Here is where we are tonight:
Latitude:47.4033
Longitude:-123.1418
Nearest Location: United States Highway 101, Cushman Dam, WA, US
Distance: 0 km(s)
Time:03/26/2008 22:35:24 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
Dave is continuing to enjoy BA and making arrangements to ship Tiburon back to the states and Pam has returned to the US to take care of some business.
Many businesses have shut down for holy week or “semana santa” here in Buenos Aires. The earliest that we could book space for shipping Tiburon home was next week on American Airlines, we were hoping to strap it to a pallet and load it on United to Washington but they are not interested. Dave takes Tiburon in on Tuesday morning to partially dismantle it and stuff it into a crate to be weighed and loaded on AA.
Meanwhile, Dave has taken a walking tour of Buenos Aires and has tried to capture the coordinates of some of the interesting landmarks within walking distance of his hotel that you may be able to see on the satellite photos of Google maps if you follow the links below.
The first stop on our walking tour is the famous “Avenida 9 de Julio” or 9 of July Avenue, a link to Google maps is here:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
After opening the map above choose satellite photo and then click under the green arrow on the satellite photo until you get the highest resolution available. Spot was activated from the center median of Avenida 9 de Julio just one half block from the renowned Colon Theater. If you look toward the bottom of the photo (or drag the map with your mouse) you can also just see the famous obelisk which sits in the center of Avenida 9 de Julio in the Plaza de la Republica.
Walking one block west we activated spot to record the coordinates of the Plaza Lavalle named after the Argentine historic figure “Juan Galo Lavalle”.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
This Plaza sits just behind the Colon Theater and is surrounded by impressive old buildings. Here is a photo of the monument to Lavalle.
Dave then heads northwest for what looks like a couple of miles on the map toward the neighborhood of Recoleta. Surprisingly Dave passes several very impressive Plazas and Parks with large monuments that are not marked on the tourist map he is carrying.
The next Plaza is the small Plaza Vicente Lopez which contains a nice monument to Argentina’s second president and the author of the lyrics to the Argentinean National Anthem.
A few blocks Northwest is a large complex of at least 8 parks and plazas. The first stop is at the Recoleta Cemetery :
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-34.5875,-58.3931&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
If you zoom in using the link above to the highest resolution satellite photos you see what looks like a neighborhood and blocks of houses - these are actually tombs and mausoleums in the Recoleta Cemetery. There are over 6,000 majestic tombs of which 70 have been declared historic monuments. The names on the tombs read like a who’s who of Argentine history. The most popular while we were there was the tomb of Eva Duarte de Peron or as nearly everyone calls her “Evita”.
Right next to the Recoleta Cemetery is the Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar which dates back to the early 1700s but has a modern web page listing holy week mass times.
After walking through the Plaza Centro Cultural Recoleta and all of its street vendors and performers Dave arrives at the Plaza Alvear :
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
Click to view a photo of the large monument in the center of the Plaza Alvear a tribute to the statesman and soldier Carlos Maria de Alvear.
Across the street from the Plaza Alvear is the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes or fine arts museum and the Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativo.
Just across the wide Avenida Figueroa Alcorta is the Plaza United Nations with the impressive sculpture by Eduardo Catalano of a large mechanical flower weighing 18 tons that opens and closes with the rising and setting of the sun. You can see the flower on the satellite photo using the following link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
Or here is a photo of the Floralis Gynericas.
You could spend more than a day visiting the above landmarks, but we have just scratched the surface of the many sites that Buenos Aires has to offer. Dave has a couple of miles to walk back to Florida Street and find a good Parillada for dinner.
]]>The link below gives a nice satellite photo of the plaza where the coordinates were sent from.
Latitude:-34.6082
Longitude:-58.3728
Nearest Location:Buenos Aires, Argentina
Distance:0 km
Time:03/18/2008 01:45:10 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
We spent all day driving north and east across the pampa and got 500 miles today about half way to Buenos Aires. We are in a very nice Hotel, the Hotel Argos, about 6 blocks from the central plaza in Bahia Blanca. Tomorrow we continue north toward Buenos Aires.
The coordinates below are from the central plaza about 6 blocks from our hotel - the link to Google satellite photo shows a good photo of the very nice plaza here in Bahia Blanca.
Latitude:-38.7177
Longitude:-62.2657
Nearest Location: Bahia Blanca, Argentinan
Distance: 0 km
Time:03/16/2008 23:23:39 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
Photos have been posted for March 8, 9 and 10 including some good ones of Torres del Paine National Park in Chile and Glaciers National Park in Argentina.
