Days 178 to 181: Mendoza, ARG to Villa la Angostura, ARG

Day 178: Mendoza to ....camping in the middle of nowhere ( 300 km)

Mihai had a bit of a slow morning after a night out with two Chileans from our hostel. We also had to pick up motor oil and a chain and sprocket for Mihai's bike at the local Suzuki dealership, so we ended up leaving Mendoza only around 1:30 PM.

While gassing up on the outskirts of the town, I saw this beauty. It's an old Fiat 125. This car brings back memories, as my family used to own one of these back in the days, when we lived in Algeria.

The first 120 km were all highway - easy cruising with a beautiful view of snow capped mountains.

Last gas stop, and we veered off on the famous Ruta 40. The ride was kind of crap at first, as the dirt road was wash boarded and there was quite a bit of loose sand and gravel; not a good combination.

Eventually, both the road and the scenery improved, and we did some great riding for a few hours. Very little traffic on this section of the Ruta 40; we ran into one vehicle in 150+ kms.

After 5 PM, we began looking for a spot to camp. Eventually, we ran into a small abandoned oil refinery. Perfect! We put up our tents inside of a house that is part of the complex, so we were shielded from wind. Even more conveniently, there was a fire place in the living room, and plenty of dry wood laying around inside of the house.

Awesome camp fire, dinner of noodles and tuna, and we were off to bed. 

The temperature was fine at first, but sometime in the middle of the night it got really cold. Neither of us slept well.

We haven't seen or heard a single vehicle pass by since the previous day, so in over 14 hours or so. Definitely not a place where you'd want to break down or crash, as help won't be coming your way anytime soon.

Day 179: Camping in the middle of nowhere to Chos Malal (440 km)

We woke up tired, packed our stuff and took off around 10:30 am. I snapped a few pics of our awesome camping spot.

Just as the day before, the weather was close to perfect. We ran into a small oil field:

 First forest in a while. It is obviously autumn in this part of the World.

As we were about to roll into the town of Malargue, Mihai's front tire went flat. Ironic, considering that earlier in the day I actually thought that we have been lucky so far in not having any punctures since leaving Montreal. I guess I jinxed it. Fortunately, we were only 1 km away from a gas station, where Mihai was able to replace the tube (we both have spares). 45 mins. later, we were rolling again. We had lunch in Malargue, and left the city around 2 PM.

That day, my odometer rolled over to 50 000 km. It's been 30 000 km since leaving home, and still counting...

Good high speed pavement for the rest of the day, with a few short sections of gravel. We were able to maintain a good average speed, and covered a decent 440 km. Not bad considering the late start in the morning, and the time wasted to fix the flat on Mihai's bike.

We rode into Chos Malal when it was already getting dark, and we managed to score a cheap hotel for the night (180 pesos, or around 22 USD for the room).

Day 180: Chos Malal to Villa La Angostura (600 km)

Long day in the saddle. A lot of this:

The riding wasn't very exciting, but we were able to cruise at 120 km/h for most of the day and made some good time. Considering how much distance we still have left until Ushuaia, this was definitely a good thing.

Late in the afternoon, the scenery started to get interesting.

For the last 200 km of the day, the scenery changed completely. We were now surrounded by mountains, forest and lakes. This is the part of Patagonia that so many people are raving about, and with reason.

We drove though San Martin de las Andes, a touristic but very nice small town. The architecture in this place reminded me a lot of Austria and Germany.

We arrived to our planned destination, Villa la Angostura, around 8:30 PM, and quickly found a hostel. There was plenty of camping spots between San Martin and Villa la Angostura,but we decided to pass: it got cold at night, and we needed to get some maintenance done on the bikes, which is always preferable to do in a town.



Day 181: Villa La Angostura

Day off to fix a few things on the bikes. We both need an oil change, Mihai wants to repair his heated grips and vest, and to replace his rear brake pads. In the process, we discover that his rear wheel is a little loose: the wheel bearings are worn out and need to be replaced. Mihai had spares, so he decided to tackle the job. We drove around the village and looked for a shop with a hydraulic press, but no success. We ended up completing the installation using whatever tools we had, as well as the old bearings as drivers. It took a while, but worked out ok.

Next, I checked my own rear wheel, and I noticed the same problem. Not a surprise considering how much abuse the bikes have been through on different off road sections on this trip. However, I only had the sprocket carrier bearing in my spares, and none for the wheel, so I decided to leave it alone for now. It's not a critical situation, so I should be ok for the remaining 3 weeks of riding. I will, however, pick up the missing bearings in the next larger town we go through. Just in case... We will be driving through some pretty remote areas on our way to Ushuaia.

Working on the bikes in the yard of our hostel:

Meanwhile, this guy was just laying there for hours in the sun. What a lazy bum. 

We ended up skipping the oil change for now, as we wanted to take the remaining of the afternoon to walk around the town and the surroundings. The architecture is  also very ''alpine'' here. Lots of cool buildings and chalets.

We walked 3 km to this lake. Another scenic spot, which reminds me of Canada and parts of Europe.

Another day or two in Argentina, and we're crossing back into Chile again, to ride the famous Carretera Austral. We're going to have to rush a little, as I am hoping to reach Ushuaia and sell my bike in Punta Arenas before the end of April.