12/21-Summer Solstice!

Happy Summer Solstice…ummm…I mean Winter Solstice for most of you reading this. It was cooler and cloudy today, but that was okay because we had a lot of climbing. We had more views of the lake, and we are camping near the end of it. 

There was a boat on the lake. From this distance, at first I thought it was some kind of bird swimming. 



Photo courtesy of Markus. 

The first and second climbs I had done two days ago, so I knew what to expect. For some reason, they didn’t seem to hard. Maybe because it was cooler. 

We also had some epic descents. 

If you look closely, you can see me and Alex. Markus also took this photo. 

The route goes to the end of the lake, then curves around, and continues partway on the other side. We crossed Rio León, and stopped at a bus shelter for some lunch. 

There’s a town here, but there’s not much to it. 

A good soy to be out of the wind for lunch. We saw 4 cyclists. Two guys who didn’t stop, and a young German couple who took over the lunch shelter after we were done. 

While we were eating, a road grader was grading the road. It went back the direction we would be going, so of course, it went by us again. I do t really know how much better the road was. I would say it was certainly more dusty! It felt like I spent half the ride today with my dust protector (Buff) up over my mouth and nose. We are very diligent about hollering, “Dust Bomb!” when a vehicle is coming. Everything ends up being coated with dust. 

I think we had about 5 climbs that initiated the climb profile today. The last three were not far from where we planned to camp. We made it, albeit rather sweaty. 

We are at a place called Pared Sur Camp. It’s pretty fancy. They have “glamping” here. There’s also cabañas. 

Our tents. It’s quite expensive for tenting at 15,000clp. Funny thing, the kitchen and restrooms/showers are even nicer than any cabaña we’ve stayed in. 

The cabañas. 

The view from the deck of the dining hall. We could have dinner, but it is 24,000clp (for pizza and soup). We’ll eat our own food. 

See that road over there? I thought we would be going there tomorrow, but we don’t. That road goes to Argentina. While we will go to Argentina, we won’t be going on that road. We have to finish the Carratera first. 

We did 48.5kms today. That’s one of our longer days. It’s fitting, though, because today is the longest day of the year (in the Southern Hemisphere).

Here’s a parting shot of a woodpecker. I’m not sure what kind. It has a mostly black body, some red around it’s beak, some white on its back, and is pretty good sized. 

Anyone know?