Heading Home to Buenos Aires

Another great trip in the bag!
Nick
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Tupangato to Parque Provincial Aconcagua and Puente del Inca, Mendoza, Argentina

We've been intentionally staying in little villas/pueblos - last night we made our way to Tupungato where we stayed in a family-run cabana outside of town and then walked in for dinner.

This morning, in keeping with this trip's tradition, we headed for a great stretch of dirt back roads ending in a quaint little town for lunch. Then we hit the highway heading for the main border crossing with Chile and started climbing.  Our destination: Parque Provincial Aconcaqua. 

Besides the scenery we met a guy with a great VStrom story that we ended up riding with the rest of the day.  On the way down the mountain we stopped at a wide spot in the road called Puent del Incas where there is some strange geology going on, took a foto and pressed on...

Later we headed toward Mendoza and cruised through Argentina's Napa Valley - the harvest is near and it looks like a great one this year. Before hitting Mendoza we pulled into the little town of Lujan de Cuyo.

Tomorrow we begin meandering toward Buenos Aires via Rio Cuarto where we've been invited to a birthday bash.

Nick

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Lago del Diamonte

We woke up early and were waiting at the office of the local military police station for the weather report from the mountain.  When it came in positive we headed out and spent all day in the dirt riding up to Lago del Diamonte.

We left San Carlos elevation 800 meters and cruised fire roads for 90 minutes before we entered the park heading for the Chilean border and an inactive volcano with a lake at altitude 3,600 meters or 11,800 feet. 

At the park entrance we started climbing hard through rocky valleys with blow-you-over wind.

 Some of the extreme steep cutbacks were wind induced sand pits and forced a few spills.   I'm serious, the wind was like my days in Rio Gallego where, if you weren't pointed into it as you stopped, you were going down; gusts of  20 to 40 knots on twisty mountain dirt roads are a challenge. 

Once there it was beautiful.

We played hard core tourist, walked out to the water's edge, and drove around the far side to deliver provisions to the local Gendarmeria that the post in town had given to us - after spending some time with them they invited us to stay the night in their outpost as it was getting late and weather can be temperamental.  Spending the night on a cot in a small log cabin with 6 guys, no running water and a perpetually burning wood stove just didn't sound like the ticket so we politely declined and made turns for civilization.   

After we hit asphault we headed for the small town of Topungato just west of Mendoza to stage for our trip up to the border at the crossing with Chile.

A great day.

Nick

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Canyon Atuel

Rode Malargue through Canyon Atuel past San Rafael to a little town of San Carlos where we are waiting for a 9:00 weather report.

The road approaching the canyon didn't start out very impressive and it wasn't challenging but it was stunning - out in the middle of nowhere is a little canyon carved by a river with spectacular scenery. It is flat land all around until you take a side road to this place that really catches you off guard.  

I caught a nail half way through that we couldn't repair it so we ended up breaking the return to town into 20 mini trips as I filled the tire and rode fast. We finally figured out that by transferring everything to Walter's bike and with him (lighter) riding my bike while leaning forward he could ride it flat, which we did for the last 15 km.

We met some funny/crazy riders yesterday - one was a young french kid who bought a pos Suzuki 125cc in La Paz, Bolivia that he was riding to the end. It was already severely overloaded, spanked and breathing hard - it looked like it had been packed by a committee of blind peasants - we wish him well!

Nick, via BlackBerry

Riding the Andies circa Las Lenas and Malargue, Argentina

We rode Junin to San Rafael, Mendoza on day two en route to the Andies.  San Rafael is a small city in the state of Mendoza which is Argentina's premier wine region.  The fruit is nearly ripe and the entire region seems abuzz to begin the harvest.  The following day we headed toward Malargue via Las Lenas, Argentina's premier ski resort; it was too late to begin the off road trip we had planned so we found cabanas near Malargue and did some maintenance (cleaned air filters, chains, checked bolts...) before heading off into the mountains the following day. 

We drove throught the valley that is the resort Las Lenas and left the pavement headed for Valle Hormosa.  A few hours later, after passing a herd of wild horses, we came upon the lagoon and found a single guy who lives out there who confirmed what Walter had heard - there is a road/trail that circles the back side of the valley even higher into the mountains but that the river often destroys the crossing points.  We went looking and tried in vain to find a crossing; they were all either washed out or too deep/steep for our modified street machines... Where's a KTM when you need one?

How often have you come accross a herd of wild horses?

Walter discovered a little s-curve, swoop, some soft sand and a few strategically placed rocks much to his shagrins.  Gravity won.  It's a good thing when you can walk away with a smile?

We took a lazy route back to Malargue, found a great parilla, and called it a day.

On the road again, Junin, Argentina

Walter and I hooked up over the weekend and planned a little 8 day trip. Last night we blew through rush hour traffic and made turns for... West.
Nick
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