La Viña

I was meant to say goodbye to Matt, who wanted to stay in Salta a bit longer, after a couple of days, to slowly make my way down to Mendoza. But logistics, general lazyness and bad weather got me staying longer. In the end we once again hit the road together.

Unfortunately, the weather was still 💩. It had been raining for two days and more heavy rain was predicted for all of today...but it was time to get moving again, and so we ignored the weather and got on the bikes.

Getting out of Salta took some time and effort to find bikable roads. Every now and then the bikepath transformed into huge puddles, reminding me a lot of the previous river crossings and leaving my shoes absolutely drenched from early into the ride.

The ride was uneventful and the scenery rather dull - hectares of farmland, distant mountains and gray skies. And once it stopped raining, heat and humidity had us covered in a constant sheet of sweat.

When we stopped and got food in the tiny village of La Viña, which was my goal for the day and supposed to be Matts lunch stop, the rain started once again, but this time much worse then before.
Long story short, both of us stayed in La Viña for the rest of the day.

While there was supposed to be a municipal campsite in the town, there was noone official to be seen. Hostels/hosterias in town also seemed to be closed.

Riding around in the pouring rain we ended up doubling back 2km to the last hosteria we saw along the road earlier and were relieved to find it open and with a free room for two soaking wet cyclists.

Not only did the owner make sure we'd get some dinner delivered from town but he also had some local wine on sale. Lucky us!

🚴‍♀️ Distance cycled: 94 km
🌧 Hours of cycling in the rain: 3.5h
💧 Lake sized puddles crossed: 10+
🕑 Time cycled in dripping wet shoes: 5h
🍷 Local wines tasted: 1Read more