The Pass To Mendoza 7

Saturday 31st

Yesterday was the best ride so far on tour.... until today. Today is now the best ride on tour so far.

We awake at the side of a beautiful lake cupped between snow capped mountains topped by azure skies. Perfect!



We are still around 2000 metres, about 80kms to go and the ride is all downhill to Mendoza nestled in vineyards at a lowly 750m. 1250m of downhill gets me up early in the morning with a big grin and itchy pedals. Today means easy miles... and speed!



I take time to ponder the past few days as the mountains recede in to the background...



Plus review some English "Battle of Hastings" history as Harold takes one in the eye at 1066....



Scary encounters with gravity assisted wagons...



Until it´s all change as we hit the motorway on the outskirts of the city...



Dodging traffic....



And finally... the end of the road for Braulio who returns to Santiago by bus in a couple of days. It was great to ride with you on your first cycle tour Braulio and try as we might to put you off, I know it won´t be the last.... Let me know when you tour Brazil and I´ll see you there.... It will be "amaaaaaazing".

The Pass to Mendoza 6

Friday 30th

We rise in the school and make our best efforts to appear sober as we are introduced to classes of primary school children, curious to learn about foreign cyclists. After rousing coruses of "Happy Birthday" in Spanish, English and Portugeuse we leave for a tour of the town courtesy of Max. We leave Emilio with blood red eyes propping up a wall as he struggles to recover from lack of sleep.

Polvaredas has relics of British Empire in the form of old train tracks, engines and station.





At 2400m the town has a crisp icy remote feel as we gaze down the steep canyon and up at forbidding mountain peaks...





When we finally leave it´s an emotional wrench and we promise to write and spread the word to other cyclists about the place. Max and Emilio - you are just fabulous human beings. Love you guys...

I´m tempted to say this is the best days ride of the tour so far... It´s all downhill, the skies and air are pure and there is scenery to die for. There are no words, just beautiful pictures....

The Pass to Mendoza 5

Thursday 28th

The road finally opens at 2pm, but we are still not allowed to ride. There is ice on the road and the Caribineros refuse to let us pass as there is too much traffic built up by now. We have to hitch a ride and are hauled ignominiously past the check point in the back of a 4x4.

We get out of sight of the Caribineros and ride the rest of the route. It´s breathtaking. Literally - the air is thin and both breathing and progress are laboured.

La Cuervas - 29 hairpin bends up to 3300m



Aconcagua - 6990m



Passport control is torturous as the queues are huge and it´s freezing. We don all our clothes for the descent. Which is just gorgeous in clear blue wintery sunlight.

Faces freeze in the thin brittle air made hard with ice.



It´s getting late in the day after delays at the check point and we are delayed further 30kms on by caribineros who insist we are missing an official stamp. We refuse to cycle back to the frontera and wait anxiously for results of phone calls, before finally being ushered through.

Reaching a small town (Polvaredas) as the sun begins to set we enquire about accomodation and are told to ask at the local school. We meet Maxi an IT professor and the school principal Emilio, who immediately invite us in in yet another display of enormously humbling hospitality.



We pass the night drinking with them and playing table tennis until 5 in the morning and have yet another wild impromptu party night. We sleep in a dormitory before being awoken 3 hours later by a bleary eyed Emilio. The screams of school pupils is piercing and hard on sore heads as Emilio and Max struggle to start a new work day. Thanks so much to both - we had a great night...

The Pass to Mendoza 4

Wednesday 28th

It snows some more in the night, but the day dawns crisp and beautiful, a winter wonderland. Braulio´s first experience of snow! The kid has never seen the white stuff before and is alight with energy. We have to get out of the canaña before someone kills him, so we climb back to the road block and the Carabanineros.

Yeah those guys have no sense of humour and we are getting into a bit of a "debate" about our levels of sanity and whether cycles need snow chains or not, when a guy with a camera turns up and starts filming. The debate hits celluloid as we make our relative cases to camera, and we each get interviewed for some background.



Apparently we made 3 channels of national television that night!!! Seriously, we are becomming (in)famous.

We lose the debate and the pass remains stubbornly closed; we have time to kill so we spend it profitably.

Tobogganing....







Soaking up some warm rays....



The sun drops and it gets seriously cold, but the rumour amongst the ever growing line of stranded truckers is that tomorrow... we ride. We retreat to the restaurant again for warmth food and sunsets.



The reastaurant owners kindly allow us to camp under their car port.

The Pass to Mendoza 3

Tuesday 27th

The news is not good. The snow line descends as we sleep and we are caught in it. We are at 1850m and the world turns white in the night. We have no heating in the cabaña, pipes slowly freeze and the water pressure at the tap begins to drop. The windows are poorly fitting plastic. I think this is a summer cabaña.

We spend the day indoors going slowly mad....



And giving the boy Braulio his touring hair cut....



Roberto de Niro, Taxi driver, are you looking at me....



Food...



We need to get out of here...

The Pass to Mendoza 2

Monday 26th

It´s colder. It´s windier. It´s raining. Again. And the weather forecasters have got it wrong.



These are worrying developments. We are at 1000m altitude. Rain here means snow at 3500m altitude. Lots of it probably.

We pass Los Andes town and turn East towards the mountains proper and we climb.



Welcome to the Andes...



And we climb... 55kms?!!



And it gets colder. Way colder. Brazilian Braulio, used to the sun and beaches of warmer climes begins to notice. "I´m sooo cooold man. I can´t feeeeel my feeengers" he drawls.

After 80kms and 1000m of climbing we reach Guardia Vieja in freezing rain to some bad news. The way is shut and there are some serious looking hombres from the Carabanineros (Chilean Police) telling us of snow and ice on the pass from behind a sturdy looking barrier. These guys mean business and we retreat to a local restaurant to dry off by a wood stove.

And meet Marcelo.

Marcelo is a local miner who insists pisco sour is the best way to warm up and promptly buys us all a couple of rounds. We´re going nowhere, so game on....



"Saint" Marcelo owns one from only 3 world cup winning cycles that exist in Chile, his son tours and he´s a real cycle enthusiast. He insists on taking us to another restaurant that has cabañas, and once we are adequately housed we join him for many more pisco sours and a round of steak dinners.

This man is a diamond and the only payment he receives is the ritual humiliation of us all at arm wrestling...



I always think, "never beat a man who´s picking up the bill" and let him win.... Yeah right - he could have ripped my arm off!

We have a great night and pay for nothing as Marcelo wobbles drunkenly off in to the freezing night. Many, many thanks go to that outstanding man!

The Pass to Mendoza 1

Sunday 25th

We leave with wounded heads, fuzzy from 4 days drink and 3 hours sleep.

It´s good to ride again.

We finally agree on a route out of town and prepare for an illegal dash up the Autopista (motorway). It´s a 3 lane high speed gauntlet to run and there´s no hard shoulder for the first 10kms. Exciting times, Braulio in hot persuit on his first tour - "I just luuurve it man, It´s Amaaaazing".



Fortunately it´s a Sunday and traffic is light, if suicidally fast. We ride out of the smog towards white capped mountains.



Next stop Mendoza...



We time the barrier and slip by alongside paying customers. I couldn´t see a price for cycles anyway...



A ghostly disembodied voice booms at us from a 3km tunnel "Cyclistas no pasar" and we are forced to hitch a ride to the other side...



We make a respectable 90kms considering hang overs and reward Braulio with a roadside camp fire close to Los Andes as we contemplate tomorrow when the hills start...