Friday 12th I ran 44km from Santa Rosa to Ataliva Roca, from km 325 to km 281 on route 35 south. Total =  22,588km for 540 road days.

I started very late, traffic was once again very heavy, On the way out of Santa Rosa I got stopped by a television crew from Channel 3, La Pampa! The interview went the same way as the others mentioned in this blog!

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Just before leaving the Che Salguero back packers hostel in Cordoba city I got talking to Spencer from Trinidad. He had been married to an Argentine woman, they have a child and now the relationship has broken up. He obviously has an emotional bond with his child and can’t leave Cordoba. He is looking for a job and an apartment here. 

Hostel manager on the left and Spencer is the dad from Trinidad

I know of one Irish woman living in Australia, she has 3 children by an Australian man. She desperately wants to return to Ireland with the children. Her -ex doesn’t care about them. Out of spite he refused her permission to return to her native country with them. She has been waiting since the children were very young for them to be of age to return to Ireland to live with her.

So many of the people I meet have either a tale of happinness or sadness to tell.

I started running down the long straightway of Avenida Amadeo Sabattini stopping at a bed shop, then I got an idea, a devilish idea to act the goat, I would jump on a bed. So I asked a pedestrian standian at a traffic light to shoot the photo. Sure he said, then ” Ah! I can’t the lights have changed to green, I gotta go! ”

On he rushed into his busy life, too busy for a bit of fun!

Bedding down in Cordoba!

So the shopkeeper comes out, laughs and shoots this picture.I go over to the street signpost and take that picture, just for my reference. A cop comes along, I ask him for a pen and paper, he hasn’t got any, then a passerby stops gives me his pen,tells me to keep it.

Rubber necks are holding up the busy lunch our traffic as they gaze at Nirvana at the side of the road.Yes bedlam…. Sorry didn’t mean that pun! And a few laughs before running out of Cordoba.

34km that day followed by a 46km the next day.

This time the cops stopped me wondering what I was up to.

” Not much… Just running around the world! ”

                                                                                    RAMBLING ON.

That Friday was another great day, 48km and included stopping in Olivia for lunch. Over lunch I gave a ten minute radio interview, in Spanish! One of the men in the restaurant that I gave my card to phoned up the local radio station who duly dispatched their reporter!

I started the interview and just rambled on and on and not hearing the interviewers voice till near the end of the interview I wondered if I was talking to myself! All this time the reporter just held the microphone in front of me as I rambled on. Finally the interviewer chipped in with a..

” How is Nirvana! ”

I nearly died with this unexpected question as they certainly didn’t waste any time opening my website and researching it!

Before leaving a nice man called Diego paid for my lunch,

” It’s the least I could do as so many people were so good to me during my 3 week bicycle trip to Chile “ he said.

The cops continued to hassle me as I got stopped twice that day.

“Do you not think you are endangering others on the road? ” She asked.

” No I said,

” They should not be driving so fast that they can’t react to others on the road, that’s the way it is in Ireland, you can only drive as fast as you can safely stop in an emergency,

” Besides the road is not a race track,why do they have to drive like its their last day on earth..”

I see she says and drives off!

Another ramble on… Its been a week of rambles!

There were a couple nights when I just pulled off the side of the road and slept very well under the road in some concrete culverts as they were clean and the weather was good.

Going underground!

Finally I get to Villa Maria, get lost as I run from a beautiful down town, picturesque into a dodgy neighbourhood with the plastic water tanks on their roofs where sunlight heats the water for showers, those showers are best taken during the day when the water is still hot – signs of some of the poorer nations up north.

The entry to some of these towns is very much like in the States, rows of car dealerships giving a clue to local affluence.

Eventually I find the road to and finish in Ausonia.  After an evening on the wifi in the YPF service station the nice owner lets me roll my sleeping bag out round the back, it’s a nice cool starry evening, my 22,000th kilometre was run that day.

I continue to run in the long grass which acts as a hard shoulder, it’s full of thorns and potholes and a bit of an effort. Argentines don’t do shoulders it seems. Can’t say I blame them as they spend their money on the roads. After all these shoulders are meant to be just break down lanes as my American friends call them, so why pave them. I know journey runners and walkers and cyclists will shoot me for saying that, but I guess it’s true,  yet all of the Latin American countries so far have more or less decent shoulders, yet the richest of them all Argentina has none.

The cops continue to bother me, I hold my ground and ask them if they would come out if I was a cyclist and they always say no. Then I ask them do they not think I am safer than any cyclist as I run towards the traffic, take up about the same amount of space and unlike a cyclist can see a potential hazard and jump off the road. They usually see my point and I usually say the problem is not with me, the problem is with bad drivers who are also ignorant to runners on the road!

I am also tempted to use a phrase by a former Irish soccer manager.

” Look son, don’t play silly buggers with me! ”

I run on and finish in Chazon

Next day about 3km before I finish with a tough 42km run into on a hot dusty day into Lacarlota I am greeted by a television cameraman on the road. I think he would be pissed off if I stopped and gave a big smile and a wave to the camera!

He drives on about three times, stops and shoots some clips of me running past. These are times when I usually run my fastest! I give him some dramatics, stuff they love running stone-faced down the road like it’s a hot cauldron on a never-ending treadmill. I pour my water bottle over my head and when he shoots the water is dripping down my face. I don’t have Nirvana now as I decided to use the cops that stopped me today and asked him to take her the last 17km into town and I would collect her at the YPF service station. I am sure the cops tipped off the television station!

