These days we prefer to ride in beautiful passes rather than in the valleys. Today we're following in this trend: we will climb the Cuesta de Miranda. It's a pass to go from Villa Union to Chilecito.
Once past the first 30-40km that separated us from the hill, we get to the heart of the matter. Land and hills are red here, and we begin to see giant cacti 3-4m high, like in western movies. The landscape is beautiful with these Martian colors, the red of the earth and the green of the dense vegetation. There are even some trees to give us shade. The end of the climb becomes very steep, it's a little intimidating for us little cyclists. The descent on the other hand is jubilant! A steep slope, a beautiful view, little traffic and a lot of bends. We even crossed a car.
We arrive at night in Nonogasta, a small village 15km from Chilecito. After a failure or two we find where to pitch our tipi, near a football stadium and well shaded. We take our showers and get water at the fire station right next door.
