Before we left Puerto San Julian we took a ride to the ocean to grab some pictures we had missed of the fighter plane.
More guanacos en route… I never get tired of seeing those nicely coloured, graceful animals.
Having traveled this part of National Ruta 3 before, we were well prepared for the return trip. We had a great lunch on the way down in the small town of Fitz Roy and noticed a YPF gas station there. That would be about the limit of a tank so we set out anticipating a nice lunch and a fuel stop at Fitz Roy.
As we pulled into the YPF parking lot, YIKES! No gas pumps! The station was under construction, but of course they had put up the sign. Uh, oh! Well, we’ll have lunch and ask where another gas station is.
We drove down the street to the café we had previously visited and… closed! New Year’s Day! We went back the other way on the main street and found an open café. After sharing a day old sandwich, we asked about gasolina – nope, no other station in town.
The closest nafta was in Caleta Olivia, 68 kms away.
We drove at 80 kms/hour, being as gentle as possible on the throttle, and made it to the gas station with 0.2 litres to spare, a safety factor of about 4 kms! That’s the closest call we’ve ever had, other than running out in Ollague Chile where we bummed nafta from the municipality.
Of note is that 95 octane gas (Super +) in Argentina is running about 2 pesos per litre or about 68 cents which is a pleasant surprise.
Along the way to our destination for the night we rode by some amazing oceanside and grabbed some nice photos.
We arrived in Comodoro Riviandia and checked into the Comodoro Hotel.
We got a great room with a good view of the ocean and Corinne got kisses from a little boy for handing out balloons.
The only downside to this night was that we had a long day on the road and wanted a good night’s sleep. Everyone else in town was raring to go for New Years Eve, so we slept very little, between firecracker blasts, roaring engines down mainstreet and people partying in the parking lot.Our "party" consisted of going out for a Chinese food buffet. It happened to be incredible with dozens of items made up largely of seafood. The buffet included one of our favourites... king prawns. Sorry, I forgot the camera!
