Following the tire tracks of Che Guevara on Ruta 40

Once back on the road, each on our own bike this time, our goal was to cover ground south, always south. For the next few days, we were not sure in which towns we would be stopping. We would just ride and when it would be getting late, stop in the closest town. We were now entering what is considered the south of Argentina, where the towns are more scattered and you have to drive two to three hours between the big enough ones that have gas and accommodation. We would now start to feel how big distances are.

One funny thing that we had seen a few times on the side of the road was a sort of small shrine with a cross, surrounded by an overwhelming number of plastic bottles. At first, we were surprised about how bad people were here to throw their trash on the side of the road. And then Chad came across an article in the guidebook that explained that there was that woman who followed her husband out of love as he was moving with the army. She took her newborn son with her and as she was doing so, died from hunger and thirst. A few days later, farmers found her; the baby was miraculously alive and still nursing from her. The people, moved by the story, had build shrines in her memory on the side of the roads and brought plastic bottles full of water so that if she returns, she would not die from thirst. It is a very old story and we were astonished to see at the next shrine we saw that indeed all the bottles were full of water.

Our new traveling routine in Argentina

To reach Ushuaia, all the way down, we would ride along the west side of Argentina, very close to Chile. As some point, we are most likely to cross into Chile and do a piece of the road on that side as we have heard very good things about the south of this country, which is also far enough from where the earthquake took place. But for now, we were in Argentina, following the famous Ruta 40 that Che Guevara had traveled himself all the way when he did his motorcycle journey (for a refresher, enjoy the famous Motorcycle Diaries, either the film or book are incredible and very inspirational). It was pretty extraordinary to think that we were riding the same road he did a long time ago, and also on bikes. We now realize as well how big the country is and for miles and miles, you have this unique stretch of road continuing as far as the eye can see, and some more. We were grateful to have our music in the helmets, breaking down the monotony a bit.

In the country, we have resumed habits that we had given up since the USA and particularly enjoyed in Alaska: our side of the road picnics. With the cost of food being much higher here and the towns so far from each other, it has been cheaper and easier to buy in the morning what we needed for a delicious sandwich and desert. The bread has been actually amazing here, as Caroline said “It is like French bread, crusty on the outside and soft in the inside.” In addition, they have a great choice of fresh cold cuts and cheese. So we would ride and when finding a nice stop, make our salami / cheese / tomato sandwich with flan for desert. In the middle of nowhere, we have found amazing sites to stop like this river in the middle of the desert, with stone mountains in the background and with amazing colors such as green, yellow and ocre due to the volcanic sediments and plants growing in the river. With such a view, sitting on warm black volcanic rocks and enjoying the delicious food, it was hard to go back on the road.

And we are eating dust again...

After leaving Bolivia and with how developed Argentina has been, we were sure that we were done with riding on dirt road and that asphalt was going to be our travel companion for the rest of the trip south. Wishful thinking... Ruta 40 has actually big stretches of roads without pavement, chunks of twenty of thirty kilometers at a time. There are pretty nasty: lots of dust, patches of deep sand, where you think you are about to fall, and washboards that put a lot of stress on your arms. This has been slowing down our pace a little but this is also part of the adventure. We had not really asked about the road conditions in advance so we were surprised when we found out. It would not be that fun anyway if we knew everything in advance. But yeah, “enjoying the dust” again.

Since we have been crossing these big spaces, we had finally our first encounters with the local cows that taste so good here. They are everywhere in the big green field and when we had asked Argentinian why their meat was better, they told us that it is because the cows have so much space to “exercise” and that here the grass they fed on was greener and richer. We liked the story. Apart from the cows, we have seen really nice volcanic landscapes on our second day ride. Big piles of black rocks were sticking out of the desert's sand and bushes. Even if we were struggling more with the dirt road, the surroundings were so much nicer than the day before. Eventually, we came back on paved road (and almost kissed it because we were so happy to be back on it) and reached the small town of Chos Malal, where we would get some gasoline before continuing on. We were in for a surprise: no gas in town! The gas stations were out since it was Easter weekend and the next delivery would be in two days. The next town with gas was 200 Kms south and we did not have enough gas left in our tanks to get there. Now this was something we had not anticipated...

The gasoline story, which started in a bad way, ended up pretty well. Two guys and a woman, who had seen us asking around about the gas, came to meet us and asked how much gasoline we needed: about 5 Liters each to make it to the next town. They offered to take some out of their cars to help us out. They did so with the first car and Chad was good to go but they were unable to get more out of the second car which had a valve preventing gas suction from the reservoir. So we were still stuck as only one of us had gas. So they invited us over for dinner. We could not believe it: not only had they given us gas but they wanted to feed us now. As they were so nice, we accepted and after having found a hotel for the night, came back to their house. The two guys were friends from architecture school and they had decided to spend the Semana Santa together. Since it was Good Friday, we would have Seafood paella. Two more of their friends joined and we started drinking some good Argentinian red wine. Dinner started at 10pm and we had such a good time, telling stories and laughing so hard that none of us left before 1 am. It has been a really festive and fun night, enjoying the good food and wine as well as our new friends. We were amazed at how easy it was to talk and joke despite the culture differences and language barrier. So no gas today or tomorrow but we've had an exceptionally great time with strangers...