From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

We’ve been in Salta for two day now, staying with Ramon and his house of ciclistas, having a well deserved rest after 7 days of biking and more than 500 km (100 km of which were off-road). But we haven’t been lying around: we’ve been washing the sleeping bags, printing off stamps and visiting cards, getting Jose to take a look at our bikes (Sara – problems with a back spoke, hand grips, oil; Sebastien – hand grips, cleaning the gooseneck), sending a package to France (5 kg!), getting some new gear (socks, mostly), etc. Unfortunately for our research, the only microfinance institution in Salta refused to see us.

Argentina is different from all the other countries that we’ve been through. It was pretty strange going from the US to Mexico, but traveling through all the other countries, the differences between them haven’t been very abrupt. But going from Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia to Argentina has been disorienting and we’re having trouble adjusting.

Landscape

We left behind the altiplano, cold and sterile with its yellow, dry grass, and arrived in the Quebrada* of Humahuaca (too touristy for our taste), surrounded by colourful mountains. Little by little we descended in altitude: we started at 3500m and finished at 1200 above sea level. The head wind ruined our descent though. We had to pedal hard the whole way down and barely ever got going faster than 25km/h! It was infuriating. In the Quebrada we crossed over the tropic of Capricorn.

The route between San Salvador de Jujuy and Salta was really stunning. A little country road wound in between the lakes, and through green wooded landscapes with small flowers. It was a nice change, and we felt like we were on vacation – finally, a little bit of summer!

Lodgings

Argentina is more developed and so accommodation is more expensive, especially in the touristy Quebrada of Humahuaca. We were a bit alarmed at first when we saw the prices, but eventually we found something more to our taste. Luckily, camping grounds are pretty common, either city-run or private, with all the amenities so important to cyclists: a shower and a place to pitch the tent. And the further south we go, there more camping grounds there should be.

Hours

The daily rhythm of Argentine life is actually what’s causing us the most problem. Stores open up around 8 or 9 in the morning, but they close at 12:30 or 1:00 until about 4:30 or 5:00 for the infamous “siesta”! That means that we can’t even count on a convenience store being open during the afternoon, much less any other business. But once they open in the afternoon, stores stay open until 8:30 or 9:00, or even 10:00 pm. And of course restaurants don’t open until 9:30 or 10:00 at night.

At home, people never eat before 9:30 or 10:00 and often don’t go to bed until past midnight. When we were living in Paris, lots of people we knew thought that we were living “late,” that our timing was delayed, but compared to the Argentineans, we really weren’t that off at all!

Traffic

Argentineans are aggressive behind the wheel. We noticed as soon as we crossed the border. When they come to unmarked intersections, it’s whoever is the bravest who goes through!

On the other hand, one way streets and traffic flow rules are carefully followed, which we haven’t seen since we got to Mexico, last November! Generally, there are lots of rules that are followed here that we haven’t seen for almost a year!

Thief!

The day after we stayed in Humahuaca, we left for Purmamarca, a little village known for its seven-coloured hill. After about 15 km, I decide to take a picture, but our little camera was gone. It wasn’t in the handle bar bag, and neither was the camera case, which was strange since we never take the case out of the bag. I emptied the bag out on the ground, but it wasn’t there, even though Sebastien had put it in there this morning. We checked our pockets and our food bags just in case, but couldn’t find it.
Sebastien decided to go back to the hostel where we spent the night. He left me by the side of the road with all our bags climbed back up the hill we had just come down. In Humahuarca the owner was surprised to see him. Sebastien explained the problem and insisted that we had had the camera at the breakfast which had been !!include!!d. The manager called the cleaning women who got a strange look on her face when he asked her if she had found a camera in Room 11.  Right away she rummaged around in her bucket and there, hidden at the bottom, was our camera. The women tried to explain and the manager tried to cover for her. But that doesn’t change the fact that our camera disappeared (we didn’t forget it!) while we were at breakfast talking with the owner. We’ll never know whether they were in it together, but at least we foiled the plan. Good thing we hadn’t gone 50 km! You can’t fool these cyclo-tourists, on the road 15 months, and who know exactly what is and what isn’t in each one of our bags!

*dry river bed

Sara