12/9-Doing Chores, and Some Observations

Not too much to report on for today. We did make and execute a plan to get our important chores done. But first, we took advantage of the complimentary hotel breakfast. Little did they know how much cyclists can eat. Alex did a great job cleaning the platter of fruit (they did put more out). Between the three of us, I think we ate the equivalent of an entire loaf of bread (toasted, of course). There were at least two eggs each in the scrambled eggs the woman made for us. Needless to say, we came away plenty full. Oh, and the one thing we didn’t eat was muesli. We have muesli for breakfast everyday on the road. Nice to have a break. 

We really needed/wanted to do laundry. Unfortunately, this fancy hotel doesn’t have a laundry service. We took our clothes to the lavandería a couple blocks away. There, you pay by the kilogram, 4000clp (for express service). My clothes weighed 2kg, so 8000clp. That’s a little more than 8USD! There was no place in town where we could do it ourselves. Oh well, at least we will be starting the next half of the Carratera in clean clothes. 

We also needed to get more pesos. There is a Banco Estados here (like in Puerto Montt). This bank ATM has the least amount of fee for cash withdrawal. We calculated how much we think we’ll need to Villa O’Higgins. If we have extra, we can always exchange for Argentinian pesos when we cross the border. 

Next on the list was, for me, getting another long sleeve shirt. There happens to be a Patagonia store here in Patagonia! Go figure! I found a merino long sleeve that will become my sleep shirt, and my Smartwool sleeping shirt will be for during the day, off the bike. I’ve been riding in my Ibex hoody a lot. But I need a long sleeve that isn’t all sweaty. It’s so ridiculous. I have a ton of long sleeve wool shirts at home. I should have brought one more! Now I have yet another long sleeve merino shirt (I guess you can never have too many, right?). They also have a North Face store, but they didn’t have any long sleeve shirts. The Chilean outdoor brand/store, Doite was another option, but no merino shirts. 

We walked back through the plaza. 

The mountains are not far away. 

Villa O’Higgins 443km. 

Some kind of march or demonstration. 

Next stop was the farmacia. I needed to get more fiber. In one intersection, there were four farmerias. The third one finally had psyllium husk. Alex was on the hunt for electrolytes. She got lucky, and found two options. Interestingly, in the farmerias, you have to take a number, then wait to be called. You do that to purchase anything. It took me a moment to figure out the system. The place where I found the fiber was more of a organic supplement store. 

We still have to go get our resupply, but we’ll do that tomorrow. Now, all we have to do for today is go pick up our laundry, then dinner. 

We found another good restaurant. There were two couples there, both from Montana. They are doing a car trip. 

On the way back to the hotel, we picked up yet another dog. We seem to attract these dogs. They walk with us for a long time. This one walked with us all the way back to the hotel. She had a collar, and looked well fed. 

Just going for a walk with my people. 

Go home now, perro!

Coyhaique is kind of just like any other bigger town. Lots of touristy shops, but also what you need. Markus said he saw where the population is 50,000. We are definitely in the best hotel!