Fortunately, our host Federico has mapped out a route for us that takes us out of the city. It’s best to leave something like that to a local cyclist. We pedal along a large busy road, but on a cycle path! This way we don’t have to worry about the rest of the traffic. If the cycle path ends, we are unfortunately doomed to also have to travel a distance on the hard shoulder. The cars are racing, it stinks of exhaust fumes and the sun is burning on our skin at around 38 degrees. When a big yellow M appears along the road, I suggest to Paul that he escape the crowds and heat for a pee and WiFi break at the air-conditioned McDonalds. Once inside, Paul ‘actually likes fries’. I join the queue and, also fainted, return with two fries. To extend our break a bit, we then share a McFlurry (a large ice cream). For the first time during my travels (through 53 countries, including the USA) I order something from McDonalds! In the USA in the winter I took regular breaks there, but my secret agenda was always to drive them into bankruptcy by using their Wi-Fi, water, hairdryer and toilet paper without ordering anything. I’m afraid that one fries and that McFlurry have ruined all my efforts in one go.

After about 30 kilometers we turn relieved to a quieter road. What a drought! A week earlier we cycled in the ‘southern German’ greenery between the lakes, now we are riding through a kind of pampa. Sand and dry unruly bushes and trees. There is nothing more to see. Water? Forget it! In this barren environment you will be roasted alive. In the near future it will probably also come down to camping spots with artificial shade sources; buildings, shelters… I know from experience that we will mainly have to be in and near villages towards the end of our cycling day. Today we are also forced to deviate from the route to do some shopping and refill water in a village. Who knows, we might also find a camping spot there.

We cycle into Chacobuco and do our shopping in the village shop on the square with an authentic church. Finding a camping spot here does not seem easy. So we approach a man in front of the store and ask if he knows a sheltered spot. He looks at his daughter and I understand: ‘That’s possible with us, right?’ He shows us a blue gate on the same square. After it opens automatically, we cycle into the courtyard of a beautiful old ‘hacienda’, which used to be the house of a large landowner with livestock farming. He offers us a simple choice: camp in the garden or spend the night in the guest room with private bathroom… Twenty years ago, Oscar bought this hacienda with his wife and three daughters. After a divorce, he lives there alone and his youngest daughter is there during the holidays. He made his fortune through the export of fruit. He supplied, among others, Jumbo and Albert Heijn. Together we prepare and enjoy an extensive meal. Coincidentally, we had done some shopping for a delicious meal: gnocci, olives, cherry tomatoes. Oscar doesn’t eat much of it. He follows the keto diet: lots of meat, eggs and vegetables… and that’s pretty much it, I understand.

After a night in a lovely big bed, Paul and I are curious about the rest of the hacienda. It is a monumental building and the part that Oscar owns is where the workers used to live. The (even) richer neighbor owns the main building and the accompanying church. His daughter Margarita is willing to show us around. However, it will not be the tour I hoped for, with information about the original purposes of the rooms and the history. Instead, the tour consists of: ‘father’s office, the gym, the house of the cleaner/domestic helper, the trampoline, the swimming pool, etc. Oscar is a health freak with a penchant for technical gadgets and we will know that. It has an ice bath, a kind of cocoon in which you can lie down to heal injuries with extra oxygen, very special loudspeakers (especially very expensive) and an amazing massage chair. The chair first adapts to the shape of your body, after which you are massaged from your toes and fingertips to the top of your head. I would have liked to stay there a little longer than the 10 minutes I get. Although sometimes I feel a bit of pain when he kneads my glutes. Unfortunately we don’t have enough time to try out the quartz bed (lying on quartz stones for new energy) and the swimming pool. After the tour, we reluctantly pack our things and leave, with 6 avocados as a gift from Oscar, back towards the arid landscape. A climb of more than 800 meters awaits us…

This is how the rest of the week ahead will go. Not with invitations to rich Argentinians, but with one or two major climbs and descents every day. The climbs are not very steep because the road follows an old train track. That also explains the narrow tunnels on the route. Just wide enough for a car and without lighting. We hope that traffic will not also come from the other side, because then one of the two will have to go back backwards. Cars usually come to our rescue by driving slowly behind us and lighting the road.

