We left later than usual to do a back road passed 10 scenic lakes and had to do a double take as the scenery was so New Zealand. What was it, the lakes Central Otago like, the mountains Westland like? Then we got it. It was the beech forest,,,, we felt as if we had been transported to the West coast of NZ. Then we descended down a very rough freshly cut forestry track where huge beech trees with 2m trunks had been chopped to get a road through to join existing trails. Argentina is very like NZ in this area and looks like it would be a fun place to spend a ski season if that is you.
Suddenly we are through a pass and the promised wind hits, the trees vanish, and the temperature drops 10 degrees and we are at Bariloche. This is the beginning of the seriously tough stuff seemingly. We are at the last decent sized town for about 2200 km, off into the unknown, yea ha.
Araucaria araucana commonly called the monkey puzzle tree is a long lived native of the Chile and Argentina area we have been passing through. This tree was the main contributor to the carbon deposits of the Carboniferous period 300m years ago and now only has remnants of forest left. This is in part due to the logging that occurred until the mid 1970s until the species was protected. When we saw the first specimen on the road from Las Lajas to San Martin de los Andes we were in awe of this huge trunk with a small umbrella of greenery and couldn’t believe it was related to the “monkey puzzle” that we know. These dioecious trees do not become sexually mature until about 40 and we saw the young adult trees, females bearing the huge cones and the males golden pollen buds. This tree can live for over 1000 years.
Some times as you cruise along on these gravel and sand roads your mind takes you somewhere else, and these trees had my mind in turmoil as to the actual definition of a gymnosperm, but the sheer drop offs from slippery badly cambered corners occasionally brings you back to the present. I now know gymno = naked + sperm= seed because the seed is not encased in a fruit.
Then we came into this gorgeous little touristy town un believably like Queenstown and washed my socks and went to an Irish Pub
Xx Jo
The gravel wasn’t even worth a mention (in the last post), so I mustn’t listen to these stories as I only get a nervous tummy. Another puncture yesterday, a nail in Tony’s rear, his second, the third overall. Gomeria shops everywhere so got the tube fixed.
We had last night in Las Lajos after a 6pm arrival, and now I sit outside in the lovely cool morning air, maybe 17 degrees and just coming light. The dogs are barking and roosters crowing, last nights cervesa bottles are tucked tidily by my feet, brand last night was Isenbeck. We prefered the Quilmes brand that we knew, but couldn’t buy any unless we returned some empty bottles, try getting that explained in another language. Half the shoppers joined in as they tried to get the message across to Brendan. The view here,,,, T-shirts and undies hang from the spouting and a row a dirty boots are along the balcony.
Wandering the town last night with the rest of the population here was my days relaxation, every-one is SO polite and all say good evening, even the dogs are friendly in Argentina.
Talking about dogs,,,,, in the last town I acquired one that “bonded” with me and was my loyal companion, walking miles at my side and even turning up at the petrol station as we were leaving. It made me wonder about reincarnation as this dog had eyes like a now dead friend had.
Socks and boots are on, have had coffee and dry crackers for breakfast and the boys are dragging their huge black waterproof bags down to the machines, and I don’t know what town to programme in my GPS yet.
xox Jo
We are now on a slightly different schedule due to the “terremoto” (earthquake). We are traveling down Ruta 40 (mainly) in Argentina and loving this place. The sophistication of Chile seemed to bring with it higher prices, worse service, and it seemed harder to interact with the locals especially in the cities. Anyway back to Argentina, we are in Malague and sat on the street having a cold beer ($2) and people watching, especially the hour long queue at the money machine.. We are at a lovely little personal hotel (even with free wi-fi) costing $50 for our no frills “matrimonial” room. Good storage for the motos too. We are off south today and have been warned about some tough sections ahead. 70 km in three hours sounded serious. from another motorcyclist
Today I was booked on a winery tour in Mendoza. The lure of the grapes had started in the north of Argentina with my visit to Cafayete. 160kms north of Mendoza once again I was tempted as we drove through the fertile San Juan region.
Today’s tour was about trying the flagship grape varietal of Mendoza, the famous Malbec. For us Kiwi’s and Aussies we seldom drink a pure Malbec wine, we know this best as an additive in small quantities (10-15%) in blends in Australasia and Europe. With 2000 wineries in the Mendoza area the idea of where to start becomes daunting this improves when you find out that only 80 open their door to the public. Still 80 is too hard and driving the bike was definitely out of the question. So it was down to the experts to see what was on offer. I chose Ampora Wine Tours they based one of their tours in the Uco Valley around 1.5 hours south of Mendoza just outside the small town of Tunuyan. It was reported that the Uco valley a relatively new region was boasting some of the best Sauvignon Blanc’s and Pinot Nior’s. I found that hard to believe given the NZ pedigree.
