poco Argentina

Iguazu to Posadas

We have been in contact with a Canadian friend of ours who happens to be in the area on his bike. We have a rough plan to meet somewhere and it seems that today or tomorrow is the day. Craig is also the one who informed us of the storage place in Montevideo, he has been storing his bike there for a few years now.

Our travel plan is to make our way to Posadas, which is across the river from Encarnation so we expect it will be a similar city with a developed waterfront. We could actually see it when we were in Encarnation and the skyline was impressive. Route 12 in Argentina is a scenic highway along the Rio Parana that has many touristy type spots along it. There are signs for camping, bird-watching  fishing, and boat tours. From what we could see the campgrounds are actually well established and provide nice tent areas under the tall shade trees. Somehow tenting in this heat does not sound appealing to me, air conditioning sounds more appealing, I must be getting soft.

Nicely groomed highway

Don't see that sign at home

Wind damage in Posadas, note the car under the tree

Posadas turned out to be quite different than Encarnation, we found the centro easy enough but within thirty seconds of parking there were teenage boys asking us for money. They gave us the feeling that if we didn't give them something they would trash our bikes when we turned our backs. Needless to say this was a turn-off and bad first impression of the town, we decided to find a hotel away from the centro to avoid the issue which led us to a nice Hosteria operated by a friendly lady and her not so friendly husband. Although not overly expensive it still seemed to be overpriced for what we got, the bed was not very comfortable and the smell was a bit off. Maybe it was the rain that made it smell a bit musty, maybe it was our sweaty riding gear. The other challenge was to find a restaurant in the area, we walked 20 blocks one direction only to find a bunch of auto parts stores, then we walked another 20 blocks in the opposite direction from the hotel to finally find a hole in the wall spot that actually served tasty food, we were however glad we could not see the kitchen.

Posadas to Corrientes

Craig was in contact again and we made a plan to meet at a highway intersection out in the countryside. Craig was coming from the South so it seemed like a logical spot, and whoever got there first would just wait for the other to show up. We made it to the intersection about 10minutes behind him. We started talking and before you know it the rain started and we moved to the shed that must have served as a bus depot. 

You meet the nicest people on the side of the road.

We call this meeting to order.

Handy thing as it gave us shelter from the rain and a seat so that we could catch up on travel stories in comfort. Once the rain and BS stopped we decided to check out Itzuaingo which was was only 10km down the road, none of us felt like riding into a bigger city today and it should be easy to find a place in the small town. After a few no vacancy signs we found an apartment hotel that was willing to reduce the rate to an acceptable level. This was the first time we tried one of these places as we were renting a two bedroom apartment with full kitchen and normally this would be way more than we need for a one night stay. The bikes even had covered parking in the carport. 

We could not figure out what the deal was with the town, they had a large hotel casino that just seemed out of place and aside from being on the river we could not see anything that warranted such an establishment. We had a great supper and really enjoyed getting to know Craig a bit better as well. We spent the rest of the evening around the kitchen table looking at maps and discussing the countries we have seen and would like to see, I felt a bit tired and realized it was 1:45am, no wonder I was yawning.

A somewhat early start was delayed a bit when trying to get breakfast at the Casino Hotel, the cook was nice enough to make us each a tasty omelet and some coffee but I got the feeling that the restaurant was closed. Then it was a repeat performance of straight highways to Corrientes and trying to find a nice hotel within walking distance to restaurants and attractions. Well it was a split decision, we found a hotel next to the Centro that was within walking distance to lots of shopping but the nice restaurants were down by the river in the tourist area that was not withing walking distance. We took a taxi and were pleasantly surprised by the well developed Malecon with restaurants and bars all along it. 

Typical moto parking

We also discovered that most places didn't open until 8:30pm which seemed rather late to start eating supper, correction it seemed late to start ordering supper, it was at least an hour later when our food arrived. Good thing we had lots to talk about, and a little wine to drink, this is Argentina after all. Both Craig and I decided to try the big chunk of beef with bread, although a little heavy late at night it was very tasty. Big meals late at night make me sleepy so after a stroll down the waterfront it was back to the hotel for a peaceful sleep.

This would be our last meal together because after breakfast Craig was heading West and we are heading South. The hotel put on a nice buffet breakfast so we take our time and enjoy and extra cup of coffee before packing up and hitting the road. Oh ya, Happy Valentines Day.

We figure that Mercedes is a nice sounding place, and we are not let down. The small city has a definite cowboy (gaucho) atmosphere highlighted by men dressed in traditional cowboy garb. Their hats were either large flat pizza pan style or smaller French cabby berets, they also wore wide tooled leather kidney belts, plaid or plain white dress shirts and wide legged pants that tapered below the knee and looked suitable for tucking into tall riding boots, although all the men were wearing a flat slipper type shoe.