Today we rode southeast 125 miles each way including 22 miles of unpaved roads to Punta Tombo summer home of up to 1 million penguins and an important nature reserve. It is sunny and warm here in Puerto Madryn a perfect day to walk on the beach and visit with the penguins. The coordinates that we sent today (3-14-08) from spot and are posted below are from the nature reserve at Punta Tombo although there doesn’t appear to be any close up satellite photos.
The nature reserve has well marked walkways where humans are allowed to walk that extend for approximately 1.5 kilometers from the park entry out to and along the beach. The penguins do not seem to be alarmed by the presence of people. You can walk right up to them although signs say not to touch the penguins. Visitors are also warned to give right of way to the penguins. For a nice article about the penguins of Punta Tombo click here.
All along the walkway there are nests built which looks like burrows or little caves dug out of the earth. This is where the males arrive in August to stake out a nest and females arrive in September to lay eggs. In March the reproductive cycle is coming to an end, the penguins are molting and preparing to go to sea for the next 6 months. They will migrate north to Brazil for the winter but not touch land again unless they are sick or oiled. The penguins here in Punta Tombo go as far as 400 miles out to sea to fish and gather food for their stay here.
We took lots of photos today and will get some up as soon as we have a chance. We also saw an elephant seal on the beach, a small herd of guanacos, some cormorants and other birds in the reserve.
We have been told that it is supposed to be 86 degrees tomorrow, sounds like a good day to enjoy the nice beach here in Puerto Madryn. We will use this as an opportunity to wash Tiburon and change the oil as well as get the laundry done for the first time since Santiago, Chile.
The wind blowing on the way back to Puerto Madryn from Punta Tombo was some of the fiercest we have yet encountered. We arre sure it has something to do with the warming of the weather. It looked like not only motos but vans and trucks were having problems with the wind as well.
On Saturday a beautiful hot day we spent the day having the oil changed on Tiburon, it has been a tough 4200 miles since Santiago and the last oil change. The synthetic oil we use was $20.00 a liter from the Castrol Distributor here in Puerto Madryn. We will never complain about $5.00 a quart back home anymore. Tiburon also got a bath and we replaced two missing bolts that had vibrated out and we found out during the wash. Nothing fell ofd though so we lucked out. The dirt and gravel roads can be very rough.
We also got laundry done today for the first time since Santiago, Chile. We may head north tomorrow in the direction of Buenos Aires.
Here are the GPS coordinates from the Punta Tombo nature reserve and the link to Google maps.
Latitude:-44.0449
Longitude:-65.2227
Nearest Location: Punta Tombo
Distance: 0 km(s)
Time:03/14/2008 17:30:02 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
Got up at 07:45 showered and packed. The owner of the Hotel Del Valle offered coffee which we foolishly accepted. A small kettle was put on to heat over a weak gas burner and it took at least 20 minutes for the water to heat. Add one packet of instant coffee, one packet of sugar and one of instant cream and believe me it wasn’t worth the wait. We could have had a nice espresso at the gas station while we filled up.
And we would fill up since it is a little over 400 km from Comodoro Rivadavia to Puerto Madryn, around 250 miles by our calculations. The tank plan range is only 200 miles but we were told that there is a gas station 100 km from Comodoro on the left hand side. It rurned out to be 140 km but that was OK. Puerto Madryn is the gateway to the Valdez Peninsula.
It was a beautiful morning warm with bright blue sunshine and no wind. We had fought the wind all day yesterday. The scenery was boring though as we continued north on Argentina Route 3 - occasional herds of Guanacos and a few Rhea which are called Nandu here we have learned. Even though we have been told that the guanacos are smarter than deer and usually run away from the road and not into it we still have been conditioned to slow way down when they are around. The pampa from the time we departed El Calafate three days ago looks something like Arizona without cactus or west Texas without trees. The only interesting things have been the wildlife and the Atlantic coastline. We are fortunate that today is a day without wind a minority of days here in Patagonia.
At the one gas stop we met a couple of riders from Caleta Olivia a town about an hour south of Comodoro. Superman and Fernando were headed to Buenos Aires for Argentinean Bike Week which starts today and runs through Sunday. It is supposed to be in the town of Merced, maybe I can catch the end of it. We departed the gas stop and about 80 miles later they came by us cruising at 90 MPH+ on their two Japanese crotch rockets. Superman has a big S supeman logo painted on his helmet and his t-shirt. I asked him how he got the nickname and he says because he really flies.
