Cafayate to Pucon
I believe I have finally hit stride on traveling alone, managing the motorcycle, planning my routes and taking advantage of the time I have to travel and think about what may be coming next in my life. The traveling alone piece has been more challenging than I thought. Managing the motorcycle has now become second nature, which shouldn’t be a surprise given the number of kilometers/miles I have driven on the trip to date. The areas I am traveling in this section of the trip are also interesting but have required advance planning as opposed to winging it. I’ve been able to get ahead of the curve in the evenings and plan out the next day as to where I want to stop and at which places I want to spend time.
As to what comes next in my life, well….I still don’t know the answer to that. However, I have some ideas and Kathy and I will sit down and discuss them when I get back…I’m starting to narrow down the list of possibilities and prioritize where my time should probably be spent.
Finding a comfort zone, finally, has resulted in a marked increase in my enjoyment level, and I have been able to see more of the humor in the situations I find myself…and there is no lack of that as you will see below.
Feb. 23 – Cafayate to Miranda
After a sleepless night due to the Serenata de Cafayate (What a misnomer that is…should have been more like the Assault of Cafayate!!! You can read more about it in the post below.) I pulled into the town square to take a picture of the church, which I thought was one of the more interesting churches I have seen on the trip…very Palladian…
….and I ran into the 8:00 AM after effects of the Serenade, which can be seen below. We’ve all been there before.
Anyways, I exited Cafayate and and entered right into the countryside of Argentina and the wine district along Ruta 40. I’m surprised by the size of Argentina’s wine industry. There have been and will be as a travel further southward vineyards along Ruta 40 for several hundred miles.
I took the photo below to highlight the length of my journey from here. The kilometer marker on Ruta 40 is 4324 and it will end in Ushuaia, I believe at zero. Onward!!!
About an hour outside of Cafayate, I took a detour to see the Ruinas de Quilmes (B on the map), which is an achealogical site and largest pre-Columbian settlement in Argentina. The area dates back to ca 850 AD and was inhabited by the Quilmes people. It is believed that about 5,000 people lived here during its heights. The Quilmas people lived here through the Inca invasion in the 15th century, but were defeated by the Spanish in 1667 after 130 years of resistance. The remaining 2,000 Quilmas were then marched from here to Buenos Aires during which about another 1,000 died. Today, there remain distant relatives of these people in the area and in Buenos Aires.
From the Ruinas de Quilmes I headed south on Ruta 40 through a great section of road that was two lanes and wove in and out of small agriculturally focused towns, many of which were involved in the wine business. I got to a small town called Santa Rosa and for some reason Google maps routed me around the town and then onto a dirt road that had the below river in the middle of it. The river was about 75 yards wide and the water was about 18 inches deep at its deepest. As I was sitting on the bank of the river making up my mind whether or not to cross it on the bike, a local man came up, rolled up his pants and started to walk across…decision made for me…time to go for it.
Below is a stopping point I reached about midway through the river. The local man who had been crossing in his bare feet was now stopped, watching me and giving me hand signals as to which direction to go. So I followed his directions…bad idea!
As I approached the opposite bank, the bank was about six inch above the water. However, the water at that point was about 18 inches deep. I gunned the bike and hit the bank and bounced backward, over and into the river! I picked myself up out of the water, turned off the bike and started to try and get it back on two wheels in 18 inches of water. As I was working my butt off to make this happen, Mr. Local #1 comes over and starts giving me instructions in Spanish but won’t help out because he claimed to have a bad back. Mr. Local #1 is in the green jersey. The good news Mr. Local #1 waved down another guy near the river, Mr. Local #2, who ran from the other bank and helped me get the bike righted and put me in a position to get out of the river. What struck me about Mr. Local #2 was that he was strong as a bull and not only was his zipper wide open, but I don’t think there was a zipper…he was flying free. Mr. Local #2 saved my bacon and the only damage was my two boots were full to the top of river water. Otherwise, no harm, no foul.
I got back on Ruta 40 and continued from town to town. Below is a photo of a typical scene on the road…very small town, rural environment with a number of men out on their horses taking a ride.
Later that morning, I made a detour onto the old Ruta 40, which can be seen below. Dirt road! Today, it is mostly paved in the North. In the South, where I am headed tomorrow, it’s a different story there are hundreds of kilometers at a stretch that are still dirt. There was a cool old sign on the way into Hualfin (C on the map).
