Patagonia Adventures Continued!

Our nice cabin on the day off proved to be even nicer than expected. That night, our Russian friend Timor offered to cook everyone a traditional dish for dinner called borsch. We sat around and feasted on a hot soup of boiled chicken, beets, cabbage, onion, and carrot for hours. To make the night more animated and truly Russian we drank chilled vodka in a very specific order: make a toast, breath out, drink, eat soup, breath in.  It is surprisingly effective to take the edge off the alcohol. To make the night a bit more American we shared a couple craft brews from the area. Excellent evening.

Chile and Patagonia Adventures!

Ending our stay in Mendoza with a good home tasting meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup, the next morning Doug picked up a rental car to help us make up miles. When a four door compact car rolled up to his place, I have to admit I was a bit skeptical. Five good sized guys, four bikes, and four sets of touring gear all packed in for a 15 hour ride? Not a problem with creative packing. Maybe we should've skipped the bean dip and beer beforehand though... We put Cody's bike in the trunk and expertly stuffed everything around it, pulling gear out of our panniers to be more space efficient, and had the other three on a bike rack outside. With all of us inside there wasn't a lot of room to spare, but we made the trek just fine by breaking up the drive with hacky sack breaks and food.