In the southern part of South America, you don’t have many roads. To travel a long distance from the north to south you can really only travel on Ruta 40 or Ruta 3. Both of which are in Argentina. I swapped and changed a bit. The Ruta 40 (5149kms) which starts up near Bolivia, eventually joins the Ruta 3 (3045kms) which starts up in Buenos Aries, and the 3 ends up south west of Ushuaia, where I took my end of the road photo. There are a few other shorter roads further north and in Chile that I took like the Ruta7 and the Ruta 5. There is an overriding name of the Pan American Highway which uses big sections of these national routes and goes all the way from the tip of Alaska to the bottom of Argentina. About 30,000kms. Then you have the east west roads.

And this is where my story in Tres Lagos starts. I wanted to get from Chile back over to the east coast and up to Buenos Aires. There are really only 3 sealed road options that join Ruta 40 with Ruta 3. One, to the north, Ruta 43, and is the one that the older American guys on the big bikes took (in my blog a few weeks ago). Two, Ruta 27 and Ruta 288, is the one I took on my way down, from Gobernador Gregores to Comandante Luis Piedrabuena. Try saying that fast. And three, is Ruta 5 which joins the Ruta 3 near Rio Gallegos which is way back down near Tierra del Fuego. I’m explaining all this in detail because working these routes out is a big part of my trip. All the maps below have the same start and finish points.

I really didn’t want to go all the way south again even though it is all bitumen (bottom right). And I didn’t want to go North on a lot of the same road that I travelled down on (top right). Ruta 288 was about 220kms over to the Ruta 3, and my best option but the first 140kms was gravel (large left). The final 80kms was bitumen and I had been on it on my way down, so I know it was good. Just outside of Tres Lagos there is a junction so you can go north on the Ruta 40 or east on the Ruta 288. The first 73kms of the Ruta 40 heading to Gobernador Gregores are bad gravel and is where I initially wanted to go on my way south. If I had taken that road back then I would have gone down the west coast and then straight up the east coast now and everything would have been much simpler. But I didn’t because that section nicknamed the “73” has a bad reputation. Some people were paying about $500US to get their bike taken through that section on a trailer.

A guy died on that section a few weeks before I arrived there and then a 62 year old motorcyclist died on that section two days before I got there. So hence my decision to avoid it back then. Plus my sciatica. And here I am again at the same road but at the other end wondering if I should take it. I don’t think the road is overly dangerous but its loose slippery gravel and if the wind picks up it takes control of your bike. The wind that day was about 20kms early and picking up to about 50kms around midday. Going north it was side on. Bad. Going east it was behind me. Good. But east was almost twice as much gravel?

Anyway, the road out of town was closed off and a sign said to go to the police station which was conveniently across the road from the Tres Lagos Hostel ($50AUD and nice). I chatted to the cop and he said both roads were okay and similar. They were only a problem with rain or strong winds. And as long as I left early then I should be fine. I also talked to the guy at the petrol station who said the same thing. So it was the Ruta 40 with the side wind and two people who’d died on motorbikes in the last month or the Ruta 288 which no one had been on but had a tail wind. And was the most direct route. Decision. Okay. Ruta 288. So I asked they guy to fill my tank and he apologised but was only allowed to sell 5 litres per vehicle. You’re kidding me.

I know at the end of the 73kms there are several fuel stations. The Ruta 288 definitely doesn’t have any until it hits the Ruta 3. I know I can do at least 300kms on a full tank. And its only 240kms. So I was very relieved when the 5 litres almost filled my tank. So about 8:30 I informed the cop of my route and then passed through the road closed sign and headed east. The first 20kms had patches of loose gravel which aren’t very nice but with the wind behind me I had control of the bike, so it was okay. I sat on about 30kph. It was going to be a long day. Then the road and probably my skills and confidence picked up a little and I was doing 50kph. And by the end, the road seemed much better, and I was constantly backing off from going over 70kph. I was pleasantly surprised when the bitumen started about 10kms earlier than I had expected and then happy to get to the junction where I met the road that I had been on before. It ended up only taking me about 3 hours to do the gravel and I only passed one car in each direction. I did see a lot of guanacos(llamas) and rheas (emu looking birds). Camera shy.

