La Merced - The Flood

A proper QUIET night's sleep and in a proper bed.
The cyle ride to La Merced was okay but the last hour or two was painful. I got too hot and we went through a lot of water. When we got to La Merced we saw a rather posh looking campsite. The guy on the gate was a surly bastard and said there was no camping - despite standing right by a sign with horario de camping written on it.
He said there was no camping in La Merced (our map said otherwise) and that the next place was Salta. We were so tired so I said: "pero es lejos" (but it's far) and he shrugged and said Si. He was obviously trained at the same customer service college as the people in Cafayate, where they just ignore you so you'll go away. He went to ignoring us so we left.

La Merced turned out to be a dump with unkempt streets. An ugly place. Our map claimed La Merced has municipal camping, and these are often at the edge of town, so we headed there.

We came across a tourist information signpost by a park with an enormous 20ft Jesus statue in one corner.
There was a set of three small buildings by it and an old man sat by one. We went to talk to him and he said we could camp in the field for 30 pesos. He pointed to a spot and insisted we put our tent there. We did and cooked up.
He kept fussing over us, checking whether we were okay and kept asking about our tent in the rain. We know how crappy Argentinians' tents are, so we assured him our tent was 'muy impermeable' and showed him the sewn in bathtub base. Our tent was very waterproof and assured him we were fine.

we had a cold shower from the basic shower room. It was a swivel garden tap on the wall with a hole in the tiles where the water poured from. Basic but effective.

We went to bed just as a thunderstorm neared. It was another spectacle wth strobe-lightning, thunder all around us and it was getting nearer. It was so close, I was very glad of the 20foot Jesus statue - that would cop any lightning, not us. The wind picked up and gave our tent a really thorough shaking. We hadn't fully pegged out the tent, so Al went out (in his pants) to peg out all the guy lines. It was such a downpour so he got soaked, as did his sleeping bag liner which had got tucked into his pants. I decided to put on my merino wool pyjamas so he could have my liner.

It's just as well I did that. As Al dried himself, I noticed the floor of the tent was like a waterbed. My full length thermarest and it was afloat!

Although the base of the tent has a hydrostatic of head of 10,000m, our body weight pushing down onto the base of tent would mean water gets through eventually. We decided to pack away our sleeping bags into their waterproof bags and I sealed the netbook's waterproof bag I sealed a bit better.

We lay there, hoping the flooding would subside and drain. However, my thermarest was getting nearer the ceiling of the tent and I could not push down on the floor of the tent and find solid ground, so we decided to carefully abandon tent, trying not to let water flood over the threshold.

When we stepped out of the tent, we got quite a shock - the water was halfway up our shins. Al's headtorch stopped working, so I was the only one with any light. The storm had knocked out power locally, so even the huts were dark. The old boy lived in one of these huts, which are built on higher ground with a concrete base, so we quickly moved our stuff onto this bit of dry ground, and the water was still rising.

it was now almost to my knees and the bikes' hubs were submerged. Water was higher than the doors of the tent and to stop th tent being washed away, we opened both doors to allow the water to flow freely through it.

We now had to wake the old chap, who we'd assured of our waterproofness of tent. He unlocked one of the huts and we slept on the floor.


Miraculously, our stuff stayed dry. My panniers I had closed up and they had kept the water out very well. All our clothes, raincoats, sleeping bags, first aid box had all remained dry. It's just as well we acted when we did. That base of our tent bought us time to get all the stuff out.

The biggests disaster was our document wallet (e-ticket, travellers cheques, driving licences and vaccination certificates) got wet, so we dried them out the next day.
So, Argentinians have kept us awake every night, so the one night we're camped along, the wether steps in.

dist 76.42km
ride time 4:52:00
average 15.6kph
max 38.5kph max
starting alti 1275
trip alti 509
max alti 1328

Campers were talking until the early hours and they helpfully left the light on that shone straight down onto our tent. Again, we got little sleep. This is getting ridiculous.
Argentinians have shitty tents and the all-night talkers had such a bad ridge tent, their feet were poking out the ends. I guess they've never heard of mosquitoes.

The cycling today was pretty good. We had beautiful scenery, like monument valley. We kept seeing signs saying "Zona De Badeness" but we don't know what that means.

There was a fascinating variety of rocks on this winding desert road. It got pretty hot though, and we ran out of water. We bought some grapes from a house we passed and they gave us water. She looked at our bikes and said we were 'loco'.

