San Rafael: culture shock… 

bit of a culture shock going on here today…  San Rafael is the biggest, busiest place I’ve seen so far on this journey, after weeks of mountains, desert and small pueblos I’m finding it a bit overwhelming, hehe. Still, there is very good coffee :-) The city is completely flat so bikes are everywhere, not to a Dutch extent but very much evident as daily transport for a lot of folk… mostly curvy singlespeed cruisers with coaster brakes, they’re pretty funky and can be picked up new for about £50… (does anyone makes these at home for the same kind of money….? ;-)

Probably setting off for Mendoza tomorrow, 233km away. It’s all uphill but, inshallah, I may be blessed with a cross-tailwind if the forecast is right… the forecast also says the high temp will be a somewhat sweaty 37 degs C.. ouch! I could wait till Saturday to leave, the weather is supposed to be a bit cooler – 28 or something.. in which case 2 long days may be better than one long day in the heat and two shorter days…

So tonight then I have plans to satisfy my cravings once again with a face full of cow,… and that’s cow as in beef rather than.. well anyway… I also have a bottle of vintage Malbec from Estancia Mendoza for the princely sum of…. £2 :-)

Postscript: as an addendum to Thursday”s post above it is now Friday.. I decided on the 2 day option to Mendoza, hope it does cool off – it’s 3.30pm and I just measured 39 degs C in the shade here… ouch. Not a wasted day either, I’ve stripped and cleaned my drivetrain so it should be good to get me to Salta in the north where I plan to replace the chain and cassette before heading into Bolivia :-)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.