Hello from day 3! Quite a day; a lot of grinding in the sun resulted in my Apple Watch showing that I’ve burned 3,700 calories.
The climbing continues! For now, my goal is to reach the border with Argentina through the Uspallata Pass (3,830 m).
My biggest enemy at the moment is still the sun. The altitude is starting to wear on me. My legs feel a bit heavier, my cadence is slower, and breaks are frequent. Am I carrying too many things on this bike? (Probably, in total everything is about 50 kg.)
(my hands are almost burned from the sun, so wearying sleeves is a must even if it adds some heat to the equation)
I’ve met the first of many, I hope, other cyclists embarked on a long journey, way longer than mine. Meet Darcy, a 25-year-old Australian who spent the last year cycling through Europe (from Amsterdam to Istanbul) and is now tackling the entire continent of South America. We spent an hour talking and planned to meet again a few days later in Mendoza.
Biggest blessing for today was an abandoned restaurant. I could chill on its covered terrace for a while and wash my face with some cold water from a rusty sink. I also found some cute companions there: 3 llamas who continued chewing their grass (or was it an alpaca, or a guanaco? Let me know if you know.)
Unexpectedly, I was stopped by the police today. I think they wanted to make sure that I am not planning to climb until the peak today, once I showed them a translated message saying that I’m stopping to camp in 1h and they did a big thumbs up and kept going.
Tonight it's my first night camping here! I'm on the side of the road in a spectacular place, just have a look:
Day summary:
Distance: 49 km,
Total elevation: 1200 m (currently at 2100 m)
Mood: tomorrow I have to wake up early if I wanna make it to the peak