Thu. Jan. 29Today I rode from Chile Chico to Puerto Santa Cruz in Argentina. The border crossing at Chile Chico was the easiest I have ever encountered. I was in and out in fifteen minutes, if that! As I rode east on Argentina Rt.43, I came to the small town of Pico Truncado, on the eastern side of Argentina just before you get to Rt.3 south. There I had to make a decision, take the dirt road to Rt.3 or the bit longer but paved road. I chose the paved road, as I had been previously riding two full days of rough dirt in Chile. This decision was one that would come back to haunt me. As I drove north east on the short stretch of Rt.12, I got a taste of what everyone had been warning me about. The winds! I have never, up to this point in 34 years of riding motorcycles, ridden in such high winds. Most of the time was spent trying to lean into the wind at about a ten degree angle, except for the instant of relief as a large truck came from the other direction, and you had better be prepared for that! As the truck would go by there was an instant relief from the on slot of the wind followed very soon by a blast of wind that almost blew you off the road. Not fun! This went on for about forty minutes, until I reached the east side of Argentina and the Atlantic Ocean. I stopped along the shore and took a picture as I had now driven clear across South America from shore to shore. Now I headed south on Rt.3 that ends at the bottom of the world in Ushuaia, Argentina. Now the winds where hitting me from the other side, but with slightly less force, which was hard to tell at times. I continued riding until I reached Puerto Santa Cruz, a very nice, well maintained town because there is an Army Base there. There I fueled up and found a hotel for the night.
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