Once I was back on Ruta 3 I fuelled up and headed north to Puerto San Julian. I was glad that my days of navigating routes and bad roads was over for a while. Now it was only the wind. And as expected the wind had picked up to about 50kph and was hitting my left side and trying to blow me off the road. So I rode in the middle when I could and again backed off for big vehicles as they really mess your riding with their wind currents.

At Puerto San Julian I stayed a nice little cabin park ran buy a guy who rides bikes. So it was well set up. It was quite a walk to town but I had arrived early so I took the long walk. Not an overly exciting town, but it had a ship, and I struggled to find somewhere to eat that was open. There were restaurants but they didn’t open until about 8:00pm. On my walk back I found a place that did takeaway home cooked meals. It was a 25 minute wait for my steak and salad but it was nice. A lot of steak and not much salad (half a tomato and a few lettuce leaves). I ate it in my cabin with a beer.

The next day the weather was looking really crap. And during the night. Winds around 80kph and stronger gusts. The town was on yellow alert? Checkout was at 10:00am but there was a nice area to hang out away from the wind. I was hoping to leave about 1:00pm but the owner said it would last all day and suggested I stay another night. He said a German woman had left his place a few weeks ago on a bike and the wind blew her into a truck and she lost her leg. That was sobering. I said I wouldn’t be leaving until the winds were at least 50kph or below. I asked about a restaurant that might be open and he gave me a good recommendation for the El Silencio Parilla y Bodegon Rural restaurant. It was in town and I rode my bike there. I was the only person but it was great and I had a delicious healthy soup and a lovely chat with the owner. Filled a couple of hours of my wait.

Around 5:00pm it dropped below 50kph and was forecast to drop off more. So, I put all my gear on and headed off. The first couple of kms it was a blustery head wind and I thought I might have to go back but once I got onto Ruta 3 again it was a pretty constant side wind and no different to the day before, so I continued on. It wasn’t a pleasant ride but I felt safe. The days are longer in the south so I managed to do about 250kms and found a hotel behind the petrol station in the small town of Fitz Roy well before it got dark.

It was okay and I found a beer down the road. Next morning I had breakfast which was just a couple of croissants and much to the annoyance of the lady working there I didn’t have a coffee or tea. She kept insisting that I choose one or the other. I thought she was going to take my croissants off me if I didn’t take one. Another woman stepped in and said that it was okay to eat them without having a drink. The first woman gave me a dirty look and left. How weird. The only unpleasant person I have met in nearly 8 months.

I left there around 8:00am and rode 530kms up to the town of Trelew. This part of Argentina is pretty flat and boring. I came close to the coast a few times which was nice but generally just flat low value farming land and the wind was mainly at my back flank which was much more pleasant. I also passed a few oilwells which looked a bit weird.

I had prebooked a room at the Touring Club Hotel. And what a pleasure it was to stay at that place and only fifty bucks. It was like stepping back in time. The place is over 100 years old. So were the staff and proud owners. It had parking in a locked shed out the back and my ensuite had beautiful paisley fixtures and accessories. A lovely marble staircase led to the dining room downstairs which was a great place for a beer. And for a nice breakfast next morning. As my daughter pointed out when I sent her a couple of pics that it only gets 2 stars on google. I gave it 5. Lots of famous people who I’ve never heard of have stayed there. But I had heard of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They stayed there.

Before I left town I had to find somewhere to get my oil changed. My engine is oil cooled and needs to be changed every 3000kms and it was due. It was a bit of stuffing around and not cheap, but I found a place and greased my chain as well and I was off. On the outskirts of town there was a dinosaur? More long flat roads and wind. And I often see these memorials that are surrounded in plastic bottles. No idea why. I’m sure it’s not just rubbish as they wouldn’t do that to the memorials.

The next stop was the coastal town of Las Grutas. A Saturday night in a coastal town in peak summer season. It had been a long windy day and I baulked at $112AUD at the first place I went to and left but then went straight back in and took the room. The lady was very friendly and I couldn’t be bothered looking for somewhere else just to save a few dollars. No beautiful sandy Australian beaches but a nice seaside feel about the town, and a nice coastal walkway. And a little shop next door that did home cooked meals which was good. And a shop around the corner sold ice cold beer. It was starting to get hot as I moved rapidly north.

