What a wild ride I experienced yesterday. First, I thought it might be a dry day as it never rained during the night, but no sooner did my pedals start to turn than down came the liquid sunshine. I was cruising along with a tailwind through the country, which resembles the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, green and rolling grasslands when I caught up with two elderly backpackers from Germany; they were in their early sixties. We did not chat very long as it was cold and wet.

I continued at a good clip, thinking I would take a break at 60k, which was the halfway point. I never made 60k, just 48 when my hands got so cold, I had difficulty gripping the brakes, and my legs seemed to lack sufficient power to propel me at a decent speed—time to stop and get in the Van for a bowl of hot soup and dry gloves. After 20 minutes, I was ready to give it another go. I decided to wear socks as gloves so my fingers would be all together and thus stay warmer. I put plastic bags over the socks to keep them dry. I told the girls I would go 10k, then stop and get warm again. The socks worked well, and I covered 20k, then changed back to gloves as I could not change gears because the plastic bags were too slippery, and I started a big climb.

As I climbed, snowflakes began to replace the raindrops the temperature dropped to minus two. As I rose higher, the landscape became whiter and whiter, and the mountains were covered in snow. The beautiful colors of just a few hours before had changed to black and white, much like an Ansel Adams photograph and I started to entertain myself by singing Christmas carols. It was Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas, and Jingle Bells kept running through my head.

As I started a long 35k descent, we came upon a herd of deer; besides a few foxes and birds, these were the first wildlife I had seen in South America, not counting the Llamas. The downhill was fast, and it got warmer as I got lower, and the snow disappeared. I turned left on the highway to Puerto Ibanez and picked up a 30kph tailwind with gusts up to 54. I flew and hardly needed to pedal the last 25k until the road curved West, and it became a headwind. Now, I was being blown sideways, and I had to pedal even though I was on a steep incline. Finally, I reached our cabin for the night, and the sun was shining, and the sky was blue. I was on the eastern slopes of the Andes.