I've been struggling with a cold for the past couple of days. Thank goodness my head was clear for the tasting at Chandon. However, this morning I wasn't sure whether I needed another day's rest or not. In the end we decided to push on. But not before I had to repair another puncture in Leigh's rear tyre. I must have missed one yesterday. I remember taking out more pieces of wire than the two punctures I repaired. A bit sloppy on my part.

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The day was cool to start off with when we left after ten thirty and we slowly made our way up the gentle climb leading towards the Andes which gave us lovely views through most of today's cycle. The first eighteen kilometers were on a nice back road (although some of the views weren't that great, particularly around the fuel refinery) but then we were spat out onto the Ruta 7, the main road from Mendoza to Santiago de Chile. It seemed that half of Mendoza was heading out to Potrerillos Dam to put their bicycles, boats, off-road motor bikes etc to use. Mostly we were given a wide birth but it wasn't that pleasant. Just before the highest point at just over sixteen hundred meters above sea level we stopped for lunch in a concreted roadside drain - the only place we could find some shade. Once we reached the top it was a wonderful downhill to Potrerillos which coincided with the traffic quietening down because it was now after two o'clock in the afternoon - siesta time. On the way down we stopped to have a chat to Mark, a cyclist from Berlin, Germany who had come over the Andes from Chile a couple of days before. He had some good advice for us with regards to the route and accommodation. We were the first other cycle tourists he had seen for a few days.

I didn't feel like camping so we booked into the first place with cabanas that we saw as we entered the village of Potrerillos. Nothing special but not too expensive at nine hundred pesos. I plan to have a good rest before tackling the climb up to Uspallata tomorrow. Leigh is hard at work on her video of the Carretera Austral so it is not wasted time.