Forced to stop by the wind

We turned a corner and nearly got blown off our bikes. We went back to a more sheltered area and waited a while. Then we had another go and failed again, on our return to shelter we were being blown uphill without pedalling at 25km/hr.

We tried to hitch, but no cars came past. For 2 hours Leo amused himself on the road, trying to walk down the yellow lines, or doing 'walk like a dog'. We were getting bored.

From our sheltered area we could hardly believe that the wind was so strong, so we set off again, careering from side to side across the road, angled sideways on our bikes with the trailer sides pressing onto Leo's face and billowing upwards if the wind got inside. He seemed to be enjoying it, we were most definitely not! It was scary.

Finally a pickup went past, slowed down, drove on by, then finally stopped and reversed.
'Are you going to El Calafate?'
'Si'

We were out of the wind and finally safe, our faces were still burning 8 hours later from the wind. We will not be cycling in the pampas any more.