Prepping for a year out of the country, Sarah and I considered what is most dear to us, recreationally. Sarah readily embraces her stand-up paddleboard (SUP), an inflatable model that can support two adults and a mid-sized dog. Dear to me is a bicycle, of any sort, but most especially one suited for off-road terrain. A bicycle also serves as redundant transportation, in a way, if we were unwilling (or unable) to move our vehicles. Top of the list, then, were added one paddleboard and three mountain bikes.
But which bike? The knee-jerk reaction is “My favorite one!” Then, however comes the realization that your favorite steed will be subjected to the elements for close to a year, draw the eye of those looking to remove you of your bicycle, and quite possibly be damaged while it is on the vehicle (either due to a collision or bikes clacking against each other on or off-road) not to mention being subjected to the dirt and grime from driving nearly 12,000 miles. My faithful Ibis mojo 3, my absolute favorite bike to ride, was quickly dismissed, as the bike is just too nice to abuse and too attractive for theives.
After further weighing these considerations, the obvious next choice was my old Ibis tranny. The frame had been damaged in a crash (what better bike to take than one that had been previously damaged?) and I had a slew of mid-level parts for it, plus a wonderfully wide wheelset that gleefully soaks up washboard. As the immense pressure of preparing two vehicles for a year out of the country came bearing down upon us, however, the feasibility of completing another relatively complex repair and rebuild side project quickly fell to the bottom of the list. Not to mention that the lively orange paint would attract a lot of attention.
Amongst the turbulence of our imminent departure, my eye settled on my covid-era mountain bike: made by Giant, this bike was conceived to go fast, world-cup fast, by riders a lot younger than me. And as mentioned, it was my covid-era mountain bike. A bike purchased when frame repair was backlogged for months and such a crushing demand existed for new bicycles that you had to take what you could find. It was in those times that I found this Giant.
And while stupid expensive and not made for idly touring another country, this mostly black frame and components (with splashes of dark blue) and super-subtle labels does not draw any attention. The proof of this being that, after two months driving around Argentina, I have yet to receive a single question about it. Perfect.
Cold mornings are a good time to write while still tucked in bed. This morning I write from the canyon camp next to the visitor’s center of Cuevo de Las Manos, Argentina in Patagonia. It’s chilly but more, it’s windy. Today, not dangerously windy. It will be possible to hike down into the Canyon and visit the cave and wall paintings.
The visitor’s center to Cuevo de Las Manos visible from our camp.
Two nights ago, we camped at Lago Pasados where we encountered our first dangerously strong winds. We had been warned by Darren and Kathryn, a couple we visited with in Los Antiguos, also traveling in a pop-top. They recommended Ruta 41 over Ruta 40 to travel between Los Antiguos and Lago Pasados because while it’s a rougher road, the scenery is superior. But they said there was a night they had to sleep with their tent top down and even lower the jack-legs to keep from rocking from the wind.
Ruta 41 in yellow, our windy camp was next to the lake on the west side.
Ruta 41 is not a National highway like Ruta 40, it’s a maintained gravel road between Los Antiguos and Lago Pasados then after Lago Pasados, it’s a 4×4 track. It hugs the Argentinan/Chilean border. It is also the solution to the notoriously flat and scenery-less terrain of Ruta 40 in this section. We were amazed by the views from Ruta 41 from our windows and I even had the opportunity to take a bike ride along the Ruta.
A fork in the road while biking.Our red truck on Ruta 41
In Los Antiguos where we started Ruta 41, we picked up Olek, a hitch-hiker we had met in Rio Mayo many miles previously. He was headed in our general direction on Ruta 41 so he hopped a ride with us. Olek, a Russian, has been traveling for 1.5 years, hitch-hiking through Africa and South America. Even with all of his previous travel, the windy camp of Lago Pasados was a challenge for all of us.
Shattered glass from the windy night camp next to Lago Posados. We were so happy we collapsed the pop-ups when the wind started getting bad or we could have lost them…Olek and Mike fixing Olek’s wrecked tent. Video of the tent snapping on link below:
With wet weather predictions and shaken by the big winds in camp last night at Lago Pasados, we decided to head towards Ruta 40 instead of taking the 4×4 track from Lago Pasados to Parque National Perrito Moreno. Especially after German travelers in a monsterous modified fire truck said the terrain was very rough with ledges and very large rocks to navigate through areas of erosion if we went forward on Ruta 41. They said they did it, but only because the weather was perfect. Now, that was changing.
So, here we are in Cuevo de Las Manos in less wind and weather about to see the caves with painted handprints from 10,000 years ago. We continue to pick our route by recommendations along the way by fellow travellers and ioverlander.
