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Published: June 14th 2008
Well it seems a long time since we wrote and so long away...we have done so much since..and the internet connection is sooooooo slow over here so its quite a slog to update this...but here goes.
I think it was 4 months ago we last wrote in Jachal !!. This town is on Ruta 40, a 4500 kilometre road stretching the length of West Argentina from The tip of patagonia and up to the Altiplano of the Border with Boliva. This road (sometimes track) would form the basis for the next part of our journey up to the Bolivian Border.
We are still generally getting brilliant days of clear blue skys, although a little colder now and come night time its bitter so it isnt great for camping, especially as it goes dark at 7pm as well. Leaving Jachal some guy come over with a tape recorder babbling away apparently live on air..he gave us a impromptu interview on radio yocal pushing our language to the max..im sure it gave the locals a laugh!
had a great day on the bike, through a spectacular "cuesta" winding and twisting through a narrow gorge and getting a tailwind for the
remainder of the day..we made the most of it and rattled off 150km to get to Villa Union, after getting stopped on the way in at a police road block...they couldnt undstand my passport and got a little bit confused with my name and filled their sheet in with firstname Stott and Surname Great Britain...Stott Great Britain..got a ring to it eh? 30 quid by depol maybe?
Villa union got a bit of a slating in the guide books and to be fair it aint nothing to write home about but felt like it was a little harsh ..then we realised the Author must have been stuck there a few days!! We knew what he meant the next day!!...the weather was awful ..snowing on all the hills around and freezing cold fog all around the town..we had planned to go on a trip to the raved about national park Talapaya but the excursion company said it probably isnt worth it today as they were exepcting snow there and it would have cost us quite a bit..so we did a Floyd landis and had a few coffees in the best place in town..a service station!! haha...we read A LOT!
Next day was cold but clear again. We headed through another twisty canyon, this time a desert one with fantastic giant Cactii (what do you call it when a man has an awful picture of a prickly green desert plant around his neck?) - thats jennys!!
It was quite surreal as some of the tops of the cactii has snow on! and all the mountains in the background were white topped...
The track was tough going and topped out at 2000m. We crossed with our Swiss campervan friends on the way who were still awaiting their spare parts from Germany to arrive..zip ties and insulation tape solves everything dont they know! The descent turned to Tarmac relatively soon and we had a great descent, seeing more cactii and condors just overhead..i could watch condors fly all day. So elegant and effortless gliding on thermals, just flicking their upturned wing ends to change direction.
Into yet another Valley, and another province - this one La Rioja. Chilecito is an old mining town, and quite a happening place. Home to the second longest cable car in the world (40km up to mines on the 6000m giant mountain that over
Dique de Ventana
it certainly was extremely windy...headwind of course..8mph downhilllooks this place). We stayed at the hostel and stayed in sleeping bags with duvets over as it was really really cold!!
Obligatory coffees the next morning in the local cake shop and cakes a plenty..but due to some mix up involvling me getting the coffees and jenny the cakes we accidentally only paid for coffees...only realised at lunch and felt guilty for about..errm..wow is that another condor?
Next two days up the ruta 40 were tough long days. The air is incredilby clear here so much so that you can see the road ahead and it looks close enough to touch, yet can be 15 miles away. I could see a mountain leaving chilecito and we didnt reach it for 3 days!! and i can still see it now !
Stayed in a small village called San Blas at another freezing cold Hospedaje but the landlady cooked a fantastic meal for us in front of a roaring log fire..that food was damn good Pancake Caneloni filled with spinach and corn!!..jenny got her obligatory meat
3 guys on racing bikes passed us the next day on another long rolling day to Belen, one kids bike was
tied to another kids bike in some sort of tow rope..very interesting but i told jenny not to get any ideas. Stopped at the ruins of Shincal which are in a incredible location on the edge of a plain in the shoulders of the high mountain range behind. you can see why the ancient pre incans chose to live here. i would.
Saw our first proper bike tourists just arriving into Belen...they crossed with us...and basically blanked us..(put in the obvious joke DC!!!) we couldnt belive it!! we should stick together us cycle tourists..wankers.
Belen was a little bit of a disappointment..it had sort of been built up to us as a cultural centre and the home of the poncho but it was pretty quiet, we didnt get in the Hostel we wanted to get into (maybe we really really smelt to day?) ...had more top food though...
Eating out if so cheap here and the food is brilliant, it doesnt save that much to cook up ourselves so we are eating out quite a lot...and why the hell not!!
The next day and a half we hit some real rough stuff, 50 miles of pretty rough
loads of these loose rocks were all over the rd!
jenny was ok in her helmet but Ian was watching for a fall! track to Andalgala, Got offered a lift after a couple of miles but was like nahh its ok this but after a whole day of 6 miles an hour on corrugated rd we sort of regretted it a bit. The detour was worth it though the next day over quite an incredible road over to conception.
