Pichilemu to Llico (65km) with over 800m ascent - Friday 7th October
What a tough but glorious day! We knew cycling along the coast wouldn't be easy - coast roads have a nasty habit of following cliffs up and down fairly steeply and this one was no exception. I never thought I'd find a hill that would be so tough it makes 8% seem like a walk in the park - but today managed it - repeatedly! And the howling sea wind, cold and starkly gusting into our faces most of the day did little to help us, except cool us down (in Ant's case a bit too much), but the beautiful Pacific ocean to our right for the first half of the ride made it all hugely worth while.
I was loving every minute of the first 40km. The fresh sea air, invigorating and uplifting; the stunningly beautiful scenery which didn't look too dissimilar to the southern coastline on the Isle of Wight, with the added bonus of some eucalyptus and pine forests; and a challenging but not at all traffic heavy road. A sea girl at heart, I was in my element. Ant was suffering a little more though and I've learnt that this usually only means one thing - as much as I'd like to think I've got strong enough to compete with Lizzie Armistead (or Lizzie Dignan now as Ant keeps telling me with a sad - oh she's off the market sort of face!), its actually most likely that Ant's got weaker, probably more cold coming on.
As the road turned away from the coast and headed towards the first of the slightly inland lakes, the wind really started to show its might. It must have been some sort of valley - lake geography that made it unsure of its strength or direction, but had us clinging onto our handlebars as we got thrown left, right, pushed forwards then stopped to a halt. Now would be a jolly good time to stop in a shelter and have lunch we thought, so we did. A few pastries and crisps later and we were debating our two road options: Turn right, stay closer to the sea, climb a bloody big hill, stay atop the bloody big hill for a bit, then drop into town; or turn left, do at least 10km more on what looked like a dirt road, but hopefully tackle less hills. Google recommended option 1 so we headed in that direction for 500m until we saw the road turn to sandy gravel and tilt up about 25%. It didn't take us too long to conclude that option 2 was probably better.
So we headed off along the lake on a relatively easy gravel path pleased with our decision, especially as there were several trucks (why?!!) coming in the opposite direction - can't be that bad a road if they can get here. Ant's head was now lifted - this felt like an adventure, and I was still high as a kite - today was really fun.
As we said goodbye to the lake and hello to the hills, the road inevitably started to degrade. More rocks and sand, but still manageable - for the moment at least. As we go higher deeper into the forrest, it felt more and more rural. There were lots of unsigned paths (can't really justify calling them roads now!) that weren't even on the map so Ant had to concentrate hard to work out our route. We passed two old ladies out for a stroll who were super keen to tell us that yes this was the right way (and lots of other advice we didn't understand), though one of them had a "you don't want to be doing that love" kind of face, which didn't fill us with confidence.
They were right, we didn't want to be doing this! 25% hills, sandy, gravelly, rocky, bumpy. Lots we couldn't cycle up, some we could just about brave. At least we were moving, if only slowly. In a slightly flatter (read 10%!) section of one of the climbs I was relieved I could actually cycle and stop pushing... But not for long... Oooh sand... Oooh sliding... Eeek... Stopped... Eeek sank... Aghhh pedals... Unclip unclip... Too late... Plop... Ouches!
At least the first fall of the trip was into sand - could have been a lot worse! Just a few bruises and a LOT of sand in mine and Alan's pants!
Oh and did I mention we'd now entered the territory of the big fat mosquito? Prick - ouch, slap you bugger, ouch, oi stop it, yuk, grrr, bugger off, ow, what even through my jersey?, hey that's my cycling glove you shouldn't be able to bite through that?!!
Ant, although annoyed at the mosquitos, somehow managed to keep his head high - I was angry, angry and frustrated. I couldn't cycle and was getting bitten left right and centre... Grrr.
Eventually we reached the turning that would lead us down into town. A bumpy gravel road, but downhill so at least we could cling on and bump our way down, getting thrown left and right and gritting our teeth! Mountain biking, although fun, is somewhat difficult on a loaded bike that has a mind of its own!
Soon enough we'd entered the strange little town of Llico. A sleepy place lined with lakes and forests. Composed of only one long road lined with a few small shops. On the outskirts we saw a camping sign and decided to check it out. Ant borrowed Alan and whisked off into the campsite while I checked out the wildlife signs... What a spider that can kill you... Man I hope my Spanish is wrong!!
Ant's summary was a beautiful campsite in the forrest with showers, but no hot water. Covered head to toe in sweat, sand, dust and gravel, all mixed into a sun creamy paste, we thought a hot shower might be preferable, plus we hadn't yet seen the town or sea at the end of the road... FOMO. So we pushed on for another 3km just to see if there was anything else before settling on a night of cold showers, spiders and death.
Thankfully we didn't do our usual thing of settling for the first place we saw, mainly because the first place was so run down and shabby that cold showers spiders and death seemed preferable! Eventually we came to the end of the road and the sea, which gifted a nice looking hostilleria. They had a room and several grumpy, mafia like, old men owning it. Oh well nice enough room, with glorious terrace overlooking the beach and the promise of hot water - we'll take it!
When we'd cleaned off our sandy sun creamy paste and gone for our pre dinner stroll (with the sole mission of finding dinner!) we realised that no more than 50m more down the road was a glorious looking hotel and spa... Tum tee tum, we could only console ourselves with the fact that we may have saved money - but when the restaurant was very reasonably priced and tasty and the staff super friendly we couldn't bring ourselves to check their room price list - we'll just keep pretending it was prohibitively high and that we made the right decision! "ah" said the manager. "you should have stayed here, we have a pool and jacuzi, you could have relaxed in"... You seriously need to stop talking now dude... Seriously... Shut up... Nope... Stop...!!!
So a tough day that beat us up but left us feeling alive and glowing with adventure. I shall leave you with Ant's summary:
"Beautiful riding, weary Ant, volatile Emma. Strangely today, more than other days on this trip, really felt like an adventure. We changed our plans and route several times based on how we were going and how we were feeling, didn't really know where we'd end up, ended up somewhere awesome by the sea... And that all felt really cool."
Sunday, 9 October 2016
Friday, 7 October 2016
Surf's up!
Thursday 6th October
After a lovely big breakfast (even pancakes!) we booked a surf lesson with Emilio, a self proclaimed "frustrated professional surfer", who also happened to have all the looks and mannerisms of my cousin Drew. In preparation we managed to find a glorious little vegetarian cafe to eat all manner of pulses and veggies and let our bodies sing from the goodness, then got ready and psyched up for the task ahead.
Now Pichilemu is by no means a beginner surf resort and I've by no means overcome my fear of the sea, so I spent a great deal of time pretending I wasn't about to go surfing, in order to be able to actually go surfing.
