Carnaval Argentine Style and a lot of riding

I left off last saying that Gualeguychu did not seem like much of a party.  I don`t think I could have been more wrong.  In my first night in the hostel, I heard some noise on the roof.  My catlike curiousity sent me up the staircase where I found a group of Argentines grilling and being jovial.  I joined in and instantly had a new group of people to run with.  We went out to a bar around 1 am. At this point I am exhausted because 1) lack of sleep from the day before, 2) several hours riding in the scorching sun, and 3) just ate a ton of meat.  As expected, I fell asleep at the table for over an hour before they woke me up and dragged me back to the hostel.

The next morning, the 10 person room was boiling hot so I could no longer sleep.  I headed to the kitchen and joined the group again for some breakfast.  However, there is a new person there.  He is a Korean American from Chicago.  I now had to share my token Americaness and Koreaness with this guy.  In any event, the Argentines advised me and the additional intruder to go to Solar del Este with them.

As I walked in Solar, this was the scene.  A huge metal contraption about the size of a football field misting water on the dancing masses below.  There is a stage in front of the mist where the most attractive girls fought for attention by dancing to the beats of the electro mixed with Spanish music.

After a hard day at the beach, it`s time to feast.  This cut of meat is between the inside of the ribs and the internal organs of a cow.

After the second parrilla night in a row, I joined the chef at a reggae show.  I couldn`t understand anything the singer was saying, but I still did my best to enjoy myself.

After the show, there was a massive street party.  I pretty much got split up with my new friends immediately, but it wasn`t hard to make new ones.

After returning from the street party around 7am, I got a solid 4 hours of sleep before being kicked out of the hostel.  I rode around to Solar and other campgrounds but everything was booked solid.  I was on my way out of town when I decided to give one more look-see.  I found a random house with a yard and asked her if I could camp there.  She let me do so for 40 pesos.

Since the Solar beach was at capacity, I went back to the tranquil free beach in front of my `campsite`.  I guess this scene wasn`t too bad.

After wasting away the day on the beach, I walked across town to the Carnaval Parade.  It cost 70P to enter.

Einstein rocking his stuff.

Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart

I took a lot of photo of course, but I think this one exemplifies how fantastically little the girls wear.

The catwalk.

As I leave Gualeguychu on Sunday morning, I am greeted by more headwinds.  About 25 km into my ride, I realize I left my iPhone charging inside the house of the lady.  I give 2 seconds worth of thought as to whether or not to return, and the Pollyanna in me thought, at least you will get to ride downwind.

One comment of interest, I passed the same guy out, back, and out again.  The third time I saw him, he was looking rather famished and called for my help.  He looked like the 7 Minute Abs guy from There`s Something About Mary so I was cautious.  I didn`t have my mace or my knife handy, but I figured I could still take him as long as he didn`t pull a gun.  It turns out that he just wanted water.  I had a full 1.5L spare, and I hand him the bottle expecting him to pour some in his mouth.  Instead, he goes into his bag, pulls out some Tang, pours the Tang in the bottle then drinks about half of it.  He then offers it back to me.  I tell him to keep the bottle and the best of luck.  He was planning to walk to Conception del Uruguay (more on this later).

The road leaving Gualeguychu was under major construction.  This was a good thing for me because the road I biked on was the one under construction.  The actual thoroughfare is over on far left in this photo.  However, the construction road was sometimes paved, sometimes soft sand, and sometimes covered in obstacles to keep cars off.  In any event, I will trade this condition for watching my mirror ready to bail off the road at any moment.

Since I mindlessly added 50km to my ride, I only made it to Conception del Uruguay, which should have been a 72km ride.  I made it to town with about an hour left of sunlight, so I am sure that walking guy fared much worse unless a half blind person let him hitchike.  Since I am without proper camping geat, I asked around if there was a hostel.  Instead, the best I can find was a free campground.  After I set up camp and showered, I explored my site.  There was a family setting up a parrilla, and I wanted to join in for a 3rd feast in a row.  They were not so friendly but suggested I go buy meat and use the grill after them.  The kiosko on site was worthless. The guy had no meat and no change for a 20 so I couldn`t even buy a beer.  I am about to give up and call it a night, when I spot a group of young people on the beach.  I broke into their group with a stupid question, `Is that Uruguay on the other side of the bank`.  The answer turned out to be yes, and they offered me some Fernet and Cola.  Eventually we were on our way to eat Pancho (hot dogs), and then dance all night at a club.  This group of people was from Rosario, which is well known by Porteños to have the prettiest girls in all of Argentina.  I opted to skip Rosario for Gualeguychu due to Carnaval. Judging by this group, I made a wise decision.

We packed into a VM Gol and parked right in front of the club Taj Mahal.  It was not impressive in size or style, but the club played music I could understand and liked.  The girls bought a bottle of Frizze, which is a wine cooler in a regular wine bottle.  I usually make fun of guys that drink them, but it seems to be socially acceptable in Argentina.  I had to step up our wine coolers with a bottle of Champagne.  It costs 90 pesos so I naturally gave a 10 peso tip with the remained of my 100 peso bill.  Three bartenders stopped and individually thank me.  I`ve never felt so special for $2.50.  Unfortunately, my camera had died so I don`t have any photos of the night because everyone else was getting papparazzi in there.  I left the club on foot around 6:30 in the morning.  It took me over half an hour to walk back to my camp on the other side of town.  I wake up because the sun is beaming on my rainfly effectively turning my tent into sauna.  Even with oppressive heat and gross amounts of sweat pouring out of me, I couldn`t rouse myself until midday.  