More straight roads

Seed plant or something similar

We found a nice enough room in an old home that was converted to a guest house. The doors were about fifteen feet high and the ceilings about twenty. There was also access to the kitchen so instead of eating out we decided to have a home cooked meal for a change. The heat is draining and we fall asleep by 9:30, maybe the two previous late nights caught up to us as well.

Our accomodations for the night

Inside the hotel, basic but nice.

Feeling refreshed and anxious to hit the trail we were up early off towards the border city of Coronation. More ranch-lands and farms flank both sides of the highway, the crops we can see are comprised of corn and Mate. Mate is consumed in large quantities here and can be seen everywhere. People walking around with thermos and cups sipping away on stainless steel straws, it is almost like an addiction. It is big business though as some of the larger farms have huge signs advertising their brand of mate and the grocery stores have entire aisles dedicated to the stuff.

Coronation is a well developed city and serves as a shopping city for Uruguay, gas is apparently even more expensive there and the commute is worth the savings at the pump. It is still relatively early in the day so we decide to go look at the border and see if the line-up is worth the effort today or just wait until the morning. The 5km to the border is almost deserted so this can mean two things, they are not letting people through or there is no traffic to let through. It turns out that most of the cars are going into Uruguay and few are coming out. The line is short and moving well so we decide to cross and spend the night in Salto, just across the border. The border crossing is easy peasy, we don’t need an exit stamp from Argentina and the Uruguay line has two people in it, us. Stamp stamp, next is Uruguay Aduana where we have to fill our own paperwork and the officer just signs them. Then it is outside to get in line to go through the fence and we are done. While in line we talk with a couple from the Netherlands who are finishing a 3 month bike trip through Argentina and Chile. Nice folks riding two BMW bikes, a G650Dakar, and a G650GS, they have put on 25,000km so far and have another 10 days before they ship the bikes back home. We chat a bit and share some experiences then they are off into the distance as we wait our turn in line.

Salto is a clean but somewhat run down city, the sidewalks are broken up and many buildings off the main street look abandoned. They have an impressive central park and the secondary park is bordered by a grand Hotel and Casino. Again with the casino, a sign of prosperity to have voluntary taxation in the form of entertainment, the house always wins.

Documentation Check...nice legs

It also seems we are getting tired of taking pictures of city parks and we sometimes don’t even take a camera with us when we go out. I guess things seem so much like home that we feel there is nothing unique to take pictures of. The tourist attractions are limited and most seem to focus around hot springs or bird watching, nothing wrong with either but just not out thing. We do still enjoy people watching and looking at the old architecture, it always amazes us how a building from 1700 or 1800 is still standing, I doubt anything we build today will be around in 300 yrs. Another unique thing we noticed is that the bank machines only allow us to pull small quantities of cash at a time, usually enough for about 3 days of travel. The service fee is equal to about $7Cdn on this end and another $5 at home, so $12 to get $300. The justification by the banks is that it provides security for their clients by restricting how much they can carry in cash. There is some sound logic, I am sure it has nothing to do with service charges as a profit center.

Communication has also become an issue as the language here is Castellano not Spanish so everything sounds different even if it is the same word. There is a lot of “schey” and “scha” sounds that are not used in Spanish, for example at the gas station full in Spanish is pronounced “yenno”, in Catellano it is pronounced “schenno” but both are spelled “lleno”. Speaking of gas stations, how about $2.25 per liter, and it is called Nafta, which makes me nervous because in Alberta Nafta is a different product all together.

Craig said it best when he described the transition to the Southern countries as “the edge is gone”. That is very accurate, if it wasn't for doing things like running out of gas in both bikes the days would be terribly boring. Straight flat roads, expensive but easy to buy gas, developed towns, even potable tap water.

Yes, we ran out of gas. 

Dead bike #1.

Dead bike #2 appropriately parked next to a cemetery.

My bike stopped about 20km from town and Brenda’s made it another 14km before sputtering to a stop. So there I am, carrying a jerry can down the road in full riding gear, 35C heat, trying to kick myself in the ass for not filling the cans at the last gas stop. I flag down a guy on a scooter with the intention of asking him for a ride to town, he points to the next yardsite and says “vende nafta”, great now I just have to walk the last 50 meters and then back about a mile to the bike put the gas in, ride the last 6km to town, fill the bike and the jerry can then go rescue Brenda who is waiting on the side of the road with my bike. So almost two hours after leaving her on the roadside I return to find her sitting in the grass enjoying the scenery and eating peanuts.

Self portrait. No shade out here.

Cool old truck still used as a daily driver.

Well, that was quite introduction to this town. Our hotel choices were a little better than the roadside but not much although there were a few old cars in the parking lot to look at.

Grapevine canopy over the parking area