I've made it to the bottom end of the American world. I'm with Penguins, in a town that feels like Las Vegas. It's a stark contrast to the unspoilt feel of the countryside further north in Patagonia. Usuaia. The final destination for my trip.
I've slept in a few odd places on my journey. For my final night's rest on the approach to Ushuaia, I slept in a bakery in Tolhuin.
I stopped for dinner at a restaurant in Tolhuin, and after a good feed, I asked the lady at the restaurant if she knew of a hostel. She directed my to a house closeby that did not have a sign ouside but which offered bed and breakfast style accomodation. There was no availability there and I was just starting to think that I'd be camping for the night when the next door neighbour came over and said hello. We had a chat and he said that the bakery owner often put up cyclists and took me to meet him. The owner offered me the accommodation which was in the bakery storeroom, bunkbeds and a bathroom with a hot shower, free of charge. A generous way to finish my trip through South America and one which was typical of the hospitality shown to me by the Argentinians.
Wednesday 16 February 2011
Wednesday 2 February 2011
Friday 21 January 2011
Into the wind
The route to El Chalten has been windy. Very windy. There is not much in the way of shelter. There are few trees, few roadside embankments and somehow too few mountain ridges to provide shelter from the big blond lady in the sky who seems to have been doing her hair for the past couple of weeks. There have been days where I have stayed in town to save wasting my energy trying to cycle into the wind. In learning that this is indeed a sensible, if fustrating approach, one day I started out and cycled around 30km in 5 hours on fairly flat ground. I then decided that the going was so slow, the distance needed to be covered to the next town was so large, and as my food and water supplies on the bike are limited to around three days, that I turned around and cycled the same 30km back to town in 30 minutes. The wind dictates the pace in Patagonia.
Remember that bald back tyre that I was going to change? Well I should have changed it. A bit over 7,000km done and the sidewall got a hole in it and the tube popped like a balloon. That was my third catastrophic puncture of the day. The first affected the valve and it would not seal after pumping it up, so that tube could not be repaired. I replaced that one with the Argentinian acquired Chinese spare that I had. That split after an hour to leave a gap that could not be patched with my modest sized patches. The weather was terrible that day. I´d stopped at the only hotel on the route to see if they had an available room. I didn´t know before I entered the hotel, but I did realise after 30 minutes of an attempted conversion, that the hotel was owned by The Word Of God. I think that I held my own ground quite well, fending off the attempted conversion over my tea and apple pie. In the end it turned out that they did not have an available room and they turned me back out into the near freezing torrential rain. No room at the inn at the Word Of God Hotel.
The third tube failure, the pop, also left a hole too big to patch. With my two spare tubes out of action I was stuck at the side of the road. Just as I made the diagnosis, a bus came along slowly. It was towing a pickup. I stuck my hand out and the driver stopped, as he did I noticed that it had no seats. A lady popped her head out and asked if I wanted a lift in perfect English. She had lived in Scotland for a year. I did want a lift. They had bought a Mercedes coach and converted into a motor home with satelite TV, air conditioning and the full works. The lovely Argentinian couple were on holiday with their bilingual 7 year old daughter and Old English Sheepdog. They weren´t going my way, but they were going to a town, so I went their way. Once in a decent sized town I bough three new tubes and got back on the road.
There is a superstitition that bad luck come in threes. That was my first day out after my last bike problem; the hub locked open half way along a 1,600m ascent. I did what any sensible mechanic would do and gave it a good bang on the side. That didn´t help. Which meant that when I was pedalling, the back wheel wasn´t moving at all. Not good for progress. I took the wheel off to see if I could do anything with the hub, but I didn´t have a chain whip with me which meant that I couldn´t begin to fix it. Five minutes after making the diagnosis, a pickup with nothing in the back came along. Nice timing again. The driver stopped and asked if I wanted a lift. Again I did want a lift. He owned a group of cabanas and he gave me a lift to where these were on the edge of a small town. Hugo was the man. All the cabanas were occupied, but he offered me the use of his garage to stay in for free. It was a big dry building and had a makeshift matress bed. Certainly more comfortable than my tent in the wet, and the accommodation in towns can be difficult to get at this time of year, the high season. The local cycle hire shop could not help. It turned out that the hub is a sealled unit and that I needed a new one, but they did not have one for a 9 speed rear gear setup. The bike was almost brand new before I left. A rather crap performance by the Specialized own brand hub that came with the bike. I took a bus to the next town and got a new hub there, a decent Shimano one. As the hub was a different brand, then I needed a new brake disc to fit onto it and also new spokes for the wheel as the hub diameter was different. All those replaced, I was ready to get back on the road.
