We spent some time re-distributing our clothes, taking liners out of our motorcycle jackets snd pants and packing them away as the temperatures are a lot warmer now and it was humid too. We lubed the chains of the bikes and ate breakfast and packed everything back on our bikes and managed to leave before the rain arrived. There were dark rain clouds approaching but we managed to out-ride them. We fuelled up after 120km and had lunch at the YPF petrol station and one guy lent us his plug with usb port so I could charge my phone while eating. Another guy came over and told us that he had been on a 6 months working holiday in Australia.

We continued another 203km of straight roads flanked by large amounts of water standing on the side of the road and more corn fields and cattle. The road surface had grooves in it which were unnerving to drive along😳 Traffic also increased in both directions with lots of slow trucks, oversized tractors and fast moving cars making it interesting to say the least – trying to keep the bikes out of the large pot holes and going straight on the grooved road while avoiding overtaking vehicles 😂😂😂 We saw many abandoned burnt out cars on the side of the road and I spotted 4 large Maguari storks (Ciconia maguari) in the wetlands.

We arrived just after 6:00 pm and our host, Alicia opened the door for us to show us to our parking spot which was under cover inside a courtyard behind a locked gate – very secure. Alicia then showed us the room and after we told her that we did not speak a lot of Spanish, she sent her son to get another person to come and translate and she spoke English very well. We got some suggestions where to go for dinner and also what to see and where to go on our way to Buenos Aires.

After getting things off the bikes and getting changed, we walked to the closest restaurant – El Flaco, recommended by Alicia. The place was empty and it was a sports club – we walked in and a young waitress told us in very fast Spanish what the meal included – appeared to be a set menu – we got that there were starters, pasta, mains with meat and salad and chips and some dessert included – we nodded only understanding very little of all she told us and tried to order drinks – I wanted a glass of red wine but the smallest they had was a half litre bottle and Andrew ordered a beer and the smallest size they had was a litre of beer🥹😂. Then she brought out 7 plates with different cold meats on it snd lots of it on each of the plates 🥹 that was the entree – it could have fed an entire football team 😂 – we were at a sports club after all 😂 then she came to ask us what pasta we wanted and we had to choose from 5 different home-made pasta with either tomato or white sauce. We chose our pasta and it was beautifully cooked homemade pasta but again a quite large serving. Then she came and asked what meat, salad and chips we wanted for mains😳- we were so full from the first two courses we politely declined and went straight to dessert skipping the main course. We had fruit salad and flan for dessert. Then Andrew tried to pay and they said they don’t take credit card but cash only or bank transfer – 🥺oops, we should have checked that earlier as we did not have enough cash to pay for dinner – not on us and probably not even back in the apartment or if we did pay cash it would have been all of our Argentinian pesos used up and we needed to have some for paying tolls. The owner suggested we get back to the hotel to get some money from an atm but of course we did not stay at a hotel with an atm 😂- we asked if they accept money transfer and they said yes but for us to be able to pay on their system they have to send us a secure link and then I can pay with my credit card – this then works usually after the third attempt and only if I have wifi – modern technology 😂😉 but between three young waitresses and a girl from the kitchen, we eventually managed to pay for dinner cashless. 👍

We walked back to our apartment, had a nice hot shower and called it a night after sorting out videos and fotos for the next blog and booking our accommodation for the next night.