Into the big city as I complete this stage of the ride. Mendoza is approximately 2/3 of the distance through South America and time for a short intermission including a flight back to the USA.

Today was a longer ride both in distance and time with a light headwind for most of the day.

The roadside hotel was nice and had good pizza place next door. The weather forecasts had said “warmer today”. While it started out warmer, by mid-morning overcast set in and it never really warmed up much further. The first 10km had a nice four lane highway.

These guys had fun arranging the melons.

Between the 10km and 100km mark, the road narrowed to two lanes and got steadily busier as I got closer to Mendoza. There were sections with deep ruts as shown in the photo. These were obnoxious as it was difficult to ride too close to the shoulder and instead I would need to ride in the ruts.

Fortunately, other sections were smoother.

At 31 kilometers I passed from San Juan province to Mendoza province. There was an agricultural check at this point where they checked vehicles, but waved me through without checks.

It was also a bit of a toll booth with cars being charged ~$2.

Shrines here included ones to San Expedito.

I also saw San Expedito on other signs not always associated with a shrine.

Of course, the other shrines were also still along the way. This one had collected a large amount of water containers.

Signs told one to check the water level before crossing.

Water level marker.

At 71km I stopped briefly in Jocoli, just as the store in the photo was open. By the time I finished, it was already closed.

The last bit of the ride brought me past the airport and into Mendoza.

Mendoza wasn’t too difficult to ride. The road widened to four lanes and once I got close, I was able to take the smaller city streets. I had booked a hotel on Expedia and once I figured out it was a reasonable place, then also booked some additional nights during my Mendoza stay. Nice to reach this larger city where the plan is to spend the next week before my flight to the US. A chance to both relax and get some more detailed plans for the remainder of South America.