Time in Temuco.

From Lautaro to Temuco it took me around 2 hours, it was a distance of only 35 kilometers that I took way slower than the pace I've been pedaling till this city, I knew it was close so I had no intentions of sweating.

Since I got here I spent most of my time just relaxing and taking small tours to the city, in which, I have been several times before. I took it easy mostly because I was waiting for Pancho and Paula to have free time from work so we could take some tours to the mountains and the coast side of the Araucania region. In the meantime pedaling through the city helped me keep my shape till we finally got the time to go to the mountains and the coast.

Conguillio, the Andes in the Temuco area.

Last Wednesday we went to Conguillio National Park, a really amazing park 2 hours away from Temuco where you get to see what volcanoes are capable of. Right in the middle of the park you see the Llaima volcano, which last eruption was on 2008. Being an active volcano, from time to time you can see smoke coming out of the top of it.

A visit to the park will grant you several kinds of views, ranging from small black deserts made of ashes that came out in every explosion. Many “arms” of rocks made of lava which once was lava making his ways to lower lands. You get also to see lots of contrasts when vegetation shows up out of nowhere or some small tree islands that survived the lava streams down the valleys.

We arrived to the park near 10 am and took a really nice trail which took us 5 hours to complete. An easy trail with many amazing viewpoints, green nature and birds all around the trail. After the trail it was a must to visit the Conguillio lake and have a bath in its waters to relax the muscles and take some light sun rays. Finally weather I can spend the day outside. Compared to Santiago, Talca, and Concepción, where spending the afternoon and evening outside was a torture in such heats, being in Temuco has been nice because temperatures are near the 25ºC most of the time. Nice and acceptable temperatures for my body and my like which makes me happy.

After taking a long bath and being totally tired after the visit to Conguillio park we departed back to the city to have a good night of sleep, but right when we left the park, Pancho got a call from Lito, a friend who was in the south area of the Araucania region. After a long and serious talk I knew something was not right. Lito had been visiting some remote area in the surrounding hills of Lican Ray which is also 2 hours away from Temuco. He had had problems with his car when he wanted to come back the engine didn't want to start. He got stuck in the middle of nowhere. He asked for help to Pancho so he could go there and help retrieve the car with his car. We didn't have any rope to attach one car to the other and drag it from the hills back to the city so there was no option in going straight from where we were. We had to head back to Temuco and then move towards Lito who was also 2 hours away from Temuco, but near the Villarica Volcano.

Rescue mission, a whole night of tension.

We arrived to Temuco nearly at 11 pm, tired as hell after the whole day walking and bathing in the mountains. We picked up what we needed for the night and some blankets just in case we couldn't retrieve the car during the night and had to spend the rest of the time lost in the mountains. After some snacks and a couple of red bulls to be awake while driving we left Temuco a bit after midnight.

We arrived to Villarrica, a small town 26 kilometers away from Lican Ray where we picked up a lad who kind of knew the way to where Lito was. Kind of knew, because he knew how to reach the place but during day time. Things change at night as you can not see the reference point you may have and that are at sight during day time. It was 2 am and we left Villarrica in the hope to find where Lito was.

At 3 am and after passing through pitch black gravel roads, with steep ups and downs we found where Lito was. He got really glad to see us approaching and after some fast assessing of the situation we decided the move the car.

We started by pushing the car to place it in the right position so we could attach one end of the rope to the front of it and the other end to the back part of Pancho's car. The bad assessment of the place made us commit a huge mistake. None realized the slope in which the parked car was. After turning it and placing it in the right position gravity made its trick. The car started moving down the slope and Lito wasn't inside the car to push the brakes on time. Gravity and the weight of the car made it take speed and go down the slope with two persons in front of it trying to stop it. Impossible, it is a huge car with a 2.2 engine. No way two persons could stop it. The car took speed and went down the slope out of control taking a turn, ending up breaking a wood fence and getting stuck again at the side of the road. I yelled to Pancho to know if he was alive. He was in front of the car when it went out of control and I only saw one shadow jumping to the side to avoid being run over. He was alright, he said he got out the path of the car somehow he couldn't really explain. He just saw the car overpushing him and somehow then he was at the side of the car out of control. Lito had his hands over his head in a sign of despair because of the fate of the car. I thought we were fucked, I could hear water at the side of the road where the car went in and my first though was that the car ended up right in the water creek, stucked this time till who knew when.

