40 has to offer. Lots of gravel covering a rutted road underneath. This makes it a bit tricky at times because the front wheel grabs the ruts and causes the bike to fish tail a bit every so often. This is not usually a big concern and have become accustomed to the feeling of the bike kicking around beneath us, at this point we are standing on the pegs. If we were sitting down it would be alot less comfortable. Anyway, Rawson greets us with its garbage dump and 25C weather, stinky is being generous, then the town itself turns out to look fairly nice. We just pass through and do not really take much time to look around, then it is onto pavement for the last stretch down to Tombo. Once inside the park gate the pavement ends and the last 20km is a dusty dirt road. About this time the gas light comes on, hmm that wind seems to be making the bikes burn alot more fuel than usual.

This is a Guanacoe not a penguin silly.

The park at Punto Tombo is very well organized and starts off with a tour through a interpretive center to read about the penguins as well as the numerous other animal species that live within the park. Everything is covered from feathers to hoofs. We were surprised to see that there are 18 different kinds of penguins.

At this time of year the penquins are still in their burrows waiting for their eggs to hatch. We expected to see millions of penguins on the beach but instead we see what reminded me of a gopher infestation. The hills are covered with burrows and the penguin pairs take turns sitting on the egg while the other goes out to sea to eat. 

There is a steady procession to and from the water, and some of the burrows are kilometers away from the shore. They are so far from the shore that the local rancher has sheep sleeping amongst the penguins. Of course with all this walking they do they cross the paths set out by the park people and we get to see them up close and personal. One little guy even tried to nip at Brenda’s boot as she was posing for a picture with him. They seem to have the system figured out, but we are shocked at how far the hatchlings will have to walk in order to get to water. It is no wonder that there is a high attrition rate for them, the sea gulls and foxes will have some easy pickings once they start their march.

Nearly 6pm and the park is closing so we have to make tracks, we dump in the jerry cans and do some math. Nope not gonna make it to Gaiman, and that is the closest gas station. I see a quad parked beside one of the buildings and figure if the parks people have a quad they must have gas. Sure enough they sell us a couple of liters of Naphta and we are set for fuel. The shortest distance in this case is another dirt road that cuts across country to Gaiman from the park turn off. 40km of dead straight gravel road and not a thing to look at besides the road, because if you look away for a second that is when you drift into the deep gravel or hit a rut, this is definitely preparation for Rte40.

A Whale of a good time!

Nov. 18-20  Veidma to Puerto Madryn

Once again we are relegated to pavement along the coast past the city of San Antonio Oeste and then south to Puerto Madryn. The route is very similar to the last couple of days with only a slight change in elevation, up from 13m above sea level to almost 200m, and they even put a sign to indicate an upcoming hill. Like you could not see it for miles. We came across a group of bikers outside of La Grutas, which is a small ocean side spot just south of SA Oeste, they were on their way to Ushuaia and said they would be there on Friday, today is Tuesday. They seemed to know what they were talking about and figured that with a couple of hard riding days they could make it. This seems a bit aggressive but as they were riding mostly bigger street bikes it is possible to cover the 1500km in two days. In any case it was a nice chat and we parted ways, they were camping on the peninsula and we were heading to Puerto Madryn.

We knew that the distance to Madryn would be tight for gas and with only a couple of kilometers left Brenda informs me she is sputtering to a stop. We were hoping to avoid using the jerry can fuel reserve but that is why it is there, a quick roadside fuel up and we roll into town.

The town is very well developed for tourism as it has long been a popular spot for viewing marine life, and also has an active port. While I am in the tourist info office a guy hands Brenda a pamphlet for his hostel and says that it is very clean and quiet. We circle around a bit looking at other places then the same guy rides up on a bicycle and leads us to his place. He was accurate about clean and quiet and we end up staying for 3 nights, there is also a kitchen available so we cook our own breakfasts and even made some pasta for supper. 

Between all this eating we planned to take in a whale watching tour, the first time we tried it got cancelled due to strong winds and rough seas so we took the opportunity to ride out to Punta Ninfas and see the elephant seals. This is about 70km down a dirt road so a fun ride and then being able to walk within a couple meters of the seals is amazing. There was one energetic fella that was trying to eat his tail flippers by bending over backwards in some extreme gymnastic pose. The balance of the sea lions just laze around sleeping and grunting without a care that there are people so close, we must not pose a threat so they feel safe.

