Wind break

We´re currently on a wind break in Zapala.  It´s not a town made in heaven but it has everything we need.  In the last few days a nasty storm has been firing violent bursts of wind our way making cycling due north (which is what we need to do in order to leave Zapala) a dangerous occupation. 

Ruddy wind.  At it again.

Our journey here from San Martin de los Andes has been great fun.  We roared up Ruta 40 to Junin de los Andes, a quiet and much underrated place that gets little attention in most guide books, and spent the afternoon basking in the sun and swimming in the river.  Having stocked up and food (and got some free advice from a local wine merchant on the scenic route out of town) we took said scenic route towards Alumine and Zapala beyond.  It was a clear day and without a cloud in the sky we had an uninterrupted view of Volcan Lanin, caked in snow and towering 3,776 metres above us near the Chilean border.  The dusty road gradually dragged us up high into the hills before dropping us back down into the river valley that runs the whole way into Alumine, so at the end of day one we´d done a lot of climbing.  Exahusted and caked in dust, we were ultimately rewarded with a swim in the beautiful clear river near the village of Pilol Lil.

Volcan Lanin

The river near Pilol Lil.  Perfect for swimming.

Extraordinary rock formations in Pilol Lil

From there we expected to wind around the valley a bit more before branching off onto the road to Zapala, and be able to cruise into town later that day, if not early the next morning.  Our expectations were based on two things:  advice handed out by someone who had clearly only made the journey by car;  and on a map that (like most maps of South America) turned out to be as accurate as a pissed sniper who has been handed someone else´s varifocals.

By late afternoon we´d done lots of upping and downing over various lumps in the lanscape (The Andes?), but only managed 50 of the 120 odd kms to Zapala.  We thought we´d try to push on for a bit to get the distance to town down to a manageable figure for the following morning until we turned a corner and came face to face with Cuesta Rahue, a mountain pass over 2,000m high.  Eyeing the all-you-can-eat hairpin buffet ahead we decided to find somewhere to camp for the night so that we could attempt the climb with fresh legs in the morning.

Cuesta Rahue seen from the AVN hut

Then we spotted Carlos, a man employed by the AVN (equivalent of the Highways Agency we think) to sit in a hut at the bottom of the pass and keep watch.  He has to check that the road is passable, make sure that nobody gets stuck on the pass, and prevent people from doing anything stupid like crossing it in winter without snow chains, or trying to drive up there in a Rover 200.  Anyhow, Carlos kindly said that we could camp the night next to his hut and use his kitchen, bathroom etc, so we spent a very restful evening admiring the amazing view of the valley (that probably keeps Carlos from going insane with boredom) and watching rickety trucks narrowly avoid overshooting one of the hairpin bends (an event that would probably punctuate Carlos´ boredom, but not in a good way).

The start of Cuesta Rahue

The big climb.  Like a massive intestine clogged with grit.

The next day we got up early and took on the climb.  It wasn´t as horrendous as we´d expected, and on the downhill on the other side we set a new tour best of 64.1kph.  But the bad news lay ahead and we discovered that several more big climbs lay between us and Zapala.  Exhausted, we spent another night sleeping in the mountains, watching the sun set and the moon rise over some amazing scenery, trying to cook something vaguely appetising with our remaining food, and trying not to be fooled by the hallucinations that seem to make rocks and stones look like biscuits in these extreme hunger situations.

Cuesta Rahue - not for the faint-hearted

Camping, just not in Zapala as we´d expected.

Finally (on our third day of trying) we made it to Zapala.  The extreme wind that is currently holding us back was in fact a real help getting here.  We managed to outrun the rain and covered 45kms in two and a half hours (ish). 

At some points we were cursing the decision to take the scenic route, but in hindsight it was a great detour.  Fingers crossed the wind will fizzle out overnight and we´ll be able to roll on towards Mendoza tomorrow.