San Salvador de Jujuy to Susques - Climbing over 4000m for the first time...

We left Jujuy quite late as we still had some stuff to be done before hitting the road. Once we left, we didn't get very far, add soon I had a flat tire. As Stefan was way ahead with all the tools I first waited quite a bit until he came back and I could finally fix the tube.

Fixing my flat tire in the middle of nowhere

Once my bike was fixed again we continued but again didn't get too far, as we met two Australian cyclists and chatted a while with them. Soon after we continued, the road got a lot steeper and by the time we reached Volcán, we had already climbed about 1000 m of altitude.

I guess once there was a river here...

From there the road continued more or less flat, so we advanced quite fast.

Beautiful landscape and nice and warm weather on our way to Purmamarca

However,  by the time we reached Purmamarca, it was already pretty late, so we decided to spend the night there and climb the remaining 2000 m of altitude to Paso Lipán the next day.

The "rainbow-hill" in Purmamarca

As we went out for dinner that evening we met Nicolas, a French cyclist we already knew from Jujuy and decided to continue together. So the next morning we were three cyclists heading west. As we left Purmamarca, the landscape was gorgeous, cacti all over and many narrow little valleys that often looked as if some giant would have cut himself a piece cake out of the surrounding mountains... The road was leading uphill and steadily getting steeper... Soon we passed a truck that was already struck on the road there for 8 days waiting for some spare parts to arrive from Paraguay - Welcome to South America!! ;-) As we continued, the passing cars and trucks always animated us by honking, bit every time we saw a bit further there was a new hang we still had to climb...

Yippie, I'm already higher up that half an hour earlier... :-)

A few curves later...

At around 6 pm we finally reached the top of the pass, 4170 m above sea level, so far our altitude record by bike.

And finally we got to the top of this damned pass!

You'd think we should have enjoyed our arrival up the, but due to the time we only thought about putting on some warm clothes and using the remaining time till sunset to bike as far down as possible, as we wanted to avoid having to sleep too high up. The next morning it was freezing cold, but as soon as the sun rose, it got a lot warmer.

Our pretty remote campsite next to the Salinas Grandes

And there it is: The first salt lake we saw on our trip!

Observing wildlife is pretty easy around here...

Once we were ready to leave Stefan noticed that he had a thorn in his tire, which unfortunately also punctured the tube, so instead of leaving we first had to fix the tube... But when we finally left we got to the Salinas Grandes (a big salt flat in Argentina) pretty fast and were impressed by this big white area abs the road leading strait through it. Of course I had to taste some of it, but it really just tastes like salt... :-)

Salinas Grandes: The road leads right across it...

Once we crossed the Salinas, we steadily rolled towards the next mountain range, but for a long time it looked as we wouldn't be getting closer at all. And then suddenly, with the headwind growing stronger and stronger, we found ourselves in these mountains. Along a narrow valley we worked our way uphill. 

And the next pass is never far...

Observing local donkeys makes our life climbing the passes a little easier...

nd then we figured why this pass is called Paso Malo (Mean Pass): Once it's already going downhill again you can see how the road starts climbing again... This pattern repeated itself a few times until finally the road leads downhill towards Susques. As I had some troubles with the altitude, we decided to stay a day in Susques in order to acclimatize a bit more before heading towards Paso Jama.

Salta to San Salvador de Jujuy - An unexpected ride through the rain forest

We left Salta with the sky cloudy and the temperatures comfortably low and surprisingly there was even a bike path running parallel to the highway leading out of the city :-) Once we were out of the city, there was almost no traffic anymore and we slowly worked our way up along a river and through the woods until we reached a nice lake. From there on the street started to resemble a Swiss pass-street leading steadily uphill and soon we found ourselves in the rain forest (and we thought we'd be getting to the desert...). Soon we reached the highest point from which the road continued its curvy way down along the hills and back into a valley. Despite the rain, the street and the views we got were unforgettable!

Pass-like street through the rainy rain forest :-)

View over the rain forest we crossed...

Entering the state of Jujuy

Once down in the valley there was noticeably less vegetation, we were getting closer to the desert. Unfortunately, the combination of rain and exercise didn't seem to please my body, as soon I felt ill again... So as soon as we reached Jujuy, we checked in to a hostel and I did my best to recover. However, as the next part of our trip would lead is up to over 4800 m above sea level, we stayed 3 days in Jujuy for me to recover completely.

Having fun and sharing meals with the two cyclists Lorena and Leo
and Alberto, an Argentinian guy at the hostel in Jujuy

Mendoza to Salta - It can be astonishingly difficult to get bikes transported by bus...

