(cacti, a frog and a lazy cyclist…) I’m excited this morning, I just got back my clothes from the lavadero… it’s been a month since they had a proper wash… handwashing is all very well but you know all the “ground in dirt “that the soap commercials back home love to talk about… well after all the living in the dust since leaving Mendoza there was plenty of it… I’m in Cafayate by the way, …
South America Archive
el calor del desierto … Chilecito a Belén
I did take another photo in Chilecito… here it is – JC being uplifting behind a regular cats cradle of cabling… The ride from Chilecito to San Blas was one of those to be endured rather than enjoyed… No doubt the scenery would be described as awesome in it’s scale when looking at it from the cold side of the window of an air-conditioned car… but for cycling through I found it a toughie… After …
no through road.. Laguna Brava etc
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 …
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 …
Shelterbox in Chile
With reference to my last post below Shelterbox are right now enroute with aid to Chile after the massive earthquake there a few days ago. With their resources already stretched by the Haiti quake my journey and your donations are more relevant than ever… so please, point your mouse to that blue ‘Justgiving’ button on the right and help out… The latest Shelterbox news is here: http://www.shelterbox.org/news.php
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 …
Shelterbox & Haiti one month on
as I sit here in San Rafael sweating over a cold beer and mentally prepping for another long, hot day on the bicycle tomorrow it’s easy to forget what life is like in Haiti now one month on for the million homeless and 300,000 injured… it’s a sad coincidence that the earthquake coincided with my arrival in South America at the start of this journey. Shelterbox are making a real difference but the task is …
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 …