Nov 13 SA de Areca to Ollivarria

The hostel manager has figured out our system, up early to drink coffee then after about an hour of that we want something to eat. We are the only guests in the place so he has set out the instant coffee and fixings, but has left the loaf of bread in the fridge. We had bought some eggs yesterday so we can have those with toast and coffee this morning. The storekeeper wrapped the eggs in newspaper to keep them from cracking in transport. No need for ½ dozen cartons like at home. After a nice quiet breakfast it is time to pack up the bikes and get on the road, the manager said he would be in by 10am and true to his word that is when he showed up and not a minute earlier. We would have left but we had no means of locking the front door behind us so we had to wait for him to show up. No biggie, we had basically just finished getting the bikes out of the lobby and loaded up when he pulled in.

The direction today would be to the South West (Sur Oeste), there was no set destination we figured to just head in that direction and see how far we got. We also did not want to ride on pavement as there seemed to be lots of big trucks enroute to Buenos Aires or somewhere. Whatever the case, I punched in the next town to the SW and let the GPS pick the route, which turned out to be basically farm roads in a grid system similar to home. The roads however were much more fun than our rural gravel roads.

After a while the roads were starting to get a little more damp on the sides and soon enough the road turned to an impassable mess. No worries we just found another small blue line on the GPS and went that way.

This area of Argentina is called the Pampas, which refers to a vast region of lowlands covering 750,000 square kilometers in Argentina, most of Uruguay and part of Brazil. This area is the comprised of rich farmland and large cattle ranches due to the rich soil, lush grasses and lack of trees. Although we do see trees they are much like in the Canadian prairies and are located along driveways and around farm yards. The rest is just crops and cows.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pampas

Ollivarria is a bustling town and by the time we get to it we decide that we should stop for the day, the dirt roads are fun but they are not great for making a long distance in a day. We are happy with approx. 400km of distance today. This also allowed us to do a dirt run test of the bikes with the new Altrider luggage, all good there, even on the rough stuff it stayed securely attached and did not shift on the bike at all. A quiet evening of tending to bug bites, I seem to be the main course this year, and direction planning then it is time for bed, wow made it to 10pm.

From Ollivarria we decide to go to a little beach town called Necochea, just to see what the Argentines consider to be beach living. We once again take the roads less travelled and corner our way South East (ish). The last two days has also allowed us to by-pass BA, once was enough. The scenery is much like yesterday with the addition of more wetlands. I am surprised to see livestock standing belly deep in water, I don’t remember our horses and cattle just standing around in water.

What we thought would be a quick fuel and lunch stop turned into 2.5hrs, it seems that we arrived in this little town during siesta. That means most of the restaurants are closed, so we find a fruit kiosk and buy some bananas and oranges. They are tasty but it also allows for the police to roll up and ask for our documents. Nice, this happened yesterday as well and will likely happen many more times. We smile and hand over our documents but pay them little attention as we continue to eat our fruit. One officer hands back our papers and politely says “Excuse Me”...no problemo Amigo.

We finally find a restaurant in a hotel and are lucky enough to find the daughter of the owner speaks English. Cecelia helps us with the menu and shares a bit of her travel experiences with us. We normally ask anyone who speaks English where they learned it. Most of the time it is from music, movies or the internet. In Cecelia’s case it was from travel. Anyway, after a fantastic steak and mashed potato lunch we are in search of a gas station and after circleing the town a couple of times we stumble upon a well hidden station. The average cost of fuel here for 95octane gas is 13.40peso/liter and using the official exchange rate of 8peoso:1USD that equates to $1.67USD/liter. Now add 12% for the conversion to Canadian and the cost of fuel is $1.87/liter. Ouch. But this will seem cheap compared to Chile or so we are told.

