PowerCycle

10/31 Happy Halloween! Not sure how big of an event this holiday is down here but so far its been quiet. Maybe later I’ll get some visitors to my tent. Hope they like bread and maybe a cookie.

Camped behind a gas station in the little village of Portezuelo. Best internet I’ve had in Argentina so far. There’s even a few picnic tables and shade trees to sleep under and the gas station is stocked with beer and food.

Stayed at a hotel (the only one) in Patquia last night. Sunday is by far the worst day to pull into a populated area because not only is everything closed for the 12pm – 6pm siesta, most things stay closed even after that. I didn’t really need anything I suppose but a beer after riding in 100F heat all day is nice.

Scenery is very much semi-arid with lot’s of thorny trees, thorny bushes, thorny plants and zero water. There are quite a few colorful birds but they are too fast for pics. Mostly parrots. Traffic is very light on the road. Extra water is needed thanks to high heat and no places to stock up. San Ramon did have a couple small stores and a restaurant. The stretch after La Rioja was deserted aside from a police checkstop halfway to Patquia. They might have some extra water.

Tossed out the 9dBi antenna on the wifi adapter I brought from Florida. Not sure what happened to it but it couldn’t pick up signals even in the same building. The other antenna works incredibly well and I use it 99% of the time anyway so it’s no loss.

GPX track

10/28 Sweating to death here in La Rioja. Hit 105 F while I was riding around hotel hunting. No AC in the room at the hostel. There’s a fan but I need the only plug to charge my laptop. Priorities.

Took the 38 out of Catamarca. I’d done some research on this route since towns and villages can be kind of scarce and just because something is on the map doesn’t mean it’s still there. CGOAB helped since other cyclists have taken this highway. I knew from a couple journals that I’d be running into a few dead cows along the road and a memorial for a fellow cyclist. The cows had turned into skeletons but there were plenty of other stinky dead animals. Dogs for one thing but I didn’t shed any tears. As for live things I saw lot’s of hawks and an armadillo (first one down south). I did see the cyclist memorial but I didn’t stop and take pictures. After about 60 miles I was done thanks to a nagging headwind. I found a shady spot off the road a ways in a dried up river bed.

No shoulder on the 2 lane highway but traffic isn’t bad and everyone moves over. Something goes by about every minute and there are occasional long breaks in between. There’s a restaurant/gas station at Chumbicha with water/soda for sale. At the junction for route 9 there’s a place selling local fruit and the girl hooked me up with water.

I’ve been having a great time with my other bank, BB&T. I have a loan with them as well as a checking and savings account. Since I never use them for anything (because of their fees–kind of ironic) I have no reason to look at the bank statement they email me every month. Well that turned out to be a dumb move on my part. It seems that they’ve been charging me a dormant account fee on my savings for a year now (why they didn’t also charge me for the checking account I have no idea and didn’t ask). That’s added up to about $105 that they’ve been pulling from my savings.

You’d think getting a dormant account status changed would be easy while you’re on the road in Argentina with limited internet access for Skype calls but you’d be wrong. Since the accounts are frozen I can’t use the ATM to unfreeze them or make any transfers online. Looks like they’ll be getting another $7.50 out of me for October at this rate. They did say I could mail them checks for small amounts from my other bank and they’d deposit them and change the status. I did that almost a month ago and can see that the checks arrived there but they didn’t do anything with them (including deposit them in my account).

GPX track

10/23 Had some rain this morning for the first time in a long while. This new Big Agnes Copper Spur tent is amazing in wet weather. I left both fly doors open last night and not a drop fell into the inner tent body.

Route 38 has been a great road to ride on for the most part. There was a shoulder all the way up the big climb and then all the way back down. My camping site last night was a bit of a desperation pick because it was getting late and there were almost no suitable spots before this one. Everything is fenced in on both sides. This place was just a cleared out area that might have been an old road at some point. I couldn’t get back too far and any vehicles going slow enough could see me if they looked over. At the junction for route 64 there’s a restaurant and the guy offered to let me pitch my tent under the awning next door. It was right on the road and next to the outdoor area where people eat at the tables outside. I skipped it. Tough to get much sleep from the rain all night and trucks going by.

My stove gave me some problems last night which ruined a pot of rice of beans. Coffee was just warm enough not to be disgusting this morning. Had to have granola bars; no way it was getting hot enough for oatmeal. Pretty sure it’s just clogged from the poor quality gas I’ve been using in it. I suppose not cleaning it in 3 years didn’t help either. I can’t unscrew the fuel jet screw to clean it so tomorrow I’ll have to stay here and run it over to a hardware store. Everything is closed today. Need to get some laundry done anyway. Elections are today which means no alcohol sales. I’m pretty sure I can buy a beer at a restaurant with a meal though.

Staying at Hotel El Shincel next to the bus station. Room was $60 US for 2 nights. There were cheaper places (80 pesos) but they didn’t have internet.

Update: Took the stove over to the shop and the guy said to leave it and come back in a couple hours. I went back later and after getting ripped off paying him $5 US to unscrew the fuel jet I took it to the hotel and cleaned it per the instructions in the manual. I wasn’t surprised when I went to test it and it still didn’t work. Nothing was dirty/clogged when I was cleaning it. Next step was to clean the fuel pump. I think that did the trick. After replacing two O rings and the fuel filter it worked like a champ.

The plan was to leave in the morning but I’m undecided. I went to check out a couple hostels and had the normal Argentina hostel shopping experience. There are only 2 in the city according to online sources. No one answered the door at Puna Hostel (quite common–the long walk there for nothing was appreciated) and San Pedro only has one room for singles at 120 pesos. Hmmm. What an awesome deal! Just kidding. The hotel I’m staying at is 125 pesos. The room has a private bathroom (hostel is shared), it’s twice the size of the hostel room, there are 2 beds (one queen size; hostel has 2 twin-sized beds), there’s a window (hotel none), there are four tables (hostel has none), a closet (hostel none) and an AC (hostel has a fan). Are the owners of hostels all smoking crack? Besides being generally louder than hotels and maybe offering kitchen access they are pretty much just a tourist trap unless you have just a backpack and don’t mind sleeping in a dorm. Having other travelers around might be worth getting ripped off for some people but this place was empty so it didn’t even have that.

I see a lot of crazy stuff on the road and thought it would be fun to keep track of everything in one post (which may turn into a dedicated page when I get motivated). On my next vacation I’ll go back and try to remember things from the other 15 countries.

• Almost all bathrooms have a bidet. This is why they give you 2 towels (big one for shower and small one for the bidet).





• The shower is rarely in a separate area from the toilet. Technically it would be possible to sit on the toilet and take a shower at the same time (unconfirmed).
• The paper currency can be in the worst possible condition and people will accept it.





• Some cars are filled up by having gas injected directly into the fuel line. No idea why… must Google.
• Not too many people honk when they pass. Getting a thumbs is more common.
• Pillows are generally as wide as the bed.





• Dinner is around 10pm.
• Argentines eat more red meat than any other country in the world.
• Everyone drinks Coke.
• There’s no fried chicken!
• The locks on many doors are from 1930 (minor embellishment–they are the oldest style locks I’ve ever seen though).