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General Alvear to Rio Cuarto (April 6 -11) The evening of the 6th we left General Alvear and made it about 20 kilometers to a small town called Bowen. There, we tried the "is there a place we could camp?" trick again at the police station and it worked splendidly. Alejandro, a local policeman, showed us to the community sports center, gave us a place to set up the tent and let us take a shower in the locker room. We slept out and planned on an early start in the morning. The morning, however, had other plans for us. We awoke to cloudy skies, and as we drank mate and prepared to leave, the clouds opened up and let us have it. Not just rain, but marble-sized hail fell around us and we decided to retreat to an Internet café and wait out the storm. After three hours of mate drinking and email writing, we had had enough and set out into the rain. As luck would have it, we happened to be going in the same direction as the storm and followed it 93 kilometers through the pampa. Pedaling through treeless areas in a lightening storm while sitting on top of a piece of metal is not the most comfortable situation we have been in. As we chased the storm east and the clearing skies tried to catch us from the west, the rain stopped and we pulled into the small town of Candelejas. There, we asked permission to camp in the local health center's patio and made ourselves at home. The next day we awoke to clear skies and took off to the east on Ruta 188. Over the course of the day we watched a drastic change in the geography and flora. Starting in scrubby pampa we gradually worked our way into rolling grasslands and partially forested landscapes. Dan had the good fortune of spotting a piche (small armadillo) hunkered down on the side of the road. We watched the piche from a meter away. It seemed a bit frightened and not inclined to move so we decided to catch it and take a closer look. The piche took off and we had a bit of a chase by the side of the road. At last we caught the scrappy little guy and snapped a couple of pictures. That afternoon we made the road crossing where we would turn north and pulled into the town of Nueva Galia to buy food for the next couple of days and fill up on water. We then turned north and made a couple more kilometers before pulling over in a forested section of cow pasture to enjoy the last of the suns warmth. The northern stretch to the town of Justo Daract was the most forested section of land we had seen since leaving the Carretera Austral. Songbirds and waterfowl became more abundant as we encountered more wetlands and forested areas. Taking advantage of the wonderful weather, we continued into the evening and arrived at an estancia to ask permission to sleep in the patio. Permission granted, we relaxed and watched the gauchos ride out on horseback to bring in the cowherd for the evening. The next morning we started off to the north towards Justo Daract. We had been contemplating over the last few days which route to Paraguay would be best. We had previously been thinking of going to the north of Cordoba in order to avoid the traffic associated with more populated areas. However, after asking people along the way about the best route, we changed our plans and chose a more southerly route below Cordoba that cut directly to the northeast and towards Paraguay. After eating lunch in Justo Daract and treating ourselves to our first ice cream cones of the trip, we pedaled out of town to the north and towards Rio Cuarto. We had been told that the roads we would be traveling for the next couple of days would hold more traffic, particularly with the Easter holidays approaching. It turned out that the highways did indeed hold more traffic. We pedaled hard, being constantly passed by semis and rushed travelers. Luckily, the highway had a broken asphalt lane next to it and we were able to pedal on it for the majority of the way. We arrived in Rio Cuarto on the morning of 11th.
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