June 10, 2025
Tres Cruces
First chore this morning was to get some money from Western Union. Drawing cash from ATMs is prohibitively expensive in Argentina with poor exchange rates and a hefty 15% fee on each transaction. It was still below zero when I headed out at about ten past nine so it was frustrating to find that the local agency was not yet open even though it was supposed to have opened at nine. However I did manage to stumble upon a lady selling some tasty empanadas.
I headed back to our digs and we enjoyed the empanadas for breakfast, none being supplied by the hotel. At ten we loaded up the bikes and returned to the Western Union agency which was luckily now open. Then we started the slow crawl up to the highest point of the day.
Tres Cruces does not have much going for it. A reasonably good but expensive restaurant at the bus terminal and a number of tiendas that were all closed.
However this is the start of what we hope will be some dramatically shaped and coloured mountains, the first of which are just outside the village.
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It was only around seven thirty that I managed to find an open tienda where I could pick up some food for supper. I had been doing regular loops through the village for the previous two hours so the villagers must have been starting to worry about me. One of them, slightly intoxicated, managed to engage me in a rather stilted conversation but to his credit did direct me to the open tienda.
Tomorrow we drop almost a thousand meters to Humahuaca, a tourist town focused on the dramatic mountains surrounding it.
Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 1,191 km (740 miles)
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