We cycle through an arid and hot landscape. Yet this is the breeding ground for avocados in Chile. The fruit that is often grown in dry, warm areas, but does need an awful lot of water. It’s not without reason that they are so pricey. And that high price turns out to be a small ‘price’ to pay when you look at the entire effect of avocado cultivation. Growing one avocado requires approximately 227 liters of water!

On my map, plenty of blue lines cross the area where we are cycling. We also regularly cycle over a bridge. But all riverbeds are dry. Not a drop of water in nature. Is this the effect of climate change? Or is it that time of year? And how is it possible that so many avocados and grapes are grown here? As we continue our route north we see more and more of this. Large plantations in the basin of the valley. The answers to these questions will follow from the mouths of various locals in the days to come.

After the exceptionally comfortable night in the guest room, we camp for several nights in villages. The football fields initially seem like suitable places. There is water, flat terrain, sometimes a power socket and shade under a single tree or near a building. When we arrive there in the afternoon it is very quiet and deserted. But only after we have hit ourselves against the same stone three times, like true donkeys, do we learn to stop basing our judgment on this. Life and sports in the villages only start here when the sun is low in the sky again. Then the young people come outside to kick a ball, with some music and sometimes a bottle of beer. Or then the entire neighborhood committee will come to jointly build the new grandstand and give the goal posts a new lick of paint. The third time we are already in our tent when the crowds start to take shape. This field is surrounded by a fence that gets hit many times more often than anything else and causes a lot of clatter every time. When I ask the boys what time they expect to play football, it turns out that this is only the first of 3 groups that have reserved the field until 11:00 PM. We don’t have to think about this for long. We roll up the mats again, pack the sleeping bags and our belongings, tear down the tent and look for another place. Fortunately, the owner of a hotel allowed us to pitch our tent next to the building. Even though we are standing between the garbage bins and the parking lot, it is quieter.

This lady, Mireille, turns out to be not only the owner of the hotel, but also of the football field, the houses in the area, the restaurant and the ‘casino’. No casino for gambling, but a dining room where workers can enjoy a buffet meal three times a day at a low price. The village of Caimanes (which is not yet fully managed) appears to be a base for miners who work in the quartz mines in the area. Quartz that is used for all kinds of purposes: for fertility of garden soil, for decoration, for building, for spiritual things, you name it. We like a breakfast buffet among the miners and so we join the buffet the next morning. I have a great love for buffets, no matter how simple. It feels so ‘excessive’ and luxurious’. Despite the limitation on quantities, a little later we are both sitting at a full tray in a large, largely empty dining room. The miners will already be at work. The buffet opened at 5:00 for a reason.

With full bellies and a heavy but beautiful mountain crystal as a gift from the ‘president of Caimanes’ (??) we start a new cycling day in the blazing sun.

At an oasis in the drought (a shop at a fork in the road) we meet another cyclist, a Dutchman, a ‘Paul’, also from The Hague / Scheveningen. We have a chat in the shade of a parasol and soon Paul and Paul are tinkering with Paul’s rather old bicycle. He has indicated that he prefers to cycle alone. But when the two keep talking about surfing and cycling and climbing etc, I say: ‘I think you have plenty to discuss. But let’s do that further by bike. Whoa!’ And a little later the two cycle up the hill behind me, chatting. We also camp and eat together, at a kind of pilgrimage spot near a small hacienda with a church in the middle of nowhere. When I secretly want to wash behind the church, funnily enough it turns out that there is an outdoor shower (unfortunately no longer connected) with shower curtain and all. Could this be for the pastor if he has traveled to this place for a mass through the heat?

