A small trip in the Andes

We started from San Juan full of energy, with the goal to cross the Chilean border before returning to Argentina, in order to renew our 90-day visa. This won't be easy, as the closest border culminates at 4753 meters...

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After a few kilometers, we meet Helmut, a German who intents to ride to Bolivia. His vision of the journey is completely different from ours: he travels alone, on a road bicycle with a backpack, rarely stops in cities and loves wilderness. We ride together for a while until Talacasto, a village with a restaurant and two abandoned houses.

We then leave the route 40 and head to Las Flores, where Heidi, an Argentinian friend, kindly accepted to lend us her cabin. But until then, a completely deserted road still awaits us on about a hundred kilometers, with a peak at 2672 meters. Heidi, who had informed us well by scribbling a very aesthetic map, also warned us: "The highest tree that you'll find is as tall as my shoulder". And indeed, she was right (she is of normal height).

The ascent can't be done in one day and we camp at a few meters from the road, hidden from cars, in a splendid panorama. Far from everything, the sky is breathtaking.

Camp along the road to Paso Colorado (night shot, long exposure)

The end of the ascent is tough, we desperately look for some shadow to lunch. We finally eat at the foot of a cliff, covered by a tiny band of shadow that keeps reducing before disappearing completely. We are reduced to drink the pasta cooking water in order to save some blue gold.

Martin and Séb on the run

All along the way, we pass hundreads of mining convoys, carrying all sorts of things: bulldozers, prefabs, gigantic spare parts, phenomenal amount of gas. We also pass convoys of buses, transporting mine workers (normally, they work 14 days at the mine and get 14 days off in a city). Each time, those convoys are preceded by a 4x4 with a flashing light, announcing the number of vehicles following, which gives us enough time to pull over at the side of the road to let those monsters pass. Drivers are usually very nice and greet us with a friendly (but deafening) honk.

Special convoy bound for a mine

One of the hundread mining convoy

At the pass, instead of a descent with a mesmerizing panorama over the Andes, there is an almost completely flat salar. A trucker offers us some water that we don't decline, since we are getting really tight on our stock.

The Colorado Pass, 2672m, last obstacle of the pre-cordillera

Superb downhill ride to Iglesia, with the first remparts of the cordillera in the background

At dusk, we arrive at Las Flores. Thanks to the generosity of the Babick family, we sleep in a charming cabin at the center of the village. Omar, the neighbour who has a grocery, opens us the house and give us the keys. This place will be used as base camp for our ascent to 4700 meters. A huge thanks to the Babick family for their trust in lending us their house!

The Babicks' cabin, base camp for our expedition to the Agua Negra Pass

At the village, the immigration officer has a bad news: in order to extend our stay in Argentina for 90 additional days, they absolutely need the Chilean entry and exit stamp. However, the Chilean customs lie at 100km on the other side of the pass. The officers then suggests us a simpler solution, that we finally choose: we don't renew our visa and expose ourselves to a 300 Argentinian pesos (60 USD) fine when exiting the country. Note that one has to pay the same amount for an official extension (that has to be done in major cities)...

We were mentally prepared to climb a mythical pass, considered to be one of the most beautiful in the region. Even if this won't solve our overstay issue, we decide to climb it. We have planned the ascent over three days. We set off with 40 liters of water, a lot of food and a lot of motivation.

Setting course to the Chilean border

The first day is very hot. Around noon and after a long climb, we spot sheds. Those constitute the field HQ of "Mapal", the general contractor in charge of the road maintance leading to the pass. We ask them if it would be possible to picnic in the shade of their sheds. One worker informs us that we would be better 3km further down, with trees.  We get a confirmation that the distance is 3km, not 5 or 10, and are told that the spot should be easy to find, at the lowest point of a descent. At the mentioned point, there are of course no trees, we got fooled and curse those tactless workers.