We are a two pop-top camper, 4 person, 1 dog family traveling through South America. Before we received our campers and had less control over our water in Colombia and Buenos Aires Provincia. We all had the runs at least once. We were told to just expect this while traveling. But, since getting the campers and having more control over our water, no one has been sick. Here is what we are doing.
We are currently in Argentina where people are confident that the water is safe to drink. It may be true that drinking from the tap won’t make you sick here but we found that water we pump to store in a tank probably needs to be filtered first: as evidenced by the wriggling water insects we shook from our pre-filter the other day from an established campground.
The kids filling the pre-filter bucket during fill at Lago Guttiérez, Argentina (no insects).
The insects from the hose was in a camp where the camp host told us the water was good to drink: potable. We filtered it anyway and so glad we did. I’m glad we don’t have bugs in the tank and here’s hoping whatever the bugs are eating was filtered out as well. Here is our system:
Pumping from buckets brought from lake to the filter, hose running to our 25 gallon tank in the Northstar
We have two tanks for water to use for drinking, cooking, and washing. Both of our vehicles hold 25 gallons each. We are able to fill them straight from a lake or a spigot or a hose run through our water pump and filter. When a source spigot is not compatible with our pump nozzle, we continuously fill a bucket and pump from the bucket through the filter into our tank. We also use the bucket method if the fresh water lake shore won’t allow us to get our trucks close enough to pump directly from the lake.
Close up of the Guzzle H2O in action as kids fill the pre-filter bucket
Water sources: we are able to draw from any water source we decide can be filtered like fresh water lake or river, camp supplied water or municipal source. No matter the source, we run the water through our Guzzle H2O carbon filtration filter. We saw a campervan filling it’s tank directly from a YPF water hose (large gas station chain) at San Martin de Los Andes. No doubt, this is possible but, with 2 rigs and our general impatience with manuvering in congested parking lots, we haven’t done this. So, obviously some of the water is safe, some of the time. But not all of the water is safe all of the time. We just are not going to chance it
In some of the established mom and pop campgrounds, the water source is right next to the bathrooms because that’s where the plumbing is. In those places, we don’t fill. The insect water was from plumbing next to a wood heated shower house in our camp at Lake Piagum. We just filled from Lago Guttiérez yesterday outside San Carlos de Bariloche, no insects.
How long to fill? It takes us about 1 hour to fill both of our tanks through the filter. 1.5 hours if the filters are filling with insects… We usually time our fills for a travel day after using both tanks down to near empty in camp. This has averaged every 5-7 days.
Problem solving: air in the pump, slow high pressure pumping, carbon filter full, electricity supply to charge pump battery to get complete fills for 50 gallons. We learned that air in the filter can be solved by turning the pump upsidedown, on its side and upright several times while pumping, just like our old backpack filter. We removed and replaced our first carbon filter when the pump started running super slow and seemingly under high pressure. The 2nd carbon filter ran much better but, we are not convinced the old filter is full so we are carrying it with us to dry and try again. The battery charge on the Guzzle H2O lasts us about 30 gallons of pumping so, we charge it for the rest of the fill off our solar charged battery to get our full 50 gallons.
Continuing our travels in Argentina: March 2023. We are on the Argentinan Atlantic Coast again. This time we are traveling North towards Buenos Aires from Camarones. Our family has been on the road in our campers since receiving them out of port December, 23, 2022. In January, we traveled South from Buenos Aires central to … Continue reading Peninsula Valdez and Doradilla Preserve near Puerto Madryn, Argentina→
This story comes from our travels in Argentina: We climbed to the top of the tallest rock formation jutting up from river rock covered valley. The uniquely high and squared angles of the towers could be seen far down the road. The blocks appeared neatly stacked in the distance but when on them, we needed … Continue reading The Skunk and the Owl→
We are experimenting with our family by traveling for a year. After living the pandemic 2019-2022 in Butte, Montana and the Trump administration culture wars we were interested in striking out to see new lands. Our family is a dad, mom, and three teens. One teen absolutely did not want to travel with us. She … Continue reading Homeschooling on the road→
In an attempt to travel South to Ushuaia, Argentina, we prepared our campers and dog paperwork for the Argentina-Chile-Argentina passage in the city Rio Gallegos, Argentina. Wind and cold rain predictions made us change our minds about travel further South. It was likely that the ferry would be delayed for four days which would block … Continue reading In and out of Chile from Argentina in Patagonia.→
WHAT MOUNTAIN BIKE? Prepping for a year out of the country, Sarah and I considered what is most dear to us, recreationally. Sarah readily embraces her stand-up paddleboard (SUP), an inflatable model that can support two adults and a mid-sized dog. Dear to me is a bicycle, of any sort, but most especially one suited … Continue reading Mountain Biking Stories→
Butte Family Abroad 