February 14, 2018
El Calafate: It's fiesta time (but not for us)
Despite the bad accommodation, we both slept well and long last night despite the wind howling like a banshee. Long, because we were in our sleeping bags by seven o'clock, and well because we were wearing almost every item of clothing possible. We woke to the wind still blowing, but not as strongly, and we were on the bikes heading up a small climb by eight o'clock. The wind was coming from over our right shoulders and didn't seem to offer much assistance.
Once we got to the intersection we turned right and into what we thought would be a strong headwind. For the first two kilometers or so it was surprisingly light but this was just a temporary lull. We passed a Brazilian cyclists going the opposite direction who commiserated with us before carrying on to enjoy his tailwind. After that it was just a slog. We knew it would be before we started so we just took it in turns to ride point and let the other one draft as much as possible.
About twelve kilometers from El Calafate we had a lovely surprise meeting with Eric and Martina, the French couple on recumbents that we had bumped into in various places along the way. They had survived El Calafate which was in the process of celebrating a fiesta. The campsite had suffered blaring music until three in the morning and they didn't get much rest. Martina was recovering from a sore knee after the punishing conditions - they had pushed the six kilometers from the Chile border to Lago Desierto and had struggled with headwinds on the way to El Calafate. We rode into El Calafate knowing that we would not camp but would cough up for some decent accommodating for at least two nights to allow us to regroup and also to have a chance to visit the Morino glacier. They way we feel right now, that might turn into three nights.
We booked into the Patagonia Suites, a row of smart rooms on the northern edge of town. At one thousand five hundred pesos a night it blows our budget considerably but it is just what we need right now. There is a lovely verandah facing north where we enjoyed lunch after I had gone into town to find an ATM and a mercado. Three nights is looking even more definite now.
Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 1,485 km (922 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |