I have had a relaxing week in Mendoza. One day with some drizzle but otherwise comfortable if slightly cool temperatures.

In the middle of Mendoza is a large Plaza Independencia.

Two blocks up and over in each of four directions are four other smaller squares. On a map the layout would be a “5” on a dice.

There is a pedestrian mall with the requisite cafes and street performers.

Police ride bikes here to patrol the pedestrian mall, though there are signs prohibiting others from riding bicycles on the mall.

There was a small protest that came through one day.

I believe the cause includes stopping inflationary increases.

There are shops that sell package tours. I looked briefly at them though none of them seemed particularly exciting. Popular trips seem to include wine tours as well as “alta montana” to go high up into the mountains. There also appears to be horseback riding and rafting though I am not sure the rafting is currently going.

It is still the end of winter and looks like they are still skiing higher up in the mountains.

I brought my bike in for service. It was time to replace a worn chain as well as a cassette. Otherwise, the bike seems to be riding well. My plan is to fly to Colorado in a few days. It will be some long flights surrounding a short trip. On the way outbound, I have overnights in Santiago and Los Angeles. On the return, it will be an overnight in Miami and one in Lima, Peru.

Otherwise mostly relaxing and also started working further on a project to write out a Microsoft Word document describing the previous five long trips I took before this one. I mostly have detailed journals on a web site, but the idea is to remove some of the redundancy (we rode, it was long, it was hot, we stopped. Next day we rode,…) and focus on highlights of these trips. It is some work and will still require some careful editing, though I’ve got a little over 58,000 words written out and more still to finish.

Mendoza is the middle purple colored province on the map above. I’ve spent some time reading other journals to get an idea of the route and travels from here south.

The rough plan would be to continue on Ruta 40 along the east side of the Andes to Bariloche and then cross over to Puerto Montt and meet the TDA ride.

The elevation of this route is not particularly high, though it may get colder as I go further south. In addition, chances of rain seem to increase as well.

After returning from Colorado, I expect to have just over two months to get to Puerto Montt. That is roughly twice as much time as my typical pace has been these past months of cycling. As I’ve looked further, I’ve mulled a few possibilities:

• It might just take me longer if I have a more relaxed pace or run into some weather delays or mechanical issues
• There is a language school in Bariloche if I get there early, and perhaps an excuse to further brush up on my Spanish
• It may be possible to cycle a little further south through the Argentinian side of Patagonia and then catch a bus or ferry back

All these alternatives essentially start out with a ride southbound from Mendoza and I can wait as that unfolds to see if I end up with any extra time and if so where I might spend it.

Otherwise, a nice and relaxing change of pace in Mendoza as I prepare for a flight back to Colorado and followed by a continuation of the trip southbound.

Lazy Sunday afternoon in Media Agua.

It is 170 kilometers from San Juan to Mendoza. The road is flat, mostly straight and without a paved shoulder. There is a moderate amount of traffic. In general, not the most exciting or scenic road but one where you do need to pay attention.

The distance was just a bit more than I wanted to ride in a day, particularly after 157km yesterday. The last known spot with a hotel was Media Agua at 55km, so I decided to split it into a shorter ride today and longer ride tomorrow. Since I had plenty of time, I took my time in getting ready and leaving this morning. It still was a quiet Sunday morning when I left.

After a few kilometers, I turned onto a four lane highway with a nice shoulder.

This lasted less than five kilometers before I came into a large road construction project. I went past the construction barriers. While in Bolivia they were working on Sunday, it was very quiet in Argentina as I worked my way through the road project.

Soon enough I was on the other side. This area is agricultural including this olive oil factory.

Quite a few vineyards along the way and a few wineries.

The sign says emergency habitations, though most of them seemed to have people living in them now. Also a good example where most places I passed had a water tank on the roof.

Otherwise, without much difficulty, I found myself in Media Agua. Next to the gas station is a restaurant as well as a roadside hotel. It was a lazy afternoon as I relaxed and anticipated a longer ride into Mendoza to follow. I will have a little over a week in Mendoza before flying to the US for a short intermission and chance to pick up bike tires and a few other supplies.

In the afternoon I saw Laura and Herbie. They also were planning on splitting the ride to Mendoza into two days, but expecting to camp a little further along the road. We will have left Salta on the same day two weeks ago and pretty much leapfrogged each other these past two weeks.

Crossed over 30 degrees south latitude.

It didn’t necessarily look particularly exciting. However, since I started at 70 degrees North, this makes it 100 degrees of latitude crossed.

Had a great breakfast in the hotel with all four of us touring cyclists. It was cold, but fortunately no wind! I stopped to take a photo at the statue as well as put on mittens.

There was a low water crossing. There was a sign warning of such crossings for next 60 kilometers. Also numbers on the road starting around 190. It wasn’t until later that I realized that this meant 190 different small creek crossings in those 60 kilometers. Fortunately, I believe this was the only one with water, but in wetter season, one needs to be careful.

There was road construction. Mostly putting concrete in the low water crossings as well as some paving. Was able to stay on asphalt almost all the time.

Just an occasional diversion like this one where they were cleaning up from the construction work.

An example of one of those 190 small dry wash crossings.

Ernie and Laura came by. Good example of the long straight road that mostly went through this dry area.

At 74 kilometers a traffic circle and then a big change. I took the back road (491) to San Jose de Jachal. It was a great little road that went through a canyon and then climbed steeply up a view point.

The road was narrow and even went through a small tunnel.

At points the road was marked with a width of 4m (13ft) for the entire road. Not much traffic and a great cycle ride.

Came past this church on the other side.

The wind picked up the last 10km into town. It was a long but nice ride as I found the hotel in town. Walked to the town square. Most everything was closed, but the ice cream place was open. Will come back later and hopefully restaurants are open. From here a ~160km gap to the next town, so will look carefully at the weather forecast – particularly the wind in deciding when to cross.

Beautiful ride today as I climbed up and over a low ridge of mountains.

No longer as cold in the morning, so easier to depart at sunrise. The first 16km went slightly downhill and along the mountain range to Nonogasta.

Nice views of the sunlight starting on the hills.

At Nonogasta the road turned west for a 30km/1100m climb. There were one or two short sections of 8% climb but most was much more gradual.

Passed a turnoff for small town of Sanogasta.

Alex came cycling past.

Looks like a local mountain biker.

This truck was loaded with household supplies and very slowly driving down with speakers on advertising the wares for locals to come shop.

The shrines have become fancy with this one having a painting of Gauchito Gil.

Another more fancy shrine. Somehow they become fancier in more remote areas.

This donkey was grazing right next to the road. As soon as she figured out I wasn’t any threat, she continued the graze.

Close to this shrine the road started to climb more steeply.

Here is a view looking back on the canyon I had climbed up.

The summit was just over 2000 meters.

A brief descent and then a second summit.

A pretty canyon on the other side as well. There was a small village at the 60km mark. I stopped and had a coke stop here. I had originally considered stopping here for the night, but it was a hot afternoon over 30C (high 80s) and the likely camp spot seemed hot and dry to stop in middle of the afternoon. Instead, I descended further and eventually the canyon opened up and it became flatter.

Some wide open cycling the last distance.

At 107km was a turnoff to Villa Union. The town was still several kilometers up the road, but I stopped at first reasonable hotel I found since I knew I would need to come back on the same road again tomorrow. Overall, a warm afternoon but pretty cycling particularly in the red canyons on both sides of the pass.

A longer day through more areas with wide open views and a bit more climbing than yesterday.

I discovered the downside of my free municipal campground last night. It was Saturday night and around 9:30 pm several motorcycles came, unloaded large boom-box type speakers and started blasting music. I was 200 meters away but it was still very loud. I went over, told them I wanted to sleep and asked to turn the volume down. That lasted about ten minutes before the music went loud again. A lot more people arrived and eventually late at night the party wrapped up and it became quiet again.

I had a second dose of loud music at 6:30 am as well, though I was already awake and so not as big a deal.

Once I got back to the main road, the route started with 150m of climb, one of three somewhat longer climbs today. The wind was more headwind than a tailwind, though never really strong.

A different type of shrine, this time to Difunta Correa with water to calm the eternal thirst.

Pituil was the only town today in distance of over 100km. I decided to take the road into town to stop at a small shop.

Here was the main square, otherwise a quiet place.

Warnings for narrow bridges, though I didn’t notice many.

What I did notice was that the road had been carefully patched for many kilometers. Quite a bit of work, though also led to a more bumpy ride.

These guys were parasailing. I first passed a guy with what looked like two green backpacks organizing his stuff in middle of nowhere. Next, I passed another guy wrapping up some red nylon in the bush not far from the road. Both had apparently landed not long before and were now organizing things to get rides back.

It wasn’t until I came past the main group as well as a sign with a parachute that I figured out what they were doing. We had a good conversation and they offered water and told me about the road ahead.

As the 3900 marker indicates, slowly chipping away at the distance on Ruta 40.

From here it was a slow steady climb up two hills and then into larger town of Chilecito. On Sunday late afternoon it seemed even quieter than one might find during siesta. Without much difficulty, found a reasonable hotel and then something to eat not far from the town square.

Otherwise figuring out whether to take a rest day here or shuffle some shorter days – as well as the next section of road which will have a 1200m climb up and over a pass.