Motorcycle Explorer December 2014 Issue 3 | Page 78

Ruta 40
Preface
Hi there! This book is about riding a motorcycle the full length of
the Ruta 40 in Argentina, one of the worlds longest roads. My
goal is to hopefully provide you with an entertaining read and
also give you some useful information to help you with the 40,
should you decide to take it on in the future. I wrote a little about
the Ruta 40 in the books “That I may die roaming” and “Not
Dead Yet”, but given those books more than 30 countries I didn’t
have the space to do it justice. The intent here is to give you the
full story.
The pictures in the book span my two journeys on the 40 , but
the story is all from the second. The reason for this is that it
rained heavily through certain parts of the second trip and I didn’t
get to take pictures of some of the more interesting parts. That’ll
hopefully stop you jumping up from your seat when you notice
the bike changing from a BMW 1150GS to a 1200GS. All the
pictures were taken with a regular Canon point and shoot digital
camera.
The 40 starts in the north of Argentina at the border with Bolivia
and makes its way south 5121km the whole way to Rio Gallegos
at the Straits of Magellan in the very south of the country. The
story starts in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile and finishes in
Buenos Aires in Argentina, which seemed the natural start and