Finished off the seemingly never ending supply of porridge and cycled off under sunny skies. The road was very hilly with some big slow climbs (13km) and amazing descents with condors soaring above our heads. The landscape was still beautiful and arguably just as attractive as the much promoted seven lakes route further north (days24-27). The trees didn’t engulf the roadside and block the sky quite so often, the road was smooth the whole way so our eyes could appreciate long distance views instead of scanning directly ahead for potholes and deep gravel and we didn’t have to wear bandanas to protect our mouths from the dust. We stopped at a picturesque roadside restaurant and sat outside getting to know the children of the family whilst waiting for our food. We decided to go for a full beef and potatoes meal after almost a week of pastries, bread, cheese and crackers. Unfortunately, we experienced our first really bad meal in Argentina where each mouthful involved 5 minutes of chewing without any progress. We ate the potatoes and left the meat to the flies which had pestering us since the food had been brought out. Not a good sign. The final leg along a road bordered with flowers, including exploding broom seeds and rattling lupin heads, included some fantastic views across lakes to the mountains west of Bariloche. We pulled into a campsite and thought we’d give camping another go as it was a Sunday evening. We pushed our bikes up a really steep grassy slope to the most inaccessible pitch and managed to enjoy our first quiet and undisturbed evening where the only sound was the birds and a hen clucking around with her five chicks.
First bad meal.
Peace and Quiet!
