Day 10 -- San Martin de Ls Andes

Day 10 -- San Martin de Los Andes It rained all night in Villa Angostura. The disco across the street played until 7am. It was raining when we packed up the van. It rained during our morning transfer. When the van stopped to let us off for the 15km of ash gravel road riding to start the day, none of us moved. We all decided that would would start on the pavement. Riding gravel roads is one thing. Riding in the rain is another. Put them together and none of us were really that interested. So we started on the pavement. And there was much rejoicing. It was mostly drizzle with a little sun poking through as we rode to lunch. Then the rain and wind picked up. Nearly all of us ate inside the van or tucked behind a tree. As we started again the headwind became quite strong. The road cut at the top of one long uphill had gusts directly in our faces that I guess were 40-50mph. I actually had to use my granny gear to go down the hill on the other side. We had a couple people in the group that were nearly blown off their bikes and took a seat at the side of the road for a while to collect themselves. I think it was as hard as I have worked for 15km on the road on a bike. The nice end to the riding for the day though was an 18km decent into the valley of San Martin de Los Andes. The route description called it grin-enducing. I smiled the whole way down. - Unclephool, Dave, and Deniece