Day 58

Today was a nice relatively easy day. I only had 45 km and 500 vertical meters to go to Humahuaca. I made it there in about 3 hours. There was little wind today, which made things much easier than yesterday. I started to feel the altitude today for the first time. I am at about 10,000 ft. now and still have another 2,500 ft. To climb. I found Humahuaca to be a little touristy with lots of little stands selling trinkets and stuff. However, the prices are still reasonable. I found a hostel a few blocks from the central square for $8 a night. I then settled in and explored the city a little. Later in the evening I found a coffee shop with wi-fi and hung out there for the rest of the evening surfing the net and listening to pan flute covers of US pop songs. It would have been a nice evening if it had ended there, but unfortunately it did not. I got food poisoning from some empanadas I had for dinner, and I was sick as a dog all night. I barely slept. Good thing I was planning to take the next day off anyway to watch the Argentina soccer match.

Day 57

Today was a crazy day. I climbed 4000 ft. with a strong headwind. At times I was only going 4 mph. This lasted for about 3.5 hours. Then I reached a more gradual climb and maintained that to Tilcara. To top things off, my chain broke on the climb. I tried to repair it but it kept on breaking. I eventually replaced the chain with a spare and the problem was solved. The scenery was great the whole day, lots of colorful rock formations and a stream that went along the valley the whole way. When I arrived in Tilcara and found a nice hostel with Internet and cable tv. I just hung out on a couch the rest of the evening, occationally going out to play with the hostel owner's dog.

Day 56

Today was beautiful, light breeze, no clouds, in the 70's. I made my way further up the valley for about 75 km. It was a really gradual climb, hardly noticable. The one bad thing today was that the road turned into a highway where bikes were not permitted. I went on the highway anyway and just biked in the gravel on the side of the road. This lasted about 25 km. When I arrived in Jujuy I was feeling very good and decided to push on to a small town called Yala about 20 km more. This was a great call. I found a cool hostel filled with young people from Argentina, Colombia, France, Italy, and Belgium. It was comfortable and only about $6 a night. They were painting the building when I arrived, and a girl with red paint put a dot in my forehead like an Indian. There was another biker staying there. He was traveling from Colombia to Ushuaia. We chatted about our trips. The whole hostel ate together family style.