Southern Exposure

Thursday, April 9

We’d been in touch with our friend Fernando and his wife Adela, whom we had met at the thermal spa in Puyuhuapi. They had offered us hospitality at their home near Buenos Aires when we passed through, but as it was Easter weekend, they extended their invitation to us to come visit their family Estancia in the country, so that was where we were headed. If we had calculated correctly, we should arrive Friday afternoon.

With the bikes securely locked up, we slept well and got up at a decent hour. It only took us a short time to get packed and we were back on the road north. The scenery continued to be a fairly dull procession of wide open space with little to distinguish each mile from the next. We were used to it by now, and grateful that we were far enough inland to be spared strong winds.

We stopped at our favorite gas station, the YPF Full, and had a coffee to wake us up. A few miles further north, we crossed a magic climate line and the scenery abruptly changed. Gone were the sparse, low bushes and small trees and grasses had appeared. In comparison to other places we had been, it was still pretty dull scenery, but unlike the last thousand miles, it was a cornucopia of variety for the eyes. Finally, something to look at! Even though the scenery was generally not terribly beautiful, it lifted our spirits as it was the first real sign of progress in days.

We soon entered a landscape of tall, green grasses growing alongside the road accented by yellow wildflowers. It was so inviting I just wanted to pull over, lie down in the grass and take a nap in the sun. The scrub bushes that covered the landscape reminded me of parts of Texas. Despite the change, this landscape eventually took on its own form of monotony, but with gentle hills progress was easier to measure.

Our goal for the day had been the town of Santa Rosa and we arrived in town around 4 pm. It seemed like a nice enough town but nothing about it really stood out as remarkable. Since it was so early in the day, after getting gas, we decided to push on for another hundred miles, as any time we made riding today we would gain relaxing at the Estancia tomorrow. On the way out of town we stopped to pick up yet more oil for our thirsty bikes.

The new goal was General Pico, and the intervening miles went by quickly enough. It was late afternoon, so the setting sun gave off a warm golden light and the golden grasses shined brightly. General Pico was a standard grid around a plaza town, but it was strangely difficult to find a hotel. Normally in the center of town near the plaza there were several hotels, but other than one hotel we passed on the outskirts, we drove around fruitlessly searching. We asked a guy at the gas station whose directions ended up leading us nowhere. About to give up and go back to the outskirts hotel, Inna asked a random guy on the street who pointed us to a hotel a few blocks away.

The hotel was very nice, and the same price as the other. There was no parking, but a block away there was a secure garage would could pay extra to park in. It had been a surprisingly easy day for one that covered 415 miles, but we were quite happy to be off the bikes and in a hotel. We cleaned out, and headed out onto the town.

The downtown was a vibrant commercial center with lots of stores and people on the sidewalks. We picked a pub style restaurant to eat in, mainly because it had floor to ceiling open windows overlooking the street. The food was not great but not terrible and we didn’t linger for long. The nice fluffy beds in our hotel room were calling our name and we were happy to answer the call.