11/25-A Rest Day in Chaitén

You might be thinking…a rest day after four days? The answer would be, yes. It’s like when I did the Appalachian Trail. It was strongly recommended to take a day off after the first four or five days. The adrenaline of starting out, and figuring out how things are here, in addition to Alex and Markus having been off their bikes for three weeks, it seemed a day off was a good idea. Plus, now we are planning for the next few days to La Junta. We need to have an idea of where to stay. Wild camping is a little tricky here. There are lots of fences, and where there are no fences, the vegetation is very thick. 

We went back to the Supermercado we went to last night (mostly, last night was to check it out so we would know what is available). It is quite small, but seems to have a little bit of everything!

There is more on the other side of the wall on the right. 

We really had to look all around. Most likely, if we looked long enough, we would find what we wanted. The only thing I wanted that they didn’t have were paltas (avocados). But, then I decided I didn’t really need them anyway. 

Walking back to the apartment, I spied this pretty flower. 

It really is Spring here. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it’s November. The weather today is not as sunny as yesterday, but we are on the Coast. I’m glad I got the photo of Volcán Corcovado yesterday because we can’t see it today. Maybe later…

There’s also another volcano that is active. It last erupted in 2008 (I think). They evacuated the whole village. Now it is still emitting puffs of steam. 

You can see puffs of steam coming up from the one with the snow. 

After a little siesta time, we walked to the water. We were guided by the dog from the cabaña. I named him Floyd (Christy, if you are by chance reading this, it seemed like something your Floyd would have done). 

Volcán Corcovado is out now!

Floyd took a real liking to Markus. 

These were already here. 

The overnight ferry from Puerto Montt. How do we know this? Because we met a couple from the US (Alaska), Robin and Caleb, who had just gotten off the ferry. 

Paño of the mountains. 

Beach art. 

Floyd loves to chew on wood. 

And bring big chunks! However, he was not good at fetch. He’d chase, but not bring back. 

Wherever we sat, Floyd sat too. 

There was lots of obsidian on the beach. These were just a few pieces I found. 

We named this island “Sleeping Dragon” (the head is on the right).

Clouds of coolness. 

We walked back to town, and went back to the restaurant we first went to yesterday. Alex and Markus had coffee. Markus and I had kuchen. 

Now that’s a piece of kuchen!!! And no, I’m not calling it “kuchen” because I’m with a couple of Germans. They actually call cake “kuchen” here. There is a fair amount of German influence in Chile…okay, I’ve only seen two things (besides the German imports at Jumbo)…kuchen, and Berliner (filled pastry kind of like…a filled donut). 

Later we are going to dinner. The restaurant has a king crab soup. Sounds good to me! I’m going to upload this now because there’s already 18 photos. 

Tomorrow we head out again…it’ll probably be a few more days between posts. 

11/24-A Waterfall, Sunshine, and Mountains All Around Us

Even though the skies were clear last night (I could see Orion when I got up to pee), the fog rolled in, and the tents were soaking wet. We did the usual morning routine, but instead of packing up wet tents, we left them up to dry while we went for a walk to the smaller waterfall. The path there was quite treacherous in my bike shoes. It was wet, and there were lots of logs fashioned as steps. Some had been flattened on the top, but a lot were still rounded. There were also, basically, ladders. At least they had handrails. 
Crossing as bridge. 

It was a walk through the jungle-like rainforest. 

The waterfall was very cool, and well worth the effort. 

The last bridge of sketchiness before the falls. 

Two falls for the price of one hike. 

When we retraced our steps (I managed to get my feet only a little wet), and arrived back at the campground, our tents were in the sun, and dry. We packed them up and hit the road just after 10:00. All of our new friends still had to finish packing up (they had walked to the bigger waterfall, which was further away). 

The gravel road was in much better condition today. We had views of Lago Negra. 

Lago Negra
Just as we were starting a really steep climb, a road grader came down the road. He stopped to let us pass, but by then, we were pushing. 

We continued with beautiful views of snow-capped mountains, rivers, and pretty good gravel. 

Lago Blanco

The road along the rock wall. 

More Lago Blanco. 

Anyone know what this tree is called?

As we came down to another river crossing, I was thinking about lunch. When we got to the bridge, we saw a nice clearing next to the river. Alex said, “Lunch?” Ah…great minds think alike!

We even broke out our chairs! So nice in the sun!

Markus on a wood hunt (for spoon carving)

Post lunch, we had a couple more kms to the pavement. We had seen the Swiss couple pass by while we were eating lunch. We caught up to them a little later. No one else had passed us, that we knew of. 

The final moments of gravel for the day. 

The wind picked up once we were back on the pavement, and it was a headwind. Up the steeper climbs we would get a break from the wind. 

This one was particularly steep. My Garmin said 17%! At least it was paved!

On the other side of the climb, we got our first views of Volcán Corcovado. 

It’s a pointy one!

Soon we were rolling down the last downhill into Chaitén, our destination for the day. We stopped at the first restaurant we came to (for WiFi to figure out a place to stay). Not 5 minutes after we arrived, Lani and Steve rolled up! They told us of their adventures on Chialoa Island (that’s probably not spelled correctly), and their overnight ferry to Chaitén. They were going to look for camping. We don’t know where they ended up, but Matt is with them (he had been conversing with Lani for awhile on the Cycling South America WhatsApp group). 

We found an apartment at Cabañas Pudú. It’s pretty nice (although, the WiFi could be better).

My room…a bed for sleeping, and a bed for gear vomit. 

