I have been in Rio Grande two days… Southern Patagonia has been hard going and with successive stormy nights I’m feeling somewhat shagged… besides with some time on my hands before my flight out of Ushuaia I figured this perpetually cold & windy town was at least worth a look. It is a strange place without a heart, just a lot of intersections, traffic lights and a jumble of concrete. There is a plaza but …
Argentina Archive
Tierra del Fuego…
I think he wanted to play at Captain but instead was being forced to deal with The General Public.. oiks like me for example ;-) Unlike the captain himself the chap managing the boarding and taking tickets for the ferry to Porvenir was a grumpy old duffer… or maybe he just hated cyclists. Either way when we had questions or asked where to put bikes we were ignored with nothing more than a brief but …
the camp stove sessions…
I must have picked up some bad karma along the way I think, possibly something to do with my comments about the tourists here in El Calafate.. hehe, I was expecting some stronger words but the worst I’ve been accused of so far is being a “a little wry..” ;-) I’ll come back to that in a mo but first the karma… you see I have spent the best part of the last few days …
the Pampa…
“ach, the fuc*ing wind…!” is a phrase I have heard often over the last few weeks.. it is usually the second, if not the first thing cyclists I meet coming from the south say to me. Regardless of their native language they at least have this much English. Statistically it is true, going to the north is harder… in theory, the winds down here mostly blow from the west/northwest. It doesn’t always work like that …
a salad of meat and beer…
It is strange how not being able to do something increases ones desire to do that very thing… in this case cycling, the motivation is back after a couple of days hiking and a couple of days chilling… but there is little point in rushing south from here. I have to go back into Chile to continue, either to Torres del Paine and at any rate to reach Ushuaia, isolated as it is on a …
to El Chalten…
I lost my lucky hat…. I lost it in the gale of wind crossing Lago O’Higgins on the boat. But it’s OK, being well prepared as always I have a back-up hat, a woolly one from home in Cornwall. Given its origins I may well find it to be attractive to birdshit instead :-) I was happy to stay in Villa O’Higgins as long as necessary, it was a great place and with access to …
a melancholy ascent…
I’ve been climbing steadily for the last couple of days…. from Jujuy to Purmamarca, and from Purmamarca to Humahuaca as I make my way up onto the altiplano. The riding itself has been wonderful… from the green valley of San Salvador de Jujuy the road took me up above the moisture laden clouds to the pampa… back to a mountain desert landscape with terrific cliffs upon which cacti stand sentry once again below the eagles …
cones etc: in San Salvador de Jujuy…
I’m writing this bit at about 3.30pm during my enforced day off in San Salvador de Jujuy, having slept another 3hrs this afternoon I’m feeling a lot better… but, with reference to my words of yesterday, so much for expecting to be on form today, lol. However, I have time in my schedule I think having reached the north of Argentina quicker than I expected and, as is so often the case, spending time in …
via armadillo… Salta to Jujuy
as I sit here in San Salvador de Jujuy I have a free wifi connection so may as well write something I think… it was a lovely ride up from Salta, a very mellow 100km/4 1/2hrs through what can only be described as a very green and pleasant land… a massive contrast to the desert just a few days ride south. This morning as I left Salta under cloudy skies in a relatively cool 25 …
Shelterbox first-hand, and other stuff..
just a short post.. there is a fascinating first hand account of life as a Shelterbox Response Team member during January’s floods/landslides in Peru here: http://shelterbox.org/news.php?id=280 and if after reading it you’d like to make a donation then my JustGiving page is here: http://www.justgiving.com/mikesimagination …as for me, well getting ready to leave Salta in the morning.. part of which involved demonstrating my intelligence by managing to sew a button back on my trousers while still wearing …
a slower pace of life…
The police were playing in the plaza this morning… not The Police but rather the local ‘policia’ band. I was there purely by chance enjoying coffee in the morning sun and watching the slower pace of life on a Saturday morning… and having been very much seeing in colour yesterday this morning I was feeling distinctly monochrome… I chatted with some of the guys during a break and for the first time was confronted directly …
Streets of Salta (& stuff…)
Salta is a great city, it took me a couple of days to get a feel for it but have decided to stay a few days longer and enjoy it, especially as have found some good company here including friends from Cafayate. Salta has a very different feel to Mendoza.. whether it’s the heat or the narrow streets or just the colour but life here feels more ‘intense’. For once I also have some useful …
a day of transitions.. Cafayate to Salta
hehe, I think I may have stacked up some bad backpacker karma with my comments below about the generic backpacker… the night before I left Cafayate the place I stayed filled up with new folk and was no longer quite so “muy tranquilo” as when I arrived… was like sleeping with a bunch of asthmatic horses.. mind you they were probably equally as suspicious of the skinny idiot with the strange tan lines and funny …
cactus, una rana y un ciclista perezoso…
(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, …
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 …