Hill luck

So, I went on away from Mendoza, quickly distancing myself from the inconveniences of a city and I quickly arrived at night to some village. According to my habitude I went to the police asking for a place to sleep. Except this time they told me that I should go to the camping (thus paying my entrance to it). I’m sure you’re with me on that one. Utter nonsense.

Quickly I found some place that seemed nice enough and set up camp. The place was owned by some farmer but as I asked one guy working there I felt like everything should be ok. Well that was the first time someone awoke me at night, which is a bit scary in itself for a moment until he presents himself as the landlord and tells me he was wondering who was in there. Apparently the guy I asked didn’t pass on the word, ah well. I did get a good night’s sleep after that, so no harm done!

And the day after that I continued. I’ll skip through the details, just a nice day with some the mountains ever nagging at me to come closer…not long now.

And then came the moment to quit the well practised road to go to the less practised one. The morning had seen a quick drop of temperature but I headed away confident. Having had 2 flat tires for the last 2 days, and running out of new ties I stopped at a shop to buy some liquid to repair those instead of buying another tire. 25km later down the road I see myself facing rain with the temperature steadily decreasing.

The difference 24h make in temperature

And, guess what? Flat tire! Ahah, that’s almost funny. This can’t just be bad luck now, can it? I had asked how the liquid thing worked to the vendor. But he omitted that I needed a special tool to make it work. And so was I, by the side of the road, with a flat tire, looking at one car passing every 10min and under the freezing rain with my rain jacket apparently not so waterproof getting more and more soaked by the minute.

But finally some nice person stopped, and living near he proposed me to go to his house with the bike to repair it. My teeth chattering, hands shivering, I gladly accepted. He lived in a nearby farm, I felt I came back 70 years back, with just the goats and chicken running around, the living room with a blazing fire radiating heat from the hearth. While the glue on the tires were drying, I managed to warm myself close to the fire with a nice cup of coffee. All in all, I’m still blown away by how nice people get, and how they go out of their way to help me.

The view in the morning was, as always, splendid! Although it did get chilly that night (I estimate -3 degrees.

And then I made my way south, down the old dirt road to be continuously served with more mountains around.

Now I’m arrived at the city of Malargüe, final stop before my crossing of the pass “del Pehuenche” to Chile!

Until next time,

Chloé