Emilio took us on a little 'Eco tour' of the peninsula, before heading down to the sea, which only served to fuel my fear... "wow look those big waves, good for surf today... Don't worry though, how big they look here, they actually bigger in real life and we high up"... Oh great! Because THAT'S what I was worried about... That those giant waves would be too small!
Ant meanwhile was putting his excited puppy act on and bounding about, all but saying "can we go surf now, can we go surf now?".
Soon enough we were wet suited up and perched on the boards on the beach learning to perfect our paddling technique and what safety signs we should use we get into trouble or if there are sharks in the water... WHAT?!! SHARKS??!! "Are there sharks here" said a quaking Emma... "well yes of course.. It is the sea" said Emilio... "no jelly fish though, too cold"... Oh that's ok then!
If I wasn't scared enough I definitely was now. So running board first into the sea the three of us braved the waves and started to exercise our paddling muscles. Before too long Ant was standing up riding the odd wave or two and even I was managing to catch and ride on my knees with a LOT of help from Emilio.
Some tea and cookies on the beach proved the perfect break after an hour or two in the water, and allowed the tide to go out a little and the waves to really start revealing their might.
Another half hour in the water and it was time for my little arms to call it a day, but Ant stayed out for a good hour or so and was even allowed to brave the sea beyond the breaks to play with the big boys (and get battered by the big waves). Eventually he decided it was time to stop and joined me on the beach looking much worse than after a day climbing in Peru: "let's get you home and find you some beer"... He smiled a big smile, couldn't find words, smiled again and soon we were back beer in sand, sea in hair, tired, aching, but feeling alive.
We got a collectivo into town and ate pizza for supper, then it was time for Poldark!
What a brilliant day!!
Day 42 - I can see the sea!
Litueche to Pichilemu - 5th September (70km)
Today our struggle was not trying to find a home, but making sure we had the legs to get there. We'd booked a place in Pichilemu (the natural surf lodge) so that we could just enjoy the ride, and a beautiful ride it was too. Ok so we had a fairly strong head wind, but he's been our friend for over two weeks now so we'd be lost without him (and travelling 10km/h faster!!). This in itself is an interesting one as we were under the impression the wind should blow North-westerly, it is very definitely South-south-westerly, which could make for an interesting next few months! The road was much quieter with much fewer trucks so we could chat and enjoy the views - of which there were plenty.
It started off as rolling green fields and trees, not too dissimilar to the South downs. Then mid-way the fields for greener, the trees taller (pines and eucalyptus), and the horizon turned into snowy capped whipped cream peaks. This was enough for us to gasp a sigh of beauty as we reached the top of one of the many mini climbs we'd tackle today.
Just after the South downs had turned into the Austrian Alps and about 40km of our day complete, we talked about stopping to eat some of the pastries we had on our racks (we seem to be surviving on cakes and crisps at the moment and unable to find sandwiches... This leaves us craving spinach, broccoli and carrots!!). Then I saw a mini supermarket and should probably have suggested picking up something healthy - but the heat, humidity and sweat led me to only one place - the vast ice cream freezer! We were more than happy with our two cornettos and a token large carton of ice cold orange juice (don't take this as healthy - damn coca cola company own so many drinks in South America and unfortunately they have a love affair with both sugar and sweeteners, so even if we try to get a good hit of vitamin C we end up on a sugar high. Brilliant for cycling (well except the sweeteners - seriously what's the point of adding sweeteners when you've already added sugar? Are you trying to kill off your population?!), but not great for any other time).
So we enjoyed our ice cream stop under a very shady tree (and I recounted my slight amusement as the guy behind me in the store, very unusually for South America, not only waited in line patiently for me to order and buy my sugary purchases, but also waited politely and sheepishly whilst I put my change away. I knew something was amiss and was relieved to be proved correct when he ordered a small square packet with 'lucky strike' written on it as quietly and sheepishly as he could. Ant thinks he was just ashamed of a smoking habit, but I've never seen cigarettes quite that small and square!).
As we set off, a quick glance up the road and in a blasé fashion I said "oooh looks like we're climbing out of here for a while". Unperturbed and ready to enjoy the uphill (sometimes we do!) we started off up the 10-12% gradient. After a km had passed, we realised that this was perhaps a longer climb than we expected, but were still enjoying working the legs back into their past climbing form. Then another km, then another km, then another... Man oh man! 5km up the road and we were even getting support from the traffic, which had unfortunately picked up (4-5pm rush hour!), but were just about giving us enough space to slowly wobble and grind our bikes uphill and were waving and cheering as they went passed! (well except the busses, they still wanted to kill us - have I mentioned I hate busses!??!). So the cheering at least spurred us on, but when even the cars coming in the opposite direction are slowing and cheering, you know you've still got a lot ahead of you - after all they've see the road ahead and are giving you kudos for what you're about to achieve! Damn. Oh well only one way! Up and up and into a head wind.
Feeling strong but knackered we were now digging deep. Even Ant was feeling the burn, but somehow we managed the 15km pure uphill and were now on to the uppy downy bit, that at least gave our legs some respite between punishment.
At some point on the climb, the wind had hinted that we were getting closer to the Pacific Ocean as the wind's annoying warm battering, had turned into an even more fierce, but cool and fresh punishment that was at least revitalising and reminded us what being by the sea felt like, but we'd still not actually seen it yet. After weeks in desserts, with little water, man we were longing for the sea! Our minds even played tricks on us up on the salt lakes in Bolivia, where the white salt had formed wave like peaks and mirages that looked like a rough sea, but yielded only dry mud and dessert sand.
So when we were finally on something that resembled a descent and about 10km from our hotel, we had to stop and take a breath or too as we finally saw the beautiful wonderful ocean! We both cheered "I can see the sea!" And smiled the smiles that only two knackered cyclists with burning legs can smile! All the high corners and viewpoints had been big trees and hills - beautiful but not what we wanted... But now, if you looked hard enough, you could see the deep blue pacific ocean behind the lines of trees to our right.
This was incentive enough to push on down to the town and battle the last remaining uphill kickers that it threw in. We'd picked a lodge 3.5km out of the other side of town as it looked beautiful and seemed the best value for money, but when you're two knackered cyclists trying to find an out of town lodge and the main street it should be on suddenly changes its name, and the wind gets stronger and you get more confused and numbers don't seem to count up the way they should anymore... You stop and buy a big bottle of beer. Well we'll definitely need some refreshment when we finally get there!
Despite the street changing its name half way we decided to keep on cycling and eventually saw the heavenly yellow sign that Indicated our place was somewhere up the dirt track to our left. UP? UP? Grrrr!
It probably wasn't the easiest lodge entry to navigate at the best of times, and our minds were definitely not the easiest to navigate at this time. So we wondered around the property, ringing bells like lost ducks, occasionally quacking the odd feeble "hola" to no avail. Eventually I came up with the mind blowing idea to walk around the back of the property towards the house that looked lived in... Perhaps there would be someone there?... Genious!! Of course there was and they were very friendly and had a cute cute baby and let us into our wonderful room, then told us we had the whole lodge to ourselves as none of the other rooms were taken. That meant two comfy leather sofas and a beautiful sea view and even a take away menu...!!!
