Leg Time - 5:19.26
Total Distance - 2062.53km
No, you haven't missed a post, I was in Mendoza at the end of the last leg, but I got the bus to San Juan. Why? Well, towards the end of the tour in Chile I decided that there wasn't really much point in wasting days and money cycling through regions in which there was nothing to see and believe me, there is very little to see between Mendoza and San Juan; once you've seen one Pampa... Besides, I had to stay a day more than I had planned in Mendoza after a visit to several wineries went on quite a bit longer than expected. Didn't see that one coming.
And why 50km out of San Juan? Well, there are 150 odd kilometers between San Juan and San Jose, and only a couple of abandoned villages between them. Originally, I was going to try and do it in one go, but the owner of the hostel in San Juan warned me against it believing the road to be too hilly. So, the only options were to try anyway or to wild camp, which would me having to carry 10 litres of water plus food and waste a day. Then he kindly offered to give me a lift all or some of the way, as he was doing a tour in this direction anyway, and if the other passengers didn't mind there was plenty of room in the pick-up. It was too much to resist, and so this morning I found myself doing the first 50km with a lovely old German couple and their even lovelier buxom niece. She couldn't understand why I was cycling for the last 100km and sounded genuinely worried that "they were abandoning me". As I stepped out of the pick-up to get on the bike she asked me to reconsider and get a lift all the way to San José. If cyling across the Andes was a feat of willpower, it was nothing compared to the one neccessary for me to get on my bike today.
I've put up some photos of the crossing by the way, you can see them here
And why 50km out of San Juan? Well, there are 150 odd kilometers between San Juan and San Jose, and only a couple of abandoned villages between them. Originally, I was going to try and do it in one go, but the owner of the hostel in San Juan warned me against it believing the road to be too hilly. So, the only options were to try anyway or to wild camp, which would me having to carry 10 litres of water plus food and waste a day. Then he kindly offered to give me a lift all or some of the way, as he was doing a tour in this direction anyway, and if the other passengers didn't mind there was plenty of room in the pick-up. It was too much to resist, and so this morning I found myself doing the first 50km with a lovely old German couple and their even lovelier buxom niece. She couldn't understand why I was cycling for the last 100km and sounded genuinely worried that "they were abandoning me". As I stepped out of the pick-up to get on the bike she asked me to reconsider and get a lift all the way to San José. If cyling across the Andes was a feat of willpower, it was nothing compared to the one neccessary for me to get on my bike today.
I've put up some photos of the crossing by the way, you can see them here
No pics of the buxom fraulein, Roddy? You surprise me ;)
ReplyDeleteSadly, no. Siiiigh...
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