Argentina/Chile: From mountains to sea

After a few days we dragged ourselves away from San Pedro de Atacama, bidding a reluctant farewell to the French bakery conveniently located about 50m from our campsite. It was time to climb (again) as we headed back over the Andes via Paso de Sico and into Argentina…

Penitentes are narrow blades of hardened snow or ice formations that can grow up to 5m high, found in glaciated and snow-covered areas in the dry Andes above 4000m. They supposedly resemble either the tall white pointed hoods worn by brothers of religious orders for the Processions of Penance during Spanish Holy Week – or maybe a group of people kneeling in penance – depending on who you ask.

Arriving at the remote border outpost a helpful official went off to rouse the necessary people to provide us with exit and entry stamps. A few minutes later we were settled into the bunkhouse accomodation available for travellers, shown the hot shower and gifted with a loaf of freshly baked bread. Listening to the wind battering the building that night we were very happy to be snuggled up indoors.

Passing San Antonio de Los Cobres and with a drop of 2,500vm ahead we were gleefully anticipating a fast and fun descent into Salta – alas, it was not to be as we woke to a complete shift in weather conditions…

Arriving in Salta the following day it all looks much the same as our previous visit in 2010. It’s an attractive city with the central plaza having a  European feel…

You don’t have to venture far though before the rot sets in. Argentina is looking a little shabby and rundown with high inflation and continued problems with corruption. The queues here are staggering, maybe it was worse because of the lead up to Christmas, but trying to do anything from posting a letter to buying a few groceries involves a lot of time standing in line. The banking system is an experience in itself – long queues at ATMs which are frequently either broken, out of cash, or just disinclined to cooperate with foreign banking networks. Should you actually find a functioning machine after trying a dozen or so, you can only withdraw a maximum of US$180 at a time, for which you are charged a US$10 fee. Not surprisingly we ran out of cash a couple of times – and it feels decidedly precarious to have just 5 pesos and a packet of instant mashed potato left to your name. Happily, Argentinians are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and never has a large cakie thing passed to us out a car window been more appreciated.

You can’t cycle far in northern Argentina without encountering roadside shrines. The most prolific honour the Difunta Correa – a woman who, according to legend, took her baby and walked out across the desert in an attempt to reach her husband, sick and left to die by partisans during the civil wars. She ran out of food and water and died, but her baby was found days later alive and feeding miraculously from her still-full breast. Devotees (particularly truck drivers for some reason) leave bottles of water at these shrines – to ‘soothe her eternal thirst’. With temperatures hitting 45°C in the barren desert south of Cafayate we could definitely empathise.

The other big hit on the shrine parade is Gauchito Gil, the biggest folk hero in Argentina. Revered as a Robin Hood figure, he was captured and killed – and credited with the miraculous recovery from a strange illness of the son of the police sergeant who killed him. Predicting both an imminent pardon for his crimes and the sons illness, Gauchito Gil urged the sergeant to let him go – but this didn’t wash with the sergeant who slit his throat anyway. On finding his dying son (& the letter of pardon) the sergeant did some fast praying, his son was saved – and the legend of Gauchito Gil was born….

And from there it was a quick run in to San Juan, our base for a week over Christmas. Having booked a room online using the Air BNB hosting network we weren’t entirely sure what we’d end up with. So we were delighted to find that we’d struck the jackpot … our hosts Carlos and Haydee treating us more like visiting family than paying guests. Haydee is a chef, and it was fun to watch her at work preparing traditional Argentinian Christmas fare…

Leaving San Juan the landscape gradually shifted, desert being replaced by farmland and vineyards, which transitioned into pampa – the fertile lowland plains dominated by native grasses. 

Looking for an alternative to the main road through San Rafael we discovered that the old Ruta 40 was being upgraded with a new sealed road … although it was incomplete and still closed the local police assured us that we could get through by bike …

Having moved far enough south to avoid the heavily populated Santiago area we decided that it was time to head back to Chile. The wind had other ideas though, and we had to fight our way to the Argentinian border post at Los Loicas. From here the road winds up for 40 km to Paso Penhuenche – at a lowly 2,500m this didn’t seem like a big deal. Hours later we had barely covered 25 km, often stopped hunched over our bikes in the ‘brace’ position as gusts of wind in excess of 100 kph blasted down the valley. It was obvious that we weren’t going any further so we turned around to a small clearing off the road with enough shelter to protect the tent from the worst of the wind. No worries, we were soon snuggled up and dozing off as light rain started to fall. And then shouts outside the tent announced the arrival of the Argentinian border police. Unfortunately we’d been seen and the two officious officials wasn’t having a bar of our protests – it was going to snow they said (but that’s exactly why we are hauling around a 4 season tent we said). Thus we ended up being unceremoniously bundled into their crappy old Jeep and taken back down to the border post we’d stamped out of earlier that day. Thankfully the wind relented enough to allow us to make the crossing the following day.

 

Realising that it had been over six months since we’d last seen the coast we decide to make a detour …

Taking a series of back roads that dwindled to forest tracks, reality did not conform to our maps. Deciding to forge on, we eventually popped out near Chanco, finding a lovely campsite in the Reserva Nacional Federico Albert surrounded by giant gum trees planted around 1910.

Next up – exploring the Chilean Lakes District en route to northern Patagonia and the much-anticipated Carretera Austral …

Until next time,

 

Rubber side down

Ed & Gaye