Friday 18 May 2012

and this is...


… the end.

Everything apart from the infinity, endlessness and a loop comes eventually to an end. My trip pretty much did too. I thought I would write something to sum it up. But what?
The thing is that I don’t actually know how to sum up my trip. It’s still too fresh and too real and in a way still happening so it’s difficult for me to say big words now.

My holiday:
me
my bike (Scott Sub 30, as far as I remember model 2009)

and…

4392km on the bike
2900km additionally hitched and by bus at the very north of Argentina
95 days from the first to the last cycling day
62 days on the bike
53 days of ‘real’ cycling – covering more than 30km so not counting the days when I was just getting on the outskirts of the town to get a lift or getting somewhere near on a rest day etc
31 nights in a tent
100 empanadas eaten
100 facturas eaten
40kg of meat eaten
200 litres of water drunk (I only bought 4 bottles of water during the trip; everything else was tap or stream/lake water (I treated it only twice))
1.4GB of thoughts
5 or 6 cycling days with an iPod on
one set of tyres from start till end
one puncture
three or four lubrications of the chain
loads of sunny days
loads of windy days
three or four rainy days
quite a few new Spanish words learnt
not a tiny bit smarter and still searching for the sense of life

I have to say I was really scared at the beginning of the trip and wanted to leave Ushuaia and start cycling as soon as possible. Just to start escaping from the very south. And to make sure that this sort of cycling was not too bad and I could make it.

Was I prepared correctly? I was and I wasn’t. I had no idea how it was to cycle on a bike with panniers as I put them on my bike for the very first time in Ushuaia. I left the hostel, started cycling down a little hill and thought ‘Right, so that’s how it is. Not too bad’. But then only a few km later when I was leaving the town I got to the first climb and quickly revised my opinion.

Physically I was prepared rather ok (apart from some knee problems which I guess I could do nothing about). The bigger problem was to cope mentally. For long time I didn’t feel quite at peace alone on an empty road in Patagonia. Till now I feel some sort of fear of the wind and though I don't need to anymore I keep checking the direction and strength of the wind by observing leaves on the trees or grass or flags etc. At the beginning I just wanted to get as soon as possible to the place where I planned to spend the night. I’d rather rest little and finish cycling earlier. It came later that I finally really started enjoying the pure act of cycling and could truly relax.

Only at the very end of my trip when I took a bus did I realise that I enjoyed cycling more than I thought. On the bus I missed the freedom and independence. I missed the possibility to stop whenever I wanted, to choose my own pace, I missed fresh air. But then when I got back on the bike and had to cycle against strong wind I again got rather miserable. The thing was that towards the end of the trip it was harder for me to stay motivated and to keep cycling. It doesn’t happen every day that you wake up and happily get on your bike thinking ‘I will now cycle 100km’. Especially if it is your second month of cycling. But then it was towards the end of the trip when I did some serious cycling (apart from the last week in the Quebrada de Humahuaca which was already my ‘holiday’; but then again this climb to Purmamarca was really tough).

For sure I have chosen a serious destination for my very first cycling tour. And I went solo. But I completed it without any serious problems and I enjoyed it so it’s all great. I guess I would be more afraid of cycling alone through Africa or Asia than Patagonia.

Many times I was thinking why I do it, what for, what my goal is, what I want to achieve. I’m still not 100% sure but I guess what mattered to me was the fact that I cycled. It was not just an alternative to backpacking and taking a bus from one town to another. It was a totally different trip and I had different priorities. It in the end was some sort of test for me. And spending those hundreds of hours on the bike was more important than going hiking in Bariloche or kayaking in Futaleufu. It was the experiencing of various states of mind that mattered. I didn’t go to Patagonia just to be there or to visit all the tourist sites and do all the tourists do there. I was there to cycle it. Right now when I think of an old-school, romantic wandering around the world I see a picture of a road going all the way to the horizon, possibly mountains somewhere there, rather blue sky and a characteristic silhouette of a cyclist on a bike with panniers one metre from the edge of a road. It’s classic travelling but also a tiny bit of exploring and definitely some sort of confrontation with the world inside of you and around you.

People I met on the road kept asking me whether I would do it again, whether I would go on another touring trip. My first reaction at that time, in the very middle of my trip, fully submerged in it, was ‘I think I’ve had enough’. But the more time passed, the more I was thinking about it, the more I felt I would actually really want to go cycling again one day.

I have never considered myself a cyclist. I still don’t. I don’t go for a ride on the weekend, I hate lycra cycling clothes, a helmet ruins all the fun of a ride for me. However a bike is part of my life. A big and important part.

Thanks for all the support during the trip!

