Colón to Villaguay

Today I had the longest trip yet – about 105km from Colón to Villaguay, on the Ruta 130 to Parana. And this might not be the longest trip for long …

As usual, I set off early – at 7am Argentinian time (which is equivalent to 8am Uruguayan summer time). Getting out of Colón took a while, but it was already quite some distance. I went via San Jose, and then got onto a long and pretty bad road which linked to Ruta Nacional 14 and Ruta Nacional (RN) 130. The latter one was the one I needed.

The road itself was good, but there was no hard shoulder with tarmac on the side – just gravel and sand, and later grass. This made it a bit more difficult to get off the road – which I had to do quite a few times (although most truck drivers left me a lot of space, if there was no oncoming traffic on the other side of the road). For a change, the wind was with me today, which helped me a lot.

After less than 2 hours I came through Villa Elisa, a small village with some thermal baths. The latter are on the RN 130 on the way out of Villa Elisa. I stopped in a parilla shortly before Las Termas (a quite luxury complex), and had a coffee and some mineral water, and also refilled my water bottles. From here, I had about 65-70km to go, with not much in between.

This was “Entre Rios” province – between rivers. So there were not any hills, and with the wind coming from the back, I was cycling quite fast. This was different from Uruguay – and impossible to capture in a photo (at least with a mobile phone camera, no matter how good). I could see quite far, and I could see cars (trucks) on the horizon, which were on the road I was on – I don't know how many kilometers away. So much open space everywhere – most of it used (at least here) for agriculture, but I couldn't figure out what they were cultivating. Few trees, and even less houses, and only far apart.

After another 40km (which didn't take me longer than 2 hours), I stopped for another break and one of the houses – or more correctly, in the shade of a tree next to the gate to the property. By now, some clouds had appeared, which I welcomed, as they made the sun burn less. Nevertheless, I appreciated the shade for my break. I had more water, and biscuits I had bought a few days ago in Puerto Viejo – it was still too early for a proper lunch.

The landscape looked a lot like in many Western movies, if you didn't look at the road. Wide, open land, some (old fashioned) wind turbines, sometimes a house.

I didn't take a long break, but was on my way again very quickly for the last 25km to Villaguay. I arrived there at 12:30pm which – given the breaks – makes an average speed of about 20km/h, which certainly is my highest average speed so far.

I first rested a bit on the main town square, and two police officers started chatting to me – one of them a bit longer. He asked me if I already had accommodation, and I said yes (as I had looked up something on the internet). But then I asked him if he knew anything in between Villaguay and Parana, and he mentioned some village on the road after about 80km, where there might be something, and where there is at least a service station, and it would be possible to ask either at the service station or the police commissariat about camping there for one night. Parana is still about 155km from here – which is a bit too much of a challenge, given that I just did 105km.

I went to my accommodation then, which wasn't too hard to find, but is a bit more on the outskirts of Villaguay (no road with tarmac). But the room is nice and the shower was really good... Now it's resting a bit, before I will get into town for some looking around and shopping (I should have some food for 1 ½ days on me tomorrow when I set off).