We clocked 100km and were pooped. We saw a stop that advertised WiFi, so we pulled in for a drink and some google-earthing.
It turned out their WiFi wasn't working but they went off to fix it by wiggling the cable atop a ladder.It worked, so we were happy. We were so tired we decided to stop here. They had cabañas for AR$160, which is a lot of money, but we were so tired we took it.

The cabaña was lovely. we had a bath (and left a ring around it) and did a lot of google-earthing. It looks as though we have some formidable days ahead of us after San Salvador De Jujuy. It's a shame to have lost so much altitude from the 68, but we'll gain it again. We're fitter now than we were.

back on the worst road in the world

We woke at 6.30 and packed our stuff up. We saw no horses.
I wasn't looking forwards to 27km of the terrible, terrible road, but we had to do it.
It was, as expected, awful. Every second of it. I was counting off quarter kilometres. this wasn't easy, as taking your eyes off the road was almost impossible. At least we were fresher and the air temperature was cooler in the morning.

note the wonky tyre marks. I very nearly fell off.

 We had a rest break every 5km and I wasn't feeling very well. I didn't want any food and not even water. I wanted a poo. But y'know, you wait until you can get to a loo, right?
After some hours, I still felt awful and since we're in the desert, I followed Al's suggestion to just find a hidden spot and go. Who's going to care about a poo in the desert I'm going to bury, anyway?
Walking back to the bike afterwards, I felt 100% better. That was all it was. Miraculously, my ability to take on food and water returned.

I hate this road

We were being shaken violently on this road, it was hard to keep control of the bike, I'd nearly fallen off umpteen times. The last few turns of the road I kept thinking: "is that tarmac up there?" but always no. We went through another patch of deep sand but up ahead, we saw tarmac. It felt so gooooood to be on such a smooth surface again.

We got to a pretty town called San Carlos. It had an inviting hostel overlooking the park, but stopping here means a 20km ride just to get to our R68 plan B. We pushed on to Animaná.
It was hot and we got there hot and tired. We passed a sign for accommodation and another for camping. DO we treat oursevles to a room?


We passed the place and it didn't look great, so we explored the town and found the campsite. It was pretty nie with shady spots and a swimming pool!!!! we put our tent up and jumped into our swimming cozzies as quick as we could. Bliss.

Later we went in search of a shop for food. There wasn't much in this tiny, gloomy room but we bought some stale bread and frosties type cereal.

dist 44.2km
ride time 4:02:29
average 10.9kph
max 25 kph max
starting alti 1653m
trip alti 732
max alti 1849 .

the worst road in the world

We did indeed get another concert and it went on until 6.30 but unlike yesterday, it finished promptly. I wanted to murder them. They've robbed me of two nights' sleep. We got up and packed our things away. Some people obviously got some sleep, as we could hear someone snoring loudly. I thought it odd that someone else found this enough of a noise-nuisance to try to wake him.

We had 30km of good tarmac and then it all turned very nasty. Grit - deep grit and sand, It got to the point where it no longer mattered whether you were going uphill or downhill, as the effort was not much different. It was all about trying to stay on the bike and keep it moving forwards. We were constantly battling for control. Sinking into sand meant having to carefully choose your route to keep yourself from falling off and putting in extra power to get out before you're sucked too deeply.

There were corrugations, like a washboard which shook you violently, but at least you knew this was solid ground and so preferable to deep sand.

I no longer cycled with my SPD clipped in, in case I quickly needed to put a foot down. We had 40km of this. After 25km we got our map out. Decision time. We were hot, exhausted, sick of the road.
According to the map, it looked like this road continues for another 4 or more days of riding before we can get off it. Or we turn around. It seems wrong to turn around when we'd worked so hard to get this far. You don't want it to have all been in vain.

But when I realised that the choices were: 4 days of this to go on or 1 day of this to turn around, I would have been making a sunk-cost error to go on.

We decided to wild camp. A yellow taxi had given us some water, took our photo and so we could at least camp up and cook.

I admit the idea of doing another day of this road was unappealing, especially since every mile we struggled through today is an extra mile we have to do tomorrow, but in the long run it's the most sensible choice.
too much sand to continue.
we wild camped under a tree, just out of sight of the road.There were lots of hoofprints about so I had a look around to see whether gouchos come this way often. they normally travel with dogs, but I couldn't see any paw prints.

Eventually we braved putting up the tent and as we cooke dinner, a gunshot rang out in the desert. -Gulp-
We ate dinner and sat and watched the stars come out. Th deserts are the best places to see the night sky.
As it got pitch black, we heard hoofs on sand approaching. It was far too dark to see, but they were definitely getting closer.