We ordered fusion thai-indian-Peruvian food (no idea!!?!?) to go with our beer that actually tasted glorious when it finally arrived! (ok so perhaps Ant hopped back on fat Al to go get two more beers from the store at some point!).
We booked the place for an extra night so we can go surfing tomorrow, so nothing left to do but watch Poldark and snuggle up! Ahhhhhh
Today our struggle was not trying to find a home, but making sure we had the legs to get there. We'd booked a place in Pichilemu (the natural surf lodge) so that we could just enjoy the ride, and a beautiful ride it was too. Ok so we had a fairly strong head wind, but he's been our friend for over two weeks now so we'd be lost without him (and travelling 10km/h faster!!). This in itself is an interesting one as we were under the impression the wind should blow North-westerly, it is very definitely South-south-westerly, which could make for an interesting next few months! The road was much quieter with much fewer trucks so we could chat and enjoy the views - of which there were plenty.
It started off as rolling green fields and trees, not too dissimilar to the South downs. Then mid-way the fields for greener, the trees taller (pines and eucalyptus), and the horizon turned into snowy capped whipped cream peaks. This was enough for us to gasp a sigh of beauty as we reached the top of one of the many mini climbs we'd tackle today.
Just after the South downs had turned into the Austrian Alps and about 40km of our day complete, we talked about stopping to eat some of the pastries we had on our racks (we seem to be surviving on cakes and crisps at the moment and unable to find sandwiches... This leaves us craving spinach, broccoli and carrots!!). Then I saw a mini supermarket and should probably have suggested picking up something healthy - but the heat, humidity and sweat led me to only one place - the vast ice cream freezer! We were more than happy with our two cornettos and a token large carton of ice cold orange juice (don't take this as healthy - damn coca cola company own so many drinks in South America and unfortunately they have a love affair with both sugar and sweeteners, so even if we try to get a good hit of vitamin C we end up on a sugar high. Brilliant for cycling (well except the sweeteners - seriously what's the point of adding sweeteners when you've already added sugar? Are you trying to kill off your population?!), but not great for any other time).
So we enjoyed our ice cream stop under a very shady tree (and I recounted my slight amusement as the guy behind me in the store, very unusually for South America, not only waited in line patiently for me to order and buy my sugary purchases, but also waited politely and sheepishly whilst I put my change away. I knew something was amiss and was relieved to be proved correct when he ordered a small square packet with 'lucky strike' written on it as quietly and sheepishly as he could. Ant thinks he was just ashamed of a smoking habit, but I've never seen cigarettes quite that small and square!).
As we set off, a quick glance up the road and in a blasé fashion I said "oooh looks like we're climbing out of here for a while". Unperturbed and ready to enjoy the uphill (sometimes we do!) we started off up the 10-12% gradient. After a km had passed, we realised that this was perhaps a longer climb than we expected, but were still enjoying working the legs back into their past climbing form. Then another km, then another km, then another... Man oh man! 5km up the road and we were even getting support from the traffic, which had unfortunately picked up (4-5pm rush hour!), but were just about giving us enough space to slowly wobble and grind our bikes uphill and were waving and cheering as they went passed! (well except the busses, they still wanted to kill us - have I mentioned I hate busses!??!). So the cheering at least spurred us on, but when even the cars coming in the opposite direction are slowing and cheering, you know you've still got a lot ahead of you - after all they've see the road ahead and are giving you kudos for what you're about to achieve! Damn. Oh well only one way! Up and up and into a head wind.
Feeling strong but knackered we were now digging deep. Even Ant was feeling the burn, but somehow we managed the 15km pure uphill and were now on to the uppy downy bit, that at least gave our legs some respite between punishment.
At some point on the climb, the wind had hinted that we were getting closer to the Pacific Ocean as the wind's annoying warm battering, had turned into an even more fierce, but cool and fresh punishment that was at least revitalising and reminded us what being by the sea felt like, but we'd still not actually seen it yet. After weeks in desserts, with little water, man we were longing for the sea! Our minds even played tricks on us up on the salt lakes in Bolivia, where the white salt had formed wave like peaks and mirages that looked like a rough sea, but yielded only dry mud and dessert sand.
So when we were finally on something that resembled a descent and about 10km from our hotel, we had to stop and take a breath or too as we finally saw the beautiful wonderful ocean! We both cheered "I can see the sea!" And smiled the smiles that only two knackered cyclists with burning legs can smile! All the high corners and viewpoints had been big trees and hills - beautiful but not what we wanted... But now, if you looked hard enough, you could see the deep blue pacific ocean behind the lines of trees to our right.
This was incentive enough to push on down to the town and battle the last remaining uphill kickers that it threw in. We'd picked a lodge 3.5km out of the other side of town as it looked beautiful and seemed the best value for money, but when you're two knackered cyclists trying to find an out of town lodge and the main street it should be on suddenly changes its name, and the wind gets stronger and you get more confused and numbers don't seem to count up the way they should anymore... You stop and buy a big bottle of beer. Well we'll definitely need some refreshment when we finally get there!
Despite the street changing its name half way we decided to keep on cycling and eventually saw the heavenly yellow sign that Indicated our place was somewhere up the dirt track to our left. UP? UP? Grrrr!
It probably wasn't the easiest lodge entry to navigate at the best of times, and our minds were definitely not the easiest to navigate at this time. So we wondered around the property, ringing bells like lost ducks, occasionally quacking the odd feeble "hola" to no avail. Eventually I came up with the mind blowing idea to walk around the back of the property towards the house that looked lived in... Perhaps there would be someone there?... Genious!! Of course there was and they were very friendly and had a cute cute baby and let us into our wonderful room, then told us we had the whole lodge to ourselves as none of the other rooms were taken. That meant two comfy leather sofas and a beautiful sea view and even a take away menu...!!!
We ordered fusion thai-indian-Peruvian food (no idea!!?!?) to go with our beer that actually tasted glorious when it finally arrived! (ok so perhaps Ant hopped back on fat Al to go get two more beers from the store at some point!).
We booked the place for an extra night so we can go surfing tomorrow, so nothing left to do but watch Poldark and snuggle up! Ahhhhhh
Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Day 41 - When did it get so hard?
Melipilla to Lituche (80km) - Tuesday 4th October
As we left town we realised that today would be straightforward but fairly filled with traffic. The road; gently undulating, but surrounded by beautiful green fields and mountains, almost imitating the French Alps; was buzzing with trucks, busses and fast moving cars who didn't seem to want to obey the "keep 1.5m away from cyclists" sign. Either that or they were never very good at orders of magnitude estimates at school!
So the morning would have been delightful if our heads weren't brought down by the gushing roar as each engine powered object shook by.