Got into Puerto Madryn around 3:00 pm and once again had a tough time finding lodging everything being full. Finally found suitable and reasonably priced accommodations at the Hostel La Tosca. La Tosca is 4 blocks from the beach but has good parking for Tiburon and seems to be a nice place.
Tomorrow the plan is to ride to Punta Tombo to see the up to 1 million pinguins, orcas, sea lions, dolphins, foxes, etc. The road to Punta Tombo is 100 km paved and then 32 km of un-paved road.
Here is where we are tonight - the spot coordinates were sent sitting on the sea wall at the beach across the street from a tower built for whale watching. However, we are told that it is no longer whale season by the tourist office we are too late. I told them that was too bad as I have never eaten whale before
Latitude:-42.7732
Longitude:-65.0269
Nearest Location: Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Distance: 2 km(s)
Time:03/13/2008 19:00:07 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
We ended up getting a later start today than we had planned. We went next door to the new hotel to upload some pictures to the web and the owners were having some technical problems with their new wireless internet. We stayed around and assisted them to sort it out and then uploaded our files. This delayed us an hour which would turn out to be critical.
We gassed up and headed north on Route 3 across the endless pampa hoping to reach Puerto Madryn by nightfall. The wind was blowing and that limited our speed at times today but it was predominately from the south, which gave us a nice tail wind component which would prove beneficial later. The road cuts inland or we should say that the land forms a point that juts out into the Atlantic and the road goes straight north.
We arrived at Fitz Roy our planned gas stop in 170 miles to learn that they were out of gas and the nearest station was 50 kilometers further northward in Caleta Olivia. This was 20 miles beyond our plan fuel range, however, we carry two liters of extra fuel in the saddlebags so we should be OK. We began watching the gas gauge closely.
We arrived at the gas station in Caleta Olivia with 222 miles on the odometer and with at least 40 additional miles of fuel in the tank plus our reserve bottles. Luckily today the strong wind was at our backs and augmented our gas mileage by at least 15%. We filled up the bike at the Petrobras station and had steak and salad for ourselves before continuing on north.
We arrived in Comodoro Rivadavia around 5:30 pm. The next town of any size was Trelew and it was 400 kilometers north. We were told that there is only one gas station between here and there which was 100 kilometers north and then nothing until Trelew another 300 km beyond that. When programmed into the GPS it looked impossible to arrive before dark so we decided the safe thing to do was to spend the night in Comodoro Rivadavia.
Well we spent the next three hours searching for a hotel room. To make a long story short we finally took the only room we could find and were probably lucky to find it. It turned out to be more comfortable than it looked and I believe it was the last room in town. It was a room for 4 people and at $44.00 it was overpriced but in the end we were happy to have it.
Walking to a nearby service station quicky mart to buy water we passed a take-out pizza shop and picked up a pretty good pizza and some beer for dinner. Some other guests at the hotel had purchased sausage at a nearby meat market and prepared a large barbecue. We sat around the lobby restaurant tables and all had dinner and watched football (soccer) on television.
We were later told by Argentinians what we had already figured out - Comodoro Rivadavia is NOT a tourist destination. The link below to the Google maps satellite photo shows the roof of our hotel pretty well where we sent spot from, (see today’s photos).
Here is where we were tonight:
Latitude:-45.8702
Longitude:-67.4968
Nearest Location: Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina
Distance: 0 km
Time:03/12/2008 22:29:44 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
Got a late start out of El Calafate around noon.
We thought the boys seemed to be in a hurry to mow the lawn at the Hotel Upsala and then it started to sprinkle. We asked the owner of the hotel if it was going to rain and he said yes so we put on the Frogg Toggs over everything else. That worked out well because we rode about 350 miles to Puerto San Julian. The first 100 miles it sprinkled, the next 150 miles we had moderate rain and the next 100 miles the rain turned to drizzle and then sunshine. The good part was that there was no wind and we were warm and snug inside the rain suits even without the electrics.
The bad part was that we had to keep slowing down due to herds of Guanacos and Rhea being close to the road. We learned later that when it rains the Guanacos come to the road to drink, that might explain the large numbers we saw. We saw what looked like a fox at a distance and as we got closer it turned out to be the biggest jack rabbit we have ever seen. Wouldn’t have believed it but you cannot mistake the ears.
We rode east on route 40 and then route 5 - 100 miles to Esmerelda where we gassed up, it was then another 100 miles over to Argentina route 3 that runs north and south along the Atlantic coast to Ushuaia in the south and Buenos Aires in the north. It is another 20 miles east to Rio Gallegos where we considered stopping for the night but it would mean backtracking the 20 miles in the morning and we could see blue sky to the north so we turned north on route 3.