When we wanted to pack our stuff to leave Mendoza, I noticed that I had a flat tire, so we first had to fix that… So we left quite late and we didn’t get very far before I again had a flat tire, so we decided to fix it another time and for the moment just exchange the tube… About 26 km out of Mendoza we stopped at the intersection to Lavalle and both something for lunch and then we put us next to the street and tried to hitchhike (we decided not to cycle the about 1220 km from Mendoza to Salta, as it is mostly Pampa and we want to spend more time in Bolivia and Peru…). But we weren’t lucky at all, after several hours still standing at the same spot we decided that we need to do something else… And as it would get dark soon, we cycled back to Mendoza and went to the bus terminal, we wanted to see if we find a company that would take us and our bikes (we heard that often they don’t take bikes…) to Salta. And so it was: We were told that there were 3 companies running from Mendoza to Salta, but all of them told us that we’d have to send the bike separately and in a box and that they would not be transported in the same bus as we. Well, that was definitely not what we wanted. So, what do we do? We just looked for another office of one of the companies we already asked and there they told us that if we take the wheels off and put the bikes in a box and bring them to the terminal about 4 hours before the bus leaves, they would take them with the same bus as us. Well that already sounded a little bit better, but it was still not what we wanted. But then we had another idea: There was a bus just about to leave to Salta, so we just looked for that bus and asked the drivers if they’d take our bikes the way they are (we speculated that there weren’t a lot of people on the bus and therefore only little luggage), and surprise, surprise, they said they’d take the bike! Obviously we had to pay for them and we suspect that that money was a very good tip for the drivers, but never mind, we got the bikes, all our luggage and ourselves into that bus and then had together just about $ 50 (about 5 dollars) left, as we had no time to get more money… But well, we had a 19 hours bus drive in front of us where we anyways couldn’t spend too much money and we’ll have to take care of that as soon as we’re actually in Salta… It was a long 19 hours, but we slept most of the night, watched some movies and played Bingo, where you could even win a bottle of wine :-). 

Playing Bingo on the Bus... :-)

Once we arrived in Salta we were surprised that our bikes looked pretty ok, it really seemed as they survived the journey with no bigger problem! So we looked for a hostel, which wasn’t as easy as we hoped for, as the first two we went to were closed, but finally we found an open one and stayed there. And we had to make sure to get some pesos again and get some food before I suddenly got a fever and went to bed early. The next day I felt better but still sick so I stayed in bed while Stefan went to explore the city a bit and hiked up to a nearby hill from where you have a nice view over the city. 

Salta's Cathedral at night

View over Salta from the Cerro San Bernardo

As in the evening I still didn’t feel good, we decided to stay another day in Salta, but the next morning we nevertheless had to get out of the hostel as they had to clean whatever and threw out all guests. So once again we had to look for a hostel, but we found a really nice one, it’s a bit more expensive, but very clean and quite. And this day we really just didn’t do a lot in order to relax and getting well again for our next big adventure: Crossing the Andes again over Paso de Jama…

Santiago to Mendoza - Our first REAL crossing of the Andes

When we left Santiago Stefan had a cold, but he still wanted to continue… It took about 30 km to get out of Santiago and it wasn’t the nicest ride, as the highways were huge and the cars simply don’t respect you as a cyclist (Ok, there were no-bikes signs all over which we simply ignored, but there’s no other way to Los Andes than by the highway we took). And still, even 30 km out of downtown, there was lots and lots of smog; even though it was a sunny day and the sky seems clear, you couldn’t see far at all, there was just smog… But soon we passed by some beautiful vineyards and we started to feel out in the country again.

Beautiful vineyard on our way from Santiago to Los Andes

In Chacabuco we stopped for lunch at a little restraint next to the highway before the road started to climb quite a bit until we reached a tunnel where we were immediately loaded up onto a pick-up to be driven through the tunnel. I was actually surprised by this, as all the way to the tunnel there were no-bikes signs, but apparently no one cares about them, we were told that several cyclists are driven through that tunnel every year… On the other side of the tunnel a nice downhill awaited us leading towards Los Andes, where we stayed at the Casa de Ciclista of Eric Savard, a French veterinarian. He just bought the neighboring house of where he lives and is momentarily renovating it, so we had a whole empty house for us to stay in :-). In the evening, Eric, his son Cristóbal, and his neighbor Andrés invited us for an Asado (BBQ) and we spent the whole evening talking and getting to know lots of stories about other cyclists that passed by Eric’s place. The next morning Stefan felt worse than the day before and as we anyways were getting up late we decided to stay another day in Los Andes in order to start early the next morning and hopefully with full strength again. In the afternoon we hiked up to a nearby hill from where we had a good view over the whole city and towards the Andes on the other side of the hill and I wondered if we’d make it all the way to Portillo the next day…

View over Los Andes from the top of a nearby hill

In the evening we cooked a delicious meal and went to bed early in order to get a good rest before attacking the first real pass over the Andes. And then this day we wanted to climb 2000 m of altitude finally arrived: We got up before daylight once again in order to leave early enough to reach Portillo before it gets dark. After saying goodbye to Eric and Andrés, we started to head east. The road always followed the Río Aconcagua and it was pretty flat at the beginning, we were hardly gaining any elevation… 

While the Transandino once had a tunnel to cross,
we had to climb this canyon just to roll down again behing it...

