First windy day in Patagonia ... Barrancas to Chos Malal.

This is our first day in Patagonia. Yesterday we crossed the river Barancas, and entered the province of Nuequen, which is the most northern part of Patagonia. Last night there already was a lot of wind, in the middle of thge night the wind was gone, and in the morning it picked up again. Patagonia is known for its fierce winds from the west, and that is the direction we are heading today. Today we will cross the Vulcao Tromen. A nice and scenic ride, but 90 kilometers unpaved road, and climbing for 1400 meters can behard, especially when there is also a lot of head wind. We left the camping around 8 in the morning, Gerrit was the only one that decided to take the paved road, which was 30 kilometers longer. In the beginning we could already feel the westerly wind. Hoping that we were a bit protected by the hills and vulcano we continued cycling on the pretty bad road. There were a lot of stones, snd and loose gravel, which made it hard to cycle. Uphill for about 40 kilometers, wind changing from side to side, from head to tail made it also a nice challange. Some parts we had to walk, to much wind. Sometimes I got the feeling that the fromt and back wheel were blown away under me, so just to make sure I didn´t fall on the ground, I started to walk parts of the road. No speed, no traction in the sand and the strong wind made us all stop cycling and start to walk, even the most experienced and strong cyclist couldn´t cycle uphill in these hard conditions. After fighting for 4 and a half hours of the bike we reached lunch, and we cycled only 40 kilometers, another 55 to goto to the camping. After lunch thing got much better, the road was downdown, the wind was sometimes in the back and the condition of the road was good, not perfect, but compared to the road before lunch it was like asphalt. It felt good that we could reach speeds abouve 30 kilometer per hour, so we were able to reach the campsite within a few hours.

At the camping in Chos Malal our great duo Edson and Ellen prepared a nice BBQ, very welcome after a hard but when I look back a nice day of cycling. Tomorrow we have a restday, and nothing on the program. It is a pretty quiet town, so relaxing is the only thing that we can do ...

Adios !!

(Next update probably next week from Bariloche)

Short update from Malargue

Hola Amigos and Amigas !!

Not a lot of time, so a short update. Everything is still going fine. Yesterday we had a very bumpy and windy ride, about 100 kilometers unpaved roads through the Argentina Pampas. At the end of the day everybody was pretty tired, and putting up the tent in the storm is not something you like to do when you are exhausted. Anyway, today was lot better, only 14 kilometers unpaved, and then 115 kilometers on asphalt, the wind was not that strong, sun was shining, and now we are in Malargue on a nice camping, relaxing in my hammock... life can be good !!

This will be the last big city for a while, so I am not sure when I can update the blog again.

I am going to have dinner now!!

Adios !!

Mendoza ... finally after 6 days washboards, gravel, sand and stones ...

Hola, finally again an update.

We are in Mandoza now, a region in Argentina famous for the wines and vineyards. We don´t have much time to visit them, mainly because yesterday night was late again.

This morning we arrived at the camping around 6 o´clock after a night eating, drinking and having fun in a local disco. When I woke up at 8 o´clock I decided to do the laundry and clean the tent, it is still a big mess, and maybe I should start throwing stuff away or send home. I have to much stuff with me that I don´t use, or don´t use a lot. The last 6 days were pretty tough, lots of unpaved roads, washboards, gravel, sand and big stones on the roads were preventing us from having a smooth ride. A few kilometers are not a big problem, but if you have to go 80 kilometers on these kinds of roads it feels like your whole body is shaken, and I was pretty happy when I reached the camping or bushcamp. The scenery was very nice,desolate sceneryas far as you could see, the road just vanishing in a small dot on the horizon, and it didn´t change after a few hours. On the right side nice mountains, tops covered with snow. The highest mountain outside of the Himalaya, the Aconcagua, which is about 6900 meters high, was not visible because of the clouds. Maybe we are more lucky when we are leaving Mendoza. Today we are enjoying the sunshine and good life on a terras in Mendoza. There is siesta from1 pm till 4 pm, so we have 3 hours to eat and drink, and enjoy our restday. It would be nice if we have more days available to explore the city and see a bit more of the region, but we only have one day. Tomorrow we will leave again in southern direction. When I am back in Argentina, Mendoza is for sure a city to pay a visit again, and stay a bit longer.

