Change of Plans?

Riding through Argentina there has been a lot of good: friendly people, flat terrain, cheap food, and many gas stations where we can charge electronics and get free wifi.  In particular, their supermarkets like La Anomina have delicious cold milk in sachets and cornflakes, something I haven’t had continuously I’d say since Turkey.  True they have these items in other countries we have been to but at a price that wasn’t within budget. 

I would even say the country has the makings for a top notch cycling country except one small factor which is kind of a really big deal for a cyclist: they have no hard shoulders.  This is huge and unfortunately because of this, it has made riding nerve racking a lot of the time with big ass trucks and other vehicles zooming by.  Not fun when you are stuck riding the white line or have no choice but to ride within it.  Why couldn’t they have just slapped a bit more pavement on to widen the roads I will never know.

We did look for alternate routes regularly but most of the time it involved gravel dirt roads.  I hate riding on gravel dirt roads.  I get pissed real fast and curse nonstop on them.  I will never understand the bicycle tourists who go deep into Patagonia by riding gravel dirt roads and come out saying it was such a great time.  True the scenery is spectacular but how can riding on gravel roads be a good time when you have to constantly look down to see where you are going and having your head bob up and down because of the never ending annoying bumps.  I don’t get it.  I say this from experience as Trevor and I had to cycle the last 17km of Chile and first 13km of Argentina on crappy gravel dirt roads.  It sucked. 

We had a few incidences of freak weather.  The first was in Patagonia where the rain just came down in buckets.  So much that we took cover at this school out in the middle of nowhere.  Luckily the caretaker and his family were there and let us stay.  We were going to camp at the entrance but they would have none of that and let us sleep inside the school.  Extremely kind of them.  The man, who I would describe as a beret wearing gaucho (the South American cowboy) turned on the heater so we could warm up and in the morning had some mate brewing for us.  I declined the offer as we are both not big on tea, let alone herbal tea. 

We had another night where I don’t think I have seen and heard so much thunder and lightning.  For a good hour and a half we kept getting flashes of lightning and loud thunderous roars.  Then the rain hit.  And shortly after that my tent started flooding.  I started to worry that it would be similar to the storms we had in mainland Mexico, just like the one where we had to abandon our tents and run for cover.  Thing is we wouldn’t have had any cover to run to in this instance since we were camped in the bush on the side of this road out in Timbuktu.  Luckily the lightning, thunder and rain show ended at midnight and I could scoop water out of my wet tent.  Fortunately I did get some shut eye that night.  And as luck would have it, Trevor did not get flooded at all.  Why is it that I always get screwed when it comes to tent setup?  Not sure. 

Camping has proved to be okay in terms of finding spots.  Quite easy out in the sticks but when you get closer to civilization it gets a bit harder as expected.  One evening though, we were struggling to find something and going brain dead cycling through open farmland that just went on and on and on and on.  And not being able to listen to my mp3 player made it so much more boring.  Anyway, we had no choice but to cycle to the next town which was General Villegas.  I asked the staff at this gas station if they knew any spots to pitch a tent but they didn’t really know anywhere for certain.  It was about dark and Trevor suggested I ask the police who were just up the road.  I cycled up to them and they quickly stopped me and said no cycling in the dark especially down their national roads as it is very dangerous.  Of course I wasn’t keen to continue cycling and told them we were looking for a spot to camp.  After some thinking the younger cop offered for us to stay at the police station as he was doing the overnight shift there.  Sweet deal.  So that is what we did, camped in the backyard with three sheep and one goat on a leash.  Nothing strange there.  Once everything was set up I went inside the station and watched some television.  Then later three people walk in: a cameraman, reporter and translator.  Next thing I know I am doing an interview!  It was pretty fun as I have never done an interview on television before.  But kind of weird being in front of a camera with the light shining on my face.  They asked me the standard questions like how long have we been at it, why are we doing this, how is Argentina, how are the people here, etc.  The reporter also asked me jokingly why I declined to drink the mate that was offered to me earlier.  I think it is an acquired taste.  The whole thing lasted around 5 minutes or so.  I think the clip is on the internet somewhere but not sure where.  It was done by Cablevision Argentina.  Anyway, an interesting experience. 

