RogoRides

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Dave was up early working up the weather and our route for today. Finally he had to come wake up Pam as the restaurant was threatening to close down breakfast, which was wonderful; ham, cheese, sweet nut bread, yogurt, hot homemade toast, fresh orange juice and tea/coffee. After breakfast, Dave took Tiburon to get yesterday’s gravel dust washed off, and Pam packed the bags for the last leg of the trip. It is only about two and a half hours from Rio Grande to Ushuaia—the adventure is almost at an end!

While Dave was gone, the front desk called wanting to know what time we were leaving. The maids were ready to do our room—could we please be out by 11:00am? Pam finished packing and moved all the bags into the front lobby, where 2 workmen were spackling and painting the walls. The bags got moved to the front foyer out of everyone’s (including paintbrushes) way.

When Dave returned with a sparkling Tiburon, he did a quick service on the chain, and we loaded up and left. The sun was shining through the haze above the sea across the road, and the tide was out—way, way out. As we left the town, we passed a large memorial to those who gave their lives in the battles for the Islas Malvinas (Falkland Islands). There are still signs in almost every Argentine town or city we have driven through that says “Los Malvinas son Argentines” (The Malvinas [Falklands]) are Argentine), and countless memorials to those who fell in the most recent conflict.

We left Rio Grande and headed south on route 3. In the beginning the terrain was much the same as we had seen yesterday, soft bleak fields with sheep, rhea and guanaco, and an occasional Estancia (ranch). After a short while, though, the land began to rise into steeper hills covered with strangely formed scraggly trees covered in lichen. The ground turned greener, and we began to see bluffs and salt marshes along the side of the road; we left the ocean side and turned inland where the road began to climb. Quite suddenly we could see mountains in the distance, and the fields changed from their soft mellow hues to much more vibrant gold and green and blue. As we climbed higher in altitude, we began to see mist above, and feared it might actually rain, although there was none in the forecast; we stopped to put on our FroggToggs just in case. As we continued along the road, we rounded a corner and were amazed by a large mountain range running down to a large body of water, so big that we could not see to the other side. Could we be at the end already? Not yet, it seems; the water was Lago Fagnano, a very large fresh water lake that is part of the Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego (Tierra Del Fuego National Park.) Our road ran alongside the lake for several kilometers, although we couldn’t always see it because of the heavy cloud cover. At some points the fog was so thick we couldn’t see more than 50 meters in front of us, which was very unnerving when we realized we were at an altitude of over 4000 feet and making hairpins where there were several damaged or missing guardrails. It is probably a good thing that we couldn’t see down below.

Eventually we began to descend from the fog and were amazed to find full-grown fir and spruce trees much like those at home in Washington State. The mountains had grown also, and instead of the flat marshland there were rugged mountain peaks, some still with snow on the upper ranges. The cloud cover was still there, but much less threatening; after donning the FroggToggs we only experienced about 15 minutes total of rain before it cleared off. As we neared Ushuaia we began to see signs for camping resorts and hostels, and clear mountain streams running alongside the road.

At last we turned a corner and saw in front of us Ushuaia port, where the majority of shipping is done. It was a busy area with lots of shipping containers and some houses and buildings on the hillside behind. Was this Ushuaia? We kept on down route 3, and after a few more kilometers and a few more turns came upon the city of Ushuaia, which is one of the prettiest places we have ever been. The city is nestled in between large mountains to the north and the Beagle Channel to the south, with islands on the other side of the Channel in the distance. The houses of the city are brightly colored, and the steep metal roofs also in bright colors give it the appearance at a distance of a toy village. Many of the buildings are built in Swiss chalet style, the larger ones made of stone or timbers. The boats in the harbor, including the large vessel from Princess Cruise lines brought some reality to the picture as we descended the road into the center of town. Like most in Chile and Argentina, the majority of streets are one-way, and we cruised around a bit to get our bearings and sense of direction. Driving down Calle San Martin, the main street, we spotted an open parking spot and grabbed it; it was right in front of a small restaurant with an open table in the front window. It was a perfect place to have lunch while we studied the map and decided where to search for a hotel.

