The second-to-last province I’m riding through in NW-Argentina is Salta. The capital Salta, a city of about 500.000 people, has a lot to offer and hence attracts a lot of tourists. During the approach from the South, after the town of Cafayate, I already experienced some great landscape at the Quebrada de Las Conchas.
After 11 days of nonstop riding from Mendoza I decided to spend the weekend resting in Salta. Arriving in the province brought the first cloudy and cool weather since I left Bariloche in late February some 2 months ago. A change in weather had dropped the temperatures in Salta by 15C and signalled the arrival of fall.
After a rest-day on Saturday spent with logistics I decided to undertake a day-trip on Sunday by bus to Cachi. The very scenic road climbs 2000m over a 3400m high pass, literally above the clouds.
Once over the top the landscape and the microclimate change dramatically. Arid plains and plenty of candelabra cacti present themselves in the National Park “Los Cardones”. The view opens up of the valley with the nice little town of Cachi and the huge Nevado de Cachi (6720m) towering behind.
Back after a very long day I got to enjoy Salta by night, with sights like the splendidly illuminated Cathedral on the central Plaza 9 de Julio.
I spent an extra rest and logistics day on Monday. In the late afternoon I walked 1072 stone steps up to the Cerro San Bernardo, from where you have a great view of the city. In the fading light I took this picture of Salta:
The next day I continued North towards the province of Jujuy. I stopped for brunch in the idyllic little town of La Caldera. A stop at the beautiful Hosteria La Caldera is a must for every cyclist (or other tourist for that matter).
The road (Ruta 9) then climbs over a 1600m high saddle and descends into a lush cloud forest towards the reservoirs created by the Dique de Cienaga. This was one of the finest roads I have cycled in Argentina – no, make that “I have ever cycled on”! Just fabulous, smooth paved road, slight downhill, no traffic, extremely winding road, and lush rainforest all around!
I’m greatly enjoying this much green prior to heading up to the Altiplano and Bolivia in the next couple of days…
April 27th, 2010
Perhaps the most (in)famous roads in Argentina is the Ruta 40, running all the way across the country North-South. It stretches some 5224km from the Southern tip near Rio Gallegos to La Quiaca at the Bolivian border in the North. It crosses 11 provinces and 20 National Parks. It begins at sea level and reaches almost 5000m in the Salta region. Very few countries in the world can boast such a long road across so many different regions!
Certainly its longest road, the Ruta 40 is an icon in Argentina similar to the Route 66 in the United States. Many books have been written on the Ruta 40, and travelling the entire length is an epic journey, especially in the South where it remains an untamed, wild and remote undertaking. More details can be found on the (Spanish) Wikipedia page.
On my journey up from Patagonia to Bolivia I happened to ride on the Ruta 40 several times. Probably less than 10% of that distance was on gravel roads, so my experience was perhaps a tamed one. That said, there have been some slow sections on the infamous “ripio”, with dust, sand, washboard, wind, heat, lack of water, and steep hills reducing the cyclist’s speed often to walking pace. Below are some photos of those sections between Mendoza and Salta.
As far as I know there is not a single, designated road called the “Panamerican Highway” across the entire length from Alaska to Patagonia. But I’m sure that every cyclist undertaking this journey of the Americas will travel some section on the iconic Ruta 40 in Argentina.
April 24th, 2010
Entering the Canyon of La Cienaga after San Jose de Jachal
After my Easter week in Florida I returned to Mendoza, staying there for a fifth time (a record for any place along my project). The city was by now quite familiar and I enjoyed one more afternoon and evening there. It felt a bit like a time warp, shopping in the same supermarket and dining at the same buffet we had done before and after Aconcagua. My only negative experience was an attempted theft: Three young girls walking behind me suddenly opened the zipper of my outside backpack pocket and tried to grab something. I turned around immediately and they ran off; luckily they didn’t get a hold of anything valuable, but it was a stern warning to be extra careful in touristy places.
Then back on the bike. My first day turned out to be a great day, thanks to persistent South winds I went far further and faster than I had planned. Plus, the Ruta 40 is completely flat between Mendoza and San Juan, so I just kept humming along with tailwind, already logging 100km at noon. I stopped in San Juan (170km) – the capital of the Province of the same name – for an afternoon coffee, already further than I thought I would go; but the tailwind was too good to pass up, so I kept going, literally until sunset, which also brought fantastic light for photos. In the end, I stopped at Talacasto after some 227km – just a little kiosk in the middle of nowhere, but I could buy some sandwiches for dinner and water and juice for the next day. Life was good.
Final hour of long tailwind ride from Mendoza past San Juan
The Ruta 40 follows an old, long defunct railroad track, which can be seen alongside the road. Every 20 km or so there are some old stone buildings, probably former stations for the railroad. They are sometimes even listed in the road map, but they are just ruins and many times there is nothing there at all.
