Motorcycle Explorer December 2014 Issue 3 | Page 128

inordinate amount of pictures of the sign I thought to myself, “Ok,
It has got to be around here somewhere.” I asked a few people
who were standing around outside a shop if they knew where the
start of the 40 was but I couldn’t find anyone who knew where,
“La Quarenta” was. You see, if you were looking to get
somewhere, you would say the town and people would give you
the directions. no one would ask - “Could you please tell me
where this shitty road is that runs through the middle of nowhere
to no town in particular?” The 40 wasn’t even labelled on my
map, the first appearance it made on the page was much further
to the south, at a town called Belen. I started to doubt if the book
which I’d read was accurate or whether they’d made the whole
thing up. I realized I was basing everything I knew about the 40 in
Northern Argentina on one picture book and a Wikipedia article. I
grabbed my map and studied it for a waypoint that i’d be able to
pronounce without raising derisory giggles from the locals.
Rubbing the dust and sand off the map I found the town of Santa
Catalina, on the furthest north western arc of the Ruta 40 and
asked the locals for directions to it, “Ah - Santa Catalina - Si!!”.
See, everything is much easier when you know where you are
going! Driving off in the direction that the locals pointed me, I
eventually found the start of the 40, a single lane dirt track
beating a path out into the dusty desert countryside. I stood there
looking down the road while I checked that my water was secure
on the bike and said to myself, “So tell me again, one more time,
why I’m doing this?”