Riding my Motorcycle along Argentina's Coastline
Update 9 (early January 2023)
Comodoro Rivadavia to Gaiman
After two nights I was ready to move on from Comodoro Rivadavia. It was just feeling like a busy town.
Argentina is on holidays now, until the start of March. So the highway is full of heavily laden small cars with families wanting to enjoy their summer break.
Argentinians seem to be pretty good drivers. They drive over the speed limit out in the country but the speed limits are ridiculously slow for out in the middle of nowhere.
One area I don’t think they have right, is the risk/reward ratio when it comes to overtaking. I have seen some crazy decisions, often where there is very little to gain. So it was time to get off the main southern highway Ruta 3. Thinking it was going to get worse closer to Buenos Aires, I decided to start heading west across to the mountains again.
I aimed for a town just north called Trelew which had a good size road heading west from it. I actually ended up finding some accommodation near a town called Gaiman. When I book a place to stay I will often just do one night and then stay more if it is nice. All went well and I ended up staying at Posada Los Mimbres for three nights.
It was a ranch or farm that had been in the family for a long time and quite some time ago started offering accommodation. And they offered dinner which was good, as it is about 5km out of town, which is a chore to do on a motorbike just to find dinner.
The lady managing the accommodation was also super nice and spoke great English. She loved a chat and it was a great opportunity to learn more about how life in Argentina works.
This is the original farm house, built by the family around 1910 from memory. There was a more modern (1960’s?) guest building.
A delicious freshly made cannelloni for dinner. I have had trouble finding healthy fresh food. It’s always a challenge when travelling. My other meals were just as yummy.
There is plenty of fresh water, with Rio Chubut running through town.
The cute house dog. She and the local dogs used to come and join me for my morning exercises, although I think she thought I was hers because I was staying at the house.
Gaiman is a nice town with a population of about 5,000. They are trying hard to make tourists welcome. One of the attractions is the Bryn Gwyn Paleontology Park. They have a good self guided walking tour, where you can learn about the research and fossil finds of the area.
The scenery is worth the walk alone. I ended up pulling up a chair and chatting with the guy running the centre and another local fellow. They were both good with their English so it was great to chat about all sorts of things.
The walk starts at the building near the centre of the photo. It was a decent walk as the day was almost 35 degrees. There were only two other people for the morning but I thought one lady was about to collapse on us when she returned.
The other fellow I was chatting to was a local teacher but also right into insects and going on scientific expeditions. He had found this fossilised sharks tooth on a walk just this day.
Some cliffs by Rio Chubut on the way out of town. I would imagine there are fossils all around the area.
Rio Gallegos to Comodoro Rivadavia
Update 8 (early January 2023)
Gaiman to Neuquen, Argentina
Update 10 (early January 2023)