Distance: 45.73 km
Ride time: 2:12:21
Average: 20.65 km/h
Total: 26083 km
Yesterday I had wondered how much more climbing I needed to do before reaching the top of the pass. This morning I realized that I had slept less than a kilometer from the summit. How nice to start a day with a descend.
A few kilometers further down I met the road workers. This part of Ruta 40 is closed for traffic these days, but luckily I was able to sneak through. At some point I started noticing bulldozers working on the slopes above me. A little later huge rocks were rolling down the cliffs. I thought I’d better stop and wait. In Europe it would never be allowed for people to walk around inside he construction zone like this, but things are obviously more relaxed here.
Half an hour later the section was cleared and I could continue. As I passed the rest of the road workers I kept looking up, making sure no bulldozers were working up there, and that no huge rocks were coming down.
I soon reached the valley on the other side of the pass and half an hour later I cycled into Chilecito. Exactly at the moment I reached the central square it started to rain. Good timing! I had originally planned to continue further on, but with the rain I thought it would make more sense to sleep inside tonight. I found a nice hostel and enjoyed having a roof over my head as the rain continued to come down.
At the hostel I met a nice mixed group of travellers – there were people from Germany, Poland, Italy, and South Africa. The Italian guy Ivan was celebrating his birthday, so we enjoyed a nice pasta dinner together. I like sleeping in my tent, but hostels are certainly a nice place to meet people.
