The mountain pass is called Paso de Libertadores. It is at an altitude of 3,200m and has the 6,900m Aconcagua towering over it. Valparaíso, where we were a couple of days ago, is clearly at sea level. Santiago is at about 600m above sea level and there is about 100km between Valparaíso and Santiago and a further 100km to Libertadores. We were stressed, sorry, Paul was stressed. Sorry Paul was VERY stressed. Not about the change in elevation but more about how it was going to be achieved.
The road on the Chilean side of the border is quite famous. Paul has struggled for a number of years with right hand turns. He has even had a therapy session with a motorcycle pseudo psychologist about his issue. The joke about us travelling around the world was that we only set off to go to Sainsbury's but because Paul couldn't turn right we ended up going around the world...Anyway the route involved a substantial amount of hairpin bends which by definition means a lot of tight right-handers. This is not a joke; Paul, really has a phobia about this and there are a vast amount of examples where we have had to paddle around the corners. Especially when going up hill.
So concentration was at a maximum. Photos along the route on right hand turns were forbidden. The overall photo included here is from the Internet as we daren't stop. But we are writing this after having got to our evening destination and we are still in one piece and so is the bike. And it wasn't too embarrassing. And yes, there was another one of those cyclists proving what wimps we really are. Paul did hum to himself on the right hand turns - as advised by his 'psychologist. The tunes were Paul's, not the psychologist's: 'Onward Christian Soldiers', ' London's calling' and 'God didn't make the little green apples'. A somewhat eclectic selection.
We were perhaps lucky in that the road was quite quiet and that the weather was good. We didn't lose the 1°C for every 100m climbed - it remained very warm. The road was a concrete one and badly cracked and pot-holed in places but everybody was well-behaved, the oil slicks on the road did not exist and the road was quite wide. Paul had managed to overtake a lot of lorries beford the difficult bit at some roadworks and thus created a buffer for us, stopping people coming right up behind us as we wobbled our way up. Nonetheless it might have been a different story on the Electraglide.
Because we thought we might well find the ride exhausting we decided we would't go as far as Mendoza. We had also been told that the border crossing would take a minimum of 3 hrs. It turned out to be 15 minutes. So shocked were we by this that we hadn't realised we had completed both Chilean and Argentinian formalities simultaneously. When we were in Uzbekistan a guide told us that they never asked the English about their salary, their age or Brexit. Here everybody asks us about our age. Maybe it's because we look decrepit? But nobody asks us about the Falklands. Though maybe the Chilean Border Officer who took the photo was having a laugh? We left the border facilities looking for the Argentinian crossing and, having not found it, backtracked on ourselves, only to be told by the Border staff that we had indeed cleared both sides of the border and were cleared to continue into Argentina.
Punta del Inca was just below Aconcagua at the border post, but the wind was building and we found it quite difficult to hold the bike upright so, no photos again, and we rode down into Argentina. The gradient was very shallow, no dramatic turns and if you forget the first 20km, an exceptionally good surface. And quite stunning canyon scenery.
We are staying somewhere outside of Uspallata. Somewhere a bit off grid. River water and the lights go off occasionally. Adobe brick walls with bamboo and log ceilings. Lots of woven things decorating the walls. A bit Mexican perhaps. But a small swimming pool and magnificent views. It was 29°C in the afternoon and it drops to -25°C in the winter. Surprisingly we are still at 2,000m attitude. It's great.