A few kilometers later, we arrive at "Guarda Vieja", an advanced border checkpoint. The officer Soliz is a heavyset man, very cool but not to be fooled. He yells at Akira who didn't know that we had to stop at the checkpoint: "Eeeh Chino, para!". After a passport check, we discuss for a little while with Soliz and his colleague, who suggest to camp a little bit higher, on a flat grass site. Soliz doesn't know the exact altitude but can tell us that we are about 3000 meters, based on the average altitude given by tourists stopping at his checkpoint. I ask him whether it is safe to drink water from the river nearby: "Of course!". Two minutes later, I ask the same question to his colleague: "Definitely not!".

When we arrive at the suggested site, there is a small mountain hut at the entrance of a former mine. A man is watching us from the doorstep and I ask him the permission to pitch our tent against the wall to protect ourselves from the wind. Thirty seconds later, we are invited to sleep in the hut, in beds with mattresses. Our hosts are teachers from San Juan, members of a andinism club, very fond of nature, fishing and altitude. When I ask him if we're not disturbing them by sleeping over, Walter's answer is categoric: "Somos compañeros de la montaña, ustedes con la bici, nosotros a pie. Son bienvenidos aca.". (We're both companions of the mountain, you on your bikes, we on our feet. You are welcome here)

The team of the Andino Mercedario Club

We spend a superb evening with them, discussing about the road that awaits us, their passed sporting achievements, about Argentina in general. They offer us some aromatic herbs from the mountain, with incredibly strong smells and very useful curative properties.

Big catch at the Argentinian-Chilean border

Switzerland - Argentina : 0-1

The ascent of the second day has been planned to be short. This enables us to keep a maximum of strengh for the last day, while not sleeping too high in order to avoid altitude sickness. One curve follows another, we pass numerous road maintenance trucks. On some parts, the grade is over 12%, which turns out to be very difficult to climb with a 60kg bike on a gravel track.

We picnic in a water evacuation cavity under the road, in order to keep away during a couple of minutes from the sun which is still hitting us hard despite the cold.

High-altitude rest area

As we arrive laboriously to a flat stretch, Martin has his first flat. The repair is done in a matter of minutes, and even with a bicycle turned upside down on a mountain road at 4000 meters, none of the passing Mapal's workers stops to offer his help. This definitely settles our opinion on this general constructor. The truth is that being used to the tremendous generosity of Argentinians, we are a little bit surprised by this lack of courtesy.

12% grade in a gravel track, k.o.!

Martin experiences the first flat of his trip

A few minutes later, we pitch our tent behind a huge rock at an altitude of about 4000 meters. As soon as the sun sets, it gets very cold. It is the full moon and the scenery in which we are is simply magical, we can see like in broad daylight, and are surrounded by breathtaking mountains.

This big rock will shield us from the wind

Camp II, aka "Ivorian camp", 3950 metres (at moonlight, long exposure)

Maté at 3950m

Maté at 3951m

Maté at 3950m

At the small hours of the morning (5h30), the temperature got around 0º, we pack up, eat a breakfast of bread and refrigirated dulce de leche. To cut the cold, all we need is Ivorian music! We gear up and are ready to face the pass.

African atmosphere during breakfast, at 0º C

Well protected from wind and sun

During the night, the wind changed its direction and we end up with a 50km/h wind blowing against us.

Dandy and biker posing at the front of a 6000 meters mountain

Peloton in tight formation

Séb and his ice cream cone at 4300 meters

At an altitude of 4400 meters, a projected road tunnel is announced. The following part of the road  logically becomes worse, since nobody would maintain a road that won't be of any use soon. We arrive with difficulty at the end of the valley and stop to eat, but none of us is really hungry, which is symptomatic of physical efforts in altitude. The oily dry sausage doesn't appeal to anybody and we fall back on a box of sardines to be spread over bread.

Majestic valley

Last straight line before leaving the valley

From an altitude of 4500 meters, we clearly feel the effects of the altitude. Light nausea, lack of appetite, shortness of breath even at rest. On my side, I mostly have a small headache, like a hangover, as well as blocked sinuses. We have a small bottle of oxygen for emergencies, but we won't need it.

Last straight line before the final hairpins

The last fifteen kilometers are of the utmost beauty. The road climbs quickly from one end of the valley in three hairpins, forming a so-called "Zéta", through breathtaking sceneries. Not a single tree or plant to be spotted, but the moutain cycle through all possible colours: green, yellow, red, black. This final "Zéta" is undoubtedly the most spectacular part of our route.

