With a little help from my friends

Hurriedly in the morning I packed up my things and in no time I was boarding the boat to cross the “Lago de Buenos Aires”.

And not unlike last time I found another cycle tourist with me. Each eager to relate to the other our experiences we quickly stroke up some conversation. Javier is a Canadian who, like me, thought that it seemed the right time in his life to go and explore the world for the wonders it has to offer, by bicycle. I rapidly came to understand that he went all the way from Canada to this small town of Puerto Ibañez over about a year and a half. With the alacrity that only comes to travelling people we shared our planned road for the next few hundreds kilometres and decided to team up! Thus was created the “Team flatagonia” (we named the team in retrospect to the early days of its creation).

And as some of you might have guess, sure enough, after riding for no more than 10km came the first flat. I did not mind much though, that gave me a nice opportunity to practise some scales on the violin (which in turn I have no doubt motivated Javier to repair his flat faster!). With the newly set inner tube we went on to go through the customs and I finally came back to my dearest Argentina. As we arrived to the first town closest to the frontier we filled up our bags with chocolate, pasta, snacks, sugar and other nutritionally recommended food. As we prepared ourselves to go… Javier got A flat! That did not deter me to practise my C flat scale.

All in all and as you might have guessed, our partnership allowed us to ride for a wooping 30km that day. But we found a nice place to camp that night and soon we were happily laughing about our day around a shared beer. It is only in the morning that we really began to put some kilometres behind us and head towards the town of Perito Moreno and the ruta 40. That is, after having taken care of the 3rd flat which also happened to have been the last!

It always feel good to come back to Patagonia’s flatness

After a first night in the desert we planned on getting to the next of human settlements for the night: Bajo Caracoles. This is also the afternoon where we were showered by some rain, ultimately soaking my shoes to the point of me not feeling my toes anymore. As we arrived to the named village (which comprises of 6 to 10 houses) we first went to the bar/hotel/service station/do-it-all. The prices asked for a meal decided us to postpone such a rip-off and looked at a traveler app’s advices. We learnt two things: Juan Carlos the village nurse is the go-to guy. An active dog gang roams the village. Largely intrigued by this active dog gang, we went seeking for this Juan Carlos.

… and we found a sign “Juan Carlos camping” leading to this. A (mostly) finished wine bottle, pieces of asado and some other pieces of meat over the faintly glowing ambers. But where was Juan Carlos? Judging by the wine, was he taking a nap somewhere?

No. Not 20min passed before he arrived and generously showed us to a room with two bunk beds, offered us a warm shower and a meal for 300 pesos. We gladly took the deal and went to the medical building (where he lives). As he learned that I “knew computers”, he told me he needed to change some configuration on his router, but forgot the password. Well, I proposed to reset his router and set it back up and running with his desired configuration. That didn’t take into account him not knowing (once I reset the device) the necessary user to connect to his ISP.

Technical details aside, I reset his thing and there wasn’t any internet anymore. It wasn’t until late after the dinner that he contacted his friend who knew his password who allowed me to get everything back up and running! All in all, I still think that nerdy me was way more perturbed by disturbing the internet connection than Juan Carlos the nurse living in the desert.

Our meal was served after Juan Carlos turned the medical centre’s room into an Argentinian rave. Juan’s huge speakers started blaring techno music and the TV started displaying twerk contests and other forms of hard partying. I was still able to enjoy the guanaco garnished pastas!

You don’t get much more Argentinian that this picture. I am just sad not to know more about the active dog gang

I would like to say that we partied hard every night, but although we did get some beers down here and there, I would say the greatest of all things was to share those amazing lands and moments with Javier.

Javier did not approve of this picture, showing his tent sagging so much

Should we call them the southern lights? (Although it was most probably rain)

What more can you wish more than a blazing fire sky right before dawn?

As the days came by, we also launched ourselves in a pun competition. I think we rapidly agreed that my stupid sense of humour won me the prize. Our days, punctuated by the guanacos and the occasional scorpions rapidly passed by until we went each on our way.

But Javier intends to continue his trip to eastern Africa before coming back to the Middle East. Who knows? We could cross paths again as I leave from France on my way to Asia!

Meeting Javier was definitely a highlight of my trip! After spending 5 months basically alone, it really felt good to have someone else to talk to and share the experiences with someone as crazy as me! The desert can rapidly become a tedious or lonely experience, but the both of us were able to make it through laughs, puns and peanuts butter!

The characteristic longing gaze calling for a peanut butter break

Also, Javier has a youtube channel where he uploads his experiences, you should definitely check it out and I’m sure he would dearly appreciate any subscription!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKQnvltsAb4AITUPwscBwXA

And on I went on my way, getting to the town of El Calafate.

It’s so fluffy!! Looks like a Pokemon!

Now I am going to visit the glacier of Perito Moreno and head to the end of the world, the windy renowned Tierra del Fuego!

Until next time,

Chloé