We went through Rosario today and were planning to cross the bridge over into the Entre Rios province and make our way towards Uruguay, a country that has hard shoulders so I’ve read.  But when we arrived at the bridge it became clear bicycles are not allowed on.  Crap.  So we stood there for a good while thinking what our alternatives are.  After much deliberating we decided to press onward up to Santa Fe and hope we can somehow cross the Rio Parana there.  If we cannot we will then need to go even more north pretty much to Paraguay which will effectively ruin our planned route through South America.  Going into this continent I didn’t really know the exact route.  I originally planned ending in Rio de Janeiro but after looking into it further Brazil isn’t a great country to cycle in.  And crime is pretty bad there too, especially in the big cities of Sao Paulo and Rio.  So I decided we end the South American leg in Asuncion, Paraguay of all places.  Why is that you ask?  Well, for some reason the cheapest flight to Miami, Florida is from there.  So right now if we can’t cross at Santa Fe and are forced to continue north, we will probably end the South American leg in Montevideo, Uruguay.  Who knows.  Everything is subject to change!  

Leaving Chile was scenic with lakes and mountains around. 

A frustrated me riding on gravel dirt road just before we hit the Chile/Argentina border.  Volcano Lanin behind me.  

Trevor welcomes you to Argentina!  And more bumpy gravel dirt roads.

We went as far as San Martin de los Andes in the Lakes District of Argentina.  A nice spot and great place to exchange money as I got a really good rate on my Euro.  Not totally sure why I got way more for my Euro than the official rate.  Apparently they are working off the blue market as Trevor later informed me.  Whatever that means I don’t know.  In any event, I’ll take the more pesos given thank you very much. 

A bird that we have seen a lot of in Argentina. 

Barren Patagonia. 

More barren land in Patagonia.  Pretty neat to see but after a while it gets rather dull.  

Figuring out alternative ways to fill up on water when out in the middle of nowhere.  This was also the day when we slept inside the school because it rained like crazy.  I was taking a bath out there in addition to filling up on water.

Trevor taking it easy inside the school.

See?  No shoulders.  Well this I guess would constitute as a soft shoulder but they are horrible to ride on.  Just like riding on gravel dirt road really.  I thought of a plan though; why not trade secrets with their neighbour Chile as they have proven they know how to build smooth, hard shoulders.  In exchange for this secret Argentina would provide Chile the know how to make proper dulce de leche.  That stuff is so much better here in Argentina. 

After Neuquen we found ways to get off the main roads and on to more quieter roads.  This particular road was actually alright most of the time but brought back memories of the roads in Turkmenistan where we had to weave our way through avoiding the potholes. 

Score!  Picked up a map in Santa Rosa of La Pampa province that showed which roads are paved.  It made riding through that particular province not so stressful.  Shame we couldn’t find similar maps for the other provinces. 

Trevor going crazy in La Pampa province as the terrain was just so boring.  Farmland that never ends pretty much sums it all up.  This stretch along the Ruta 188 just kept going straight with no bends and just same old for many, many kilometers.  I guess a bit like the Nullarbor except the Nullarbor wasn’t actually as boring since there were turns (aside from the 90 mile) and the scenery was much more interesting.  Oh and here you can also see no shoulder.  Although I think they consider that a shoulder.  Sorry but grass isn’t a shoulder to me.  

Many thanks to Fernando in General Villegas.  Great night at the police station.  He even cooked us up some delicious Argentine steak.  They sure do have real tasty beef here in Argentina. 

I got Trevor hooked on it.  What can I say dulce de leche is so much better in Argentina than anywhere else.  We both started out spreading it on bread but now just eat it straight out of the container.  So good. 

Not a fan of their siesta where smaller towns completely shut down for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  They look like ghost towns.  In this particular instance in Villa Constitucion we waited it out as we like our supermarket hits.  Siesta isn’t so bad in the big cities but in smaller towns they really observe it.

A question I get a lot from Trevor is ‘Why did we come here?’.  In this case, he was probably justified in asking.  I wanted to check out Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s birth home and well, as you can see, there really isn’t much to see.  A sign in front of the apartment building and that is about it.

Shut down.  Really a shame we couldn’t cross the bridge as the traffic didn’t really look that busy.  Argentina really needs to improve their infrastructure if they only have four bridge crossings to cross the Rio Parana.  But their number one priority should be to build hard shoulders!  In doing so would provide more room for drivers and make cyclists like me feel safer, less stressed and happier.  But seriously, it would reduce their high traffic accident rates I am certain.  This isn’t rocket science.