Amaicha

We set off at 7am, expecting a gruelling 1000m climb, like our climb to El Mollar and we were curious as to the effects of 3000m altitude.
In fact, we were gaining altitude with ease. I started to doubt the accuracy of my altimeter. It did get very hard when the road surface became gravel - or rather sand with pebbles and rocks. It makes it so much harder work. THe cars that overtake throw up loads of dust. Both Al and I noticed the dryness of the air in our throats, which was not helped by inhaling dust at frequent intervals.

We pushed on and the road surface became patched tarmac, repaired a spoonful at a time, but still better than dust and rocks.
It semed to easy as we reached the top. We had lunch of sardines in lemon oil as two cycle tourers came up from the other side: a couple. He gave us a whoop and a triumphant high-five and we congratulated each other.

Wehn we started our descent down the other side, the differene in climate and vegetation was astounding. Tafi side had been green pastures, crops whereas the Amaicha side looked like the Wild West. It supported only cacti, was dry, dusty, rocky - and hot. There were a couple of uphills, which I thought was not on, but then our descent proper began.


the road surface was more of that patched up tarmac, which made for a bumpy ride. Mostly, the descent was not one to go crazy down - too many bends. But on one stretchwe just fewl down. Al's cycle computer read max speed of 47mph, mine aid 75pkh.

It was exhilirating and a bit dangerous (although not as dangerous as earlier when the bungee holding my thermarest to my rear rack cmae loose, attached itself to the spokes and had begun to wrap itself around my rear hub. Much further and I've have been thrown off my bike into a ravine.

It was hours later though, when I came off my bike. I hadn't seen Al pull into the entrance of Apimpa observatory until it was too late. I was going too fast to tackle the deep sand/gravel and my bike went over sideway and I hit my knee on a rock. A tanker passed just then, so it's lucky I fell away from the road and not into it.
The knock brought tears to my eyes but I was otherwise unhurt.
We cycled on into the town, waves of hot air washing over us. The campsite we passed was cammed, cheek by jowl with tents, like Glastonbury. We stopped at a cafe to cool down.

Going into the town, there was some sort of festival going on and I hadn't expected to cycle past a table and get sprayed with shaving foam. Disorientated and with a swelling knee, I was NOT in the mood.

There seemed to be accommodation to be had anywhere (it turned out to be carneval). We asked at a service station whether we could camp on their grounds but no.

I burst into tears again, at the hopelessness. I was tired out, hot and my knee was getting more and more painful. I didn't fancy the prospect of cycling another 14km to the next place with my sore knee.

Random strangers offered us their sandwiches and some ice cold Sprite and chatted. I understood about 30% of what she said but she was very nice.
We cycled back into own and found the other campsite, pitched our tent in the shade. we were told this campsite had no hot water. I realluy don't mind that, not when I'm this hot.
However, as we later discovered, it turned out there wasn't any cold water, either. A girl appeared and said I could use the shower in the house.

It was the campsite owner's howm shower and, while basic, it was wonderful. I was profuse in my thanks.
AL made do with a wash under one of our water bags.
We then went off to see the festivities going on in the town. I was still not in the mood for anything lively but went along anyway.

It was a good place to sample some street food (choripan - chorizo in a bread roll) and just amble through the crowds. People were covering other people with coloured powder - reds, yellows, and were having fun spraying each other with spray foam. There were a lot of gouchos showing off their horses. They paraded through cheering crowds and later there was some sort of horse event in the stadium by the campsite. We certainly had a lot of horses milling around the campsite, waiting for their turn. The leather craft that goes with it is beautiful.

Loud campers these Argentinians

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning. I didn't feel so unwell and, like yesterday, felt bright, alert and ready to leap out of bed. I even made the tea and normally Al is the one up and moving first in the mornings.

Not long after this, we had three sources of overloud music to grumble about. Actually, the noise seems to be at another part of the campsite, so it's slightly more quiet today. That doesn't stop people letting their kids tear around the campsite on a quadbike and a car with enormous speakers sticking out of the hatchback playing really LOUD advertising from driving slowly through the campsite and then back out onto the streets again.

We had some chocolate yesterday. It was the recognisable Milka brand, but curiously it turned to dust in your mouth. Also, Al and I both saw the hummingbird. A beautiful fuchsia back, gold and black, long tail.

dist 23.04km
ride time 2:21:55
average 9.7kph
max 35.5kph
slept at 2208m
trip alti 472
max alti 2217

No Sleep in Tafi Del Valle

We woke up at eight after rather a good night's sleep  - a novetly so far - and even that is despite waking up twice in the night to a heinous smell, produced either by me, by Al or both.
I felt bright as a button and chirpy for some reason.

We were first to emerge from the tent, since Argentinians aren't early risers. Noisy bugggers late into the night instead. I felt like giving them a taste of their own medicine by making plenty of noise in the morning. I don't have a stereo to put on at full blast, tuned to Shit.FM. or a motorbike engine to rev.

Al came back excitedly from the loos - not to tell me about some magnificent poo, but to tell me he'd seen a hummingbird. We went back with the camera but it had gone.

It's definitely cooler up here in the mountains - 16°C this morning.

 We did a load of washing this morning. It'll be nice to have clean clothes again.

