Into the Wind and Rain, and Floods, and Wind and Wind

I left El Calafate early as I wanted to make good time on what would be the first day of many before reaching Buenos Aries. The weather co-operated most of the morning, not too cold, reasonable winds for Patagonia and no rain, but that was all about to change.

I went to Rio Gallegos for fuel and food and when leaving that is when the weather changed.  The winds were so strong that I could barely keep the bike on the road. I have never fought winds this strong before, it took all of my strength, the power of a 1000cc engine and lots of luck to keep my bike for being pushed off the road. I was making terrible time going north on highway 3 and was becoming exhausted form riding in such conditions. The following day was much of the same, riding in high winds with very few places to stop and rest.

On third day the rains came. I managed to stop soon enough at a gas station in a small city called Sierra Grande and get my rain gear on in time, but decided to wait the rain out.  That is when my friend David arrived, soaked to the bone riding his KLR 650. I met David back on the ferry crossing the Straights of Magallanes and now our paths were crossing again. The rains let up long enough for us to get 2 kilometers away from shelter and then they started again, harder than they ever were. We had to ride through flooded streets with water so high that it came up over the foot pegs of the bikes.  Parts of Route 3 were also flooded but fortunately the water was not so deep that we could not cross. I have not seen rain this hard since my trip in Vietnam.

The following day brought the sun and of course the wind. It was becoming tiring and boring riding this long desolate highway and fighting the constant winds and changing weather. We decided to rest of a day in the beach town of Mar del Plata. It was not much of a rest though as we had issues finding proper parking for the bikes and I spent most of the day doing laundry following up on e-mails.

We finally made it to Buenos Aries and found a hotel offering “motorcycle parking”. It was here that I met up with 5 other riders that I had met during my adventure.  One of the guys, Kevin I first met in Alaska then again in Lima, Ushuaia and now here, small world. With 7 bikes and bikers here at the hostel it made for a fun filled night of beer and tall tales. Most of us are planning on staying in Buenos Aries for a week or more and why not, the sun is shining, the wind has stopped, finally.