Villa Union

Sign with stickers from the various travelers who have passed here on the Ruta 40

With the ambitious goal of making it to Villa Union in a single day, we commenced the mountainous 112 km journey in the early hours of June 24. The photos of this challenging but beautiful climb speak for themselves.

Ruta 40

Blue skies

Another shrine; notice all of the water bottles, a typical feature of this part of Argentina 

Conquered the mountain

Snack break

Getting dark but nearly there!

We arrived in Villa Union in the dark after a long day of biking. Surprisingly, this quiet town, although far away from any major cities, offered tons of hotels (including one for people traveling by bike!). We chose to spend a rest day here in preparation for our final stretch, which we wanted to complete in only five days! Initially, we were going to tour the Talampaya National Park, but logistics turned out to be more difficult than expected, and moping around for a day instead sounded great too.

Talampaya tour office

Rest day dinner

Back on the road for the final five-day stretch to Mendoza