Brinkmann

September 30, 2022

Today almost seemed like a rest day. A windless day and a flat ride of just over sixty kilometers meant that we arrived in the town of Brinkmann before two in the afternoon despite having a late lie-in, only getting away after nine o'clock and taking our time with lots of stops along the way.

I had cooked up a big pot of Bolognaise sauce last night. Some went on to our pasta for supper and the rest filled some very nice bread rolls bought this morning which was enough to give us two meals along the way today.

Our first significant stop was in a village called Colonia Aldoa. There was a little prk at its eastern entrance where we enjoyed the first round of the Bolognaise rolls.

Second breakfast or was it first lunch ? It was savoury so it couldn't be called elevenses.

Colonia Aldoa also had a fereteria (hardware store). I had lost the washer that seals the little Sawyer water filter that we carry. The filter is one of our best buys and saves a lot of money and, importantly, a lot of plastic, because it means we don't have to buy bottled water. The kind gentleman at the ferreteria found a washer that fitted and gave me a few extras as spares. All for no cost, if you ignore the fact that I had to give an account of what we are doing traveling through Argentina by bicycle. I guess it is called singing for ones supper.

Miramar and Cordoba make it onto the road signs. We have three nights booked in Miramar after which we will head for Cordoba. A few kilometers after this we detoured off the RP17 for about six kilometers to Brinkmann, a town established by Abraham Brinkmann from Dortmund in Germany in 1886.

These trees with the attractive pink flowers have been a constant on our route since we left Cuidad del Este in Paraguay.

We are spending the night at the Nuevo Hotel Brinkmann, although there isn't anything new in the hotel as far as I can tell. I don't think anything has been replaced since the nineteen eighties. The proprietor proudly showed me a photograph of him and the last two cycle tourists who passed through here, a Dutch couple in a photo dated two thousand and five! The alternative, at the same price, was a filthy windowless hovel behind a food joint. At least here we have a clean room and a safe place for the bicycles.

Yesterday we ended the ride pretty tired but today we feel a lot more lively. Leigh has an excuse in that she has started drinking yerba-maté again now that her tea has run out. She had a good dose this morning before we left which left her in a slightly hyped-up state. Her second maté, which she had after we had settled in at our digs was far more sensibly sized. Drinking maté is a central part of South American culture and many service stations and hotels, including the one we are now, have hot water dispensers for their clients. People get hooked on its mild stimulant effect so Leigh will have to wean herself off it towards the end of our six months here because it is unobtainable in South Africa. My drug of choice is decent coffee. Easy to buy in South Africa but so difficult to find in South America. Whenever we reach a larger city I go off looking for good coffee, not always successfully.

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 1,489 km (925 miles)

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