October 7: Day 8, Hostería las Horquetas to La Esperenza
Just a short ride today, 70km to La Esperenza. There's not a lot of accommodation options on the way to El Calafate: La Esperanza and Hostería las Horquetas are the only two places I could find, and it's not a very even split.
But unlike the European Divide I have a bit of spare time, so a short day won't cause problems.
From left to right: The view out my window this morning. Someone forgot where they parked their TARDIS. These signs come up regularly, advertising some place hundreds of kilometers away. But not in a very exciting way.
Today's photos are starting to get a bit stale. A long straight road, a selfie with a long straight road; is there nothing else besides me and straight roads? To be honest: not really. There's patches of garbage beside the road, occasional roadkill, and other cars. So I ended up taking photos of roadsigns to try to add some variety.
I think my toeclips might be a bit small. I've been getting a little bit of knee ache, so today I tried flipping the pedal so the toeclip is on the other side from my foot. And it's better! With the toeclips my foot could only go about a third of the way in, but without them I can set the middle of my foot on the pedal and easily push full force. It means I can't pull the pedals upwards but sometimes, that's fine. For today, it's much nicer - both options have downsides so I'll change between them when I need to. And I finished the trip in roughly the same time as the estimate, which bodes well for the extra-long ride tomorrow.
From left to right: Me and some more long straight road. The countryside is still pretty barren. This combination of powerlines and mountains did look a bit like some high-tech compound … unfortunately, this is the most interesting photo of the day.
La Esperanza is barely a village. It's two hotels, a gas station, and some houses, at a road junction. I've seen three tour buses stop here already, so I guess it's one of the stops they use for lunch and accommodation.
The internet connection last night was very, very slow so I didn't have the time to check the accommodation in La Esperanza. So today I rolled straight up to what I remember being the best-rated hotel, and got a bit of a surprise that the price was about twice what I normally pay. But it is a nice place! And also, there's only one other option in town and it's not very good. So I guess more research wouldn't have changed anything.
It has heated towel rails, which are now drying all my cycling gear. I should also check a few things on the bike, while I have energy and the sun is still out: I worry something is getting loose in the headset.
I'm in room #1, just like Las Horquetas and in Rio Gallegos: there aren't many guests yet, often I’m the only one. The temperature is steadily improving but I expect once it's properly warm, these places will also get busy...
