From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

We took our time going from Los Andes back to the Pacific coast. It was great to see the changing countryside, especially after the monotony of the Argentinean deserts. We had an excellent camping spot in the foothills of Andes, biked through an enormous field of lemon and avocado trees. We biked along the coastal road, which alternated between bathing resorts more or less posh and more or less integrated into the beautiful and wild landscape. We rode through a little alleyway overflowing with flowers of all colours, and despite the strong headwind, we found ourselves smiling.

Yesterday we visited Valparaiso, a lovely city. It was an athletic tour, to say the least, since the city is spread out across 40 hills alongside the ocean. The colourful facades of the houses were amazing, but we found ourselves wondering how these houses, most often cobbled together from whatever material was lying around, were able to stay up on these steep slopes. The port here had been important before the opening of the Panama canal, and so we were surprised by how small it was. Today it is mostly used to export Chilean copper, and more importantly, lots of high quality fruits and vegetables.

And we were able to take our time along the coast, because we now have more time available!

Sébastien's work, Réunica, has graciously agreed to let him come back to work 4 months later than originally planned. It means that we can take our time going all the way down to Ushuaia. Jean, a friend of ours who is about a month and a half ahead of us, recently had snow in Patagonia, so we were thinking that we would try to arrive in the Terra del Fuego around the middle of February. Then we'll head to Buenos Aires around the end of February, and stay there three weeks, visiting microfinance institutions and seeing a little of the city. Around the end of March, we're going to... Madrid! Since we have the time, we've decided to bike back to France, and visit our families and our partner schools on the way to Paris. We'll also give a couple of presentations about our trip, naturally accompanied by our trusty steeds and all our gear. It also means that we'll be able to ease back into life in France and to staying in one place after two years of transience.

To know more about the extension of our trip, go to:

Why?   Calender

Sara & Sébastien

Coming up to the border

We knew that the Andes were waiting for us as we left Mendoza. It was the last time that we would have to climb so high. The mountain was 3200 meters in altitude and we had allowed ourselves 4 days to get over it.

The first day was tough since we weren't used to climbing. We biked up 1600m and then went back down 200m to Potrerillos. There was a little campsite, basic and expensive for what is was: $13 for a site for 4 people with a tent and a car. We negotiated with them a little and paid about $11.

We also had our fourth flat tire, and our fifth. It was too hot and the glue from the patch dried too quickly too stick. It exploded twice more when we tried to inflate the tire.

The next day was supposed to be the easiest, but it turned out to be hardest of all. We didn't actually have that much to climb in terms of altitude, but it was hilly and our legs were tired. Around 1pm in the afternoon, the wind changed to a headwind. It was so strong that we had to pedal downhill at 15km/h (when normally we should have been going 35km/h!). We decided to stop to eat. In theory, the wind was supposed to drop so that we could make it to Uspallata (1880m). Fortunately the wind did go down.

Thursday, more uphill – our legs were sore. My knees especially were causing me problems, and would flare up regularly. The scenery was beautiful. We were surrounded by mountains of all different colors, some of them crowned with melting snow caps. After 21 km, the wind shifted. It was the same wind as the night before and it meant that it took twice as much effort to go uphill. We got stuck on a steep incline and I just couldn't go any further. Sébastien wasn't very motivated either: the toughest thing for a cyclist is a strong headwind. We thought about turning around, but we had already climbed up a fair bit, up to 2000m. Somewhat ruefully, we agreed to stop a car. I waited by the side of the road and flagged down the first pick-up truck that passed.  It whizzed right by us at first, and then slowed down and backed up to see what we wanted. It was a couple from Mendoza, headed towards Santa Cruz on business (the wine producing region in Chile). They agreed to take us as far as the international tunnel "Cristo Redemptor," the border between Chile and Argentina. Generally bikes aren't allowed in the tunnel, but the company that manages it usually allows cyclo-tourists to go through.

Los Libertadores

The Chilean and Argentinean customs are grouped together in a big border complex, in theory to make things easier...