San Martin De Los Andes
Villa Traful
Perito Moreno
Me, close to the mountain that you cannot see for the cloud, Cerro Torre
It´s a dogs life at El Chalten town
El Chalten mountain, also obscured by cloud
Me, my sunburned forehead, and a whisky and ice. The ice was collected from an iceberg on Lago Argentino.
Sailing past the Perito Morino Glacier
Saturday 1 January 2011
Into the green
There is a substantial change in the landscape to the south of Mendoza. The countryside here is green and there are farms with crops instead of the brown dusty lands to the north. There are clouds in the sky and the stark definition of the mountains in the arid north is no longer seen. The mountains take on a misty appearance of the form that I associate with Scotland and other areas in Europe which have moisture in the air around them.
I had a tough day on the 22nd Dec. The temperature was 40C and I chose a 140km route. By the time I got to the hotel in the evening I was feeling like puking. As I was checking in, I left reception and just made it outside to throw up in front of the door. The next day I didn´t keep anything down, even water. The day after, Christmas eve, the lady at the hotel came up to see how I was doing and I was dizzy as hell. She offered to get her son to drive me down to the hospital to see if they could stop me throwing up and get some water into me. On the way to the hospital the son took a call to say that the hospital was very busy. He said that he would take me to his friend who was a doctor. When we got there it turned out that his friend was a healer, not a doctor. He got me to hold a purple ribbon to my stomach and did some chanting. Then finished by telling me that I had an upset stomach and that I should get some water and food into me. REALLY?! He must be a candidate for the Nobel prize for Voodoo this guy! I left his house, my driver kindly gave him a tip, I did not. I said something along the line of ´take me to the bloody hospital!´as politely as I could manage, which thankfully he did.
Three drip bags full of salty water and a shot of something to stop me puking and I was back on the road to recovery and out the door by lunchtime. In the hospital I remembered that I hadn´t extended my travel insurance after extending my holiday and it had expired on the day before! Luckily those nice Argentinians didn´t even ask for it and the local NHS did it all for free and wished me a merry Chistmas. Nice.
I spent Christmas by the pool at the hotel in the near 40C heat, which eased the pain of being away from home just a little.
The days since have been some long ones on the bike. Well over 100km most days when the roads are decent. The temperature is dropping as I go south and it´s now comfortably in the high 20´s rather than high 30´s which is perfect cycling weather. I´ve had two days of cycling through thunderstorms and the weather is just warm enough to make getting a little wet not uncomfortable.
The snow on the mountains here is getting more substantial. There are ski equipment drying rooms in the hotels. It feels like the border between the hot arid north and the cold blustry south.
The glitz of San Rafael
Sunset outside Malargue
I had a tough day on the 22nd Dec. The temperature was 40C and I chose a 140km route. By the time I got to the hotel in the evening I was feeling like puking. As I was checking in, I left reception and just made it outside to throw up in front of the door. The next day I didn´t keep anything down, even water. The day after, Christmas eve, the lady at the hotel came up to see how I was doing and I was dizzy as hell. She offered to get her son to drive me down to the hospital to see if they could stop me throwing up and get some water into me. On the way to the hospital the son took a call to say that the hospital was very busy. He said that he would take me to his friend who was a doctor. When we got there it turned out that his friend was a healer, not a doctor. He got me to hold a purple ribbon to my stomach and did some chanting. Then finished by telling me that I had an upset stomach and that I should get some water and food into me. REALLY?! He must be a candidate for the Nobel prize for Voodoo this guy! I left his house, my driver kindly gave him a tip, I did not. I said something along the line of ´take me to the bloody hospital!´as politely as I could manage, which thankfully he did.
Three drip bags full of salty water and a shot of something to stop me puking and I was back on the road to recovery and out the door by lunchtime. In the hospital I remembered that I hadn´t extended my travel insurance after extending my holiday and it had expired on the day before! Luckily those nice Argentinians didn´t even ask for it and the local NHS did it all for free and wished me a merry Chistmas. Nice.
