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...