Where Water Buffalo Roam

Pictures: 1. They take Mate tea very serious in these parts 2. The Bob trailers are rad but check these guys out! Argentines with no passports touring around thier beautiful county with home welded...things. 3. Dude outsite Hostel/camp in traditional town of Esquel (think Winthrop/Montana) 4. This couple has been touring for 4 years! 5. El Bolson: farmers markets and a lot of relaxed type folk We have gone from the mountain weather of Bariloche, down the tailwinds to El Bolson and into the headwind to Esquel. All these places are in Argentina. In reading Bruce Chatwins, In Patagonia and the Lonely Paranoid (Lonely Planet) about Butch Cassady´s last whereabouts it seems we may have camped, urinated and cooked in or near his front yard. We then rode into the wind to Futalafu. The river is clear and big water. There are several guides here from the river I used to work on. The town in not near anywhere so not much for tourists but the terrain is out of this

We have come from Pucon, subtropic rides and runs through lush understory. Popped out the other side of the Andes to Argentina where everything is a bit more serious. In the morning we will get our first taste of route 40. There are no towns for the next 3 days. Resting today and gunning for Butch Cassidy´s old stomping grounds. The above sequence shows the weather and terrain change in the past week or so.

Took the bus from Bariloche and bopped up to the alpine climbing up, Refugio Frey. The weather was crap. Hissing rain as I arrived, a ways ahead of Becky. A bunch of longed hairs were crowded in the refugio, most spoke english and claimed to be native to Colorado. Typical. We opted to test the tent and awoke to several inches of snow and blue sky. Weather is changing. Trail qaulity was a highway. Not technical. Follows a river until the final hour which is a steep up to attain the saddle. Refugio sits on a lake in the saddle. Surrounded by towers to climb. Total run/approach = 4hrs

A fantastic climb up to lakes backed by granite and jungle. Techy root systems made for a slippery mess of an experience on decents. In about 3 hours we climbed a couple thousand feet to the lakes. Swam. Watched fish jump and ran back to the entrance just in time for the last bus. Arrived back at the tent starving and psyched.

¨Some people just don´t live in the same reality,¨ the labor foreman spiting his ham and swiss in between sentences. ¨I went to the county fair this year, the wife loves it.¨ This leading into the rant against overwieght americans and his hope that this is not a cross-section of the American way of life. The story of obesity as an epidemic has yet to be told but one thing is for sure, riding a bicycle in a foreign place is good for your health. To earn funds for the trip I tore up carpet until my palm blistered, flipped burgers, painted fences and worked as a relocator (mover). All the gigs were an adventure, and definitley a step into a different reality. Working in the grease pit I learned the different regions of Mexico, what a 12 hour shift with no breaks feels like, and struggled to earn the name--´stupid gringo´. Working as a mover with Dan was a hoot, with his help I rented a really big truck, drove half asleep and learned his stories of endureance; how many people have

When a person rolls into town on an iron donkey people ask questions. We must look like a couple of lost gypsies. Buggy (unaffectionate bike name) has a massive yellow bag mounted on a single axle trailer with a broken rear fender that rubs on the wheel. Kitchen equiptment and other essential crap hang off in all directions. We must look lost, but we seem to be making a lot of friends this way. Rodrigo is a guide here in Pucon. He popped out as soon as our wheels stopped rolling and offered a place to pitch the tent. Yesterday he took us up a dirt road towards volcano Villarica. We crossed three ridges and swooped up through several different glacial fed rivers before ditching the bikes and hiking up to a waterfall. Rigo is full of life and knowledge. He´s a guide on the volcano and super fit local adventure buddy. We are tentatively planning to race the Ironman Pucon 70.3 here on the 16th. The town is nestled between a massive lake and subtropic mountains. We´ll be