Hanging here in Mendoza since Dec. 6th - happy Nikolaus Tach, everybody.....
But now we already write the 15th of December. James has been in Kentucky USA since a few days and is expected to meet me back here on the 18th. He flew home- just in time- to say "fair well" to his dying father ...who departed just an hour after his arrival at his bed side.
A few days before that we rode the last 170km (not in one day) from San Juan to Mendoza:
I was a little hesitant to leave this shady, pleasant place, this small town called San Juan which seemed bigger than it was. Not sure if we would meet such a good situation in Mendoza.....
But M. exceeded all my expectations - though the ride here was unnerving.: We had to get back to our old tricks we learned back in Baja....the trucks were numerous and cruel...not slowing down on these long, flat stretches through the hot desert and squeezing in between oncoming traffic and us cyclists as if they were in a constant state of emergency - rushing to save a life. Though we knew it was not the case, it was difficult to wrap my head around this behavior and not get totally bend out of shape, just yelling like a loon.....WTF? After three of those monsters almost clipped one of our rear panniers, we had to slow down and plot our strategy in hopes to make it in one piece to our destination. The road was narrow enough - no shoulders. There is not enough room for two trucks and a cyclist meeting next to each other. I moved myself into the road to claim my space watching in my back mirror, guessing the speed and the capability of the driver to stop in time before running us both over (James was without a rear mirror at this time)..deciding whether to call out "bail" or hold the space...guessing games....is what that is. While I moved into the road I pumped my left stretched out arm frantically with my hand in a 'STOP NOW" position. Most of the time I heard the motor slow - in some cases and quite often the driver turned on the warn signals and rolled patiently behind us until there was a break in the oncoming traffic and he had a chance to pass us at a save distance in which case I changed my hand position to the "thumps up" and waved in friendly recognition of a well behaved truck driver. I even got the impression the drivers were thankful .......friendly honks, thumbs up from their side and all is well. Only a few times we had to jump to the side and maybe one out of the whole lot was a bit cranky about us, but I couldn't really tell.
We made it and that is what counts - found the hostel and a lot of the other cyclists we had met back in Peru and Bolivia and were welcomed in an appropriate fashion.
Now Mendoza has been a home. After all the Central American countries and then Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia it is a pleasure to walk around after dark in the soft summer air, feeling safe and warm, eating ice cream and watching people.......blending in. The moon is almost full
tonight, a Sunday, the downtown plaza in full swing with performances, music and vendors.
Some aches in my body telling me that I've been off the bike already a little too long...strange that resting now has the same effect as over exercising: muscles complaining in form of aches and pains, but I can't get myself to ride my bike in circles around town , instead I lay down, listen to a podcast, music, or just lay there practicing to accept what is happening without trying to fix it:
A few days later: nothing what yoga can't fix - I got myself up on the bike and rode to this wonderful park at the edge of town and gave myself a two hour yoga session. Practicing a few days in a row, plenty of water and I am good to go!
James came back - later than scheduled, but he is back and we are ready to hit the road tomorrow morning. Feels like I haven't been on the bike for month...
The road will take us up and over the Andes again....we are just fed up with the desert at this point and changed our plans to head over to Chile and not stay on Ruta 40, Argentina. Reading a few blogs from some cyclist was enough to scare us away: horrendous headwinds..even more desolate......unpaved roads which will sandblast you from morning until night (reading about a couple staying in a culvert under the road for more than 15 hours due to unbearable winds...) ...no thank you!
Christmas on the road- coming up.