There were however, several places to stop and grab lunch (probably due to the heavy traffic!) so we were grateful in some ways! We took advantage of a truck stop and sampled our first out of city Chilean food. This wasn't dissimilar to Peru's offerings, which is no bad thing at all, especially as they understand hand soap, toilet paper and bathrooms here. Although the ordering process is much more pot luck as Chileans are incredibly difficult to understand and their voice boxes, set to "Incomprehensibly fast", seem to be only capable of single speed offerings. So we had two mountainous lumps of tasty boiled pork, with half a plate of tasty rice and a fresh salad.
Soon after San Pedro we turned off the main road and headed towards the surfer town of Pichilemu, our target for tomorrow. We knew there was a small town on route Litueche, but had no idea if it would possess any sort of home for two weary cyclists. We also knew there were cabiñas somewhere around a lake to our left, but we had no idea at what point of the (probably 50km) loop they would be located. It seemed likely near the top, but who knows! So for now we just pedalled and enjoyed the not quite traffic free road and it's beautiful greenery.
Being undulating our legs had been tested somewhat today and both pairs had forgotten to revise the 'getting up hills' section they learnt in Peru. So we were delighted when the road dropped into a dam and realised we had a 200m 10% climb out the other side. It burned, but we survived. Our quads may be a little worse for wear though.
Also being green you would think we had plenty of choices for a luscious spot camp should the need arise - you would be wrong. Although teased with plenty of glorious looking terrain on both sides of the road, there was a barbed wire fence throughout its entirety, stopping us from getting there and meaning if we needed to make use of it we'd have 3 options: 1- fence hop, not likely to leave us or the boys unscathed and not really the done thing; 2- hope for a break in the fence, not highly likely; 3- start hunting for houses in this vast arena and ask sweetly if we could camp (we hadn't seen any houses for miles).
So we were putting all our hopes into finding a place to stays d for this reason our next turning led to a very important decision and a big dilemma. Do we turn left downhill towards the lake in the hope we will stumble across the cabiñas but could perhaps end up sever tens of km out of our way and lakes usually mean a lot of private land. Or do we stay on this road and hit the town in 16km heading for a hotel that might never come on a road that doesn't look tent friendly. Not an easy choice, but we decided at least the town would have food and the possibility of people taking pity on us and helping us find a camp spot, so we pushed on for the last 16km up and down increasingly steep hills. Of course during those steep leg wrecking 16km we found plenty of accessible camping options which added to our dilemma - stay here and set up camp, or keep pushing onto the town and either lose the camp opportunity or have to cycle another 10km back up this steep stuff on already broken legs.
Well as Ant said "fortune favours the brave Stewie, lets push on".
And this time he was right. After the excitement of seeing the first hospidaje sign and the disappointment of being told it was full, we found another two possibilities in the main street. I tentatively ventured into the best looking of the two and was delighted to be shown a clean room with a double bed and even cleaner shared bathroom. It was heaven! Though my Spanish is nowhere near sufficient to understand Chilean, so the very lively and happy owner had a permanent look of disappointment every time she excitedly asked me a question, then rephrased it in several ways then gave up. She was so interested in us but alas - we let her down.
Another huge lump of meat in stew and rice from the restaurant next door and two pints of beer later and we were tucked up ready for a good night sleep to try and get rid of the colds we seem to be developing... Aaaaahhhhhchooooo.
Night night.
As we left town we realised that today would be straightforward but fairly filled with traffic. The road; gently undulating, but surrounded by beautiful green fields and mountains, almost imitating the French Alps; was buzzing with trucks, busses and fast moving cars who didn't seem to want to obey the "keep 1.5m away from cyclists" sign. Either that or they were never very good at orders of magnitude estimates at school!
So the morning would have been delightful if our heads weren't brought down by the gushing roar as each engine powered object shook by.
There were however, several places to stop and grab lunch (probably due to the heavy traffic!) so we were grateful in some ways! We took advantage of a truck stop and sampled our first out of city Chilean food. This wasn't dissimilar to Peru's offerings, which is no bad thing at all, especially as they understand hand soap, toilet paper and bathrooms here. Although the ordering process is much more pot luck as Chileans are incredibly difficult to understand and their voice boxes, set to "Incomprehensibly fast", seem to be only capable of single speed offerings. So we had two mountainous lumps of tasty boiled pork, with half a plate of tasty rice and a fresh salad.
Soon after San Pedro we turned off the main road and headed towards the surfer town of Pichilemu, our target for tomorrow. We knew there was a small town on route Litueche, but had no idea if it would possess any sort of home for two weary cyclists. We also knew there were cabiñas somewhere around a lake to our left, but we had no idea at what point of the (probably 50km) loop they would be located. It seemed likely near the top, but who knows! So for now we just pedalled and enjoyed the not quite traffic free road and it's beautiful greenery.
Being undulating our legs had been tested somewhat today and both pairs had forgotten to revise the 'getting up hills' section they learnt in Peru. So we were delighted when the road dropped into a dam and realised we had a 200m 10% climb out the other side. It burned, but we survived. Our quads may be a little worse for wear though.
Also being green you would think we had plenty of choices for a luscious spot camp should the need arise - you would be wrong. Although teased with plenty of glorious looking terrain on both sides of the road, there was a barbed wire fence throughout its entirety, stopping us from getting there and meaning if we needed to make use of it we'd have 3 options: 1- fence hop, not likely to leave us or the boys unscathed and not really the done thing; 2- hope for a break in the fence, not highly likely; 3- start hunting for houses in this vast arena and ask sweetly if we could camp (we hadn't seen any houses for miles).
So we were putting all our hopes into finding a place to stays d for this reason our next turning led to a very important decision and a big dilemma. Do we turn left downhill towards the lake in the hope we will stumble across the cabiñas but could perhaps end up sever tens of km out of our way and lakes usually mean a lot of private land. Or do we stay on this road and hit the town in 16km heading for a hotel that might never come on a road that doesn't look tent friendly. Not an easy choice, but we decided at least the town would have food and the possibility of people taking pity on us and helping us find a camp spot, so we pushed on for the last 16km up and down increasingly steep hills. Of course during those steep leg wrecking 16km we found plenty of accessible camping options which added to our dilemma - stay here and set up camp, or keep pushing onto the town and either lose the camp opportunity or have to cycle another 10km back up this steep stuff on already broken legs.
Well as Ant said "fortune favours the brave Stewie, lets push on".
And this time he was right. After the excitement of seeing the first hospidaje sign and the disappointment of being told it was full, we found another two possibilities in the main street. I tentatively ventured into the best looking of the two and was delighted to be shown a clean room with a double bed and even cleaner shared bathroom. It was heaven! Though my Spanish is nowhere near sufficient to understand Chilean, so the very lively and happy owner had a permanent look of disappointment every time she excitedly asked me a question, then rephrased it in several ways then gave up. She was so interested in us but alas - we let her down.