There were tons of people. There were a couple of buses waiting and lots of cars trying to get across the border. I lined up for the second window, following their instructions. There must have been 20 people in front of me. When I got to the window, they asked me for our vehicle registration. I explained that we were traveling by bike. The customs officer didn't seem at all surprised, and instead asked for my PAX. What's that, you say? It's apparently an official paper handed out by the national guard, naturally in another office. I headed over there, but the police had no idea what I was talking about. Eventually they understood and they said that I would have to pay a fine since I didn't have the "Immigration Andean card". This time I was the one who didn't understand. I told them that when we entered Argentina, the customs at La Quiaca told us that we didn't need one. They believed me, and in the end we didn't have to pay US$10 each. Phew!

So back I went to the second window, where the line was even longer than before. The Argentinean customs officer stamped our passports and sent us to the Chilean customs, window 3. The was barely any line there, until one of the bus drivers had all his passengers go through in front of me. And then I figured out that we also had to fill out a form. I got out of line with two copies of the form, and once we had filled them out, I got back in line. The officer asked first for the vehicle registration. I showed him our PAX and once again explained that we were traveling by bike. I thought for sure she was going to make us go back and get another official form! She looked at Sébastien and stamped his passport, and he went quickly back to keep an eye on the bikes. Then she stamped my passport too. Finally!

One might think that that was the end... but no! Next we had to go through the SAG, which strictly controls everything that comes into Chile, particularly fruits, vegetables, honey, animals and animal products, and plants. The man from the fourth window asked for my vehicle registration, and I had to explain (again!). He stamped our forms and said we would have to wait until someone came to inspect our bikes and panniers. Sébastien quickly signaled to one of the SAG employees who came right over. We opened all our bags and she asked us whether we had any fruits, vegetables, honey, etc. Of course not, we ate all our food before we got into this section. We had picnicked only a few meters before the border complex! We had even given away a couple of our bananas to some people waiting in a bus, since we didn't want any of our lovely fruit to go to waste. She stamped our forms and told us that we could go. We had been there two hours and didn't need to be told twice to leave! The officer at the border asked for our fruit-free stamp, and made us show our passports, and then we were out of there.

Welcome to Chile!

Finally, in Chile! We thought we had to turn our watches back an hour, but we didn't need to. Yet another mystery of the times zones.

Only 62 km to Los Andes, 2500 meters down and 30 hairpins turns. We decided to try to make it there that night, despite the fact that we were tired and it was already getting late. The headwind certainly didn't help any, but we made it there around 7 at night and found somewhere to sleep.

The cost of living is even higher in Chile than in Argentina. Our budget didn't really leave much room for solid walls, and even less for eating out. We also rediscovered quite a few French customs, such as budding in line for the bank. In Argentina people waited in line, 10 feet from the ATM to make sure the person ahead had enough space to conduct their transaction! People here bump into us in grocery stores and want to pay and get out as quickly as they can.

Sara

Malbec

It's not hard to remember the wines in Argentina. San Juan is famous for their Syrah (both start with  "S"), Cafayate is known for the Torrontes, and Mendoza produces the best Malbec.

Mendoza has a reputation for excellent wine. The "bodegas" are located in Maipu, a little town nearly engulfed by the big city. We visited the wineries, learned a little about making wine and of course got to taste it. The region also produces chocolate and olives. Much deliciousness!

Encontrar ("to meet" in Spanish)

Traveling by bike is one encounter after another. Occasionally when we're too tired, we wouldn't mind just being left alone, but most of the time meeting new people is what inspires our journey and fills us with energy.

In Santa Rosa we met Lucy, the director of cultural affairs for the town. We met her by chance in the grocery store when the owner tried to help us by calling out whether anyone knew where two travelers could spend the night. Lucy spontaneously offered to help us out – not to host us, but to find somewhere for us to sleep. She called the head of the CIC (Centre de Insercion Communatorio). He was in a meeting, but apparently that wasn't a problem, and we were supposed to wait for him at the town hall. We waited until 8:30pm, when I finally decided to go Lucy's to see what was up. She called the director who had simply forgotten all about us! Finally around 9:30, we were shown our “room” for the night.

