Banditos? - 10 March 2018

10 March 2018 – When I got up it was 39 degrees and sunny. I left Gobernator Costa and hoped to arrive in Sarmiento, Comodoro Rivadavia or Caleta Olivia. The road was beautiful. I drove mostly 62 Mph / 100 Kph. A lot of brown flat desert with scrub brush and mountains in the background. I saw three Emus and four or five llamas alongside the road. I stopped for gas in Sarmiento and checked to see if they had ATMs in the town. They had two Banks with ATMs but none of them would accept my cards. I think the reason they didn’t have a bank that accepted my credit and debit cards was because there is no tourist traffic from other countries.

When I got to Comodoro Rivadavia I went to the same bank (different branch) that refused my credit cards in the other town, and it accepted it. This town is on the Atlantic Ocean and is more or less a tourist area and of course full of foreign tourists. So, my card worked just fine. I was happy about that.

I left that town and continued on to Caleta Olivia. I stopped to take a picture of the Atlantic Ocean because it was the first time I’ve seen it down here in Argentina. While I was stopped, a guy came up to me and asked if I would help him load his motorcycle. Apparently, something was wrong with it. We drove about 5/8’s of a mile / 1 Kilometer to his motorcycle and he showed it to me. He went and got his company’s small pickup a short distance away. I was wondering if I was going to get robbed when he and his buddies showed up. But that didn’t happen. We backed the pickup into a shallow ditch so the tailgate was lower to the ground and we both hoisted the bike together into the pickup. I took his picture and said goodbye.

I then continued driving on to Caleta Olivia and got a hotel. The hotel was nice but I like my dumpier hotel I stayed in the night before. Again, all the rules and they wanted way to much information just to rent a room for the night. I finally told them if you want more information I’m leaving. The receptionist became a little more friendly after I threatened to leave. The money was laying the counter and I was about to walk out the door. They chose the money. The information wasn’t so important anymore. Mary Skyped me as I had really good wi-fi to night. I went to bed.