Pandora's box gets open.

My time in Quellón has ended, tonight I will board the ferry that will take me to Chaiten and the start of my journey through the carretera austral, pandora's box for me as I have never visited the carretera austral before and I know that the place is more than awesome with pristine landscapes and fantastic nature to spend the time in. 

I wanted to make this post to spit some things out after being 2 months on the road. I have to say, that I have been having fun most of the time. There have been ups and downs, but for every bad things that has happened, several good things showed up on the way and made the bad things disappear quite fast.

People on the road has been fantastic, despite the fact that every person I meet warns me about being careful and not to trust anyone, because everybody else is bad. Experience has shown that the first approach that I have had with people has been positive. So, so far, people is good and not bad. Trust in mankind partially restored for me.

After couple of days I left santiago, my body started to change and to adapt to the road. On the way between Temuco and Metri (Puerto Montt) I didn't take a shower in 10 days, despite this, I didn't stink at all! It's fantastic to have a neutral smell. Compared to other people I've met on the road, who start smelling after a couple of days, I think I can spend several days without taking a shower and not have to worry about bad smells, because there are none. It's like my body was made for being on the road.

After realizing my knee pain I started working on it. Several days after I started working on it the pain disappeared, and little after Temuco, I forgot at some point I had pain in the knee. Now all is ok with my legs and I'm ready for what's next.

I can not say how happy I am when I realize I don't have to go to the office and spend the day in front of the computer. I am really happy because I get to drink pure water from coming straight from some spring up in the mountains. I'm breathing fresh and nice air everyday. I'm eating well and lots of food too. It's awesome to experience everyday as a different day, not knowing what will happen, where I will sleep or if I will manage to reach the goal for the day. Not knowing if I will encounter people on the road or if I will spend it on my own. Not knowing what lays ahead and get surprised every time I find a marvelous landscape or good people on the way. Everyday is a different day and an unknown day. At some point, someone asked me what would be a thing I missed from Santiago. Besides some people, I don't really miss anything from Santiago. I'm really happy I took the decision to leave that polluted city and the lifestyle I fell into in the past years for something different and that I get the vibe will get much better with time.

I have enjoyed the company I got on the road. It was nice to start alone from Santiago because then I got used to ride on my own and made a small routine for some things during my lonely days. Days that weren't really lonely, there was always someone around, be it a person or be it an animal. Then the company was nice because I got to explore another side of bicycle touring. Company was nice and I enjoyed it. I have to give my thanks to Daniel and Camila for joining me between Temuco and Puerto Montt and between Puerto Montt and Quellón.

So far, I always had clear destiny in mind, it was either to reach Talca and visit my old time friends. Or it was Temuco where I would visit Pancho and meet Daniel. It was Puerto Montt to see more friends and meet Camila who would be with me through Chiloe, or finally, it was Quellón where I would visit my friend Yovi. Now, I have no clear destination at all. I am entering the carretera austral and I know I have to reach Coyhaique but there is no one on the route that I have to visit, so from now on, all is new and I have no destination at all. I may take a parallel roads to visit hidden places, I may take a direct route towards some cities. I really don't know, I will just follow what my instinct says and will try to reach the southernmost point before winter arrives.

About the southernmost point, couple of weeks ago I started picturing Punta Arenas as a nice destination and for some reason, a lot of people I have met this past days has some relationship with that city. I decided that I will not come back from Coyhaique to enter Argentina and make my way towards Buenos Aires. Instead, I will head towards Punta Arenas and will try to reach it before extreme weather hits. What will happen there I can not really tell. I may get on time to then keep on towards Ushuaia I may not. I may get trapped in a storm before Punta Arenas or I may pay a visit to the Torres del Paine National park. Time will tell, but the goal is to reach Punta Arenas or get as close to it as possible. Once I reach the place I will decide what's next. For now, Coyhaique should be my next long stop, then Punta Arenas. The rest, just ideas of the mind.

So far I have not had any flat tires! The only problem with the bike has been the broken chain I quickly fixed. Bike has behaved fantastic despite having such a load over it. This has won the bike her name which I will not tell but it's related to the latter experiences I have had with the horses.

I'm really excited to see what's on the so famous carretera austral. I hope I get nice pictures and nice experiences. I think I will have to get wild and use all of the knowledge I've gathered in the past years about living in the outdoors. I have no idea when the next post will be and have no idea if I will get internet at all at some point. The spot that I got thanks to Fraunhofer hasn't been working properly, it hasn't logged my positions in the last days. According to their webpage it may be related to poor satellite coverage on this part of the world. It doesn't worry me but people has been asking me why I haven't been spotting. Well, the little thing doesn't work, still, I will be spotting from time to time in the hope the map gets updated.

Thanks to the ones reading the blog I'll keep on with the posts as long as I get internet.

Life starts at the end of your comfort zone and for reaching this end, there is just to let go.

Also, winter is coming.

Until then.

Cheers!

Crossing the Island of Chiloe.

