November 6th, 2010
Chilecito to Roadside 20km North from Villa Union
82km; 5:45 hrs of riding
Our day of rest in Chilecito, Argentina was well worth it. We enjoyed lunch cooked by our hostel friend from Spain of spicy lentils with rice and bread with butter, before lounging the afternoon away in the heat.
When the sun reached the horizon, our hostel host Benito started working on building a fire in his fire pit, so Justin and I jumped at the chance to try our first Argentinian steak. We walked to the butcher, who chatted away with us about his fine town as he sliced us 600grams of meat, sharpened our now dull travel knife, and gave us strict instructions on how to bbq our steak.
Fortunately, when we arrived back out our hostel, our host was excited about our purchase, and immediately went to work brining the meat and throwing it on the grill. How sweet to have an Argentinian cook us our first Argentinian steak! And what a deal – for 600 grams it was 18 pesos, $4.50 US, versus 90 pesos, $25 US, in a restaurant. We enjoyed bbq’ed steak, onions and bell peppers as well as mashed sweet potatoes and rice. With full bellies, we went to sleep happy even with lots of rain pitter pattering on our tent.
In the morning, we set out with Mendoza on the mind… only a few days until we reached Argentina’s fourth largest city, prized for it’s beauty and the snowcapped mountains perched above it where Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Southern Hemisphere, stands proud. We climbed another gorgeous valley of rich red canyons dividing the Andes from another mountain range even older than the Andes, Sierra de Famatina! As the Andes grew due to active fault lines and massive volcanoes, this range was pushed up with them, and now is heavily mined as many minerals lay quite close to the surface.
A ways up our dirt climb, a young man from Brazil riding a motorcycle stopped excitedly in his tracks. He hopped off his bike and started speaking quite fast and I realized I could not understand a darn word he was saying! Justin replied in Spanish and he started laughing – he spoke very little Spanish, as his native tongue was Portuguese… still it is amazing the communication you can make with few words and many hand gestures. We were immediately attracted to his zest for life, his enthusiasm and excitement to explore. He took many pictures and ran his camera around every object on our bike smiling and laughing. He pointed to our frying pan with curious eyes. “Para Pescado” Justin replied, and again he laughed and laughed.
As we departed from our new friend, he said, “No estan loco… Estan animos!” (“You are not crazy… you are animals!!”
~Melissa
November 8, 2010
Roadside south of Guandacola to Roadside past ghost town Tunuco
145km; 6:33 hrs of riding
Cycling Route 40 has and might quite be the most difficult riding on this South American adventure. Melissa and I both agreed today while sitting beneath a tree, grabbing a bit of shade from the afternoon heat, that the elements here seem to be harder to deal with than the riding in Southwest Bolivia. Heat, No water, Wind, Sand Storms, Biting Insects. Ouch.
Growing up in the Foothills and Central Valley of California, I am no stranger to high summertime temperatures. Fortunately we do not have humidity in California, which is quite similar to the Western side of Northern Argentina, but partially due to the wind, the heat here just seems ridiculous. In the past week, the temperatures have risen and are somewhere in the 105 degree F (41 C) region, which just zaps our energy reserves and leaves us wanting more than the hot water in our bottles to quench our thirsts. We have been using tang flavor packets to chug the warm water with a bit of flavor.
Since the heat has been debilitating by 1pm, when the blow dryer turns on, we decided in order to get some good distance in each day, we must get up before the sun. So for the past few days we have been rising at 5am and eating a breakfast of bananas, peanut butter, and oatmeal cookies, before setting off on the quite, dark Ruta 40. Melissa wears our red blinking tail light as I hold our one working headlamp (other needs batteries) and we roll at a fast clip trying to put in some good kilometers while it is a bearable 70 F out.
Afternoons are spent hiding in the shade. Fortunately, today we found a water trough leading to the farmlands in a tiny town next to a river… So we jumped in, cycling clothes and all! It took less than 20 minutes to completely dry off and jump in once again.
We laid under the willows and played our flute before hiding from another wind storm, cooking dinner, and setting off into the sunset for a few more kilometers before bedtime. It has been almost a week since we have needed our sleeping bags at bedtime.