Because Argentinian food is so bland, we've decided to do our own cooking, but supermarkets don't exactly offer much, either.

we had some fun and games at the bank today. We wanted to buy some dollars, so we joined the long queue that went to outside the bank. When we got to the counter, they said they couldn't sell any to non-account holders. We were taken to the ATM. We thought we might be able to withdraw dollars here, but it was only pesos. Did they really think we didn't know how to use an ATM?

Using banks abroad is often rather futile, but at least we didn't get the queue disbanded by armed men, like in India.
We checked on Google Earth what our next route entails, altitude wise. The campsite we're heading to is only 200m higher than this one at Tafi Del Valle, but Google Earth showed we have a road to follow that goes up to 3000m before dropping down to 2200. So, another 1000m climb. Because of that, we're going to take another rest day, even though the camper nearest to us has had his shit music blaring all flippin' day!

Al cooked up some pasta for lunch with onion, tomato, pepper and chorizo. Sad to say, it's probably the best tasting meal we've had in Argentina, excepting, perhaps the Arabian food we had in Famailla.

We spent the afternoon lounging around the campsite. I would say relaxing but we had a shithead blasting his pumping music from his car, with all the doors wide open. It's some sort of shitty cumbia music and what makes it even more annoying is that he has music ADHD. Each track plays only about 5 minutes before he hits next. Five minutes later he's gone to the next track, over and over again.

Al says I'm getting less tolerant. I disagree. I haven't killed this man yet.

We went out for dinner but I felt very unwell, as though I were running a temperature. I hardly ate. The restaurant where we ate had WiFi and I briefly chatted to Robyn on facebook.

Argentina in General

Argentina - Things To Note
-you get a steak knife as standard
-ham and cheese with everything
-argentinians are ugly people - very blobby
-they love camping but are in crappy tents
-inconsiderate with noise and space
-po-faced
-scenery is beautiful in the north
-dark, understocked supermarkets
-driving is poor, as is the condition of the cars
-they are late eaters and late risers
-bad food (no herbs or spices are used) very bland
-people are nice when you get to talk to them  - ice breaking
-the birds are quite tame
-stale bread is sold by the kilo
-what exactly IS a tortilla? it seems something different eath time
-male dogs are everywhere

Tafí Del Valle

The white water river close to our camping spot kept managing to convince me we were camped on the edge of it and a rolling over would see me fall into the raging torrent. When awake enough to be rational, I'd remember the position of the tent and know that was nonsense.
The next morning we woke and struck camp, pleased we'd found such a good spot where we weren't disturbed.

We had baby porridge for breakfast and now I know why babies spit out their food. It's nutritious with vitamins and minerals, is easily digested but it's not very tasty and not top of my breakfast favourites.
We set off for the last bit of climbing to El Mollar, but I'd left my cycling glove at the camp spot. Al went back to get it for me  - what a gentleman.

We got to El Mollar pretty quickly after some beautiful pastures with a calmer La Sosa river meandering through it. Realising how close to finishing we'd got could have been annoying, but actually I was pleased at how far we'd got yesterday. What a climb!

Because El Mollar was so close we de cided to push on for the slightly bigger Tafi Del Valle for our rest day. It was mostly flat, so was easy, really.

The campsite is pretty big and even has a shop. We bought bread - french stick cold by the kilo and cut into chunks - to ensure it gets stale before sale.

Al went off to inspect los baños (the loos). The good thing about travelling with a fella is you get less unwanted male attention. The disadvantage is him boasting about the impressiveness of his most recent stool (or is that just mine?).
The loos are actually ok and the showers are quite hot. Just as well, because the weather is a bit cold and it keeps raining. I have still to find a loo cubicle with a lockable door.
Also: al fresco wees = 4. of which successful = 2. Quilmes, a beer brewed just up the road  is pretty tasteless, but the Quilmes negro (a stout) is actually not half bad.

Dist 23.04km
ride time 2:21:55
average speed 9.78kph
trip alti 472m
max alti 227m

El Mollar climb

We got up good an early this time and started at 6 am. It was still dark when we set off but soon the sun came up. The climbing started about 9 am and I was pleased when we passed where we'd turned back yesterday. Of course, we still had a long way to go.

We climbed and climbed and climbed. Hairpin bends, up and up we continued. Lots of gawping car and bus passengers. We passed a viewpoint at El Indio. People were staring at us instead of the view. What must they think?
Occasionally you'd look ahead and see a car or truck climbing up on a diagonal across a rock face on the next section of road. Oh God, I'd think - but mostly we just took it one pedal stroke at a time and that seemed to get us up.

As the afternoon wore on, we wore out. The stops we needed more frequent, the pedalling slower and harder. We'd gone through cloud, were drenched from rain and I began to look out for spots to bail out early. Eventually we saw a good little spot for wild camping. It was a picnic spot that went quite far from the road.

Settled - we're sleeping part way up the mountain.

A dinner of rice and dubious corned beef later and we were soon tucked into our sleeping bags.

distance 52.77km
ride time 5:47:00
Avg 9.10kph
max 40kph
trip alti 1246

Rest Day

We had a rest day today. We ate lunch at the same cafe we'd had dinner yesterday. Instead of the jamon y queso, we opted for the mexicana - that turned out to be the same thing but with a tomato on top. I had wrongly assumed the mexicana might have some herb or spice added to it, but no such luck. Argentina knows only salt.
In the evening we stumbled across an Arabian restaurant, where we ate fantastic flat bread, tabbouleh and tasty kofta kebabs. It was delicious.