Santa Juana to Lautaro, that was fast!

Santa Juana.

I arrived after lunch to this small town trying to find a place where to rest after the pedaling from Talca. What I thought would be time alone to be able to rest my legs and not much of anything happening around turned out to be the opposite. I stayed at Doña Olga's, where she offers rooms for season workers who come to the area to work mainly in the wood industry. She offers rooms which include all three meals in a really homey and countryside place. As it is summer, she has nobody else in the several rooms house she owns so I would spend the whole weekend alone and in peace.

Since the beginning she told me the rules of the house and after doing a small negotiation about the price we had an agreement. As I am a passer by, it's not big deal to accept some rules for a couple of days. After our agreement she told me to feel at home. I dismantled all my gear and made myself comfortable, ate some and got ready to rest when out of nowhere lots of people showed up. It was already evening and 'once' time (tea/dinner). As for what I payed included all three meals, they invited me to have meal with all the rest of the people. As this is the countryside in a really small town, relatives are really close to each other, so the people that had just arrived was the family of Doña Olga's sons who are used to pass by have dinner and spend the late evening talking and laughing before going to their respective houses, this mostly everyday. From here on, the show started. As I was the new guy around, and they are anything but shy, questions began to show up. “You are coming from where? By bike? And you are heading where? Shiiiiit man, you are brave”. They liked the story and they invited me to go around with them so they could show me the small town, by car.

Later and after the tour to the town, more people showed up to the house and I had to tell my story again. I don't know what impression I'm giving to the people, but most of them like the idea of riding bicycle around towns and countries, but when they picture themselves doing it they say they would freak out and are too scared to do something like this. I got to go late to sleep that day as everybody wanted to talk to me about things. No rest at all for me that day.

The Potato harvest.

On the second day I got invited to the countryside, the actual countryside. By car we drove deep into the hills through dusty and unpaved gravel roads till we finally arrived to the house of the couple of one of Doña Olga's daughters. A small piece of land with potatoes ready to be harvested. There was a small swimming pool and several kind of animals around with a cozy house in on side of the land. I was invited just to be there, look around and take pictures while they would work harvesting the potatoes. Yeah, like if I could resist not to help. I had never harvested potatoes before, so it was a nice opportunity to get a taste of what harvesting potatoes is and I didn't get disappointed. After taking some pictures I joined in the potato harvest and after a couple of hours the whole potato field was ready for the winter rest with several potato bags laying around the field.

Harvesting the land

Field full of potato sacks

Back in town, and at tea time, people showed up again and the talking kept for hours on till late in the night again.

Last day in Santa Juana was more relaxed, I took it easy in the morning and got up kind of late, had breakfast around 10 am, but that was a mistake, exactly at 12.00 lunch was served on the table and I had to eat again. After eating, people started to show up in the house for dessert but I managed to slip away and take a tour on my own through town to take some pictures and relax next to the Bío Bío river.

Reaching Santa Juana you get to see this.

Bio-Bio River.

Fort built in 1626

On the road again.

Monday arrived and I had to depart as my resting time was over. I had to keep going south but Doña  Olga tried to convince me to stay a couple of days more to rest my legs. I had enough rest for the weekend and the road was calling again. Reports said that bad weather was approaching to the area near Lautaro and I had to go and find the rain.

After saying my farewells I left town early in the morning, as usual. The road would be uphill in the beginning and down hill almost half of it. I thought abour riding near 90 kms and call it a day but for my surprise at 1 pm I already had managed to pedal 70 kilometers. My knee? Hurting a bit, but not that much after all. After having the best cheese ever for lunch I kept on and started approaching the town that was my goal for the day, Angol.

I reached Angol near 3 pm, way to early to stop and call it a day. I had been eating lot that day but still I would feel hungry. After buying ½ kilo of strawberries I kept on till dark clouds started to fill the skies. I had advanced already 110 kilometers and it was 5 pm when rain hit the road. Finally, the first rain of the tour, time to change cloths in order to be under the rain.

Once ready to ride under the rain it was time to decide, it was early, nearly 5.30 pm, sun goes down at 9.30 pm, next town was 5 kilometers away and I had already done 110 kilometers. Way over what I expected for the day. I could reach Lautaro on the same day, but that would mean riding 70 kilometers to make a day of 180 kilometers. 180 kilometers in one day, what the heck? Isn't my knee hurting? Am I not tired?. Indeed I was kind of tired, but when I pictured 70 kilometers ahead it didn't really bother my mind nor my knee. Still, after some debating with myself, I decided I would call it a day, a day with lots of time for other things as I spent the rest of the evening reading and learning things from books I have on the tablet. It's not all about pushing pedals after all, but also about keeping my mind sharp.

I found an awesome spot under a pine tree to cover myself from the rain and to wait for the sun to set in order to mount my tent and stealth camp. There is always a possibility that someone shows up, happens to be the owner of the land I'm in, and kicks me out of the place for violating private property. So I sat there to wait while reading. Nobody showed up, clouds went away, and sun shined again before sun set. I mounted the tent and had a good night of sleep.

Lautaro.

As usual while stealth camping, I wake up at 6 am and as fast as I can I move forward to some other location to have breakfast. People in the countryside wake up early so I have to move as early as them and move forward to have breakfast.

After Collipulli I had breakfast and got ready to push till Lautaro, that for my surprise I reached sharply at noon. 75 kilometers in 3 1/2 hours is not bad at all!.Hell I'm moving fast!. As I am moving that fast I am starting to take longer rest times and have set the goal to read more.

Before Lautaro.

In the afternoon I decided to enter Lautaro town and give a visit to some relatives I have here. I will spend here 3 or 4 days before moving towards Temuco where I will pay a visit to Pancho and wait for Daniel who will join me onwards till Puerto Montt being this part a bit longer than so far.

Rain didn't show up as expected till now, the time I'm writing this entry. It feels like the skies are falling with so much rain right now and I'm loving it. Finally a good southern rain to welcome myself to the beginning of the south of Chile.

So far, since I left Santiago, I've ridden nearly 800 kilometers. Not considering the resting days both in Talca and in Santa Juana, this has been done in 8 days. An average of 100 kilometers per day. Mad, considering I had taken in account riding around 60 kilometers per day. At this rate certainly I can reach Antarctica on time and come back north with decent weather.

If you want to check more pictures of this part of the trip, check this link.

During the weekend I'll move towards Temuco, it will go some time till I post something again. Until then.

Cheers.