Here we start our the first day of the ascent of Paso de Sico, a pass leading to Chile whose highest point is at 4500m altitude. Salta is about 1000m above sea level, we have some way to go. It'll take us 3 days to reach San Antonio de los Cobres, the last village big enough to buy food at 3700m altitude. From there, we'll need another 3 days to reach Chile. So we start the last stretch of the trip in Argentina.
Like the arrival in Salta, the exit isn't great. To avoid a hill we try a road that leads to a river without a bridge. We lose 10km before joining the right road, the national road 51. We
still have a lot of kilometers to leave Salta's suburb, there is a
lot of traffic.
Fortunately, for the last 20 kilometers of the day, we enter a mountain valley with very little traffic. We stop for our afternoon break in a hamlet by the road. A bull in the distance starts behaving strangely, he grinds, scrapes the ground and walks slowly in our direction. It's not super reassuring, especially since there's no soul around. The bull is heading very clearly towards Floriane now, he must take her for a cow. We put ourselves on the other side of our bikes and the small fence by the road. Lucky us, a large construction truck passes, Floriane signs him to use his horn. Instead, he moves back towards the bull and forces him away from the bike. We warmly thank the driver before going to eat our snack a little further.
The clouds threatening us all day long burst in the late afternoon and it rains. It's in these conditions that we pass the 5000km! Selfie obliged.
We arrive at our destination of the day: Chorrillos, a hamlet of few houses, a church and a railway station. The soil here is only small stones or mud, not ideal for pitching a tent, let alone in the rain. We're trying to find a shelter for the night with a roof. The train station and church are closed, there is only one kiosk/restaurant that does not seem deserted. After a long discussion and multiple negotiations, we come to an agreement: we eat at the restaurant and they find us a roof for the night. We eat a locro, a kind of maiz and meat soup for almost nothing. Jonhatan, a young shepherd, is meant to show us where we'll sleep. This is a small lime cottage near the station, except that he doesn't have the key to open his house, so we'll sleep under the entrance porch. The local cat, a bit unbearable, will keep us company all evening.
