Pan American Adventure: Day 21 - Bardes Blancas

Distance travelled (by bike): 3468 miles

Waking up to been watched by geese was a shock, after sleeping on the dusk floor of the barn it didn't take us long to pack up and head off. It was decided as we were so close to some ancient caves, which housed fossils it was a must. 16km drown dirt tracks we arrived at the Park rangers station, where after paying we were issue with helmets, head torches, put in a group of 6 and lead up the rocks to the cave entrance. The caves were well worth the visit, without stringent health and safety rules we crawled, ducked, swung and climbed through cave after cave, with only the head torch for light and a guide showing us the way. Anyone taller than me would have struggled to contort their body into positions allowing them to manoeuvre through the cave system.

one of the fossils

assending into the cave

still further we venture

Back to surface and reality, today we cross the mountain pass to Chile. As we wind up through the mountains the landscape becomes more breathtaking, after about 70km i mention to shane that we are the only people on this road, but we decided that after the last few days this is common and we drive on. 40km further we come across construction work been done on the highway, we follow diversions and carry on…The GPS bleeps that we are now in Chile…really! - We park up the bike and Shane starts talking to a construction worker, who points to the Chilean flag on his jacket and tells us, yes we are in Chile. Turns out the border post for

Chile

is 10km further, but the Argentineans had decided to close the border, it seems , without telling anyone. After lengthy discussions we decide to turn around as having not signed out of Are gentian the Chilean border guards would probably tell us to go back anyway. Back we go…irritated and hot. We drove onto Malargue which was only 110km from Bardes Blancas.