After 35 km but only 600 m of elevation gain we arrived in Río Blanco where we stopped for lunch and filled up our water bottles. And then the hard part started: 1500 m of elevation gain in only 25 km… We advanced slowly, but the passing trucks usually horned and motivated us. 10 km before reaching Portillo we got to the famous 29 Caracoles (switchbacks), and I really didn’t feel like climbing all those meters of altitude anymore (luckily you couldn’t actually see all the way up to Portillo, I guess I would immediately have given up… :P).

Here they are: the famous caracoles (switchbacks) at the Paso Los Libertadores:
Luckily at this moment I didn't know that you can only see half of them and it's going up muuuch more...

Half way up the famous 29 switchbacks of the Paso Los Libertadores

But little by little we climbed up that mountain and finally we got to Portillo, a famous Chilean ski resort which really just consists of some lifts and a huge luxury hotel which we definitely can’t afford, but the let us camp behind the hotel next to the laguna and we were even allowed to use the hotels bathrooms :-).

Our wild-campsite at 2880 MASL :-)

We had an absolutely great campsite and as it was so beautiful and didn't look like rain, we decided to sleep without our tent, just below the stars, and it was a gorgeous night with a full (or almost full) moon!

It was great to spend the night just below the stars!!

After a good porridge for breakfast the next morning we started to climb the remaining 300 m of altitude up to the TUNNEL (imagine, they have the tunnel through the mountain at 3200 MASL!). After about 1 hour we finally got to the tunnel Cristo Redentor and after a short photo-session we were immediately taken through the tunnel by a small truck. Stefan would have liked to cycle up to the actual pass, but it was closed from the Chilean side because of snow, so we had to take the tunnel… And then we suddenly were on the other side of the Andes, which was somehow weird, after 1.5 days of just cycling uphill you’re suddenly there… 

Finally, at about 3200 MASL we reached the highest point!

The bikes had to be transpoted through the tunnel by truck

And there we go - The tunnel we worked so hard to get to :-)

On the Argentinian side the landscape looked suddenly completely different; it was way drier, looked more like a desert, the mountains were more reddish, there was wind again, just a completely different world! We stopped at the first restaurant for a hot chocolate and felt like aliens as a whole group of Argentinian tourists stared at us and couldn’t believe that we just cycled up that pass… 

As soon as we were on the Argentinian side, the landscape as way drier,
the mountains more reddish and the wind a loooot stronger...

And then we started a long way downhill: We stopped at the Aconcagua viewpoint, but unfortunately it hid behind the clouds and then it took us forever to get through the customs, as apparently neither we Chileans nor the Argentinians care about making the border crossing any efficient… After a short stop at Puente del Inca, a naturally formed bridge, we continued our way down, through desert-like mountains, almost no vegetation and obviously with a lot of wind (but for once we had tailwind!!). And then, just before it got dark, we reached Uspallata where we both fell to bed immediately…

Puente del Inca:
Nice natural bridge with old thermal bath house, but way too touristy!

On our way down to Uspallata...

After having breakfast with Florent, the only other guest at the hostel we stayed, we packed all our stuff and continued our way to Mendoza. It started going down quite a bit, then it started to get hillier, uphills and downhills were alternating and once more we had headwind, somehow it seems that Argentina is just terribly windy… And then we met another cyclist coming our way, the first since Mañihuales where we were exactly a month ago! So obviously we stopped and talked for quite a while before we continued to Portrerillos where we stopped for lunch. 

Close to Portrerillo - The landscape is gorgeous!

Afterwards we had to cycle uphill for some km before a quite long downhill awaited us where we met another 6 cyclists (a family of 4 and a couple). So again we stopped and talked for a while before we definitely continued our way to Mendoza. For a few more km it went downhill, before we definitely left the mountains and came to the surroundings of Mendoza with tons and tons of vineyards. Soon we reached the intersection with Ruta 40, from where on we had to ride along a highway with lots of traffic again, but our GPS helped us to find a good hostel soon :-).  And then we spent one day in Mendoza, walking through the local market where we learned how olives look like when they are fresh and how they are usually prepared. In the afternoon we then walked to Parque San Martín with two Argentinian siblings, an Ecuadorian girl and an American guy we met at the hostel. There we just relaxed a bit and enjoyed the nice weather before we headed back to the hostel to cook together and spend a nice evening…

Yeah, we spent a lot of time cooking in Mendoza...

Puerto Fonck to Santiago - Escaping the rain...

