Margerue to San Rafael, 122 Miles
Before heading out of time we had to make a stop to clean the chain as it is in extremely bad shape and we just pray everyday that it will get us the last few miles that we need it to. We had to stop at a grocery store to buy a kitchen towel to use with the WD40 for cleaning. While I went into the store, Mike started to take of the chain guard and meanwhile the old gentlemen who happened to own the grocery store insisted that Mike work on the bike within his back parking lot space. He was extremely helpful, wanting to assist mike with every move in amazement of the bike and our journey. He had his workers bring us out fresh baked croissants, coffee, juice and insisted that we take his offerings. It was a nice start to the morning.
We were back on the road. We didn’t know if we would ride to San Rafael for the night, or continue the additional 150 or so miles to Mendoza in hopes to meet up with our new friend Francisco. The ride wasn’t too exciting, the beautiful and big mountains slowly dissipated as we approached San Rafeal, but the road was fairly straight and flat and the 220 went by quickly. It was about 1:30 when we arrived in San Rafeal, you could already tell we are approaching and entering wine country (Mendoza is the wine county of Argentina). There were plenty of beautiful great big tree lined streets, little vineyard and some small orchards. San Rafeal itself seemed more like a working town, although I think the nearby lakes draw some tourism. We checked our emails in hopes that we heard from Francisio, and sure enough he wrote, invited us to stay with him and his daughter at their lake house nearby San Rafeal for the weekend. Perfect timing!
We set out for lunch before it was too late as we’ve learned that lesson the hard way too many times. We just made the lunch hour and enjoyed a nice Milanese. People sure love our motorcycle as large sized motorcycles are very few in all of Latin America. People always ask how big and some show their interest in buying it. I’m really surprised that larger bikes are so hard to come by and so expensive as there seems to be enough people interested and who have the money. We had a couple guys approach us about our bike while enjoying lunch.
After lunch we were on the hotel shuffle. Even though there were several hotels along the main strip, it seemed we were driving around and inquiring forever. Either too expensive, no bike parking or too dumpy. There seems to be quite a few poverty stricken people in this town as there are quite a few, young and very old trying to sell something or beg, haven’t seem that in quite some time. Other than the solicitors and beggers there are several people riding old bicycles all over town. After circling through the streets for quite some time we discovered a really nice hotel with a new A/C unit. Yes, it has gotten quite warm already and the A/C was much appreciated. So much so that Mike and I feel asleep for a 3 hr siesta.
Ride, Eat and sleep, mike said that is all we do lately. Soon after we found a parilla to have dinner, which seemed to conclude his comment quite nice. BBQ’d chicken and salad. The salads here in Argentina are far from what we get at home. First of all there is no such thing as salad dressing here. Even if you search out for some type in the large grocery stores, you won’t find anything. They strictly use oil, vinegar and lemon for the topping of the enseladas. Also, the variety of vegetables in the salad is not near as wide or creative as in the states. For example you usually can get one or two ingredients (lettuce and tomato, carrot and egg, etc). What you usually get is a big bowl of grated carrots with a hard boiled egg on top or diced tomato. I personally order salads as often as they are offered as I never feel I get enough greens on this trip, but this time the salad came out with their ‘dressing’ on it already. The dressing this time included the usual oil and vinegar, but also lemon. Whoa! Flavor explosion! You don’t even know what hit you when you take your first bite. Let’s just say I’ll pass on the lemon from here on…
Road-side stinker
All smiles
We were back on the road. We didn’t know if we would ride to San Rafael for the night, or continue the additional 150 or so miles to Mendoza in hopes to meet up with our new friend Francisco. The ride wasn’t too exciting, the beautiful and big mountains slowly dissipated as we approached San Rafeal, but the road was fairly straight and flat and the 220 went by quickly. It was about 1:30 when we arrived in San Rafeal, you could already tell we are approaching and entering wine country (Mendoza is the wine county of Argentina). There were plenty of beautiful great big tree lined streets, little vineyard and some small orchards. San Rafeal itself seemed more like a working town, although I think the nearby lakes draw some tourism. We checked our emails in hopes that we heard from Francisio, and sure enough he wrote, invited us to stay with him and his daughter at their lake house nearby San Rafeal for the weekend. Perfect timing!
We set out for lunch before it was too late as we’ve learned that lesson the hard way too many times. We just made the lunch hour and enjoyed a nice Milanese. People sure love our motorcycle as large sized motorcycles are very few in all of Latin America. People always ask how big and some show their interest in buying it. I’m really surprised that larger bikes are so hard to come by and so expensive as there seems to be enough people interested and who have the money. We had a couple guys approach us about our bike while enjoying lunch.
After lunch we were on the hotel shuffle. Even though there were several hotels along the main strip, it seemed we were driving around and inquiring forever. Either too expensive, no bike parking or too dumpy. There seems to be quite a few poverty stricken people in this town as there are quite a few, young and very old trying to sell something or beg, haven’t seem that in quite some time. Other than the solicitors and beggers there are several people riding old bicycles all over town. After circling through the streets for quite some time we discovered a really nice hotel with a new A/C unit. Yes, it has gotten quite warm already and the A/C was much appreciated. So much so that Mike and I feel asleep for a 3 hr siesta.
Ride, Eat and sleep, mike said that is all we do lately. Soon after we found a parilla to have dinner, which seemed to conclude his comment quite nice. BBQ’d chicken and salad. The salads here in Argentina are far from what we get at home. First of all there is no such thing as salad dressing here. Even if you search out for some type in the large grocery stores, you won’t find anything. They strictly use oil, vinegar and lemon for the topping of the enseladas. Also, the variety of vegetables in the salad is not near as wide or creative as in the states. For example you usually can get one or two ingredients (lettuce and tomato, carrot and egg, etc). What you usually get is a big bowl of grated carrots with a hard boiled egg on top or diced tomato. I personally order salads as often as they are offered as I never feel I get enough greens on this trip, but this time the salad came out with their ‘dressing’ on it already. The dressing this time included the usual oil and vinegar, but also lemon. Whoa! Flavor explosion! You don’t even know what hit you when you take your first bite. Let’s just say I’ll pass on the lemon from here on…
Argentine Kindness
Road-side stinker
All smiles
posted by Pedro and Maria at 4:35 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home