Moto Day 9: Pucón to El Bolsón, Argentina

I had a lot of kilometers to cover on my last day of motorcycling (New Year's Eve! What a time to complete a trip!), and not much time to cover them, since I hung around my friend Marie's WWOOF farm until 2pm making pancakes. I set out into the national park around Lanin Volcano. Lush mountains and lakes gave way to drier territory as soon as I crossed the border into the Argentine rain shadow. A long descent led me into a vast, glaring wasteland cut through by a giant blue river. The air got hazier and hazier until I realized it was a cloud of volcanic ash from Puyehue Volcano turning the air into milk. You can hardly tell the shimmer at the bottom of the cloudy photo below is the giant river. After stopping for a quick snack in Bariloche I pressed on into the evening toward El Bolsón, and encountered a few more famous-year kilometer posts. In the town I asked directions to the Río Azul, where Alex's farm is. I found it, eight km outside town, by hook and by crook. It was almost 11pm when I arrived, and quiet--no New Year's Eve party here. As I set up my hammock in a tree (not wanting to disturb Alex) I heard distant fireworks. Early the next morning I crawled out of my cocoon for a joyful reunion with my old friend, an auspicious beginning to 2012.