At the YPF service station I give another rambling interview. The interviewer hardly gets a word in, I remember what it was like during my early competitive days, sometimes politely waiting in vain for an opportunity to get a plug in only to be cut off abruptly, now I am to take over and always get my spoke in as can be heard on my recent Irish radio interview! Listen HERE

 Most of the times the interviewer can only think of the routine questions, I know what they want to hear and try to keep them silent!

At the end of a hot dusty day, not letting them get a word in! More rambling on!

After the reporter goes I am given the star treatment by the staff and given free food and drink, more internet time and a shower before a lady who I think was called Dolores takes me over to a very pricey hotel owned by the service station, I get a serious discounted night with breakfast included.

That morning I met Javier an Argentine cyclist on a 12 year world cycle, a bit excessive as he is still in his own country! I believe him as he was wearing a tee-shirt with his trip website printed on it and then gave me his card.

Javier's got the shirt printed. He is still in Argentina on his 12 year world cycle!

 He was on a rest day visiting a friend here. When they passed me on their way back from another village they told me they had a place for me to stay. I didn’t even try to find it as it was all too vague for my liking, just a name that everyone knows and he lives in a house at the end of town, which has about 5 junctions! The lady in the service station told me she didn’t know him so I wasn’t going to waste anymore time on that possibility.

The next few days there are swampy patches along the side of the road and that usually means mosquitoes. They pester and torture me and only ease off when the wind blows hard. So I got a choice, wind or mosquitoes, a strong head-wind always wins easily!

I stop at a ranch at km marker 152 after running 42 of them that day and ask the owner Javier if I can camp there. Sure he says so I pitch my tent in his garage cum workshop which has an open door, this means I don’t have to put my fly sheet up as it looks like it might rain. A dog keeps barking. I am seriously worried he will come over to the tent and bite my leg through the canvas, so keep all my limbs in the center of the tent!

The ranch workshop where I pitched my tent and feared being devoured by their dog!

 I had a nice pizza diner in a nice town called Laboulaye where the waiter in La Plazza restaurant Guillermo treated me to coffee, he told me he was a modest runner himself. I ran a further 10km out of town that night and as it was a nice starry night just spread my tarp and sleeping bag out on the grass down a lane that led to a ranch.

With Guillermo in La Plazza Restaurant.

Next morning I was awoken as a woman appeared to be driving her children to school! She stopped and asked me what I was doing, so I told her I am an Irish extreme runner running around the world, not sure if she thought she was still asleep and having a dream. She just nodded a Si and drove on. I made breakfast of coffee and instant oatmeal from the hot water from the thermos which Guillermo filled before I left his restaurant last night. Instant oatmeal is great and easy to cook, not sure why it’ s not available in Ireland, at least I have never seen it. It will be my staple diet in Patagonia. It’s much better and faster to cook than rice, and if you got no fuel to boil the water at least you can eat the oats! Before I finished packing up the lady returned minus the children and gave  me a rather puzzled looking wave.

I think I stopped at the school where the lady brought her children to. It was in a nice village called Melo. I stopped for hot and cold water and was greeted excitedly by two teachers who then filled my thermos and water bottles. The female teacher gave me a jar of Dulce de Leche or sweet caramel syrup. With a smile and I think her smile and her words will live a long time in my memory..

Hot and cold water and Dulce de Leche in Melo.

” Dulce de Leche, dulce, si? ” Or Dulce de Leche, it’s sweet isn’t it, she wore a loving tooth smile.

The children come out of their class rooms, more questions before they wave me down the road.

Anyone that doesn’t know what this is check it out in your supermarket, I have seen it in Superquinns or Tesco can’t remember which, give yourself a treat, goes well in my oatmeal and on my ice cream too! 62km to go with yesterdays 58, days of great tailwinds

I am getting to the end of the road in Cordoba Province, one of Argentina’s largest provinces. I stopped for lunch in a hamlet called Onagoity for a snack. I just bought some crackers and a can of sardines. I asked the lady to open the sardines and sat down at their park bench which was in their front garden.

Nice people that they were brought me out a huge loaf of delicious Vienna roll bread as we call it in Ireland. Then an aunt arrived and gave me a plate of braised steak, potatoes and veg. they asked if I wanted a drink so said a coffee.

 So not only did they give me a coffee but also filled up my thermos and an apple and  an orange for the road! Wonderful people. Remember what I have said many times about the restaurants all through Latin America wanting to screw the gringo and nothing for nothing, not true here in Argentina! Though I never expect such hospitality such decency and kindness always leaves me with a happy heart unlike the places that tried to charge me for using their wall socket in other countries! I know they may have been poor but sometimes I thought more greedy and on those occasions didn’t leave me with a happy heart. 

The kind family in Onagoity!

I finish that day in a pretty village called Pincen.

Pinsen has an indian background. Today its claiming to be the asado capital of the region

It’s 2km off the highway but I make my way into the village and discover there is a 100 birthday party going on for their school.

Happy 100th birthday

I had got caught in a cold sleety rain shower and was frozen… People were standing around in groups outside the school and the local admin people took me under their arms but no food or hot drinks and the seal was busted on my thermos, I was freezing and nobody got me a hot drink and kept calling me back for more questions including another rambling radio interview when I went off in search of one a cup of tea or coffee.

Eventually one of the suits brought me to a community hall where I could lay my sleeping bag on some gym mats for the night. There was an electrical socket where I was able to plug in my beverage heater for my supper of oatmeal, biscuits and tea. I got a fuel stove but no point in using it when I got power, I will save the stove and fuel for the long stretches in Patagonia.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2012 at 5:39 am and is filed under jogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.