September 29: Day 2:, Tolhuin to Rio Grande
Today looked like a nice, undemanding ride: 6 hours duration, temperatures 0-6, light wind from the southwest. Started with a good breakfast with croissants (!) and ended up getting on the bike a bit late, at 10am.
The town of Tolhuin has some pretty good hills and the workout meant before long I didn't need the fleece. The forecast also warned about a high UV index so while getting the fleece stashed I also got sunscreened. And after a few disagreements about the route I got on the main road and headed north.
And it was happily boring. There was ice on the ponds but no snow, there was no headwind, the road wasn't too steep. A whole day like this would be great.
The most exciting thing was a warning roadsign with a llama. A bit later I saw the explanation for myself: llamas are big and heavy and not very good at crossing roads. One bounced happily across the (empty!) road in front of me, saw a fence it couldn't get past, went north for a bit then decided to cross the (still empty) road again. Which has a speed limit of about 100km for cars. Later on I saw one heading towards the road at the same time a car was coming, and was sure there would be an accident except at the last minute the llama baulked.
Reindeer in Sweden have a bad reputation for running in front of cars, and then coming through the windscreen after the collision - llamas are probably the same. It wouldn't be pretty.
But to get back to trip, it got worse. A headwind showed up, and the temperature dropped so I had to put on the fleece. Then it got so icy that there were hailstones. And the headwind stepped up so much I could only find a sensible gear and plow on. Head down. Partly as a figure of speech, partly to reduce wind resistance.
This went on. I was getting cold: stop and put on another layer? Or plow on? I wasn't that cold and I didn't want to risk anything blowing away so I kept going. It was a long straight road, directly into the wind. Not even some carefree llamas could make it better. Fortunately the road had wide tarmac shoulders so I could grumpily grind my way along without worrying about cars.
By the time the road turned and the wind wasn't head on, I'd fully lost my sense of humor.
To add to the fun Komoot had planned out a route that didn't follow the main tarmac road, but went down some half-forgotten gravel connecting road to a small settlement and then a bridge to Rio Grande. It saved about ten kilometers but sounded a bit sus... so I stayed with the main road and took the extra distance.
There were some interesting not-tombs along the roadside - maybe memorials? Unfortunately because of the missing sense of humor I wasn't interested in stopping to take photos. (I regret it already.)
From left to right: look out, there are llamas! Actual llamas. Me, having lost my sense of humor, but at least the icy headwind has eased.
The hotel WhatsApp'd to ask something in Spanish but I was able to translate, reply and translate the reply on the phone surprisingly easily. WhatsApp is very common here, lots of adverts for businesses have WhatsApp contact numbers - and tomorrow's hostel only has a WhatsApp contact number, no webpage or mention on the usual booking websites. So it’s going to be coming up regularly.
Anyway, I was at a bit of a low ebb when I rolled into Rio Grande and was disheartened to find it's surprisingly big and I still had some way to go. Population of 100,000 apparently - seems like tax breaks invited industry to move here, and this is the result.
The city is divided into squares with an alternating one-way system. A tutorial-level puzzle by computer game standards. But it doesn't look inviting; the streets are concrete and have regular, big cracks - so big I was carefully choosing how to cross, I didn't want to catch a wheel. There were a lot of clearly dead cars around, and rundown houses. And Komoot had my destination wrong by five blocks.
From left to right: The only not-tomb I photographed. Approach to Rio Grande. What high inflation looks like.
And the hotel itself was a very low-key, just a locked door from the street. I showed up with my bike, couldn't see any info about how to get in - and was just thinking about sending a WhatsApp message when a speaker attached to a camera talked at me. Oh no, is this some virtual unattended hotel where I'm going to be guided in by someone in a callcenter? Happily no! Once I got inside I was taken to the first floor where there was an actual person on duty. We stashed the bike under the stairs and I got into my room and thawed out in the shower and felt almost human afterwards.
For dinner I went to one of the best-reviewed places in town: it didn't have menus, everything was on a poster on the wall, and it looked like the prices were regularly updated (thanks to inflation). I tried to order the menu of the day (nope) then ordered some other things (seems OK) and had some questions I didn't understand (just say si). Got a very respectable dinner: soup and bread, two small empanadas, and then chips and fillet steak which I couldn't finish. Total cost was 12 euros, which makes me wonder if they didn't make a mistake. There was some football on and everyone was focussed on it, maybe that's why...
I'd like it if there weren't any more days with strong cold headwinds, I've had enough! I'm trying to push north as fast as possible, and summer is coming, so they should end soon. The weather forecast doesn’t say much about icy headwinds, but it does predict high winds from Wednesday to Friday, so high that "local damage is expected". I'd rather not be out in that, I'd like to be up in Rio Gallegos having a rest day or two, but I'm not sure I'll get there in time. The winds are west so that's basically a tailwind for the last section there...
Tomorrow is a shorter day, crossing the border into Chile, and staying at the only hostel around. The weather forecast predicts difficult sidewinds.
Hopefully they're not icy.