We both ordered fish (after all, we were now on the Beagle Channel, situated between two oceans), and studied our map and our hotel guide that Dave had picked up in Rio Gallegos. After we finished eating, Dave walked to the nearest hotels on our list that met our requirements while Pam watched the bike. The first hotels were either too spendy or were full; we had found one room at a hostel that Pam was about to approve when another rider approached Dave and Tiburon, introduced himself as the president of the local motorcycle riders club, and said he knew a very nice hostel near the airport in his own neighborhood. We followed him to La Posta (www.laposta-ush.com.ar) to find a wonderfully appointed property that looked from the outside like a small house, but inside was a large open warren of cozy rooms and small apartments. They had one room left for one night at $40USD; we took it. Parking for Tiburon was outside, but in the back garden and well protected by the neighbor dogs; anyone even looking in that direction was met by a chorus of deep barks from some of the largest German Shepards we have ever seen.

We began to unload Tiburon; the hostel owners’ son Lucas (who incidentally is a dead ringer for our own son, Matt) was working the front desk and enjoying a cup of maté; he offered to watch the bike while we unloaded and carted bags to our room at the back of the hostel. We had read about maté but didn’t really know what it was; Lucas explained maté is similar to tea, and that traditionally one fills the maté cup with the maté of choice, then adds hot water and sips the maté with a special straw until the water is gone. Then, using the same maté, the cup is refilled with hot water and is passed on to the next person. This continues until everyone has drunk a cup of friendship. He let us sample his brew, which was very strong and quite bitter; Dave did not care for it, but Pam the tea drinker thought she could get used to it quickly enough. Lucas said he liked his particularly bitter, but that there were several types to choose from.

Once the bags were offloaded, we went to ask directions to the Parque Nacional and the famous “End of the Road” sign at Lapataia to get our pictures with Tiburon. Lucas gave us excellent instructions and we found ourselves back on route 3 for the final 18 kilometers of our journey. We traveled along an asphalt road past the Ushuaia Golf Club and the Ushuaia Rugby field, several campgrounds and some spectacular private homes built up on the hillside until we reached the entrance to the park. The fee was 30 Argentine pesos, about $10USD per person; we drove on the gravel road through dense forest with occasional peeks of the surrounding mountains. There are several small lakes along the way, and tidal streams that could be crossed only by small wooden bridges large enough for one vehicle at a time. The water was a deep, bright green blue. Back in the forest we saw quite a number of rabbits, most the usual brown-and-white, but a few that were black; there were also signs that said “do not feed the foxes”, but we didn’t see any here.

After driving for about 20 minutes down the dusty road, we arrived at a circular drive where a large signs proclaims in Spanish that you have reached the end of route 3 the southernmost end of the Pan American Highway. The Beagle Channel was just a few yards ahead. This place is know as the end of the world.

We took several pictures of us with Tiburon to mark the occasion, and had Spot mark the GPS location for us.

WE MADE IT!

After about 30 minutes, we drove back into town, as it was getting late and cold, and threatening to rain. We parked Tiburon in the back garden and walked up to the local market to get some sandwich material and a bottle of wine for supper (and for toasting the end of the journey.) It has been a fabulous trip that more than met all of our expectations.

Tomorrow we will explore Ushuaia and start making plans for the journey back north.

Oh, and finish posting the last sets of photos that many of you are waiting for.

Our thanks to all of you who sent us encouraging words, and our best wishes to all the new friends we have made on the road, and all riders and would-be riders who may follow our tire tracks to the end of the world. And finally, for those who have been “traveling” with us through the website, we hope you enjoyed the trip and that it may inspire you to make your own someday. Buen Viaje!

Dave & Pam (and Tiburon)

We were very lucky to catch another satellite from the end of the world road sign about 20 miles south of Ushuaia – the end of the road – the coordinates and link are shown below.

Latitude: -54.8553
Longitude: -68.5765

Nearest Town from unit Location: Lapataia, Argentina
Distance to the nearest town: 2 km(s)

Time in GMT the message was sent: 02/29/2008 21:47:36

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-54.8553,-68.5765&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Click Here To View A Few Photos From Ushuaia

We should be all caught up on posting photos from our ride. At the top of each day’s ride report is a link for a few photos taken that day. We just posted photos for the Feb 14th and 17th rides through the Atacama Desert.

