#13 JC and me - Chos Malal to Junin de los Andes

Taken with our camera's timer at Via Christi in Junin de Los Andes

At the beginning of the day we weren't sure what our plans were such is the beauty of having no fixed place to be. One option was to stop in Zapala and visit the tourist information centre to find out about nearby museums containing some of the largest dinosaur fossils ever found. It was a tough choice but in the end a combination of wind and the town's numerous dirt roads meant we hadn't warmed to Zapala; the best museums were a bit too far east of the direction we are heading but ultimately the decision came down to having seen the real thing in Vector Arena last year (Walking with the Dinosaurs). Fossils and bones were just not going to live up to the experience of a life-sized, mechanical T-Rex equipped with sound.

In hindsight we may have done things differently. Not far out of Zapala and the wind hit us pretty hard. Then with about 100km's from of our next destination it just got worse. Approximately 50kms out and rain began to fall. Really this shouldn't have been a big deal. A lot of the weight we are are carrying  on the bike is clothing and more than half of our clothes are for bad weather conditions. All that matters for very little when there in a compression sack stuffed at the bottom of the panniers.

In our minds they we weren't going to be needing warm clothes until we reached Bariloche, and in our defence we have since been told that the last few days have been unseasonably cold for this time of year in this part of the country. I at least had my thermal and wet weather inlay in my motorcycle gear. Having taken his out Reece was suffering. The saving grace was seeing the welcome sign indicating we had entered Patagonia so at least we could put this down to the ferocious Patagonian winds (which will only get worse the further south we go).

We finally stopped on the side of the highway for Reece to put some extra gears on and do some star jumps - a funny sight along the side of a motorway followed not too much later by me chasing our map down the road which had fallen out the pocket in the back of Reece's jacket. Not too much later we hit the town of Junin de los Andes where I was determined to find a hostel where dorm were rooms going for more than half the usual rate. In what was a very small town you wouldn't think it would be difficult to find a street, this one again named 25 de Mayo, but the lack of street signs outside the main square made it difficult. We were also perplexed that neither women in the cafe where we stopped to alleviate our spirits (by drinking hot coffee and gorging ourselves on the numerous sweet treats on offer of course), knew the location of this street either.

I have become quite the bargain hunter in our quest to keep our daily spend down in the more expensive countries of Argentina and Chile so I made Reece circle the entire town until we found it. Pretty rough considering the trying day he had experienced. What we did find was a quaint hostel connected to a couple's home but you get what you pay for don't you and true to form I used all the hot water in what you may generously call a tepid shower.

After a broken night's sleep thanks to the birds making there home in the attic above our beds I made amends by insisting we visit the main attraction in Junin de Los Andes, aside from trout fishing: sculptures of the 12 stations of the cross set out across a short walk through a pine forest overlooking the town. The attention to detail in the faces of the sculptures, and the additional sculptures we weren't expecting depicting key moments in Jesus' life and influence, intertwined with chiseled murals portraying the struggles of the indigenous Mapuche people, made it well worth the stop. Through some crude translation of the Spanish commentary, and Reece's 98% in Form 2 Religious Education, there was a bit of bible study thrown in there for me as well. Well worth the trip if you're in the region.

Sitting conspicuously amongst the likes of Mahatma Gandhi,
Martin Luther King and others looking in admiration towards Jesus