Another huge lump of meat in stew and rice from the restaurant next door and two pints of beer later and we were tucked up ready for a good night sleep to try and get rid of the colds we seem to be developing... Aaaaahhhhhchooooo.
Night night.
Tuesday, 4 October 2016
Day 40 - Stretching the legs
Santiago to Melipilla (70km), Monday 3rd October
After an hour or two getting out the city we came to the conclusion that Santiago can't quite decide if it wants to welcome cyclists or kill them. Either their town planners have good intentions but have clearly never ridden a bike, or are perhaps luring cyclists into the city to kill them off one by one! The good: They have built a cycle path to avoid the hideously busy Chilean version of the A4 in the centre of town; The bad: With a series of sharp left and right hand turns, 90 degree corners and mystery ramps down steps, all whilst dodging people and other cyclists it's more like a mountain bike circuit (she says as she hops off fat Al after narrowly avoiding yet another wall!!). The good: They have cycle lanes on the road out the city; the bad: The cycle lanes magically appear and disappear into a puff of smoke, leaving you stranded on the wrong side of a busy duel carriage way. The good: Where there is no cycle lane there is often a bus lane; the bad: Busses definitely want to kill you as they rev their engines heading directly towards you, pulling out with only an inch to spare.
Eventually we were away from the suburbs and chugging through the obligatory small towns on our route to the countryside. The road was framed by perhaps the tallest trees we've seen so far - definitely the greenest and after about 20km we came across a cycle lane that was actually trying actively not to kill us (raised bumps to our left to obstruct frustrated vehicle wheels from encroaching).
The rest of the journey was a pleasant cycle out towards greener more Alp-like mountainous views, all the while hoping the dot on the map we were heading for would have a hotel.
As we got closer we realised the town was a bigger version of the one we had in our minds, but as we hit the plaza de armas it still seemed to have no hotels, just many many department stores. My Spanish listening has obviously improved, even if my speaking still leaves much to be desired, as I managed to accost a couple of girls without frightening them and get them to explain where the one hotel in this gargantuan shopping precinct was.
Hotel los troncos, despite its clunky name and standard smell of smoke, was actually rather pleasant. Friendly staff, a large clean room and even a bath! Our supper at the well branded "bar and restaurant" around the corner, that looked like a sleek revamped local you might find in East Finchley, turned out to be neither a pub nor a restaurant and much more a cross between a school canteen and a weather spoons. Lots of dubious looking meat, cheese and frozen chips later we were back in our room ready for Poldark episode 2.
Now here I sit, Tuesday morning, contemplating the day we have ahead. 80km into nowhere passing a few small towns on route to the coast that most probably won't have hotels. To be honest I'd rather remain sitting here contemplating it than actually living it, but Ant's already told me off for not getting ready and i think he might burst if I'm still writing this when he comes out the shower, so adios - see you on the other side!
, , ,
Oops - Well apparently we had a rest week!! (Tuesday 27th September - Sunday 2nd October)
Tuesday - biscuits on a bus
Not quite snakes on a plane, but a drama nonetheless! As we liked Rioja so very much, we got up early and hot footed it away as fast as our little legs could carry us - well 1km to the bus station at least. We found a bus leaving in an hour or two (El Rapido) who said "bikes, no problem, just pay the guy putting your luggage on". So we paid the guy putting the luggage on...then when he saw us pay the luggage guy, we had to pay the ticket inspector too before they'd let us on... Twice... Grrr! Well I suppose they have to earn their beer money some how! Beer money relinquished and bikes almost safely stored we excitedly made our way to our seats on the upper deck. I have to say, this was by far the most unpleasant bus we've taken so far. Biscuits and food everywhere and grumpy attendants. Oh well, it's not like this would be an 8 hour journey or anything... Oh wait! Biscuits on a bus, was only made more entertaining by the choice of movie they played... 'Precious'... A movie that managed to squeeze in every single taboo subject possible... Child abuse, rape, drugs, sex, violence... You name it, it had it! Not quite your family friendly bus viewing choice at 11am - but hey - at least it was in English!
Wednesday - one metaphor too far
Today we found our beautiful green oasis, our breath of fresh air, our haven of peace... Ok I'll stop now, but man we love Mendoza! Though I'm not sure if we're more in love with the city itself or with 'Casa Lila', our amazingly beautiful, incredibly luxurious, super friendly B & B; or the city itself. After a long lie in we were presented with a glorious breakfast prepared by Maria from Peru, we even had a choice of eggs! We then spent the rest of the morning drinking tea on the sofa looking out into the beautiful green garden; the afternoon eating burgers, cleaning bikes and doing laundry; and the evening drinking wine! Finally - the day we'd been dreaming of for weeks was here and man were we going to enjoy it!
Thursday - spending all of our money on food and wine
That's not technically true, we also spent a good portion of it on spa treatments too! Helped by our wonderful hosts at Casa Lila, we booked a day that we could only justify by saying it was the anniversary treat that we never had! By the time we arrived back at our room we were more than slightly drunk, incredibly relaxed, and so full up we were worried we might not be able to face breakfast tomorrow! A simply stunning day!
Friday - super sad to say goodbye
We dragged ourselves reluctantly out of Casa Lila and somehow avoided the temptation to move in there permanently. A half hour bike ride was all we had in store today, to catch the bus to Santiago. By now we were ready to be cycling again and were tempted to do the 400km journey under our own steam, but there were two hurdles that we didn't want to climb: 1- there are a series of tunnels at the top of the mountain pass that bikes are prohibited from using (with good reason); 2- the mountain pass! It would mean crossing over the Andes again. So we were taking the bus. Let's be honest, we were always taking the bus! So a slightly more palatable bus journey and a border crossing later and we were navigating the mountain bike course that is the cycle path through central Santiago. After some fraught moments standing outside our pre-booked apartments with no one in sight but the Friday night party goers and homeless, we eventually found quite possibly the nicest nan in the world 'Victor' who led us to quite possibly the nicest city apartment in the world (for what we paid at least!).
The weekend - feels like home
So we chose an apartment, as we've longed for vaguely healthy home cooked food. We spent Saturday being very lazy, cooking bacon and avocado for breakfast and baked potatoes for supper - amazing! We even managed to incorporate a quick stroll around the park (Cerro Santa Lucia)! Sunday was slightly more active with a walking tour of the city, but we ended it snuggling on the sofa watching Poldark series 2 (thanks itunes!!!). Tomorrow we renew our saddle sores and head to the coast, but today we relax. Perhaps its a bit too much like home though, not sure I want to move again!
