Rio Mayo (Rio my sho)

After staying an extra day and getting a few things settled in Esquel, we headed to Rio Mayo, and what was supposed to be the beginning of 300 miles of gravel and dirt (ripio).  It was cool and windy as we left Esquel but we were used to this.  (sorry no pictures again, I will do better)

This is about where the wind starts howling constantly.  It blows from mid-morning until late at night.  The nights are getting exceptionally long now too.  It is 11:00 or later before the sun sets.  It is 9:00p as I write this and it is like it is 5:00pm.    

Within the last 30 miles or so before we got to Rio Mayo, my bike started acting up again, just like it had when I was in Santiago.  Bogging down, slowing to 50 mph, then 30, then 25.  I would shut off the key and it would run fine again for another 2 or 3 minutes.  Then it would repeat all the way into Rio Mayo.

Rio Mayo was pretty much a one horse town.  We found the only Hostel and booked a room.  Chuck and I both came to the conclusion that the problem was the fuel filter.  To get to the fuel filter you have to remove the top glove boxes, the crash guard (the one that had been welded and probably didn’t fit right), then the gas tank.  Then you had to remove the fuel pump from the gas tank, take the fuel pump apart to get to the filter.  Chuck in the mean time had gone inside to use some JB weld on a plastic part of my glove box case, hopefully making it waterproof again.

All this work was done on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant / hostel, with the wind howling at more than 50 mph.  The wind actually blew the tools off of my KTM tool case which blew down the block.  We fortunately found it later a half block away.

I had bought some acetone in Esquel to clean my hands after using some glue on my CB.  When we finally got the to the filter, I used the acetone to backwash both the filter and the pre-filter.  Re-assembled and hoped for the best.  All this took a couple hours.

We ate dinner, and retired to our overheated ‘habitacion’.  Heat seems to be persistent, everything seems to be overheated.  The hotel rooms, the restaurants, the buildings; it is almost like since it is cold outside they overcompensate inside.  We have asked many times for the heat to be turned down, but there is seldom any control in the room nor any ability for anyone to turn it down.  We generally sleep with the window open, if we have one.  In this case, no window, no vent, no control, so we slept in a hot room.

The next morning we were up and left after 10:00a.  Our destination was Baja Caracoles, another one horse town.  The bike has run fine ever since we got it back together.  I will have them change the filter if I can find someone in Buenos Aires to do some maintenance.