Ok fed and fueled we get back on the road and are treated to more of the same, crops and cows. But all this water in the low areas is making me think that sooner or later we are going to find another impassible section of road, and sure enough late in the afternoon we come to a section that is completely flooded. Judging from the fence that disappears under the water I assume it is too deep to cross with the bikes. As sure as problems arise, so do solutions because about 1 mile back we passed a rancher pulling a horse trailer with a couple of ponies in it, he was also chasing a young calf that must have gotten out of the fence. I remembered him because as we passed the calf bolted through the trench (ditch) and ran into the fence. The young rancher is now parked at the corner and opening a gate into the pasture. I figure he must know of a detour around the flood, he is standing on the running board of his truck looking in our direction so we go investigate our options. He seems quite happy to chat and after waving his arms in the general direction of the shore on the opposite side of the flood we figure he knows a way. The calf is now in the trailer with the horses. Sure enough, there is a path around the flood to a gate at the opposite corner of the pasture, we thank him for his help and proceed on our way. 

The next flood is not so easily navigated and we are forced to find and alternate route. No problem, the grid system is easy to use and soon enough we find a small paved road that leads us to Necochea.

The beachfront town is a bit in contrast with itself. There are lots of hotels but lots of them are not open. There are a few properties on the water that are derelict and others just being built, we are not sure if this place is on the decline or incline, no matter, we find a nice hotel a couple blocks to the beach and make ourselves at home for a couple of days.

We are pleasantly surprised to find a very nice and very large beach with powdery soft sand. The beach stretches for miles and is flanked on one end by a man-made water break that serves as a fishing spot for the locals. They use large fishing poles to cast far out into the water, and aside from one very ugly looking fish it seems that the usual catch is a hand sized fish that resembles a Perch. I am not sure what the ugly fish is, but I am sure it looks good next to fries. A totally unexpected treat was a few groups of sea lions sunbathing on the shore beside the pier, people seemed to not care that they were there as we were one of a few who were paying attention to them. After a long walk on the beach it was time for a siesta and more sunscreen. Mucho Caliente 28C today. 

Aye Ca-rumba!

Nov. 11^th Buenos Aires to San Antonia de Areca

Now the morning of the 11^th, we ask the hotel manager about changing USD$ for Arg$ pesos. There is a blue market for this that provides better rates than at the bank. Currently the posted bank rate is 8.5:1, the blue market rate fluctuates and today it is 12:1, so that represents a 50% increase in buying power after conversion. That should help offset the costs of hotels.

So now here we are sitting in the insurance office, patiently waiting for our insurance policy to be created. The ladies in the office are friendly and buy us a coffee from the local restaurant, the waitress carried her tray down the street with two cups of coffee and two glasses of sparkling water and two of the tiniest cookies you have ever seen. Very nice of them to do this and we enjoy our coffee while we wait. It seems the glass of water is for freshening the mouth after drinking the coffee, there is only about 2oz of water so that is all I can come up with. The policy for 6 months cost us $88USD for both bikes, that is alot cheaper than Alberta that is for sure. What burns us is that we will never have to use the insurance, it is really just to smooth things over with the police if we get stopped.

The tranquil morning is soon replaced with a rather eventful afternoon of city traffic. We have decided to go to the historic small city of San Antonio de Areca, which is to the northwest of BA. I punched  a  marker into the GPS so that I would have a rough guide to follow instead of blindly trying to find our way out of the city. This proved helpful for the most part but it also provided another distraction that got the best of me today. We were following along in traffic at about 30kph when I looked down at the GPS to see if we were still on track, when I looked up a van had stopped due to a speed-bump, I did my best to avoid him but ultimately it was too late and I caught the rear passenger corner of the van with my handlebar. Between the aggressive braking and the snagged handlebar it proved more than I could manage to stay upright and a short slide on by ass later I came to a stop. The bike was still running so I jumped up, put it back on its’ wheels and turned off the engine. Brenda had safely stopped, blocking traffic so that nobody ran me over and with full adrenaline pumping I pushed the broken bike off the road and parked it under a nice big shade tree. The van took off but a couple of cyclists stopped to see if I was ok and I was. No broken anything, just pride and ego damage. The bike was a bit different story, I had managed to break the left side body panel and neatly remove the end of the radiator, this of course caused a big cloud of steam as the coolant drained onto the exhaust pipe below. I had seen this before when Brenda did a similar bike alteration in the Arizona desert by Phoenix, I also instantly remembered that this was not a good thing to break. In Arizona I had to buy a new radiator and that took some effort as the parts are hard to find, plus it took the best part of a day to replace once I did get the parts. Things were not looking good for the 4^th day of our 4 month holiday. The main thing was that I was not injured and was reminded of how quickly things can happen when distracted by something that is almost second nature at this point. I probably glance down at the GPS a thousand times per day out of habit. This time I got caught, just like the distracted driving commercials back home regarding texting and driving etc. 

