Amaichá del Valle - Cafayate

Leg Distance - 66.23km

Leg Time - 3:02.48

Total Distance - 2783.12km

Avid followers of my times will have noticed that yesterday and the day before were pretty slow days, the reason being the 2600m climb to the Infiernillo (Little Hell) Pass at 3000m that I'd mentioned in my last post. The climb itself was over some 80km, so on paper around the same as Andean crossing in difficulty, but I must admit I found it considerably easier - what a difference not carrying 4 extra litres of water and food to camp out makes.

Sadly, a woeful road on the other side of the pass robbed me of the one thing that makes climbs all the more bearable, the promise of hurtling down the other side. For about 20km I had to keep at below 20km/h (on a good road I'd be descending at at least 45km/h) and even then, pretty much every screw in the racks and panniers had been shaken loose and Toops was creaking like a 2CV by the end of it.

On a bit of a side note, a lot of you seem to be asking whether I've lost a lot of weight since starting. Some, but not a huge amount, and I thought going through what I ate yesterday would be quite a good way to illustrate why:

Breakfast

- Cheese & ham roll (more like 5 inch sub, actually)

- 2 danish-like pastries

- 1 coffee (which I got in a local cafe, a cafe that apparently serves 2 mini-croissants with coffee, and who was I to refuse?)

Mid-morning

- 1 Salami and cheese roll (as above)

- 2 bananas

- 2 chocolate biscuits

Lunch

- 1 and a half salami and cheese rolls

- 2 bananas

- 2 chocolate biscuits

Upon arriving at hostel

- Half a salami and cheese roll

- Half a packet of M&M´s

- 1 chocolate biscuit

Mid-afternoon/evening

- Danish-style pastry

- Half a Mortadella and cheese roll (It was supposed to be for today, but it didn't fit in my tupperware box, what was I supposed to do?!)

- Best part of a carton of orange juice

Dinner

- 1 Milanesa Napolitana and chips, a milanesa napolitana being a breaded thin but large (30cm by 15cm or thereabouts) and topped with tomato sauce, ham and cheese. And I don't mean a few strands of grated cheese, this one had a lake of cheese on top.

- 1 Basket of bread served with the meal.

And I still went to bed regretting not having ordered desert. I was going to say that yesterday was a bit excessive given the climb from the day previous and yesterday, but after thinking about it I don't actually think it was that much more excessive; give or take a few pastries there and a couple of empanadas here, that's pretty much my diet for a riding day. On rest days I usually take advantage of cheap set menus, so while my diet then may be more wholesome, it's probably not that different in terms of calorific content; my body seems to think that every day is a cycling day and the appetite doesn't drop accordingly. As you can see, it's not really that easy to lose weight when you're cycling 6 hours a day because you have to eat like, well, you're cycling 6 hours a day.

Now, if you'll excuse me, all this talk of food has left me famished and I'm off to find a croissant or three.