Chos Malal to Mendoza to Jachal: 1,008.1 km vía 5 busses

“What’s happening?  Well,

We are still in Jachal (Argentina).” 

After a rest week in Mendoza (where Kelsey freshened up her spanish with another week of classes and Be taste tested all the macaroon flavours at “Mendoza’s best panadería” and we met two of the possibly loveliest Argentinians via warmshowers.org (Hi Ivan and Daniel)) we headed to the bus terminal to catch our 20hour bus to Jujuy in northern Argentina (with the intention of wanting to get to Bolivia sooner rather than later). 

But mercury in retrograde and the Argentinian bus system are still having their fun with us: come 830pm when our bus is supposed to arrive: no bus!  An hour later: no bus!  Two hours later: No bus, the drivers are on strike. We are told by a friendly bus staff to come back in the morning. We rode back across Mendoza (only having to consult the map twice as we were, by this point, nearly locals) where Daniel answered the door with a huge grin, “Bienvenidos! Who are you? Please come in and stay!”  He cooked us dinner and we listened to Morrissey and Bjork and had a dance party.  All of which made it difficult to rouse ourselves in the morning and get back to the bus terminal.  Turns out there wasn’t any rush because at the bus terminal: No bus!  The strikers strike on!  We are informed by a highly stressed worker surrounded by cranky travelers that there may be a bus that evening and they won’t refund our tickets.  

Already ancy to be back on the road, we weren’t keen to wait 12+ hours for a “maybe” bus. So! We caught a bus to San Juan and a bus to Jachal with a solid plan to bike over the highest pass in the Andes, back to Chile, adios Argentina. 

(The following excerpt is from a phone call between Be and her sister). 

“And Kelsey’s been a bit sick with a cold so we decided to wait one more day before heading to the pass. She’s been in bed all day. While she was sleeping, I went to the tourist info to ask about the pass and... it’s closed, of course it is! For the year!  Ice!  Well,

Yeah, they do close, but usually in May. So we’ve come all the way to this town to ride over one of the highest passes in the Andes and...

Well, I was pretty disappointed at first, but then Kelsey started laughing and kept laughing.  I think the universe is trying to say, “just stop with this bus bullshit and get on your bikes!

“But the tourist info lady was really excited that I was from Australia and she took my photo to put on the wall....

“Yeah, so we’re just gonna ride north and hope that one day we get to Bolivia.”

“You just wanna hope that one day, you get to an airport.”

—

Top headlines from the last two months:

• ‘Was you cold last night?’ ‘I is!’
• ‘And my pannier is full of water.’
• Eggs in a plastic bag.
• If it feels like an up-up down hill kinda day, then it probably means it’s up hill! 
• ‘We do not need to get lost in Bolivia for this trip to be a success.’
• ‘Horse - the mild ham.’
• ‘Be wake up! I think it’s... a deer.’
• ‘Kelsey, are you saving this?’ (Wax off the cheese in lunch supplies).  ‘no, I just put it in there because of the AK-47.’
• ‘This trip would be unbearable if we were boring people. 
• That’s not cheese, that’s spirit!
• ‘I think the pork hit.’ 
• ‘7  weeks on the bike, wow, and we’re smashing it!’ ... ‘in our own way.’
• In an ice cream shop as the ice cream person is scooping Be’s ice cream.      Be: ‘I don’t need a big one’.      Kelsey: ‘I don’t ever want to hear you say those words in an ice cream shop again!’
• Surely we can, surely we can’t... it’s 50/50.
• “Most people on bikes...ride their bikes.”  — so get on your fucking bikes!