After a one-month break in Buenos Aires, we are back on the road. The team now counts a third member: Martin, a French guy that we met by chance in the streets of the capital. We set our course West towards the Andes.
Leaving Buenos Aires on a bicycle is a challenge that shouldn't be underestimated. The metropolis is huge and we'd better not run into villas (slums). Nevertheless, we are well informed and we get out safely by the North, following the Rio.
Leaving Buenos Aires under the rain
The first day, we are lucky once again to meet Javier, a biker who invites us to stay at his place for the night. This well-timed encounter saves us because we were getting worried by the late hour and the threatening rain.
Javier
His mother Marta
Javier and Marta are adorable. They are used to host people because each weekend a dozen of soldiers are staying at their place. Both of them are very generous and give us precious suggestions for our future route. Since this day, the very religious Marta sends us quotations from the Book of Jehova that we receive everyday on our Argentinian mobile phones.
After two days in the suburbs, we're finally on the countryside!
During most of the following day, we ride under the rain. Due to a lack of alternative roads, we end up on a highway, crossing a toll booth by bicycle for the first time. We arrive at dusk in Solis to seek shelter in a motel just before a violent thunderstorm hits us. A blackout follows and lasts for a few hours. Later in the evening, we hear on the news that the same storm caused havoc in Buenos Aires.
Inhabitant of Solis, highly interested in our trip
We start again from Solis in a joyful mood, happy to discover the Argentinian campo. It took us 2 days to leave the capital for good! The road cuts through huge fields and pastures that are out of all proportion to what can be found in Europe. The distances are so long that it's hard to believe that we are in the region with the highest density in the country.
Sorry for the framing, I shot the picture while riding and twisting my hand...
After one good day of riding, we decide to have a break at the side of the road to drink maté. We pull over at the entrance gate of a huge estancia (farm). Just when Martin was about to urinate against it, a 4WD is driving out of the property. The driver and his wife pull down their window and we start chatting. They ask us to wait for them and guard the gate until they come back from a few errands. After a while, they are back and invite us to spend the night in their property, a superb estate of 120 hectares. The 2-km path to their house is muddy and it is tricky to maneuver our loaded bikes (50 kg!).
Well deserved maté after a hard day of riding
Entrance gate of Nora and Ernesto's estancia
Nora and Ernesto in front of their estate
Ernesto and Nora have a son who studies in Zurich and also have the Swiss citizenship (from what we understood, they are descendants of Swiss immigrants). Their beautiful house has a perfect garden in which we pitch our tents. An incredible amount of starving mosquitoes swoops down on us, forcing us to gear up. Those bloody insects will become a nightmare during the next two weeks.
Our camp (well, obviously you can't spot all the mosquitoes)
We get a small tour of their estate and of their cattle. They also run a bigger estate located at 180km from here, with an airstrip.
Typical countryside scenery
The chief guard of the estancia
Their owners are very proud of them
Back lit heifers
Windmill at dusk in Ernesto and Nora's garden
In the evening, we are invited to the airfield of their son Martin, who is a professional pilot (fertilizing fields with his aircrafts) and a plane acrobat. We are introduced to all his staff and spend a nice evening, cooking and eating empanadas.
Preparing the stuffing for empanadas
Pilots in the kitchen of the hangar
The next morning, we stop by to greet again the aviators team before continuing to Pergamino. The weather is pleasant to ride, without being too hot.
There's still some work to be done on this one
Riders and pilots at the airfield
Straight road with little shade (that won't last for long)
Uncle Sam is never far away...
Double standards...
Thanks to Javier, we have the address of a cyclist association in Pergamino that might host us. We turn up at Cachi's bike store, a former bicycle racer. He is fascinated by our bikes, asks us a thousand questions, invite us for a drink and introduce us to all his friends. We can sleep in the premises of the cyclist association.
Super Ricardo, one of many cyclists in Pergamino
Cachi, former bike racer, well-known everywhere in Argentina
The next morning, we meet again Cachi at his shop to have breakfast. Three chairs, one wooden board and his shop is transformed into a coffee shop. Cachi makes a few phone calls and finds us the next place to stay at his friend's Hector house in Bombal.
After a tiring stage of 100km, with the last km ridden by night (suicidal, we won't do it again!), we arrive in Bombal and call Hector, who comes on his bike to meet us and guide us to his house. We get to know his charming family, who welcomes us like kings with room, board and laundry! Hector introduces us to his colleagues at his mechanic shop and to his fellow volunteer firefighters of Bombal.
Hector and his little family
Volunteer firefighters of Bombal, after the asado (barbecue)
Hector's mechanic shop with his three new trainees
Church in Bombal, a small village typical of central Argentina
Hector and his wife Alicia ride with us to Firmat on the following day. There are only 25 km to ride, but we arrive quite late because we were dawdling in Bombal.
The riders team with its two official guides (check out the superb jerseys!)
The pack heading for Firmat
Once in Firmat, we are introduced to Mario and Natalia who run a bike shop. They are extremely friendly, invite us for some snacks & drinks and give us technical advices. They grant us the access to their workshop, whenever we want if we need it (they live right above the shop).
Maximo, Natalia, Bianca and Mario in the front of their bike shop
We leave Firmat after a two-day break and ride to Corral de Bustos. We ask for a safe place to spend the night to the local police, who forwards us to the local sport club. The tenants offer us to sleep in the locker room of the soccer team and, of course, we accepted. As a bonus, we receive a fresh bottle of soda, a superb banner as well as soccer jerseys of the local team.
The endless straight road that weakened us during couple of days
The night in Corral de Bustos in a locker room
The next morning, we are woken up by the local TV crew, that has been called by the tenants of the sports center. They arrive in the locker room and wish to make a footage of our journey. We are still half asleep and try to answer sloppily to their questions.
In Ucacha, a representative of town council invite us to sleep in the patio of the townhall.
The classic lunch break: the gas station (with AC!) in the middle of nowhere
Before arriving in Rio Cuarto, we face violent winds that whip up tremendous quantity of earth and dust. When we finally arrive, we are filthy with dust even inside our ears, we ate sand and earth during more than five hours!
Earth whipped up by violent winds, near Rio Cuarto
The journey has to go on, even with wind and dust...
The average cleanliness of a biker
The Ruta 11, on which we rode for more than 300km
Small break in Rio Cuarto before throwing ourselves into the first South American climbs, in the Sierra de Córdoba. For Argentinians, those are just hills, because the massif culminates only at 2884 m...
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