Somewhere, while doomscrolling in Antarctica, I saw this amazing switchback road that went up the side of a mountain. It was in South America somewhere and it just so happens that its near Santiago. I had to go up it. It was on the road that lead to Mendoza in Argentina which was also a city on my list. So despite needing to head south from Santiago I decided to head north east and go 360kms and into another country. My plan was that instead of heading south on the Chilean side of the Andes I would cross over and then go to Mendoza and then head south along the other side of the Andes for a while and then cross back over and continue down the Chilean side. The border of Chile and Argentina is the Andes.

It was a couple of hours ride to where the switchbacks start and it’s a single carriageway road with mostly double yellow lines. I hadn’t seen much traffic which was good. I stopped off at a roadside stall to have a cheese empanada and coke for breakfast and turns out it was homemade. Which was great except that as I sat there waiting, the road got busy and cars and vans and buses full of people all went past towards the border.  I scoffed the lovely but hot empanada and cooled my mouth with the cold coke and then took off to catch up to, and pass, all those people who would become a blockage for me at the border.

The road was lovely by the way, but I was more interested in the chase. Thanks to some slow trucks, roadworks, and skilful riding, in 15 minutes I managed to pass everyone except for 3 trucks. The road had a series of avalanche tunnels that are basically a road around the side of the mountain that has a cover on it like a tunnel but open on one side. I passed two of the trucks before the tunnel and only had the one to go and I couldn’t do it inside the tunnel. But as I had gone through others, I had noticed a side road around each of the tunnels for extra high vehicles. I made a quick decision skip the tunnel and take the bypass road. I was smiling to myself as I looked into the tunnel and saw that I was passing the truck easily. But my smile suddenly disappeared.

Coming towards me on the skinny bypass was the biggest front-end loader I’ve ever seen with a huge wide blade on it for clearing snow. I had to shimmy over to the edge of the drop off and then even lean the bike over as much as I could so that the blade could pass me. Again. I wish I had a photo. It went well but due to the open tunnel I was able to watch all the vehicles I had passed catch up to the three slow trucks and when I rejoined the road I was back to the end of the line. It was only another 15kms or so to the switchback and I managed to past most of them again except for three minivans of tourists.

I stopped at one spot where there were other bikes and checked out the view and took a couple of photos then took off and passed the 3 vans just before the border. The border was a bit weird and I slowed right down but couldn’t see anywhere to pull over or any people so I just kept riding. The line of vehicles coming into Chile was huge. Over a kilometre long. I then noticed that the 3 vans of tourists hadn’t followed me through, so I pulled over to check on my phone to see if I was meant to stop at that side of the border.  I couldn’t work it out and still no cars were coming through behind me. I was starting to panic that I’d have to rejoin the long queue and go back to the border post.

Finally a car came through and I flagged him down. He said he didn’t stop either but he thought we had to go further to a big shed. So after about 20kms of riding and getting further away from the border I came across a big shed which said welcome to Argentina. I had to queue up to get in but when I eventually did, I was relieved to find out that I was in the right place. There were 3 lines of 4 little boxes in a row. Chile Immigration out. Chile Aduana for the bike out. Argentina Immigration in and then Aduana for the bike in. So sensible. I spent less time doing that than I did worrying about having to ride all the way back to the first border point. And it was all in a big shed because it was up high in the Andes and they get metres of snow in the winter.

It was a nice downhill ride to Mendoza. The landscape changed a lot because I was now on the other side and it was much hotter. The Andes are so high that the weather, particularly the rain, coming off South Pacific Ocean can’t get across them. So it’s all lush and green on the Chile side and dry and hot on the Argentinian side. Not unlike the Great Dividing Range in Australia. Ha.

Mendoza has less than a million people and seems like a small town. All the streets have lovely old trees which are very noticeable, and appreciated in the warm climate. This part of Argentina doesn’t get much rain but there is a lot of snowmelt in the nearby Andes which makes it way to the areas in the province and so it’s also quite an agricultural centre as well. The indigenous Huarpe people already had agricultural systems and channels in place when the Spanish arrived in the mid 1500’s.

The Huarpe mainly grew maize, beans and quinoa but the Spanish introduced grapes and now there are over 1500 wineries spread over 70,000 acres which make it one of the largest wine growing areas in the world and produces 70% of Argentina’s wine. Particularly malbec. Whatever that is.

While I was there, I got an Argentinian sim card for my phone, which was simple enough. I also wanted to change some $US but first I went to an Argentinian ATM, which I have been told rip you off. I had to try it and find out for myself. Totally true. I tried a couple. The maximum they will let you take out in one transaction is about $30AUD and for that there is a $15AUD fee. I’m guessing at that rate they are happy for you to make as many transactions as you like. Fortunately, you can use your credit or debit card in most places.

