Quebrada de la Luna to Quilino

This blog post covers two days. Yesterday I went from Quebrada de la Luna to Deán Funes, at the RN60 direction north. And today I did a short day – from Deán Funes to Quilino, 28km further north.

As I wrote before, I expected the road to be bad, continuing on the road to the camping site. And the expectation was more or less 58km on a road without tarmac.

My expectations were correct. I left very early in the morning from Quebrada – at 7:30am – as I thought I would need about six hours until Deán Funes, for 58km. The campsite was more or less on an altitud of 1050m, and during the first kilometres I climbed up to more or less 1300m – sometimes pushing the bike, because of the state of the road. Shortly after the summit I took the road to Ischilín – direction north. This was also a dirt road, without tarmac, with lots of stones on the road. I continued sometimes cycling, sometimes pushing my bike, for several more hours.

During almost all the way I didn't meet anyone – no car, no motorbike, nobody and nothing. I only encountered a few cows on the way which – when they saw me – went off the road. Some kilometres before Ischilin I met an old man on a horse – probably the best form of transport, considering the state of the road.

At about 12:30pm I arrived at Ischilin, and the idea was to have some lunch there. But there was nothing and nobody – everything was closed. And so I decided to continue to Deán Funes, 20km more, which – considering the state of the road – meant more or less 2.5 hours more. While the sky had been cloudy in the morning, now it wasn't, and sun and heat were pretty bad. I continued as before – sometimes cycling, sometimes pushing my bike – and at about 2:30pm I arrived at Deán Funes. At first I didn't find the centre of the town, and when I saw a kiosk at the side of the RN60, I went there to have a lemonade. The owner of the kiosk gave me a map of the town and directions to the municipal campsite. I went to the camping site, where there was also a large swimming pool. After I put up my tent I went to the pool to swim a bit.

In the afternoon I went – again by bike – to the centre (which, with the map, I could find), and ate a pizza in a place with Wifi. But I was too tired to write anything... I returned to the camping and went to sleep early.

The next day (today) I got up without the alarm of my mobile. I hadn't decided anything, and had thought that I would either stay one more day in Deán Funes, or continue only up to Quilino. I finally decided to go to Quilino, and I left at 8am to go to the centre of the town to have some breakfast. I had some breakfast and write some emails in a café, and left a little before 9am. After a few days in the Sierra de Cordoba, there road was again pretty flat and good. I did 28km in little more than an hour, and arrived to Quilino a little after 10am. At first I did a small tour by bike through the village, and then I rested a bit on the main square, where I also talked with one of the villagers, who told me that there was little work in the village – I can imagine. Then I went to look for accommodation, and I finally found a hotel next to the RN60.

I rested a bit, washed some of my clothes (and my sandals), and re-dyed my hair with henna (orange). For the rest of the day, I'm also not going to do a lot. This is a rest day, because tomorrow I will need to do 120km up to Recreo.