I’ll need Argentine pesos tomorrow.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3
Monday I had a tail wind and cruising at 100 Ks was easy on an excellent road south to the border across dry forest patched with rough fields. Hot as an oven and I stopped where ever bottled water was available from an icebox. The only service station midway was out of gas. The next gas station was a further 100 Ks and I bought 4 litres from a drum at the next village as insurance. I slept at the Hostal La Oyerencia on Avenida Heroes del Chaco in Villamontes: $9 for a large room, hot water in a good bathroom, fan, cable with CNN: 1,000 Ks in two days.
Today I faced a head wind and 80 KPH was a maximum. You cross a rail bridge immediately outside of Villamontes. I am wary of rail bridges. I took a fall on a suicide bridge in Panama. This bridge, the planks are good and divided from an intact security fence by a metre wide walkway. Once off the bridge you take a left and are on excellent highway. Cold drizzle and I stopped at the roadside and pulled on jacket and rainwear. Miserable, I stopped in Yaquiba and found a hotel on the square, bathroom and cable for $3.70. A great restaurant on the square has an upstairs that was packed with Menonites in fresh blue overalls and straw Stetsons. They don’t drive cars, trucks or tractors. A Menonite baby was sucking on a plastic pacifier.
I’ll need Argentine pesos tomorrow. Yaquiba has a bank with ATM and a legitimate moneychanger next door. I checked the dollar/peso rate on the web and was given the same rate by the moneychanger. This is easier than dealing with the standard hustlers at a frontier.