Greetings from Argentina !!

Restday in Chilecito... and again some of us really need it

¡Hola!!

I had a good sleep in the hammock last night, my matrass is still leaking, so I thought that it might be better to sleep outside in the hammock. Today we will cycle to Chilecito, a small place in the Rioja department. It is not that long, only 119 kilometers, climbing will be somthing like 850 meters, and the road is completely paved. The sky was completely blue, so we were facing another very warm day today, so carry lots of water, just in case. Everything went fine, only we had lots of headwind, so even gowing downhill was difficult. After reaching Chilecito we relaxed in the afternoon, got some strage Hawai pizza with lots of black sugar, and after that we went to play some pool and have some drinks. For some strange reason we left the bar again early in the morning,

so again we will need the restday to recover from this evening. This morning I cleaned the bike, relaxed the rest of the day... next restday we will have in Mandoza, but before we can enjoy that city we have to cycle for 6 days, up and down, and lots unpaved roads ... Nice and challanging again !!

!Buenas Noches¡

Salta here we come, and here we are !!!

Hola !!

We are in Salta now, not on the camping municipal , because that was closed due to maintanace work, and nobody from the camping orcity council wanted to take the resposibility to let us stay on their camping, so Susanna, Wilbert and Rob had to look for other solutions. Finally after many phonecalls and waiting in the sun with some delicious ice cream, we were told that we were going to stay in a hotel, 2 blocksaway from the plaza in Salta, perfectspot for some nice food, drinks and matbe dancing in the evening. After we arrived in the hotel, I took a shower, and started to explore thic city .... Nice NiceNice .... great place to be, temperature is perfect, the admosphere is good, relaxed, nice people here, good food, drinks, and apparently also a good nightlife. Today it was a wednesday, and we were not sure where to goorwhat to do, but there was live music in almost every place, so we sat down outside on a terras, and enjoyed the music and people that were walking inthe street.Around 1 in the morning, the XXI club, club 21, should open, but the doors remained closed, so we had to find another spot to spend our Pesos. Few doors to the left maybe, there was someloud music, andwe decided to check it out. NIce place, nice music, strage Argentina drinks, Fernet with coke is a popular drink in Argentina, so we had to try it, it was just like you have been to the dentist. It is made of herbs, and it doesn´t taste very nice, but like my father always says : ´s land wijs, ´s lands eer, we have to try this also ... around 6 in the morning the pub closes, and we were kindly requested to go outside and tried to find a nice hamburger place, because all this drinking and having fun makes you hungry. Together with Ruud and 4 Argentina girls we got a nice hamburger, which tasted delicious ... but almost everything tastes delicious at 6 in the morning.

Ruud and I went to the hotel, where we saw Peter D. having his breakfast, we joined him, got some bread, tea and strawberry jam, and around 7 I fell asleep, tired of the last 6 days cycling in Bolivia and Argentina, but party in Salsa is even worse ... Tomorrow it is Thrusday, and we still have to party and say goodbye to some people that are leaving us ... Friday no timing, so we can take it easy and have some drinks tonight !!

¡Salute!

Dowenhill to 1500 meters, but lots of head-wind ... !!!

Stage 55 Bushcamp Quebrada de Humahuaca to Yala

Finally we are going to leave the Alti Plano and we are dropping from 3500 meters to 1500 meters. Temperature will be much better, and hopefully the weather will be better also. When we looked at the map it looked like we were going to have an easy day. All was down, and there were just a few small climbs in there. After a horrible night, I kept the neighbours awake with my coughing during the night. Since a few days my breathing isn´t good, there is some slime and other crap inside my lungs, probably some dust and other crap from Bolivia. It will hopefully beter soon, because we wil have campings and bushcamps from now on, and my fellow cyclist will not like being disturbed by my coughing. After a good start, down hill and not that much wind, the wind direction changed, and from now on we had head-wind ... Pfffff ... downhill was only 1%, so with the headwind it felt like we were going up, in stead of going down. After lunch I cycled with Gerard, but he was to fast for me. The camping is ok, temprature is good, not below zero after 6 pm, so finally we can sit outside after dinner, and relax a bit outside the tent and sleeping bag. Tommorow big party in Salta, we are halfway the trip, and some people are leaving the group and some are joining ... Finally again a restday, probably we will need that to recover, not from cycling, but from drinking the night before ... we will see !!

