Ephemerica

 

The rest of our time in Mendoza didn’t go exactly as planned…I had to do some maintenance on the bikes, and that took longer than anticipated. We found a decent bike shop in Mendoza to true our wheels, and buy some replacement chains (actual Shimano parts or equivalent are hard to find down here). And I scrubbed the rest of the drivetrain and the bikes clean, and adjusted the deraileurs. As a result, the day that we had finally planned to take to visit wineries was rainy—actually the first rainy day that we had seen in some time. But the day turned out actually better than we expected…

After deciding not to bike out to the vinyards in iffy weather, we decided (at the recommendation of our hostel) to do some wine tasting in town at The Vines of Mendoza, a fancy little tasting room near the main plaza. We went to a special “meet the winemaker” event, where we got to taste several wines from a single winery (including a very nice reserve Malbec) and got to hear a little something about the family business and each of the wines from the winemaker. It was there we met our new friend Veronika, a German woman who is living and working in Switzerland. We happened to overhear her talking with the people she came with that she was bike touring through Argentina, so we of course butted in on the conversation, and then invited her to come eat dinner with us after the wine tasting. After some more sharing of stories, we decided that since we were on the same schedule and going in the same direction that we would bike together from Mendoza to Chile.

From Mendoza, we planned to head west through the Andes over to Chile, along the way climbing from 700 meters elevation (in Mendoza) to over 3000 meters elevation at the pass. We had originally thought that we would take an easier route to the town of Uspallata, and then up to the pass, but Veronika (who had some time to kill before meeting a friend who was arriving in Santiago) convinced us that we should instead go through the town of Villavicencio, home of the famous brand of bottled mineral water in Argentina. Well, this would require us to go over another pass of nearly 3000 meters between Mendoza and Uspallata, as well as travel many kilometers of dirt roads. The “town” of Villavicencio was really nothing more than an abandoned luxury hotel (think “The Shining”) and an upscale roadside restaurant. We stopped at the restaurant, cold and sopping wet after being rained on, ate a giant meal, and then camped alongside the restaurant. The next day we continued up the hillside to pass #1, which was encased in fog for most of the day. That was probably good, because I think if we had actually seen the entire road, we might have turned back toward Mendoza to go the easy way Once we got to the top of the pass, the skies cleared a bit for our descent to Uspallata. We celebrated our arrival by eating gigantic steaks at a place called Tibet Cafe in Uspallata, so named to honor the fact that the movie “Seven Years in Tibet” was filmed in the area around the town.

We continued climbing the next day up to the Puente del Inca, an interesting geological formation where a natural bridge has formed from deposits left by hard water flowing down from the mountains. We had a bit of trouble with the law that day, as there were some policemen along the route who decided that they would enforce Argentina’s bicycle helmet law, because Veronika wasn’t wearing a helmet. Now, I don’t condone riding without a helmet, especially while descending on busy freeways. But if you’ve ever been in Latin America, this is a total joke—everyone rides bikes, and nobody wears helmets. This is most likely because helmets here are hard to find and cost the same as in the U.S., upwards of US$100. The police eventually decided to let us go through, but assured us that they weren’t responsible if something were to happen. The did scare us enough to try to find a helmet for Veronika though. The police told us we could buy one in the small ski village of Los Penitentes, but most of their gear was for climbing and skiing, not cycling. To make a long story short, after wandering around town a bit, knocking on a few doors, we found a mountaineering guide/veterinarian (how’s that combo?) named Miguel who was willing to sell her his helmet—which, coincidentally, had already been to Ushuaia twice on previous bike tours. We took this as a sign of providence, and Veronika had herself a helmet.

After our night in Puente del Inca, we decided to part ways with Veronika, as she wanted to stay another couple of days to do some hiking in Aconcagua Provincial Park. Aconcagua is the highest peak in the Andes, and highest peak outside of Asia at nearly 7000 m (22,800 ft) high, so we understood her desire to get closer to that beast. For us, we were content to take a picture or two from the vantage point on the highway We were destined to cross over into Chile that day. From the town of Las Cuevas, at 3100 m elevation, we had two choices. One was to take a 4 km tunnel through the mountain to the Chilean side—but the only catch is that we would have to hitch a ride on a truck, since bikes aren’t allowed in the tunnel. The other way would be to climb another 700 meters on a 9 km dirt road (pictured) to visit the “Christ the Redeemer” statue at the top, commemorating a peace agreement between Argentina and Chile. Inspired by our climbing efforts of the last few days in addition to the gorgeous clear blue skies, we decided to go the hard way. And it was, in fact, quite hard—much steeper and windier (in both the blowing of air way and the zigzag way) than our previous efforts. But the views were spectacular, and we can’t wait to post some pictures for you. After that last push, we made a rapid descent down the Chilean side, passed through immigration, and then camped behind a ski resort hotel overlooking a beautiful lake.

Now we are riding through northern Chile, heading as fast as we can towards the Lake District, where we will cross back over to Argentina. We rode through the capital of Santiago, which was an absolute nightmare between riding on busy highways and getting lost on side streets. Our major impression so far of Chile is that it’s expensive, easily the most expensive country we’ve been in since leaving the U.S. In some ways, it’s like we’ve been transported back to Southern California, complete with traffic, shopping malls and supermarkets. I’m sure that impression will change though as we head into the more rural southern regions of the country. We are riding through the major agricultural belt, as well as the wine producing region, so we are taking advantage of the availability of fresh produce and cheap wine.

Posted by Matthew on February 3rd, 2008 | Filed under: Argentina, Chile