We met Sean from Wales who entertained us immensely with his dry humor underlined by his heavy accent. He was clearly a minimalist. With very little gear he was cycling - I think it was three month -around the southern parts of Chile and Argentina. He caught up with us from nowhere, chatted a while and took off......he was FAST!
But then we saw him waving to us from a pink house
on the side of the road...seemingly abandoned kind of fancy house -and as it turned out it had a "hall of fame" wall for cyclists The evening sun was kind and we had plenty of food and water....chocolate and all.... we made our nest in the green room
and then studied the wall, recognizing a fair amount of names - even from riders we met in northern Peru. Some of them had taken the bus through some real boring or difficult stretches (in case you were wondering why the heck we weren't keeping up with them....) and I recognized the names of the two families we met along the way...
So fun to see evidence of them here in this form...knowing they are OK and made it thus far. I also saw the names of some of the bloggers I was getting my info from, from some years ago. It was such a welcoming place...a place to come home to for a fun night in good company.
The mornings around here feel like afternoons and the afternoons already carry the light of the evenings. The day always feels already later from the beginning of each day. That kind of atmosphere...
After the C. Austral the change to flat Pampa was welcome and the stable temperatures easy on us. We were on our last stretch of 80 km to Rio Gallegos when I discovered a strange bump, bump, bump sensation every time I used my back brake. Not strong enough to stop and actually look at it, but when I finally did I discovered this:
Oy vey....this rim is done for and here in the middle of nowhere not much to do about it..keep riding, release the brake and hope for the best.
...and we made it - my Gurly made it. 60kg of cargo 80km to go and the rim kept it together. First thing we saw rolling into sunny Rio Gallegos was a bicycle shop- closed, as is expected during the middle of the day, Argentina style. So we had a yummy pick nick lunch across the street at the curb and watched the door. The shop owner wasn't the friendliest in town nor the cheapest but he seemed to know what he was talking about and -as we learned later- he is the best deal in town. Somehow we seem to manage to hit the bigger towns on the weekends when all the shops are closed and we were forced to spend an extra day. Not bad at all since we found a hostel which came with the warmest, friendliest hosts one could wish for and we settled for a couple of nights and two full days. We lucked out with some awesome bakeries and grocery stores, cafes and ice cream shops close by. It isn't the prettiest town but it feels good and that is all that mattered for now.
It is Sunday the 16th of February. We are in Rio Gallegos and taking a closer look at some of our failed equipment. Our clothes are falling apart as well, my iPad is disabled, our tent poles broke, rainfly is compromised..... we are patching things up for the last stretch. Our equipment is as tired as we are and I still hope we can pick ourselves up and finish strong and with dignity!