Mendoza is a desert area that relies on the melted snow from the Andes for all its water supply. The demand for water for domestic use and agriculture is quite a controversial topic for the people who live in Mendoza. The main river “Rio Mendoza” is fully dammed and no longer flows on the outskirts of Mendoza, further development in the agriculture sector is threatening the further damming of the other Ande tributaries. I could only imagine what the consequences may be if they had a mild winter.
So what makes Mendoza and Malbec so special? Well it turns out that it all comes down to it’s fantastic climate, the area gets at least 300 days of sunshine and only 250mm of rain per year. This in terms of grape growing is fantastic as the quality of the yield remains constant unlike NZ, Aussie and Europe where each year can vary so much. The only downside to the Mendoza climate is the hail which occurs during the months of December and January.
Anyway on to the tour. The Uco valley is similar to that of central Otago a high altitude vineyard (1300m) with hot days and cool nights. Winter brings snow and the threat of frost but a gentle constant wind prevents this. Under these conditions the grapes form a hard skin providing a very succulent product. We visited three wineries Andeluna, Salentien and O’Fournier. These were relatively new wineries with a lot of their vines planted around 2000 giving them production over the last couple of years with a lot of the wine still in Barrel or bottle ready for release.
On arrival at these vineyards I was blown away with the architecture, technology and investment that was present in these facilities. I had not seen this in any of the many vineyards I have visited in Australia or New Zealand. Each of the facilities were based on a gravitational wine flow principle. Grapes were added at the top and worked their way down through the cold press process, juice to be transferred gravitationally down for fermentation, barrelling and finally bottling then cellaring. No pumps were used at all to avoid the introduction of air in the wine. Now to achieve this one must start by digging a big hole and build a 5 story facility in the ground. The advantage being that natural cellaring occurs on the bottom floor.
These were truly amazing facilities I cannot imagine how one gets a return on such an investment. Who in Argentina spends this type of money, the answer is no one. It turns out that all these modern facilities are all foreign owned. Most began as joint ventures with local Argentines giving access to local cheap labour and knowledge. Today most of the ownership has reverted to the Americian, Spanish and Dutch ownership.
Well what about the wine. ? My focus was the Malbec and reserve blends of Malbec (at least 60% plus) and Merlot or Cabinet Sauvignon. They were outstanding and given the age of the vines I would say that the Mendosa area has a fantastic future. I then turned my attention to the Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir. These were stunning and I am sure in a blind tasting these would stack up against NZ finest. When asked how much I thought these were I suggested primo prices similar to Peregrine or Oyster Bay. To my surprise these where 16 Peso’s a bottle, $5 NZD a bottle. Wow how could this be, it all came down to the base labour price. All grapes were handpicked with the average picker completing 80 skips (a skip being 18kgs of grapes) a day and being paid 0.80 pesos per skip. His take home pay being $22NZD per day!!.
So in summary, cheap labour, handpicked grapes, excellent quality, state of art winemaking and 300 days of sun is a fantastic recipe for high quality wine manufacture. I am sure with age the Uco valley and Mendoza will rise to become one of the world top wine regions.
For me personally I prefer the Aussie blends with Shiraz or Cabinet Sauvignon as their base.
We have come into Santiago to hopefully continue south through Chile but the earthquake has caused roading and infrastructure issues that are likely to cause us to go back into Argentina. This probably means more unpaved roads and generally bigger and harder days.
So, I decided to do another gear clear out and leave surplus gear here. So the tent and cooking gear is off the bike as is the spare tshirt my bra and light weight trou too. Camera and charger gone as Gareth’s photos are always better, and the safety vest gone too. The lovely llama skin hat from Bolivia, that I fancied wearing in the cold of Patagonia is too much of a luxury, as is the silky robe that was intended to make me feel like a girl. It was my only bit of colour.
So what have I got and what I should get rid of.
Your views on what else can go will be appreciated, as a lighter bike is better bike on tough roads.
All icebreaker clothing; 2 ski type riding socks, 2 singlets, 2 knickers, 2 medium weight tops, 3 warm tights, 1 jacket, 1 dress (doubles as a nightie), light weight trou, and little shoes.
Bike riding gear, wet weather over jacket and trou, 2 neck warmers, 2 pair of warm gloves and a light weight pair
First aid box (probably too large), water filter, bike-cover (now this has to be a emergency shelter too) big plastic bag and sleeping bag.
Tools for maintenance and puncture repairs, 2 rear tubes and 1 front tube. Water bottle. WD 40 lube, chain oil, Olay face sunscreen.
I have some lollies and a small toilet bag too
Jo
Let’s try to get a list of what the others have too.
