If you remember that movie The Land Before Time with the little dinosaurs trying to find their parents after huge volcanic eruptions and other catastrophes seperate them? (that is, of course, if my memory serves me right) Well, it must have been shot here, because that's exactly the terrain that we passed through south of Malargue.
But first, the cursing and more ripio. Let me tell you, for a cyclist there is nothing worse than the scenario I am about to put forth. Imagine lugging 40kg of gear, not bad right? Well, now imagine the road is ripio (gravel), uphill, and there is a headwind in your face. I struggled for over an hour at 6-8kmph, and I thought back to the one foot in the first world, one foot in the third world quote. Well, at the time it was more like one foot in the first, and one foot along with both arms and the god damn head in a game of twister that was sitting in the third world. Yet once I got passed the top it was smooth sailing from there.
I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, but after the ripio ended it was either flat or downhill mostly, with a tailwind, and through a lush valley resting between mountains speckled with volcanos at times with the Rio Grande acting as the vessel through which life flows into everything living there. It was spectacular, and that's not to mention the friendliness yet again of the Argentinians. If I said 1 of 2 cars would wave or honk at us, I might be exaggerating. However, if I said 1 of 3 did so, then I would be selling the Argentinians short. Basically, it was a perfect ride.
We ended up riding to the second stretch of ripio, 120km into the day, to where the Rio Grande passed under Ruta 40. Right at that point, the terrain changed to volcanic rock. Aaron and I found a little sandy spot next to the canyon that was carved by the river, cleared the rocks from the area, and set up camp. I found a way down to the river where we were able to filter water and bathe, it felt phenomenal after a dusty and long ride that we had. The stars that night couldn't have been better either. It was as good as it gets.
The following morning was more of the same. Amazingly, we met another touring cyclist coming the other way!! We were 5 km into our ride, he was 9km into his. I really wished we could have camped at the same spot, but alas it wasn't meant to be. We passed a message to our colleagues, Joe and Markus, who would meet the biker (didn't quite catch his name! shame on me) later that day. He kept my spirits up for a while, until...
I started to be plagued by gear problems. First, my helmet broke. It is still functional, but it is not as secure as before. Second, my sunglasses also broke at both arms. They stay on my head, but I take frequent Cat 1 breaks to fix it (explained below). Next, my panniers are failing at the point where they attach to the bicycle. Actually, one piece fell off, so I am holding it on with zipties. Then, my handlebars are not secured to the handlebar stem because the threads in the stem are stripped. The bolt goes through, so I was able to scavenge a nut from...my rear brake. Yes, handlebars and steering are more important than a rear brake at the moment! In short, things are going downhill just a bit, but not my spirits!!
Neuquen is the province we crossed into today, and marks the official start of Patagonia! How exciting, but this also means nasty climbing ahead. The final climb into Barrancas was tough, my legs were completely shot, but we made it. The town was a big disappointment I must say. We were told supermarket, campground with running water, the works! What we got was a sleepy, dilapidated town nestled into the side of a mountain with ferral dogs running about, ripio (!!), a grocery store that rivals my kitchen, and a campground with a concrete shed that would later double as the outhouse (desperate times, desperate measures, and others came before me in there). This town was straight out of Legend of Zelda or something, seriously, I almost felt as though I could find an ocharina (sp?) or some treasure chest key if I started digging around the camp grounds amongst the chickens walking about. Whatever, it was the end of another beautiful day. Almost forgot, Aaron heard that night two people having sex on the picnic table next to ours. The dogs were howling just as loud as they were, but I didn't hear anything because I was too tired. Go figure.
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