~ Justin
November 11, 2010
Carpenteria to Mendoza
145km; 7:40 hrs of riding
It seems that every kilometer we travel South the air gets a little cooler and the surroundings a little greener. We have seen a part of route 40 that seems quite under travelled by tourists perhaps due to the lack of places to stop, stay, and visit.
Last night, we found ourselves stranded in the tiny town of Carpenteria, 30 kms south of the beautiful, bike enthusiast town of San Juan. We were surrounded by private farmland and could not find a place to camp, so we headed over to the police station to ask about camping. The kind officer pointed us over to a big hanger where he said it may be possible for us to camp under. When we rolled over to it, the two men working near it shook their heads and told us they did not think we had permission to sleep there. Next, we tried the church, but the women in the church said the land surrounding the church was owned by someone else and it, again, would not be possible to camp… well shoot, the sun had already set and our minutes of daylight were dwindling quickly.
We crossed over Route 40 to the farmland side where a few houses were situated. I finally had the courage to ask by myself if there was a place for us to camp in Spanish. The kind man standing in his backyard said it was fine to camp in the corner near his yard which gave us a sigh of relief.
As we set up the tent, another man came by and started pointing across the street to the same hanger the policeman told us about. We explained that we were denied access and he scratched his head and disappeared. We rushed to start dinner and set up the tent and broke a cardinal rule – we let go of an empty, unstaked tent in the wind. Off it went, flying like a kite towards the fields. I ran after it while Justin ran after our attempt at dinner which was falling over in the gusts.
The man, named Agustin, returned and told us it was not safe to camp here as he pointed behind us at what looked like thick smog. Since we had been around the block for a while, we knew this was not smog, but rather a massive dust storm headed our way once again. Agustin told us to follow him to the Panaderia (Bakery) where we could hide in front of the store from the wind. We were extremely grateful and started our second attempt at cooking and setting up our tent when Agustin returned once again, this time with a key in his hand. His granddaughter at his side, they both smiled as they opened the Panaderia and showed us an even safer place away from the elements. It was the first time Justin and I had a place to sleep in-doors since Salta. After pasta with salame and cheese, we rolled out our mats and fell asleep safe and sound, as the wind whirled around the brick walls of the Panaderia.
Today, after our scariest road yet with no shoulder and speeding cars, we found ourselves rolling into beautiful MENDOZA! Latitude 32.5 degrees! We believe this to be our halfway point kilometer-wise in our journey and we see the rising peaks of Patagonia in the distance! Wahoo!
~ Melissa
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We look ahead with high spirits as Patagonia is less than two weeks away. We have dreamed of riding and backpacking around this land since the start of this trip and only 1,100km lay between us and the land of grande mountains, vast lakes, glaciers, and, well, some more wind.
While in Mendoza, I am on the hunt for new trekking pants and a wool long sleeve. My pants were lost after exiting the Salar de Uyuni, which made my heart break in half as they were my favorite pants, and my wool shirt was accidentally taken by another traveller in our hostel stay in Salta. I am also nursing my first yellow jacket sting which feels like a needle stabbing every nerve in my hamstring! I cried like a little, hungry baby when I first felt the bite and now have a bit of a fear of larger flying insects.
We love the easy-going, friendly spirit of Mendoza and are happy to enjoy two days off exploring this lovely city. In 1861, Mendoza crumbled to the ground in a massive earthquake. This curse turned into a blessing as the city was rebuilt with large open streets and sidewalks (for the rubble to fall into) and large parks scattered throughout the city (for people to run to safety). The city is filled with trees and greenery, and sidewalks are lined with benches and tables for friends to enjoy each others company during the hours of siesta.
Justin learned there was a velodrome located here, so we rode our weight free bicycles to the park where it was located and took turns riding around the STEEP walls of the arena. We both have a new found appreciation for Adam, Justin’s cousin, who competed as an Olympic track cyclist riding in these stadiums.
We are off to grab another 1/2 kilo of ice cream and chat with locals before setting out once again into the unknown.
~ Melissa
** Make sure to check out our Remodeled South America Bike Tour section on our website!! It has updated stats as well as some new Equipment videos outlining what we carry on our bikes!
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