Day 27 - Somewhere windy to Susques (65km) Monday 12th September

We woke up to the sound of birds for the first time in a long while, which was rather pleasant. Of course this was interrupted by a lorry or two passing by, some decided to beep us, we assume in a friendly way!
Looking out of our temporary home we realised that it was less the nightmare side of the road scene we'd interpreted last night in our freezing cold tired state, and more a beautiful but arid basin on with a salt flat and mountains in the distance, not so bad after all. Still roadside though!
We hit the road as early as two sleepy people can and were delighted by the 1% downhill and tail wind for the first 10km.
Our excitement rose exponentially as we passed a sign for a tourist centre (artifacts, cafe, shop) and i started dreaming of lattes and bacon sandwiches. But two things stopped us: 1- we had no Argentinean money (no cash point on the border) 2-they had no cafe. So we ate some cereal bars and biscuits, drank some water and chatted to the ladies briefly.
Not quite the dreamy experience we'd envisaged but you can't win them all.

Then it was head down for about 30km alongside the salt flat. The scenery didn't change at all on this vast basin, which was insane. Distances are just different here. To put it in context, we cycled from North to South London without seeing anything around us change, not one bit. The same road with the same things left, right, up and down. Just a slight variation in wind (which was thankfully much weaker this morning) to keep things interesting. But then again over the past few days we cycled the equivalent of London to Wales just to get between the two nearest tiny villages!


The flat section came to an end and we were ascending up the 300m climb out the basin. This was a very welcome break from the slight monotony of the morning and we enjoyed gently plugging up through the mountains.
At the top we were greeted by something we'd thought we'd said goodbye to - llamas. Wahoo! Cute little dudes all peeking their heads up to see the crazy gringos! At this point we realised we'd also got very hot, possibly the hottest we've been all trip.
Then we descended the 15km down the other side of the basin and into the most stunning, greener, mountain scenery. From the top the mountains looked like a bowl of whipping cream that someone had left soft peaks in! So we whizzed down the gradual descent, Ant gleaming at his top speed again, and eventually found our goal: The town of Susques.
Things you need to know about Susques: Its not really a town, more like a mountain dwelling; it does have a hotel; the hotel is very pleasant after  camping but its restaurant promises much more than it delivers; it has a cash point so we can finally get money out; the hotel has a friendly dig who barks at everything except bikes- we like this dog!
So we laid down on our comfy beds, cooling down and waiting for supper, drank a huge bottle of beer and caught up with the world.
Tomorrow we climb out the town and try for a big day before camping.
Sleep now.