The Road Past Termas de Villavicencio to Uspallata.

13th April

The alarm is back in action!!! All is forgiven as ‘Tap to Snooze’ is activated. One snooze, into the shower and off to breakfast. Pack the bike, misappropriate 4 boiled eggs, have another crack at getting a reduced rate for the room, no go, then off we ride. Paul has set the GPS for Terms de Villavicencio and low and behold it doesn’t work at all! Luckily I have downloaded the routing for Maps.me and the IPhone (with permission from the alarm) leads us on our way out of Mendoza and toward the road we have been anticipating with relish. Part way along of course there are roadworks and a diversion which throws Maps.me out. It is smarter than I thought and it reroutes to take us back on to our original route, sensational! We pull in to a service station for fuel. After filling up we hand over the Visa card and it is discovered that this particular station won’t accept overseas cards with a chip. Oh great, the cash is going down quickly. We are in a poor area of Mendoza so when we head to a bank of the type we have been using it also tells us that it won’t accept our cards. We think, incorrectly, that another bank will appear as we ride through the suburbs. All that ends up happening is businesses slowly disappear and the housing becomes more dilapidated and the amount of rubbish increases ten fold, we have hit the slums! Maps.me takes us deeper in to this particular area past the marked turn off and we follow it blindly to end up at a dead end in a place where we feel very uncomfortable.  A quick turn around and Maps.me reroutes and takes us the way of the previously past signed route.

The road is made up of concrete sections as, are many in Argentina as apparently they last longer than the asphalt, providing very quick access to the mountains. The terrain has changed dramatically from flat, dry and bare plains to low green bushes dominating the landscape. Soon we enter the mountains and begin to climb. The road changes to rippio and becomes the width of a single car. As it winds its way through the mountains steadily gaining altitude, the vistas begin to open up and we find ourselves continually stopping at areas that have been created for the purpose of taking the spectacular views. The day is perfect, no wind, sunny blue skies and warm, something not experienced on our adventure so far. We pass Guanacos, fist two, then another two and finally a hillside peppered wth them. As we approach they fearlessly and confidently throw themselves over the steep sided hills to avoid our noisy bikes.

We finally reach the top of the climb then slowly make our way toward Uspallata continually being presented with the Andes mountain range and the preceding multi coloured hills. The vistas presented to us are noting short of stunning and something that can only be imprinted on our memories as photographs can never do them justice. As we get closer to Uspallata the wind has begun to increase in velocity and we begin to see dust clouds arise in the distance. By the time we reach the pueblo it is blowing a gale. We stop at a YPF  Full and have the usual then decide to head for Puente del Inca which is on the way to the Chilean border. Not long into the ride we decide to abandon the endeavour as the wind has reached such a velocity we are concerned we will get blown over. We turn around and head back to Uspallata. We are travelling at ninety kilometres an hour and we have no wind noise, we have basically reached, or maybe not, the velocity of the wind!

After a lot of indecision regarding accommodation we end up in a cabana on the outskirts of town. Not before Paul once again has a problem with his bike lying down! This time in the town in front of two young boys on bicycles. Oh how embarrassing, I was thinking about taking a photo but thought better of it as a few expletives and the look of desperation at getting the bike off the deck ensued. I quickly got off my bike and helped Paul right his bike. It appears that the steering dampener is malfunctioning and locked his steering in a slight turn causing the fall.

After booking in to the accommodation Paul set about removing the dampener altogether so that the problem would not occur again. If this had happened at speed the result would have been devastating. Upon removal it was discovered that screws had more than likely vibrated loose and in the case of one, removed completely. The rest of the day and evening was spent writing and taking care of Dad business for Paul. So far there really hasn’t been a day that hasn’t been free of some type of epic event!