Pedalling over the andes

When we mentioned we were cycling the length of the Andes, I think it was our flatmate Pat Mc Garry who was quick to point out that there was the small matter of the andes mountains to deal with. No problem Pat, it´s been done already we said, all very well saying that in the comforts of Galway city in June but actually crossing the andes in the heat of a Chilean summer was going to be hard work.

We left Santiago after spending far too much time there. It had been our hub for leaving the bikes, meeting our visitors and travelling, don't get me wrong, we´d enjoyed the city, it´s very safe, has great transport and lots to see but we just needed to get on the road again. Like Buenos Aires we´d had enough of city.

One disappointing thing about the city was our hostel, Newen Kara. Despite being clean and quite comfortable we found we were being charged more than other guests in our last few days there despite all the business we´d put through the place. I guess we´d trusted them a bit too much.

So we hit the road out of the city early in the morning to avoid the heat of the day, trying to avoid any dual carriage ways or tunnels and using a bit of guesstimation to find the road out of town. Eventually traffic on the secondary roads was too bad, the tight roads and impatient commuters forced us onto the dual carriage way where there was more space in the hard shoulder. To reach our goal for the day, the small town of Los Andes we had to climb 800 metres in the baking heat of the day through desert like scrub land. We had to get a lift in a pickup through a 3km road tunnel before enjoying some well deserved downhill into town. In town later we met lots of other cyclists, even meeting a dutch coupe who we´d met cycling the opposite direction on the Carretera Austral. Great to chat to others doing the same thing but we´d met so many and spent so long talking that we were famished by the time we got digs for the night and settled into some steaks.

Next day, taking the advice of the jovial character who ran the Los Andes tourist office we cycled 44 km out of town to the last free camping spot before the steep hills and the border; a nice restaurant owner let us camp under some willow trees by some ponds he kept trout and ducks in for the restaurant. As we sat in the shade having a beer we saw some other passing cyclists and hailed them in. We filled the campsite with Rob, an American who´d just cycled the Atacama and had the rasher like ears to prove it, and Alex and Lauren with their two kids behind their bikes in trailers. I guess you meet lots of people cycling who are doing more extreme stuff than you are but towing a 2 and 3 year old for the entire holiday was my idea of hell. It seemed like Alex and Lauren were well up for it, they´d done 7 weeks in Australia and New Zealand already.

Next day we hit the uphill again and started to really climb, the vegetation on the hills disappeared and the air got thinner as we passed the 2000m mark. The the remains of the trans Andean railway, built in the early 20th century snaked alongside the road, disappearing into impossible tunnels and re appearing again from the rock. Its a real pity the railway is in poor repair as it would make one of the most spectacular rail journeys in the world. The road too, had it´s quirks, where the road ran close to the hillsides and the scree tumbled down there were covered sections or tunnels with open sides. Not so much space in these so we had to turn our lights on and try time it so we didn´t end up int here the same time as the trucks.
By midday we reached the series of 29 hairpin bends, by the top we´d climbed another 800 metres or so. The road there had no crash barriers so was notorious for accidents. Also the traffic was heavy with lots of buses and lorries crossing the border and using all of the road on the hairpins. Still, despite the hard work it was fun cycling with the Argentines hooting their horns and cheering us on up the hill.
By late afternoon we reached the Chilean customs post and stopped to have a packet of biscuits and shoot the breeze with the Chilean border police. The border post was a desolate place, lots of rubbish being blown about a grey valley where cars normally had to queue for 4 hours to cross the border. We´d had to do the same with our jeep at new years so it was good to be able to relax and then just cycle on.
By the time we reached the tunnel at the top of the pass we´d really started to feel the altitude, it was an odd kind of tiredness, I wasn´t out of breath but just felt sleepy and lazy.
After the road company gave us a lift throughthe 6km tunnel we crossed into argentina and the scenery changed. Apart from the fact that we were at 3200m and the road stretch downhill ahead of us the valleys were more colourful, lots of red sand, green hillsides and copper ore lying exposed made the argentine side of the pass more spectacular.
We´d been so intent on crossing the pass that only then did we realise that it was 4pm and we´d only eaten a few packets of biscuits since 9am. So we stopped at the first place serving food and made short work of two helpings of a buffet dinner, much to the amusement of the woman runing the restaurant.
After the feed we freewheeled into the first town, Punta del Inca, stopping on the way to take some photos in front of Aconcagua, South America´s tallest mountain.
It´s probalby oneof my bigger regrets that we didn´t stop to hike someof the mountain, but at this stage we´ve had to ditch a lot of our hiking gear so we gave it a miss. So hard to fit everything in and I guess we could always fly in for an attempt at the summit proper as it´s not a technically difficult summit.

Next day we cycled to uspallata, having a late morning and lazy lunch and taking lots of photos along the way. Lots of the villagers kept mules to help mountain expeditions so we´d see trains of them trotting along on their own accord with packs of colourful bags on their backs, funny animals as they were always in a rush on the inbound leg home. The valleys became dryer and hotter on the way down and the cool breeze we´d had at the top was no where to cool the baking heat, so the days cycling was sweaty, hot going. After a steak we wild camped in the wood outside uspallata before hitting the road to mendoza the next day. Thankfully a cold front was coming in and the dead, 35 degree heat was cooled by a few oddly enjoyable rain showers. For lunch we called into a pistachio farm for water and were given a bag of fresh pistachios, fresh off the tree by the friendly Argentines.
After lunch we pushed off toward Mendoza passing through the wine areas. We´d both been on wine tours during our Christmas break but I´d had the idea of dropping into a winery while passing on the bikes so we ended up taking a free tour and tasting at the weinert winery. Have to say I was more impressed by the Ruca Malen winery I´d visited as the wines we´d tasted there was better and it seemed well run. Weinert was an older winery and looked a bit poorly run and dirty by comparison. For anyone reading at home you should try some of the argentine Malbec wines, it´s their speciality and tastes quite good.
We arrived into town and found a Hostel before heading out for a well deserved steak. Paul had been to a really good steakhouse when he´d visited with Emily so we took a taxi there and despite being the first customers of the evening we were treated to the best steak of my life. It was 2 inches thick and perfectly cooked, really juicy with the charred taste of the barbecue off it. After 130 kms of cycling we´d had a long day and the steaks nearly put us to sleep.
We took a rest day in the Mendoza hostel, went to a Pizza party and hung out with the others staying at the hostel.
Of all the legs on the trip this was the most scenic and took the least effort to get there. Of anyone thinking of doing this you could easily fly into Santiago,cycle over to Mendoza and see the area then get a bus back, two weeks would make for a good cycling holiday among some sublime scenery.

Right now we´re in Salta, northwest Argentina and we´re headed for Bolivia. After all the days in well stocked towns we´re looking forward to the challenge of poorer Bolivia and the altitude of the Altiplano. Our wallets could certainly do with the break!