We were able to venture over into Argentina for just over a week of riding north. The landscape, though also beautiful, was completely different there! Instead of lush, tree-covered mountains with rivers and lakes, we saw vast expanse of near-desert and pampas. And the wind! Wow! Our first full day, we rode 20 kilometers into 20-30 mph gusts of cross winds. And the next day, though not as strong, it turned into a headwind. We found ourselves pedaling as hard as we could on flat land going only 5 mph! Yikes!
This was right before the wind picked up... once it started blowing, we couldn't really take any pictures!
It's impossible to capture the vastness in a single picture. We looked out over this valley from the top of a huge hill... right before we had to fight our way down in the wind!
Only when we got back into the mountains did the winds die down. And the landscape began to look a bit more like Chile. We passed through two National Parks, Nahual Huaypi and Lanin.
A view from the road in National Park Nahuel Huaypi... the water is so blue in the lakes here!
We love being able to snap photos with both of us thanks to our awesome "gorilla-pod." What a critical piece of gear!
Volcan Lanin dominated the horizon as we rode through this park. It towered so high above everything else, we thought it almost looked as though it had been photoshopped into the horizon!
Between the wind, a few days of rain and a lot of climbing, we had one of the toughest weeks of riding we’ve had yet! We’ve concluded that God is teaching us about patience and perseverance, as sometimes it feels that the riding gets tougher each day! (And maybe we’re slow learners, because the lessons keep coming…) Philippians 1:6 comes to mind, “I am confident that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