We also cycle together the following days. Those two Pauls have plenty to talk about. We camp at the only calf-deep stream for miles around after two ladies recommended that spot to us. When we asked for water at their house earlier, they invited us into the shade, poured us ice-cold water and treated us to apricots, grapes and figs from their own garden. The ladies told us that the ‘river’ that runs through the valley has been dry for at least five years. It rarely rains there, at most occasionally in winter. When we cycle away from them we are given a large bag of apricots and we take a picture together. They go big on the hospitality of the Chileans! And we must honestly say that since we left the Carretera Austral, we have been able to taste it more and more often. A little later at the stream a woman brings us armfuls of grapes. The thickest and sweetest I’ve ever tasted. A young man just brings us a bottle of peach juice. We haven’t even spoken to these people and even after their donation they wordlessly get into the car and drive away while we wave goodbye and shout after them with ‘MUCHO GRACIAS’ and ‘MUY AMABLE’ (very nice!!).

After a few days we finally reach the place I’ve been looking forward to: the municipal campsite and SWIMMING POOL in Monte Patria. For a reasonable price (because municipal) we spend the rest of the day in and around the pool. The campsite is further deserted and we get another good night’s sleep. Paul and I decide to stay another day and night, while other Paul continues cycling. In a few days he will arrive at his girlfriend’s home in Serena and then his cycling tour (from Santiago) will unfortunately be over after two weeks. We are still thoroughly enjoying a day at the pool! When we want to set up our tent again in the evening, an employee informs us that there will be an outdoor disco that evening from 11:00 PM to 3:00 AM, right next to the camping site. Is he coming now!?!? We don’t have much time or energy to get on our bikes and after some consultation we are allowed to pitch our tents on the grass near the pool. Still about 60 meters from the dance floor and with a building in between. We mentally prepare ourselves for a worse night and are just about to go to sleep at 11:00 PM (the music was only low) when all hell breaks loose! The speakers are turned up to maximum, every song has a rock-hard beat and to top it all off, there is an MC who continuously shouts over the music through a microphone to get the audience excited. I don’t know what I’m experiencing here, near the village of Monte Patria, where there isn’t even a coffee shop or bakery! I put earplugs in my ears and put on my noise-cancelling headphones over them. I put a wad of clothes under my neck so I can lie on my side despite the large headphones. And if that’s not enough, I put on ‘white noise’ on the headphones, which somewhat drowns out the beat and the shouting. So I doze off every now and then, until at 4:15 the party finally comes to an end and several partygoers rush away with screeching tires and growling engines. Suddenly I understand the many memorials along the road of young motorists and motorcyclists who died in accidents…

After a broken night, Paul and I get back on our bikes. A big climb awaits us. 3000 meters, to the pass ‘Los tres cruses’. Due to the elevation gain and the distance, we will divide this climb over several days. During the first day we overtake a cyclist on a mountain bike. A little later, when we take a break, she catches up with us again. ‘Cafe a mi casa?’ she shouts. Okidoki! A little later we stop at the large gate of what looks like an avocado plantation. However, there are no avocados on the trees. “Not for ten years,” she says, “due to lack of water.” A little later we are having coffee in her luxurious house that overlooks the valley, the walls are covered with art. She points down to her father’s and brother’s houses and their land. They now rent part of it to a company that has installed solar panels on it. This way it still yields something. There is a green avocado plantation on the other side of the valley. Because the company that grows here is larger and richer, they can afford the necessary water. The water supply in Chile has been privatized, causing the smaller avocado farmers to go under and the larger ones to appropriate all the water. According to the lady of the house, the Chilean government should build a pipeline to pump water from the south to this area. I listen to her theory but think my own. Such a huge investment just to be able to grow avocados in a very dry area? Hasn’t this, all in all lucrative, avocado cultivation perhaps already caused enough damage here? With a little online research it soon becomes clear to me that the drying rivers are not only the result of climate change. Large-scale avocado cultivation, Chile’s pride in exports (‘the creamiest avocados in the world’), plays a major role in this. You can find a more detailed explanation about this here!

