You know, there are days like these where nothing can go wrong. You start of your day comfortably numb from your resting sleep, enclosed in your tent and softly waking up to the sounds of various birds. You get out, enjoy the view and profit from the early sun rising. Quickly you get up and running, wolf down your breakfast and ultimately get back on your bike. As you turn the music on “Another day of sun” you quickly set a steady pace singing (off-tone) to the passing cars.
That is, until your reach the limits of Mordor.
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Thee who are brave of heart shall cross it unscathed.
Well guess what? I did! That didn’t mean I wasn’t warily watching the pours of rain falling here and there at the distance though. But I should start and go back to the beginning! As some of you may have notice, I left you at my departure from Iguazú in the provincia of Misiones. This was certainly an interesting part of the ride going up and down all day long. Yes, for the whole part of this province I climbed my way before weeeeeeeee-ing the descent. I actually broke my speed record along the way: 70km/h – sorry mum! Anyway, for those wishing to visit Misiones I can provide some hill-advised tips!
Misiones has two main attractions (aside from the waterfalls): its mines of gemstones and the Jesuit ruins.
The first I visited was the mine, regorging with marvellous, shiny stones indeed! the road leading to it wasn’t the easiest to ride, let’s just say that I was glad it didn’t rain! I also got some vibes of light vs dark looking at it.
Impressive, isn’t it?
And soon after I arrived to the ruins. I’m always fascinated particularly with remnants of past human activities. I loved roaming around these imagining what life was like before, imagining smiths, artists and such at their work. Because that was the point of these ruins: “integrate” the aborigines (the Guarani people) to the western civilisation through Christian art and make them believe in that one true God. Yeah, you know, because there can’t be any other to believe in, right? Religion sure is a weird thing, but I’ve always been dumbstruck -and at the same time impressed- to see at what lengths humans have been able to go.
Truly, the ruins were amazing. However my visit has been cut short by an upcoming rainstorm. A strategic retreat to the nearest restaurant suddenly seemed like a good plan.
Soon I was out of Misiones and its forms and shapes to come back to a flat, rather dull landscape. Really there’s not much more to it. One good thing about this type of terrain is that I’m able to quickly go through it and soon get to more diversified surroundings.
The thing with lands as flat as these is that downpours of rain like I’ve witnessed these past few weeks result in floodings. That is to say that for the past 400/500km I’ve been cornered by flooded side roads. Now that I think of it: the combination of flat lands and menace of imminent large scale flooding brings an uncanny resemblance with our dear Dutch neighbors’ homeland.
Now I wouldn’t be too reassured to see my home cornered like this. This is actually an issue that has led to the relocation of more than 2000 people.
But finally, I sometimes manage to get myself close to a river and witness amazing sunrises such as this one.
Oh, and I today crossed the mark of the 3000km!
see you soon,
Chloé