Soccer, BBQs and Great Hospitality

Current Location: Cordoba, Argentina
Distance Cycled to Date: 18,247 km
Flat Tires to Date: 60 (Keenan - 32, Jeff - 28)

While we're certainly still loving Argentina, we've yet to really find a cycling rhythm here. We go 120 km, then 204, then 25. The biking itself has been up and down - we had a fantastic tailwind a day out of Tucuman, which let us end the day with an average speed of 30 km/h. That made us decide to push for a 200 km day the next day out of Frias, however, the wind died down in the night making us do all the work ourselves. As the day went on the wind started to pick up again, but this time blowing straight at us. We managed to hit 200 km, and then found a spot to camp in the ditch, Mexico-style. Rather than dying down during the night, the wind only grew stronger and stronger, and the next day we could only average 11 km/h. We just never know what's coming next.

From Dean Funes, the wind continued to come straight from the south, making us work far more for every kilometre than we would have liked. And then the rain started. It had been so long since we biked in a real rain storm that we hardly knew what to do - until this point we realized we've only had 2 days of rain in South America. Somehow we've just kept getting sunny days, until now. Biking into Cordoba in the rain was a fun adventure, as it was probably the most adreneline pumping cycling that we've had since Guayaquil, back in Ecuador. With traffic and pedestrians everywhere, and a city that stretches and stretches forever, we just dodged potholes and puddles and buses and taxis in the rain for what seemed like forever. (Also, I had to go to the bathroom soooo bad - that could have been contributing to the stressfulness of the situation).

We had planned to stay in Cordoba for a couple of days, one of the main reasons being that we wanted to be here for the Argentina vs. Brazil World Cup Qualifying match. We had met somebody from the city in a gas station a week before, and he invited us to his house to watch the game when we were in the city. We couldn't turn down an offer like that, so when we got into Cordoba we made arrangements to head over to his house. It turned out he lives in a beautiful house in a great neighbourhood, and all sorts of family friends had been invited over for the game, and a big traditional Argentine barbeque afterwards. It was one of those nights that we'll likely never forget, as we were treated like old friends by everybody there, and got to eat and drink like Argentineans. Cups of shared mate, the traditional herb-tea that everybody drinks, glasses of wine, meat fresh off of a fire-grill, and even a few people who spoke perfect English to help with translating if our Spanish started to fail us. Despite Argentina losing the match, everybody was in high spirits still as we started dinner at 11. (Yeah - 11 pm!). It wasn't until nearly 3 am that everybody finally finished up with dessert and coffee, and was ready to head back home. A great experience all around.

We also got a chance to meet a group of 23 (23!) cyclists on an organized, supported tour from Brazil to Ecuador. It was great to talk to so many different cyclists from such different backgrounds - and made us a bit jealous! Every day a bus carries all their gear, and they have a cook to make them breakfast, lunch and supper! However, they don't get to camp in any ditches, so both ways of tourings seems to have their pros and cons. We've gotten a chance to explore Cordoba a bit by foot, and we're enjoying every minute of this cosmopolitan city. We had planned to leave already, but we somehow find ourselves going to bed waaay later than we ever did before Argentina, and we decided to take another day to try to catch up on some sleep.

It's been a great stay in a great city - and despite sounding like a broken record - we're still loving this country. (If they only put a shoulder on the road, it probably would be the perfect cycling destination...) But - we don't like to complain too much. We're loving it. If only it never had to end...