PowerCycle

11/29 Fairly typical day riding out of Chos Malal. 30-40 mph winds, desert scenery (aka nothing) and very few places to camp out of the wind. The wind was from the side which made things a little bearable. After chugging along for 67 miles with 3094 feet of climbing I called it a day at Rio Salado. Hwy 40 crosses over it and just on the other side (south) I found a good spot in a little clearing surrounded by chest-high thorn bushes. I kind of want to have a little campfire tonight since I’m hidden from the road but we’ll see. It gets a little chilly after sunset. [update: too windy so I skipped it]

The river is just a stream but it did provide some water for the next days ride. It doesn’t taste nearly as bad as the last stream but it’s like drinking salt water without the salt, if that makes sense. The only buildings that had water were some houses at Churriaca but no one was around and I didn’t feel like hopping the fence and taking any. I still had 6 liters at that point anyway. The actual village is a mile off the main road but the track to get there looked sandy so I kept going.

The thorn bushes not surprisingly led to my rear tire going flat as I was pushing my way back the road to leave in the morning. After patching that back up it was up and down some fairly steep but short hills for 35 miles into a strong headwind. Total ascent was 1314 feet. I decided to stay in the municipal campground in Las Lajas. It’s along the river and had some spots on grass under some big shade trees. The guy came over and wanted 30 pesos but when I told him that was a lot he knocked it down to 20. There are hot showers, water and electricity available.

As luck would have it that 10 peso savings and more was lost when a dog snuck over in the 2 minutes I left my tent to go wash some dishes and ate all the bread and snacks that were supposed to be for lunch/snacks the next day. The best part was I could see a family walking by my tent from the dish washing area. They could obviously see the dog taking things from my pannier but didn’t bother doing anything to stop it. I came back over and the thing was still eating. I found the biggest rock I could but missed as its fat, stupid, worthless ass lumbered away.

In a sure sign that I was just being mocked, I could hear the dog outside my tent last night… sleeping. WTF. The next morning I saw it hiding in the grass nearby no doubt waiting for me to turn my back so it could steal more food.

More big straight up the side of the hill climbs today. The stretch before Zapala was… well… devastatingly boring. If this is Patagonia until I get into Chile I’m going to be pretty disappointed. They are in the process of widening the road so the dust clouds everywhere didn’t help with the overall appeal of the place. Zapala is very run down in spots with graffiti on most of the buildings along the railroad tracks and leading into town. The tourist office was closed for siesta which is always nice when you are visiting a new town and the welcome centre staff is off napping.

After riding around forever checking hotel prices I settled on Hotel Pehuen for 135 pesos ($33 US). Everything in the room is tiny including the midget bed with foot board so I have to sleep like a porn star with one leg draped over each side. I checked out 2 other places and they cost the same or even more. I could have camped in town but I need groceries and I hate leaving my stuff for that long. Stats: 45 miles and 2443 feet of climbing. The wind wasn’t too bad today. Warning: snake picture below.

GPX track

It’s hard to leave a good bakery and supermarkets full of chocolate and beer so I stayed one more day. In my non-eating and drinking time I updated my Friends page since it had been over a year. It’s always fun to go back through old posts. It seems that I really grew to hate dogs, drank a lot of beer and broke one of everything on my bike.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to my family/friends in the States. No turkey for me this year but I did have some delicious chicken.

Argentina doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving but they have what’s called a Harvest Festival on the last Sunday of February. The Archbishop of Mendoza blesses the first grapes of the harvest with holy water and offers the new vintage to God, triggering a month of celebrations in Mendoza. Crowds of people fill the streets to watch parades of floats carrying the regional harvest queens.

11/24 After a quiet R&R day in Barrancas, it was back on the bike for a ride along the Rio Colorado. The road climbed and then cut away from the river after a bit and then it was a lot of climbing up, riding down and climbing up again. Lunch was at a great restaurant in the surprisingly big town of Buta Ranquil. They even had wifi and the food was delicious (ravioli–a fairly common menu item in these parts).

It was toasty with the mercury hitting 105 F. The wind was the big story though. It was actually fairly light all day. Had a nice surprise right before another big hill. A pickup truck full of oil workers stopped and brought me over a cold 1 liter bottle of water. Nice guys. Found a good spot to camp in a canyon alongside the road with lot’s of noisy parrots to watch over me. At this point I can safely say that I’m a flash flood victim waiting to happen. Actually there are no signs that this canyon/riverbed has had water in a long time so I’m not worried. Stats: 47 miles and 2418 feet of climbing.

