Alcira

October 11, 2022

The previous few days, with more climbing than we have become used to, had us waking up feeling as if we were in need of a day's rest. But we have limited time available to us before we must exit Argentina so we needed to push on. The question to which we need an answer was which route to take. There were only two practical options. The most direct route would have us on the national route RN36 for a great deal of the time while the scenic route through the hills would add two days to our journey. So we took the boring way out and headed off towards the RN36.

The first twenty kilometers took us through a range of hills that had Leigh questioning whether we had made the correct choice in that it was no less hilly than the scenic route would have been. Once on the four lane RN36 it was flat and easy riding with a gentle tailwind. There was surprisingly little traffic and we diverted through two agricultural towns along the way, both with long stretches of access road which kept us off the RN36 for much of the way.

In the first town off the RN36, Berrotarán, we stopped to buy fruit, just some bananas and mandarins. The shop owner got chatting to us and, while we were eating the bananas outside shop, brought us a gift of twice as much fruit as we had bought.

In the second town off the RN36, Elena, we stopped for a long and restful lunch at a small park where we were by a Brown Cacholote that was building a large nest of sticks in a tree close by.

Brown Cachalote (Pseudoseisura lophotes)

We are spending the night in a simple hotel in Alcira. It's a short haul to Rio Cuarto tomorrow, a large town where we plan to have a rest day.

Today's ride: 69 km (43 miles)
Total: 2,030 km (1,261 miles)

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