Gazing upwards from the Chilean base of the Andes, adventure cyclist Ben Cunninghamknew it was going to take serious resolve to get over to Argentina
WE FINALLY passed through the harsh desert environment of Peru and into the beginning of the Atacama Desert in Chile. The Atacama is far more impressive then the Peruvian deserts; the topography here is far more spectacular. The land is scarred and etched by huge ravines and canyons whose walls tower steeply over the flat valley floors below.
Although the territory is far more interesting, the cycling has been much tougher at times. The desert itself is about 1,000m above sea level, and when the road encounters one of these enormous canyons the drops are extremely steep and fast and the climbs back up on are extremely tough.
The Atacama is an extremely inhospitable environment. It has practically no vegetation, and some areas contain life, it’s a wonder anything could live out here at all. The Atacama is the driest place on earth, with some parts not having recorded rain in more than 60 years.
On the bikes, lips and skin lose all moisture, and the back of the throat is constantly dry. A local truck-stop owner told me that in the past Nasa has used the Atacama to simulate Mars, as the desert is the planet’s closest replica on earth.
Northern Chile is copper-mining country, with some of the biggest open mines in the world. The mining industry is the sole reason for the existence of many of the small towns in the area. The port city of Antofagasta is the industrial centre of the mining region, which boomed first in the mid-19th century. We took a few days off there and found out that it also has 20km of beach and year-round tourism.
Chile is an extremely long and narrow country; it is never more than 240km wide – about the same as Ireland. As you get farther south, towards Santiago, Argentina is never far away.
In an unusual change of direction for us, in order to cross into Argentina we cycled due east for about 200km and said goodbye to the Pacific for good.
The distance to the border was quite short, but the Andes lie between the two countries. We gave ourselves a few days to cross the range, as we knew it would present one of the toughest challenges of the trip.
The big turn left, as we were calling it, started about 90km north of Santiago. Initially, the road ascended gradually through vineyards and fertile river valleys towards the town of Los Andes, which is about 50km from the Argentinean border.
From there the climbing got harder, as the roads became steeper and the air became thinner at the higher altitudes.
The main ascent towards the border is extremely steep: we climbed 2,200m in 25km. This stretch of the road zigzags and hairpins – you can see all of what lies ahead from the start.
Trucks and cars going up and down crawl along very slowly, and from the bottom of the road it looks like a giant ant farm, as the traffic scuttles in both directions back and forth for many kilometres.
Constantly in the lowest gear on the bikes, it was hard work getting to the top and to the border. We crossed the border at 3,500m. At this height Mount Aconcagua (6,959m) – the highest mountain in the Americas, and the world’s highest mountain outside the Himalayas – can be seen perfectly.
After all the climbing it was a nice downhill ride towards Mendoza, in Argentina. The Mendoza area is Argentina’s premier wine-growing region. It was the perfect place to rest for a few days before we pushed on towards the end of the trip, in Tierra del Fuego in the next four weeks.
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