Southern Exposure

Saturday, April 4

I would say we slept in, but we rarely manage to get up before 8 regardless of how early the alarm goes off. We just didn’t feel guilty about it today because it’s too cold out to be on the road early. We ate our breakfast and then headed to the gas station to fill up. After we pulled up to the pump, we looked around but no one was there. We honked, nothing. Finally an attendant made an appearance and told us the power was out. Only at the gas station. Weak. Fortunately we had plenty of gas to make it across the border to Argentina.

There’s something about 2nd days of the trip and my ignition, because once again in the cold it had frozen or gotten stuck and I couldn’t turn the key. This was maddening and we poked and prodded it with increasing vigor. It finally popped out and started working again. The strangest aspect of it was that it wasn’t frozen overnight. I’d ridden the bike to the gas station and it hadn’t been a problem first thing.

We were quite pleased to discover the last of the dirt roads were behind us and it was paved all the way to the ferry crossing. We arrived and parked in line. The ferry went every half an hour, so while we waited for the next boat, Inna went up to the cafe to check out the cat colony. [INNA: There must have been over 20 cats scattered around the yard, some cute and clean, and some were missing an eye and didn’t seem to care about their hygiene, a rarity for cats. At one moment they all got off their spots and ran to the door. I first thought I scared them with my photo snooping around, but it turned out the owner brought out some food, so they were buzzing around the entrance picking up what seemed like crumbs of food.]

Our time came and we pulled the bikes onto the ferry. As we were lifting Inna’s bike on the centerstand, my bike fell over and crashed into the side of the boat. I have to admit being infuriated by this as we’d just spent all that time and money getting the luggage rewelded and straightened, only for something stupid like this to happen. Since the bikes were on the stands, I vented my anger by spending the crossing lubing the chains. Inna says she saw those cool mostly white with black dolphins swimming alongside the ferry.

Once we were off the ferry, I was doing some packing and noticed the pannier I used mainly for tools was flooded. The carb cleaner I’d been carrying had decided it had had enough and leaked its entire contents. We spent the next half an hour on the side of the road cleaning out that pannier and all of the tools. While we were doing this, three Chilean riders rode up to the ferry on identical 1200 series BMWs, wearing identical BMW gear and even identical helmets. They didn’t wave or acknowledge us in any way. It’s hard for me to relate to riders who just walk into a dealer and buy a complete setup of a brand like that, let alone to be a clone of your friend. Maybe they were starting an adventure rider poser gang.

The rest of the ride to Piedra Buena that day left little to talk about. The border crossing went the same as the previous one. After that, it was an endless mostly flat, wide plain of Patagonian ankle high shrubs. It just goes on and on and on and on for hundreds of miles. It’s hard to feel any progress being made, and it’s hard to be motivated to stop and take a picture of what seems like nothing.

Once we were in town, we scouted a few hotels before settling on the only one with any WiFi. It was still light out, so I took the opportunity to clear the awfully dirty air filters. This was long overdue and I felt guilty about not doing it sooner. A truck driver parked across the streeted noticed me cleaning and offered the use of his air hose to blast out some of the dirt and dust. This worked well and was another experience in the kindness and goodwill of strangers.

We headed to the supermarket for dinner. We stocked up on yogurt and cereal for breakfast, and decided to save money and make sandwiches again for dinner. The lines in the grocery store moved glacially, and by the time we were back at the hotel it felt late. We quickly ate while watching the only crummy programming we could find in English and were soon happily in bed.