05/11/2013 Stage 58 Villa La Angostura to San Carlos de Bariloche

2013-11-05 click for more

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05/11/2013 Stage 58 Villa la Angostura -San Carlos de Bariloche

Today was the final day of two weeks of solid riding. We covered a total of  1.348 km  66% of it was paved and we climbed a total of 12.770 meters. It has been quite a tough section but nearly all incredibly beautiful. Some of it very hard because of the poor road surface or strong head winds. Overall though a section well worth cycling. Today was peachy. No wind to speak of, only 800 meters to climb and all on road and few miles to cover. You could have thought we were on holiday or something! We coincided with a french couple, two lovely american girls and our canadian cyclist at a road junction (as you do) and had a cup of coffee together. Me showing off the incredibly quick boil time of the Primus ETA saucepan with the super duper burner. I love it! It is always good to hear everybody else stories which can be quite humbling. We are very lucky to be able to afford good kit, good food, hostals when they are available and all the rest of it and we are moaning sometimes how hard it is. The two american girls had totally unsuitable bikes with incredibly skinny tyres which must make ripio cycling almost unbearable, no money no nothing but were as happy as anything.
 We rolled into Bariloche early and found a very decent hostal who let us have a room to ourselves for the price of a bed in a dormitory. Bariloche is full of outdoor shops (it is a major ski resort in winter) and we do have to get some extra kit to prepare ourselves for a 5 day trek so it is Mecca for a kit-junkie like me. Combine that with lots of good food and it might be hard to get me away from here!

It is still a little early for Lupins to be out. The road sides are absolutely covered in them.

04/11/2013 Stage 57 Camp Lake Faulkner- Villa la Angostura

2013-11-04 click for more

04/11/2013 Stage 57 Camp Lake Faulkner- Villa la Angostura by malcandmarjetpatterson at Garmin Connect - Details
04/11/2013 Stage 57 Camp Lake Faulkner- Villa la Angostura

This was going to be one of the easiest days with only 60 kms and 800m height gain. The route would once again continue along the seven lakes and was just like yesterday with magnificent views all the way. There was probably less traffic today as the weekend sightseers had all gone home. Nontheless there were still the occasional tourist vans full of people who would pull into the laybys to enjoy the views. We smugly felt that travelling by bike was a much better way of enjoying what was on offer.
Later we met the Canadian cyclist that we had met the night before in the campsite had a chat and let him go ahead as we had breakfast by a different lake. As we approached our destination Marjet spotted a few rags on the road which I had missed and picked them up. 5 kms further on we met the Canadian again who had found two Swiss cyclists and Marjet was able to return the newly discovered rags which were in fact the Canadians leggings. He needless to say was delighted to have them returned.
We've now learned to go to the tourist info centres on arriving in town as they have all the Hosteria addresses , prices, wifi availability etc and found a great value place that otherwise would have been missed. Probably everyone else knows that already but we're slow learners.

03/11/2013 Stage 56 Junin de los Andes - Lake Faulkner campsite

2013-11-03 click for more

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03/11/2013 Stage 56 Junin de los Andes  - Lake Faulkner campsite

Todays ride and the next two would be relatively easy with shorter distances and reasonable height gains and so we could afford to start late at 9.00am. I was still hoping for a knock at the door to say that the wallet had been found but it never came. The first 40 kms were relatively flat and easy and the roads at this stage were relatively quiet which was just as well as a Spanish motor cylist slowed down and drove along with us whilst chatting about his journey and asking about ours. Eventually he said farewell and left only to come back and take some photos of us. It turned out that he also met  Ciclo the Spanish cyclist we had met approaching the Salar de Uyuni. It can be a small world on the road sometimes.
We had lunch at an open air restaurant in San Martin where we grumbled about the prices but then agreed that it was still cheaper than Barnstaple and after all it was an up market ski resort. Mustn't grumble.
This is where the famous seven lakes trip begins and from the outset it was a beautiful mix of lakes, pine forests with a backdrop of snow topped mountains. There followed a 500 m climb and a lot of undulating before we descended to Lake Falkner where we found a gorgeous campsite where you were encouraged to have a log fire and camp on the waters edge. Had an interesting chat in the evening with two Argentinian cyclists. Our Spanish still sounds pretty awful but they seemed to understand ( well they nodded their heads a lot ) 

02/11/2013 Stage 55 Alumine - San Juan de Los Andes

2013-11-02

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2/11/2013 Stage 55 Alumine – Junin de los Andes

Another beautiful day on the bike [I know I'm repeating myself but it's true ]. Cycling doesn't get much better then this. We followed the river for about 50 km. First on the road and then on ripio which was on the whole quite good. It does keep you on your toes though when you know that at any given time you might suddenly end up in an extremely sandy patch which makes your bike skid from underneath you. Once again there was barely any traffic or sign of any human existence for miles and miles. Just gorgeous scenery. We had managed to buy some more salami, cheese bread and cereal in Alumine so we were all sorted. This holiday we ( or rather Malc because I don't touch milk )have discovered the joy of powdered milk. Since we always carry water that's breakfast sorted. We like to cycle for about an hour and then stop for coffee, cereal bread and jam. After lunch we left the river and climbed up over the pass. Nothing too challenging but after 108 km and 11 days of solid cycling I was glad to stop. We managed to loose another wallet with £50 and a debit card but luckily had another card left to withdraw money but this is the last card and we have to be especially careful. Buy this stage even the supermarkets in Argentina were closed but we found a little take away place that sold a fantastic lomito. (Huge steak sandwich with all the trimmings.) Delicious.