Things went quite straight after leaving Metri in the tip of the carretera austral, south of Puerto Montt. Camila went there to pick me up so we could leave from the city of Puerto Montt towards Chiloe. It took us a while to leave the city, as we took it easy the first day, nontheless, the road to reach Quellón, the southernmost city of the Island of Chiloe, wasn't as easy as we thought.

The amount of cyclist we have been meeting on the road noticeable increased, Chiloe is a huge touristic place during summer months, specially for young backpackers who hitchhike their way through the Island. The place gets full during summer months and it's almost impossible to find a place where to sleep in the cities if you don't book before coming here, so together with the backpackers, several cyclists were also pedaling through the Island. The pedaling took us 4 days to reach Quellón and it didn't lack ups and downs.

Puerto Montt and entering the Island.

After some minor issues with Camila's bike we managed to leave the city nearly at 1 pm. Gladly, for that day the goal was to reach the island and advance just a little bit more. On the way out, we met two other cyclists who were also going to the island but didn't know the way. We joined forces and kept on out of the city.

On the way to the ferry we met several other cyclists coming from the island stating the place was packed with people. After a little while of pedaling we lost the guys who had joined us on the way and reached the ferry.

With the other guys pedaling towards the ferry.

The ferry.

Reaching the ferry was quite straight and at 6 pm we were already crossing the Chacao channel and entering the island. Our final push would be through a gravel road. I knew it would be way slower than on pavement but never though the road would be in such bad shape that it would be really slow to pedal through it.

After 10 kilometers I called it to a stop. Good thing is, nobody really cares where you mount the tent. There is so much free space all around the island that the tent can be mounted almost anywhere with no fences. Stories also tell that asking people is fairly common here so we wouldn't have any issue asking to people if we could camp at their lands. We chose the easy option and camped in front of a church a cemetery and next to a black cat who later tried to steal some of our food.

Camila riding a good portion of the gravel road.

Camping right in front of the church!

The cemetery and the landscape.

Quemchi, Dalcahue, Castro.

On the second day rain woke us up. Good thing was that we weren't forced to move as soon as dawn showed up. So we took it slow and had a nice breakfast while hearing the rain hitting the tent. Soon the morning rain was over and we managed to move again. The goal for the day was to reach Castro, the main city of the Island.

We expected the road to be bad, but never thought it would be bad AND hilly. There are soooo many hills on this island. Damn, it was a constant up and down up and down. I think we never had a flat stretch longer than a couple of kilometers. It was always to go up and then go down. Problem was that the ground was too loose that it was nearly impossible to climb with the bike and such a load. This made the advancing even slower. Couple of hours after noon we hadn't reached Quemchi yet, which we thought we would reach at noon. With more slopes coming we decided we would reach Quemchi and call it a day. We would meet Daniel and Pamela there who were also in the Island but the universe didn't want us to stay at Quemchi.

After having lunch some road workers who had seen us before showed up in their pick up truck and made us a signal for a ride. Heck yes, we were about to start the walking of the Climb of the Donkey, as some people had called it before. They said buses had issues doing the climb and that there were several accidents during winter. Gladly, the road provided with a ride that took us several kilometers ahead of Quemchi. The road workers were going to some small town on the way to Dalcahue, around 20 kilometers from Castro. We still could reach Castro and were really thankful for that ride.

Camila and a small climb.

The sea and some islands in front.

The climb of the Donkey.

Camila covering from the dust.

Tales would say pavement was near us, about 7 kilometers ahead, then to reach Castro we still had 40 kilometers left. We kept on, but the road got even worse than before, with more climbs to come, the advancing was down to an average of 4 kilometers per hour. Too slow to reach Castro again, I decided to sit down for a while to wait for something to happen. Right when I was trying to find a way to get some motivation Camila asked for a ride in an attempt to check what would happen if we did that. A pick up truck stopped and asked if we needed a ride or anything. Luck was with us. Bikes on the pick up truck and here we go again. Second ride of the day this time towards Dalcahue and pavement.

From Dalcahue to Castro there are only 20 kilometers, this time with pavement. In no time we managed to cover the 20 kilometers. When in pavement the average distance is nearly 20 kilometers per hour, add to this the climbs so in a bit more of an hour we were in Castro. Right before sunset.

Castro and Quellón.

We deserved a nice meal in Castro, so we headed to a place that Camila knew. A nice sushi restaurant to fill our bellies after having only small things during the day. After 60 pieces of sushi I felt full but we needed a place where to sleep. I called to several hostals, B&Bs and such, but nobody had room for at least 4 days. After asking for options in the sushi place, somebody recalled a shelter for backpackers which was close to the sushi place. Camila rushed to the place to check if it had room and came back with a positive answer. Almost nobody was using the shelter.

Camila outside the shelter. (Albergue)

The shelter was meant for backpackers who had no place where to go and needed a night of rest. If you wanted to get drunk, smoke, party, you could go and camp in the beach, if you needed to sleep and a shower, you could go to the shelter. The night at the shelter was ok with few people sleeping there. This meant no noises during the night and a safe place where to stay at the city.