The next morning the winds are calm and from the West so that makes for good whale watching conditions. It is confirmed that we will be on the 2pm boat so we set about our day with the plan to ride up the coast road and into the Peninsula Valdez National Park, and we should be able to get there in time for the excursion. We see some whales along the way but they are very far out and with the aid of binoculars we can see them as they bob like corks in the water. We had been told by some Uruguay bikers we met at the gas station that the narrow part of the peninsula was the best for camping and simply beautiful. Aside from the ability to see water on the left and right, there did not seem to be much else attractive about this stretch of pavement. The vegetation is the typical short shrub trees and patchy grass, we did however see a nice herd of Guanacoe. They are a Patagonian animal that looks like a Llama but isn’t quite the same. The whale watching is fantastic and we do our best to get some good pics of the enormous creatures, of course there is only so much that a point-and-shoot camera can be expected to do. We are in a larger boat and it can only get so close without risk to the whales, but all the same we enjoy the experience and take as many pics as possible, I even took some video footage with the GoPro.

An Albino calf plays with its mother, laying cross-ways over top of her.

These are the Southern Right Whales which have a curved body and no dorsal fin. The males reach 12 meters of length, whereas adult females may measure from 13 to 16 meters. Adult specimens can weigh between 30 and 40 tons. The guide explained that their mouth, which is curved, contains some 260 plates or horn-like sheets originally called baleen, from where the Spanish name ballena derives.  Later on, we could watch a mother with its new-born calf. When they are born, they measure five and a half meters and the breastfeeding period lasts as much as their gestation: 12 months.

When these animals are ready to breed, they come back to the Valdés Peninsula area every three years, searching for safe and quiet waters to bear another calf. Likewise, the guide pointed out that in the upper part of their head, they have some callosities which represent their “identification mark”. They work just like fingerprints, as they are unique. We found this fact particularly interesting. Behind the callosities, we could see the blowholes, used by the animal to breathe and blow the air from its lungs. It is important to note that in order to avoid alterations during the mating and breeding periods, the Province of Chubut allows navigation only in the Nuevo Gulf and only to crafts owned by tourist agencies, which must in turn have the corresponding authorization provided by the Prefectura Naval Argentina.

Our guide explained about the Albino calves, they are born white then change to either grey or brown a couple of years later. These Albino calves have only been noted in the last 5-10yrs, so something must be changing with the whales in order for this to be occurring.

Before we know it the captain is heading back to port and our excursion is over, we chat for a while with our guide and he says that it has been a very good year for tourism, and that 99% of their customers have been Argentinians. He says it is contradictory to the news of lagging economy and lack of consumer confidence, this was also mentioned by the lady in Hermoso who said that Latin Americans are used to having their money taken away by the gov’t so they do not worry about savings, if they have it they spend it.

Once again there is something about the 3km mark that scares our bikes into stopping and this time it is me that runs out of gas. Almost made it...and the jerry cans are getting put to use once again, we can see the gas station this time. We chuckle about it, dump in some gas and carry on.

Asado and other local specialties.

Nov 16

Waking up with no set schedule is quite liberating in a way, yet there are decisions to be made about which town to visit next and more importantly, What is for breakfast?

The hotel provides a nice breakfast of Apricot glazed croissants, cheese, ham, a couple type of dry cereals, white and brown bread for toast, and of course coffee. The morning ritual is to enjoy breakfast while checking our emails and discussing the previous days events along with a brief review of the plan for the day ahead. We notice how the other guests interact with each other and within their families. There seems to be a large group of ladies staying here and so far only one man with them. There is also a solo lady guest who we end up having a great conversation with as she speaks English very well. She is from Buenos Aires and is just here for the weekend as a small holiday. She asks about the bikes and our travels and then we branch off into discussions about Argentina and its’ history. She expresses concern about the current state of the economy and the government, with first hand experience of the changes that have taken place over the last 20yrs. Argentina was once a self sufficient country that had an overall surplus of about 15%GDP, after some influence by the USA new policies were put in place to privatize many industries and soon the country was and still is in financial crisis with a 65% deficit. The government here can only be in office for one term but somehow managed to trade the presidency between husband and wife for a number of consecutive terms. This made the hole that was dug much deeper and harder to escape. Now it seems that the people expect the economy to collapse every 10yrs or so which makes them very resilient as a people but also adept at managing crisis. All this also makes them very supportive and friendly to anyone who chases their dreams and “Go’s for it!”