I have included the pic below to give you some perspective on the straight stretches of road that I often encounter on Ruta 40. Sometimes, I can see for what seems like 10 miles ahead of me without there being a turn. This road didn’t turn until I met the mountains in the far far distance. I used to think Nebraska was the most difficult place to drive through…this overwhelms it by orders of magnitude.
After my sleepless night in Cafayate, I have decided to stay in rural locations and smaller homes/hotels. Tonight is the first time for this. I stayed outside of Chilecito, which itself is a small town, in Miranda, which is nothing more than about 30 homes along Ruta 40. Below is a photo of the place. It ended up being very nice and managed/owned by a woman named Ani. When I asked Ani for a restaurant suggestion nearby she told me she would cook me dinner, which she did. Ani made empanadas and opened up a bottle of local red wine…all on the house. No more cities for me based on this experience.
Feb. 24 – Miranda to Albardon
Below is Ani and she is holding a cup of mate as I get ready to leave. Mate is the national beverage of Argentina, highly-caffeinated and prepared by steeping dried leaves of yerba mate. I plan on trying some when back in Argentina. Mate is a big deal for many in Argentina and they take their mate cup or guampa with them everywhere as well as related gear.
Based on the advice of Luciano (see my post below), I decided to take a detour and spend time at Parque National Tamalpaya (B on the map), which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Many fossils and petroglyphs have been found in the park.
The park consists of a huge canyon guarded by reddish stone on either side and at its widest about 100 yards. Below are a number of pictures of the canyone. Below is a series of chimneys created in the canyon wall.
The end of the canyon opened up to a sizeable mesa with interesting rock formations.
Below is a photo of a guanaco, that ran by us. Guanacos are camelids and closely related to llamas.
There were extensive petroglyphs in the area. The petroglyphs are estimated to have been created starting about 500 BC and extending into the 1500’s. The petroglyphs were at the base of the canyon wall and supposedly were at the top section of the wall before breaking off and falling into the canyon. You can see the top of the canyon from which they came six photos down.
I met several people on the tour of Tamalpaya, two of which decided to befriend me; Pedro and Javier.
I then made the trip to Albardon, which is a rural encampment outside of San Jose. I had chosen a place off of Bookings.com that was a highly rated B&B. Unfortunately, I showed up and there was no one to greet me. I called the number given by Bookings.com and it was Pedro from Buenos Aires, who owned it. It was 8:30 PM and I was beat and he told me 15 minutes and the manager would be there to let me in. At 10:00 PM, the manager showed up and I was too tired to argue about the situation. The house was under renovation and the only two rooms that were close to inhabitable were the bedroom I was supposed to be sleeping in and a breakfast room. I had to clear the considerable cobwebs away from the door to the bedroom before I walked in and when I looked into the bathroom, the floor of the shower had three one inch, dead bugs in it….at this point, all issues that I could overcome. The good news is that the manager, Nora and her husband Pablo were very sweet and accommodating. Pablo gave me a ride to a local restaurant and offered to sit and wait for me to have dinner to drive me back. I refused and walked. It wasn’t a bad night…
Feb. 25 – Albardon to Mendoza
Below is a picture of the breakfast room, which I sat in by myself. Kind of creepy but clean.
Pablo insisted I park my motorcycle in the interior courtyard of the house. I almost killed myself getting it in there and getting it out. Not a good idea.
The trip to Mendoza was short and not much to report.
Feb. 26 – Mendoza Rest Day
I took a rest day in Mendoza. Mendoza is the capital of the wine business in South America. There are a number of notable wineries here and many owned by the French, Spanish or Americans. Most notable are their malbecs, which I tried several of which and all were great…much better than American malbecs I’ve experienced. Went to a couple of vineyards for tours and I literally was the only person there. Today was the first day of school for the new school year in Argentina, so all the summer vacationers had cleared out. At Alta Vista Bodega, a picture of the cellar from 1892 is below, Paula, gave me a private tour and tasting.
Feb. 27 – Mendoza to Paso de Pehuenche
In my new theme of not staying in the larger cities, I actually stayed outside of Mendoza in Chacras de Corea, which is a small enclave to the south of Mendoza. I would characterize it as what St. Helena would be to Napa. Beautiful, with very friendly people a quiet atmosphere. I meet a couple over lunch from the neighborhood and they asked me what my plans were. As it turns out, they drive from Chacras de Corea to Pucon every summer, so gave me detailed instructions on the most scenic route and places to stop. So I took their advice. I headed out Ruta 5 south for about five hours and it was a highly diverse ride with respect to environments. It went from lush agricultural zones to open planes to desert and desert canyons.
