On The Way to Buenos Aires

Our next destination is Buenos Aires, 2000 miles up the east coast of the continent. On the way to Buenos Aires we stopped for the night in Rio Grande, Comodoro Rivadavia and Bahia Blanco. It was an uneventful segment of the trip but here are highlight along the way.

We started with backtracking up TDF’s Ruta 3 to Rio Grande. Rio Grande is the self proclaimed Trout Capital of the World. We decided not to challenge their claim. Here was another photo opportunity of yet another superlative.

We also needed our tires changed before the long stretches of high speed asphalt on Route 3 through the Pampa to Buenos Aires. For those keeping track I replaced the worn out Metzler Karoo with the TKC80 I’ve been carrying along since Santiago. Chris also replaced his Karoo with the Anakee he had been carrying. We were both disappointed in how quickly the Metzler Karoo Knobbies wore out. We got maybe 2700 miles out of the rear and the fronts were starting to cup. So for the trip we will have run thru 3 sets of tires. At the tire shop were found that Santiago BMW gave us yet another surprise. The rear wheel bolts might well have been welded in place. Our expert tire guys in Rio Grande considered every trick in their play book to get the bolts loose. They ended up using wd40 and tapping the bolts with a hammer.

A Carnival parade was underway in town.

TDF is actually is the land of fire.

Most of Ruta 3 was boring except when it ran along the Atlantic Ocean.

We met this group of travelers from Buenos Aires at one of our stops. They were off to Ushuaia.

A major conflict the government and large farmers was underway because of increasing assessments. The farmers were on strike. We crossed some of the protesters along the highway. Many of the farmers use shocking displays to get their point across. One really gruesome display (no worries. no photo) was a number of dead cows piled up next to the highway.

This is another display of their displeasure. Fortunately for us they didn’t block the highway on our route as they have done in other areas.

On the way I discovered the inner seal on my final drive developed a small leak. Fortunately I had a replacement seal but would prefer to not do the repair until returning to Michigan. So I, of course, watched it very closely and it turned out to be a non event.