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After some coffee, api and bread we were off to fill our last tank of gas in Bolivia. Melissa described the process, but what she didn't mention was that many of the gas attendants will charge us the "foreigner price" but not produce a receipt and pocketing the extra bit of cash. This was the case this morning. Once the attendant filled the tanks and asked for the cash I insisted she produce a receipt thinking she wouldn't want to hassle with the paperwork and we might be able to negotiate a lower rate. She called my bluff by heading into the office to start the paperwork....we just took off...merry Christmas to you.
The road was well paved, but a bit bland, so our 2 hour ride to the Argentina border was swift. While researching the border crossing I came across many horror stories about this particular crossing. Many people mentioned different scams by Bolivian officials and challenges of buying the required Argentinian insurance for the bike. Neither was the case for us. Since we had motorcycles we were ushered to the front of a very long line of people trying to get their passport stamps (there were a few local ladies giving us the evil eye). Next was the import of the motorcycles into Argentina. The officer typed the information into the computer then asked to see our insurance. In some of the stories I read other people had to leave their moto at the border and walk into town to purchase insurance and return to the border before completing their import papers. Fortunately, the relatively young official finished our paperwork and just told us to drive into town and purchase the insurance.
We drove around a bit looking for a bank and spotted an insurance office on the same block, what luck. We pulled out some money and drove around the block to purchase the insurance, but in that small amount of time the office had closed for the standard 4-5 hour lunch/siesta break. We would just have to get insurance down the road. We stopped into a nice looking dinner to try out some of the famous Argentina food. For about $6 we received a pasta dish with bread, chicken fried steak (real steak not ground beef) and mashed potatoes, a beef soup and had to decline the pastry as we could barely move after so much food.
We drove a few hours south to the town of Tilcara, recommended by one of the French cyclists, which had a decent camp site with toilets and showers for $15 a night. We ended up staying for two nights in order to catch up on the blog and work on our camping skills.
Crossing into Argentina was a big sense of accomplishment for me. Not sure if it was the altitude or the threat of dirty cops in Bolivia, but that first few hundred kilometers in Argentina where euphoric for me. We celebrated by drinking 3 bottles of delicious Argentina wine! We plan to follow route 40, the wine route, south to either Mendoza or Cordoba before heading east towards Buenos Aires. If you are still wondering we will not be making it to Tierra del Fuego. It is still several thousand miles south and winter is beginning to set it there. Our main goal is to find someone to purchase the motorcycles so we can afford a plane ticket home (it's about $2100 to ship a moto home). If we can sell the bikes in Buenos Aires we will head to Uruguay for a couple of weeks of beach time and ponder whether or not we will continue traveling north or south....by bus..Oi.