I guess the wind missed me because the next day it was vicious. I had to bail out on my plans to make it into Chos Malal which was only another 12 miles. The wind was killing me and just a little stronger and I wouldn’t have been able to ride. As it was my average speed for the day was only 5.9 miles an hour. The climbs were the worst but I had to pedal even going downhill. It started at 4am that morning and left everything in my tent covered in a fine layer of dirt.

No places to get water except a couple farm houses but I didn’t stop because I wasn’t planning on camping again. I should have because I ended up filtering water out of a stream and it tasted like tin. I boiled it too just to be on the safe side. It’s was the worst tasting water I’ve ever had. The stream was coming down from the volcano so maybe that has something to do with it. Or it’s goat crap which wouldn’t surprise me because they are everywhere. The camp site was along another nasty looking stream but the spot was nice and was mostly out of the wind. A guy on horseback herding at least a hundred goats saw me but ignored me. Stats: 23 miles and 2253 feet of climbing.

More wind this morning but I only had to deal with it for half the way to town and then it was blowing from behind me. Stats: 16 miles and 528 feet of climbing. Paid for 2 nights at the Hospedaje Lemus (Lavalle 16). Cost 85 pesos ($20 US) a night which was the cheapest I could find. It’s kind of beat up but the owners are nice and the wifi works. Chos Malal is a big town with several supermarkets and lot’s of stores. Time to go shopping.

GPX track

11/20 Back in the Land of the Lost again. Huge volcanoes dot the skyline, the earth is barren and giant lizards roam the land. OK, no lizards but the rest is true.

From Malargue to Bardas Blancas the road went from paved to unpaved to paved again. The unpaved section started where they were working on the road about 8 miles out of Malargue and ended half way down from the pass. Except for some bad washboard sections it wasn’t too bad. The climb was easy enough and the views were pretty decent. There’s a great place to grab lunch/water at the halfway point. The wind was light until I started heading south-west and then it hit straight on pretty hard. Camped at a place at the junction for route 224 for 5 pesos. Plenty of shade and they have water. No bathrooms but there are lot’s of bushes. There’s a hosteria with camping at the top of the hill but they were sleeping so I went elsewhere (siesta = snooze you lose). I heard they charge a lot more too. Stats: 46 miles and 2142 feet climbing.

The road from Bardas Blancas was paved for 37 miles and then the surface changed to loose gravel and/or washboard. For the next 24 miles I bounced around on the seat until I found a place to pitch the tent. A little road leading down to the Rio Grande just before the bridge at El Zampal looked promising but it was way too windy. There’s nothing at El Zampal except for a house off in the distance. Sadly it was all up hill after the bridge and a strong headwind wore me out. I did have lot’s of people in cars cheering for me which was nice. An ambulance even pulled up and did a thumbs up to see if I was still alive. I spotted a lone tree in a dry riverbed next to the road and made camp there. This was probably the quietest place I’ve camped in a long time. I could almost hear the giant ants trudging by my tent as they carried bits of leaves to their 4 foot high mound nearby. Stats: 61 miles and 2254 feet climbing.

The area around where the pavement ended went through one of the biggest lava fields I’ve ever seen. I think the entire valley floor was covered. Beautiful area. After that it was desert again with no trees and lot’s of sand. Had a 4:30am wake up call thanks to a rooster that did its thing literally every 7-10 seconds (I counted). After a while I think its throat got tired and it sounded like it was yelling “Orlando!”. I should have recorded it. It made me laugh but I still wanted to have it for breakfast.

After my night with the giant ants it was 7 more miles of climbing until I finally hit some pavement at KM2777. The climbing didn’t really stop for another 7 miles after that and then it was down a bit of a descent to the village of Ranquil Norte. Unfortunately it’s Sunday which means everything was closed but I found a water tap outside the tourist office. The hot lunch I’d been looking forward to was not to be had. More climbing out of the valley and then mostly downhill to the Rio Barrancas.

After a couple mile climb I found a hotel in the tiny town of Barrancas for 50 pesos ($12 US), a new record low in Argentina. It’s the big one with a restaurant and camping in the middle of town. No wifi which I found out after I’d paid for 2 nights. She said they did but by “here” maybe she thought I was asking if it was in town. There’s an ATM at the plaza.

Brutal winds today but mostly from the side. The times with headwind were tough. Awesome volcanoes off in the distance. The big one is coming up, 13,000 foot stratovolcano Tromen. Stats: 34 miles and 2374 feet of climbing.

GPX track