The heat

From Thursday January 25 to Sunday February 4, 2024, from Las Grutas to Bahía Blanca, Pampa province.

What temperature.

We spend a few days in Las Grutas while waiting for the temperature to drop. It is a very popular seaside resort. The city goes from 5,000 inhabitants to more than 100,000 in summer, a 20-fold increase. The setting resembles in every way what we encounter in France. On the other hand, the heat is incredible, more than 40°C. The beach is busy from 6 a.m. until nightfall, the only real way to cool off.

Saturday morning we leave Las Grutas at dawn to go to General Conesa. A fairly ordinary road, with endless straight lines, without rest areas, without shade. With the heat our progress is slow and we suffer in this furnace. We reach General Conesa, a small town crossed by the Río Negro river, located in the middle of nowhere. Here, not much life in the streets, everyone is cool to take advantage of the air conditioning. Only the shade of the trees planted along the river gives the feeling of freshness. A town that lives mainly from livestock farming.

A gap with time

Monday morning, the weather conditions give us a favorable wind which will allow us to reach Rio Colorado quickly. Halfway along the way, we take advantage of a stop at a small inn from another time. Hélène and her mother-in-law run a small inn where you can eat, drink cold drinks and connect to the internet. No electricity, only the generator allows you to obtain the precious sesame. The owners use large batteries to compensate for the shutdown of the group and a solar panel powers the internet box accumulator. And yet, in this place we have the impression that time has stopped, being out of step with the modern world. The setting resembles that of a western.
We reached Rio Colorado after a day still trying in the heat, the thermometer indicated 46° at the height of the day. The weather forecast once again was inaccurate with temperatures much higher than predicted.

A good little Parilla

We are staying with Oscar and Maria who rent us a small studio. We take the opportunity to visit Colonia Julia and Echaren located 15km from Rio Colorado. It is a fruit and vegetable production area. Cyclists in the village, the population welcomes us like VIPs. We left with several kg of fresh fruit.
Saturday, after a good swim in the Rio Colorado. It’s a parilla evening with Oscar and Maria. How good was this Argentinian barbecue that lasted into the night.

A station without a passenger

Sunday morning we head towards Bahia Blanca by car, the road between these two towns is not passable for bicycles and above all very dangerous. A situation which will undoubtedly recur, because we are in a transit zone with the three countries of Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

Bahia Blanca is a fairly industrial town with no particular attraction. It is one of the largest ports in Argentina, focused on the transport of wool, grains, fruits and oil.
We meet Fernando, he organizes mountain bike outings in Argentina and Europe. He cordially invited us to eat in his luxurious house. With his wife he received us very warmly.

To leave the city we plan to take transport to reach Buenos Aires in order to avoid the city of Rosario which is not recommended for tourists and even more so for cyclists. It is a dangerous city with significant drug trafficking. We will probably have to take a bus for 800km. The train which provided the connection with the capital has been interrupted for more than 2 years following the poor condition of the rails.

Our road

During these 11 days we covered 319 km, always in the heat. Find the map of our route on the site or by clicking on this link

Our meetings:

• Laura, a plane pilot who found us accommodation
• Fernando who invited us to his house
• Maria and Oscar with whom we shared a moment around a parilla
• The staff of a fruit cooperative

Did you know: Patagonia extends from Ushuaia to the Rio Colorado River. It was Magellan in 1520 who discovered it. It includes the entire southern part of America and extends over 1 million m2 and two countries: Argentina and Chile. It is one of the least populated places in the world, 3.8 inhabitants per km2 (France 106 and Alaska 0.46).