Second hairpin of the Zéta, the road climbs quickly and unveils spectacular sceneries

Second hairpin of the Zéta, we feel tiny against the mountain

Second hairpin of the Zéta, we are cheered by the last penitentes of the winter

Akira greets you from the second hairpin

Last hairpin of the Zéta, the hardest but also the most incredible one

Remains of a glacier shaped by the wind form some figures of about 2 meter high, called penitentes. In the beginning, we spot a few of them, then later, they gather in a complete army, covering one whole side of the mountain.

Fifteen thousand penitentes and a Norman

Pénitentes, ice figures shaped by the wind

On the last 2 kilometers, the tremendous headwind gets even stronger and we're not in a mood to take pictures. The sole action of pushing the bicycle becomes a sporting challenge. Finally, we arrive at the pass at the end of the day. We can't stay long at the summit because of the cold and the violent wind that refrain us from leaving anything unattached. Most of all, we don't want to get stuck at such heights at dusk. Nevertheless, we take some pictures to record this memorable moment.

This huge sign, materializing the border, cracks in the wind in a very  unreassuring  way

The "lifting", a difficult trick done at high altitude in a violent wind to honor the cyclogastons

Not bad at all for the second pass of his life!

The descent lasts about 4h. On the first ten kilometers, the trail is in such a bad shape that we can hardly ride faster than a walking pace. We finally arrive at Las Flores in the night and crash in our beds, exhausted. This day has been voted by the team as the "toughest day of the journey"... at least until now.

We leave Las Flores two days later, for a beautiful ride through a canyon. Before entering it, we pass an artificial lake, formed by the Cuesta del Viento dam, well-knowed by wind- and kitesurfers.

Biker-yoga position, from now on a classic during downhills

Hot and dry...

Lake at the well-named Cuesta del Viento dam

We arrive in San José de Jachal and sleep in a cheap hotel. The next morning, after couple of kilometers under the rain, we are pulled over by a car that breaks violently right in front of us. The driver open his window to inform us that the road we're travelling on leads to nowhere. The village that ends the road must be so small that it would be hard to imagine why tourists would go there. After a U-turn and the right intersection, we are back on the correct road. As Chief-Navigator, I completely take responsibility for this detour (that, of course, I wanted to do).

A little bit later, we run into a French couple also travelling by bike (their website). Since they are coming from Lima and that we are riding there, they give us very useful information.

End of the day before arriving at  Guandacol

Subtle mix of green and red before riding downhill in the valley

We sleep behind a gasoline station at Guandacol, attended by a friendly family. At 5am, we are woken up by a bunch of youngsters finishing their party on the parking lot.

The next evening, we have bet on a "mini kisoko" located in Puerto Alegre to buy bread and water. When we arrive in the village, it doesn't take long until we realize that we'll have to survive with what is in store. The grocrey, in reality a hole in a house wall, only has five packets of biscuits, chewing gums and Coke. Since there's no water, we share three liters of Coke before starting again. And we shrewdly replace the bread by biscuits.

We ride a little bit more in a vivid red earth, whose colour is intensified by the setting sun. Giant cactus complete this superb scenery.

Gigantic cactus all along the road

End of the day in the red

We settle our camp close to the road, with again an incredible nightsky far from any kind of light pollution

At night with long exposure, the electrical arc is Akira's headlamp wandering around

At dawn, Akira is woken up by a donkey, obviously surprised by the presence of three tents on his usual grazing location. On my side, I got woken up by the sun. We have a pass at 2000 meters to cross before riding downhill to Chilecito for a well deserved break. Once again, the way to the pass is a dirt track.

Getting close to the pass, fortunately, because I'm starting to get very hot!

Last curves before the pass

Séb is being shaken on the track full of holes

We arrive in Chilecito under a blistering sun. La Rioja, one of the hottest province in Argentina, honors its reputation. The next challenge that awaits us is to find a way to ride despite this intense heat...