San Juan

I did not have far to ride and there was a tailwind that blew me towards San Juan. In the vineyards outside the city teams of men were picking grapes and stacking crates of them onto the backs of trailer trucks. It was fall and the leaves had begun to fall from the poplars and other trees and there were clouds of smoke and the smell of burning leaves and other brush.

My map indicated Ruta 40 would become an auto route 25 km outside the city, but in fact it transformed into a 4 lane road, with no change in the amount or speed of the traffic. There were good shoulders too and not littered with broken glass and rocks and it was an easy ride towards the city. Then getting off the highway I followed a winding tree-lined avenue into the center of town.

San Juan is a poorer version of Mendoza. Its avenues are a little dirtier, the trees along them a little less full, and the shops and storefronts a little beat-up. But the feeling here is much the same as in Mendoza with vineyards that surround the city and cafes and restaurants and a fine plaza at the center to sit and to eat and drink. I took a bed at a hostel not far from the main plaza. There are some issues back in the United States that require I use the internet and other city resources and I must stay until they are resolved.