Date: 11/04 -14/04
City: Esquel, Argentina
Kilometres ridden: 80
Cumulative kilometre: 40530
Street: Gravel/Dirt road
Weather: cloudy, rain, cool

Not much happened the next couple of days – Still trying to find the best way to get to Ushuaia, having a look at the Perito Moreno Glacier, then get to Buenos Aires to visit the Izagu falls with Sigrid on crutches. Slowly all things start to line up, including getting a new Visa for the US and finding ways for Sigrid to travel. On Saturday Negro took me back to Futaleufu in Chile were our bikes were still standing. I brought mine back to Esquel in Argentina. I didn’t pick the best day, the days highest temperature was +7C and it started to rain as soon I hopped on the bike. Regardless, I enjoyed being back on the bike again.

As I found out on the border, getting Sigrid’s bike exported from Chile and imported into Argentina requires a statutory declaration signed by a lawyer saying that I’m allowed to do it. But where does one find a lawyer in Esquel?!?

Turns out it’s not as difficult as we first thought. We asked our host and they pointed us in the right direction. We gave it a shot and asked there.  Yes, sure they can. For about 300 pesos.
Sigrid thought we might be able to get it cheaper if we go to the town hall and find something like a justice of the peace. After some limping around, we found out that there is nothing like that in Argentina. So back to the notary, Anna, to get it organised. She was really helpful and spoke English as well, which made the process of describing what we need so much easier.

Sigrid started to get a bit restless from lying around most of the time, so we went out and had a short walk through the park nearby. Sigrid improved her technique and started to move rather quickly on the crutches. So when the next doctor’s appointment was due, Sigrid decided to walk to the hospital, which was a fair distance away. We stopped at a small shop and had some ice cream.

Juan, the doctor, brought along a friend called Pia, just to translate for us! I thought that was amazing. He had a look at Sigrid’s wound, I was surprised by the size, but the 7 screws had to fit somewhereJ. He was happy with everything and with Pia’s help we made sure that we now have a good idea about the upcoming time line.

The upshot was that Sigrid can travel on a bus with crutches and next week she gets an air cast. After 6 weeks the large screw should be removed but that can be done in Buenos Aires. After that, it might take another two weeks before Sigrid’s leg is strong enough to hold the bike again. He didn’t recommend being pillion in the next week, but with the air cast it might be possible. That is, if Sigrid doesn’t put any weight on it, which effectively means no gravel road with Sigrid as pillion. Well, I’m not too sad about that, gravel roads are not our favourite at the best of times.

Date: 18/04
City: Esquel, Argentina
Kilometres ridden: 0
Cumulative kilometre: 40450
Street: n/a
Weather: sunny/cloudy, warm

After talking to Juan and getting some more information we planned out the rest of the journey. We will go to Ushuaia, Sigrid in a bus and I on a motorcycle. We have to fit everything that we need onto one bike, as bag-snatching on busses is quite common and Sigrid is likely to be a prime target seeing that she wouldn’t be able to move very quickly.
Now that will be a challenge. To see if it works at all, we will make a trial run to Bariloche, a beautiful town in the Argentinean Lake District, 300km north from us. But first I had to bring Sigrid’s bike from Chile to Argentina so that we have all of our stuff together in one place.