March 27, 2018
Villa Aconcagua: The most dramatic downhill run
Last night was even more of a letdown than yesterday afternoon. After a surprisingly good shower at the refugio we headed off to grab some supper. It was now about five thirty but all three restaurants were closed and wouldn't open again until tomorrow. Their sole focus is the day tripper business that pass through at lunchtime. We cooked up some pasta and tuna and hit the sack very early.
This morning was another lovely day. Far less cold than what we were expecting and with a light westerly wind. As we were getting ready to leave another cyclist passed the refugio on his way to Chile. It was Federico from Uruguay.
We rode the two kilometers to the tunnel entrance together where we were given a lift through the tunnel on the back of a pickup by a roads department employee. Then it was the most amazing downhill run down the valley through more than thirty hairpin bends. We didn't hit anything resembling a flat section let alone a climb for thirty kilometers. We dropped more than two thousand meters over fifty kilometers but the headwind had now picked up considerably so our brakes weren't worked too hard.
As we approached the village of Villa Aconcagua we started to tire. Amazing given the big downhill run but the wind was now so strong that we had to pedal like crazy downhill just to keep moving. I guess the climbs of the previous two days were still in our legs. The first place we looked at, in a quiet back road, had a rather optimistic sign advertising a hotel. We decided to give it a miss but as we were leaving a shout of "Good day my friend" was heard. It came from a fellow called Leonardo and he was happy to exclaim that they were the only English words he knew. None the less, we had a great chat and he gave a couple of bunches of lovely grapes which we nibbled on while we waited to find out if they could put us up for the night. It turned out that they had no means of connecting to the internet and I was desperate to find out what had happened in the cricket test between South Africa and Australia.
Just before we left Upsallata the news had come through of one of the darkest moments in test cricket where the Aussies had been caught planning for and ultimately executing tampering with the ball to produce reverse swing. Hopefully the ICC will come up with a better way to deal with something that everyone knows takes place in most test cricket matches.
Ultimately we found Hostal Berta run by, you guessed it, Berta and her husband Alex. A really lovely haven of peace with just three private rooms off the main road. Compared to last night it is a world apart. Clean and well kept with Berta and Alex so eager to help us and make us feel comfortable I can see us spending a few nights here.
Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 2,612 km (1,622 miles)
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