Day 120/164: Las Cuevas to Los Andes – 58km

Climbing 160 meters, down 2280!!

I was very pleased that we were not camping last night as it snowed, as well as being cold.

Sunrise at Las Cuevas

We had to cram into the two trucks to the border as there was a 7 kilometre tunnel before it, that bikes are not allowed to go through. We also have to be with all our bags at the border (up till now they have been able to stay in the trucks).

The border crossing took about two hours. Thankfully the trucks did not have to queue in the car lane, as there was a line a couple of kilometres long.

The loooong queue for the border (Photo credit: Jo’s Facebook page)

Luckily we could bypass a lot of the queue! (Photo credit: Jo’s Facebook page)

Brett and me at the border crossing

Once we got through the border it was quite a short riding day, 58 kilometres with 2290 meters down.

The first 15 kilometres was a switch back with a few tunnels, and stunning scenery. It was pretty much downhill all the way to camp.

Switchbacks after the border crossing

The descent from Portillo, A glimpse of Jo riding the long switchbacks (Photo credit: Jo’s Facebook page)

I stopped at a cafe at 30 kilometres, and had an empanada which was the size of a large Cornish pastie.

A number of the riders leave in Santiago:
Shirley and Dan from Cape Cod, USA
Katrina and Mike from Scotland
Jean and Marina from French Canada
And Nelson from USA.

All of them, apart from Jean and Marina, have been full tour riders and it will be strange to carry on without them. We are getting 8 more riders in Santiago, and then two more at the start of the next section. Certainly it will change the dynamics of the group. We now have more riders that did not do the mud day than riders that did.

We are staying at a camp ground called “El Sauce”. It has grass and trees and a restaurant. It is so much warmer, hard to believe that last night we were cold and it was snowing. I guess that’s the difference a couple of thousand meters in altitude makes.