Click Here To View Feb 14 Photos between Arica and Iquique, Chile

Click Here To View Feb 17 Photos From Antofagasta To Copiapó

Also now posted are the photo links at the top of each page for February 23 through the 29th.

We are currently still in Ushuaia enjoying the beautiful weather, fresh air and scenery. The green arrow on the link to the satellite photo below points right at our hotel and you can see it pretty well. Once again today after two days and at least 10 tries we were able to luck out and hit a satellite. Must have been a lucky hit.

Latitude: -54.8061
Longitude: -68.3112
Nearest Town from unit Location: Ushuaia, Argentina
Distance to the nearest town: 1 km(s)
Time in GMT the message was sent: 03/02/2008 22:15:39
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-54.8061,-68.3112&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1
Photos for Ushuaia proper coming soon.

Feedback to dave@rogorides.com

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It was another beautiful day when we departed Ushuaia to start out journey north. Just as we were leaving the city limits of Ushuaia four motorcycles were arriving. They were from Victoria, British Colombia not far from our home in Washington. We met at the Welcome to Ushuaia sign and exchanged email info. If things work out we may share a shipping container out of Buenos Aires back to the northwest for our bikes.

On our way south the not very high mountain pass just north of Ushuaia was fogged in and it was raining. Not this time. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day. We managed to get some photos off of the cliff at the top of the pass of Lake Fagnano below. Not the drop off into foggy oblivion that we photographed on the way down.

After going over the pass we were back on the pampa, wide flat expanses and the wind began to pick up. Soon we were riding along the South Atlantic coast. It began to get cold. It was all Dave could do to hold the bike upright while stopped. It was a relief to ride as the movement helped keep the bike from blowing over in the wind. There was again the construction detour where we had to ride in a narrow gravel alley below the regular road surface. The crosswind and crab angle of the bike made it very interesting through the gravel.

We finally arrived in Rio Grande, the same cold and windy city that we had visited on the way down. We went directly to the “Hostel Argentino” which had been recomended by the Canadians that we met earlier in Ushuaia. This older and very basic hostel at first looked a little too basic. However, the owners and other guests proved to be extremely warm and welcoming and made us very comfortable. Very nice people and a very warm home. One of the owners was showing nautical charts of her sailing voyages around the southern tip of South America and the many, many shipwrecks that are recorded there.

We are not sure how anyone could live in Rio Grande if it is this cold in the summer what is it like in the winter? Tomorrow, it is up early and off toward Punta Arenas, Chile.

Click Here To View Today’s Photos

Click Here To View The Photos From Our Stay In Ushuaia

When we arrived in Rio Grande yesterday it was very windy and cold. This morning the sun was out for our departure and it was beautiful.

We had our very good free breakfast at the Hostel Argentino with a couple of engineers from the Chilean version of the FCC. They were driving a large van bristling with antenna and electronic equipment and were monitoring frequencies in Tierra del Fuego looking for violators. They had just re-aligned the arrival instruments for a nearby airport which were out of tolerance.

The two Communications workers asked if we liked to fish, then produced a photo of a 30 pound trout that they had caught in the Rio Grande. They told us that the Rio Grande is the best fishing in Argentina. They also said if they see two other fishermen anywhere near them it drives them crazy. They are apparently spoiled and usually have their favorite spots on the river mostly to themselves.

It was a quick ride north back to the Argentine border exit at San Sebastian, processing out of Argentina and then a short time later back into Chile was quick and painless. There were only a couple of other vehicles at the checkpoints, no waiting.

The paved road ends at the Argentinean border crossing. We took Route Y-79 this time the route that we had planned to take on the way down before we got lost and back on the main road. This time instead of going to re-enter Argentina in the north we were headed straight west to Porvenir where we would catch the ferry to Punta Arenas. The gravel road was much better than the main road we had come down on. There were no large trucks allowed on this road, very little traffic and it seemed to be well marked and maintained. The gravel went on for about 100 miles with the last 50 miles along the Straights of Magellan. It was mostly flat pampa at first and then later there were some pretty good size hills.

We passed three adventure traveller motorcycles headed south, we pulled over but they blasted on through. Not sure where they were from?

We passed a few fishing villages and tons of wildlife. Some of the biggest Guanacos that we had seen so far. They just stepped over the fences along the road like they weren´t even there. Lots of exotic birds which we can´t even begin to name.

