October 4: Rest day in Rio Gallegos
First of two rest days while I wait for the severe winds to stop. I have a few things to get done.
Laundry. Everything needs to be washed. Back to the usual problem: what to wear while waiting? Ended up wearing my hot-weather shirt which is completely unused and my cycling overshorts, which are very thin and are next to the undershorts not my legs - I'll handwash them.
Bike repairs. The chain has started jumping between gears of its own accord, which is just a small problem but I’d like to get it fixed before it turns into a big problem. There's a few bike shops in town and a high-rated one is nearby - "Bicicleteria Ago-Bikes". Lots of very nice five star reviews, a couple of whiny one-star ones so it looks good. My Spanish lessons have not equipped me to say "I think my rear derailleur is misaligned" and Google Translate knows "derailleur" is French so I can't be sure it's doing the right thing.
One handy way to confirm is to get it to translate the Spanish back to English: if it doesn't produce something close to the original English there's been a misinterpretaton. Obviously copy & pasting between Google Translate sessions is annoying and slow, and an automated solution would be best. There was a webpage that would do this but it disappeared years ago. But one nice benefit of Google having everything is that their spreadsheet (Google Sheets) has a formula that accesses Google Translate! I set up a spreadsheet to do it back in Amsterdam, after a bit of fiddling with the text I have some confidence that it will make sense.
My laundry won't be done for hours but I realize the clothes I'm wearing are probably suitable for me to appear in public. But it's 1130 and they close for lunch from 1230-1500, just like Spain. Probably wise to wait until 1500, after their lunch: a gringo with a toddler's vocabulary and a difficult-to-describe problem will need patience.
And route planning. I'd got a rough plan for how to get to Perito Moreno on Ruta 40 but it involved some long days, and I'd to take it a bit easy for now. Also, I've been looking at some wind maps which show a lot of westerlies, and I’d like to plan shorter sections whenever I’m going east.
On the European Divide, a bit of looking around in Google Maps would be enough to find in-between hostels or hotels or B&Bs. Not here: when preparing this thing back in Amsterdam I'd carefully scrolled along the route and made a plan with what I could find. But lots of places that do appear don't have a contact phone number, or email address, or website. They sometimes do have reviews - but apparently no way to contact them in advance...
Best advice is to use an app called "iOverlander" which is a Google Maps-style thing with user-provided info about hotels, hostels, campsites, water sources ... and wild camping options. Seems to be aimed at the bikepacker/motorbikepacker/nomad demographic. Scrolling around on that is far more fruitful! For example: it says there's a roadside restaurant six hours up the road which HAS ROOMS. But there's nothing in Google Maps info, no signs out front in Google Streetview, and no info I can find on the web, that would suggest that. It's called "Hostería las horquetas" (="Inn at the Forks") which is a name so unhelpfully common it makes websearching useless. It's so common I'm expecting to stay at another one about a week later.
So these places aren't really interested in web presence, and I'm going to have to get used to it.
From left to right: Hostería las horquetas in Google Maps - I’m sure it’s not actually in a river, I hope it’s not just a coffee shop? Sidewalks in Rio Gallegos are challenging; this section is bad but not usual. Graffiti I liked. Church, note the statue on the left. Croissants for breakfast, I didn’t expect any this trip!
But since I'm not used to it yet I found a Facebook page that looked like it was for the same place, matched a photo of the restaurant on there to Google Streetview to confirm, got the phone number from their public info, mashed it into something WhatsApp recognized, had a chat with the owner, and I think I've got a bed to sleep in tomorrow night. The nights are subzero so I'd really rather not sleep in my tent.
So iOverlander is looking reliable! I've used it to find options to break down the longer days. Some places have webpages, some turn out to be expensive retreats, one is a dodgy campsite but it's the only option for a hundred km in either direction. One place I'm planning to stay at is a gamble: it has no web presence at all, the only vague confirmation that it's legit is that the satellite photo on Google Maps is just a few months old and shows a clean roof and grounds and there's several cars in the carpark. That's the first night after Gobernador Gregores, if it doesn't have rooms I'm going to have to pitch my tent and put on all my warm layers. It's "Las Horquetas Hotel", which looks like a pattern to me.
Also resupply. More museli bars. Some chocolate since the prices are more reasonable than they were in Ushuaia. Some more calories. I also scour the supermarket looking for dried fruit or nuts or sweets in a reusable bag - I'd like to refill it and reuse it for snacks, squashed up in my frame bag for quick access. The only thing suitable has nuts I don't like so I'll have another look in El Calafete, which is the next town. Right now I have dried fruit and raisins in a thin but resealable plastic container, it's not very robust so I have to keep it carefully stored in the rack bag.
From left to right: Success at Ago-Bikes. Dessert picture since it’s a rest day. And this was the wind map yesterday, 48-64km/h in the region I was cycling.
And the bike is fixed! Google Translate put in a lot of work, the shop looked at it for a few hours, but it was done that afternoon. The verdict is that something got bent, probably when the bike fell over. And the chain was twisted, which I didn’t know was possible, but must have happened one of the times the chain came off: I’ll check when putting it on in future. I've only ridden the bike back to the hotel so I can't say for sure - but it seems fixed.
Another rest day tomorrow, back on the road on Sunday when the wind should be back to normal. Unless it's gale force, I'll be ready to go.
