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You are here: Home / Archives for Weekend Warrior / Cycle

Biking Argentina’s Wine Country

October 26, 2009 By Danny

We began our bike-tour of the Argentina while we were still in Salta. Unable to go mountain bikes we managed to find some ‘regular’ bikes to go for a spin around to the surrounding towns. The bikes were slow, we were out of shape from all this great food we’ve been eating, and we couldn’t find our way into the big forest that we had wanted to go to. Feeling ‘bike’ sore in more ways than one we began to worry about the other bike trips we’d be taking in the near future, we quickly reminded ourselves that those would be featuring wine!

After finally tearing ourselves away from our great hosts in Salta, we made it to the bus station in the nick of time to head on down to Cafayate where we quickly put our things in a hostel and got on with the wine tour. The first winery had 4 organic wines (Bodega Nanni, and they do export to the USA….yes, I said organic) to taste for about $5 pesos (3.8 pesos to the $) per person…good start. The second was closed for a private tour. The third wanted 15 pesos (for 10 pesos you can choose from about 1000 bottles in the store) for a single taste so we passed. The next one was closed. The one after that was open, but the person who handles the tastings was on vacation. The next one looked out of business. The following one let us have a taste of one red and one white, neither very good. We returned to the second one and the private tour was over but there was only a taste of the Malbec. The next winery was closed and then finally we found another one in town that was open with three wines to try. In total we spent about 5 hours on those bikes, and in those five hours we visited 9 wineries and tasted a total of 10 wines. Finally we returned to that first one to buy our own bottle for an additional 10 pesos…(that’s about $2.60 for a bottle of organic wine!)

After that we moved onto the real Argentine wine country…Mendoza. This is where most of Argentina’s wine comes from and we expected to be able to really enjoy ourselves. Setting off on our new rental bikes we soon learned that we would be wrong. We had expected to go to at least 10 wineries but soon learned we would be quite disappointed as well. Sure, all of these in Mendoza were open, there were plenty of tourists after all, but they all wanted 10-25 pesos for a taste of just 3 or fewer wines . (Several actually charged less for a bottle, but then charged a 15 peso corkage fee!)

Given that we’d heard from several sources that none of the wines on “the route” are known to be particularly good, we continued biking to the winery furthest from our starting and ending point. There we sucked it up, paid our 15 pesos to taste three wines, all of which were good. Adding only 5 pesos to the tasting total, the three of us (we managed to rope our CS host Jessica into coming with us…who qualified for something of a ‘local’ discount) enjoyed a nice bottle of rose with the lunch we’d brought along for the ride and spent the rest of the day lounging in the shade drinking wine. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon, but certainly not the biking through vineyards we imagined. In a stroke of complete irony the bike rental company, who only charged us 15 pesos for each bike, then provided us each with a very full glass of wine, some cookies, and a bottle of water… Why couldn’t this woman be the one working the vineyards?

Although our image of cycling from vineyard to vineyard toasting wine after wine was a bit of a bust, the day had yet to bear its biggest bit of fruit. At some point Jessica mentioned that she had been trying to arrange a trip to Ushuaia. Over a few supermarket bottles of wine and those delicious empanadas (from the video!), we hatched our plans to meet at el fin del mundo. Nos vemos pronto!

Filed Under: Argentina, Beer & Wine, Cycle, South America Tagged With: biking, cafayete, mendoza, salta, wine

Prodownhill (La Paz, Bolivia)

October 5, 2009 By Jillian

Only three months old, Prodownhill has certainly made a name for itself on the South American travelers circuit. Prodownhill came so highly recommended for the death road by several backpackers on their way north through Peru, we didn’t even consider booking the death road with another agency.

Suiting our group of 7 up for the day, the equipment was in excellent shape and clearly taken care of. From the protective moto-cross quality clothing, to the top-quality helmets and pads, it was clear Prodownhill had our safety in mind. Decked out in flash gear, our bikes were tuned and ready to go without a lot of fiddling around. Our guides were friendly and did a great job of keeping us together as a group while allowing people to go down the death road at their own speeds. Stopping the group every 10-15 minutes for a safety stop, our guides were constantly telling us about the next section of road and checking to make sure everyone was having a good time. The seven in our group ranged from an ironman competitor to someone who had never used a mountain biked before and I can say with 100% certainty that everyone felt safe and had a great time on the trip.

Taking lots of video and photos, which they gave us at the end on a CD, the entire Prodownhill staff was attentive, fun and professional. The bikes were in good condition and the protective gear they provided was so significantly more than any other tour operator we saw that we were almost embarrassed knowing that some of those people had paid almost double, for the same death road, what we did! Our experience with them was so incredible I would actually say the death road has been one of my favorite days in all of South America.

A LIST OF THINGS THAT WENT WRONG ON THE DEATH ROAD WITH PRODOWNHILL:

  • Nobody was killed or otherwise dismembered, deformed, or injured in any way.

  • We were the sexiest group of bikers out there, everyone else was jealous.

  • Prodownhill gave us so much food throughout the day that I never got hungry.

  • The brakes on all of the bikes worked.

  • Prodownhill kept the office open late and burned the DVD for us that evening.

  • We paid way less for the death road than probably everyone else out there.