Overall Argentina feels a lot like Europe ( housing, standard of living)just on a much much bigger scale. Very different from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia where the people were equally friendly but quite difficult to have conversations with because our worlds were just so far apart there was little common ground. We often felt as if we were from different planets. In Argentina there are lots of people on bikes and many people are keen to chat about where you are from and tell you about their corrupt government. We have yet to meet someone who is positive about the government here

01/11/2013 Stage 54 Under road bridge camp - Alumine

2013-11-01 click date for more photo's

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01/10/2013 Under Road Bridge camp – Alumine

Well. Any hope of the wind having changed direction over night quickly disappeared. We set off with a ferocious head wind which stayed with us or should I say against us for the next 50 km and 1100m climb. Progress was agonisingly slow but the scenery became breathtakingly beautiful once more as we slowly climbed up to and beyond the snowline. After the last few days of monotonous desert we now had lots of variety again including miles and miles of ancient Monkey Puzzle tree forests. We cycled to within spitting distance of the Chilean border before crossing the river and turning on to an unpaved road which kept us in Argentina. This stretch has to be among the most beautiful tracks we have cycled so far. The downside was that it was slow going once again and we were way behind schedule so we were really pleased to find a little shop after 60 km or so which sold essentials. It was the only place of any description we passed all day. We were now ready to tackle the rest of the 50 km knowing we could stop, if time ran out, and camp whenever we wanted to. Not knowing which way or how strong the wind might blow makes planning really difficult. The views of the lake and then the river in the afternoon sun were fantastic and the track mainly downhill with even a bit of a tail wind so we pushed on to the town to find a bed finally getting in at 7 pm after 11 hrs on the move. Another superb day.

31/10/2013 Stage 53 Desert camp - under road bridge camp

Road side shrine we think. There are loads sadly.

2013-10-31click for more

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31/10/2013 Stage 53 Desert camp to under road bridge camp

They say problems come in threes.

1. " You've got the water 1.5L water bottle haven't you" , " no you've got it", "no you've got it". No water and 50 kms to civilisation. Oops.
2. Marjet moves her bike and a scorpion rushes away, lots of screaming mixed with my chuckling.
3. The strong tail wind we had finished with had become a strengthening headwind, we should have pushed on last night.
Still , three problems and the rest of the day should be OK. Wrong.
On the way we photographed the roadside shrines which in Argentina are decorated with red flags and which sometimes have preserved remnants of the RTA vehicle involved in the death which was being honoured. In Peru and Bolivia they had simple shrines which looked like dog kennels and in Equador they painted blue hearts on the road at the site of an RTA.
When we finally got to Las Lajas we had to stock up for another night of camping and met another typically helpful supermarket employee who once again drew maps for us , took us into his office to use his PC to access the weather forecasts and generally was bending over backwards to help. The plan at this stage was for the first time ever on a cycling day to have a good lunch and then push on to 7 pm. A bottle of beer and a bottle of wine later we left to begin the 1100m climb into the mountains and the scenery was becoming increasingly more beautiful. However the strong headwind rapidly began to increase and although we were both keen to struggle on it was getting seriously difficult. Marjet was blown 15 feet off the road into the ditch several times, I was blown into the centre of the road a couple of times and when we gave in we realised we couldn't even push into the wind for very far. It was at this point we found the under road bridge which offered some protection from the thermonuclear Patagonian winds. With lots of boulders bikes and struggling we managed to erect the tent only for the wind to ease and come from the other direction!
It all added to the adventure and we had a carton of wine each so life was good.

About the best shelter from the wind we could find 

There was a lot of nothing and unfortunately too much wind

30/10/2013Stage 52 Chos Malal- dessert camp

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No likelihood of shops or similar today so we were already set up to camp and had decided to do approximately 110 km before looking for a place to camp. For the first time ever we were stopped by the police on the way out of Chos Malal and documents , direction ,nationality etc were checked. We had the distinct impression that they were just bored and wanted someone different to check over. Very polite and they did at least say that they had half an hour previously seen two Columbian cyclists go through who oddly enough we met half an hour later trying to repair a puncture with a broken pump. We helped them out and left them behind but saw them three times again during the course of the day as either they or we rested and the others caught up. The scenery was arid desert and vast with no buildings, no nothing. ( note from Marjet It is hard to imagine such nothingness. Between one 'town' and another there can easily be a hundred odd kilometers of it. Just a road. No other signs off human intervention. Cars are often very few and far between so you are on your own pretty much and you have to make sure you have all supplies with you)

Progress was quick with only one climb of 400 mts and we ended the day with a strong tail wind which made pitching the tent difficult. Once the tent was secure with the bikes and several boulders we settled down to cook a pasta meal and then saw the Columbian boys whiz by. We had decided to stop at the 105 km point. Was that the right decision? Seeing the Colombians disappear in the distance we began to wonder.