The place I stayed in Villa Union was pretty much just a room in a family house (mum, dad, daughter and her husband and her daughter) where I felt very welcome and equally well looked after. I shared my bit of the covered courtyard with a very vocal parrot blessed with a wicked laugh, an equally wicked inventory of whistles and a reasonable Spanish vocabulary… for a bird. I was served with breakfast each morning …
Argentina Archive
por favor no limpiar las botas… To Guandacol & Villa Union
I was on the road out of San Jose before 9am on Wednesday, still feeling rough but restless enough to move on. The morning was perfect for cycling – a high overcast keeping things cool and no wind. A chap on a battered old tractor yelled directions at me over the noise of his machine as I happily pedalled away from town through the surrounding fields. The first 40km or so to the little mining …
…to San Jose de Jachal
Discovered an amusing fact today while chatting with a local guy… one that most blokes will probably appreciate… in Spanish ‘esposa’ = ‘wife’, nothing funny about that but what I didn’t know until today… and only because we were talking about the freedom to travel and so on, is that ‘esposas’, as well as the plural, also means ‘handcuffs’.. thought that was very funny ;-) Anyway… I’m stopped in San Jose de Jachal an extra …
Uspallata to Rodeo.. dirt, winds and earthquakes..
So today I arrived in a small adobe town called San Jose de Jachal… The following post however I wrote yesterday in Rodeo.. I´ll update you on events at the protest in Rodeo (see below…) and the ride to San Jose the next time I can log on… so without further ado I present for your pleasure, hehe, Uspallata to Rodeo…. —- … in a pueblo called Rodeo.. a ramshackle collection of adobe buildings that …
the road less travelled… leaving Mendoza
In the interests of avoiding the main roads and keeping things interesting my route plan took us out of Mendoza by the ‘back door’ … It was also Mark’s first introduction to riding in South America and the other options of Ruta 40 north or the Pan Americana north-west simply would not have have done :-) It’s great having Mark along after the last 2000km alone, aside from being great company all of a sudden …
Mendoza… pics
… first a bunch of pics that might give a sense of this place… and then that third interesting thing.. which, with reference to yesterday’s post, is really a third and a fourth (yes, very Monty P) and on reflection only mildly interesting rather than a huge revelation.. ;-) Oh, and if you haven’t sponsored me yet then you can right now, it’s that big blue button over there on the right… I’m back on …
el tren ya pie…
Thursday today… high temperatures and low energy have meant it’s been a very lazy week so far… but then that is what recovery time is all about and Mendoza is a terrific place for putting your feet up at a pavement cafe and watching the world go by… except during siesta anyway when the city goes to sleep… as do I :-) I did however discover something, well two things really, very interesting here.. no …
Beinvenidos a Mendoza… :-)
So… here I am in Mendoza, stage 1 complete 1 month and 1958km from Puerto Montt… I’;ve been very productive this morning and now kicking back with a coffee… I’ve dumped my stinky riding gear at a lavadero to get it properly cleaned, I’ve shaved the last 2 weeks worth off, got a haircut to help with cooling on the road, lol, and bought a new toothbrush – all exciting stuff :-) I also treated …
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 …
Araña peluda grande… Malargüe a San Rafael
I’m in San Rafael today having ridden approx 235km from Malargue.. 160km yesterday and a brief 75 today… so as usual here are my ramblings.. enjoy.. but first the last pic I took in Malargüe on my way to a big juicy steak.. ;-) 9 February Left Malargüe this morning at 9am not entirely sure where I was going to stop that night…. 50km north El Sosneado was marked on the map and for that first …
Un dia hermoso..
I haven’t got a title for this post yet, I thought of many and forgot equally as many while riding over the past few days… hopefully something will occur to me as I type… I have a few days catching up on here to do (hope you’re sitting comfortably, hehe)…. today I am in Malargüe, only a bit more than 400km south of Mendoza now which means I should arrive there and end this first …
un dia muy duro :o)
I wrote the following yesterday, I’m still in Chos Malal today… pinned down by the weather if you like, I have a gale-force northwesterly that’s strong enough to blow a person over, let alone a bicycle… I’m hoping for snow too, it snowed a couple of weeks ago apparently with a 30 deg drop in temperature… it’s cold today and there are some heavy, heavy clouds on the mountains just to the north of here… …
Las Lajas lazy…
I had to stop for a couple of nights, I realized yesterday how fatigued I’d become, mostly due to the last few days of high winds, rough roads and climbing. As one friend kindly reminded me I’m not 25 any more… yeah this is true I don’t recover quite as well as I did then but I’m very definitely cooler than the average 25yr old… IMHO, lol ;-) So here I am in Las Lajas …
hard work uphill from Junin :-)
Hmmmm, I have to remember everything from the last two amazing days… Right now I’m in a cafe in a place about 200km north of Junin that doesn’t even appear on my road map, supposedly the best one available for Argentina… at a cafe that doesn’t have wifi not surprisingly but the coffee is superb and Annie Lennox is on the stereo so I think I’m going to be here for a few hours resting …
Hot in Junin…
This afternoon I’m in a small town called Junin (pronounce ‘hooneen’)… reason I’m inside typing this is that it’s baking hot outside… mid-30’s C and the whole town, sensibly, is pretty much asleep or lounging under the trees by the river :-) Junin I’ve got a room here for the night, after 8 days straight of camping I really fancied a proper bed and shower. All my gear and clothing is properly grubby now, staying …