Hello again all!
Its been a while since the last update so we've got a lot to catch up on... We had a great ride out of Puerto Montt, including 40 km up the Panamerican Highway with a wide hard-shoulder all to ourselves and a really good tailwind! We absolutely flew along there! But it was over all-too-soon and we started heading East again, towards the Andes and our crossing back into Argentina.
On our second day out of Puerto Montt we had to climb up to the Pass -
Paso Cardenal Antonio Samore - at 1321m. This would've been a tough enough day at the best of times, with the heat and all the tourist traffic on the road, but it became an absolute hell on earth thanks to some truly horrible insects. For about 40 long kilometres we were surrounded by a throng of huge flies, about an inch long. And they bit. I'm not sure exactly when a 'lot' of flies becomes a 'swarm', and a swarm becomes a 'plague', but it certainly felt like we were caught in the middle of something biblical. Me and Rich must've looked a bizarre sight to the drivers as we rode along with one hand on the handlebars and the other clutching a hat and manically swatting around our head, arms and legs. It was impossible to take a break at all during this whole time as the huge carniverous beasties would munch on any limb that was left still for longer than half a second, and as we were going uphill the whole way, we had no hope of outrunning them. 'Orrible it was.
What was even worse though was breaking camp the next morning with all the flies still around. We had to do all our packing in the tents, dripping in sweat, and then try and get everything ready to go as quick as possible, all the while swatting at thin air, slapping yourself all over when you feel them biting and swearing at the top of your voice (the flies paid very little attention to the swearing but it made us feel slightly better). Rich and I are both agreed, these flies are definitely the worst thing we've experienced on the trip so far.
But after the Pass, a long downhill allowed us to outrun the flies for a time and before we were knew it we were stamped back into Argentina once again.
We were now in the Argentine lake District - one of the most beautiful parts of the country, with sparkling clear lakes nestling in the bottom of green valleys. The whole region was absolutely jammed with holidaying Argentines, enjoying their summer vacations in the many beauty spots around the region. It seemed like every young Argentine was there with a backpack, hitching, walking or cycling from one campsite to the next. It was brilliant though, as the campsites were full of people and there was a real festival atmosphere going on.
There was some really spectacular riding around the lakes for a few days before we finally got to San Martín de Los Andes and met up with Jay again. We had the now-obligatory all-you-can-eat Asado on the first night then had a day off to sort out some bits and bobs. My main problem was my broken front rack which really needed seeing to. A bike shop in town pointed me towards a blacksmith's shop that he thought might be able to help. The owner kindly allowed one of his guys, Eugenio, to take some time to help me and he set to work welding the crack back together. At one point we had all four guys from the workshop fussing around it and offering help and advice! He did an excellent job on it, and so far it's stood up well to the riding. Fingers crossed...
Out of San Martín and we were almost immediately plunged back into the dry and scrubby, though often spectacular, landscape of the Pampa. I'll just give a quick summary of the two weeks riding to Mendoza. We were riding quite hard as we were on tarmac for almost the whole time, and from Junin de los Andes to Zapala, we covered 151 km in a day! We'd been wondering when we'd get our first 100mile (ok, metric mile) day, and we felt rather proud of ourselves when we managed it, especially as we weren't completely in pieces the next day.
Shopping in Junin de los Andes was an interesting experience. The conversation in the supermarket went something like this:
Blenk: Do you have any porridge oats?
Supermarket girl: what do you want them for?
Blenk: Errrrrm...
Supermarket girl: to eat?
Blenk: Yes, thats it, to eat.
Supermarket girl: what, YOU??!
Blenk: Erm, Yes
Supermarket girl: i'll have to get Tracy
Blenk: Do you have any oats?
Tracy: what do you want them for?
Blenk: Errrrrrm...
Tracy: to eat?
Blenk: Yes
Tracy: what, YOU??!
Anyway, after they'd taken me out of the manacles and stopped shining the light in my eyes, it turned out they didnt have any oats. It was all very unusual.
Ryan and Erica caught us up just short of a town called Buta Ranquil 5 or 6 days before Mendoza. We had a couple of good days riding with them again before we split up again when we took some time off in Malargue.
We're now in Mendoza, the heart of the Argentine wine industry where we're taking a well-earned rest for a week. We're getting our bikes serviced, replacing tent zips, cleaning everything up a bit, but generally having a good relax, eating, drinking and being merry.
Im sure there's plenty ive forgotten, but ive yammered on for quite long enough i think.
Keep in touch all, and love to everyone at home!
