Alright – Argentina is looooong and I needed to cover some ground so these three days was mostly a transport stretch with around 500km everyday primarily via Ruta National 40.
There was some very long and very straight pieces of road, which makes your head start doing odd stuff, such as asking your body to exercise during the ride, or to try to sing along with the tunes playing in the helmet headset – neither one of the options are beautiful.
Starting in Tilcara in the north via Santa María and Villa Unión and ending in Mendoza. First day following both RN40 and then a bit of RN68 was indeed saved by the last 100km – here the landscape turned amazing.
The night was in Santa María and with a stay in the Hotel Caasama – really nice and met Annemieke and Jeroen from the Netherlands that were on route from Alaska to Ushuaia – 12 month journey. I also met a couple of guys from British Columbia – and we followed each other the first 150km on day two. I will meet with Annemieke and Jeroen Friday in Mendoza for wine and more story-telling.
In Villa Unión I stayed at a new build cabaña hotel and arrived in the late afternoon in 33 degrees – I need to thank someone for AC in the room. Villa Unión is a town with one long street and really nothing much to talk about – except for the single restaurant that was open just 100m from the hotel – and besides good quality and low price the evening view was amazing.
Day three of the transport was 493km to Mendoza all on RN40 which really was a mix between dessert and farm land and 4 lane highways – such a big contrast to get into Mendoza where no one thinks of the clay houses people are living in just 50km outside of the city – again some contrasts that we rarely see in greater Europe. By the way – average temperature this day was 38 degrees – a bit to the warm side in full motorcycle gear. Even the bike was struggling a bit in the heat.
The afternoon was spent walking 10km in the city – and what a beautiful city it is. Besides the many “kind” offers to exchange dollars or euros, it was like any other large secure city – a very good experience so far. Now heading out for some argentinian beef and wine.