Not quite snakes on a plane, but a drama nonetheless! As we liked Rioja so very much, we got up early and hot footed it away as fast as our little legs could carry us - well 1km to the bus station at least. We found a bus leaving in an hour or two (El Rapido) who said "bikes, no problem, just pay the guy putting your luggage on". So we paid the guy putting the luggage on...then when he saw us pay the luggage guy, we had to pay the ticket inspector too before they'd let us on... Twice... Grrr! Well I suppose they have to earn their beer money some how! Beer money relinquished and bikes almost safely stored we excitedly made our way to our seats on the upper deck. I have to say, this was by far the most unpleasant bus we've taken so far. Biscuits and food everywhere and grumpy attendants. Oh well, it's not like this would be an 8 hour journey or anything... Oh wait! Biscuits on a bus, was only made more entertaining by the choice of movie they played... 'Precious'... A movie that managed to squeeze in every single taboo subject possible... Child abuse, rape, drugs, sex, violence... You name it, it had it! Not quite your family friendly bus viewing choice at 11am - but hey - at least it was in English!
Wednesday - one metaphor too far
Today we found our beautiful green oasis, our breath of fresh air, our haven of peace... Ok I'll stop now, but man we love Mendoza! Though I'm not sure if we're more in love with the city itself or with 'Casa Lila', our amazingly beautiful, incredibly luxurious, super friendly B & B; or the city itself. After a long lie in we were presented with a glorious breakfast prepared by Maria from Peru, we even had a choice of eggs! We then spent the rest of the morning drinking tea on the sofa looking out into the beautiful green garden; the afternoon eating burgers, cleaning bikes and doing laundry; and the evening drinking wine! Finally - the day we'd been dreaming of for weeks was here and man were we going to enjoy it!
Thursday - spending all of our money on food and wine
That's not technically true, we also spent a good portion of it on spa treatments too! Helped by our wonderful hosts at Casa Lila, we booked a day that we could only justify by saying it was the anniversary treat that we never had! By the time we arrived back at our room we were more than slightly drunk, incredibly relaxed, and so full up we were worried we might not be able to face breakfast tomorrow! A simply stunning day!
Friday - super sad to say goodbye
We dragged ourselves reluctantly out of Casa Lila and somehow avoided the temptation to move in there permanently. A half hour bike ride was all we had in store today, to catch the bus to Santiago. By now we were ready to be cycling again and were tempted to do the 400km journey under our own steam, but there were two hurdles that we didn't want to climb: 1- there are a series of tunnels at the top of the mountain pass that bikes are prohibited from using (with good reason); 2- the mountain pass! It would mean crossing over the Andes again. So we were taking the bus. Let's be honest, we were always taking the bus! So a slightly more palatable bus journey and a border crossing later and we were navigating the mountain bike course that is the cycle path through central Santiago. After some fraught moments standing outside our pre-booked apartments with no one in sight but the Friday night party goers and homeless, we eventually found quite possibly the nicest nan in the world 'Victor' who led us to quite possibly the nicest city apartment in the world (for what we paid at least!).
The weekend - feels like home
So we chose an apartment, as we've longed for vaguely healthy home cooked food. We spent Saturday being very lazy, cooking bacon and avocado for breakfast and baked potatoes for supper - amazing! We even managed to incorporate a quick stroll around the park (Cerro Santa Lucia)! Sunday was slightly more active with a walking tour of the city, but we ended it snuggling on the sofa watching Poldark series 2 (thanks itunes!!!). Tomorrow we renew our saddle sores and head to the coast, but today we relax. Perhaps its a bit too much like home though, not sure I want to move again!
Sunday, 2 October 2016
Day 39 - Don't dis the bikes!
Amiogasta to La Rioja (120km) - Monday 27th September
Wow what a day! Like really what a day! We knew it was going to be big, but didn't realise just how much grinding our teeth would be doing! After much debate of whether the hotel breakfast would actually be worth the half hour it usually takes (time would be precious today), we went for it - it was a nice (ish) hotel after all and our breakfast optimism was high. 3 butter puffs and a coffee later we wished we hadn't! Ok so there might have been a mini croissant thrown in this time too, but seriously guys, how much do you think two increasingly skinny gringos on bikes need to eat for breakfast? Come to think of it how much do you think the average Joe needs to eat for breakfast! Let me tell you... A damn sight more than 3 butter puffs and a mini croissant between two people!
Pleased we'd sourced cereal and milk last night, we gulped down breakfast number two in the room, then proceeded with our morning ritual that seems to take hours: Quick shower (make the most of it while its there and wet hair is good for cooling down), washed cereal bowl, packed up each pannier methodically, filled the bottles (so much easier now tap water's bug free), sun creamed our pasty white bodies, checked the room at least 3 times, paid the receptionist, checked the bikes (Alan! Seriously dude what's going on with your front paw!), put as much air into Alan's tyre as we could get away with (slow puncture), then headed into the square to get supplies.
The relief we feel when we find a town has something resembling a super market is huge. It has all the promise of saving the hours of traipsing around mini shops trying to find bread, sandwiches, crisps, sweets pastries, juice, Fanta (a new addition), all of which tend to come from different vendors. Ant skipped into the supermarket like a small child skips into a park... And dragged himself out of it like he'd fallen off a climbing frame... Fanta - Check; juice - Check; strange chocolate biscuits (interesting addition) - check... Oh, I guess we'll be cycling around the square for a bit then.
Ant found some dubious looking ham and salami sandwiches in a newsagent, and I found a dubious looking man outside the newsagent. When Ant joined us dubious man was so excited (there were two possible reasons for his excitement we thought: 1- he was gleaming at the thought of pinching an item or two from our shiny bikes whilst single handedly killing us on the main square in broad daylight; or 2 - he was actually pleased to see us). Unfortunately his excitement meant he spoke at the pace that a nervous teenage girl might speak at a One Direction premier, which given we already find Argentinians the hardest of the South American nations to understand, made things a little difficult and somewhat awkward. In hindsight, how the next 5minutes panned out was amusing to say the least. He stood excitedly rambling questions at us, Dictaphone in pocket, probably excited to get his small little village town into the news. We stood listening hard, with blank, slightly concerned, faces, trying to decipher the knotted up language, that might give us a clue as to which part of the bike he would try to steal from, or which part of us he might stab first with whatever he had in his pocket (yes that means there were probably at least a few seconds when I was seriously worried an aging, enthusiastic man was going to kill me with a Dictaphone in broad daylight... Tum tee tum!). His disappointment was (again in hindsight) endearing, whenever he paused his conversation and held up his Dictaphone to each of us in turn to answer the highly complicated question he'd just asked and he simply got the only version of 'no comment' we could muster 'no entiendo' - I don't understand - I mean after all we had no idea what we were being charged with!! Eventually he settled with slowly giving us a sentence each to say slowly into the recording device that he repeated to us several times like you would if trying to teach a two year old to say "condensation"... Hello Daniel, nice to meet you, my name is Emma and I and from London, with bikes. I like this town. Satisfied and slightly exasperated, though no less enthusiastically, he shook our hands, wished us a good journey and vanished into the puff of smoke from which he came. Shell shocked and with a nervous giggle we quickly hopped back on our bikes, before anyone else could show interest and slid out of town finding a bakery on the road out.
