January 10. - Argentina Ruta 40

The first difference you notice is that it seems to be a much poorer country. The cars, houses and roads are all in bad condition in comparison to Chile.  There also seems to be more military and police and they make themselves visible.  Another noticeable difference would be the drop from 2 ply to single ply toilet paper, not going in to details on this one, but the Argentinian version would be better suited for light sanding applications.

  Most of the driving today is in the South American high desert, similar to those in Oregon and Idaho.  We run in to road construction, and are deviated to a gravel side road running parallel to the highway.  after about 50 kms, an oncoming car flashed his lights and waves at me to  look back. I turn back to see Chris' bike on the ground with him underneath.  We pick his bike up, while he checks himself over.  All was fine with both the bike and Chris, although he was a little nervous after this.



 The road again turned to pavement, and we saw caution Yuanaco crossing signs, but never saw any (yuanacos are llama like animals).  we did see a small flock of Rheas though ( ostrich like birds).  we ended up riding over  500 kms today, with about 100 being gravel.  We ended our day in a little town called Tecka. We head out for something to eat, and as we walk in to the restaurant, a little girl, who later told us she was 11, comes up all official and starts reading us today's menu, and then asks us what we would like.  We are most amused all through diner at her mature, serious way of dealing with her job, and honestly, she did a better job than you usually see in Canada.  Gotta love a family run restaurant!

Here is our little waitress taking another couple's order. 

  On a bit of a flashback note, all the dogs I see here love to chase bikes.  Reminding me of a few days back in  Coihayque, when Al and I pulled up to a light and a cute looking collie slowly walked over to us, right in traffic.  He was barking, but not aggressively, and he came right up next to me without showing any aggression.  Since i speak dog even less than Spanish, I didn't realize what he was saying to all of his street dog cronies was " hey guys, we got a couple here".  The minute the light turned green the chase was on, and dogs seemed to come out from everywhere.  The three legged dog was right on Al's ass, man could he still run.  The German shepherd of the group seemed to want to avoid traffic, so he just ran the 3 blocks on the sidewalk, barking, smiling and laughing.  the others all seemed to have either the back tire or my leg as a target. Finally outrunning the hounds of  Coihayque, I find myself circling the block of one way streets to get to the hotel. All of a sudden, there is the collie standing by the road in front of me.  He had snuck around to get ahead of me, and the chase was on again.  Then a third time I turn a corner and he is there, outwitting me again, but this time I just stopped the bike and yelled at him.  He dropped his head and wandered off peacefully.  Late that night we ran into him again, but this time we were on foot.  We gave him a little love and attention, and he tried to follow us to the hotel, but near the end of our walk, some barking in the distance made him jog off.  I think another dog had spotted a motorcycle.

   Anyways, tomorrow.... Of to Bariloche.  In the late 40's, home of the Nazi war criminals.  Some even think Hitler didn't kill himself and lived until the 60's in this town..