Dave and his Bike

Days 177 to 180.

Day 177.

Despite knowing that I really ought to make a good start, the motivation this morning was sadly lacking. Then Lottie rang from Thailand and lifted my spirits somewhat. That’s what a video call with family does.

I had a couple of cups of tea in my cabin, locked and left, and sourced a croissant and a coffee in the town. I was by no means early, but was hopeful that the downhill cycling would make up some time. It was also very chilly – properly in single figures. Out came the reflective gilet and arm warmers, meaning that I’ve worn everything I’ve brought with me which I’m pleased about.

The rest of the morning consisted of beautiful views, lovely valleys, gorges, mountains, bad road surfaces, worse hard shoulders, strong headwinds and excellent cycling. The lack of decent hard shoulders meant that every time a heavy goods vehicle approached from behind I got onto the gravel (again). With cars I stayed on the tarmac and hugged the white line. Despite this, some twat who didn’t know the width of his / her car managed to hit me with their wing mirror. Somehow I kept the bike upright, and I think in some ways I was lucky. Another inch and it would have knocked me off or broken my arm. I’ve no idea how it didn’t hit my pannier. They didn’t even stop. Bastards. Amazingly my elbow isn’t even bruised.

I carried on. After tunnels 13-11 yesterday, I had to contend with tunnels 10-1 today. Fortunately they were all very short, but nevertheless I made sure my lights were on. The villages shown on the map were as I suspected – abandoned. That was until Potterillos after about 50km. The lake (reservoir) is a fantastic aquamarine colour, I guess from the minerals in the water, which made it even more beautiful. The village is well set back from the road, and I didn’t fancy a diversion, so no coffee stop today.

From the lake (in the valley) the road climbed for a while, rising around 300m over 6km and made all the more difficult by the nagging headwind. That was the last of the day’s climbing though, as it was a steady drop for the next 35km.

The gradual change in landscape continued, with more green starting to appear and the mountains diminishing in the distance. Still very photogenic, and I eventually got a good view of Aconcagua.

Once off the main road and away from the traffic, a hard shoulder appeared. Typical. A few kilometres further on and beyond the petrochemical plant, vines started to appear around me. The Mendoza Valley is famed for its Malbec wines, and the wineries around the south of the city are evidence of the production. Once in Tierra Malbec I happened upon a petrol station with a shop attached. Sandwich, crisps and drink consumed, a short (very short) conversation with some local mountain bikers and I headed up the minor road towards the city.

The cycle path was a bit of a novelty but badly maintained, so with Sunday traffic (quiet) I used the road more. The traffic lights were not a novelty. Like many large cities, Mendoza is built on a grid system, so at almost every intersection there is a traffic light – possibly as many as Singapore. Not what I really wanted after 100+km. I found a ‘boutique’ hotel on Booking.com. I’ve still no idea what the boutique bit means. It’s ok though – clean and cheap, in the right part of town, and with breakfast included. It’s also near to a street full of restaurants, so I went for a walk, stopped at the first decent looking place and treated myself to an Argentinian river-eye steak and a glass of local Malbec. It was all very good.

Back to the hotel for some research into launderettes, and where to go from here. It’s not as obvious as it might seem.

Distance cycled so far: 8941km

Day 178.

Day off in Mendoza.

After an early breakfast I hot-footed it to the nearest laundry shop. There’s no self-service system here so it would appear, so I dropped off all of my washing as early as possible, and it should be ready later this afternoon.

I then had to deal with a big dilemma. I want to cycle all the way across the continent. However I have struggled to find accommodation at times up until now, and I’m fed up with the anxiety it’s causing me. My problem is that between here and San Luis (about 320km) there is one possible hostel after 94km, then nothing on Google or Booking.com. When it is shown, it generally doesn’t exist, so my chances when nothing is shown are slim, to say the least. I don’t want to end up miles from anywhere with no bed, and I’m not up to riding 230km (second day) to find one. So I went to the railway station.

Despite an internet search saying that there are trains, the station suggests otherwise. They sent me to the bus station. The third company I found said that a bike is no problem, but there’s only one bus a day – at 0700hrs. I was going to book it for two days time, but the hotel is full tomorrow night, obviously, and since I can’t be bothered moving hotels I’m on the bus tomorrow morning. They had better take my bike. More stress.

I think part of my problem is that I’m ‘travel weary’. Part of me would happily fly back home now, but I really want to finish this challenge. It was always going to be as hard mentally as it is physically.

I went for a half-hearted walk around Mendoza. It’s a really pretty city centre with several parks and pedestrian areas. Internet searches of things to do here are mainly based around going up into the mountains, or vineyard tours which given an extra day I may have done. I settled for a coffee, then changed some US dollars into pesos (better exchange rate than I anticipated). A further mooch about, then back to the hotel for a rest. I’ve already walked over 8km today and I’ll be fetching my laundry later, then finding a restaurant.

After a bit of a nap I fetched my laundry, so that was one task done. Having packed what I can for an early start, I went out looking for some food. I’ve no real appetite at the moment, so settled for a chicken panini which was actually very good. By the time I got back to the hotel I’d walked over 18000 steps, just over 11km. Not bad on a rest day.

