New route master

We have a new route master....me, after the 92 miler I have relieved Rich of the role as it is harder to complain to yourself and Rich will feel less guilty!

Having assumed this role I have found a new route to Buenos Aires, it takes us into Uruguay and we cross by ferry to BA.  I like the sound of this route as apparently the city is a sprawling mass of traffic. We hope to be there by 16th Feb.

The route masters first decision after the 92miler was to declare a day off, seriously 92 miles after pretty much 4 weeks off the bike was far more than I needed so we had a lazy day to allow my aching legs to recover, they weren't as bad as I thought they would be but I was not owning up to that!

Provincial border

Back on the bikes again we headed for Tucaman via the nosiest camp site I have been on in a while, with the biggest speakers going! and not just one group of campers but pretty much everyone played music until the wee small hours, I did wake at 4am and could not hear anything but at 6am boom, boom, boom.

The riding now is undulating the hills can be a couple of miles of gradual up hill then the same the other side, it seems like we are in a very wide valley and it is all very similar, kinda reminds me of Oz as there are sugar plantations, its hot but blessedly not humid.

Tucaman the city is OVERPRICED, other than that another big city with a big plaza and one-way streets. Whilst riding around trying to find a hotel that was not demolished or being renovated Rich got a puncture in his new super duper puncture resistant tyre, that went down well!!! We looked very adventurous sitting on the plaza eating ice cream at a café whilst Rich mended his tyre and cursed his bad luck.  Mind you I think he would have needed solid tyres to avoid a puncture as it was a great hulking piece of glass.

Moving on we arrived at Rio Hondo knowing that there were at least 4 camp sites, hotels are comparatively expensive and we decided that we will camp where ever possible.  We set up camp underneath the trees on the bank of the river and had a lovely relaxing afternoon.  It was just a tad hot and the tent was hotter but we were finally just drifting off to sleep around 10pm when some new campers arrived  and started using the BBQ station next to our tent, ok.... can deal with that, but by 1.30am when they started to blow up their air bed with a foot pump I nearly lost it.  Finally they settled down only to be up with the sun at dawn making enough racked to wake the dead.  with a fairly spacious camp site I am wondering why they camped quite so close???

With this much room on the camp site.....

Why did they have to camp here????

Our departure from that camp site could not come quick enough!! Having got very little sleep, what with the new neighbours moving in and the heat I was a grouchy bugger.  Rich was a star and very patient. The sun was unbearably hot that day and what with the lack of sleep we ended up having a few mini siestas under trees and rolled in to Santiago Del Estero sweaty and pink having agreed to have a day off.

One day off has turned into 4 as Rich has a (jointly diagnoses) ear infection which is affecting his balance and if there is one thing you need on a fully loaded bike its balance.  So glad we picked the nicer hotel!!  It also means that my bike has time to go to the menders as at some point I had broken a spoke and Rich does not have all the tools needed to fix it as it is on the drive side....what ever that means!! We also missed the biggest soaking ever which managed to flood the street outside our hotel, phew. Rich's balance is improving daily and we hope to set off tomorrow.