I spent Christmas by the pool at the hotel in the near 40C heat, which eased the pain of being away from home just a little.
The days since have been some long ones on the bike. Well over 100km most days when the roads are decent. The temperature is dropping as I go south and it´s now comfortably in the high 20´s rather than high 30´s which is perfect cycling weather. I´ve had two days of cycling through thunderstorms and the weather is just warm enough to make getting a little wet not uncomfortable.
The snow on the mountains here is getting more substantial. There are ski equipment drying rooms in the hotels. It feels like the border between the hot arid north and the cold blustry south.
The glitz of San Rafael
Green trees and plenty grassland indicate a new landscape to the south
Two puncures in one day. There are lots of tiny pin sized thorns that cause slow punctures. My back tyre is almost bald, so I guess that doesn´t help. I´ll fit a new tyre in Bariloche I think, which will lighten my load as I´ve been carrying a spare. A kind local stopped and insisted on giving me a new inner tube despite me patching the hole. Lots of problems around here he said and mucho rapido with a new tube...very kind chap.
The storm clouds gathered and the rain just kept on falling.
A british looking sky and a European sno capped mountain
Sunset outside Malargue
This scorpion took shelter under my tent during a night of a heavy downpour.
Horses having a drink on the edge of Patagonia
Wednesday 22 December 2010
The Root Out
Argentinian root canal surgery. It had been twinging since Bolivia. I didn't want to go to a dentist there though. I didn't want to go to a dentist here either, but I heard that they are much better than the medieval mechanics with pliers further north. Lying in the chair, I felt like someone captured by The Iraqis and who was about to tell everything he knew. The palms were sweating. As it turned out, the process was identical to back home, I got an x-ray, anesthetic that numbed me for the process and wore off a couple of hours later, and a calm English speaking dentist who I'd go back to next time if he had a surgery back home. EasyDental in Mendoza is my recommendation if you ever find yourself in the same situation. I'm pleased to get that fixed. Two and a quarter hours in the chair, but all feels good today.
Thursday 2 December 2010
Winding the mountain roads from the Bolivian Border to Mendoza
12-12-2010 Uspallata to Mendoza via Villavicencio. A fox out for breakfast on the road and a concrete factory on the ouskirts of Mendoza
12-12-2010 Looking at the route down the bumpy ripio road to Mendoza from the top of the 2700m hill
11-12-2010 Barrareal to Uspallata. The town with a water supply can be seen up ahead as the first patch of deep green is seen today.
11-12-2010 More dry landscape on the way to Uspallata
11-12-2010 Woo hoo! The ripio road ends and the tarmac begins for a 70kph descent into Uspallata!
09-12-2010
08-12-2010 San Jose De Jachal to Tocota
07-12-2010
06-12-2010 The road to Rodeo
04-12-2010 to 05-12-2010
03-12-2010 The Laguna Brava, 4,300m up. That´s a mixture of ice and salt on the lake and some hardy flamingos fishing in it.
29-11-2010 One of the local rifle targets at the side of the road, and The Big Fella keeping the cloud up in Chilecito
28-11-2010 One of the shrines out in the country. There´s one every 50km or so around here, and some with seats and a picnic table. Handy stopping spots for lunch on the go.
27-11-2010 Wildlife
27-11-2010 The road out from San Blas De Los Sauces
25-11-2010 The appraoch into Belen
24-11-2010 The view of the mountains from the tent pitched outside Santa Maria.
23-11-2010 The wind is up and the dust is blowing
22-11-2010 Departing Cafayate and a stop at the ancient site of Quilmes
18-11-2010 to 19-11-2010
16-11-2010 Salta
13-11-2010 to 14-11-2010
11-11-2010 Cheeky little fella at the side of the road near Humahuaca
10-11-2010 There is a change in the feel of the countryside since coming to Argentina. There are fences between the fields and the roads. There are lots of power cables and telephone cables by the side of the roads. The livestock do not obviousely have human tenders close by. There are quite a lot of goats, few of which were seen in Bolivia. The road is enegrally smooth and the diversions around roadworks are generally short and less of a magical mystery tour which the Bolivian ones can be.
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