Karol

PS If anyone needs any specific info on the route, gear, thinks of a cycling trip etc – feel free to ask any questions. I’d be happy to share my knowledge and experience I’ve just gained.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

north of the north

From Jujuy to the border with Bolivia is around 350km. Jujuy is at 1300m and La Quiaca - the border town - at 3400m asl. It is 350km of almost constant climb. As I needed to come back to Jujuy to catch the bus to Buenos Aires I decided to hitchhike to La Quiaca and then cycle down back to Jujuy. I spent a few hours waiting on the outskirts of Jujuy but no-one wanted to take me. I got pretty pissed off as the situation seemed to be the same as in Mendoza a month ago when I wasted the whole day. I gave up hitching, got a dozen of empanadas, ate half of it and at 2pm started cycling up towards Purmamarca. It was a killer - 70km of nearly constant climb (one descent of around 4km), almost 1000m altitude difference. 


Purmamarca and the Cerro de los Siete Colores (a hill of the seven colours) behind the village

Purmamarca is a very picturesque adobe village with dirt or cobbled streets and loads of artesania; for that reason it is also very touristy

Purmamarca

here I am in Purmamarca

main square of Purmamarca, always full of souvenirs (not many tourists yet as it was before 9am)

artesania shop in Purmamarca

as always my bike almost within a reach from my bed (in Purmamarca)

I left Purmamarca, got back to the main road and tried hitchhiking again. This time I was lucky but I guess partially - I got 60km up to Humahuaca. From there there was still over 200km to the border. However I had already my new plan - I left my bike in a hostel in Humahuaca and took a bus to La Quiaca to 'touch' the border and close my trip - de punta a punta as the locals say (Ushuaia to La Quiaca). 
La Quiaca is not a specially interesting town (they have good and cheap empanadas though!) but only 15km east in a way along the border there is a tiny adobe village Yavi.

adobe oven in a hostel in Yavi

Yavi and its empty streets

Yavi again

main street in Yavi

Yavi

Yavi and me, part I

Yavi and me, part II

Yavi without me, part III

me in the search for inner peace; Yavi


I came back to Humahuaca to see if my bike was doing fine. It was. So then I took a bus to another little village, this time in the middle of nowhere (and exactly: deep in the valley) - Iruya. Humahuaca is located at almost 3000m. To get to Iruya the bus goes first 25km on the normal paved road, then the 50km stretch of ripio starts. The road climbs to a pass at 4000m just to drop to 2700m where Iruya sits. 75km done in 3.5 hours, quite a ride. I covered myself in cold sweat on the bus as I remembered that some time ago I considered cycling to Iruya...


On the way to Iruya - a village Iturbe.

on the way to Iruya

on the way to Iruya; on the pass 4000m asl

Iruya

Iruya


Iruya

butterflies in Iruya

Iruya

part of Iruya seen from a little plaza in front of the church (the second part of the village is behind my back)

Iruya stadium

every now and then (possibly almost every Sunday) there is a game East vs West or Upper vs Lower or Iruya I vs Iruya II (each of the two parts of the village separated by a river bed has its own football team); as opposed to the high altitude the level of the game was rather low

the game (in outstanding location on outstanding pitch)

the game in Iruya; the reds were better

the game in Iruya


what?! have you never seen a llama?

more llamas, this time alive

Quebrada de Humahuaca and Aymara flags (which also are the flags of Qullasuyu, the most southern province of Inca empire that included north of Argentina)

main square and church in Uquia

random point of Quebrada de Humahuaca, looking east

random point of Quebrada de Humahuaca, looking west

random point of Quebrada de Humahuaca, looking north

random point of Quebrada de Humahuaca, looking at me... and south

la bici y su hombre

drying corn in Quebrada de Huamahuaca

a stupid picture of 'me and the Tropic of Capricorn'; some 30km south of Humahuaca

view from a pucara (a fortress in Quechua) in Tilcara onto the Quebrada de Humahuaca; most of this pucara has been reconstructed relatively recently and to me in a pretty bad way (it just doesn't remind Inca walls, the doors don't have trapezoidal shape)

pucara in Tilcara, looking south

pucara in Tilcara, looking north

Tilcara seen from pucara

the essence of Quebrada de Humahuaca - cacti, adobe (these cacti are growing on adobe roof of one of a pucara stone buildings), colourful mountains and blue sky


Tilcara

Maimara and Painter's Palette - colourful rocks behind the village; there is a cemetery on these two hills in front of the mountains

autumn in Quebrada de Humahuaca

half way through Quebrada

only some 15-20km from Quebrada de Humahuaca but also some 600m lower; my bike and I am happy as we know we'll soon reach Jujuy and will end our cycling expedition