Cafayette

Hola amigos...

We´re here.!!!..sorry for the late blog entry. We had some homesickness in the group so we decided to limit our time at the internet cafe so as not to make it worse. We are in Cafayette...a small mountain town in the foothills of the Andes....maybe the size of Telluride, Colorado. Cafayette is our halfway point so we have a day off today. Anyway, I thought I would recap the trip a bit...

After a solid two days in airports, taxis and busses we arrived in Salta late on the 26th. We set up camp in the city´s campground...which was filled with rickety playground equipment, picnic tables and one giant pool (drained for the winter...remember we are south of the equater, it is winter down here). We all slept well after all that travelling...some well into the next day. Our first full day in Salta was spent building our bikes up and walking about town. This is when the homesickness hit for some. The culture shock combined with the tiresome travelling schedule left some a little shakey. But this was quickly turned around the following day when we finally got on the bikes and headed for Coronel Moldes...our next stop. The day was long as we had many mechanical problems. We arrrived at a new camp down by a giant lake after dark and after a few wrong turns. The crew was beat so Rick (Two Wheel View´s director) opted to get a small hotel room. The room lifted everyone´s spirits and we had a lively dinner. Bryan (the student I recruited from Albuquerque) and I decided we wanted to sleep outside on the grass because the night was beautiful. The next day we hit the roads early and the group was riding much better. We all had our biking legs by this point. On day one we were biking through flatlands mostly...no real hills to speak of. Day 2 brought some significant hills toward the end of the ride. We camped near a small abandoned train station turned artisan center. This was our first night of backcountry camping. We made a fire, made dinner and spend the night trying to figure out riddles...something I always like to do around a fire. The night was cold so we had to get out all the warm clothes this time. I slept well however...as did everyone else. The next day brought us into the desert portion of the trip. Amazing views everywhere. I heard one student (Simon from Calgary) say that he took nearly 100 pictures. This was definitly one of my favorite days from last year´s trip. We backcountry camped near a river (about 18 miles outside Cafayette. The night was cold and a bit windy. Getting up the next morning proved to be difficult...but the idea that warm showers and good foot was a mere 18 miles away got people moving. Biking into town was great and filled with more great views. It was a relief to get to Cafayette knowing that a day off was in store. My legs are sore and I´m an avid biker. I am seriously impressed with these kids. Such a good group!! Last night was spent hand washing clohthes, taking showers (mine was cold because I went last...oh well) and grilling chicken and cooking rice for dinner. Bed times are not really an issue here as the kids are very tired and want to go to bed at the end of each day...they were all snoring by 10pm.

Which brings us to today...I´ve spent far too much time on the internet so I hope you understand that I must cut it short and say until next time...and hasta leugo.

Ciao from Cafayette

Phil