As we traveled through the Northern parts of Chile and Argentina we frequently commented about not seeing any wildlife along the road. Suddenly that changed.
The road leading to the mountain pass had the typical road hazards for this part of the world. The wooden bridges were a worry. But the wooden cattle grates with open centers were a big worry. Maintaining focus on the road is critical.
OK back to the wildlife…Flamingoes and we are not in Florida.
I wasn’t prepared to round the corner and almost run down a large ostrich type bird standing in the middle of the road.
We later discovered the bird is a Rhea. I’ve seen Rheas in books but didn’t know they were that big and indigenous to in southern Argentina and Chile. They are a hoot to watch and difficult to photograph up close. Motorcycles seem to freak them out and make them panic run. I read someone else where the bird’s erratic running style looks like an armless man running. How true. The big birds run at least 30 miles per hour. They hang around the edge of the road and sometimes dart back and forth across the road before deciding which way to run. Obviously that is unnerving when traveling at higher speeds on a motorcycle.
We arrived at another isolated border as we reentered Argentina. It was an uneventful crossing except we got hassles on not having Argentina insurance on our motorcycles. We again dutifully promised to take care of it as soon as possible, with our fingers crossed behind us.
After making our way in to Argentina we soon found another isolated soft dirt and gravel road. I noticed at times the best we could do was around 22 mph.
We went from one isolated lonely road to arguable one of the world’s loneliest highways. We had reached the junction of the 3000 mile legendary Ruta 40 (route 40), more on the road later. We eventually arrived for the night at the cross roads village of Bajo Caracoles. After a 9 hour riding day we clicked off only 120 miles.
The road leading to the mountain pass had the typical road hazards for this part of the world. The wooden bridges were a worry. But the wooden cattle grates with open centers were a big worry. Maintaining focus on the road is critical.
OK back to the wildlife…Flamingoes and we are not in Florida.
I wasn’t prepared to round the corner and almost run down a large ostrich type bird standing in the middle of the road.
We later discovered the bird is a Rhea. I’ve seen Rheas in books but didn’t know they were that big and indigenous to in southern Argentina and Chile. They are a hoot to watch and difficult to photograph up close. Motorcycles seem to freak them out and make them panic run. I read someone else where the bird’s erratic running style looks like an armless man running. How true. The big birds run at least 30 miles per hour. They hang around the edge of the road and sometimes dart back and forth across the road before deciding which way to run. Obviously that is unnerving when traveling at higher speeds on a motorcycle.
We arrived at another isolated border as we reentered Argentina. It was an uneventful crossing except we got hassles on not having Argentina insurance on our motorcycles. We again dutifully promised to take care of it as soon as possible, with our fingers crossed behind us.
After making our way in to Argentina we soon found another isolated soft dirt and gravel road. I noticed at times the best we could do was around 22 mph. We went from one isolated lonely road to arguable one of the world’s loneliest highways. We had reached the junction of the 3000 mile legendary Ruta 40 (route 40), more on the road later. We eventually arrived for the night at the cross roads village of Bajo Caracoles. After a 9 hour riding day we clicked off only 120 miles.
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