Summer ended today. All I had to do to make this happen was cross the Andes. I left Santiago a little late, after standing out on Catedral St. with my jumper cables hooked to my bike and a pathetic look on my face until someone stopped and gave me a jump. Once the bike got started, I rode around the block a couple times, loaded up all my stuff, kissed Marcia goodbye for now, and headed to the Caracoles, the treacherous curves you have to climb to get out of Chile. That the road is poorly maintained is not enough, to make it more interesting, the trucks coming from Argentina like to pass one another on descent. Makes for some interesting motorcycle riding.
Santiago was overcast and brisk, but once I got out of town the sky cleared and I felt a bit warm. Then I started to climb the Andes, and the further I got, the colder it got, until by the time I reached the tunnel separating Chile and Argentina, I could not feel my fingers.
I chose the fast moving line for a change, and got through customs in less than half an hour, which is fast for this part of the world. By the time I was legal in Argentina, my hands were warm enough that I didn´t feel like I was wearing mittens when I tried to turn on the lights or start the bike.
One of the little games I play as I travel is ¨try to have no money left over from the country you are leaving.¨I have less than a dollar in Chilean coins, so I won today.
The game took on a new twist when the ATM at a bank in Santiago captured my card two days before I was to leave and I had to scramble to get it back. So now I have to keep in mind that I may be unable to get money out of the machine at any time, and have to take out the absolute most I think I´ll need, because I could get cut off at any time, and have a schedule to keep. It will be interesting to see how many Argentine pesos I have left when I leave.
I stopped for gas in Uspallata, and met three RVs full of old Brazilians. The brazilians are the most amable people in the world. They started to talk to me in Spanish about my trip, the road to Chile, and the exchange rate with the dollar. First I replied in Spanish, then started in Portuguese. After about two minutes, it suddenly came to them that I was speaking Portuguese, and they lit up and switched to their own language. We spoke for a few minutes more, then I excused myself. I am sure that if I didn´t, I would be in an RV right now somewhere in Chile.
The sky was bright with sun and big white clouds as I started to descend towards Mendoza, and I thought I was going to have a nice day of riding. I haven´t done any distance riding for over two months, and was looking forward to it.
Then the sky got dark, and the clouds came down and touched the earth around me. The wind picked up and blew bitter cold, and it began to rain. It was a cold rain, but not strong. The ground was mostly dry. In the distance, I could make out patches of blue sky.
The road took a turn, and I was in a black sky, and the rain began to pelt me and the bike. I huddled down forward over the tank and rode on. The Axis bike still runs great, between hiccups and backfires that jerk the whole bike back and then forward. It ran all day at 120 kph, has been unbelievably reliable and I should like it, but for some reason, I do not like this bike.
Once I got to the pampa, the rain lightened up, but the sky stayed dark and grey, and the cold began to penetrate my clothes and then my chest. It was a damp cold and the rain was constant and weak. The pampa is a long flat stretch that seems to go on forever. It runs from the Andes to the ocean, and this is why storms blow in so fast and with such force from the atlantic, then pile up and explode against the mountains.
I rode the pampa out as long as I could, and came to San Luis. I am sure I´ve been here before, even though I don´t recognize any of it. The town square has a beautiful church and one block away is the New York New York casino. There are lots of casinos in this town. Apparently it got hit pretty hard by the rain before I got here, because the water runs fast about half a foot thick in the gutters.
I rode around looking for a hotel, then went to a drugstore to ask about cheap places, as I learned to do on my bicycle trip inUruguay, and got pointed to the Inca Hotel, for $21 a night, breakfast and parking included. I probably could have found something cheaper, but there´s a lot to be said for getting off the bike and into a hot shower when you are cold and tired.
The sandwich I had for dinner was a Lomo completo, grilled new york steak with ham, egg, lettuce and tomato on toasted artesanal bread. It was literally bigger than my size 14 tennis shoe, and hung out about three inches over both sides of the plate. It was $3.50. And it was delicious.
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