Friday January 21, 2011, 149 km (93 miles) – Total so far: 1,117 km (694 miles)
We went to have breakfast at 7am,like always argentinian breakfast style,only this time there was some fruit salad that unfortunately tasted like the refrigerator.Almost 8am we were on the road,luckily the road had shoulders on its side.The landscape didnt change very much also tobacco and sugarcane but far away you already could see the mountains we were going to cross.
Right before the climb began we stopped at a small restaurant to have lunch.This was necessary to get enough strength for the 20k steep climb.The temperature was already 40°C we took it easy to get to the top at 1000m over sea level.The landscape here was like the yungas in Tucuman with a lot of curves and short steep climbs up to 15%.
The only 6km long downhill took us to a small vllage called La Merced where we bought some water for the rest of the trip.From here the road until Catamrca was lightly descending all the time.An easy ride but with a lot of traffic,especially long trucks going on ours nerves.They blow their horns and either you get out of the way or you die.When we finally reached Catamarca we had to do some last steep climbs in the center of the town.We checked in in a small hotel,called Grand Hotel, where they let us keep the bikes in their laundry