Anyway, now what. I assess the situation a bit while Brenda picks up pieces of plastic and such. Traffic is moving again like nothing happened. The end of the radiator appears to have separated where the aluminum finned section joins the plastic end piece. The plastic is not broken and neither is the aluminum. I pull out my leatherman and a pair of needle nose vice-grips from my tankbag and try to accomplish the impossible. Mending a broken radiator on the side of the road with two pairs of pliers. First I have to remove what is left of the side panel and finish removing the fluid expansion tank (scratched but not punctured), then after about 30 minutes of clamping plastic and aluminum together and bending of tabs it appears that the end piece is back in place. Great, now to reattach the expansion tank and go find some anti-freeze. 

We had passed a Yamaha shop about 3 blocks back, hopefully they have some as I did not remember seeing a gas station for some time. The walk proved successful and the caged corner store had a bottle of water, good to mix with the coolant and the rest was nice and cold for drinking. At this point the guy form the Yamaha shop pulled up on shiny new bike and offered his shop if needed to complete the repair, we have found the hospitality of the Argentine people to be second to none. I thanked him and after a brief exchange of where the bike was he returned to work and I carried on walking, looking back I should have asked him for a ride, damn its hot. Brenda waited patiently with the bikes while I went on this journey, she made a friend with a stray dog who was laying just out of her reach when I returned. Maybe he was protecting her, or she him? Anyway, I said a quick prayer and poured the coolant into the rad, hoping it would not leak but half expecting the fluid to pour out on the ground. Son of a bitch, it held. Steve you would not believe it if you were here with us. I pushed the start button and the bike fired up like nothing had happened, I let it idle for a bit then shut it off to see if a leak had developed and to top up the fluid if it didn’t. Nope no leaks and the fluid level is topped up. After a little happy dance it was time to perform plastic surgery on the body panel, let’s see where is that roll of Red Green Special, ah yes and some zip ties for stitching. A little duct tape here, a zip tie there and there...good enough for me. Chicks like scars anyway, even if they are on the bike, and now I have a real conversation piece as well.

I finally relax as the trip is not a bust anymore, at this point I also realize that I have a rather large hole in my riding pants, a couple new small holes in my jacket and some road rash on the bottom of my new Altrider Luggage. The luggage is built very well and the only damage is to the holster piece, the inner waterproof bag is not damaged at all but I will have to move the 1liter fuel bottle to this side as my tire tool will likely fall out the hole.

Funny, all this happened ½ block from the Auto bar where we ate lunch yesterday. Back on the road we make our way to SA de Areca without further incident. The side panel proves to be a conversation ice breaker at the next gas stop as another friendly local can’t contain his curiosity.

SA de Areca proves to be our kind of town and we stay an extra day to laze around and unwind after the chaos of BA. The bikes are parked in the lobby and we enjoy being the only guests at Hostel Areco, a fantastic little spot right on the center square. 

We enjoy a tourists afternoon of walking the town, looking at Gaucho artisan work (knives, leather, silver smiths, that kind of stuff).

Yerba Mate sippy cups

I figured I should get a patch sewn onto my riding pants as well, there must be a seamstress in town, a short walk later and we find out that two blocks away at the house with the green door, lives a seamstress. We drop off my pants and by 6pm they are ready, she did an awesome job and charged only $30pesos ($4CAD).

We are also humored by a couple of dogs who escort us on our walks. The one fella seems to be our guide and patiently waits at the door while we look in shops, the other just follows along a pace behind to make sure we don’t get lost. They look healthy so maybe they are pets and not strays. When we return to the hostel we notice that they pick up with another couple who is walking. The lead dog announces with a few crisp barks, and the second dog picks up the rear. They seem to have a system.

Brenda catching flower pedals as they fall from the tree 

Nice floral arrangement above a garage gate

Me with my posse at a bridge washed out from flooding.