Villa Amengual to Villa Mañihuales (Sat 2/20)

Stats:
- 36 miles (12 on bad ripio)
- 1600 feet
- roadkill, wind & rain ALL ZERO

There is one thing in life that I clearly excel at compared to Arn and it is sleep. If he sleeps six hours straight through, he thinks this is awesome. For me, this same night of sleep would be a disaster. This morning, I woke up mad. My night of sleep and recovery was stolen by the very people we were paying money to for the experience.  It is true, one can roll over exhausted inthe morning and feel quite ticked off. My parents actually have a photo of this expression from when I was about four years old in pink pajamas. Nothing has changed except I am older and the pajamas are black.  

Breakfast was scheduled for 8:30am and we found it sitting on the table waiting for us. Of course, the owner was still in the bed after partying until 3am on the other side of the wall from where I attempted to sleep. Yes, I'll get over it but I don't like my sleep &$#@ed with.

At breakfast, we discovered another couple from the US. They too are cycle touring. Arn engaged in the traditional biker chat while got my act together. The other Americans pulled out about an hour before us. We met the posse in the park. We left town in a group of five.  The sky was broken clouds and given my feelings about the prior day and my lack of sleep (have I mentioned that yet?), I only put sunscreen on my face. 

The temps were cool and we started with a long downhill. Phillipe is carrying so much gear that he is impossible for me to catch on a descent. His dry bag (laid across his panniers) is so large that I told him I would crawl in and go back to sleep if it started raining. 

The rain did not return. In fact, the clouds broke and the sun returned.  The day warmed up as time went on and once again, we were treated to the awesome views of the Carretera.  After about and 1 1/2 hours, we found the two American riders we met at breakfast. They were nursing a busted tire on her bike. The innertube was popping through the tire and they had no spare tire.  I need to clarify --- she is not running the beefy tires that most riders are using (Schalbe Marathon XR).  She is on a 27" wheel with a skinny tire. In other words, finding a replacement tire is going to be hard.  Shauna is actually running the same size and similar type of tire. She too has had problems. Her spare tire is now on her bike and her "exploded" tire is tied onto her gear. They gave the exploded tire to the American couple and they figured out how to patch something together. So, while the Canadians are helping the Americans perform tire surgery, these two Americans continued to ride. And somewhere, the Austrian rode alone with his massive dry bag. 

Today's ride included 12ish miles of ripio.  In parts, it was akin to the Futeleufú ripio and was not enjoyed. Given our start on asphalt and our expected return to asphalt, we rode with the tires pumped tight with air. This resulted in less forgiveness of the bike in chunky, loose ripio. Somethings are trade-offs (tougher ripio riding versus letting air out, only to pump it back up with a small hand pump).  Now, if I knew then, what I know now, I probably would have done this differently --- but I must save this for tomorrow's tale. 

With today's posse of five all spread out, Arn and I return to pavement. Let me tell you --- in good weather, the Carretera is awesome. In good weather and WITH pavement, every rider is overwhelmed with the experience.  It is like being a kid and having Halloween, your birthday and the last day of the school year all rolled into one --- costumes, candy, cake, presents, friends, and freedom!!!

Arn and I were at the front of the posse. Once we reached pavement, we took a break and thought we would see the others.  We didn't, so we continued. We met a couple riding north. They were from Switzerland. We asked what language was best. They said German. We asked about second best -- Spanish or English. English it was. She was sporting a Rohloff hub. Again, I think Arn had hub envy. We shared tips from the road. Their big tip was the discovery of a cash machine in the next town. For a week, there has been no access to a bank or ATM.  We chatted for about 20 minutes and still our posse had not arrived. We said good-bye and sent a message back to our fellow riders via the Swiss. 

Our road followed a river for much of the day --- in the direction of the flow or GRAVITY!  So we enjoyed a downhill bias and it was sweet. After the prior day's uphill bias, it was a welcomed changed. About 6 miles from town (our stopping point for the day), we meet another northbound couple. They were a pair of Brits. We talk for a while and again exchanged tips and learnings. They were facing an uphill day and got a late start. Again, we talked for about 20 minutes and our posse did not arrive. And again, we sent another message via the Brits. 

We really hoped out luck would hold and downhill run would drop us right into town. Given that this has not been the experience, our eyes were peeled and searching for the "final insult". It never materialized and we sailed downhill into Villa Mañuhuales. Upon arrival, our goal was a cockroach-free, smell-free and quiet place to sleep for the night.  We checked two hosterias and decided on the one where the woman wouldn't let us in until she had finished her daily cleaning at 4pm.   

We went in search of lunch and enjoyed fantastic roasted chicken and mashed potatoes. The posse rolled in as we finished.  They enjoyed ice cream and loaded up on groceries for their night of wild camping. They explained that "tire surgery" took in excess of an hour and they stopped along the side of road to eat lunch out of their packs. We bid farewell to Jullian, Shauna and Phillipe. After their night of camping, they will head to the next large town to the south.  Tomorrow, we will head to the coast --- an "opportunity" we have discovered and want to explore.  So, we don't expect to see them again. 

A couple of hours later, the other American couple arrived. Later in the evening, we enjoyed dinner together --- at the same place we ate lunch. Really, this is the only restaurant choice. Arn wanted something different and ordered salmon. I ordered the chicken again. Here was my thinking --- I see a lot of chickens running around, so they are great at cooking chicken.  Arn now agrees --- this is a good rule!