After a last incredible breakfast it was definitely time to say goodbye and continue our way north… Luckily, the weather meant it good with us, there were lots of clouds, but it didn’t rain and we still got a quite good view onto the surrounding volcanoes. The street was also pretty good; except for some km that were ripio we had asphalt all day long. 

Beautiful Eucalyptus forest along the road...

It's flat and wet...

Well, because it's sooo wet, it's also extremely green... :-)

In the early afternoon we arrived in Entre Lagos, where I was already pretty tired, so we decided to spend the afternoon there and spent some time at the lake as the sun finally decided to show up for a while. The next morning we weren´t too motivated to get up, as we heard the rain hitting hard onto the roof of our cabin… But to our surprise the rain eventually stopped so that we left Entre Lagos with dry weather! Still we decided that we’re not too keen on spending much more time in this very wet climate with no good views onto the apparently gorgeous scenery , so instead of heading to the next of the many lakes in the region, we cycled towards the Panamericana. However, leaving Entre Lagos we first had quite a bit of ripio to ride on, but we got used to it pretty quickly again and by the early afternoon we reached Río Bueno, where we had lunch before we started to pollute our lungs while occupying the emergency lane of the highway… However, the highway let us advance a bit faster than usual, so by the end of the day we reached Los Lagos (unfortunately only after it started raining again…), where we stopped at the first hospedaje we found and where after an easy dinner we both fell asleep very quickly. The next morning we didn’t start anything new, meaning that again we got up to the music of the rain… But again the rain stopped just as we left and except for some short intervals of light rain it kept dry for quite a while! We were riding eastwards again towards another lake, it still seemed the better choice than to ride hundreds of kilometers along the highway… Shortly after our lunch break the dry weather was replaced by pouring rain, but the road got flatter and the wind stopped almost completely, so that we got to Pangipulli pretty fast, where again we stayed at the first hospedaje we found and immediately hang up our cloth in the hope they’d dry until the next morning… Eventually I could have needed a different music in the morning, but the only thing we got was the sound of heavy rain… Well, this meant that we had a long breakfast and an interesting discussion with the owner of the hospedaje, and again the waiting was worth it, as it finally stopped raining! Over some hills we rode to Lican Ray, where we had lunch at the beach and for a little while we could even enjoy the sun! From there it wasn’t far to Villarrica anymore where we spent our evening talking to a French couple we met at the hostel… And the next day something almost incredible happened: it did not rain when we woke up!! :-) And soon it was clear that it would even get sunny that day, which increased my motivation to get onto my bike a lot! It was a really nice day for cycling, in the beginning there still was a lot of mist in all the valleys and everything was sparkling in the sun, it was amazing! As the road was really good and heading slightly downhill most of the time, we advanced pretty fast and got to Temuco really easily, from where we called our WarmShowers host Juan José in order to get direction of how to get to his place, that was located about 20 km north of the city. When we finally found their place we were warmly welcomed by this young family and we spent a very nice evening with them, cooking together and exchanging our travelling experiences… We then decided to stay another day at Juan José´s and Carla´s place in order to relax a bit and to go back to Temuco in order to have lunch together with our hosts at the local Mercado and to visit the local market, called Feria Pinto, which was huge and where you find lots of good and fresh fruits and vegetables! 

At Temuco's Feria Pinto: Yeah, there's a lot of chili available... ;-)

The next two days we really spent solely on the highway as we tried to get to Chillán as soon as possible, we were so sick of all the rain that we really just wanted to get as far north as possible! 

That's how to pass a toll gate by bike... :-)

From Chillán we then took the train to Santiago, as we already figured that cycling through very populated areas is not too much fun due to lots of traffic that usually doesn’t respect cyclists at all… However, this wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be, as they told us we’d have to take of both wheels… But once we actually had to hand over our bikes, the wheels didn’t seem to be any problem anymore and after a 5 hours train ride and over 3000 km by bike we finally arrived in Santiago de Chile on the 9^th of May! :-)

Yippie - Everything arrived at Santiagos train station!

The beautiful view from the hostel's terrace in the center of Santiago

Our first day in Santiago we visited a few of the very local markets close to our hostel where we also had a great seafood lunch, before we got terribly lost in this huge city while looking for a well-known outdoor store, so that eventually we returned to the hostel without having been where we wanted to go… But the evening we spent with Iain, a British motorcyclist we already met in Coyhaique and who stayed at the same hostel as we did. We went to the Bellavista neighborhood, the neighborhood famous for its restaurants and bars, where we first had a good Parrillada at a restaurant and then went to another place where we enjoyed some live music… The next day we took the bus to Valparaíso, a nearby city famous for its colorful houses and the many hills it’s built into and I have to admit that it’s really a cute city, even if I’m not the biggest fan of cities…

The colorful houses built into the hills of Valparaíso make this city really lovely

The Valpó's inhabitants seem to be pretty creative... :-)