PowerCycle

10/07 Miserable day. The heater in my room last night gave me a bit of a headache so that was hanging over me all day. Getting ready this morning I have to listen to a semi idling its engine outside my door for half an hour. Then I hit the road for 44 miles of dust, rocks and sand. Near the top of the big climb a couple motorcycle touring guys rode by (standing up because the road was too bumpy for them). I ride a little further and one of them had stopped, gotten off his bike and was taking pictures of me while I was coming up the road. That pissed me off. It’s pretty well understood that you ask before taking a picture of someone. Or take one, wave and keep going. Running from one side of the road to another posing me against a nice backdrop just makes me want to push you over the cliff when I ride by.

My front tire went flat at one point but I was only 10 miles from town so I put more air in and kept going. Once in San Antonio I rode around forever trying to find a hostel but the places I checked out were too expensive or didn’t have wifi. The wind was horrible again and when I was checking out a room it blew over my bike snapping my Click-stand in half. Didn’t take long for that purchase to get destroyed.

I tracked down Hosteria El Aujero and was lured in by the wifi and the sign saying they had pizza ($70 pesos for a huge room). I figured the pizza would cheer me up. After taking a shower I went to eat and of course they didn’t have any. The internet is also out for the entire town. I did get 12 empanadas that tasted pretty good (should have got 18).

This little funk I’m in today is just a continuation of pretty much my entire time in Chile and Argentina (and to some extent Bolivia). Riding on these crappy roads all day with a constant gale blowing is getting old. The thing is every day I get up and know I’ll just have more of the same. Today was just especially bad but overall I’m pretty tired of having nothing to look forward too. The countryside is nice enough but I rarely stop and go, ‘Wow!” and seeing animals running around every once in a while is cool but when riding is a miserable experience because of the roads and the wind, finding the incentive to keep going can be challenging. I will of course, but damn.

At least tomorrow the road is supposed to be paved after the initial climb. I sure miss the days of unpaved roads that are actually fun to ride on. It’s amazing that the 2 richest countries in Latin America have by far the worst roads. You’d think they could afford to regrade the roads every once in a while. 90% of the traffic is related to mining so maybe the truckers don’t mind the washboard. They certainly don’t drive slowly which is what causes washboarding in the first place.

Kind of sad that today might have been the last 15,000 foot pass I ride over.

GPX track