I stopped for lunch in a tiny place called Bardas Blancas (B on the map) and found my way to the town’s only restaurant, which is below called Ruca Mahuida, which means Mahuida’s Hut, I think.
Interestingly, I was the only only customer there and a ~80 year old man came out and started talking to me in Spanish. Had a hard time understanding him but we got through it and I ordered what was being cooked after being dragged into the kitchen so he could show me what I would be getting…Beef Milanese, which was great. Anyways, he kept talking to me like I understood everything he was saying. This is one of the many times I really wish my Spanish was much better. I would have loved to talked with this man so as to better understand his story, town and business.
The place was also filled with cabinets and wall hangings of fossils and artifacts. If you look below, may of those in this cabinet looked to me to be museum quality.
From Bardas Blancas, I got on Ruta 145 and began the ascent to Paso Pehuenche (C on the map), which tops out at about 8,400 feet. Beautiful ride through a desert canyon to high planes and back into Chile.
Along the way, after passing into Chile was a large waterfall (D on the map) with access at the top of the waterfall. I filmed the video below. The water captivated me because of the way it danced in the wind that was coming up the canyon wall and forcing much of the water back up into the air as well as the angle of the sun and how it refracted light in the late afternoon.
I decided to camp out tonight and picked out a spot alongside the Rio Maule. After I parked my bike, several people walked by and up the stream below and I asked them if there were hot springs ahead and there were, so off I went. It was about a two mile hike to about 10 pools of highly mineralized, hot springs emanating from the earth. There were several families out there and assorted others hanging out in the springs. However, when I went to check out the springs and get in, they were less than what I had expected…dirty, smelly and highly unsanitary…lots of cow turds and human terds around them as well as assorted clothing, as you can see below.
Oh well, back to my campsite, which was special, right by a rapid in the stream. Had a great night here and the stars were spectacular.
Feb. 28 – Paso de Pehuenche to Pucon
Got up early and made the run to Pucon, which was about six hours on Ruta 5 in Chile, which is essentially a superhighway. Had to do it, so got in with it and got it over with.
Pulled into Pucon and got my stuff together so I could turn in my bike. Since I picked up the BMW f800GS on 2/9, I’ve put 6,366 kilometers on it or 3,956 miles, which is the equivalent of traveling by road from Chicago to Panama City, Panama (according to Google Maps)…that is some mileage!!!
Pucon is pretty much the center of adventure travel in Patagonia, so I did some homework as to what was available for tomorrow and decided to climb the Villarrica Volcano. A photo of it from the shore of Pucon on Lago Villarrica is below. The volcano is still active. A sulfur cloud spewing out of the crater is visible below. It is 9,340 feet high at the rim and ringed by glacier fields. Should be an interesting climb!
Looks pretty calm today, but this is what it looked like in 2015.
Feb. 29 – Pucon and Climbing Villarrica Volcano
I signed up with Antu Tours which is owned by Joaquin Figueroa Lara who is in his 40’s and has lived in Pucon his whole life. He is an avid climber and climbs Villarrica about 100 times a year guiding tours. Our group was a couple in their 30’s from Uruguay, Veronica and Javier, Joaquin and me. We started out at 6:00 AM and were on the volcano at 6:30 as first light was appearing.
Below is a scene of the several groups finishing the hiking section and putting on crampons to climb the glacier.
Joaquin selfie time.
At the end of the glacier, we took off the crampons and hiked up the remaining 500 or so feet.
The crater was a huge gaping hole in the earth as you can see from the two photos below. The red circle in the second photo are two people on the opposite side of the crater.
Below is a short video of activity in the crater.
To get down the volcano, we slid on our butts over the glacier. There were essentially toboggan shoots carved into the glacier from prior hikers. You can see a couple of hikers in the left red circle and the shoots in the right circle. Was a ton of fun, as the video shows.
Near the end of the remaining part of the hike down, there was a chair lift hut that is in use. Doesn’t exactly give one confidence in the ability of the chair lifts to make it up and back!!! There were people on this lift coming up the volcano during the day.
I’ll try and be more timely with future posts. Tomorrow, I meet up with the group I will be traveling with to Ushuaia and we leave Pucon on 3/1. Very much looking forward to this part of the trip. Cycling through Patagonia is supposed to be one of the greatest experiences a motorcycle adventure rider can have. Much more to come in the days ahead!
Adios amigos!
Bob Carey's South American Adventure 
Awesome!!
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