Twelve months ago, the peso was in freefall and inflation was on fire, so if you took American dollars or euros into the country, people were queuing up to buy them off you for double the official rate. The locals didn’t want to keep their hard earned savings in pesos as they were worth less and less everyday. As a foreigner everything was so cheap. But a change of government has managed to stop that, which is good for the country but bad for Shane.  The official exchange rate in Mendoza was about 105,000 pesos for $100US and they didn’t seem interested in haggling. I then found a dodgy guy on the street who said he could take me to a place that would give me a good rate. I followed him for a few minutes and we ended up in a jewellery shop in an old shopping mall.

The place had a glass security screen and a money counting machine on the counter. The guy had told me I could get 123,000 pesos for my $100US note but his mate said only 118,000. After a brief discussion we agreed on 121,000 pesos. Because of inflation, the printing of new notes hadn’t caught up, and so the 1000 peso note used to be the biggest note they had. They are now printing a 10,000 peso note but they are still rare. He gave me 21 x 1000 pesos and then two bundles of 100 x 500 peso notes which he ran through the money counting machine as I watched. I took my big wad of money and moved to the side to let the next person get served.  I need to check it as something seemed wrong.

Both piles should have had 100 notes, but they felt different weights and thickness. A subtle difference but I noticed it. After counting by hand twice, I knew there was 96 notes in one pile and 84 in the other. That’s about $15AUD short. I had figured his counting machine was set in dodgy mode so I got back in the queue but the woman in front of me was actually buying $US and I watched him put her pesos through the counter and it was working correctly. I was sure he wouldn’t be ripping himself off. When it was my turn, I said the amount he gave me was not correct and he assured me it was and put then two bundle through the machine again. They did count correctly in the machine and so I took them and moved to the side again. This time though they felt similar thicknesses and weights. I counted one pile, and it was correct and so I assumed so was the other.

I worked out that he had a couple of dodgy piles of notes out of sight on the desk below the counter and after you watched him put the notes through the counting machine, he smoothly swapped them out as he put the rubber bands on and handed it over. Smooth. He looked over at me and I nodded it was all there and then shook me head to let him know that I knew what he did. He gave me a big smile and then we both laughed. And speaking of laundering. I washed my pants and jacket for the second time on the trip.

I had a nice apartment in Apartamentos Mendoza ($54AUD) and thought that I might stay another night. But I really needed to get going south. I had to get a part of one of my bags restitched which was simple enough and a bit of leather glue on my helmet strap, but when I returned to the shop on Friday arvo he was closed up.  So, I ended up booking in another night and hoping that he would open on Saturday morning. Thankfully he did. And I found a great empanada shop. First time I asked for two and realised they were great and so next night I asked for 3 and for some reason they gave me 6. Maybe because it was late on the last day of the week?

So I finally left. I rode 400kms south on the famous Ruta 40, with the spectacular snow capped Andes off in the distance. I arrived at the town of Malargue and looked for some accommodation. My first attempt was a fail but lead me to Zuliani House which was nice and $40AUD a night. Next morning was up early and headed south and then west to cross back over the Andes and back into Chile. My basic plan for this year on the bike was to ride down the west coast of South America and then back up the east coast, and then across the top to Colombia. But crossing the Andes a few times is pretty cool and worth the squiggle.

The views were again spectacular. I made it to the border 15 minutes before it opened and queued up and wandered the line and calculated I was vehicle number 72. I miss not being able to shortcut to the front like you can in other countries. It only took an hour to check out of Argentina which was fine. It was then an expanse of beautiful no man’s land for about an hour before I got to the Chile border post. This time the border guy actually called me forward and let me park up close to the offices which was good. While I was there, I caught up with the other Aussie guy I’d met in Santiago. I had passed him taking a photo near the border and he recognised me and so rode back for a quick chat. He was going the other way. Including the chat I was only there for an hour and on my way.

My sciatica seemed to be fine, and I was taking lots of breaks but getting in decent amounts of kilometres which I need to be able to do as I was about to start my big push south. I needed to get down to Puerto Montt which is the start of the Carrera Austral which is a famous road for Chilean overlanders. But to get there was a few nights in small towns and a lot of beautiful scenery.

I’m now running a bit behind because of continuous days of riding every day and not feeling like writing of a night. So here’s a bit of a photo dump. And a few random comments.

There was a lot of logging going on as I went down the coast but lots of natural and rugged beauty as well.

I managed to a couple of 450km days and stopped in the towns of Chillan, which was inland and then over to the coast Tirua (a place in the middle of nowhere in the rain) and then finally a big push along the coast in crap weather and then a poor shortcut choice down a logging road to get back on the highway (and tolls) and finally reached Puerto Montt. In the Hostal there I met a nice older english couple riding bikes which they had also bought in Colombia. We went out for a nice meal and a beer and a chat in english.

Next leg is taking the Caterrara Austral (Ruta 7) but that required a bit of research about ferries and bookings and was all too hard and so I just left next morning and thought I’ll just start heading down the highway and cross my fingers they can squeeze one more bike on the ferry.

KMS 22184