We did a few errands in Bariloche this morning, which had us on the road a little later than preferable. I got to experience an Argentine post office, it wasn't overly exciting. Snapped a few photos on my new favourite hill climb workout hill, you guys will love it. Made our way south out of town a little after 11. Leaving town, we spotted another pair of cyclists making the 120km trip to El Bolson, turns out it was a local duo on mountain bikes. They were much slower, and were wearing clothes that didn't really peg them as cyclists. I found it a bit surprising that they were game for a 120km ride, but I guess you can't judge a book by it's cover. Even Deaner in FUBAR had a 10 speed, and this dude wasn't too far off. He did have some rudimentary things that nearly qualified as paniers too. I'm not being a gear snob here, I'm trying to be objective, this stuff wasn't overly road worthy! Anyway, as another duo on bikes, they were A-OK in my books.
We passed the Cerro Cathedral mountain/ski area, and several beautiful mountain lakes. Basically the first 80km or so were continuous postcard views on both sides of the road. I don't really understand how the beauty, cost and hospitality of the area don't make it a more popular destination. The roads have tiny paved shoulders, but wide gravel shoulders. We ride on the road, and it seems that it's only once or twice a day when we feel the urge to move to the gravel shoulder. Having two trucks pass opposite ways at the same time they're passing us is the only reason to move over. The decision is made when you hear a truck behind, see a truck in front, and hear a musical toot-toot of the horn rather than the semi foghorn "get the hell off the road" honk. Most Argentine cars are small, so it's easy to fit three abreast, and/or drivers aren't in enough of a hurry to care, so they just slow down till the oncoming car passes so they can use the other lane.
My left calf/achilles interface is totally messed, my leg really hurts. I wore tall socks today to keep it warmer, but basically I pulled one smaller muscle down there really bad. I can ride as long as I do very little ankle motion, but putting force into the pedals isn't appealing. I'll spend some money on massage when I'm home to limit scar tissue buildup, which must be happening now. We're not in discomfort phase, we're more into the injuring the muscle phase. I rub it at night, and of course wine at dinner helps take my mind off it if nothing else. For a while I was feeling pain shooting down into my ankle and up into my calf... lovely especially when your legs are your transportation. Guess that proves my gears were a little high the other day on the climb.
We had some mild showers during the day, but nothing that made us uncomfortable. It seems that a 5-35C temperature band, with or without precipitation, can be handled with a very small amount of space age textiles and a robust metabolism.
We kept looking ahead and thinking where we should stop for lunch (at 3:30) and picked "the top of that hill". Another chapter was added to the "things just work out" book as there was a picnic table and tea house at the top, unseen from where we made the decision. On the menu were baguettes with cheese and salami and veggies again, plus we ducked inside for some tea and mini scone type things. 4 scones and two teas set us back about a dollar each. It was sort of a farmhouse with a welcome sign out front, and while we drank tea and looked out the window, we got to watch their little dog, cat and rooster go about their afternoon in the flower garden. Better than Haagen Daas and watching Oprah.
At that point we had 50km to go, which turned out to be a breeze. It was all gentle 2-3-4 degree downhill slopes with a tailwind, we were cruising along as happy as can be with lots of speed and not much effort.
Made it to El Bolson with the sun shining and plenty of energy to spare. Circled the town's main streets and found a house/hotel to stay at... full back yard with decorative garden, bikes locked up in oversize garage the owner appears to do some mechanical work out of, and again a full kitchenette, although this one is slightly detached from the room, for a grand total of 80 pesos or 26 bucks. I haven't decided yet if I'm gonna make Tori settle up later to split it $13 each ; )
We showered up and walked down to the supermercado, as we anticipate some holiday closures coming up, and possibly camping tomorrow as the distance to Esquel is probably too long for the day, especially with my ailing leg (180km). Suffice to say, the locals are stocking up too. It was fun shopping. Seeing different products is neat, even if you feel like a dumbass at times for not being able to figure out what they are. I bought a few items that will be taste test surpises, I don't really even know what they might be since they don't have pictures on the labels and no words I know are on the labels, and I'm actually not too bad with menu and ingredient comprehension. All the shopping carts were the size of the "kids carts" at home, and the place was so crowded you'd have to negotiate corners with patience as there'd be a logjam of traffic. But nobody seemed stressed or irritated, they just talked and carried on. It was hectic yet tranquil. Picked up a nice bottle of $3 wine instead of the $1 litre juicebox style.
El Bolsen is a bit of a cross between Fernie and Jasper in my mind. Beatiful big mountains all around, and nice streets. There's a couple of things that really stand out. There's more dirt bikes than I've seen elsewhere, and there's chicks driving them too. It's a granola type town, and there's granola Argentine women. if you haven't caught on yet, this is a good thing!
There's always the thought when travelling that "women are beatiful here", I say it and I've heard everyone else I know say it. But why? Part of it just has do do with novel/different features I think, but I've got a few theories that go beyond the novelty factor. I haven't really seen anyone wearing makeup here, not even waitresses. Obviously in Beunes Aires it's different as surgical mods and clothes/makeip are even more common than California, but where we've been makeup is uncommon, expecially on people our age (there's a few overdone older women, but they're few and far between in granola towns). People just look normal, and to me that means they're confident to a degree, which also helps the cause. Secondly, obesity is rare. This means people have jaw lines instead of jowls, so your chance of having a nice face just shot through the roof there, plus their skin looks healthy instead of flabbly and caked in coverup. Thirdly, there doesn't appear to be much stress. Even with bumper car traffic in the supermercado, people chat to those next to them instead of jockeying for position and acting all testy and pissed off. Disposition does a lot for your image.
We had a great dinner - I went for chicken ravioli with garlic cream sauce and Tori had a milanesa sandwich, of course with cheap wine. Most places don't really have pints of beer, they have the usual size bottles or big 1L bottles that people treat like a wine bottle and share.
When we were paying our dinner bill, I spotted a bottle on the retaurant bar that had huevo on it promintently - egg liquor. The owner let us try some... and I guess not surprisingly it was sort of like egg nogg in taste, and it was super thick. I thought it might be weirder than that. He siad they mix it with sugar cane alcohol (rum?), so it'd be like rum and egg nogg, just a different twist on the ingredients.
My forehead hurts from getting burned the other day. I'm surprised at what a serious burn it is, must be a little thin on ozone down here, cause we had our bakcs to the sun during much of the ride. My forehead wrinkles like a 100 year old, I've got a thick layer of skin that's toast. Feels like I've got a mask on when I scrunch my brow.
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