Empieza Patagonia

Barrancas to Chos Malal -

Leaving Barrancas behind was not a hard decision. Aaron and I hauled our gear out of there at the crack of dawn when the roosters decided to compete for their morning solo routines. Rolling into Buta Ranquil was like emerging from night (Barrancas) into day. Coffee, pastries, refilled water, a toilet seat!! (first one in a week or so?), and satellite TV!! It refreshed me for the first of two major climbs ahead. It was a bit like going through Utah, and we had a tailwind! I couldn't be more happy with the riding. That is until I realized the climbing was to last for a few hours.I would often tell myself ok, 15 minutes to THAT crest. Nope, I give myself until 230pm to reach THAT crest. Try 3pm after it keeps going and going and going. I think around 4pm I finally made it to the lunch stop, which consisted of a tree that offered the only shade on public land for miles and miles. I say public land because of course any clump of trees that you see indicates a town or someone's house. I was able to spot Buta Ranquil from 5km out using trees as my marker. Anyway, lunch was great, and I decided to press on before Aaron with the tailwind and cloud coverage we had.
what basically was a 35km descent into Chos Malal. I really think it was the greatest descent I have ever done. Starting on the side of a mountain with an incredible dropoff, the road slowly curved down and down toward the valley and toward snow-capped mountains, then further down into this lush valley. By then, Aaron had caught up with me since I waited a bit at various points for pictures and such. The valley of Chos Malal is like the picture of paradise, sim We started from Lago Auquinco, and climbed a couple switchbacks to the top of this glorious hill. Aaron was 25min or so behind me, and in some of the pictures you can see him just starting the climb! Hahaha, I laugh because I had already been through the pain. We were rewarded withple as it is.Chos Malal is a laid-back place. It runs on Argentinian Standard time (everything closed from 2pm through 5 or 6pm). It is very windy too, when we came in through the residential section onto dirt roads, I had to stop a number of times and dismount my bike to wait out the winds whiping up the sand and dust around me. We ate pizza and drank beer at this one restaurant, and our waiter, Victor, said he would come hang out with us the next day! That camper below below is actually a Land Rover, belongs to a Swiss family riding around N. and S. America for a year. Since we had to wait for Joe and Markus to get here yet again, it was another day of rest. Victor showed up to grab me and Aaron and show us around town. Not only did he take us into the mountain region by car, he also bought us beer and food, introduced us to his grandmother who gave us bread with jam and this cherry liquor drink she made, and showed us his house as well where we met his father and saw his fantastic rally car. In short, Victor really made our day and summed up everything about how the Argentinians are treating us during this trip. I must say, I am quite content to wait another day since the other two are taking 4 days to make this trip that we did in 3.