Day 64
42,046 – 42,319 273 Miles today (19,619 Miles Overall)
Zapala, Argentina – Bariloche, Argentina
I was woken up at about 6am by the winds. It took me a while to figure out what the noise was. I called Lars and told him we should leave asap instead of 8Am because the wind was forecasted to get worse. We met up and hit the road. The winds were blowing harder than they were yesterday. We had 4 hours to get to Bariloche. I stopped maybe 30 minutes into the ride to put my down jacket on along with my winter gloves. The temp was supposed to hit 96 in the town we just left so I thought it would warm up quickly but I was wrong. I saw dark clouds up ahead with some rainbows so I figured it would get colder and stay cold.
I was right. The temps dropped to about 48-52 most of the ride and it didn’t look like it was getting any warmer. We were about 1.5 hours into the ride and GPS said to get off of Ruta 40. I didn’t like this. I had a chat with Lars and suggested we stick with Rt40 even if it’s longer. The Ruta 40 turn off ended up riding through the 7 lakes drive which was incredibly beautiful I heard. My plan was to leave Bariloche the next day for a day trip and do this drive but we should just do it now since we’re here. We wanted to get to Bariloche by 2pm to watch the soccer game.
We turned back onto Rt 40 and got some fuel. I couldn’t get my GPS to give me an ETA on the long way around on 40 but I hit a town where it wouldn’t tell me to take the shorter route and the drive way 2 hours longer. I assume the rest of the ride would be 5 hours instead of 2.5 and we would be tight on time. I broke the news to Lars and we were positive we could shave some time off of that.
We hit the road and lost Lars in about a minute. Since I’m from NYC and ride like a maniac all the time, not a lot of people can keep up with me. Mostly because I break every rule that exists for the road. When I’m in South America there are absolutely zero rules in my opinion. Anything goes. So poor Lars was riding behind slow traffic and he’s just way more conservative than I am. I did my thing, passing everyone and everything on the road. I texted him the address of where we were going and took off even faster. I stopped for a few pictures here and there. I was riding like an absolute maniac on this ride. The views were beautiful, the air was cleaner than you can imagine and the roads were just perfect. There were a ton of people on mountain bikes riding along the road and I came by them bouncing my bike off the rev limiter. They would all turn around if facing the other way and throw their arms up in the air cheering me on. I couldn’t believe how pumped up they were to see me blasting through these turns. I had the right music playing, I was wide awake and just living in the moment. Nothing else mattered here. These people on the side of the road get it. They’re all here enjoying being in the moment living life as well.
I stopped for my 10th time to take a picture and this time on a beach with some snow capped mountains in the distance. Here comes Lars a little late to the party. I snap some pictures of both the bikes and he gets some of me. He tells me some guy nearly ran him off the road. hence why I just pass everyone. We ride! I start tailing him from behind and turn my go pro on. I got some cool videos of him riding his bike through the turns with the scenery. I pass him on the inside on a turn. We stop for a few more pictures. The vegetation here is beautiful. It’s like something you see on Nat Geo when it’s time in Patagonia. Well it actually is, and we’re watching it all happen. LIVE!
I pull over for another picture and I let Lars get a head start on me. I beep the horn right behind him telling him to pull over for another picture at a beach we’re about to pass but he keeps riding. I pull over and pull my bike up to the beach. Snow capped mountains in the background again and the water is just crystal clear like glass. I’m in heaven here. I just want to pitch my tent and sleep here. I take a few pics, take the view in and get back on the road. I catch up to Lars in about 5-6 minutes and we keep riding together. We finally got to a small town after quite some time and this place looks like a small Swiss town. but here is when i’m putting a stop to calling it that. From now on I’m going to start calling places like this a town that looks like Patagonia. I like it more. We decided to stop for a quick bite to eat here but everything was pretty much closed. Some guy came up to us asking us where we were from and he was Slovenian. I chatted with him in Serbian for a few minutes and then I found a little deli with fresh meat and cheese. I ordered a few hundred grams or Prosciutto and cheese along with two beers and we had a lovely little lunch on the side of this beautiful town. The beer was delicious along with the fork and this was perfect.
Back on the bikes we go and we both realized we cut the ETA down from about 2:30 to 1:10. Right on schedule for how we were riding. We stopped a few more times for some pictures and drone shots. I took a little walk down to one of the big lakes we were riding around and just enjoyed the view. It was fucking beautiful guys. We pulled into town riding like assholes and stopped for fuel. I said to Lars “ Well it looks like you’re loosening up a bit acting like you ride in NYC now” He agreed! Haha
We got to our hostel to check in and I got shafted and ended up paying more than what it cost, which I wasn’t happy about . We were in a rush to shower and get to a bar to watch the soccer game. We got to the bar to meet up with Milou that I met in Mendoza and we were hanging out with her dutch friends watching the game. Lars got right the hell out of there and I figured out why 3/4 of the way into the game. The Argentinians don’t take soccer as a joke. It got quite heated in the bar and as soon as the game was done I left. I went down to the town center and the Argentinians were going absolutely bonkers about this winning game. Hundreds of people turned into thousands and thousands of people. There was a band playing an Argentinian national song with drums and trumpets. Thousands of people jumping, screaming, lighting road flares, singing, crying, laughing and going nuts all in one big group. There was so much love and happiness it was absolutely beautiful. Thousands of people just surrounded these few small bands and were partying for hours and hours and hours. I met up with Lars in the group and he got the drone out to film the crowd. I was climbing up trees and all kinds of structures in the streets filming everything.
This right here is by far one of the coolest experiences I’ve had this entire trip. This was incredible. I wouldn’t have traded this night for anything. I am so lucky I am in Argentina for this game to witness this. I cannot wait for the next game to see what happens if these guys win. After a few hours of being in this wild crowd jumping around having a blast Lars and I got a steak at a delicious restaurant in town and then headed back to the hostel to check in finally and get our rooms at 11:30pm. Were officially locals eating past 10pm. The sky is still pretty bright out at 10pm. It’s lovely. Anyway we got our rooms, the parties were still going on in the streets and we crashed real hard.
