Panamerican Highway – week 03 – settling into things

December 26, 2023 d k

New week, new destinations.

After Lonquimay our next destination was supposed to take us to San Martin de los Andes across the border to Argentina and on to Ruta 40. However after 68km of gravel we reached Icalma and the lake of the same name. Being midday it was time for an extended brake and while getting to the beach of the lake we drove by a camp site that was open, beautiful day with a temperature above 20°C i was not really in the mood to go through a border crossing and no Argentinian Peso in our pocket. Luckily i did not need to convince Stefan. The price for the campsite was reasonable and it even had a hot shower, but no electricity, but oh well. The lake itself was quite enough.

Border crossing – uneventful, it was a small border post on both sides, Chilean and Argentinian, but after the crossing itself, about three kilometers in country the Argentinians had a police control, which we had to pass as well. All in all very friendly and no problems.

The destination for this day was San Martin de los Andes with a stop in Junin de los Andes to collect some money off of Western Union. What was supposed to be an easy 240km ride turned out to be not so easy as the Ruta 23 was undergoing construction and we rode about 100km on gravel. Pretty amazing landscapes though as the road follows the river Alumine for quite a stretch.

We finally reached the end of the gravel patch and from there on in it was smooth sailing till San Martin. There we only needed cash as the WU in Junin de los Andes was closed. It took some queuing but eventually that as well was not a problem. So now on to finding accomodation for the night. As Stefan and me are relying on OpenStreetMap for navigation as well as to find camp sites we ended up at a Camp Site Parra Familia. Which only then occurred to me that it was camping in someones garden – idiot that i am. Well the room we took instead was clean had a shower and a breakfast in the morning and was not expensive. All in all good day.

Interlude

Spanish – well we dont speak any, and it pisses me of. Do not get me wrong we are getting what we need for our every day life and of course our vocabulary gets bigger day by day, but to have a proper Spanish conversation is just not in the books, and i am quite unsure if it will be possible during this trip at all. English is like second nature for me, especially since i do need it on a daily basis for my job, but i am as of yet unsure how to become similarly proficient in Spanish – FAST. Especially since the people we met so far are very friendly, interested in where we are from what we are doing (except for the riding) well and in turn we are interested in there living situation, there world view as far as the are willing to tell us.

Snoring – mh my girlfriend does complain about my snoring so in that regard I am the culprit, but with Stefan´s flu he as well snored, and to be honest while camping even if there would have been dangerous wild animals, they would not have dared come near us. Side effect however was that my sleep was somewhat impaired by it. Still needing to adjust myself to sleeping in the tent.

Riding – thus far we have not yet had an accident, dropping the bikes does not count as accident that just happens, however pain- and shameful that is. I had a close call on the ride to San Martin, however i am wondering when it will happen and I am pretty sure that it will happen. The likelihood of riding 60k km on varying terrain unscathed, I just dont see that. And it worries me a bit.

Ruta 40 – San Martin de los Andes to El Bolson

After the ride Stefan said, he was not yet convinced whether it was the brightest idea, to take one year of, ship the bikes, all the preparation, all the money we spent up front. That day though reassured him that this might a good idea afterall.

Patagonia just simply is something else. And that particular stretch is turning a corner and just be marveled by the beauty of the landscape. You literally can stop ever kilometer and see something different. One part that sticks out a bit more then the others is between Villa Angostura and San Carlos de Bariloche, as there the landscape opens up to a Steppe with table mountains and almost no trees, and then you turn towards San Carlos de Bariloche and you have the huge snow covered mountains with trees on them. And there is one lake, two lakes, three lakes … there are lakes everywhere.

We did reach El Bolson, there are about 1900km remaining till Ushuaia. Let´s see how they will play out. We took a break here at a place we knew from 2019 – our first trip to South America and just spent three nights.

Ruta 40 – San Martin de los Andes – El Bolson

And at last our first drone video

El Bolson – Tecka

After the much needed break in El Bolson (at least needed for me) we packed up and went further down south. Shortly after El Bolson we veered of the Ruta 40 to take a road through Reserva Nacional Los Alerces, which gave us mostly smooth gravel, but even greater lakes and mountain views.

There would have been a lot of camp sites in the park, but we did not take any, due to the fact that at this point it is still 1900km towards Ushuaia. Later that day we made camp in Tecka, which was a pleasant surprise as we got electricity, wifi (no cell reception), hot showers and that for 5000 peso.

Reserva Nacional Los Alceres

Tecka – Sarmiento

As we have partially driven the Ruta 40 further down south, we opted to move over to the Atlantic coast. Which led us to Sarmiento. Sadly no camp site was available, even though OpenStreetMap did have some entries, so we ended up in a hotel room. Well could not be helped.
After the lush and green in the Andes the transition towards the coast greeted us with sand and for the most part only bushes, no trees. Sarmiento itself was quite the opposite as it is located at a lake with swamp like meadows.