11.12.2003 – 08.01.2004: "Thank You Argentina" (Ricarda)
translated by Renate Adam

“Wow! How cold it is today!”, again only about 10 degrees centigrade. The sky is grey all over and to top it all, the cold Patagonian wind is still blowing. It seems as if we had not yet left Patagonia behind us.

For three hours I feel terribly cold on our way from “El Bolsón” in the direction of “San Martín de los Andes”. We have decided to take a by-road via “Confluencia”. Like in “old Bolivian days” we follow a gravel road with ripples and hairpin bends and full of big stones up to “Paso Córdoba” (1300 m). After crossing the pass we take a turn leading to a picturesque lake called “Hua-Hum”. We decide at once to build our camp – and it is a real camp. Even the meal is prepared on a camp-fire. Those who know Torsten will know that he now he is in his element at last. Even scrubbing a coal-black pot shiny again is not a task too big then.

And it could have been so wonderful, but the desaster begins the next morning. Drizzle that turns to continuous rain for four hours and finally rain all day with breaks of mostly less than an hour which worries us a lot. We wait patiently in our tent all day. But this is not the end of the matter, for there are more natural phenomenons. It is getting colder and when the sun comes out for a short while the next morning, we can hardly believe our eyes: It has been snowing! The mountains around us are white and there has been snowfall frightfully near us. “I’m fed up, we have been waiting long enough!” It may be beautiful here, but we are leaving. Although the road is soaked we dare to leave the wet hole. To make things worse the scrabber (a machine to flatten gravel roads) has passed by and turned all the road into some soft and muddy mass. Beginning snowfall makes the ride perfect!

Freezing cold and wet we look for refuge in a restaurant in San Martín. “Warm sheepskin on the floor made it all better.”

That has been enough nature for today, so we look for shelter an “Albergue” and we are very happy about warm, dry and entertaining indoor life. We stay for three whole days with Aldo and Marita, have a lot of fun with the other guests and learn how to prepare “Ciervo Ahumado” (smoked venison). This will be a new recipe for our column “Open up the lid (Deckel auf)”. But indeed preparing it needs a little effort. You take a gun, hunt a deer, gut it, carry it home…and follow the cooking instructions.

We follow the windy roads. “It is rather strange,” I think now and again, “I believe I can’t remember the feeling of sitting straight up on my motorbike and perhaps listen to noises apart from the ceaseless roaring of the wind, or to be able to move my head to all sides in a relaxed way, when I want to look at the landscape. The muscles of my neck must certainly have swollen to double size – like the neck of a bull….”

Again we follow part of the Routa 40 (Zapala ….) which mostly means bad roads but loneliness and beautiful landscape. Those who have read reports (in the 2. part) for example about Calafate, know what I am talking about. Views open to mountains playing in a thousand colours, we drive round volcano “Trompe”, views into wide valleys and a small green oasis in the centre of “no man’s land”. The road itself has its challenges, sharp bends with big stones, gravel, rotten asphalt, asphalt of the best kind and all that changing all the time. As you see, we don’t feel bored during this ride. The highlight of the day is our camp site. A spot in a landscape of rugged rocks below the “Cavernas de las Brujas” (Caverna = cave, this time a stalactite cavern, Bruja = witch). We build our camp in the only green spot far and wide which is big enough for our tent, in a very small valley, near a small creek. A great place, that at once invites our dreams. There is only one problem. Where do we leave our motorbikes? But Torsten has already become the off road specialist and dashes up the slope covered with loose gravel and shrubbery.

After another rather fresh night (we are at an altitude of 1800 m) we finally reach warmer regions the next day. Our destination is San Rafael, or better the "Valle Grande" with the Cañon Atuel, a famous holiday place for Argentinians. But the holiday season has not started yet so all is still “tranquilo”. The valley is gigantic with its huge red walls of sandstone, eroded by the river Atuel to bizarre forms that reach up to the sky. At the end of the valley there is the reservoir “Valle Grande”. The actual Cañon Atuel lies behind it. The rocks there also have an astonishing variety of material and shapes.

Lazy days in San Rafael are followed by lazy days in Merlo. This small place at the foot of the Sierra de Comechingones has been chosen to celebrate both my birthday and Christmas. And we actually find a really excellent place in the camping site below a weeping willow tree. We do not intend to mourn and weep at Christmas, but I like this tree at once – how the branches in the wind play with us when we are sitting below the tree. It also provides something like seclusion and privacy just for us.

