Today was a short km day – only 42km – perhaps a few more as the story develops.

Day 7 didn’t quite end as of the last posting. Guille went to look for a place to shower and stay, preferably the same place alas it was not to be.

He gets back after what seemed way too long, perhaps an hour or so while I sat in my sweat soaked clothes at the local gas station with WiFi and air conditioning. He returned all showered and clean an happy to have found a place at the local sports complex. So on we went.

We got there and the shower was a hose rigged from above while the care takers small kids watched in awe as the overly white person showered outside on an ant hill in his underwear. Nevertheless, I got clean and a few welts from the ants. As soon as I dried off, I started sweating again.

We headed back to the ruta where by this time at 2130, there was only one restaurant open. We ordered a pizza and beer. When we got it, we devoured it. It was the worst pizza we ever had, but it sure was delicious at the time. It was one of those frozen pizza deals with spongy crust, fake cheese, processed ham and four olives. We were in heaven.

We headed back to the sports complex to pitch the tents, we chose the indoor (under roof) soccer pitch. You couldn’t even whisper without the neighborhood hearing it as the echo and amplification were so loud.

About 0230 the next morning I woke up to Rocko barking as if the xerox machine went wild on “bark” mode. The two barks never ended, but it was clear he chased the 2-3 kids away who were probably just going to hang out there after a night or partying. I did sleep much better than Day 5, probably due to the beer and just being plain worn out.

Up early at 0530 on Day 8 as the morning commute of motorcycles and tractors without mufflers was non-stop. We headed back to the gas station where they had a bathroom – but it was out of service.

Breakfast consisted of another one of those 7-8kg watermelons. Cut it in half and ate it with a spoon.

It quickly heated up to unbearable temperatures, not a cloud in sight and no shade. We gained ~740 today over 44km. It was a shortish day but it was pretty difficult.

We calculated that Guille has about 100kg he’s moving up these hills while I am moving about half that (he has the trailer for Rocko and of course Rocko).

We get to Jardín America and find out that Guille’s friend who owns a Mate plantation had her truck in the shop and she couldn’t come meet us. The 20km rode on soggy iron rich dirt roads would not have been fun. So we looked for a place to stay in town.

The first place looked real nice and had great reviews – but one – who said that the mayor built it with stollen money. We get to the hotel and… it’s shuttered. Who shutters a brand new hotel???

Next place is a block away, I call and tell them I need a room for two and a service dog (Rocko has papers). They were hesitant but said they had a cabin for us. Great! We’ll be there in 10 minutes. We got there, there were no signs on the hotel and all of the doors were locked, then my six calls to them went unanswered. On the 7th, she answers and says she’ll be right down. One look at us – filthy dirty, sweaty, disheveled, bikes and a dog…. and she immediately tells us there isn’t any room.

I call the next place – validate they have room and that they accept pets, we get there and after she gets a whiff of us, she asks me if I made reservations – that my voice was very similar to that of her other customer and she got my American accent confused with a local Argentinian.

She offered to help though. She called “her brother” who had Cabañas two blocks away and that he had one available and would accept Rocko. We got there and again, not sure if it was the dirt, the smell the dog or something else, but they were full. She directed us to another place two blocks away.

We got there and the lady was very nice. We explained the situation and asked if she had room. She said “let me check”. It’s important to understand that these cabin rentals are really rooms built into their homes so the idea of her having four guest cabins and her having to check, was like… ummm. Ok.

Anyway she came back and said there weren’t any available. I went into the double-sob story. She said hold on and came back a few minutes later. She has a friend who has cabins and she had space and would accept Rocko. Best yet, her friend would come and get us and lead us back to the cabins. Seems like her late-teen children had seen Rocko on the gram and Facebook #missionesenbicileta and that they were also featured in the local paper.

So… all showered, fed, laundry hanging out to dry – we have a down day tomorrow, a swimming pool right outside our door and a nice supermarket down the street.

Today was a good day…

Next target over 2-3 days will be Virasorro and 400km down out of the 1400km.