Our conversation goes on for at least an hour and we finally decide it is time to get moving so we bid our farewells and hit the trail. There is supposed to be a rural road that follows the coast but it proves to be covered with deep soft sand so we find an alternate route that zig and zags through the crops and cows finally leading us to another flooded road. We backtrack a bit and find yet another alternate route which leads us directly through a farm yard and out his driveway to a paved road Rte.228. Well that doesn’t happen at home.

The highway is mostly deserted as we head Westward, the rough idea is to check out one more smaller beach town before wrapping around the bay and start the trek South to Ushuaia. Monte Hermoso is the town of choice and is supposed to be smaller and less developed than Necochea.We are passing through an area of Argentina that is famous, at least locally, for its’ olive production. We can’t resist the roadside stores and stop into one and check out what all the fuss is. We are surprised to find alot more than just olives, the little store also has a nice selection of cheeses, meats, wine, crackers, nuts, knives, and honey (also produced locally). We settle for a small jar of olives as it is likely the only thing that will travel well.

 Knife with Crocodile toe handle.

 Once we arrive we are surprised to find a Malecon lined with condo towers, hotels, shops, and restaurants. There is only one road in/out of the town and based on the amount of traffic leaving we were expecting the town to be vacant, partially because it is not summer holiday season until January and also because it is Sunday and we assume people have to get back to work on Monday. Once again we are surprised by how busy the town is when we arrive at the Atlantic shore. Cars everywhere, people walking and shopping, and the beach is busy but not overly crowded. 

Maybe that has more to do with the immense size of the beach and not the lack of people. We find a nice little hotel that is right on the Malecon and the manager offers us to have Asado with him this evening.  This is the first time that we have been offered to eat with and Argentine family so we gladly accept and anticipate what the experience will bring. The Argentine people eat very late by our standards, 10pm is normal supper time for them so we have a small snack to carry us over.

Just as promised the meat was ready at 10pm, along with fresh cut tomatoes, tossed salad, and some sort of spicy vegetable with a marinade sauce dressing. The meat was a variety of ribs, steak, chicken, and sausages, all cooked to perfection and very tasty. This was a great experience in other ways as well, we got to interact with what turned out to be other hotel guests and not family members, either way the majority of the conversation was in Spanish and the ability to share some stories made a real difference than the usual one and two word phrases. By 1am it was time to shut down the party and get some sleep, tomorrow is another travel day and we would like to get some miles behind us before the heat of the day.

Nov. 17 Monte Hermoso to Veidma

The hope was to find some dirt roads that took us in a Westerly direction, we realized that much of the lowlands are flooded so we altered the plan and ended up on Rte3, a nice paved road that was not overly busy. It is however very straight with only crops and grass to look at, not even many cows to look at. Then just when I start to think this is a rather uneventful day the chain on my bike breaks. Well, at least it could have happened beside a tree instead of out here in the scorching sun. Lucky for us I have some spare parts for the chain and after about 30 minutes of wrenching and scorching sun Moto Azul is back on the road. This is the first time a chain has broken, and lucky again that as the chain whipped around the from sprocket and broke the guard off it did not puncture the engine case as well. Brenda of course waited patiently and took pictures of the process.

Front sprocket guard, broken from mounting location.

At least the chain was easy to find.

Had to leave my jacket on to prevent sunburn. Very hot, but it is a dry heat.

Next was the town of Veidma, the capital of the province, and as such a well developed center for commerce and tourism. After the roadside maintenance I was feeling a bit drained so instead of pushing on we decided to stop for the day and get out of the heat. It must be over 30C today, sorry for all you folks back home who are toughing out the cold as we are not getting any sympathy in that department.

Brenda stealing a sip of Mate.