Next morning I dropped a couple of layers and then headed 420kms north east to Bahia Blanca. I’d booked a room but it turned out complicated when they sent me a message to say they needed to move me to a different apartment (same type) but different address. I arrived with poor internet. Enough to get the message but not enough to run google maps. I eventually found it and then they wanted cash and not card. And I had no cash left. The apartment was nice, as were the owners, who were the parents of the owners of the original apartment. I think this swap thing happens often so they only have to have one Airbnb spot and the other is cash. It was late Sunday night and I couldn’t find anywhere to change money and I couldn’t be bothered finding a different place so I had to give them one of my crisp new $100US and they gave me a pretty ordinary looking $50US note in change. If I’d had pesos, it would have only been about $40US and I’d still have my nice new note. Such is life.

On my way out of town next morning I went to a shop that is marked on iOverlander as a good place to change money and it was, except, that it was Monday morning and he had no pesos yet to change with me. Oh. And I thought I’d book ahead as I was heading to Mar del Plata which is like an Argentinian version of the Australian Gold Coast south of Buenos Aires. And expensive. It was over 600kms to the capital, so I thought I’d break it up with an overnight stay somewhere like Mar del Plata. Long story short. I found a nice looking place online and it was cheap so I booked it. But when I went to put the address in my phone it turns out I had booked and apartment in the same city as I was leaving. And it was non refundable. I tried to cancel and sent messages but no response. I considered staying the extra night but the bad weather was chasing me and I had to keep moving. I tried to book another place but it wouldn’t accept my card so I just gave up and left.

I had the wind behind me and decided to keep on roads where that was happening and it also allowed me to ride close to the coast. Turns out I was still a fair way from the ocean and the road wasn’t sealed. It was okay but not great. My day wasn’t going at all to plan. I ended up in a small farming town called Oriente and found a little shop selling homemade empanadas. So what else could I do. Buy a coke. And get some internet. This actually worked out in my favour because when I googled the wind it had gained strength and switched more to the south which meant if I kept going I would get bad side winds and if I headed north to Buenos Aires I would have a nice tail wind. And because my two attempts at booking a place in Mar del Plata had failed and the wind had turned, I took it as a sign to go north. And I did. I got as far as the town of Azul and went to a hotel. The first of five hotels.

The highway hotels were either deserted or took only cash. Which I didn’t have. Argentinean ATMs are unusable. And banks were shut. I found a hotel on google that sent a nice unassuming hotel. Hotel Los Tilos. I went there. It was nice but it only took cash. Finally, the guy said I could pay with a credit card and a 10% surcharge.  $66AUD instead of $60AUD. That was fine. And it had a nice supermarket across the road and an empanada shop next door. I didn’t really feel like an empanada, but it was that or a big pizza or go out searching, so I took the easy option.

Next morning I had my mainly cake and fruit breakfast which was included in the price and then headed off the few hours to Buenos Aires which is the capital of Argentina. I had booked a nice apartment in the centre of town with parking ($295AUD for 3 nights). Accommodation with parking isn’t always easy in big cities. It was nice. Crappy internet but nice apartment. And a great location.  Buenos Aries is a lovely city with a very European feel about it. I did do some exploring but after doing nearly 4000kms in the last 10 days I was ready for a rest and didn’t do a lot.

I did start a free city tour but only lasted an hour. It was pretty slow and over 50 people and the guy was hard to hear and his stories weren’t overly interesting and we passed by my accommodation so I dropped out. I did do a couple of long walks. The city has a temperate climate and so it was nice in light pants and a t shirt. I like old architecture and urban design so there was plenty of that to take in. I kept seeing buildings that I’d like to renovate. I noticed that I’m taking less pictures now. Too much work culling them off later. I did buy myself some eggs bread and tomatoes which I cooked up each morning.

Next I’m off to Uruguay. A new country. Lots of people catch the ferries from here over to Montevideo which is the capital, but I can’t be bothered with the ticket and queuing thing so I going to ride up the Argentinean side of the river for a few hours and then cross a bridge into Uruguay. Another reason for this is that I want to visit the town just over that bridge. In fact, my trip so far has almost been a spiritual journey to this town and I’m pretty excited to go there. I hope it lives up to my expectations.

KMS 28,637