Day 1,625

Monkey Puzzle Magic

Finding a hotel with rooms available in Chos Malal was much harder than we expected. Everywhere was either full, closed down, or looked so bad we wouldn't stay there, and we've stayed in some dives! Finally, after widening our search we found somewhere. I wouldn't say it looked great but all the windows were intact and as long as there was a bed it would do. I was just so tired. After the usual WhatsApp phone call (my Spanish is slowly improving) the owner said she'd be there in five minutes, but she was there in two. After a far too long discussion, with her trying to persuade us to go to her other hotel, she finally understood we needed to lie down now or we'd fall down. It was soon clear that most of the beds and furniture were being moved somewhere else, but they left our bed alone so we didn't care. We were the only ones staying there that night and she kindly left the doors to the kitchen unlocked and basically gave us a free run of the place. We had a day off to catch up on chores, found a great coffee, ice-cream and cake shop, plus next door was a decent restaurant which opened for lunch thank goodness, as the evening service didn't start until about 8.30 pm, way past our bedtime. A fellow tourer, Domingo, arrived early afternoon on our day off, again he ignored her pleas to go to her other hotel, grabbed a room and immediately fell asleep, never to be seen again in Chos Malal. 

We were determined not to do a Matt P and ride 98 miles today given the lack of water and refuel options again. So we had a lie in and left around 9am. Domingo had left us a note and as we were going the same way hoped we'd catch up with him. After 20 miles we ate lunch in the only restaurant for 100 miles, it was only 10.30 but needs must. Stuffed, we headed onwards. Not long after we caught up with Domingo. After a chat we went on ahead, and it was soon apparent we wouldn't be stopping at our planned camp spot as it was far too early. Tom wrote Domingo a good luck message in the dust by the side of the road, we filled up our water bottles and after 45 miles of climbing we flew down a 10 mile descent. After that the road went up it went down, up, down, up, all afternoon long. In the distance we could see some weird shaped buildings, turns out it was a satellite base for the Chinese military. Obviously a bit of a tourist attraction as a few miles later we passed a sign for it by a side road but we didn’t have the energy to explore. At 6pm I couldn't do any more, we'd managed over 72 miles. Tom’s rear wheel and disc brake were continually coming loose, so he tightened everything up and we made plans to stop at the next town, Las Lajas, in the morning to try and find some repair/replacements. The wildcamp spot was lovely, so lovely the biting ants and flies lived there too. We quickly ate a snack then dived into the tent.

The following day was a repeat of the day before - up, down, up, but we'd slept well and it wasn't too hard. We spent an hour in Las Lajas and after visiting a hardware shop, a motor spares store, and a garage repair shop we found a man with bolts, another man with some thread lock, and a man with a hacksaw to cut the bolts down. After, hopefully, fixing Tom's bike, we set off to see some trees. 

Now by that we don't mean any old trees, no we mean the Monkey Puzzle tree, or Araucaria araucana. It only grows in the wild in this area of Argentina and across the border into Chile. It got its nickname in the mid 1800s when a chap called Charles Austin, on seeing the tree for the first time, said the shape of its leaves would make it a puzzle to climb even for a monkey. It's often called a living fossil due to just how long it's been around. So excited, we left Ruta 40 and turned west towards the Andes mountain range and Chile. 

I was cheerfully cycling along when suddenly Tom let out a blood curdling scream. I thought something horrendous had happened, but no, he'd spotted some Monkey Puzzle trees in the distance. We hadn't expected to see so many so soon, but there they were, thousands of them growing all around us, on pretty much any available surface they clung to life. It was such a joy to see them. 

We turned the corner and there they were in the distance. This was going to be good!

Another treat was the geological features in the mountain side, the rocks were a weird mix of sizes and shapes very reminiscent of Giant’s Causeway but on a far grander scale. For 50 miles, mainly uphill, we rode, mouths open in awe, heads turning every which way to try and take everything in. It was an utterly breath-taking view and we drank it in. Finally we reached the end of the tarmac and the next 24 miles would be uphill too. 

Mind-bending geology + hardcore trees

Our plan was to ride to an area where the trail runs close to the river and camp by a waterhole under a monkey puzzle tree a further 15 miles away Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, at the junction stands the only food and water stop in about 70 miles. It was a pub, with beds. It was cold. We were hungry, what can I say, we stayed. There were Monkey Puzzle trees growing above our bedroom hut, it had a hot shower, not quite what we imagined but it was the best we could manage. 

As soon as we set off the next day we hit the dirt and a steep hill. We bumped into a couple of fellow tourers who put us to shame as they had camped out on that cold night under a Monkey Puzzle tree. Feeling guilty we headed onwards and upwards to Chile and more trees! The dirt really was pretty smooth especially on the climb, there were workers widening it and repairing it all the way along. 

We were approaching the border crossing at Icalma Pass, one final climb and we had made it. After not seeing anyone for hours, the border crossing was quite busy. We were a little anxious about the food restrictions, any fresh fruit and vegetables bought in Argentina stay in Argentina, but I wasn't certain about open packets. We had coffee, biscuits and dried milk, but they happily waved them and us through, the bananas didn't make it though.  

Then it was payback and a massive descent on tarmac to the village of Icalma. Sat beside a lake it’s a popular tourist destination with lots of campsites. We were in for a shock though as everywhere appeared to be closed. Fortunately one recommended on iOverlander had staff working on it and they happily took our money. Unbelievably, despite being by water we were able to sit up late enjoying the view without being bothered by mosquitoes and their fellow friends who love to feast upon us cyclists. It was a relief as always to get through another border crossing but we couldn't quite relax, Tom's bike still wasn't quite right and we knew we had some serious thinking to do. Our route plan was to return to Argentina over our not-so-beloved Andes through some remote forest on yet more dirt roads, but neither of us felt confident it would be wise to go that way. We decided to sleep on it and make our decision in the morning.

Monkey Puzzle seeds, or piñones, are edible, like large pine nuts