...and summer hast started! We are taking a day off - it is July 30th of 2019 - in a ..not too fancy...not too expensive...perfectly comfy and clean hotel.
We knew that big -one night - rain, thunder and lighting was approaching last night! One of the thunders just about threw me out of bed....SO FREAKING GLAD we were NOT in our tent for that one!
We had some more cold/grey days since our “hunker down” time in that crummy hotel and spent another night since then in a fine Casino hotel with a pretty lousy dinner (excellent breakfast to make up for it), but room to spread out and play “washing machine” in the bathtub (which consists of throwing all our dirty, stinky clothes in the tub, unwrapping the complementary little soaps, put it all in the mix and walking around on our clothes/soaps while taking a shower...pretty much like good wine was made.)
We have a laundry line and clothes pins and put the heater on full blast. The next day we left the premises with dry gear, smelling like roses while the grey sky persisted.....it helps!
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In my imagination I saw us hitting summer as soon as we leave 14, turn north/west on 105 and get back on routa 12 along the Paraná River all the way to the Falls.
And yes, we are 1400km north of Buenos Aires and closer to the Equator.....things are getting warmer around here......
I already got 4 mosquito bites yesterday while having lunch on the side of the road!
We also had some memorable camping sites along the way...generous people who let us use their stage
their water, their electricity...play with their funny dogs
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and pretty much leave us alone after we denied drinking Yerba Mate late at night (I don’t really feel good about that, but, heck, that stuff would keep me up tossing and pedaling my feet in the tent all night).
The scenery changed noticeable - flat turned to hilly (quite steep at times too)
winter turned to a springy summer... more tropical.
Only thing I need to complain about - and there is always something to complain about - is the freaking traffic and the narrow road without shoulders. Even on Sundays the traffic doesn’t seem to lighten up! James and I call “bail” to each other when one or the other truck doesn’t budge when passing us on a skinny. On those hills, they get their momentum and just let it rip (like we do)..but they are bigger and faster...bailing onto the gravel, the ditch, the grass is not the most desirable solution, but it does seem to be necessary for survival, so it seems. Stressful and tiring is what it is.
I noticed myself slacking - getting used to the danger. My alert level lowering to a more sustainable level .....they can watch out for us those big fellows...they don’t want to kill us either. We are in agreement here!
I don’t know...it is what it is and James and I are aware ...we even talked about hitching a ride to the Falls in a bus. Can you believe it???? We must be getting old!
Tomorrow is another day and it will find us on the road again, pedaling away strong and capable.... north...towards the sun.