Struggling to get out of town, I grabbed some food in the center plaza and set back on the road.  About two hours into the ride, I had an unwanted but familiar feeling.  My stomach was starting to tell me get off the bike.  I hoped into a ditch and squat into a the Taiwanese bathroom position.  I saw gnats and other bugs all over the place, but I didn`t have time to change locations.  I finished my business only to realize that I put the toilet paper just out of arms reach.  I lose my balance and step backwards.  Now I managed to skirt around dog poop in Bs As for a full month, but I couldn`t manage to avoid my own!  I only logged 92km and took a hotel in Ubajay to make sure I was properly clean for the next day.

I stopped at a gas station to wash my hands after the last incident and found these.  What, something spicy?  What, something peanut related?  Actually, the crackers were spiced with black pepper and left not even the slightest twinge on my tongue.  Notice how Cheese is mentioned before the Chili.  I have no idea what was in the cookies, but it was not peanut related.

After riding an hour out of Ubajay, I came across another bike tourist heading to Rio.

This is Fernando.  He posts videos at 

http://www.youtube.com/user/elojotvbikes I should show up on there speaking some broken Spanish.  After about 40km of riding together, I had to set him free.

I put in 132km on the day.  I planned to stay in Chajan but missed the city entirely.  This city had a decent sign but that was the highlight.

I am either very bored or very scared on the road when I take a photo of myself.  See how the scenery is just flat and green.  The biggest excitement happens when I ride under the shade of a cloud.

March 9th, I rode from Mocoreta to Bonpland.  There is nothing exciting to report during the ride, as I put in 130km of flat 2 lane highway.  I rode 2km off the highway down a crazy rugged dirt path to go into the town.  As I pull into concrete portion and take a quick look around town, I feel tons of eyes on me.  I notice that an entire family has quit talking and is staring and pointing at me.  I wasn`t sure if this was Night of the Living Dead or what.  But I was still determined to find some food that is not from a gas station.  I went to three different kioskos before I could find cold water.  Not feeling the optimism I arrived with for a square meal, I get pointed in the direction of a house that happens to make hamburgers.  I get real comfortable with the owner over coversation about travel and beer then he lets me camp and shower at his place.  The sunset this night is unique.  The sun is setting with Orange and Pink hues to the left, the moon is shining a tiny sliver straight ahead, and there is a lightning storm to the right.  

The owner has a daughter who speaks some English.  She tells me (all in Spanish) that she is in her third year of English courses.  Her effort to say the days of the week went like this, `Monday....Saturday...` 

During my 2nd liter of Quilmes, two other guys come up and buy beers.  One of them is very flaming.  I was super surprised to see one in this tiny town.  Later a third guy shows up on a moped.  The gay guy keeps patting his wallet suggesting that he is going to keep buying beers. At some point, I declare time for bed and the group dissolves with the moped guy and gay guy going on a tour of the town via moped.

More exciting scenery.

I was 170km into a ride, and noticed that the nearest town is 45km away.  However I only have 30 minutes of light before the sunsets.  I see a driveway and pull into a farm with the intent to ask if I can camp.  There are a lot of ways to approach this situation.  I decided to say hi, look as exhausted as possible, chug a liter of water, then ask for a chair.  We start chatting for a bit while the sun has almost gone all the way down.  I broach the question and next thing I know, I am getting a free bag of cookies and sleeping in my tent under the stars.  I am rudely awaken about 4:10am by a rooster.  It calms down in about 5 minutes but gets back on the alarm an hour and a half later.  I end up getting any early start.

  This farm had chickens, dogs, cats,

sheep,

horses,

and a cool owner. This guy had never been to Iguazu or Brasil.  You are so close, just go!

I got off Ruta 14 in Santo Tome and took Ruta 94.  When I first got to the road, I was thinking this could be bad if it goes totally unpaved.  However, I have been tested worse.

I thought this was the largest ant mound in the world.  I took a stick and tried to aggrivate whatever was inside.  The stick broke.  I tried to kick it, but it was just a mound of clay.

I was running low on water, when a mystical kiosko appeared.  They gave me liters of free cold water and only charged 4 pesos for the Fiambre and bread.

I have cross Provencial Lines into Misiones, which is the last one before Brasil.  The winds have calmed, but I have to contend with hills.

These signs are totally unneccessary, but I still get very happy when I see this one.

A sign in Apostales.  I can do the trip to the Iguacu Foz in 2 long days or 3 easy ones.  Considering that it is the weekend and there is the boliche in this town, it will likely be 3.  I even paid the 12 peso upgrade for AC in my room so I sleep that much more soundly.

Today`s ride from nowhere farm to Apostles was roughly 147km.  This will be the last time that I have any true statistics.  While I was going down this hill, there was a group of boys walking their bikes up the hill.  In order to show off, I put my head down and started peddling hard.  While doing so, I knocked my bike computer off.  After 20 minutes of fruitless searching, I cut my losses.

I should post next with photos of the Foz (Portugues) / Cataratas (Castelleno) / Waterfalls.