Our campsite was great except for some reason there were 3 streetlights out in the middle of nowhere and this being Argentina instead of just about any other country in Latin America they actually worked and we slept in bright light. For breakfast we had some little cupcake things that were made sometime in the early 1990’s and had been sitting on the shelf in the grocery store since then. We broke camp and got a bit of a late start.
The road weaved thru some random canyons and kept heading south.
As we continued south we rode down Ruta 40 – and across some very boring and HOT country. It was well over 100 degrees and the road was mostly straight but it dipped down into an Arroyo every 1/4 mile or so – and each of them was covered with sand wash and small to medium sized river rocks. This slowed us down quite a bit until we got the crew that was clearing the washes – and from then on it was clear sailing.
After Dan had not seen Wes in the rear view for a while he slowed down too give him some time to catch up. John got curios and turned around – they decided to head back and find Wes. Well, he was on the side of the road and his front tire was flat. Great – in the hot desert sun. We quickly setup a tarp and helped him pull the wheel, lever the tire off and replace the tube. We were probably on our way in 30 minutes but Wes’ thermometer indicated over 110 in the shade so it was toasty.
We rolled out of the tire change all stewing in our riding gear from the heat. Set our sites on San Juan for the night and twisted the throttles to make it before dark. As we came into San Juan there was a guy driving next to us and using his camera to video us – he drove along almost hitting cars and speeding up, slowing down to get just the right shots. He pulled to a stop and came to talk to us. Where are we going? what are we doing here? – the usual questions – when he heard we were looking for a hotel, he said he would take us to one and we should follow him. We started calling this guy “the mayor” cause he was full of information and prompting his town. He took us to the town square and pointed out the church, the fried chicken place and all the highlights.
A nice hotel was across the square and we pulled in to check the price. They were having some all night party and the rate was reduced – we were going to be on the 4th floor and the party on the 1st floor so we said, no problem. Turns out the party was a 15 year old birthday party – which evidently is a big deal here.
We parked the bikes in the basement garage – where Wes and Dan changed Wes’ rear tire with a new one he bought in Salta. After getting cleaned up – we walked around looking for a restaurant for dinner and found a big outdoor BBQ place and we had some serious meat dishes – fantastic steak and kabobs.
Cheers!
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