Not quite the speedy exit we needed today if were going to get 113km done, but hills were unlikely and if the wind stayed low we could still be there in good time. I can't believe it took us 2 months to realise it, but we could position my phone in my bar bags with its speaker peeking out enough to work our way through my Spotify play lists. This made the first 20km pass quickly and leant itself to some interesting singing and dancing atop a bike (a rare skill!).
As we made our way across the first huge plane: "Look at the wind turbines, there so graceful" said Ant... Then he looked at me, I looked at him... And after a moments pause he said "oh, cause there not known to build wind turbines in places that get windy are they!!"... 10minutes and two sandwiches later we were cycling heads down into a strong head wind that was gaining strength. Oh and we were cycling towards the massive mountains on the other side of the plain...
...this set the scene for the day. It would actually be a very windy, fairly hilly, very long churn of the peddles, with upbeat music just about audible above the gusting wind. Whichever obstacle we overcame, the next one seemed bigger and more pronounced. We got to the end of the wind turbine plane after 30km, then entered the mountains - surely they would provide shelter? But no, now we're getting blown down hill at about 30km/h as we were trying to go up it at anything above standing still. After about 40years we reached the top, minds definitely deflated, and bodies feeling the strain.
The moderately undulating next few km turned into a frustrating battle with the wind that left us music free - well you couldn't even hear it over the gushing. But it wasn't quite as frustrating as the 10km downhill that we peddled hard down to get onto the next plain.
There the wind let up a little, but was still ever present and now the Sun had decided to play its part in the battle. It seemed to turn itself up a few notches between 2pm and 4pm, which had us pouring water on our heads and drained of energy. At about the half way mark we stumbled across a bunch of run down corrugated iron shacks, with what looked like a coke sign outside. To our surprise and delight, we bought a litre and a half of ice cold cola and drank it in the shade under a tin roof whilst chickens pecked at our bikes.
Refueled and refreshed we pushed on and on and on. This time through more rolling mountains. It seemed from now on we would either have leg straining hills, or mind battering wind to contend with, but thankfully not both at once. Though with 60 tough km already in the legs and the knowledge of at least 50 still ahead, it didn't seem to make the day much easier.
We were hunting down a rare junction that would come at around 77km, but it seemed to be running away from us. Rumour (road signs and a map, usually fairly reliable as rumours go ) had it that there was a town there - a possible get out clause or at least somewhere to buy water, but when the turning eventually came all we saw was a couple of chickens!
Oh well 40km to go and the Sun was passed it's peak, and for some strange reason we were feeling strong and positive again. 40km seemed like nothing to us, we can do that easily... Surely. I fished out my Indie playlist and let Stereophonics and the Kings of Leon guide us into town, fuelled also by the km markers that had reappeared - 40 of these babies and we're there.
As we got closer and closer to La Rioja, the Sun got closer and closer to the other side of the Earth and we realised that La Rioja was not quite the relaxing city we'd been hoping for. Hotels were either vastly expensive, posh and poorly rated on trip advisor, or over priced dives. A few failed attempts and several km cycling around the city at dusk, we found a hotel with a room and almost acceptable pricing policy. Relief! Ant filled in the details at the Kings hotel then got told that bikes were not allowed in. Fair enough, some hotels can be like that, though typically the better the hotel the more amenable they are - customer service and all, its just the ones that think they're good who complain. In any case, mist hoteliers offer to put our bikes in a cleaning cupboard, in a court yard, in an office; though to be honest, most are more than happy to just help us get them in to a lift and up to our room whilst enthusiastically asking us if we're tired and hungry and aren't we cold??!!
But the Kings hotel was obviously too good for shabby cyclists - in fact it probably thinks it's too good for HRH Queen Elizabeth! When we asked where we could put the bikes, the overweight, abrupt, male, receptionist snatched the key off Ant and told him he wasn't welcome. Even if we were, by this point we weren't going to pay them even a penny, so we hoped on our bikes again, whilst I dreamed up the worst trip advisor review I could think of. (turns out this wasn't necessary, a quick search showed them to be the worst rated hotel in the city - seriously guys you've got to work really hard to only get a measly 1.5 stars - well done!).
A few more km and we found a smoky smelling business hotel, that just about let us in with bikes (thanks to an enthusiastic security attendant opening the cleaning cupboard), definitely didn't have WiFi despite its pricing strategy, but did offer an ok breakfast and comfy bed so we'll forgive them a little.
We were now conveniently far enough out of town to only be one km away from the bus station (no way we were staying here another night and we drastically needed a rest day!), but inconveniently far enough away from all the well rated restaurants and there was no way we were going to stray too far away from bed! So we went around the corner to the Argentinian equivalent of a naff caff and ate perhaps the best lasagne, empanadas, and lomito that we'd had for a while - all washed down with two litres of beer of course!
So San Pedro de Atacama to La Rioja - DONE! Our mission tomorrow: to get us and the boys to Mendoza and hope that the bus drivers in La Rioja are nicer than the hoteliers. Fingers crossed!
Wow what a day! Like really what a day! We knew it was going to be big, but didn't realise just how much grinding our teeth would be doing! After much debate of whether the hotel breakfast would actually be worth the half hour it usually takes (time would be precious today), we went for it - it was a nice (ish) hotel after all and our breakfast optimism was high. 3 butter puffs and a coffee later we wished we hadn't! Ok so there might have been a mini croissant thrown in this time too, but seriously guys, how much do you think two increasingly skinny gringos on bikes need to eat for breakfast? Come to think of it how much do you think the average Joe needs to eat for breakfast! Let me tell you... A damn sight more than 3 butter puffs and a mini croissant between two people!
Pleased we'd sourced cereal and milk last night, we gulped down breakfast number two in the room, then proceeded with our morning ritual that seems to take hours: Quick shower (make the most of it while its there and wet hair is good for cooling down), washed cereal bowl, packed up each pannier methodically, filled the bottles (so much easier now tap water's bug free), sun creamed our pasty white bodies, checked the room at least 3 times, paid the receptionist, checked the bikes (Alan! Seriously dude what's going on with your front paw!), put as much air into Alan's tyre as we could get away with (slow puncture), then headed into the square to get supplies.
The relief we feel when we find a town has something resembling a super market is huge. It has all the promise of saving the hours of traipsing around mini shops trying to find bread, sandwiches, crisps, sweets pastries, juice, Fanta (a new addition), all of which tend to come from different vendors. Ant skipped into the supermarket like a small child skips into a park... And dragged himself out of it like he'd fallen off a climbing frame... Fanta - Check; juice - Check; strange chocolate biscuits (interesting addition) - check... Oh, I guess we'll be cycling around the square for a bit then.