After taking a look around, lucky for us, the car didn't end up in the small creek. The fence made it stop right before the front wheel went in the creek and the water stream. We still had a chance so we started gambling with our cards. We tried to push it but the car was to heavy to take it out from there. Pancho moved his car and placed it behind it so maybe with the help of Pancho's car we would manage to take it out from there. The bad thing? Pancho's car has a smaller engine than Lito's car. Pancho's car has a 1.8 engine, way lighter and smaller than the other car. We had nothing else to try so we tried anyways. After many tries and with a stench of burnt rubber in the air, after around 10 minutes, what we had done worked. A joint work of pushing the car plus dragging it made the trick and we managed to put the car in the right position to attach it and drag it back to the city.

It was 3.30 am and we still had to get out from the gravel road with long and steep ups and downs to reach pavement and Villarrica lights which was nearly 30 kilometers away. Pushing the car was hell. Pancho's car wasn't designed to push a heavier car so it was really complicated to drive in such a situation where behind's car would make us stop suddenly and violently. There was always the possibility that behinds car could take too much speed and if we stopped too fast it could crash us and make us loose control causing a big accident. We also feared that the rope would break while going uphill which would cause behinds car to go down the hill backwards. Tension was on the air and with lots of cautions we headed back to the city at the nice speed of 30 kms/h, like if I was riding my bike.

At 5 am we reached Villarrica. Pancho was so tired that he couldn't drive anymore, tension had made us all tired. It was my turn to drive from Villarrica to Temuco dragging the car. Another redbull shot to the vein and ready to go the second part of the road, this time in pavement which was supposed to make it easier. Bad thing? Longer ups and downs and a busier road than before. Good thing? It was 5 am, so there shouldn't be that many people on the road till we could reach the 5 south highway and then Temuco.

Damn it was difficult to start moving with a heavy car on the back. After several tries I managed to start the dragging and after getting lost in Villarrica we found our way and left the town. This time I was driving at 60 kms/h, so it should take us a bit more of 1 hour to reach the highway where things would change again thanks to the heavy morning traffic.

Everything went quite fine from Villarrica to the highway. The busy road wasn't that busy at that time in the morning which was complete luck considering that in this seasons, that road is dangerous as hell thanks to all the crazy tourists that want to reach Villarrica as fast as possible. Last week, just in one day, there were 8 crashes, all of them at different points of the road and at different times through the day. Damn crazy tourists, all of them believing they are formula 1 drivers.

Driving through the fog wasn't funny though. Near 6 am fog started to appear diminishing what I could see around. When looking through the rear mirrors I couldn't see Lito nor his car, I knew there was a car behind me but it was a ghost. The only way to see him was when another car was approaching to us and would light Lito's car and him inside it, I would only see shadows though.

Now in the highway we had to go faster, if we had kept the 60 kms/h pace we could cause a bad accident which we needed to avoid so I pushed till we reached 90 kms/h. Sadly we had to pass 2 toll controls. This meant stopping and start moving again, twice. Lucky us, only one toll boot was open so all the cars had to go through that boot making things easier to cross it. The second toll was the same so we had no big issues while crossing the tolls.

We reached Temuco around 7.30 am. With the city awaking we also met all the drivers starting their commute, the buses moving people and the trucks going to take their loads. With the city we also found the traffic lights that would stop us in every corner. Right before entering the city of Temuco, the rope broke! Shiiiit! The car felt way lighter and Lito managed to call us on time and yell the rope had broken. We stopped right before entering the city to fix the problem, had it happened in the toll control or inside the city we would have caused a huge traffic jam.

Finally at 8 am, and after crossing several traffic lights and moving through all of the city we reached our destination. The mechanic workshop, who hadn't arrived yet. We left Lito at the workshop and headed back to Pancho's to get some totally deserved rest. Such a night. I had never drove dragging a car with a rope and had not been in a stress situation during the trip so far. Things could have ended in accident quite easy through the night, but luck was with us and we managed to bring the car back. After that I'm glad I am pedaling and not driving, it's way easier to move with my bicycle than with a car.

Time to move on.

After the car rescue mission and after some hours of sleep we went to the coast side of the region to relax during the evening. Weather wasn't nice as the rest of the days but it's always nice to remember that weather can change at anytime through summer when you are in the south of Chile.

During the weekend I'll start pedaling again. Daniel will arrive on Sunday morning and we will start heading towards Puerto Montt. We will go through Villarrica and Lican Ray, hopefully this time we won't have to drag any car but only push pedals.

I think this portion of the road will take us around 10 days, so I will be off till I reach Puerto Montt. We won't sleep at any couchsurfer or warmshowers because the road we have chosen goes through the mountain range with few towns on the way but with amazing nature and landscapes to be in.

Check the pictures in this link to see more of the Temuco surroundings.

Until then, Cheers.