The next stations of the journey were San Jose de Jachal and Villa Union. Great scenery, with North-South valleys and the Andes to the West. After Jachal the road crosses a small ridge in a canyon called La Cienaga, one of the most scenic places I have seen since leaving Bariloche. A perfect road for cyclists, narrow, steep, windy, paved, no truck traffic (re-routed around), and very scenic – a must for every cyclist.
Top section of the Cuesta de Miranda pass between Villa Union and Chilecito
Yesterday from Villa Union to Chilecito I had to cross the Cuesta de Miranda, at 2020m a pass of about 1000m vertical. The scenery is quite lovely here as well, just North of the Parque Nacional Talampaya, the crown jewel of the La Rioja Province. Also some 40km of gravel, the first I had since Bariloche. So that was quite hard, but nothing compared to the crazy passes over the Andes which connect Argentina and Chile. For example, I have read an account of a loop from La Serena to Copiapo, then over the Paso de San Francisco, back South on the Argentina side to Jachal, then back over the Paso de Agua Negra to La Serena. Both passes around 4750m high, with lots of desert and gravel tracks, 4000m of climbing each, talk about extreme cycling…
I plan to follow Ruta 40 North through the Catamarca and into the Salta Provinces. I am adding detailed daily logs to the Argentina ride page and some select photos to the Argentina Picasa album. As usual, you can also follow my progress on my Argentina SPOT tracking page.
Suerte…
April 17th, 2010
Summary:
For the last 10 days or so I have been riding North from Bariloche towards Mendoza. Arguably the Routa 40 and the road of the 7 lakes would have been the most scenic, but also longer distance and much more mountainous, which given my limited time and heavy bike + trailer wasn’t a good option for me. Instead I chose the route via Neuquen, a bit East of the Andes. This starts out with some hills and follows rivers and reservoirs. After Neuquen it is pretty much all flat, with long stretches of tree-less Pampa between towns. This dictated some very long days, often between 8 and 9 hours, with an average of 140km over 7 days. These long stretches of hot riding through the middle of nowhere require some physical stamina and preparation – like taking on enough water for example – but they seem to be first and foremost a mental challenge: Riding endless straight roads to the horizon through the desert isn’t for everyone and often requires a lot of patience. But it also has its rewards, like rolling down some hills, or cruising effortlessly with tailwind, or just reaching the goal with the sun low on the horizon after a long, hot day. The people are friendly and curious, especially in the smaller towns not frequented by many tourists. With my recumbent and trailer I generate a lot of excitement everywhere I show up; in this regard this reminds me a lot of Mexico and Central America. Also, riding through the Pampa reminded me of the Baja California, where it was equally arid and maybe even hotter. Argentina is a vast country; after these 1200km or so from South to North I would have long crossed all of Germany for example. On the map of Argentina this is barely one quarter of the North-South extent of the country! So after the big countries in the North (Alaska, Canada, U.S., Mexico) Argentina and Chile are the two big countries in the South.
Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/tlausserPicasa/Argentina
Page: http://tlausser.com/blog/rides/argentina
April 2nd, 2010
After the bike frame failure in mid February near Esquel / Bariloche, the spontaneous 1 week trip back home to Florida, then the successful Aconcagua expedition from Mendoza followed by the trip to Ojos (unsuccessful attempt) from Copiapo I have now been off the bike for more than a month!
I start writing these lines after having just boarded the second bus of a 3-leg, 2000+ km bus route from Copiapo, Chile, via Santiago and Mendoza to Bariloche, Argentina. I want to get back to my bike and resume the ride North!
The first leg is a 10h ride from Copiapo down to Santiago. We leave Copiapo at 9:50pm in the evening and the drive is fine. (On the way up we had to switch buses in the middle of the night as our bus engine quit.) Except, this time, my seat neighbor: You always hope for some nice person to sit next to you – or the space to be empty perhaps – but this time my seat neighbor is an overweight, old Chilean man, who smells like smoke after every rest break, “overflows” over the arm rest into my seat and snores like crazy. I have to wake him so many times due to his relentless snoring that I am getting concerned he might get irritated and lash out at me. So no good luck there. What’s with my karma?
We arrive in Santiago around 8am. There I’m at this huge bus terminal with 60+ gates on each of multiple levels, with the big backpack, the big yellow duffel and my daypack. Where do I get to the next bus to Mendoza? I ask a shuttle bus driver and this time luck is on my side: I can purchase a ticket nearby and then drive with this very shuttle bus driver to the other bus terminal, some 10min drive from here. There are no lines so I obtain my ticket fairly quickly, and a few min later I’m on the shuttle to the other terminal. There I’m dropped off right next to the bus leaving for Mendoza. Just enough time, 15min or so, to go to the bathroom, freshen up a bit, buy some water for the next leg and get on the bus. At 8:50am we’re off heading for Argentina.
