We made the most of the Argentinian wine by cycling around several of the bodegas in the Cafayate and Mendoza regions and sampling their harvest. In Cafayate a chilled glass of Torrontes was excellent and Mendoza was overflowing with great Malbec.  In fact we had to limit our visits as we couldn´t stop buying bottles to take away with us.  Rach had only just thrown away a load of clothes in order to make her ruc-sac lighter and wasn´t to impressed when I suggested the extra room could be used for our surplus wine supplies!

Gateway to the wines, Cafayate

Bodega El Esteco, Cafayate

Old oak barrels

Inside the bodega, Mendoza

The bottling process

Cycling the wineries

Cheers!

Taking a  break from the booze we headed out to the stunning Quebrada de Cafayate - a sandstone gorge (or is it canyon?!) with several distinctive and colourful landforms.  Obviously after a hard day in the Quebrada there was only one way to relax – a steak dinner and a bottle of red! (and yes the steak is as good as everyone says!)  

Quebrada de Cafayte

Garganta Del Diablo

The amazing orange rock up close

Me at the Quebrada

• Start point: La Paz (4650m)
• End point: Yungas (1100m)
• Vertical drop: 3550m
• Distance travelled: 67km
• Time taken: 5 hours
• Number of deaths per year: 200 – 300
• Total number of cyclist deaths: 30

The ride

For the first 35km it was along a tarmac road. It was smooth, wide, and with little traffic – it was great I could go really fast!

The less dangerous half

The remaining 32km were along the stretch of road known as “the worlds most dangerous road” so called because of the large number of deaths that occured on the road every year. A steep, twisty, dirt/gravel road with a vertical drop and no guard rail and at times hardly wide enough for one car. It is crazy to think that up until 3 years ago this was the main road from La Paz to Coroico, handling two way traffic. It is easy to see why so many deaths occurred. Fortunately a new road has opened on the other side of the valley now, which is much safer. We still cycled down the old “dangerous” road, but it meant we didn´t have to worry about oncoming traffic, just about not falling off the cliff!

The death road

The riders

Me: Looking very cool
Rach: Not looking cool at all, or even very comfortable!
Also: Malcom – an experienced dirt track motorbiker from Australia, and George & Benjamin – two Austrians with a hobby of mountain biking in the Alps.

Looking good!

So not cool!

The team

uh-oh no bikes!

So our group dynamics were pretty much like this: Our guide and the three experienced guys flew down full pelt at the front, with me wanting to keep up with them, but not being quite brave enough, while Rach plodded along several minutes behind! I think Rach may have got confused by our safety briefing on how to brake safely, as she seemed to keep her brakes on all the time! She said afterwards that she realised downhill mountain biking wasn´t for her when she saw me in front of her pedalling as fast as I could, then realised that she had both brakes on!

The result

It was a brilliant and exciting day and when we were brave enough to look up the scenery was great. We both made it safely to the bottom, so can count ourselves as death road survivors and even got a T-shirt to prove it!

The view

Rach on her own again!

Wheelies!