Nov. 19, Rio Gallegos to Comodoro Rivadavia
After breakfast, we took a brisk walk in sunny, 8-degree Celsius weather 5 blocks to the comisaría (police station) to officially get our authorization of “no emision de voto,” (non-casting of vote) that says we are too far away from our place of residence to vote. We packed up and were on the road by 10 a.m.
Heading out of the Rio Gallegos westward with the River Gallegos to our right and its cliffs rising up behind the remaining warehouses and industry we passed, again we climbed up to the coastal plains and more prairie, now reminding us of parts of Texas — straight, flat and dry for miles and miles with occasional undulating prairie, but with guanacos everywhere (they are difficult to photograph because they gallop off so fast). As Route 3 moved closer to the ocean, the brown grasses gave way to greenish shrubs extending as far as the horizon. Knox was happy with the Santa Cruz Province roads, which are in superb condition.
For a moment we came down into a valley and the highway led us through a beautiful mini estuary full of flamingos, cormorants and all manner of birds feeding and fluttering about. A bit further over a rise, another inlet revealed a sandy riverbed that looked like at one time it had been full of water. A steady climb up rolling brown and green hills returned us to the coastal plain. An hour or so later we entered Monte Leon Park, the green scrubby plains continued and then wound around rolling hills, the road lined by low white and yellow wildflowers and numerous guanacos and sheep near the road. To the northwest, black shapes like mesas or buttes rose, shimmering, far in the distance.
We came over some more hills dropping off the plateau to, finally, the ocean, we thought. But we had arrived in Puerto San Julian at low tide so we could barely see the water in the distance past the sand. As we circumvented the city, more warehouses went on for ages on the edge of town, and we passed a salt lake and climbed up again to more high plains, and more wildflowers. Our cruising speed was about 160 kph.
We chased a pack of four motorcycles for a long while at a very fast pace with guanacos and horses grazing in the distance as we whizzed by. We passed the motorcycles and the landscape turned desert brown again with hilly mirages looming on the horizon, hazy, white, wispy clouds hanging low and blue slivers peeking through. Still, very windy.
The great roads did not stretch the length of Santa Cruz Province. Crossing into different counties (“departmentos”) often meant a drastic change in road conditions, from smooth to quite poor. We were forced to swerve left and right with oncoming trucks doing the same to avoid potholes for stretches at a time. The landscape was more of the same, dry desert, kilometer after kilometer.
Just before we reached the town of Fitz Roy we had a glimpse of windmills, probably a large wind farm to the east on the coast and then we were back up to the plateau, and yes, more sheep and no change except for occasional saline ponds with dozens of flamingos wading. Finally, for real, the ocean shore came into view and sandy dunes dropped off to our right and the ocean town of Caleta Olivia was in front of us up the hill overlooking the water. On the outskirts of the city, unfortunately, the roads were lined with trash for some kilometers, the first littered landscape we have seen. The main drag stretches along the sea wall, lined with businesses, hotels and some restaurants with the residential streets pitching uphill to our left. Pretty deserted and drab in the cloud cover, but probably because it was Sunday.
The last stretch leading to Comodoro Rivadavia is along the ocean with dunes above giving way to more plains and salt flats to our left, with the afternoon light giving a shimmer to the ocean horizon ahead. The long Rivadavia boardwalk along the ocean led us to our destination for the night, the Austral Plaza Hotel. After Knox’s speedy driving, we arrived much earlier than anticipated and had some time to rest before heading to a local place for a steak dinner and then back to the hotel to watch the new President-Elect of Argentina give his acceptance speech.
LINK TO PHOTOS/VIDEOS OF RIO GALLEGOS to COMODORO RIVADAVIA LEG IS HERE:
