Day 14: First 100 mile day

Another storm today but I left anyway. The wind decreased a little throughout the day and at least it was sunny out. I was biking into the sun most of the time and it was a little hard to see. I was a little worried trucks coming by would have a hard time seeing me. By the end of the day I had a distinct tan line on my hands where I had my gloves on.

I officially hate the weather down here. I feel like I am constantly walking on a razors edge trying to get to my destination each day. The wind is so strong it can practically stop you in you tracks. Put on top of that there are only 8 or 9 hours of daylight each day, so if i don't leave at sunrise each day i am already behind schedule. On top of that the cities are so spread out, there are no back up places to stop at if I have any trouble. It is all very nerve racking and does not make for a very fun trip, at least when the wind isn't a tail wind. As I get further north the wind should start to die down, there should be more towns, and the days should get longer. Patagonia does have a lot of positives like the scenic landscape, the wildlife, and lack of constant cars going by. However traveling under your own power can make it a little stressful.

The landscape was very arid. I went through a few dry lake beds which had a very bad smell. The wind kicked up dust and salt and alkalines which made it hard to breath. My spedometer began to malfunction today. I fiddled around with it and got it to work but seemed to have reset it in the process, so I lost some of my trip information. I saw some more Rhea today and a ton of sheep. The sheep were all walking in a line several hundred sheep long which was strange to see. I assume there were following a trail or something. It was bright and windy and I ran out of water about 3/4 of the way to tres cerros. As soon as I arrived I went straight for the water and drank a liter in a minute. Today there were vast swaths of nothingness and a few mesas with colored rock layers. The highlight of the day was petting some guanaco. There were two baby guanaco that were not afraid of people and were looking for some food at tres cerros. I petted them and took a few pictures.