Wind and Hitched Rides II

We already knew the day before that this day would potentially be a long and windy ride. Because of this, we decided we would hitch a ride to the next city, San Juan, if it got too bad. Not just because of the wind, but also because there were no towns and very limited (if any) sheltered wildcamping spots to be expected along the upcoming stretch of dry, scorching hot wasteland.

50 km into the already windy ride we stoppedd for lunch and revisited our options. Having pushed through many days of headwind before, seeing the beaufort scale on our Windy-app made it clear to us that cycling in these conditions would get us nowhere.

So after lunch we only carried on until we found a good spot for cars to stop so we could get a lift.

Well...usually 99% of the vehicles that pass by on the Ruta 40 were pick-up trucks, perfect for taking two cyclist and their bikes. But not today. It seemed almost as if the universe did not want us to get a ride, as for the first 40 minutes almost all the cars passing by were tiny Citroëns or similar.

Bored, and slowly loosing hope to find a car willing and able to take us, there was time to create a little fotostory (see above). But eventually a truck stopped and offered to take us!

The driver (let's call him Miguel) was happy to help some fellow cyclists out, and so we lashed both ours and Miguel's bike onto the back of the truck, and off we went. His was a carbon frame bike which he had kept in the drivers cabin before -> he is definitely a better person than me, because I never would have tied Kenny on the back of my car...for noone, let alone two random stinky cyclists😅 but I am very glad Miguel did 😊

The 2 hour drive was spent practicing my spanish while chit-chatting with Miguel about cycling, education, taxation and general argentinian politics. My spanish might not be great, but still good enough to understand that the majority of people I talked to so far voted for the new president...not out of conviction but out of protest. Let's see if that crazy trump-ish guy will bring Argentina any good. I hope he will.

Miguel dropped us off in the centre of San Juan were we found a decent hotel and mentally prepared ourselves for what is to come tomorrow:
The 170 km ride to Mendoza.

Did we make it all the way to Mendoza in 1 day? Stay tuned!

🚴‍♀️ Distance cycled: 50 km
🚗 Distance hitch hiked: 140 km
⏲️ waited for a ride: 45-60 minutes
💶 Price for a (cheap) carbon frame bike in Argentina: 4500 $ (compared to 2500 in the EU)
🏫 Years of compulsory schooling under new president: 0Read more