That night we camp at the bottom of a beautiful rock wall in the shade of one of the sporadic trees. It stands next to a small pool of stagnant water that we would never dare to replenish our water supply with. From here there are still 2000 meters of elevation to go to the pass. I don’t think we have ever cycled much more than 1200 meters of altitude in one day, so we will take two days. We leave early to avoid the worst heat, with the result that we have completed the 1000 meters of altitude to the last village early in the day. We each drink a ‘mote con huesillo’ at a cafe. A cool drink consisting of the juice of peaches boiled in water, sugar and cinnamon containing a dose of boiled barley grains and a few dried peaches. It is cloyingly sweet, but tasty and cool. After a break we decide to cycle out of the village to the first good camping spot. Everything we climb today is no longer necessary tomorrow. After the village the road becomes unpaved and the sporadic trees and therefore the shade disappear. We drive one steep kilometer after another without encountering any form of shelter. With only 200 meters of elevation ahead of us, we finally decide to continue to the pass. As with many climbs, this one also has the devil in the tail. Exhausted but on my own strength and encouraged by Paul, I eventually reach the top. Unbelievable, 2000 meters of altitude in one day! AND, without protest from my knee. I’m happy as can be!

We descend a short distance and then pitch our tent on a fairly flat piece of land between the shrubs where, funnily enough, someone has painted ‘camping’ on a large boulder. Around us nothing but vast wasteland, cacti and a road that winds into the valley. Yet just when we want to ‘shower’, the water bag is already hanging, a pick-up truck with four men in it drives into the same area. They are too white to be Chilean. It turns out to be four Czechs (I estimate 70+ people) on an adventure together! Before the sun sets I quickly found myself behind a large boulder. Fortunately, these seniors also crawl into their tents early and we get a well-deserved undisturbed sleep after this monster climb.

The next day we only have two things to do: descend and find a campsite. We zoom down and accept the (too) high price for a pleasant campsite with a swimming pool. The price suddenly becomes a lot more reasonable when I discover that there is a fig tree in our field that is full of deliciously sweet ripe figs! These figs on a slice of brown bread baked by Paul with butter, walnuts from a greengrocer and goat’s cheese bought along the road are a luxurious feast for me. We laze by the pool and celebrate our ‘half-year travel anniversary’ with dinner in a delicious vegetarian restaurant on the square! We had no idea this town was so touristy. But it turns out, as someone tells us, the “astronomy capital of the world.” Perhaps that is a bit of an exaggeration? But it is true that there are several observatories in the area because it is one of the places in the world where the starry sky can be seen best. Both of us interested in the universe, we use this opportunity to also do a ‘stargazing tour’. Not to a real observatory, but with a small organization to a telescope outside the city. There we receive an explanation about various celestial bodies and can view them through the telescope. All in all it is a nice outing, although, except for the moon, the stars remain mainly ‘bright points of light’ through this telescope.

One pass has just been completed and the next is already in front of our wheels. The highest of our trip so far, that is. We want to cross the border back into Argentina via the Aqua Negra pass. On the advice of the star tour guide and consultation of the weather forecast, we add two rest days in Vicuña. These days stormy weather is forecast at the pass, rain and snow. The pass itself will be tough enough and the rest days are quite welcome. After two really relaxing days, we finally get on our bikes around noon towards the east, out of Vicuña, towards the pass. 5000 meters of altitude are on the agenda for the coming days. That is more than the pass is high because you naturally have to climb the meters you occasionally descend a second time. 5000 meters of altitude, a significant part of which is at an altitude where oxygen is a lot scarcer than we are used to.

I’ll be honest, I’m writing this blog from Argentina so we crossed the pass successfully. But it was such a beautiful adventure that I want to give it its own blog, a photo report. For now, I’ll give you a glimpse behind the veil…..

Nice right?
More about that in the next blog…

For now, a very warm greeting from San José de Jáchal.
Hera