Blenk
Its been a while since the last update so we've got a lot to catch up on... We had a great ride out of Puerto Montt, including 40 km up the Panamerican Highway with a wide hard-shoulder all to ourselves and a really good tailwind! We absolutely flew along there! But it was over all-too-soon and we started heading East again, towards the Andes and our crossing back into Argentina.
On our second day out of Puerto Montt we had to climb up to the Pass -
Paso Cardenal Antonio Samore - at 1321m. This would've been a tough enough day at the best of times, with the heat and all the tourist traffic on the road, but it became an absolute hell on earth thanks to some truly horrible insects. For about 40 long kilometres we were surrounded by a throng of huge flies, about an inch long. And they bit. I'm not sure exactly when a 'lot' of flies becomes a 'swarm', and a swarm becomes a 'plague', but it certainly felt like we were caught in the middle of something biblical. Me and Rich must've looked a bizarre sight to the drivers as we rode along with one hand on the handlebars and the other clutching a hat and manically swatting around our head, arms and legs. It was impossible to take a break at all during this whole time as the huge carniverous beasties would munch on any limb that was left still for longer than half a second, and as we were going uphill the whole way, we had no hope of outrunning them. 'Orrible it was.
What was even worse though was breaking camp the next morning with all the flies still around. We had to do all our packing in the tents, dripping in sweat, and then try and get everything ready to go as quick as possible, all the while swatting at thin air, slapping yourself all over when you feel them biting and swearing at the top of your voice (the flies paid very little attention to the swearing but it made us feel slightly better). Rich and I are both agreed, these flies are definitely the worst thing we've experienced on the trip so far.
But after the Pass, a long downhill allowed us to outrun the flies for a time and before we were knew it we were stamped back into Argentina once again.
We were now in the Argentine lake District - one of the most beautiful parts of the country, with sparkling clear lakes nestling in the bottom of green valleys. The whole region was absolutely jammed with holidaying Argentines, enjoying their summer vacations in the many beauty spots around the region. It seemed like every young Argentine was there with a backpack, hitching, walking or cycling from one campsite to the next. It was brilliant though, as the campsites were full of people and there was a real festival atmosphere going on.
There was some really spectacular riding around the lakes for a few days before we finally got to San Martín de Los Andes and met up with Jay again. We had the now-obligatory all-you-can-eat Asado on the first night then had a day off to sort out some bits and bobs. My main problem was my broken front rack which really needed seeing to. A bike shop in town pointed me towards a blacksmith's shop that he thought might be able to help. The owner kindly allowed one of his guys, Eugenio, to take some time to help me and he set to work welding the crack back together. At one point we had all four guys from the workshop fussing around it and offering help and advice! He did an excellent job on it, and so far it's stood up well to the riding. Fingers crossed...
Out of San Martín and we were almost immediately plunged back into the dry and scrubby, though often spectacular, landscape of the Pampa. I'll just give a quick summary of the two weeks riding to Mendoza. We were riding quite hard as we were on tarmac for almost the whole time, and from Junin de los Andes to Zapala, we covered 151 km in a day! We'd been wondering when we'd get our first 100mile (ok, metric mile) day, and we felt rather proud of ourselves when we managed it, especially as we weren't completely in pieces the next day.
Shopping in Junin de los Andes was an interesting experience. The conversation in the supermarket went something like this:
Blenk: Do you have any porridge oats?
Supermarket girl: what do you want them for?
Blenk: Errrrrm...
Supermarket girl: to eat?
Blenk: Yes, thats it, to eat.
Supermarket girl: what, YOU??!
Blenk: Erm, Yes
Supermarket girl: i'll have to get Tracy
Blenk: Do you have any oats?
Tracy: what do you want them for?
Blenk: Errrrrrm...
Tracy: to eat?
Blenk: Yes
Tracy: what, YOU??!
Anyway, after they'd taken me out of the manacles and stopped shining the light in my eyes, it turned out they didnt have any oats. It was all very unusual.
Ryan and Erica caught us up just short of a town called Buta Ranquil 5 or 6 days before Mendoza. We had a couple of good days riding with them again before we split up again when we took some time off in Malargue.
We're now in Mendoza, the heart of the Argentine wine industry where we're taking a well-earned rest for a week. We're getting our bikes serviced, replacing tent zips, cleaning everything up a bit, but generally having a good relax, eating, drinking and being merry.
Im sure there's plenty ive forgotten, but ive yammered on for quite long enough i think.
Keep in touch all, and love to everyone at home!
Blenk
