So after exploring Córdoba for a day we finally set out to begin our two-wheeled Argentine tour!
After a late start packing everything onto the bikes, we eventually had everything strapped down and shoved off to pedal out of the city and into the hills, heading towards a resort town called Carlos Paz about 35km west. We figured this to be a good beginning distance for me, the complete amateur and gave ourselves the afternoon to get there without plans to go any farther that day.
Well, it was hot. Very, very hot. And my legs got tired quickly. Very quickly.
But we made it!
Jake and Jay were very accommodating of my weakness (and not unaffected by the heat themselves) and allowed for many stops en route, even though it's only about 22 miles total, so we cruised into town and plopped down by the huge reservoir that makes Carlos Paz the summer destination it is.
We were hot and sweaty, and a bit dirty from the road.
After a quick dip for Jay (the geese and jet skis put Jake and I off jumping in) we jumped back on the bikes to find some camping, pedaling up river a bit to the packed sites of Las Ribieras. Yes, it's holiday time, but really? Dance music blasting from every campsite at all hours?!
Thankfully a monsoon downpour rolled in for a few hours and confined everyone to their tents. Not-so-thankfully, the thunderstorm covered our tents in dirt and mud.
And now the reason why that day was my first as well as my only day of the bike trip: Handlebar Palsy. I didn't know what it was either and had to google the symptoms I was experiencing and this article came up right away.
Basically every time we stopped to rest, I noticed my hands would be shaking a bit and it was hard to grab, pinch or grip zippers and laces and such getting food or water out. But it's hot, your heart is pumping and your leg muscles are shaking too so this doesn't seem a strange time for weird bodily problems.
When we reached Carlos Paz and rested by the lake for an hour or so, I took stock of my aching thighs and commented that my ring and pinky fingers were numb and tingly, I couldn't straighten them, and pinching zippers or untying straps was nigh impossible. Jake mentioned that he experienced similar feelings in his hands after gripping the handlebars for a long time and it usually went away after a few minutes or hours.
It wasn't until we rode around town and on to the "camping" (as they call campgrounds here), we'd set up, cooked dinner and showered, that I decided to google my symptoms while waiting for a break in the storm to run back to the tent (stop splashing my clean feet, mud!). They hadn't abated and the pins-and-needles feeling was keeping me very conscious of and vocal about it, I'm sure to Jay and Jake's slight annoyance.
WELL, VINDICATION! It IS a legitimate problem! Nerve damage, even!
My symptoms fit the description of Type 1, and the prognosis says nerves regrow at about 1-2mm per day, so if all aggravating factors are removed (ie. bike riding) the hands should recover function in about SIX TO EIGHT WEEKS!! :(
No more biking for Katie.
The effect of all this, besides the frustrating loss of dexterity and the fact that I write like a kindergartner just learning how to form letters, is mostly the bummer of having to travel a different way. We'd planned to bike because we WANTED to go slowly, through little towns, meeting locals in sleepy villages to buy supplies and getting around under our own power.
Not a trip-ender, but definitely a game-changer.