Arrived in Porvenir around 12:30 and learned that the ferry to Punta Arenas departs once a day at 19:00 – there was time to kill. Had lunch at the Club Croat, the best restaurant in town. Large beef fillet, mixed salad and some local micro-brew, all served in a very fancy dining room on fine china.

It seems that the majority of the local population are croatian immigrants, some from long ago, many from the 1940s and there was another influx recently maybe in the 1980s. The town has a lot of croation style homes and characteristics. Many of the streets in town are paved, maybe the only things paved on this part of the island.

The ferry arrived full just before 6 pm and unloaded. Outgoing traffic then had to back onto the boat which again was filled to capacity. We departed a couple of minutes ahead of schedule and started to turn into the narrow channel that leads out to the straights of Magellan. The boat then came to a stop and reversed then back to the landing. An ambulance that was in the front of the ferry got off then came back on in a couple of minutes and the trip resumed?

We had a nice chat with Heinz-Willi a nice man from Germany who was travelling for several months in his custom modified “Santana” adventure camper. The Santana is built in Spain by a former sub-contractor of Land Rover. He gave me some tips on places to stay and see further north in Argentina and we exchanged some GPS maps.

The ferry arrived on schedule at 21:30 inro Punta Arenas and it was pouring down rain and dark. We headed toward Centro to look for a hotel. At the first stop light we met a guy on a scooter who said nice bike and after exchanging a few words offered to lead us to a good hotel. He asked what price range and then said follow me. The first hotel was full but they reccomended Betty´s Hostal which had parking – which we never would have found without Victor´s help.

Thank you Victor for your kindness to complete strangers!

Here are our coordinates from our Hotel in Punta Arenas, Chile – Spot seems to be working now that we are a little further north.Latitude:-53.1612
Longitude:-70.8951
Nearest Location: Punta Arenas, Chile
Distance: 2 km(s)
Time:03/08/2008 12:35:51 (GMT)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-53.1612,-70.8951&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Below is where we were until 7 p.m. on Mar 7th – then we took the ferry from Porvenir on the island of Tierra del Fuego to Punta Arenas, Chile. The actual coordinates and link below are from the lighthouse point on the straights of Magellan just off of the channel entrance that goes into Porvenir harbor.

Latitude:-53.3136

Longitude:-70.4584

Nearest Location: Porvenir, Chile
Distance: 6 km(s)

Time:03/07/2008 20:32:13 (GMT)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-53.3136,-70.4584&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

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Our stay at Betty´s Hosteleria in Punta Arenas was very pleasant – only $17 for the room including breakfast and covered parking for Tiburon.

It was sunny this morning but it was a cold drive up from Punta Arenas today with the wind howling across the flats and off of the water. Rain drops on and off but not heavy like last night.

Saw a lot of wildlife including Guanacos, Rhea, lots of flying birds of many kinds, and of course sheep, cows and today for the first time passed many wild pigs along the road.

The landscape between Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales is flat Pampa until just before you arrive at Puerto Natales. You suddenly are back in the Andes with sharp snow capped peaks appearing all around the bay.

Betty from Betty´s Hostal in Punta Arenas called ahead and found a Hostal with covered parking in Puerto Natales, the Hostal El Mirador. We sprimg for a large room with a king bed and private bath for $21.00 – but breakfast is not included. The large very nicely appointed and clean Hostel is mostly empty – the season may be near its end here as fall is in the air.

Tomorrow is 116 km to Torres del Paine national park – may postpone if the weather is bad. It is currently in the low 40s with a wind chill in the 30s. Have not put on the electric vest yet but maybe tomorrow if the sun is not out.

Here is where we are tonight.

Latitude:-51.7261
Longitude:-72.5062

Nearest Location: Puerto Natales, Chile
Distance: 1 km(s)

Time:03/08/2008 19:30:12 (GMT)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-51.7261,-72.5062&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Click Here To View Today’s Photos

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=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-50.3378,-72.2605&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Click Here To View Today’s Photos

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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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=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-49.3113,-67.7158&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Click Here To View Today’s Photos

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=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=-45.8702,-67.4968&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Click Here To View Today’s Photos

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)

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