Haakon's bike blog

Argentina, mix of different worlds

Argentina felt like a warm welcome after Bolivia. In many towns you find cozy Italian style coffee places where people are reading their newspapers and old men are playing games of chess. Bread tastes like bread again and people once again come up to me, being interested in my journey or trying to be helpful. And of course, there are differences within the vast country of Argentina: people in the northern Jujuy province with ties to Bolivia have a different mentality than the Mapuche communities in the cordillera, the gauchos in Patagonia or the Porteños (people from Buenos Aires), which are often considered arrogant and loud by their fellow countrymen. But no illusions about the Argentinean driving skills: they are still appalling!

I had an advantage cycling from La Quiaca at the border with Bolivia at 3400 meter towards almost sea level. And although the descent is hardly ever gradual, it made cycling easier. However, on the fourth day in Argentina when leaving Tilcara for Jujuy capital, despite the descending road, I was being pulled back by a wind so fierce I could go no faster than 10 km/h. The wind from the relatively open valley was funnelled into the quebrada (gorge) de Humahuaca. In 8 days I covered 900 km with one rest day in the pleasant city of Salta. My aim was to reach Santiago del Estero, which claims to be the oldest settlement by the Spanish conquistadores and Jesuit communities from which the rest of the country was colonized (hence its nickname Madre de las Ciudades). I have to say I failed in my mission, falling short \'only\' 100 km to reach the city and in the end accepting the offer from my friend to pick me up with his car. Howard is a friend from university who managed to find himself a job for the national agricultural institute INTA after receiving his college degree. The cool thing is, we (yes, me too! and Koen, a second friend) own a piece of land just outside the city of 4 ha, on which he grows different kinds of fruits and vegetables. When I arrived at the end of November I was just in time to witness and help with the last loads of melons and sandias (water melon) being harvested, transported and sold in the city to the local fruit and veggie shops. Good fun to help a bit, but I realized most of the hard work was already done: implementation of drip irrigation, clearing of the land, putting the plastic in place against weeds competing for nutrients, planting the small plants by hand, organizing and supervising the labourers during the harvest and contacting potential buyers in town. You would think this to be a full time job by itself yet he does it next to his regular job (but with the help of Karina, his girlfriend). Chapeau Howie! And a great experience to see it all first hand. After a week I went on my way again, a part of me being happy to leave the scorching temperatures in this part of the country behind (it was not even proper summer yet, but one day during my stay the thermometer indicated a staggering 42 degrees in the shadow, reaching up to 50 degrees in the sun..and yes even the Santiagueños found this hot).

I took a bus from Santiago del Estero to Cordoba, Argentina\'s second city after Buenos Aires. As was the case in Bolivia, I could not do everything by bike, I just did not have the time for it. I did not really mind for this stretch since it was all desert-like pampa (called secano here) with hot temperatures and lots of wind. And I was still going to see lots of that crossing the same secano to Mendoza, the beautiful city located on the foothills of the Andes and known for its quality wines. Quite some suffering was involved that week on the bike, self-inflicted of course:-). I started off visiting the Che Guevara museum in Alta Gracia, where the young Ernesto spent a good portion of his childhood. Pictures are shown of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro visiting the museum. The hard part happened the following day when crossing two mountain ranges to reach the next town. And yes, there is always the option to stop and put up camp. But with the environment being very inhospitable one presses on, although the body complains. That day, I sat on the bike for 9 hours, the longest day so far and climbed from an elevation of 700 meter to the highest point of 2300 meter. It was no surprise that the next day I needed to rest. So the invitation of an older couple the day before to stay in their house in Villa Dolores, only 50 km further on the road, came at the right time. But when I called them nobody answered (which, I found out later, was a strategy often used when not recognizing a familiar number). The lady that happened to be in the kiosk at that moment offered to join her to her house next door so she could help me find the address with a city map. To make a long story short: I ended up staying in her house where she lived together with her mom and two sisters. She said it was meant to be that our paths crossed and that everything happens for a reason. Her rationale was watertight: she had gone over to the kiosk to buy an aspirin for her headache. But when she returned with me, she had all forgotten about the aspirin she wanted to buy but her headache was gone! Yes, I guess you could call it superstition, something latin countries are known for, but I rather liked this \' inevitability of things\'. So when her son David, who worked as a cameraman for a local television channel, asked me if he and a colleague of him could interview me about my cycling journey I said yes. The interview went by fast but was fun to do. The next morning when I left for the road again, David accompanied me for some 20 km with the camera on the moped. If you want to see the result, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kjdni3wPXYo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

