Pucon, Chile to Calingasta, Argentina via Mendoza

---

Hello and greetings from Calingasta, Argentina, where Fi and I have stopped for the day. Since our last post, we crossed the Andes into Argentina, and continued southward (for some unknown reason) to find ourselves in the beautiful lakeside resort town of San Martin de los Andes. Unfortunately, strong winds had kicked up a lot of desert dust and volcanic sediment from an eruption earlier this year, so the normally blue, Patagonian sky more closely resembled an Armageddon hellscape. From that point, we decided to head north towards Mendoza, and get back to our original route plan.

I don't know why I thought that Mendoza was only a few days away of hard riding, but a quick review of our Argentina map promptly disabused us of that misconception. It's about 800 miles, of windswept, barren desert. With little discussion, we began looking at bus schedules. We bought tickets for an overnight coach (that's 'bus' to our American friends) for an astonishing price of $250 which would deposit us in downtown Mendoza the following morning. Although the price stung a bit, it was better than the alternative. Besides, these buses are really swank, double-deckers that show movies and serve meals during transit, way nicer than a Greyhound bus in the U.S. where fleas travel for free.

For us, however, the bus journey was not without its hiccups. Despite being reassured numerous times at the ticket kiosk that loading our bikes into the bus's cargo hold wouldn't be a problem, we were nearly left behind at our transfer station when the driver and crew of the second bus we took refused to load our bikes. Despite our best efforts to persuade, cajole, whine (in that order) they were adamant. The situation was finally resolved when we began loading them onto the bus despite the driver's protests. In the end, it all worked out, as they realized that it would take more of their time to offload them than they were willing to invest. The best part, besides not being left in the middle of nowhere at night, was that in all of the commotion they forgot to extort money from us for transporting the bikes, which is commonly done!

So, we ended up spending a few days in Mendoza: a pretty, tree-lined city with plenty of tranquil parks and sidewalk cafes, few of which serve dinner before 8 pm, as we soon were reminded. No matter, we enjoyed our days there eating great food and drinking good wine. Interestingly, in a country where inflation is maddeningly high and the exchange of dollars and other foreign currency is unfavorable, wine is still dirt cheap. This was a good thing as the amount of money we were spending each day caused me to need a drink each night more than ever! I also learned a couple of new Spanish expressions by accident: in one case, I thought I had told a waiter that we would like to sit outside, whereas I actually told him that 'we would like to go outside and feel ourselves.' I knew something had gone sideways when Fi, whose Spanish is excellent, burst out laughing before I finished my sentence. The waiter took it all in stride, recognizing that I had just inadvertently butchered the reflexive verb 'to sit' - rookie error - but he didnt come back to us for a while.

After three tranquil days in Mendoza, we had to press north. This is where something interesting happened: while navigating our way out of the city, we stopped for a moment to check our directions. It was then that a local police officer approached to let us know that we were in a high crime area, and that if we weren't careful, thugs would rob us of everything we had. This got our attention as I was cursing Google Maps under my breath for not offering a mugging potential filter. The officer told us to follow him as he would drive ahead of us with his lights flashing, essentially giving us a police escort out of the city. Since we would be passing through multiple city 'sectors' he radioed ahead for another police unit to meet us along the way, where we were essentially handed over to follow the next cruiser, followed by two motorcycle cops. Although it was kind of unnerving (we both hate being the center of attention), it was also kind of cool. And, we made it out of Mendoza with ourselves and belongings intact.

Over the last few days we've been riding pretty hard, crossed over a 9700-ft pass to arrive in the town of Uspallata, at the foot of the Andes and a staging point for alpinists attempting to conquer the tallest mountain in the southern hemisphere (Aconcagua). We've ridden north from there through the peaceful desert town of Barreal and on to Calingasta, a small town on the Rio de los Patos, where we're at now. From here we'll cross over the pre-cordillera (again!) and join the famous Ruta 40, on our way to the northern city of Salta.

Thanks for looking in on us. We hope you enjoy the photos.

~ Ken and Fi.

---

Photos

Andean horizon
Riding west from Mendoza, after climbing 7500-ft and beginning a screaming descent into Uspallata, 17- miles downhill.

Chile-Argentina border crossing
We crossed into Argentina at the Mamuil Malal pass, a very remote crossing where we had to wait for quite a while on the Chilean side because their electricity was out!

Outdoor dining
In the evening, Mendoza comes alive as all the restaurants put out their tables and chairs on thr sidewalk. Most don't serve dinner until 8 or 9pm, and it's quite normal to see families eating out until 11pm or midnight!

Police escort
Fi, hamming it up with our friendly police benefactors.

More scary animals to worry about
Fi had thought that once we'd left the US we'd be safe from predators like grizzly bears...but it turns out that we're now in puma territory!

Almost 10 years to the day since we fell in love in Mendoza!
A trip down memory lane!

Comments

[Colin H]

That room?
Did you again stay in that room in the hostal by the bus station? It's great following your trip, thanks so much. C.