Just less than two and a half years ago the acceleration of the COVID pandemic cut our second tour of South America short while we were on our way to Iguazu Falls (see here).  This time around we are taking a short cut and flying into Iguazu where we will spend a few days acclimatizing and sight-seeing before turning south with the hope of reaching Ushuaia before our scheduled flight back to South Africa at the end of February next year.

Heart

1

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

Heaven alone knows why we are heading back to Patagonia but we've done it twice before and it holds some of our best cycle touring memories.  There must be some truth in the old saying about eating calafate berries.  In between Iguazu and Patagonia lies thousands of kilometers of pampas. We also have no reasonable idea as to why we are tackling this route southwards.  Logic suggests we should go via Uruguay and Buenas Aires but we that route isn't interesting enough to do again.

One of the things we have missed on our last few tours has been camping out and we will have a lot more opportunities for that this time around.  Journals by other cycle tourists suggest a lot of that will be wild camping, in particular on some of the long stretches between towns in Argentina.  Interestingly, up until now we have yet to pay for setting up our tent in Argentina with all our camping in that country being wild camping.

Our two months back in South Africa after our return from Spain have been disturbingly free of cycling and we will in for a rude shock once we climb on loaded bicycles again.  At our age fitness disappears faster than trust in a politician so we will have to take it easy for the first week or two.  It has been cold, wet and windy for the last few weeks in Port Elizabeth so we will also have to adjust quickly to the warmer weather that we expect to encounter in Iguazu.