Ant found some dubious looking ham and salami sandwiches in a newsagent, and I found a dubious looking man outside the newsagent. When Ant joined us dubious man was so excited (there were two possible reasons for his excitement we thought: 1- he was gleaming at the thought of pinching an item or two from our shiny bikes whilst single handedly killing us on the main square in broad daylight; or 2 - he was actually pleased to see us). Unfortunately his excitement meant he spoke at the pace that a nervous teenage girl might speak at a One Direction premier, which given we already find Argentinians the hardest of the South American nations to understand, made things a little difficult and somewhat awkward. In hindsight, how the next 5minutes panned out was amusing to say the least. He stood excitedly rambling questions at us, Dictaphone in pocket, probably excited to get his small little village town into the news. We stood listening hard, with blank, slightly concerned, faces, trying to decipher the knotted up language, that might give us a clue as to which part of the bike he would try to steal from, or which part of us he might stab first with whatever he had in his pocket (yes that means there were probably at least a few seconds when I was seriously worried an aging, enthusiastic man was going to kill me with a Dictaphone in broad daylight... Tum tee tum!). His disappointment was (again in hindsight) endearing, whenever he paused his conversation and held up his Dictaphone to each of us in turn to answer the highly complicated question he'd just asked and he simply got the only version of 'no comment' we could muster 'no entiendo' - I don't understand - I mean after all we had no idea what we were being charged with!! Eventually he settled with slowly giving us a sentence each to say slowly into the recording device that he repeated to us several times like you would if trying to teach a two year old to say "condensation"... Hello Daniel, nice to meet you, my name is Emma and I and from London, with bikes. I like this town. Satisfied and slightly exasperated, though no less enthusiastically, he shook our hands, wished us a good journey and vanished into the puff of smoke from which he came. Shell shocked and with a nervous giggle we quickly hopped back on our bikes, before anyone else could show interest and slid out of town finding a bakery on the road out.
Not quite the speedy exit we needed today if were going to get 113km done, but hills were unlikely and if the wind stayed low we could still be there in good time. I can't believe it took us 2 months to realise it, but we could position my phone in my bar bags with its speaker peeking out enough to work our way through my Spotify play lists. This made the first 20km pass quickly and leant itself to some interesting singing and dancing atop a bike (a rare skill!).
As we made our way across the first huge plane: "Look at the wind turbines, there so graceful" said Ant... Then he looked at me, I looked at him... And after a moments pause he said "oh, cause there not known to build wind turbines in places that get windy are they!!"... 10minutes and two sandwiches later we were cycling heads down into a strong head wind that was gaining strength. Oh and we were cycling towards the massive mountains on the other side of the plain...
...this set the scene for the day. It would actually be a very windy, fairly hilly, very long churn of the peddles, with upbeat music just about audible above the gusting wind. Whichever obstacle we overcame, the next one seemed bigger and more pronounced. We got to the end of the wind turbine plane after 30km, then entered the mountains - surely they would provide shelter? But no, now we're getting blown down hill at about 30km/h as we were trying to go up it at anything above standing still. After about 40years we reached the top, minds definitely deflated, and bodies feeling the strain.
The moderately undulating next few km turned into a frustrating battle with the wind that left us music free - well you couldn't even hear it over the gushing. But it wasn't quite as frustrating as the 10km downhill that we peddled hard down to get onto the next plain.
There the wind let up a little, but was still ever present and now the Sun had decided to play its part in the battle. It seemed to turn itself up a few notches between 2pm and 4pm, which had us pouring water on our heads and drained of energy. At about the half way mark we stumbled across a bunch of run down corrugated iron shacks, with what looked like a coke sign outside. To our surprise and delight, we bought a litre and a half of ice cold cola and drank it in the shade under a tin roof whilst chickens pecked at our bikes.
Refueled and refreshed we pushed on and on and on. This time through more rolling mountains. It seemed from now on we would either have leg straining hills, or mind battering wind to contend with, but thankfully not both at once. Though with 60 tough km already in the legs and the knowledge of at least 50 still ahead, it didn't seem to make the day much easier.
We were hunting down a rare junction that would come at around 77km, but it seemed to be running away from us. Rumour (road signs and a map, usually fairly reliable as rumours go ) had it that there was a town there - a possible get out clause or at least somewhere to buy water, but when the turning eventually came all we saw was a couple of chickens!
Oh well 40km to go and the Sun was passed it's peak, and for some strange reason we were feeling strong and positive again. 40km seemed like nothing to us, we can do that easily... Surely. I fished out my Indie playlist and let Stereophonics and the Kings of Leon guide us into town, fuelled also by the km markers that had reappeared - 40 of these babies and we're there.
As we got closer and closer to La Rioja, the Sun got closer and closer to the other side of the Earth and we realised that La Rioja was not quite the relaxing city we'd been hoping for. Hotels were either vastly expensive, posh and poorly rated on trip advisor, or over priced dives. A few failed attempts and several km cycling around the city at dusk, we found a hotel with a room and almost acceptable pricing policy. Relief! Ant filled in the details at the Kings hotel then got told that bikes were not allowed in. Fair enough, some hotels can be like that, though typically the better the hotel the more amenable they are - customer service and all, its just the ones that think they're good who complain. In any case, mist hoteliers offer to put our bikes in a cleaning cupboard, in a court yard, in an office; though to be honest, most are more than happy to just help us get them in to a lift and up to our room whilst enthusiastically asking us if we're tired and hungry and aren't we cold??!!
But the Kings hotel was obviously too good for shabby cyclists - in fact it probably thinks it's too good for HRH Queen Elizabeth! When we asked where we could put the bikes, the overweight, abrupt, male, receptionist snatched the key off Ant and told him he wasn't welcome. Even if we were, by this point we weren't going to pay them even a penny, so we hoped on our bikes again, whilst I dreamed up the worst trip advisor review I could think of. (turns out this wasn't necessary, a quick search showed them to be the worst rated hotel in the city - seriously guys you've got to work really hard to only get a measly 1.5 stars - well done!).
A few more km and we found a smoky smelling business hotel, that just about let us in with bikes (thanks to an enthusiastic security attendant opening the cleaning cupboard), definitely didn't have WiFi despite its pricing strategy, but did offer an ok breakfast and comfy bed so we'll forgive them a little.
We were now conveniently far enough out of town to only be one km away from the bus station (no way we were staying here another night and we drastically needed a rest day!), but inconveniently far enough away from all the well rated restaurants and there was no way we were going to stray too far away from bed! So we went around the corner to the Argentinian equivalent of a naff caff and ate perhaps the best lasagne, empanadas, and lomito that we'd had for a while - all washed down with two litres of beer of course!
So San Pedro de Atacama to La Rioja - DONE! Our mission tomorrow: to get us and the boys to Mendoza and hope that the bus drivers in La Rioja are nicer than the hoteliers. Fingers crossed!
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