Day71 Argentinian flatlands and signs of fatigue

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Distance driven today: 377 miles / 607 km



Cumulative distance driven: 13,507 miles / 21,737 km



Today’s trip: San Miguel de Tucuman to Cordoba, Argentina

Practically as soon as we entered Northern Argentina via Bolivia, the landscape changed almost immediately. Ever since central Mexico, the landscape and with it the roads which run through it, have had a multitude of curves and have virtually always been ascending or descending. For almost two months now our mental mode when driving has been a combination of the following: sharp left curve, sharp right curve, steep uphill or steep downhill. However, for the past two days all of that had changed. Yesterday, we drove pretty much on a straight and flat road for over 6 hours from Tucuman to Cordoba in northern Argentina. Initially, it felt really good to be able to (finally) cover larger distances within a day.

Up until two days ago, Zoe and I never lacked things to observe on the road while driving every day. Ever since central Mexico, there were always dogs, cows, pigs, people, mopeds, and ever changing nature along the road to keep us busy. We have now entered the flatland of northern and central Argentina, which are also often called Pampas. This is an area with vast flat plains, often covered with small plants and grasses and very sparse traffic. With wide open horizons and long stretches of flat road, riding has now become more monotonous as we can drive for several hours without any visible change in the landscape. Even though we clearly are now capable to cover large distances driving on straight flat paved road, we strangely also miss all the locomotion and craziness along the road. It is a weird change for us, compared to the last two months of riding, though I am sure that we will get used to it eventually.

Zoe and I also feel that we are a bit mentally and physically fatigued. We have been driving together for almost 8,000 miles over two months, while Christer has been riding for almost 2,5 months and 13,500 miles. We have traveled through some very challenging roads, crossed numerous of borders, experienced adventures to last for a life time, and practically slept on a new place every single night. We feel that the last week, ever since we entered the South American Altiplano in southern Peru, has been tough on us with too many early mornings, late riding hours, cold temperatures, some very challenging roads, and generally a feeling of constantly making a huge push to get to the next destination for the day. We have therefore decided to slow down the pace a bit over the coming days, and take it a bit easy until we cross the border to Chile and get to Santiago. Once in the Chilean capital we will then have to go through the final leg of the trip and figure out at which point Zoe needs to fly back to Seattle for her school start.

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