Patagonia

We spent the last three days heading south on Route 40. This famous highway is known for some of the best motorbike riding in South America. This is where the Dakar race will happen next month. We are now in San Carlos de Bariloche, taking a day off from motorbiking.

This area is very famous for it's beautiful parks and cristal clear lakes. Bariloche is full of hotels and restaurants but at this moment there aren't that many people here. We are between the two busy seasons of winter and summer. On top of that, the nearby Puyehue volcano on the Chilean side has been spewing ash since June. Depending on the wind there are days when a lot of it comes down here. We passed Villa la Angostura, a town which got hit pretty hard. There was ash everywhere, people wearing face masks, and trucks spraying water on the streets. This has impacted the local tourist industry especially with the airports being closed most of the time. I found an interesting article covering this situation. You can read it here.

Here are some photos from our drive on Ruta 40. I won't write much more as Travis has covered the last 3 days pretty well in his blog (see the link on top).

Tomorrow it's off to Chile, to sort out this stubborn volcano Puyehue ;)

We were very lucky to catch a glimpse of these almost extinct birds, Condors!! The largest flying bird.