An early night followed.

Day 179.

Early turn insomnia. Takes me back to shift work, and waking up constantly in the night checking that I hadn’t missed the alarm.

Out of the hotel by 0600hrs, at the bus station shortly afterwards. My fears about the bike on the bus came to fruition. The driver started by frowning and shaking his head, then said I had to dismantle the bike. I was politely insistant, pointing out that when I bought the ticket this was not mentioned. He eventually said it would be fine. It cost me just over £7 to get it loaded.

The bus was brilliant. Loads of leg room, fully reclining seats, charging points in the armrests, and even coffee and pastries provided. All for the ticket price of £10. Bargain. I could get used to travelling like this. We passed by a lot of vineyards, for some reason making me feel guilty about not riding. The feeling didn’t last. Three and a half hours and a few stops later we were in San Luis. When I got off the bus the driver shook my hand a wished me a pleasant journey. Obviously a change of heart.

San Luis is quite pleasant in the centre. The usual big green square, cathedral, and pedestrianised shopping streets lined with cafés. By the time I was walking around there it was after midday, so I stopped for a coffee and a toasted sandwich. The choice of lunches in cafés seems a bit limited here. If it’s based on bread, cheese and ham then it’s probably available, otherwise it’s a bit of a struggle.

Instead of staying in the middle of town I plumped for a hotel with good reviews a few kilometres out. Cheaper and eats into tomorrow’s mileage. On arrival, it was another case of phoning them to ask for a room as all the doors were locked. After a ten minute wait a nice young lady let me in and sorted out a booking. I find it a frustrating system, but mainly due to my ignorance of Spanish and the inability to speak it, so I can’t complain really. The room is very good, I’ll see what the breakfast is like in the morning.

As a bit of an aside, I have been focusing (rather obviously) on the riding and the mountains up until now. But I have noticed when doing so that I haven’t seen much wildlife so far in Chile or Argentina. I didn’t really expect to see pumas or condors to be honest, but no llamas, alpacas, mountain goats or anything else to speak of. Not even road kill. There are a few parrots in the trees near tonights hotel, and the village dogs are ever present, but that’s about it.

Dinner was in a local pizzeria. The excellent restaurant recommended to me is closed on Tuesdays. I now know it’s Tuesday because the restaurant was closed. I was the only diner. I counted at least seven staff working there, but still had the feeling that I was a bit of an inconvenience. They had also run out of pepperoni and jalapeños. That said the pizza I finally ended up with was very good. Back to the hotel in a bit of drizzle (slightly concerned about tomorrow). Long motivational video call with Liv (cheered me up lots), blog, early night.

Distance cycled so far: 8955km.

Day 180.

It was overcast when I finally got up from another restless night. It wasn’t raining, but had been as everything was wet. Breakfast was good – coffee and toast (0730 not 0700 – I had to go back to my room and wait…), then on the road by 0830hrs.

Today was always just going to be a mileage day. The options were dual carriageway hard shoulder or gravel track. Given that as soon as I set off it started raining I opted for the dual carriageway. Not much to say about the ride; headwind all day; rain for the first couple of hours; 9°C most of the day; first 20+km grinding up a gentle slope to back over 1000m altitude. It was a bit desperate for a while, the sort of ride I would normally call character building, but I don’t want to build my character any more thank you. After 40km it stopped raining. At 53km I stopped in the only petrol station on my route, and had a large coffee and a doughnut. Then spent the next 10km trying to get warm again.

On the plus side, there wasn’t too much traffic. I half expected to get stopped and told I couldn’t ride on this road, but a couple of police cars passed me without any issue. I got plenty of supportive horn beeps as usual. It’s been a thing all the time in both Chile and Argentina – cars beep their horns and I get waves of encouragement and thumbs up. Lorry drivers and motorcyclists do it too. It’s really quite encouraging when you are suffering on the bike.

I stopped at a hotel with good reviews in Villa Mercedes. Not sure how it got good reviews, but it’s clean and there’s plenty of hot water. It’s also very cheap. It’s just a bit 1970’s. The same goes for the town. I had a walk to stretch my (sore) legs and buy some snack food for tomorrow. The town uses the ubiquitous grid system with alternating one-way street which seems sensible. It’s a bit run down and most places were closed. There is a statue (actually a fighter jet on a plinth) as a memorial to the ‘Atlantic Conflict of 1982’. It’s the first one I’ve seen. I haven’t mentioned it to anyone here.

A couple of hours later in the early evening I ventured out again to find a restaurant and found a different town altogether. All the shops and bars were open and the place was buzzing. I sat in a busy bar to eat, with everyone else transfixed by the European football (Real Madrid beat Atletico on penalties). By the time I had eaten the football had finished and the place was empty.

As an addendum to yesterday’s aside, I did see some birds of prey at the side of the road today. I think they are Crested Caracara. Very pretty.

Early night again. I think that the headwind is going to be around for the rest of my time in Argentina.

Distance cycled so far: 9046km