This bus is only half full, so there is enough space with typically empty seats next to you. The road goes up into the Andes, heading towards the Bermejo Pass, which I have by now seen several times, at least on the Argentinean side. There are a lot of trucks driving over this pass, and many of them are more crawling than driving. So we always drive short sections in between backups behind very slow trucks. I have never seen so many trucks passing one another as uphill on this pass. You just hope there won’t be another truck coming back down when you’re the fourth in a convoy of trucks and buses passing a particularly slow truck uphill…
Near the top of the pass on the Chilean side is the ski area Portillo. This looks a lot like Lac de Tignes in France: A few large hotel buildings and several ski lifts in the middle of nowhere. I believe the Austrian ski teams practice here in the Northern summer (Southern winter)… Anyway, the road is undergoing some road construction up here on the Chilean side, which makes for slow going through gravel one-lane sections. Eventually, though, we reach the tunnel at the top around 3200m. On the other side we pop out in Argentina and then get a short view of Aconcagua near the Puente del Inca. Nearby we also have to pass through customs and the border inspection.
An hour later every bag and person is checked and we continue, except we need to wait a bit for some cyclist race to pass us going uphill.
One of the particularly nice aspects of today’s drive is that there is again green color: Trees (in particular poplars), little rivers, vineyards. Green feels so good after the brown and grey of the Atacama desert. From grey to green…
I have now been driving this road between 2 (Chile) and 4 (Argentina) times by bus. Still fascinating scenery and always sunny and clear weather. We pull into Mendoza around 4pm. It’s bus terminal I also know quite well by now, as well as navigating in and out of town and its central Plaza de Independencia.
Next up Mendoza: I arrive at 4pm and the bus to Bariloche leaves around 9pm. That’s great, 5h is enough time to get downtown, pick up my bike duffel, repack all bags, leave the mountain gear (backpack and duffel) behind and get back to the bus terminal. At the hotel there is a Harley Davidson motorcycle festival or meeting – it is a zoo. The road is nearly inpassable, so many Harleys on road and sidewalk. And the crazy sound, just like back home in Florida. (Why so many people shell out so much money for such a bad motorcycle is beyond me – I’d stick with one of the “Ultimate Driving Machines” (BMW) – but it’s like a cult, making primarily old folks feel younger and good about themselves!)
Over a cup of coffee I use their wireless Internet, repack my bags, and deposit my mountain gear. This distribution of my gear is becoming an almost routine part of my logistics. After 3h I’m headed back to the bus terminal. Everything works well, just one more long night on the bus – this time with plenty of space and a fully reclining seat (Cama Ejecutivo).
And one more little adventure the next morning: The bus pulls in to a terminal (in Cipoletti) and the bus assistant announces a brief stop. I put on my shoes, get out and go to the restroom to pee, blow my nose and wash my face. With a fresh face I come back – and the bus is gone! Darn – I can’t believe it, as I was just away for 5 mins! Yup, you better believe it, that bus is gone, continuing on its way to Bariloche without me – what do I do now? At least I had the prescience to grab my daypack – just a habit due to the passport and other valuables in it – but my yellow duffle is on the bus, and the next bus would get me to Bariloche at least 4h later.
I talk to someone at the Andesmar counter who makes a cell phone call and suggests for me to take a cab down the road, where the bus is supposedly waiting. So we take off with a cab. He drives like a maniac to a place on the other side of town, where the bus is supposed to wait. There are a few other buses, but we don’t see an Andesmar bus! We don’t have a phone number to call the lady back and double-check. Shucks! So now we race back to the terminal, valuable time going by. I already see myself losing hours, how stupid! Back at the counter the lady assures us of the specific location and that the bus will be there!? So we drive back – feels like helpless (and costly) thrashing. We race back and get to the same location. A hundred meter further down some folks are waving at us – there are Andesmar buses. I get directed to a bus that says Bariloche on it; however, it’s not the same bus (instead one with lesser quality seats). So I don’t have my bottle of water anymore and now have cheap seats for the remaining 6h drive, great! But at least I’m on a bus again. And low and behold, to my pleasant surprise, they pull into another, much bigger terminal just 5km down the road (in Neuquen) – and there is my original bus, waiting for me. I get on and we’re taking off – whew, I’m not getting off this bus anymore until Bariloche…
So finally here I am in Bariloche, in the same hostel I limped in with my broken bike some 5 weeks ago. Later this afternoon I will pick up the fixed bike from the shop and – hopefully – tomorrow I can resume the ride North.
March 21st, 2010
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