Some readers already know that Christmas turned out very “spießig” (philistine) . Our thoughts were with friends and relations, but we also had ideas of reforming Christmas celebrations, when we will be back. We are sorry for not yet having a solution for an Argentine Christmas in Germany.

In “Villa Carlos Paz” (40 km off Córdoba) on “Lago San Roque” we meet Andy again. Andy is an American whom we had already met in Rio Grande / Tierra del Fuego in February 2003 and also in Punta Arenas / Chile. The company of another traveller is a welcome change for us. Up to now events of this kind have been rare during our voyage (second part). We stay for a week, do some work on the motorbikes like oil change, air filter change and changing of tyres, this last item overdue. This time, though, we decide to take tread for roads. In Brazil there are many asphalt roads therefore this tread seems to be more favourable for the next part of the journey. If that decision has been the right one? Let’s wait and see.

And already New Years Eve has come. We spend the evening with Andy, and we don’t watch “Dinner For One” but we prepare a meal of carp in a self made pan of aluminium.

Just a few words concerning Andy. He is a traveller by profession. He has already been travelling through the world with his rucksack, hitch-hiking, for 22 years now. At times he travelled to Europe, to earn some money. As he travels alone, he now needs to talk a lot, as he does not always have the opportunity for long conversations. In the evening after changing the tyres he surprises us with a “genuine evening meal à la Alemania “.

And continuing our journey I enjoy the silence. On our way in direction of “San Miguel de Tucumán” we pass endless fields of sugar cane. The heat forces us to make a break near the small place Cruz del Eje. At the foot of the dam, that is 3 km long and can be crossed by vehicles, we make ourselves at home; time for a siesta – hitzefrei (in German schools: no classes because of extreme heat of more than 25° centigrade). In Tucumán an acquaintance of our American motorbike friends Gail and Eric Haws is waiting for us. His name is Alejandro. He is a pilot and – how could it be otherwise – an enthusiastic motorbike rider. Without further ado we are invited to spend the night at his house. Argentine hospitality at its best again. Although they had christened their son - only seven days young – the same morning, we are welcome. The attitude towards us is outspoken and friendly, and they ask questions full of interest about our journey.

We had not expected anything like that, we actually had only intended to say “Hello”. Feeling hot after the ride we join Alejandro and his mother at the small pool behind the house and put new life into ourselves. In the evening we all go to a typical Tucumán restaurant: empanadas, humitas, tamales until we can’t eat any more – y muy, muy rico (very, very tasty) . We talk about the experiences of motor bikers and Alejandro gives us some good advice for our further journey.

The end of our stay in Argentine comes nearer. The northern border is not far away. Well, for Argentine circumstances perhaps, for it is finally a 1053 km ride to the Bolivian border.

The road takes us through vineyards near “Cafayate”, and the fascinating “Quebrada de Cafayate”. Rocks over and over in the most spectacular colours again. Although it is burning hot, we can’t stop taking one photo after the other. In an amphitheatre built of rock we can even listen to a concert of flute and guitar. I am so fascinated by the great acoustics that I have to buy the two musicians’ CD .
We reach “Salta” – a town I especially like. The houses in colonial style, the narrow streets, the Plaza, a town with flair and like so often in South America, with a Spanish history. We enjoy being in a town again. We had spent the last weeks in smaller places or camped outside the big cities.

“Jujuy” and “Purmamarca” are the last places in Argentine. The small and dusty place Purmamarca with its “Cerro de Siete Colores” reminds me of “San Pedro de Atacama”, which is not surprising, it is situated in Chile, though, but at nearly the same altitude and degree of latitude. It is a tourist place with backpack tourists, but even though sleepy and simple. Houses of adobe, narrow streets, red soil, a church with timberwork of cacti, all that was also to be seen in San Pedro de Atacama. That does not matter, I think it is charming. Of course the mountain with its seven colours is the typical item. ”Hermoso, impresionante!” But alas! We are here in the afternoon and that means the sun does not shine in the right angle to make the colours shine intensely.

Well and at last the rain washes us out of the country. There has never been so much water in our tent. During the night Torsten turns into a dam engineer, to save us from drowning.

That was Argentine for us? Not at all, it will be continued…..

Until today we have been travelling for five months through this great, varied country, covering 12.500 kilometres, and we have learned to appreciate and love it with its very kind and frank people. “Thank you Argentine, for wonderful experiences and meetings with people that you gave to us.”