Day 5 was to be an epic, with more "Wows" than you can imagine. Our route took us out of Pucon Chile, and up the beautiful curves on a perfect sealed surface to the Argentinian border, then onto San Carlos de Bariloche - generally shortened to Bariloche.
The first hour was incredible riding, the best of the trip so far, and the border crossing (the first of 13) was made easy and short, but the very helpful preparation and guidance of Willy. Officially Argentina will not allow a "guide" without two years of requests and paperwork, so JC went ahead as a regular tourist. Obviously you need to exit customs and immigation on the Chilean side, then ride 400m with our spare tyres loosly strapped on the back, then go through immigration and customs on the Argentinian side. The only hiccup, was the nice lady who wanted to confiscate our (huge) pile of spare tyres, as "they collect water and mosquitos so they are a risk to the population from Dengue Fever!" Easy peasy overall after this was fixe, except that the new road was bumpy gravel which extended for 17km and so I took it very easy, not wishing to dump the heavy bike in the middle of the road. Dust was everywhere especially from passing cars.
Argentina is different. It is not as wealthy and the money situation is weird. Credit cards are not often accepted but the largest cash note is 1000 Pesos, about a dollar so everyone is carrying around vast quantities of paper money.
Anyway the ride was brilliant, and took us around the Siete Lagos, the seven lakes of the Argentinian Lakes District! It is truly beautiful in every direction across the lakes and up to the mountains some with snow. We stopped for lunch in Saint Martin, of which we all very pleased. It had been tiring. I must say that the planned stops are just perfect in timing and location, all learnt from last years event. In this case we sat on a verandah and took in the view across the lake with the little yachts floating in front.
The incredible riding continued around hundreds of corners and we stopped at times for photos of the views. My iPhone is now playing up as the gyro sensor cannot deal with the vibration on the handle bars and so I am carrying it closed in my jacket. Too late?
Bariloche is beautiful. It is reknowned as the town that the Nazi High Command came to both before and after the second world war and there is a magnificent house where they stayed. For the consipiracy theorists, this is where Hitler finally hid out after his exit from Europe.
Here at the "best hotel in Baroloche" an NHN called Nahuel Huapi, we have small rooms and no airconditioning, but I am not complaining. I was to sleep soundly. but first we had to change money for our few weeks in Argentina, so $400 turned into hundreds of thousands of Pesos and piles of paper, changed in the hotel with the head of the Italian Mafia, Pablo - as you do. He is Mr Fixit here, having got a past Compass traveller out of jail on a Sunday, normally an impossible task!
The restaurants are all European in style and we at a first class steak at Weis Restauant and Rahn and I had a magnificent bottle of Malbec of course. It was a 2017, cost about $50 and was truly excellent.
Tomorrow, we have a few fix its to fix including getting some paperwork that Homer left behind and getting tyres changed on Rahn's bike as they are nealy through to the threads! Then a ride.
No comments:
Post a Comment