It was such a pleasure to meet you during the week, please excuse my ignorance – I had no idea I was in the presence of such a phenomenal athlete! In the three months that I have been on the road, you are the first athlete that I have cross paths with – I have not see another tour cyclist or runner to speak of. I am not sure if you receive emails or updates particularly frequently, but please find below as much information as I wrote down/can accurately remember about the sections I have covered between Cordoba and Frias.

I am assuming that you must be past Frias by now, perhaps near to Quiros.

From Quiros south to San Antonio is 17km. On the left hand side of the road is an ACA hotel and petrol station. There is a nice shaded area with benches and tables. The petrol station has decent cold drinks available (Powerade is $8 pesos), but not much in the way of food. I did not go into the town which is to the right.

From San Antonio to Recreo is about 40km. I recall there being a few farm houses near the road – though most had rather large dogs! I don’t recall much in the way of likely shelters, but I wasn’t looking specifically.
In Recreo itself, there is accommodation available, but not on the main road. As you turn left into the town, you should peel off to the right onto Juan Domingo Peron and turn right onto Sarmiento. I stayed at Hotel Tula but it was damn expensive for very little. There are two other hosterias on this road before Hotel Tula. There is free wireless at a roadside restaurant on Belgrano – i do not recall the name of the place, but it was the only restaurant with white chairs and tables outside, there is a very cheap bakery next to it.

From Recreo to Lucio V Mansilla is about 94km and it is pretty barren salt pans. I never made it that far, I started suffering from heatstroke but luckily found some good shelter. I did not see any human inhabitants for most of this sector – there simply isn’t anywhere to live here it is that hostile. The salt pans ease up a bit approximately

South of Recreo, approximately 31km’s is the turn off for Ruta 60. About 500m beyond this is a large abandoned Petrol station on the left – it is huge, you wont miss it. It is not pretty – most of the building interiors are covered in dog/human crap and the ceiling is filled with bats. There are also some wild dogs roaming about – but they never gave me any hassle. I bedded down there for the night and was able to get water (a free 1.5lt bottle straight out of the fridge even) from the police checkpoint a further 500m away.

About 10km’s south of this, the salt pans ease up. There is a small village called San Carlos about 4km’s off the road to the left. I never went there, so do not know the status of the village, but it looks tiny. It is another 28km or so to Lucio V Mansilla. There is at least one restaurant on the right hand side, just after the police checkpoint. Food here is good and large.

From Lucio V Mansilla it is 25km to San Jose de Las Salinas. The village of San Jose de Salinas sit about 3km to the right of the road. There is nothing in the way of accommodation here. I do not recall there being any shops on the junction, but there was a farm building/house – it did not seem as though it was operational, but I did not inspect it closely. If you do go into San Jose de Las Salinas – you will find the central road of the village – it is bricked, the only non-dort road there. About half way down to the left is a shop. Otherwise there are a few shops operating out of houses.

From San Jose de Las Salinas it is 26km to Quilino – I did not cycle this section though – I went off road and cycled a back road, longer and very sandy, of no point to you or anyone for that matter – very silly idea of mine.
Quilino probably has accommodation, but I did not look. Certainly plenty of shops and food available.

From Quilino to Dean Funes is about 29km’s. I recall that there were a number of small farm houses near the road on this route. Dean Funes itself has a few places to stay but little in the way of decent food. I stayed for 2 nights there and battled to find anything decent during the evenings. The only accommodation I could find was the Dean Funes Apart Hotel ($160 pesos a night with breakfast). It is located on Buenos Aires Avenue, number 444.

From Dean Funes to Jesus Maria is about 75km’s. The first part runs along Ruta 60, no different to the road you would have already covered. When it joins Ruta 9 it is a horrendously busy road – I stopped counting trucks when they were passing me every 30 seconds or less. As I recall, there are a number of small villages dotted along Ruta 60 – just before Avellaneda is a small truckers restaurant. Doesn’t look like much and is served by a rather rotund elderly lady – but the sandwiches are huge and very tasty (quite possibly why she is that large!). Ruta 9 besides being much busier is about the same – small villages every 10-20km’s. I passed through Jesus Maria and stayed in Colonia Caroya. The only hotel there was seriously expensive ($190 a night), but served by a chef who speaks German and some English. His food is very good too. This would take you slightly off track and I wouldn’t suggest detouring down this way. Jesus Maria is bigger and probably has more accommodation and food options in any case. I only went through there to get away from the trucks for a while.

From Jesus Maria to Cordoba is just on 53km’s. It is more of the same – farms and small villages almost until the very edge of Cordoba itself. Once you reach the outskirt of Cordoba, it is a good 10km’s tp the city centre assuming you continue straight down Ruta 9. I stayed at a very decent hostel in the centre of town called Hostel Babilonia, it is located fairly centrally at Gral. Simon Bolívar 462 ($50 pesos a night with breakfast and very good WiFi).

Unfortunately, that is probably as far as I can offer in terms of information. I came from Corrientes in the east rather than the south. I hope this make it to you in time to be of any use.

I wish you the best Tony and shall be keeping a close eye on how you get along. I feel very privileged to have met you and already you have been an inspiration to my cycling. I had only planned on cycling about 70km’s today, but ended up in La Cocha, all of 140km’s instead.

Stay safe

Clayton Burne

Author & Topic Editor for the Encyclopedia of Earth http://www.eoearth.org

Twitching Solo solomaverick.blogspot.com