We came across a magnificent road from Mendoza, Argentina into Chile and had flurries of snow as we cleared customs at 3200m but then the race was on as Gareth and I left the others for a speedy ride to the Santiago hotel “Atton” where he had promised to be available for a radio interview. We by-passed traffic congestion on the footpaths and squeezed through any gap we saw. We saw lots of earthquake damage to power-poles, over-bridges and walkways and a few shops with everything askew. A slight problem though, we were following our GPSs and had slightly different end points so when I saw the obscure hotel as the machine flashed “you have reached your destination” I stopped…. only to see Gareth speeding into the distance. I left the bike in a very visible place and went in to get a room and hurry the process of having a phone line to talk on.
You are looked differently when you arrive on a bike, and often get treated like a stray animal that has wandered into the lobby. It was like that here and the service was slow for a dirty biker…. anyway I mustn’t get started on that subject. The advertised Wi-Fi was only in the lobby, so guests were all standing around trying to sort internet. Gareth eventually arrived after navigating a complex one-way system and with 2 minutes to spare get the radio broadcast done.
Who said this was a holiday
Time to head out of Argentina for a bit – to Santiago for some bike servicing and to sort out whether we can ride south on the west side of the Andes to Osorno, Chile’s lake district. With the aftermath of the quake being public disorder in the southern towns, stories of it taking 48 hours to do trips that normally take 8, and of serious fuel shortages south of Santiago – it may be an exercise in futility. But we need to get better intelligence than we can from this distance. Besides – we get to go up the Andes again, this time from Mendoza up Ruta 7 – supposed to be one of the most scenic journeys and a ride to match anything anywhere. That’s enough temptation.
The road is totally sealed so it’s easy & I’d describe it as a couple of Arthurs Pass’s with a couple of Wanaka to Haasts – all rolled into one. 400kms and twice the ascent of Arthurs, it certainly rates as one the world’s best rides. Let’s hope we don’t have t come back in a couple of days, that the next time we see this road will be the final leg from Cordoba to Santiago. Photos of the ride can be seen here.
We were in the small town of Villa Union (about 200km North of Mendoza, Argentina). On the street I came across Miguel a key cutter, working out of the back of an old combi van, sounds pretty normal until you look at the setup. He was also living in the van, and when you opened the side doors there was all his kitchen goods and possessions, that was a teapot a couple of glasses and a cooker. He had a couple of seats on the pavement and offered a cuppa to us. Inside was a droopy very single bed and a couple more boxes of assorted tools. A local arrived and got a key cut for a few Pesos.
Meanwhile we explored the mechanicals of this vehicle that looked pretty “mad max”. There was an huge external mounted radiator on the front, yes I know VWs don’t have them but this had been modified, and the motor in the rear under Miguel’s work bench was a marvel. It was an old ford, 1200cc type, with loose wires hanging. Don’t touch it if it ain’t broke type. His socks hung over the radiator drying or just freshening up in the breeze.
Later when I was walking home from the Carnival parade he was sitting out with a couple of mates having a cuppa and chatting, and they like most Argentinians I passed said “good evening”.
What a perfect existence, low carbon footprint, simple food, worthy work and the look of a contented man. One of my travel companions remarked that his stress free look could be due to his apparent woman free life, travelling with cynics is hard for the idealist in me.
Miguel should be a contender for man of the year.
Later that night the big shake happened. I bet the VW felt more secure than the hotel we were sleeping in.
What a beauty! here we were in this rather understated hotel in Villa Union, Argentina last night and earlier over a few cervazas been talking about robustness of the structure, typical of many it looked like the Big Bad Wolf could blow it down without much effort – when at 3.30 am the whole place just started quivering. We decided this was not the place to be and started to dress – not a good look running out in the street in the buff – and began to head downstairs. The quake then stopped and we settled back to sleep in our rickety structure, thinking that’s the longest quake we’ve ever endured – well over a minute – not thinking that just some 400 kms and the world’s 2nd tallest mountain range away all hell had broken loose and that Chile was in chaos thanks to the 8.8 quake. It’s still carnival time here and last night the street parade in Villa Union began at around 11 pm and was still going strong after midnight when we retired. Given the copious quantities of booze consumed and unadulterated joy people were in, it is doubtful that many would have felt the quake – they would have just known they were pissed.
It was a different story this morning. We attempted to ride back into the Andes to have another night tonight at altitude – it saves on the booze you know. But all roads into the mountains including the main passes to Chile have been closed by the police. The fear is that the roads and tunnels have been undermined so it will take a couple of days to be sure things are okay. Next week we ride down to the centre of the quake at Concepion and onwards through the Lake District. Right now those plans look a bit at risk. With floods stuffing the visit to Machu Picchu and now the quake causing such misery in Chile, this ride is getting additional elements that we didn’t bargain for.