  • I didn’t have to think or worry about anything.

  • Prodownhill helped us find a bus for later that evening.

  • I wasn’t able to buy a cool jersey, instead I was given a free t-shirt and DVD of all our photos and videos.

  • I only had one free beer to go with my free lunch.

  • Prodownhill had a movie for us to watch on the 3 hour ride back to La Paz.

  • On the bike I could go as fast or as slow as I wanted, totally up to me.

  • Prodownhill gave us a perfect day, for a perfect price. THANK YOU PRODOWNHILL

Filed Under: Bolivia, Cycle, Featured, Operators, Reviews Tagged With: mountain biking

Death Road… no really.

September 24, 2009 By Jillian

Scared to death I pulled on my breaks praying I wouldn’t go over the edge. Sometimes activities live up to their reputations. Billed as the “death road”, the world-famous La Paz to Coroico mountain bike ride is a spectacular and thrilling downhill ride on a dangerous, old, gravel road. Popular on the backpacker circuit, we had heard about the ride as far away as Nicaragua and were practically salivating to get to Bolivia for it.

Suiting up in moto-cross gear, we felt invincible, especially when we saw that the other tour groups were only in reflective vests. I’m not going to lie, the gear was cool. We zipped down the asphalt, where riders have been clocked at over 80 km/h, hugging the curves and pedaling hard on the straight aways. Loving the adrenaline rush of the speed, I was still a little nervous and pretty liberal on the brake. I have no idea how fast I was actually going, but trust me, I was on the verge of out of control.

With so many riders out on the road I expected to see many more crashes. After all, its not called death road for nothing. Twice along the road we saw memorial plaques to riders involved in fatal accidents, one only a few years ago. Fortunately or unfortunately, whatever your opinion may be, I saw only one person skid out the entire 5 hour ride, and he jumped right back up and onto his bike. Nothing like last year’s tour de france crash.

The gravel section was incredible. Only about one lane wide, the old gravel road was in terrible shape. Besides the steep downhill grade, the road was marked with potholes and big rocks. Vibrating and shaking because of the rocky surface, we navigated the serpentine turns white knuckled. Literally riding on the edge, it was the perfect balance of fear and excitement. I loved every minute of it.

The stories we had heard and the scars we had seen seem to be urban legends for the road, while not exactly the safest, was certainly not a death sentence. In fact, it seems that most of the people who crash or go over the side are experienced mountain bikers trying to do tricks, while the rest of the people are just trying to make it down in one piece.

Five hours of downhill riding from 4800m to about 1200m and we were still in one piece. Pulling into Coroico for a celebratory beer, buffet and swim, I wanted to do it again. 🙂


Pro DownHill Operator Review

Filed Under: Bolivia, Cycle, South America Tagged With: mountain biking

Los Pinguinos (San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico)

September 19, 2009 By Danny

After “mountain biking” with several companies in Mexico only to ride flat gravel paths we were convinced there was little commercial mountain biking to be found in Mexico. Although we had been in real bike shops in Mexico, none of the tours turned out to be real mountain biking. And then we met Ursula. Taking what we figured might be our last stab at mountain biking in Mexico, we headed to Los Pinguinos in San Cristobal de las Casas. The modern equipment, covered in dirt told us that this trip would be different. As we fitted our gear (helmets and bike gloves!) Ursula explained the trail to us and cautioned us that no cameras would be allowed. Sensing our disappointment Ursula explained that many of the local villages believe that cameras steal their souls and since her trips go to villages that no other tours go to, it was important for her to respect their wishes and customs.

The trek itself was a mixture of single track and dirt roads and some very challenging uphills. We road through a cloud forest and a few small indigenous villages where the paved roads don’t go. It was a great way to explore the area and get out of touristy San Cristobal. Very highly recommend mountain biking with Los Pinguinos.

Filed Under: Cycle, Featured, Operators, Reviews Tagged With: biking

Zona Bici

April 12, 2009 By Jillian

Through our guidebook we found Zona Bici, a bike shop with rentals and tours around Oaxaca. When we walked in we were surprised, a real bike shop here in Oaxaca! We were needless to say thrilled to see the quality equipment and booked a half day tour (45km) for the following day.[ad#final-review-ad]

Like many tours in Mexico, we found that we were the only ones on the tour. Initially we thought the lack of other participants would be good and we’d have more flexibility to stop and stay at places. We were quickly fitted for bikes and took off through the streets of Oaxaca to the country side. Our guide spoke a little English, but the tour turned out to be more of a ride than a tour. The pace was good, we were moving at a nice clip through the small villages, and the guide was careful and concerned about our safety. We made a few stops along the way in small pubelos, but mostly the guide stayed about 500m ahead of us. It was disappointing to say the least, we would have had a better experience had we rented bikes and taken a map on our own. We did get a little perfunctory background and history at one of our stops, but I definitely expected more discussion or conversation about the pueblos and the people. The whole time we felt like the guide had somewhere else to be. The tour lasted just over 3 hours and while it wasn’t a truly negative experience, our expectations for a tour (it really was just a ride) were not at all met given the the price we paid.

Filed Under: Cycle, Mexico, Operators, Reviews Tagged With: biking, tours

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