Easy Ridin!

a few side notes before i begin to regurgitate the last few days of adventure. we would like to petition the argentine government to possibly plant a few more trees on the sides of the road to provide for a little more shade to make our days a little less, shall we say, epic. we would also like to talk to the people who ignorantly laid the roads through the mountains. while we appreciated some of climbs, was it really necessary to make it all hilly? well, at least our dinners have been fabulous!

so, my friends we have entered the vactionland of argentina...also the land of lakes. ¨they¨say seven lakes but my friends, there are at least a handful more. the riding has been poetic. in fact, dare i say this whole adventure has been a line from a well constructed poem...each of the lines flowing together in gentle cadence, flawlessly. every uphill of ours has come with a beautiful view, a deep breath, appreciation, and a long flowing downhill. the scenery, though outstanding has become something we are now growing accustomed too--jagged mountains that look like doodled contours on the horizon stacked for miles and miles changing hues of blues the farther away from the eye they reach. and every now and then we climb to a new height and a new horizon appears before us in all its splendor.

we´ve camped every night along some sort of placid lake as clear as i´ve ever seen. the approaching road to a given lake is somewhat fascinating as well. the mountains stand guard around and as we climb the final ascent we catch a glimmer. our hearts pounding with glee, we descend the hill with unbridled fear sometimes ebbing on exceeding the speed limit (well on pavement). the water is so pure and refreshingly cold that believe it or not, a filter is not even required--we drink directly from the water.

after stopping for the greater part of a day in san martin we found a little camp ground outside of town. this was our first ¨campground¨. ordinarily we´ve been finding a place off the road to camp. it felt somewhat strange but our adventure rumbled on...we met the most wonderful argentine family on vacation (pablo ¨picasso¨, claudia, and mylinda). we shared stories, ate together, and in the morning they made us matte and cappucino before our long ascent up the mountain (again a 4000-4500 ascent in only a few km). that night we found a place along lago faulkner to camp.

at the lake that evening i discovered something spectacular about my sunglasses...i could use them as a filter for my camera lens! the pictures will be posted soon! it seemed as though the mountains and the lakes in deep cooperation were posing to have their picture taken.

and then came the morning. another epic day of riding. again we encountered a long stretch of gravel...this time the ascent and the descent being extremely difficult. the gravel was sometimes as big as a fist and round. while there were no notable hills to climb, the whole stretch of 30 some miles was a rollar coaster demanding every bit of energy just to stay upright. we met a guy by the name of martin who rode with us for part of the way before he decided to stop for the evening (smart man). the new company was great. we asked him a lot of questions--particularily about the big black bugs that kept circling us, nipping at us, well, annoying us. that alone made climbing a bit of a challenge.

and yesterday was one of the easiest days of riding for us. if it would have been at the beginning of our tour i´m most positive we might not have thought so. we seemed to glide effortlessly up every hill and small mountain pass with big smiles on our faces. we took a long siesta at the shore of a lake and ate a scrumptious lunch including some fresh strawberries. what a life!

after lunch, i had my first accident. it´s funny now. we were on route 237 heading into nahuel haupi and both leah and i were eyeing a stream cascading down from the mountain above noting how we should get some water for our reserve and our bottles before we hit an arid desert like patch. as you might guess, i ran into leah and my fabulous bike bucked me off and i slid across the pavement with a dramtic scraping of metal. thank goodness there were no cars in the road (big semis included) and i wasn´t hurt. just a little road rash on the good ole knee.

in this moment i cannot even begin to describe what it feels like to struggle with the road and then to reach a beautiful destination. it almost feels like too much. everything inside of me feels so content to just sit and try with all my effort to absorb everything that i´m seeing. it goes without saying that it is impossible to do so. our bikes have proven as a catalyst for meeting people and sharing a smile.

this morning before heading into bariloche (where we are now and will be thru tomorrow) we woke up again next to a lake with mountains surrouding and met some fabulous women who had gotten their car stuck in the gravel. we tried to push their little fiat out but instead ended up entertaining them until they could be pulled out.

well, i´ll write again tomorrow before we take off for the farm in el bolson....yet another chapter of our adventure....we hope our friends ethan and brook are enjoying their bicycle journey and can´t wait to catch up in el bolson!

cheers from the open road....
jude.

ps. thanks marvin and margaret for the recipe!!! we can use spokes as kabob skewers!!