To the Argentina border: Arriba, arriba aka up, up!!!!

January 6, 2018

Today was our first real ride. The official ride was 55km with 1600 ft of climbing from Sierra Nevada to Liucura where the customs station is located for crossing into Argentina. We had lunch here and then there was the option to ride the additional 22km up to the Argentinian border. Of course I had to do it so my ride for the day totalled 78km with 4800+ft of climbing. The climb itself was 3200+ft over 22km. The grades were not too bad maxing out at 10% but there were long sections of 7-8%. The scenery changed as we went up from the forest including monkey puzzle trees to a high desert with scruffy vegetation. Of our group 6 rode to lunch and 9 rode to the top. The weather was perfect and we even had a tail/push wind up the climb.

Proof that Christopher started the ride. To be fair he rode 30+km today

We saw many classic Scottish thistles on the route today. Here is one with a bee searching for pollen.

Santa Claus clearly has a different job in Chile

Hilary arriving the the lunch stop, 56km amd 1600ft in the bank.

The tour leader Christian supervising one of the drivers park and lock our bikes at lunch.

An interesting rock formation along the climb.

At the top, remember this is a very Catholic part of the world.

On the way down we had to stop at the agricultural inspection station and we had to sacrifice our last banana.

It has become my tradition to take a photo in a sunflower field. Since there are no sunflowers here I opted for the ever present thistle which frankly is more in keeping with my personality.

At the top on the Argentina side. Note the Trilogy hat.

At the customs stop where we had to surrender our passports until we returned.

Deb passing through a grove of monkey puzzle trees but two thirds of the way up. They were soon to disappear.

Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 93 km (58 miles)

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