Hit the road, jack… Highway 81

So, quite a lot happened since the last blog post, with no less than Toucan-sighting, jaguar stalking and police befriending!

After leaving the dear village, I went for a day hiking at the national parc Calilegua. The parc hosts many birds (including the “Toucan grande”) and provides many hiking trails crossing deep into the dense forest. Although not quite a bird, it is also the home of some jaguar, which you might be able to encounter (depending on where you go).

This strange bird for example seemed most interested in my cookie, being as bold as flying into my hands to chip a bit of it! (Look birdie, I know you like cookies but so do I, and this one’s mine). I didn’t go over all the trails. Wise from previous experiences, I knew that being steadily assaulted by swarms of mosquitoes wouldn’t be worth a few more kilometres of flourishing and luxuriant vegetation.

As I was strolling down this nice river, and looking for footmarks that would indicate I wasn’t completely lost, I came upon this strange pair of hands. Now, that’s not jaguar footprint, is it? I suspect monkeys.

Hm, now there’s the warning sign I was expecting. Padfoot is here! Wonder if Prong’s nearby as well (for those of you who wonder what the hell I am taking about: go read Harry Potter you muggles!). Overall, this hiking day has been a welcome rest from the road, and I was soon able to retreat to the camping zone and set up my tent before admiring the sunset.

With renewed strength I took back the road on the following day. Now, I came to love clouds. They mean I’m not burning under the scorching sun while desperately trying to reach that sweet shadowed spot on the horizon. What I hadn’t got to experience yet however, and what I guess everything cycle tourer must go through at some point is… the rain.

Well let me draw you the picture. Imagine that you’re 20km away from the nearest city, on the road, amidst a good whole lot of nothing. Now you get bursts of wind hitting you headstrong, making you feel you’re climbing the steepest hill. And then, far, far away, you distinguish a blurry background, all kind of greyish. Ah. Despite your moanings, chants of “rain, rain, go away, come again another day” and other pseudo-shamanic rituals, you soon find yourself under a battering stream of water soaking you to the bone, only made worst by the howling wind rushing by your ears. That’s usually when you begin to question your sanity for setting out on such a trip. Well, not much to do anyway except “keep on swimming”. After 20km I finally reach the nearest village. Now you must understand that villages in Argentina do not have (most of them anyway) paved roads. Now imagine what a dirt mud road looks like under such a rainstorm. Basically a tiny river of mud. I do not have a picture of me reaching the sole hotel of the city at that point, but I assure you that I was freezing and drenched in mud.

The following day I reached embarcacíon, starting point of the road 81. That road will take me to formosa and to the frontier of Paraguay. But before that, there’s a good 500-600km of straight, flat road, only curving once every 50km to circumvent a village.

That’s one of the many goat-families I’ve encountered so far. But they’re not alone! Pigs, roosters, cows, donkeys, horses, bunnies and Co. live all along this famous road 81. Now, there’s not much going on over there. I was one night hosted at the police station, where on the back garden of which I was allowed to pitch my tent. They also invited me to join them for the “mate” and even gave me food!

Then the next day, guess who I encountered? Another fellow cyclist! That German guy’s coming from Canada, and rode all the way to here! That was a surprising and very happy meeting, we were able to compare our roadmaps, and talk about life on the saddle for a time. But the craziest thing yet? Guess how old he is. 80.

Yup, that’s right. Now you don’t have any excuse to indulge yourself on the couch complaining about Newton’s law on gravity and letting it justify your inactivity 😉

Now, some of you have asked that I share my planned road (which is ever changing). Here’s a link where you should be able to see it! I have set as marked location the spot where I slept along the way.

Route from Salta to Iguaçu Falls
Route 1528 km
https://mapy.cz/s/3cyP2