We wish you all a late Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. The road between Chilecito and Salta was a little bit special since Akira could not take part in the adventure. His laps let him down so that he went back to Buenos Aires on a bus in order to get checked by a sport physician. He is now back in a great shape.
Some 700 kilometers separate us from Salta. Our peloton is reduced to two bikers, we have to get our bearings. The first day, we are lucky to ride on a cloudy day. This might sound surprising, even more for our fellow readers living in the harsh Swiss winter, but anyone that has been through the furnace of La Rioja will understand that it is a real luck and will make good use of it to cover the kilometers.
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| Straight all the way! |
At noon, we run into three bikers: a French couple (
Laurent and Audrey) and a Spaniard heading together to the South. At night, we sleep behind a YPF gas station, a safety guarantee since there is a gas pump attendant all night.
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| Bike tourers' gathering |
The next day, we continue our crazy route to the North and after riding 100 kilometers, we are stopped by the procession of the Virgin that freeze all traffic in the city of Belen. The police allows us to pass at the condition that we push our bikes through the city, without interfering with the procession. We finally arrive to a cosy campsite (which is rare in Argentina), where we decide to stay for a day. This will help me to wipe away my biker suntan by chilling at the poolside.
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| The few shady spots are already taken |
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| After the effort... |
The road that follows is not asphalted, which considerably slows us down. Still, there is only a little traffic and the landscapes are superb.
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| Unpaved part of the Route 40... very dusty |
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| A condor is following us, on the lookout for a breakdown |
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| Séb against the wind |
We camp in the middle of nowhere, and we particularly feel the absence of our cook-in-chief at dinner time. In the late evening, impressive heat lightnings light up the sky, each of them distant by only a few seconds, enabling us to see like in broad daylight.
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| Heat lightnings in the desert of Catamarca |
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| Martin's nice encounter while getting out of his tent in the morning |
At the middle of the day, a violent wind starts blowing against us. We ride with difficulty until the only village of the region where we wait in vain during 5 hours for a lull.
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| Cyclotourists met while exiting Cafayate |
We finally arrive in Cafayate in the late evening. We will stay there during five days, tasting vintages of the region with a very nice team of Frenchmen. No to be missed if you are travelling in the region, the Torrontés, a local variety of vine that makes a dry and fruity white wine.
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| Welcome to Cafayate |
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| Cafayate, a small village where life is pleasant (even though it seems a little bit too touristy to me) |
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| Our Pyrenean guides, JY and Christophe, lead us to the 4th cascade |
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| Happy hour in Cafayate |
We leave Cafayate, still with a headwind, to pass through the Quebrada de Las Conchas, an absolutely spectacular canyon.
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| Los Castillos, Quebrada de Las Conchas |
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| Wild animals in the bed of the Rio de Las Conchas |
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| Splendid panorama, Quebrada de Las Conchas |
We sleep in the bed of the Rio de Las Conchas. On the following day, we stop at Alemaña, a small village where we savor a sprite together with construction workers chewing impressive quantities of Coca (the leaves, not the Santa Claus beverage). We will have to get used to it, since everybody in the province has swollen cheeks full of Coca. This plant has digestive virtues, is appetite-suppressant and prevent the altitude sickness.
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| Martin riding without hands |
We arrive in Salta just before a storm. Like every arrival in a big city, we have to take the highway in order to get to the downtown.
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| Salta la Linda, shot taken from the Cerro de San Bernardo |
We will stay in Salta for a few weeks, waiting for Akira and visiting the numerous breathtaking sites of the region.
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| Salinas Grandes (Jujuy), with Cynthia and Martin |
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| Quebrada de San Lorenzo (Salta), Akira is back among us |
What happens next: brief incursion in Chile before entering Bolivia. It will be a high altitude road with almost no villages, which foretells nice adventures. We expect to start again from Salta on January, 20.
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