Argentina Day 3: New Years Day

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Today was a lazy day – downtime. Rebuilt Guille’s bike refitted components on to Leila’s and packed Leila and Larry packed their bikes and bags.

A New Years celebratory cake and just a low key down day with food friends and conversation.

Day 4: we saw Larry off to the airport, and the three remaining needed a reason for adventure – so we needed a special USB cable to charge a battery – which was forgotten at home.

We headed to Brazil – Foz do Iguaçu. One of three cities on the triple boarder. We got dropped off near the friendship bridge between Brazil and Paraguay and walked across. Three cities, three countries in three hours.

In this area, the commerce between the three countries is fluid so the boarders are open. While there are immigration and aduana stations, the locals just walk across the borders without stopping. Due to me not having a visa for Paraguay – we pretended we were locals and just walked agrias. No one ever asked or cared.

Ciudad del Este in Paraguay was a shopping craze bazaar. Anything you want, in any of the the four currencies accepted – all priced in US$. While the sell merchandise, their real business is money exchange. The conversion rates were inflated by 50% so if you didn’t pay in hard US$ cash, the price was 50% more. If you used a card to purchase, add another 7.5% to the total. I still got my cable for less then what it costs on Amazon.

One thing I wanted was an entry stamp in my passport for Brazil – so I had to go through immigration in Brazil coming from and going to Argentina. My passport didn’t scan on their system so there was a slight delay. By not a single word was spoken to me by the Brazilian agent on either entry or exit. Seems like they were bored with their jobs.

Was a nice relaxing beer and dinner with Guillermo and Leila for a few hours back in Puerto Iguazu and made it back to the cabin.

Day 5: a down day. Today we are packing to leave tomorrow. Packing and redistributing gear. I get two additional panniers on the rear with things I didn’t need to bring with me as they had them here but will be using on the trip.

Tomorrow morning we will head out early and Leila will head to the airport.

It’s been a good few low key days with friends before the 1400km trip to Buenos Aires.

Iguazü Falls – Start of an epic cycling adventure

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Lost the first post so if this shows up twice and slightly different…

Argentina Day -1 through 2

The thing I dislike most about traveling is well… the traveling. 25 hours door to door and five time zones.

First thing that happened which was kind of stressful but it didn’t need to be was that STS ran our of jet fuel. How does an airport run out of fuel? Delayed the flight by an hour. And my 90 minute connection in DFW turned in to 30 minutes make that 20 minutes till door closure. Oh.. and a terminal change from B to C. Luckily the gates were close to the airtram stops so I got there with plenty of time – 10 minutes. Then I started to worry about my bags (bike) – was it going to make it? Well, America Airlines has this nice little feature where you can track your bags – they were already on the plane. Now I can relax.

Day 1: well laid plans will will most likely change. And change the did!!

I was in Iguazú and Guillermo, Larry and Leila were in Eldorado – 100km apart. We were to meet in the middle in Wanda then ride back to Iguazu for a few days. Forecast was to be hot so I started out earlier – hit the road about 0800. Made fairly good time, but the heat was killer. Close to 100° by the time I got to Wanda.

What’s the best way to beat the heat, why a nice cold beer. Little did I know that here in Argentina, they serve it by the liter!!! As I was enjoying my liter of beer, time flew by… 10:30… 11:00, 12:00, 12:30…. then a text from Guille

“My rim broke, can you meet us here?” And a pushpin of where they were. I was pretty excited about meeting up so I didn’t pay much attention to where that pin mark was – I just rode – 100° for sure now, after I enjoyed my beer (not all of it).

Luckily for me, after only 10km more, I saw the bikes parked at a gas station – opposite side of the highway with a round about. Flew by the station and around the roundabout and I was there – no one in sight except for Rocko – the dog. So I introduced myself to him and was greeted with a half hearted wag of the tail – he wasn’t too happy about the heat. Then finally Guille appeared and the last three years were like yesterday. Good times.

Well the rim… about 1/3 of the spokes had separated the rim tore the metal, of those at least half were detached and wrapped around other spokes – complete and utter failure. No bike shop in sight for at least 60km.

So around 1300hrs out come the thumbs begging for a ride from a trucker or pickup that could take four bikes and a trailer, four people and a dog and luggage for three. It’s was hot out and no one wanted to ride the remaining 60km to Iguazú.

Four hours later of no luck, I decided to ask the station attendants if the knew of anyone that had a truck and wanted to make some cash. Turns out, attendant’s sister’s friend’s husband had such a truck and could be there in 15 minutes. All loaded up and $2000AR ($32USD) less in the wallet and we were on our way to Iguazú.

Checking into the cabin we rented, we all took showers. Cold was hot as hot was scalding. Seems like they hadn’t rented the cabin in the last week so the 250 gallons or so in the tank on the roof had plenty of time to heat up in the sun. Exiting the coldest shower we could into the 100° heat was like exiting a sauna.

We all slept well last night.

Day 2: a day at Iguazú Falls. Call me impressed. Both by the natural splendor of the falls but also of how Argentina takes pride in the resource and keeps the infrastructure functional, modern and the park clean.

The falls were impressive and wowed me. It was nice to get misted in the heat. What was even more fun was that there were tones of Coati aka Pizotes running around. And while they were busy eating the food they just stole from your table, they let you pet them. Lots of cute babies too.

It was another hot day and was we headed back to the cabin, we went shopping for a churasquera to celebrate the new year. Great food and great company. Each one of these adventures I go on I meet new people and I love it.

We ended up having a nice evening and talked about the trip they just took and life. We then stayed up for then new year and it seemed anti-climatic. It’s just a number associated with another number. But it sure was good to be amongst friends

We have a few more days here in Iguazú and then we head south – towards Buenos Aires – but with a reduced crew – Guille, Rocko and me. Larry and Leila fly out in the next few days.

Every day is an adventure. Gotta love life. Gotta love life.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Taxco – Pueblo Magico

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Made it to Taxco after an eventful Sherpa fit.

A tour of a silver mine in Taxco. This mine was recently discovered after 500 years of being hidden. The indigenous people hid it from the Spaniards to protect their culture.

It is a very rich mine in gold, silver, quarts and many other metals and minerals. It is protected by the government to stay this way forever. It is so rich you can see the veins of gold and silver in the walls.