In case you did not know, we are currently in the early stage of a bicycle tour in South America.  Thank you Wend Magazine, we are taking tons of raw format images!

I will try to keep this as interesting as possible. 

 Everybody speaks Spanish here and Elicia has been doing a bang-up job of speaking it for us. Absolutely no Argentinians appear to be fluent in English. I am getting by on a few words and many gestures, learning more every day. Most Argentinians speak very fast and their pronunciation is very different from anywhere else. Fortunately almost everybody is very friendly and helpful.

We were worried about eating, and our first dinner in Buenos Aires did not help. I took a stab at the menu and got a scary meat plate that we ate but almost gagged on. But since then we have been eating very well. Italian food and sandwiches are available almost everywhere, home-made empanadas are sold in the campgrounds by nice men on bikes, and a liter of beer costs about 2 bucks. We’re on our own for breakfast, since we require protein in the morning and sugary pastries are all anybody eats before about noon. The grocery stores have just about everything but peanut butter. We’ve had lots of rice, lentils, salami, cheese, crackers, carrots, potatoes, and tomato-shaped zucchini. I think I’m eating better than I did back home!

 We’ve had no trouble finding camping on the roadside, though we try to get out of sight unless we’re along a creek and it’s obvious that a million people have camped there before. Actual campgrounds are big, friendly places full of families and young travelers, but privacy is non-existent. You just squeeze your tent in where ever it fits. Adults and children stay up playing music and laughing around barbecues until at least midnight, there are lights strung up all over that stay on all night, and believe it or not, it’s really nice! Argentinians clearly enjoy the outdoors. The few RV’s we’ve seen are small and tasteful. Most people sleep in tents. They spend the rest of the day sitting around sipping mate together and doing laundry or some of the personal grooming that makes them so incredibly clean and immaculate-looking all the time.

Patagonia is dry, gorgeous, sparsely populated, windy, and hot.

Well, that’s a slice of life so far!

Ciao,

-Andy