And then many kilometers south, after passing Mendoza, a stroke of bad luck: the rim of my back wheel ruptured. I found out through my tire pushing outwards at the point of the crack, causing friction at my lock and brakes. But was it actually bad luck or was it also part of the inevitability of things? After the initial disappointment I felt, I realized I might as well consider myself lucky: if the rim broke while pedaling it could have seriously damaged my bike or even injured me. And had it happened on the Carretera Austral, with virtually nothing around let alone bike shops, it would possibly be the end. So I put my energy in finding a bike shop that had a similar shaped rim for 32 spokes: two towns and six bicicleterias later I got lucky..

Argentina: where beautiful women are found (and men for that matter), with well developed cities and an European feel. But at the same time poverty is present, maybe more than ever. Like many other countries in the world, the division line between poor and rich only gets bigger. It is a gradual process that goes unnoticed until a sudden outbreak wakes up the nation. People are quite used to the stories on the news of rape, muggings and drunk driving. But during my rest day in Bariloche, a vacation town in the Andes not far from the town of Villa la Angostura where our prince Willem and Maxima pass most of their winter holidays, pillage was taking place. Youngsters, most of them not older than 18 from the poor barrios surrounding Bariloche\'s city center, embarked on a sort of crusade to plunder supermarkets, grocery stores and small food shops. People said it was planned, and its motive political (in the sense of them being instigated). And it may very well have been, but it clearly shows the underlying principle of haves and have nots, with the latter having hardly any possibilities to come out of their social isolation. It seems that politics fail to address this problem adequately, if it all. Add to this the staggering inflation rates (around 25% according to private analysts, while the government statistics agency claims it to be only 10%) and Argentinean future with respect to social and economical stability seems unsure.

I am finishing this story in the bus from Santiago to Arica in the north of Chile, a 30 hour bus trip. It is a good opportunity for my body and mind to get some rest after many weeks of cycling. And the inhospitable Atacama desert seems to be the right place for that. Endless views of sand, rocks and mountains with no cover and no rain. But there are still people working in this unforgiven place. I was talking to a man in the bus who was on his way to work in a copper mine, a two hour ride from Antofagasta (in the same Atacama desert as the San José copper and gold mine where last year\'s accident took place) at an elevation of 3000 meter with no cover and always wind. They work eight days straight and get eight days off working twelve hour shifts. After witnessing the accident at the San José mine on television and seeing the mining conditions in Potosi first hand, I respect these men for the hard working conditions they have to deal with. The miner and his compañeros got off the bus and I am continuing my way to Arica, then Lima, Peru. Starting in Osorno in Chile it means 60 hours by bus covering more than 4000 km to see Margit again who is coming over for a three week holiday in Peru. Yes, you do crazy things for love:-). In three weeks time I will continue my journey again for the last leg: from Osorno to Ushuaia riding the Carretera Austral.

Happy New Year to everybody! That your wishes may come true!

Beso, Haakon

Ps During the second leg of my cycling trip I cycled less days (35 including a couple of half days) than during the first leg but my average distance per day was higher (about 100 km). Many of my \'records\' were broken in Argentina:

Longest day on a bike: 9 hours

Fastest average daily speed: 22 km/h and largest distance: 172 km (large descent, wind in the back, flat)

Slowest average daily speed: 9 km/h (dirt road, rain, mountains)

Distance covered in South America: 3250 km

Total distance: 6250 km

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