We didn't want to use a torch, as it would attract attention. We moved a little nearer and the hoove sped away. These must be riderless horses, spooked by us.
They were obviously curious as they came back, but this time on the other side of some shrubs. Another noise and they ran off.



I didn't want horses to accidentally trample our tent, so we made noises to shoo them.
The night sky was fabulous. I've never seen so many stars. HOw much we lose from light pollution.
W went to bed and listened out for the hoof noises again. There was some whinnying and in the night I was woken by an equine cough, but other than that they left us alone. Perhaps we'd pitched up where they like to sleep and they were too polite to say.

distance 60.11km
ride time 5:14:39,
average 11.4kph
max 34kph max
starting alti 1859
trip alti 478
max alti 1875

Cafayate - still no sleep

What a terrible night. What is wrong with these people?! They somehow always seem to come with something worse, upping the ante but all-night concerts up the road from the campsite is taking things a bit too far. What next? Earthquakes?
It's getting to the point where I think: "shall we wild camp or rough it at a campsite?"
For eats we wanted to buy some food at the campsite. There was a sign advertising empanadas and pizza. We saw some people putting empanadas into an oven. We asked whether we could have some and they said no. We were mystified because right next to them was a board advertising empanadas with the price. We asked after something to drink and theyncarelessly pointed us to another building. Inside was a shop where we bought drinks and asked after food. She sent us back to where the oven was.
We stood by the oven watching them putting empanadas we couldn't have into the oven. No one came to ask us whether we wanted something else.
In the end we took a more direct approach and asked whether we could have pizza instead. There we got a yes so we had finally managed to secure food. These Argentinians are hard work.
In the evening we began to hear soundchecks. Another sleepless night, then. This time, we'll be up and dressed before it stops, no doubt.

distance 72.42km
ride time 4:51:33
average 24.9kph
max 49kph
woke 1646m alti
trip alti 215
max alti 2018

Cafayate

We had a large pasta dinner last night and I ate too much, so felt unwell.
A nice-looking little dog came over and I gave her a tummy rub.
Next morning I felt decidedly under par. Definitely a dicky tummy.
Out of the town we came across some fabulously designed gates.

The road to Colalao was mosty downhill and easy. We passed through it and continued on to Cafayate. The scenery was desert with candelabra styel cacti. A lot had been cleared and been turned into vineyards. Kilometre signage was a bit haphazard, with a 17km and 16km sign more than 8km apart!

Al went for another al fresco poo, as he had a dicky tummy, too. I wasn't brave enough to.
It was hot and I found the last 20km more of a struggle than they should have beeen.
We passed acres of grapevines and then found the campsite. It's pretty sandy, but seems okay if a little crowded.
The loos are the best so far and the showers would get top mark if they had hot water and somewhere to put your clothes (surely they don't expect you to turn up for your shower completely naked?)

The town seems to cater to wealthy tourists here to do wine tours. There are restaurants and comfortable-looking hotels. Definitely not like places we've been to so far. We couldn't find a supermarket, though.

We had a steak dinner and noticed quite a few international tourists, including a middle class dutch twit and his wife. They had difficulty understanding the menu but weren't prepared to do what we do: order it anyway and see what you get. When we told them the mystery word on the menu was mutton, he fretted that it might be too fatty.
We ate, paid and got into our tent and were then kept awake by some outdoor concert being held just a few blocks away.

At 2.45 I checked my watch and thought: "I know you're all night owls, but c'mon, bedtime now".
The music went on all night. I last checked my watch at 6.30 am, long after the male singes had stopped being able to hit all the right notes (they must have been as tired as I was).
After listening to several hours of their singing in and out of tune, I was fuming. If we hadn't decided to spend an extra day here, we'd be getting up after no night's sleep. I think we should declare war on Argentina.

one dry town

My knee is still sore. I tried to keep changing its position in the night to prevent it seizing up. The swelling has gone down a little.
We headed into town for a poo among other things, as our campsite still has no water. There is a tap that works but it's round the back of the building.
As to the poo, we went to a bar in town. I used the loo but then discovered the cistern was empty. A tap did work, but there was no bucket. I ended up filling waster paper bin with water to flush. This is one dry town!
This place is far more how I imagined South America to be. It's like a proper pueblo.
Also, now that we have cracked lips, sunburn, hair like rope, I feel more like we're on the road. Up until now, wearing clean-smelling clothing, I've still felt too fresh from Hove.

dist 56.19km
ride time 5:19:03
average 10.5kph
max 75kph
current altitude 1999
trip alti 1099
max alti 2983 max alti