Buenos Aires - Troy

When I hit Mendoza after the craziness of Ruta 13, funnily enough I was back to square one, ie in the city square at midday closing time. I ate a ham and cheese sandwich and this time determined that I would actually do the ride to Buenos Aires.

So I rode hammer and tongs on highway 7. I now think that may have been the wrong decision (I thin 8 might have been better), though when I began, it felt all good. I managed to put a good bunch of miles in the first day and ended up at a shopping center at Mercedes getting supplies and cash, and seeing the sun go down I contemplated where I was gonna hang my hat.

I ended up deciding to ride till I could ride no more and take a chance. Thus I ended up about 80 clicks out from Mercedes with the sun about to disappear, riding a side road that seemed to head towards a lake, when I came across the most bizarre tiny sign indicating a monument of some kind.

I was blessed, it was a bizarre monument which for some reason no one had visited since 2001, and was the most perfect camp spot. I had the tent up and was cooking a corn soup before the sun went down. I watched a few episodes of"How I met your mother" (once again thanks Tim for the recomendation) , and fell asleep early.

When I awoke the next morning at 6 am, with my French lessons still playing on my ipod, I pulled back my tent flap and heard a cracking sound. This was the frost, which had frozen my tent solid and had deposited a 1 cm thick layer of frost on my bike. Needless to say it was freezing and despite sleeping in my zero rated sleeping bag and sleeping fully clothed, I was still cold and still had a cold.

I quickly slipped back into my bag and played angry birds (I'm getting better at it though not in Tutu's league) till the sun rose and began to defrost everything. I then cleaned my chain with WD 40 and my toothbrush, which I made a mental note to replace, (then ofcourse forgot), gave the bike a once over and left my new favourite camp spot by 11 am.

I then rode one of the worst rides of the trip, it's up there with the leg I rode to Oruru in Bolivia, though this was because of a 30 + knot gusting sidewind. It was exhausting just trying to keep the bike on the road, unlike Tim's truck of a bike, the KLR is light and reacts to not only the wind but also every car truck or bus that comes at you from the other side of the road. So basically I had the bike on a 15 to 20% slant to tackle the wind, then a truck would come at me, first the wind shear around it would knock the bike like a hit from Mike Tyson, then the wind depression would cause the lean I had and lack of wind to pull me onto of the wrong side of the road, then the opposite depression would smack me again, and with luck by then I was wobbling like an aged pensioner in the middle of the road.

That was the ideal though... mostly I was veering from my lane into the other and dodging oncoming traffic. I pretty much almost had a head on collision every hour, because there was lots of opposing traffic, and I was so exhausted that I just wanted to get the ride over, so I was doing 75 mph. So I ended up getting not many miles in and spent 2 hours at a servo in the middle of nowhere defrosting hoping that the wind would stop, or at least calm down.

It didn't, it got worse, so I drank 2 red bulls and hit the road again. I rode till sunset, hoping there would be another nice little monument or piece of bush land to pull off to... but there wasn't... the whole interior of Argentina reminded me of the travesty that English colonisation wrought on the Australian landscape, ie centuries of nature forming a balance of water run off with trees and soil, had been stripped, no raped, and turned into endless flats of either crops or fallow land with the occasional sprouting of trees only kept as a wind break for a homestead. It was depressing, though I finally managed to find a little turn off to pitch the tent, near a lake, unfortunately inhabited by giant mosquitos.

I camped the night, froze my ass off, and woke the next day to hit the road to Buenos Aires.

Luckily (I know now) I had checked a weather report in Mendoza, which said there would be rain in Buenos Aires on Monday, so I rode another awful day of gusting winds, along highway 7 until I finally reached my destination. I had planned to do this 1000km stretch in 4 to 5 days but did it in 3.

I was (am still) a wreck. I was frozen, my headscarf was almost solid snot, from using it as a tissue, I had been smacked around the road for 3 days by 20 to 30 knot gusting winds, I stank from having to sleep fully clothed each night, I was almost deaf from the constant wind noise which I had tried to counter with French lessons, I could barely move because under my riding gear I was wearing every piece of clothing I had, I was starving from having cooked myself vegie soups each night to save money...

So I rode into Buenos Aires, and despite the patented "Tim Dzaman get taxi to help you find a hotel" method, I was determined to use the "Troy Schultz on a budget" method. This actually worked perfectly.... I will now post the e-mail I wrote to Tim last night to explain why it didn't though:

I had to then ride into the city to find a hostel... easier said than done, I rode around for 2 or 3 hours, getting recommendations and basically riding circles around one way streets (and my rear light and indicator not working so getting toots, and other advice) ... finally I found one by accident. It's not ideal, about $20 a night and bike parked on street but there is a cop station over road with all night guard so... better than riding these incredibly confusing street anymore...

All up about 10 hours of riding for 380kms, in freezing cold, I stink cos havent showered in 3 days (and was so cold I had to sleep in zero rated bag fully clothed (and still got cold)), I have a bad cold (nose running sinuses blocked coughing chunks), have eaten 1 hamburger all day but too exhausted to find restaurant and out of gas to cook even a soup...

THEN I got gear into room walked down the road to get supplies, and as I'm waiting to pay some bum grabs a bottle of scotch and does a runner, the old asian shop guy runs after him, gets hit in the face, but gets the bottle of booze back...

What a city.... I want to get out and keep camping, but american guy reckons it takes 2 weeks to get brazil visa!!! I'm not sure what to do (not sure even if I can believe him), I thought it would take a day or 2, will look into it tomo and bail ASAP, can't handle cities anymore!!!

One good thing though.... the room has a reverse cycle... I got heating!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG got it on max...

Stay up north as long as poss, it's too freaking cold here... even for you!!!!

So i am now in a hotel with heating and cable TV so I can watch the news... Oh and I did well cos when I went for a walk this morning it was raining!!! I hate cold but even more so I hate riding in rain... so it was worth it.... I guess...