Argentina: back in the saddle

Chris and I were in Buenos Aires for nearly a week, saying every day that we were leaving tomorrow. But somehow, the city kept holding us there.

First, there was all the social events. We stayed with a super guy named Ezequiel that we met through "couchsurfing", who took us out almost very night. The first night, 'Team Canada' ended up coming in second place in a "beer pong" contest. We won a free night's stay in a hostel somewhere in South America!

Then our errands were hampered by a national election. A woman named Christina won but, luckily, it wasn't our dear Chris.

Finally, I got all my extra stuff (climbing gear mostly) sent off to Santiago for when I meet Nelson there. The man at the post office sewed my bag up with much care. Apparently, there is about a 50% chance of it actually arriving.

We discovered that young Argentinians do the same things we do, like play jungle speed and slackline.

And then, of course, there was the tango!! We took lessons with Ezequiel and a bunch of his friends.

Stop looking at your feet, Lynda! And no counting out loud!!

We saw some real tango happen on the metro. Zowee!

Tomorrow finally came and we left Buenos Aires. What better way to start a bike trip than by taking a train? We thought it best to get out past all the ´burbs and slums of the capital before starting to ride.

We headed out along the coastal highway but we didn't see the ocean for 4 days. It was cool to see the other side of the Atlantic, though, after dreaming about it for months.

Generally, our experience of Argentina so far is that it is very similar to Canada. The first few days riding through farmland, we could have been in the Peace Country. We took this route because Damien recommended it - he forgot to mention that cyclists weren't allowed on parts of it, though!!

The people here are perhaps even nicer than Canadians. We have been welcomed to camp in peoples' backyards, offered meals, coffee, hot water, whatever we need. These two gentleman gave me my first taste of maté in Argentina, a tea-like drink that is a whole social phenomenon here in Argentina.

The one on the left wanted to marry Chris and have her stay and milk his cows! If I had a nickel for every marriage proposal I've had to translate for Chris...


Peoples´vehicles all have maté holders in them, the same way we have coffee cup holders. (Okay, we haven't ridden the whole way, but it's been way windier and rainier than we expected!)

This is the maté aisle in the supermarket!

Chris with a new baby kitten from one of the farms we camped on. I don´t know who's cuter!

We saw a few kids dressed up and trick or treating but generally Argentinians don't celebrate Halloween. As Canadians, we had to, though.

Chris and I dressed up as each other.

We've decided that, although we like biking, we don't want to spend our bike trip just biking. So we went shopping! I found a dress for the wedding, but it's not this one. I thought it made me look a little too much like it was going to be a shotgun wedding (which it's not!!). Just a bit too much dulce de leche (another tasty Argentinian phenomenon).

We're in Mar del Plata now, a pretty beach town. We are going to continue to work our way down the coast to the Valdes Peninsula, where I will hopefully get my first glimpse of penguins in the wild...