Hot and dusty, but exfoliated in Argentina

fancy one of these being in Argentina

Boy have we being having fun and games since setting off from Santiago Del Estero. Unbeknown to me Rich wobbled his way out of the garage parking lot of the hotel in Santiago Del Estero, owing to his inner ear infection playing havoc with his balance.  If I had known we would have booked straight back in, but as the receptionist was horrid he valiantly carried on. 

It was a short ride of just 30 miles to the town of Fernandez where nothing opens until 8pm and boy racers screech up and down the high street on their supped up lawnmowers mascarading as motos until the wee hours!!

Amazing bike shop in Santiago Del Estero

We are now on the flattest straightest road since NZ and Aus, the landscape is very similar, featureless farm land with not a tree to be seen! So not too much of interest to report.... unless you are in to farm machinery.

Our ride from Fernandez took us 60 miles to Herrera.  Hotel was a hovel.  It was the worst we have stayed in in Argentina but admittedly palatial compared to places in South East Asia!! Rich was still feeling rough and today suffered with loss of power so I took the rucksack on my bike to give him a break. 60 miles feeling dizzy, weak and trucks going past at 80km is no mean feat and he did amazingly. 

The most interesting things on route 34

It tipped it down over night and we had a lovely walk through the petrol station forecourt puddles and out on to the road.  Now, the road we are on has no hard shoulder to speak of, there is about 3inch's of tarmac the other side of the white line and then a rough dirt track by the side of the road, which is good to head off on to when a truck is bearing down blaring its horn! Unfortunately, after the rain of last night there was a lovely, almost primordial ooze sitting just past the tarmac that was covered in a disguise that rendered it looking like hard ground.  So when the first truck rumbled up behind sounding the signal we both headed for the safety of the verge only to find we had no steering as the wheels dug into the gloop.  The resulting synchronised crash must have been to the great amusement of the trucker.   No major injuries to be report except the odd bruise and a scraped knee, the bikes faired well with just mud splatter everywhere!

fruit and veg seller

After that little escapade the day went well up until 10miles out of Pinto where I heard a twang and developed a rather big wobble in my back wheel! whoops spoke gone again.  Rich having recovered to about 60% took back the rucksack and 1 of my back panniers, lovely for me but can't have been nice for him.  Arriving in Pinto we found a lovely EXPENSIVE hotel and went exploring for spokes.  Rich was dubious that we would find anything, but armed with a phrasebook we can achieve anything, after finding a lady who spoke very basic English we eventually found a place that sold spokes and a shop next door that could fix it.  Here, there was no 'it will be ready tomorrow' it was fixed while we waited, and they did not want anything for it, they were happy with the tip we gave them!!

Rich on the radio

The next morning, the owner of the hotel caught us as we were leaving and asked if we would do a quick radio interview on her brother's show, so after finding out there was a lot more of the town of Pinto than we saw last night we got to the radio station and had a quick interview with the owner of the hotel acting as interpreter, not sure how many people heard this but I hope it was not too many as she asked more questions about our relationship than about the ride!!

very funky teapots at the EXPENSIVE hotel

Heading out of Pinto we now find ourselves in Ceres in Santa Fe province, we are taking a day off as the heat really saps your strength and our legs are feeling it from cycling into a headwind for 4 days, we also need to recover from being sandblasted by all the trucks that trundle past.  There must be a lot of sand on the road as when an articulated lorry goes past we loose a layer of skin in the resulting sand wind combo.  Great for ex foliation, not so great for leaving your sun cream in place!

resting under the trees

For anyone following route 34 there is accommodation at the following places: Fernandez, Garza, Herrara (bit of a dive, but ok), Pinto (2 places which looked lovely form the outside), Ceres (there could have been somewhere at Selva but were too tired to look!)