We slept well, tucked into our sleeping bags and protected by the inner walls of our tent which we used as a mosquito net!

Nourishment

The steak in Argentina is so good, it is always worth another mention!

We can get really good, melt-in-your-mouth steak at the grocery store for only US$6 a kilogram! And it's carefully wrapped up in packages and kept refrigerated. Needless to say, we've been taking full advantage of it!
Departamiento ("Apartment" in Spanish)

It's a little like being at home, but still not quite.

Since arriving in Mendoza we've been staying in a little apartment with a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. The owner of the place approached us in the road, and although we were skeptical at first, in the end it was great. We paid less than if we had been staying in a room in a youth hostel!

Operation

The operation was long and arduous, and they had to make several attempts and order extra tests, but at last we found out what the problem was with my back wheel. Don't worry – the surgeon-mechanics were very good and we think they fixed the troublesome joint. We'll just have to see if it holds up under the weight our gear!

Zonda

The Zonda is a warm wind that blows in from the Pacific. It's the only wind that is able to get through the Andes, leaving all its humidity in Chile. The wind blows normally between May and October, mostly in La Rioja, Mendoza and San Juan provinces. In the winter the Zonda can raise temperatures by 20°C!

We felt the wind when we were in Mendoza... and it was certainly hot enough!

Amigos

When we arrived in Mendoza, we heard from Max, the Austrian cyclist who we had met in Panama City (he came one time with Kevin to eat with us in our swanky apartment). Max was also in Mendoza and we made plans to meet for dinner. While we were talking, Kat, an American and Swen, a German also joined us. They had met Max a couple of times since Peru and we had met them once briefly in Mazatlan in Mexico. Max had invited them to join us for dinner, and we spent a lovely evening with all our old cycling friends in a restaurant with all-you-can-eat pizza!

The next morning, on our way to check on my bike after its third operation, we watched a cyclist go by on a strange looking bike. He stopped by the side of the road and we noticed that there were three other cyclists just up ahead. We hurried straight over to them. It turns out that they were the 3 cyclo-tourists (and a friend of theirs) from the group "Riding the Spine." We had heard about them and had seen their website. They are going from Alaska to Ushuaia in 3 years, riding on the back roads. They hate the pavement! They are without a doubt the craziest travelers that we have ever run into. They even paddled from Panama to Colombia, with their bikes in a kayak!

Clearly we're not as crazy as they are!

Sara

There’ve been no articles for a while. Why? Because you can’t get on the internet in Argentina in towns with less than 20,000 people. In all the countries we’ve been through since Mexico, there’s been internet access in the towns, and sometimes it was hard to get to a computer since there were so many people trying to get on the network. Here, in a little village of about 5000 people, they looked at us like we were crazy when we asked, and they told us that there was no internet access in town. Four days ago in Villa San Agustin de Valle Fertil (7000 people) we found about a dozen computers connected through dial up. It didn’t work once the whole 2 days that we were there. We wrote an article (below) that we just finished.

In Catamarca, we had a wonderful time at a an “asado” [barbecue] that Daniel and his friends invited us to. They made a special effort for us – they started the barbeque at 10 pm, much earlier than they would have normally. We started eating the delicious grilled beef sometime around midnight….

We also got to try the favourite Argentinean cocktail: Fernet Branca (like a warm martini) mixed with Coke! We preferred the red wine… without ice or water or soda water, naturally!

We had a wonderful evening, fun and social, and we thank them!

After going to bed around 3 with full stomachs, you won’t be surprised to hear that we had some trouble getting up and going the next morning. We left Daniel’s – rather sadly – around 11. The wind pushed us along, and we blasted through our previous average speed (23.3 km/h over 77 km, compared to 20.8 km/h). All thanks to the wind!

