January 22, 2020
Don Arturo
Getting back onto our bicycles again was a bit of a shock to our systems. As we were easing into it, a couple of kilometers out of town, Leigh realised she had left her cellphone at the campsite. So I rode back into town to fetch it. It was eleven o'clock before we got going again.
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The climb out of Cochrane is hard work and it was hot today. Near the top of the first part of the climb is a shrine to Difunta Correa, mostly worshiped across the border in Argentina. Once again, a crib from Wikipedia:
"Difunta Correa (the deceased Correa) is a semi-pagan mythical figure in folk-religion, for which a number of people in Argentina and Chile, especially among the popular classes, feel a great devotion. According to popular legend, the husband of Deolinda Correa was forcibly recruited around the year 1840, during the Argentine civil wars. When he became sick, he was abandoned by the Montoneras [partisans]. In an attempt to reach her sick husband, Deolinda took her baby and followed the tracks of the Montoneras through the desert of San Juan Province. When her supplies ran out, she died. Her body was found days later by gauchos who were driving cattle through. They were astonished when they saw the dead woman's baby was still alive, feeding from her "miraculously" ever-full breast."
The climb changes into a series of climbs and dips that take one steadily higher.
About eight kilometers the descent starts, over three hundred and fifty meters in just four kilometers.
We had planned to wilkdcamp at the bottom of the climb but the site there has been overused and was looking less than pleasant. While we were checking it out, a bus stopped and the passengers got off to use the area as a toilet. So we pushed on another four kilometers to Don Arturo, an informal campsite run by an old couple living a very simple rural Patagonian life. We had stayed here last time around as well. At that time the front garden was packed with cyclists but tonight it is just us.
Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 1,009 km (627 miles)
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