A Last (kinda bitter) Taste of Bolivia and A First (pretty sweet) Taste of Argentina

Current Location: Salta, Argentina
Distance Cycled to Date: 17,231 km
Photos Taken to Date: 12,611
Countries Visited to Date: 13
Days Since Leaving Home: 355

Did you see our current location just up there? Salta, Argentina. Argentina. That's in the subtitle to our website, the name of our blog, and on every card we hand out. Canada to Argentina by bicycle. And now we're here. Kind of crazy. We're in Argentina. Just wanted to point that out. You know, pat ourselves on the back a little bit. We're in Argentina.

We left off being kinda sick in Uyuni, back in Bolivia. It wasn't the greatest, but it gave us the opportunity to meet 3 other American touring cyclists who rolled into town a day after us. It was good to have some English-speaking company, and they also timed their arrival perfectly, as I had just learned that I had a broken spoke and was searching for a chain-whip in order to fix it. They had just the tool I needed, and within 15 minutes of them getting into town I was all set to ride again. We've had a pretty good amount of 'coincidences' like that, that continually let us keep riding without issue.

After 3 days in Uyuni, we started south, on what we had heard was a pretty poor road. I don't think we have enough of a vocabulary to explain just how bad it was. We're both pretty positive guys, and having a good sense of humour had let us get through this trip while enjoying every day. Well, we finally got to the point where we had a few days we didn't enjoy, no matter how we tried to look at it. The washboard, the sand, the impossibly steep grades - it all added up to two quite disgusted Canadian cyclists. As one other British cyclist wrote in his blog (which we read only after we had finished the route), 'journey's don't get any harder than this'. That just about sums it up.

But as we got within a few kilometres of Tupiza the landscape started to change, and we did enjoy the canyons and rock formations as we bounced along the washboard. We enjoyed a much-needed rest day in Tupiza, where our hotel room carried cable tv, and we got to see a couple episodes of Arrested Development on an Argentinian channel. Not only did that improve our moods considerably, but it also raised our opinions of Argentina considerably. They have pavement, cheap steak and wine, drinkable tap water - and - they watch Arrested Development? This may just be the ideal country for us. We decided we would make it there in just one more day of riding.

It was a long, tiring, and difficult day of riding, but we got to the border town of Villazon just after the sun set. Unfortunetly arriving so late on a Sunday all the money-changers were closed, so we entered Argentina without a peso, and hoped dearly to find an ATM and finally eat our first Argentinian steak. We rode around La Quiaca in the dark, amazed at everything. We had only crossed a river, but this was the biggest change for us in a border crossing since leaving San Diego 10 months ago. We found an ATM, found ourselves a steak covered in fried eggs with a second plate of fries (perfect!), and slept in a comfortable bed made for a normal size person. We made it to Argentina.

The happy welcome was short-lived however, as the next few days would involve riding along the very Bolivian-mimicking altiplano, with incredible winds that seemed determined to send us back to Bolivia. We would have none of that though, and fought on, and finally downhill, against the raging storm. At times it felt like a sandblaster was being shot towards us, and I was sure when I looked down at my uncovered legs that the combination of wind and sand would have worn the skin right off. I guess the storm wasn't quite as strong as my imagination however, and my skin remained. It was more than a little dangerous to bike through though, as the gusts would send us out into traffic, and we'd fight to get back to the narrow white line. We did outlive the storm, and when the wind finally died down after a few days, we had some lovely sunshine and a great single-lane paved road leading us from Jujuy to Salta.

We had planned to stay at our second Casa de Ciclistas here in Salta, and after receiving an email with directions from Ramon, the host of this casa, we found the place perfectly. And now we're enjoying being in civilization. Shopping malls, fast food, cafes and clothing stores - we are constantly craning our necks around in amazement, asking each other where are we? We're in Argentina, and we're loving it.

And now that we're out of Bolivia, we have our Bolivian photo album ready to go. Check out that amazing Salar, and those brutal roads. And that's Bolivia for you. At times it left us shaking our heads in wonder, and at other times just shaking our heads in disgust. We're glad we went there, but we're also very glad to be out of there right now. We hope you enjoy the fruits of our labour.