The region has a Mediterranean climate, and we crossed through huge olive plantations, hundreds of hectares each. All those fields of olive trees actually made the landscape seem monotonous: stretches of trees, bushes and spiny shrubs each bigger than the one before. To distract us on the flat stretches, sometimes lasting 10, 20 or sometimes 30 km, we saw only a few surprised animals crossing the road and then scurrying into the bush. We don’t know what they’re called in French, and we forgot the name in Spanish too, but they look like rats with a shell on their backs and can move very quickly. We forgot to tell you – for the last 3 weeks we’ve been seeing lots of parrots, in pairs and in groups of nearly 100 birds. They’re really noisy when they stop in a tree, and they are very shy and we can’t get close enough to take a picture. We’ve also seen condors and foxes.

Wednesday we left the bikes and went on a 3 hour drive through the “Valle de la luna,” the valley of the moon. You need a car and a guide to get into the provincial park, a world heritage site because of the dinosaur fossils that were discovered in this semi-arid environment. We got to see strange spherical rock formations, and coloured geological layers. To be honest, though, we were a little disappointed. 

After a day of rest, we set out for two long stretches of 110 km each in the desert, with the wind at our backs. The only distraction was the “Difunta Correa” shrine, who according to legend died of thirst in the desert and her son was found 4 days later still suckling at her full breast. Pilgrims from across the country come to leave bottles of water for her, to quench her eternal thirst. 

Then we went through several vineyards and cultivated areas in the San Juan region before re-crossing the desert, this time with a strong headwind. We had the wind at our backs again for the fourth leg and now we are in Mendoza, the fourth biggest city in Chile, with internet access! We’re going to stay a couple of days here to see the city and the region, visit a microfinance institution (if they agree to see us…), see the bodegas (caves) and to fix Sara’s back wheel.

Sébastien

After a lovely stay in Cafayate, we faced a 3000 m climb. The road was bad and the headwind made it all that more difficult. We left the warm and dry Cafayate valley and arrived frozen stiff in Tafi del Valle after having coming down 1000 m, some it off the road. For the first time in 16 months we used the heater in the hotel room.

The next morning, we went almost 2000 m downhill, along a lovely road surrounded by lush spring growth and we ended up in a totally different climate, a crushing heat that we’re not used to anymore. The air was different too, dense and “heavy”.

When we arrived in Concepcion, Luis came right up to us and offered to help: first he offered us some delicious lemonade (the real stuff – lemon juice, crushed ice and sugar) and he helped us to find a hotel. Reluctantly we refused his invitation for the next day to visit his little corner of paradise, a valley a little too far out of our way. We had a good time with him and he taught us about his region, famous for producing lemons and sugar cane.

Even though the next bit of road was flat, the heat made us sweat profusely, and we each drank 5 litres of water to make up for it. A number of people had told us that we would find a camping ground in La Vina, including a driver who stopped to take a picture with us and chat a bit right at the entrance to the village. But instead we found an abandoned town running along an ancient road. In the end a couple allowed us to camp on what seemed like an old picnic site beside the road, and they even gave us a jug of drinking water.

The next morning, the change in temperature was drastic: we were hot in the morning when we left, but it got cold as we climbed up an unexpected 1100 m hill, and then we froze on the way back down.

In the suburbs of Catamarca, we stayed with Daniel for 3 nights, a journalists that we met through www.hospitalityclub.org. He took us around the city in the morning, and organized an “asado” (a barbeque) for us. He warned us ahead of time though: his friends didn’t arrive until 10:30 and the barbeque didn’t get going until 11:30 pm!

Clearly, these are not the kinds of hours kept by cyclo-travelers! Tomorrow might be a tough day on the bikes!

We’ll leave you now, we’re off for a siesta!

The answer to the question “how to Argentineans drink their wine?”:

They drink it with water (flat and fizzy), soda (coke, sprite, etc.) and ice cubes…

Sébastien