It was track the whole way for 80 miles but far smoother than the previous day. It started by climbing up a ravine full of cactii, real cowboy western stuff. Then the track went vertically up a 1000m hill side in an array of zig zags and hairpins..muy sinuoso over the Cuesta De la Chilcas..condors flying around with a great view back over a small salt flat and the last 3 days ride panned out below us, incredibly over the rather cold top the scenery changed to green farmland and moors. All desert type things had gone, Was quite remote up here still but we descended a while into a valley with a few hotels and things - these were unexpected and we had expected a rough camp..you can never tell on these maps what sort of villages they are..small desolated adobe brick ones
another Dique..
near Jachal before the Quebrada de Huaco or like this one something with hostels and a hotel. Buenavista was the name of the place and it certainly was. A 5800m mountain covered in snow, rivers rushing off into this plus green hanging valley 1800m high. Bummer our hotel was soooooo cold!!
Next day dropping down to Conception in the Tucuman valley was one of the best days ive had on a bike. We continued down the valley, small villages with the background the huge massif covered in snow. Very Alpine...fords every so often down our track, friendly people waving and chatting to us when they could.
The road climbed again over the top of the valley and we had lunch over looking the long long descent to conception. Starting off through Alpine meadows, into cloud forests further down, then next to a gushing river full of snow melt and eventually into lemon and sugar plantations. It was all below us from a look out. I could have spent a long time there just taking it all in. Breathioso.
That night it was relatively warm down in the valley and we camped next to a sugar field on a campsite full of crazy puppys who
loved us..and a strange set up of about 20 cockerills and 3 hens...there was lots of chasing and fighting and general entertainment...have you ever seen hens run flat out..its very very amusing!
All the height we lost the previous day we had to climb again...again through the layers of plantations, cloud jungle with creepers and parrotts and stott monkeys and up to the alpine scenery above 2000m. Quite a tough climb actually which just kept on appearing right on the horizon way above us..we were pretty knackered when we got to the top to Tafi de Valle....its guaranteed to always be sunny here apparently.
An English couple had passed us in a van on the way up and later on greeted us outside the bar on the way into the town with congratulatory beers!! ...Pete and Janey - they had flown into Argentina and ended up buying a VW camper van off an German--sounds like that van had been everywhere!!
Spent the next day in Tafi kicking back in the morning with a couple of coffees and in the Afternoon we went horsey riding!!..The Criollo, Casimiro, who took us asked us Rapido or Descanso..fast or slow ..erm very slow
amiga aint done this before. I have to admit that i had no control over my horse at all really - but it was a good horse and let me believe i could steer him! Casimiro was in contol of them all really with clicks and whistles that i tried to imitate but to no avail...we spent about an hour climbing up (very slowly) to a view point..yeah nice view...but coming back down it started to hurt the inner thighs!! jenny knees started hurting as well as her legs were miles too long for the horse she was on...grimaced our way back to the estancia where a tour of the cheese factory..well factory..it was a one man show. Who should be there but Casimiro working away!! did he do everything?!
A splendid cream tea and cakes Criollo style took some of the pain away. chin chin.
Pete and Janey barbecued for us complete with vege kebabs for me! cheers guys... pete spent hours getting that barbie going. The campsite dogs watched us all night with watering mouths..or was it to escape the cold?
Next day we climbed from Tafi to 3100m up a valley head green and
Warning Zona de Badens
Badens are fords ..these are all over the place...most where dry for us but in the wet season they are lethal...friends of ours previously got held up for days at bigger ones pastoral with the view back to Tafi and the lake wonderful, we could see the cloud coming up the valley slowly catching us but it never did and we spend all day in Glorious sunshine and got burnt faces and noses for our sins. The coldness betrays how strong the sun is.
The descent was crap....it took nearly 2 days to get up here and then the descent was headwind, rough and kept going up again...terrain had also turned into desert type monte with cactii galore again..you could almost draw a line on a map and one side is green and lush and the other dry and desert like!
We picked up Ruta 40 again at amaicha de Valle, all tarmac now. Made a quick visit to a wonderful little Museum called Pachamama. A local guy owns it and has covered the whole complex in crazy Andean type mosaics using the massive array of different rock types. He housed all his art inside...the outside was just as impressive!
A big tourist draw a few km down the rd is Quilmes. The most famous incan/pre incan site in Argentina..and the brand name of one of the biggest beers..i
leaving (yeah!!) Villa Union
this is my new trick of standing quite a way off and zooming in on max to the foreground which makes the background look really near but its like 50 miles away!! was half expecting brewery. The guy who owns pachamana used to run Quilmes till recently and had a hotel and cafe there and rightly so the indiginous people kicked off and now it is free to get in and the hotel etc(needs knocking down) is unused. Bizarre to be back into the tourist zone...complete with buses and coaches..hmmm..
3000 people used to live here.
A lovely afternoon in the sun again down to Cafayate followed..jenny was getting excited about visiting another Bodega for more wine tasting but they were all shut as it was saturday afternoon...ahh bless...met Pete and Janey again here so they all did enough wine tasting later on on the super cheap local plonk!! Hangovers the next day guys...i stayed on the Quilmes!!
Next step down to Salta and the long climb up to the Altiplano and the Bolvian Border.
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tarzan
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you like coffees? coffee this coffee that!!! ian you look like you are going to snap! the pictures look ace. made any more south american firends? any pictures of them? im in devonshire! its rain rain rain though!!!!! Hope your ok jen after your crash. love tara xxx