Friday, November 17, 2006 

25 de Mayo to Malargue

This little restuarant in 25 de Mayo near San Rafael deserves a mention. It serves the best sandwiches in the whole of South America.











Sarah, not happy at the prosepect of more flat straight roads.

At this point we'd chosen to take the much longer paved road rather than a more direct unpaved route to save our bikes a little wear and tear.








The local police showing off after a few too many shandies at Malargue's 56th anniversary celebrations. (56!!)











Amazing.

Friday, November 17, 2006 |

 

Uspallata to San Carlos

Milo enjoying the Argentine spring.

The rivers are full of snow melt and the altiplano meadows are covered in these purple flowers.

We picked him the flower to cheer him up as he'd just lost his helmet on the way up the hill.







Wild horses on the altiplano.













 Looking back towards Uspallata near Cerro Tupungato, another huge peak over 6600m.









Northern Argentina has many of these shrines to the 'Difunta Correa'. Passing drivers stop and leave bottles of water, which I suppose we could filter in an emergency.

According to legend, María Antonia Deolinda Correa died of thirst in the desert while following her conscript husband—a small land-owner—during the mid-19th-century civil wars. When passing muleteers found her body, her baby son was still alive, feeding at her breast. While it seems far-fetched that any infant could survive on milk from a lifeless body, the legend had such resonance among local folk that the waterless site became a spontaneous shrine. The Difunta (“Defunct,” as dead people are known in the countryside) became a popular “saint,” despite limited proof that she even existed.

Friday, November 17, 2006 |

Wednesday, November 08, 2006 

Where are we now?

About half way we think.

It feels as if much of the difficult cycling is behind us. Certainly we've crossed the highlands of Peru and the volcanic South West of Bolivia, including the highest pass in South America. Stage 4 took us through the cradle of the sun, the hot deserts of Northern Argentina and then up to the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere, but, who knows what lies ahead.

Stage 4 was a long one at 1473.9km and very hot. Our total distance so far stands at 3703km. We have ascended the equivalant of cycling to the moon 467 times!!!! Well, it feels like that anyway. We've only had 4 punctures, one set of break blocks and are on our 3rd chains. Sarah has crashed 4 times.

Everyday still poses new challenges that never seem to get any easier but are always rewarding. The scenery and surroundings give us something new and exciting each day, without fail. However, it's the people that make it really special. They continue to offer us support and encouragement along with lots of laughs and if we're lucky a bread bun or two.

For those of you interested, every bit of kit has performed perfectly without a problem. The bikes in particular, never cease to amaze. When we're exhausted the Alpkit PipeDream 600 sleeping bags and the Exped downmats ensure we have a very warm and comfortable nights sleep, no matter what it's like outside.

Stage 5 will take us through 700km of (more) desert bush then, the bit we are really looking forward to, the 'Lake District´. The 'Lakes' is an area shared by Chile and Argentina (begrudgingly) comprising of perfect snow capped volcanoes and mirror like lakes surrounded by verdant pine forest. We'll then be crossing over to the mythical and wet island of Chiloe before we join the Caretera Austral around Christmas time.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006 |

Tuesday, November 07, 2006 

Aconcagua. End of Stage 4.

Aconcagua, the highest peak outside the Himalayas standing at 6962m high.

As we arrived a tourist asked if we were going up on the bikes! 'Of course', we replied, much to his horror. He then advised us to wait until the following morning as it was a little late in the day!







Base camp at the ranger station on the Quebrada de Horcones.












 These hanging glaciers with seracs clinging to it's lower edge were 3km above our camping spot and 300m thick!











An Andean cross and a symbol for world peace.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006 |

 

The perilous, precipitous road.

The wind dropped enough the following morning to give us a chance of surviving the 80km up to Aconcagua.

Every bridge and corner had been driven off or crashed through at some point and replacing the barriers didn't seem to be much of a priority.







 Humberstone had nothing on this place. Los Penitentes, an out of season ski resort was our campsite for the night. Some of the hotels were left open, you could walk around inside them and not a soul to be seen anywhere!









 Puente del Inca, a natural bridge crossing the Rio Mendoza below Aconcagua.












Our first view of Aconcagua.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006 |

 

At last some snow. Uspallata

Once we'd got over the pass this was our view, snow capped Andean peaks at last.

This is the Cordillera del Tigre and only a few km behind this range lies a very big mountain.









 Brad Pitt fans might know Uspallata better as the setting for the film 'Seven Years in Tibet'.

It's a beautiful town that acts as a base for all sorts of mountain activities. For us it was our base to explore the upper valley and Aconcagua.








Thwarted again. The high winds made it too dangerous on the road out of town. It's the main pass between Argentina and Chile, and with the Argentinian peso offering such a good deal it seems Chile is importing everything, most of it via this route.

The wind however, did provide the poplar trees an ideal opportunity to spread their seeds.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006 |

 

In search of the mountians.

As you'll know if you recieve our email update (if you don't, email us and we'll add you to our list) we had some trouble leaving San Juan.

On our 3rd attempt we made it out of town and set about finding the Andes. Unfortunately this meant heading over a secondary range.







 A nice old couple we're kind enough to let us camp at their little finca.

The had a beautiful and remote valley all to themselves and hundreds of goats which just loved to chew everything, even sweaty cycling shorts hanging out to dry (Sarah's).







 23km and 1130m of ascent. Not massive by Andean standards but our legs aren't as young as they used to be and it was very steep.











Abra de Santa Clara.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006 |

 

The long road to San Juan

What can I say, the desert was really starting to get to us. Cycling in 40 degree heat on long straight, flat roads isn´t much fun.

We wanted to cycle the Andes!

Tuesday, November 07, 2006 |