Circuito Chico? Um, Circuito Long-o!
Eager to give our tired legs and overstressed knees a break (and eager to avoid any more haunted forests), we decided to take a day off of hiking in favor of... bike riding. Yeah, I wasn't sold that it would be easier on the body either, but the bike rental guy assured me that riding the famous Circuito Chico - a reputedly gorgeous 30k loop around some of Bariloche's famous lakes - was no problem, especially "with our special gear system." I'm not sure what kind of bikes this guy is used to riding, because the "special gear system" seemed to be a normal 21 speed bike with an exceptionally hard seat. "Mostly flat," he said, "and when not flat, use the special gear system." I'm also not sure what kind of roads this guy is used to riding, because it turns out that the Circuito Chico alternates between steep, glorious downhills that are over way too quickly, and steep, horrible uphills that last forever.
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| I swear, it's steeper than it looks. |
Anyway, not knowing any of this, I donned my bright orange safety vest, hopped eagerly on the bike, and set off with Dave and four new friends (who we met on the bus that morning) in tow. Actually, I was in the back of the pack. Whatever.
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| That's me and safety orange in the back. The other girl didn't have to wear one because "she had a bright shirt." It's hard to ride and chat! |
Ten minutes later, grinding up the first hill, I looked over my shoulder and fell off my bike into the middle of the road. Go orange safety vest for protecting me from being run over!
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| The Circuito Chico group. The other people got to wear their safety orange on their backpacks. I guess I'm not complaining, since Dave sherpa'ed our backpack all day. [DSM: If you can't spot the dork in the first half hour at the table, then you are the dork] |
The rest of the day was full of wheeeeee downhills...
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| I zoomed by too fast for Dave to successfully capture me in this photo. |
Eye-poppingly ov