We had entered Puerto San Julian into the GPS which told us that we would arrive well before dark. We chose Puerto San Julian because when we passed it on the way south it looked interesting with some tourist amenities. It turned out to be a small town but very hospitable. It was a few kilometers east from Route 3 to the beach front, the sun was not out but the wind was howling. We passed several hotels on the way in to the beach from route 3.
We stopped at a small building on the beach and spoke to the couple that runs the excursion boat that takes people out to see the penguins and asked them about hotels. They pointed nearby to a small red house and said it was not only on the beach but was probably quite economical. We managed to get the last room at the Hosteria La Casona ( miramar146@speedy.com.ar ). The owner of this small hosteria also owns the brand new blue hotel next door which we think is the Hotel Miramar.
We asked about wireless internet and they said yes it is available but you must come next door to the Hotel Miramar to use it. We went over later and found out that the wireless was just installed that day and we were the first guest to try it. Once they figured out how to give us access it worked great. We uploaded some photos with a transfer rate of 34 kb per second while talking on Skype. If you are following us and need a good internet connection we would recommend this place.
Later we went to dinner at the restaurant across the street from the beach and tour boat office Restaurant Naos where we had one of the finest meals yet in South America. Large trout fillet grilled with french fries, salad and white wine. The Restaurant was very crowded and everyone was smoking but other than that this place is great. It is great being in Argentina where the people are so warm and really know how to dine.
Here is where we were the night of the 11th March. The map link below has a good satellite photo of this location - our room is right across the boulevard from the beach. We hope to head north today toward Puerto Madryn near the Valdez Peninsula.
Latitude:-49.3113
Longitude:-67.7158
Nearest Location: Puerto San Julian, Argentina
Distance: 0 km
Time:03/11/2008 22:32:08 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f
Rode the 100 mile round trip from El Calafate today to visit Parque Nacional Los Glaciares or Glacier National Park of Argentina. Glacier National Park is home to the Perito Moreno Glacier (read all about it here). Perito Moreno has advanced across Lake Argentina and now once again has divided the lake into two parts. The glacier was making lots of noise and we were lucky to witness a large piece of ice break off and fall into the lake, I hope we have pictures if the white on white shows up.
The weather is relatively warm and sunny today but the wind is still howling as it does many days in Patagonia. The town of El Calafate where we are staying is simply a tourist resort which means shops, restaurants, hotels, tour agencies, etc. and everything else a tourist could want. Even though it is past peak season now the town is crowded with people from Europe, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Asia and North Americans. El Calafate is similar but smaller than Bariloche but larger than Ushuaia and is used as the jumping off point for the Glacier Park, Cerro Chaltén and Torres del Paine in Chile.
Our hotel is the Upsala Hotel named after one of the large glaciers near here an older two star establishment but centrally located one block from Main Street and walking to everything. Of course it has good parking for Tiburon and breakfast included for $39 US per night with a very helpful staff from the owner to the maids.
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Departed Puerto Natlales early and rode to “Torres del Paine” national park in Chile. Spent a few hours riding around the park and then crossed the frontier into Argentina at Cerro Castillo and rode about 100 miles to El Calafate arriving just before dark.
Met Robert Kay from Lake Tahoe in Puerto Natales yesterday and he rode with us to Torres del Paine where he set up camp on Lago Azul (Blue Lake) where he intends to spend the week camping and hiking the park. Robert is riding the identical motorcycle except that it is a 2006 and red in color. We had passed Robert in the Tierra del Fuego national park near Ushuaia on Feb 29th while he was hauling a pile of small logs for firewood on the back of his bike. Robert was also camping in the Tierra del Fuego park, however, we only finally met yesterday in Puerto Natales.
Pictures from today should be pretty good when they are posted (?). Covered about 250 miles today of which three quarters of it were on unpaved roads consisting of two thirds gravel and one third dirt (pronounced mud). Crossed from Chile to Argentina at a tiny border frontier outpost which separated Chile and Argentina by about 10 km of unimproved road. The government officials of both countries were very friendly and since we were the only ones around crossing was a breeze. We had a nice conversation about the presidents of both Chile and Argentina being women and the possibility of that happening in the US as well.
Will spend the night in El Calafate and try to go to the Perito Moreno glacier tomorrow with weather permitting. I think it is a trip of about 50 miles.
Here is where we are the night of March 9th.
Latitude:-50.3378
Longitude:-72.2605
Nearest Location: El Calafate, Argentina
Distance: 0 km
Time:03/10/2008 00:29:38 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f