dreirad

Where is that “altiplano shape?”
The Marin family from the casa de ciclista in Salta had been incredible. We could stay as long as we wanted to prepare for the continuation of our journey. The only thing we could do in return, was cooking for them in turn with the two japanese ciclists who were staying there as well.

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But for me it was necessary to leave, as soon as we got my back wheel from Switzerland. I had asthma from the many animals and was coughing, sneezing and catching my breath all day long. Even a few weeks after we had left, I would still get asthma attacks when ever we had a minor uphill or some head wind.
The first day we only made it 40km far. Then our legs needed to rest. We camped at a complejo municipal with a swimming pool, though the pool was empty for it is spring and the air can still be quite fresh.

For a while we made about 50km per day. This was enough to make some distance, but in a way that we enjoyed the ride and didn’t bike more than a few hours. We had enough time to take breaks and give Chan time to explore and play.

In Cafayate we took a day off to hang out and eat helados. These first weeks we needed to give our bodies many breaks. That good shape we had from the altiplano and all those incredible passes in Peru half a year ago had disappeared and we are feeling our legs even after a short day of biking.

Desert and gravel
Past Cafayate the wind started to blow. It was either head- or sidewind or it started out as tailwind and slowly turned into headwind. Weren’ t other cyclists telling us the winds start in Patagonia? Anyway, the argentinians are telling us now, that on Routa 40 the wind starts blowing from Mendoza northwards in the month of october!

The flowers on the roadside, the trees, grass and wineyards disappeared shortly past Cafayate and we entered desert and thorn land. Chan loved it and got his cars out as soon as we stopped for the night. With sticks and rocks he drew roads into the sand and soon was covered with dust. From now on we had sand and dust on and in everything. Somethimes the wind didn’t slow down at night and our dinner was enriched with crunchy sand kernels. It wasn’t easy to find spots sheltered from the sun and wind and many times we put up our tent quickly under a thorny bush and fled inside as soon as it was up to get out of the wind or away from mosquitos. Luckily our tent is storm proof and stands up to the blows like a rock. Poor Florian always needs a warm dinner and so he went outside into the dust storms again a few times to cook some pasta.

We were moving quite fast, the road was straight and flat. Ups, what’s this? No more pavement! Our first “ripio road” was pretty sandy and soft and had a nasty washboard surface. We slowed down very much. I wasn’t prepared for it although I knew it was coming. I got into a grumpy mood. How did we manage to ride all those dirt roads in Peru and Bolivia? I just wanted to get back onto nice and smooth pavement again!

Flo lost a screw on his front rack, but after about 40km we rolled onto pavement again all in one piece. Not so on our second dirt road a few days later. The surface was better, much harder than on the first piece. We weren’t faster though because the road was going uphill, in parts steeply. On the last few kilometers, where the road was flat again, I suddenly lost one pannier and one of my lowriders entangled in the spokes. Flo got it straigt again, but after a few 100 meters, it broke completely. It is a good thing, that I have a front rack as well, on which we now put my panniers and I had to ride the last few 100 km with my panniers high up. The lowriders, I can’t use anymore, we will have to get new ones done.

I don’t want to go to Africa!
Chan enjoys travelling again and he is indeed very content. The trailer is a bit small now, but we changed the interior, so he’s got a bit more space. The first few days he ignored his new bike and said, he would only be riding it, once he was five. But suddenly one day he wanted to get on it. He was first putting his feet high up onto the frame, not using his pedales and Flo wasn’t allowed to take a picture. But then he started to use his pedales, first very cautiously. Next time on his bike he was pedaling for 10km, playing to be a fast train’s driver.

One night I asked him how he is liking to be travelling again. “It is good, I’m happy. But are we on our big journey again?”, he answered. “Yes.”, I said. “Ah, show me on the map, where we are going to next. And when we are finished in this country, we are going to New Zealand, right?” So I explained, that we are thinking of going to New Zealand, or maybe Africa. “No mama! I don’t want to go to Africa! There are tigers and lions and they want to eat us!” Since then he is always asking if we were in Africa yet, and if there were any tigers around, before getting out of his trailer. Somethimes he wants to get back into the trailer from his bike, because he saw the shadow of a tiger or a dragon in the bush.
In the trailer he is drawing lots of maps with roads we already travelled on or will be taking.

The first 1300km and over 35′000km
The day before we left Salta, I was wondering, how it would be back on the road, not knowing where we would spend the night, discovering new terrain day after day. The first few kilometers on the bike felt a bit unbalanced, but already outside of the city it was just normal again, the bike is almost a part of my body! Flo and I have been riding our bikes for over 35′000km now, so they are pretty much a part of ourselves. Chan has been riding with us for about 20′000km!

Most of those first 1300km we have travelled now were through dry desert land though, and we’ve seen quite some land like this by now. We are looking foreward to greener landscapes, trees, shade, grass and rivers or lakes to play in. Another 1000km and we won’t need to transport 10 to 15 liters of water per day anymore. While Flo and I are counting the kilometers until we reach more fertile land, Chan is counting the days until his birthday. We made a calendar and every night he makes a cross and talks about the presents he will get. And since my birthday is a bit before his, he offered me to help unwrap my presents. In Mendoza now, we are preparing for our two birthdays eating up pies and ice cream in advance.