Adios

Adios Bolivia - Hola Argentina !!

Stage 53 Tupizia - La Quiaca

Today we are heading for Argentinia,

finally we are also leaving the Alti Plano, and soon the temperature will be better. When we left the hotel this morning, the temperature was already nice, no jacket was needed, so hopefully it will stay like this. Today it will be a pretty easy day, 93 kilometers, 1300 meter climbing, but the road should be paved, for about 75%. Nice, no washboards anymore, or at least for now. Before we reached the lunch truck we had to climb quite a lot, it was also a pretty steep climb, but only for about 10 kilometers, after lunch it was just up and down. The road was good, only there was still construction going on, so every few kilometers we had to get off the road, go back to the dirt roads, and bypass the bridge that was still under construction. Around 2 in the afternoon we reached the border, where we spend our last Bolivianos. I bought some candy, drinks and other useless things, but I didn´t succeed in getting rid of all the coins, maybe I take some home, as a souvernir. Crossing the border was an easy job, exit-stamp at the Bolivian side was done in a few minutes, and after the Argentina custom officers finally showed up in their office, it took also a few miniutes to get the entry stamp for Argentina. The visa is valid for 90 days, so that should be enough the reach the Chili border in a few weeks from now. The hotel is pretty close to the border, so after setting the clock 1 hour ahead, we are in Argentina... maybe some nice steak tonight, but also going to bed a bit early, tired from the last few days... three days to Salta, where we will have a nice welcome and goodbye party for some cyclists and crew members ...

Adios Bolvia, nice country, nice people, maybe I will be back another time !!!

Pfffff .... tough part of the trip...

Stage 52 Atocha - Tupiza

Today we were facing a tough day, 109 kilometers unpaved road, and about 1800 meters climbing. The road is probably the same as yesterday from Uyuni, so sand, washboards and stones during climbing and decending. When Wilbert gave us the maps with the profile this morning it was clear: climbing for the first 25-30 kilometers till almost 4200 meters, then a bit down, up again till 4200 and above, and thenm up and down till we reached the lunchtruck at 55 kilometers, just before a downhill. We left Atocha by following an almost frozen river, at least parts were frozen, after about 3 kilometers it was a climb to get out of the river, that is used by cars and busses also, and we followed the road uphill. The weather was good, cold but sunny and the wind was in the back, just like the last few days, so that was nice. According to the crew this was going to be one of the most difficult stages of the trip, so I was prepared for a lot of suffering and entering the hotel of Tupiza at the end of the day, hopefully before 6 pm.

In the beginning it was already tough, my legs were completely empty from yesterday, and I felt pretty tired, but ... the way to Argentina was going to be tough, so just accept it, and keep cycling till we get there. The scenery was nice, so that made the trip nice, and after about 4 hours cycling I reached the lunch truck. My chain was still ok, after fixing it yesterday, and Filip told me that I was lucky, because normally it is difficult to get a 9 speed Shimano chain fixed. It wasn´t broken yet till lunch, and hopefully it will be ok till Salta, or at least Argentina where I will change the chain and cassette. We are halfway then, and I have the spare parts with me, so better safe then sorry and change it. After lunch we had a steep downhill, with bad roads, many washboards that really killed my body, kidneys were shaken, not stirred, hands were numb and my legs were cramped because I had to absob the shocks to prevent more body damage

. Anyway it was a great ride with stunning views of the mountains. Around 3 pm I reached the Hotel together with Christian, after taking a small d-tour into a river bedding that didn´t lead to the city. Just keep following the instructions and don´t think is the best you can do. We just had some nice pizza, with a bit of salami, and goto sleep early, prepare for tomorrow, again a tough day, where we will cross the border with Argentina !! Yiehaa !!

Adios !!