1. Back in Argentina
DAY 186
It is time to continue with my trip. I had a light breakfast then I went to pick up my bike and brought it to my hotel. Everything was already packed. I just threw it on the bike and I was on my way. It is a beautiful sunny day, even though a little bit on a chilly side. It is only 60 km to Argentinian border. I was constantly checking gauges on my bike, making sure that everything is as it should be. So far so good.
I was at the border within one hour. It was a beautiful day on the road, all the way up to the border.The border crossing is brand new building which houses both Chilean and Argentinian customs. Those two countries have their border crossings figured out. Everything is simple and logical. Their windows number 1-5. Just go from one window to another. The customs officers are quite efficient and I am all done in 15 minutes. The pavement ends 200 m on the Argentinian side. This road was really bad. Lots of rocks with a lot of dust. There are not too many cars on this road. It was very windy so all the dust were blown off the road pretty much immediately. But I couldn't go faster than my second gear and about 30 km/h. It took me over three hours just to do 100 km. It was painful. And on the top of everything it was really boring. Unlike in Chile, it is a desert again. No trees, no mountains, nothing. The end of this road couldn't come fast enough. After, what seems like an eternity, I have reached the pavement of Ruta 40. It was very nice road but it was still boring. And also it was incredibly windy. I was being thrown around like a ragdoll. I wasn't having any fun. I got to my destination quite early. The campground where I plan to overnight was closed. It was a small town of Perito Moreno. There was nothing to do in the town. I checked my GPS when is the sunset tonight. And it looks like I have plenty of time to get to my what was tomorrow's destination. So I decided to continue. The road was nice but the surroundings were boring. And the wind seems to be picking up. There is nothing I can do so I just had to suck it up and get on with it. There are a lot of guanacos along the road today. I wouldn’t want to run into one of those. But I've seen also pink flamingoes. But besides that, there wasn't too much to look at.
I made it to the second town. I didn't have anything booked for the night so I had to look around. The first hotel was full. But they asked me how many of us are there. I said it's only me then the reception girl said that she doesn't have anything. Then I don't understand why she asked me for how many people I need a room. Continued to another hotel, and I had better luck here. A decent room with fairly fast Internet. That's all I need. There's also restaurant attached to the hotel. So I just quickly changed I went straight to restaurant for dinner. Big bottle of beer and big Argentinian steak did the job. I'm glad to be back in Argentina. The food is much better here than in Chile and everything is so much cheaper here. Prices of food and hotels are about 30% what I would pay in Chile.
Anyway, it was a long day and it is time to hit pillows.