What an adventure we just completed! Tito and I are sitting in a computer cafe in Buenos Aires right now... we have rented an apartment through a contact we made on the trip. We will be here for 10 days to recuperate and plan our next adventure :)
When we arrived to Salta, Argentina it took a good solid day to get prepared for the biking part of our trip. Fixing mechanical issues, sizing bikes, teaching basic bike maintenance, etc. We felt that even though this was the largest trip that TWO WHEEL VIEW has lead in Argentina, we were pretty well set. Here is a recap of the rest of the trip:
On day 3 we started biking: We headed out on some busy streets to the country side. Unfortunately one student had a few spills near traffic which gave us complete heart attacks! We worked on it and she improved greatly by the end of the trip. As we were traveling along enjoying the ride one of our students tried to peddle and his peddle came off his bike! The peddle was actually stripped and would no longer be able to be screwed into the krank shaft (for those of you not familiar with bikes, pretty much it made the bike unridable). So we talked with the local police who drove Phil and Liz (the other two trip leaders) door to door in the town to ask if anyone could help us. It was Sunday and everything was closed! Luckily an old man came to the door of one of the houses and said, ¨wait here, I have a machine that can fix that, but my dog is mean and you cannot come in¨ So they waited outside and in a few minutes he came back with the part fully fixed! It seemed to be a miracle... unfortunately it put us behind schedule a bit and we did not make it to our first destination point. We instead had to ask for a place to stay. A very nice woman and her family offered for us to stay on her property for free and so we set up camp! Her 8 year old son, Franco came to play soccer with us and he pretty much schooled us with his skills...
The next day of biking was grueling because we had to make up the miles we missed the day before. It was a long hard day of rolling hills.... we arrived to a small artisan town called Alemania where we camped under some abandoned rail road tracks. It was by a river... we celebrated one of the students´s birthdays (Quinn) and somehow managed to lose a sausage, four cans of tuna, and some other groceries we had purchased that day.
The next day was quite adventurous indeed! We headed out biking with some very physically sore students... we had been peddling hard and all our muscles were a little tight. Breanna unfortunately got a migraine head ache and by lunchtime it was apparent that she would have a difficult time riding that day. We met many friendly people in Argentina- all who wanted to help us! We asked some nice people if they would drive her and an instructor in their truck, but they were going in the wrong direction. So we attempted to head out... Phil and I rode up with the group while Tito, Liz, Breanna, and another student who is mostly fluent in Spanish (Aaron) stayed back to try to find Breanna a safe ride. Phil and I continued on with the group up and down some beautiful countryside. Very hilly, red rock, reminded me a lot of Arizona or Utah... Breanna passed waving from an ambulance that helped us out. Tito Liz and Aaron strapped Breanna´s bike to their bikes and biked all the way to camp where we met up with Breanna again nice and safe. The camp that evening was windy and sandy. We all woke up with sand in our pants and everywhere else too.
The next day we made it to the wine town of Cafayette. It was an oasis of heaven. Students were able to shower, rest, wash clothes for a day and a half. They also shopped and ate glorious food. Empanadas are great find them and eat them. We had a few students ready to call it quits and go home but we talked them into staying. What other choice did they really have?
We biked to some ruins where we met our argentenian contact Santiago. He led us to his farm on a dirt road for about 20 miles to Santa Maria. OOHHH WHAT FUN that was, let me tell you. OUR bodies were numb when we were done. We got in late and were able to watch a mother earth ceremony called the PACHA MAMA. We all partcipated in giving back to the earth in the hopes that next year the earth will give back to the people that partcipated. Then we ate Lamb stew and went to bed very late. Santiago and his friends prepared great meals for us.
The next day we hiked to some Incan Ruins and met an old man who oversees the ruins. He told us to come back and stay anytime we like and we are always welcome there. Then we biked to Amaicha del Valle. A great town where they were celebrating Pacha Mama with a wine festival. There was folkloric dance and music. The locals were celebrating with wine and food and dance. We at Locro with high school students from the area. Goat corn, beans, stomach and other inards of the animal. It was great food. We chatted with local students in spanish and had a great evening with the students. We all learned to dance and sing into the wee hours. Students and staff had a great evening also celebrating Cassie´s Bday. They gave her a nice hat native from the area.
The next day was supposed to be a day off, but Santiago had other plans for us! Due to the language barrier when we told him we wanted to bike to a barbeque (Asado) he had set up for us, because it would get us there faster, he thought we wanted to take a long bike ride! So we were following him thinking he was leading us to the Asado but he was leading us up this dirt road hill to a lake that was way past our destination! After our students realized this, they weren´t in the best of moods but were able to laugh it off when they arrived to the Asado and had an amazing meal of lamb, potatoes, tomatoes, bread, and empanadas! A friend of Santiago´s who was a professional chef chopped up the lamb right in front of us after it was cooked! Lots of greasy happy faces :) We all went to bed that night knowing that the next morning we were going to be biking up over a mountain pass.
THE MOUNTAIN DAY! Whew what a tough day of riding that was. Up and Up and Up we went, in and around the switchbacks pushing ourselves harder than we had done previously on this trip... the reward was the town of Tafi del Valle on the other side... what a downhill ride into town! We arrived there after dark and after we had to fix three flat tires on the way down... we spent the night in a hostal which all the students appreciated.
The following day was our last day of riding. Because it took us so long to summit the mountain the previous day, we were faced with close to 75 miles to ride to get to Tucuman. After a great downhill ride from Tafi del Valle into a lush forested, jungle area
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