After showers, and talk about our next few days plan (more rain is coming), we went to a pizzeria for dinner. 

Photo by Markus. 

Sunset on another beautiful day in Patagonia!

Oh, and this is the view behind our Cabaña…not terrible. 

11/23-Thanksgiving Part 2-Gravel!

When we got off the ferry we got our first taste of Patagonian gravel. It seems that they are working on the road. I don’t know if they are getting ready to pave it, or just fixing it. The road alternated between easy firm gravel, to almost sandy, to chunky rock. We had a 6km climb. There was one section that was very steep. I managed to ride it, but just barely. It was probably about 12% (I don’t know for sure because I couldn’t look at my Garmin). Matt, Alex, and Markus called me a beast, but really, it’s just good gearing (and being used to climbing steep stuff at home).

Gravel!



The steep part. 

There is a lot of water. 

We made it to a campground, but it is closed. That just means we stay for free! 

It’s kind of like fancy wild camping. The sites are very nice, with each one having a little shelter with a picnic table, but the water is off in the restroom, so the only way to use the toilet is to fill up the tank with river water (but the toilets are less than pristine…I think I’ll be digging a cat hole). Because the water is off, we also have to filter water from the river. 

Heading into the campsite. 

My tent in the sun!

All of us (except the Argentinian) are here. Matt, Edgar and Charlotte (Swiss), Jerome (Brazil), Laura(?) from Spain, Alex, Markus and I. Laura seems to have rather limited bike touring experience. Matt and Jerome fixed her bike for her. 

Tomorrow morning we are going to do a little hike to a waterfall. Then we will head to Chaitan. The weather is supposed to continue to be good. 

11/23-Thanksgiving Part 1-Adventures in Ferry Riding

After a good night’s sleep, we woke up to sunshine. Finally it looks like a break from the rain! We packed up the bikes, and arrived at the ferry around 9:00. 

The fog was still lying low over the water. 

Here comes the ferry!

There were several other cyclists also catching the ferry. A Swiss couple we met yesterday, a guy from Brazil, and even Matt (originally from Seattle!!!). There was also a woman from Spain, and a guy from Argentina. 

Lined up waiting to board the ferry. 

When it was time for the cyclists, the guy called us one by one. We rolled onto the ferry, and parked where they told us. The bikes were stacked together, but I had access to Billy. 

Jerome (from Brazil) parking his bike by Billy. 

We had about 3 hours on the first ferry. There was all kinds of conversation about how to get to the second ferry. First we tried to find a truck that could carry our bikes and us, but there wasn’t one. Then Matt was saying we had an hour and a half to get to the second ferry. It was 10kms. That would be no problem, except we had heard it was less than that (and there was a climb). Then we met Jonathan (from Virginia). He was on a motorcycle. We asked him to tell the ferry people we were coming, and to hold the ferry. Then we heard there was a bus. Actually, there was a bus on the ferry with us, so that seemed possible. Before I tell you what actually happened, here’s some photos from the ferry ride. Prepare to be amazed as the scenery was awesome!

The contours were incredible. 



Waterfall


So, when we were nearing the end, a ferry employee found all of us and told us what we would do. There was a small pickup (short bed). We were to take our bags off and put them in the pickup. Then we were to ride the 10 kms, without stopping, to the next ferry. They also let all of us off the ferry first. Even though it seemed like we would have plenty of time, it was still a mad dash. But it was a heck of a lot easier with no bags! We all made it to the next ferry in about 35 minutes. The Spanish woman was the last to arrive. Then we got all our bags out of the pickup, and put them back on our bikes. This ferry was only about 30 minutes. We went up and sat in the sun. 

It was toasty warm!

Stay tuned for Part 2…

11/22-Never Underestimate the Power of an Old Woman on a Bike

As said to me by Markus today as he caught up to me on one of today’s many climbs. 

Once again we got on the road earlier than we planned. In fact, Alex was ready before me! She said she listened to what I said about how to get ready faster (all about efficiency). I told her the student has surpassed the teacher. That was even with having to pack up after a lot of rain last night and this morning (the cat took refuge under my tent vestibule…she really wanted to come into my tent…that seemed like a sure-fire way to get a puncture in my sleeping pad).

It had stopped raining when we left, but we still rode in our rain gear. That is, until we got to the first climb that was over 5 kms long. Off came the rain gear. 

The start of the first climb. 

Alex reaching the top. 

Sadly, the nice weather didn’t last. We were back to full rain gear awhile later. We had brief moments of no rain…just long enough for us to decide to take off the rain gear. In other circumstances, I might have just kept it on, but it was too hot when we were climbing. 

One of the moments it wasn’t raining. 

BothMarkus and Alex were feeling the climbs today (they weren’t easy). For me, it was like home. It was a little early, but we decided a bus shelter made a perfect lunch spot. It was out of the rain. It started to rain harder. We tried to wait it out, but it wasn’t stopping so we just rode on. 

More ups and downs, and even another time with the rain gear off. Buuuutttt, rain came back. We didn’t have far to go, but we put our rain gear back on. 

We pulled into Hornopirén, our destination. As we were stopped to decide where we were going to stay, a woman drove up and asked if we were looking for accommodation. We followed her to her cabañas. She showed us the room, and we agreed it was good. 

Outside of the building. 

After a resupply at the Supermercado, we came to dinner at Cafeteria Piedra Lobo. Im currently writing this from the restaurant. The Wi-Fi is good. Here’s a final photo for the day. 

Dog Central. 

I’m going to upload this now so we can go back to the room and collapse.