Next day we left the shelter at 10 am. We headed to downtown and did our businesses in the city. At noon we headed towards Quellón, our destination where my friend Yovi was expecting us at the other day. We didn't spend that much time in Castro because it was packed with people and had not much to show for a couple of bicycle tourers. It is much better to be outside the cities, enjoying the landscape and what the road has to offer than spend the time in the cities where is full of people and nobody really pay mind to each other.

We left the city and encountered more bicycle tourers on the way. All of them Chileans with heavy backpacks instead of panniers, certainly not experienced bicycle tourers as the rider must have nothing on the body. We had lunch on the road and spent the evening taking the nice and mild sun. At night we managed to find another church were we spent the night.

Getting to Quellón the next day was fast, we enjoyed the way during the whole day and managed to reach the town in the evening. More climbs on the way, and what climbs, but climbing that much also pays off. Landscapes you get to see when you reach the top of the hills are breathtaking.

Another church to camp.

Landscapes

More landscapes.

More Landscapes!!

We reached Quellón last thursday and I will spend my time here until next thursday when I take a ferry that will cross me back to the continent in Chaiten, the town that got destroyed some years ago when the volcano exploded. Camila left last Sunday, as she has to keep on with her thesis and finish the law practice.

Time here in Quellón has been good, a lot of chillin and a bit of cycling. Several nice places to visit and still more to get to know. I think I'll do a brief post before taking the ferry. So until then.

For more pictures, check this link.

Cheers!.

Pictures from the road Temuco - Metri.

As I wrote in the last entry, I would try to upload the pictures from the road Temuco - Metri when I had a stable internet connection, finally I have it and here are the pictures I owed from last entry. There are MANY pictures and I'm uploading now the ones from the last part of the trip which was Metri - Quellón. I will write an entry about it soon, in the meantime, pictures!

Check this link.

Cheers!

10 days of pedaling, Road Temuco - Metri.

It took a while till I could finally write on the blog. I spent the last 2 weeks on the road from Temuco towards Metri, 30 kilometers south of Puerto Montt, the tip of the Carretera Austral. It would be way too long to make a brief of the journey from Temuco so instead I'll just write down some of the most significative things that happened on the way.

From Temuco towards the Springs.

We left Temuco on February 3^rd early in the morning as usual with the aim of reaching Coñaripe. A small town up the mountains which is surrounded by several hot springs. As the touristic information states, Coñaripe is THE area for hot springs in Chile, having several hotels and other fancy facilities where fancy people can go and spend the day in the hot natural waters. With Daniel, we weren't aiming for paying a shitload of money but to find some small natural pools next to the rivers that have the seeked hot water. We knew there was such a place in the area besides the hotels but nobody could really tell where it was, so we had to go there and ask the locals. For this we had to go through Villarrica, Lican Ray and several small lost towns only reachable through hilly gravel roads. I can't really describe the steep gravel roads we had to climb but only can say they were hell. I had never had to push the bike in such steep climbs, it was impossible to climb the on the bike as the tires just slip over the small rocks that cover the road. Lucky for us, someone that passed in a pick up truck asked where we were heading to and offered us a ride. We advanced pretty fast to Villarrica and we headed towards Coñaripe.

On the way to Coñaripe we met 2 other long distance bicycle tourers, a young British couple and Alain, and old french man who has been bicycle touring for 50 years. It was his first time in Chile ans was using a foldable bike!.

Once we reached Coñaripe it was fairly easy to know where the hot springs were, after mentioning we weren't looking for fancy hotels, locals got our idea and pointed us to the hot springs “La Diuca Cocida” which literally translates as the “cooked dick”. The mentioning of the name was immediately followed by uncontrollable laugh by the locals. Quickly we found the place and mounted the tents to enjoy the hot springs.

Getting lost in the mountains.

After the day of hot springs we had to keep pushing on. More devil's climbs through the hilly roads of the mountains of the south area of Chile but with AMAZING landscapes. Maybe amazing is not the right word to describe such landscapes, pictures speak for themselves.

From Coñaripe we were supposed reach Choshuenco, and from there follow a road that ended in a path that would lead to Riñihue, all of them small towns in the mountain area of Valdivia. We reached Choshuenco late in the evening and passed the town to find a place where to camp. More devil's climbs along the way till we found a suitable place where to mount the tents. Next day we moved forward towards the trail that should lead us towards Riñihue, sadly we found a dead end. The path that was marked in the map as “trail” wasn't even a trail but some old pass that may be crossed walking, but no way a 4x4, moto or bicycle with load would cross. Rains crearly destroyed the road that maybe once upon a time was used to reach Riñihue, but certainly nobody had been in the area in several years. Two days of pedaling wasted because there was no other road to reach Riñihue. Still the landscape was awesome and the place that where the road ended had some special vibe.

After reaching this dead end, it was time to see the map and check for alternatives, there was only one, go back to Choshuenco, and go back to take the road towards Panguipulli and add 100 kilometers extra to the already 100 kilometers wasted kilometers. Add to this bad weather, because the rain was reaching us. At 4 pm we found a suitable place for camping in front of the Panguipulli lake and we decided to call it a day before the rain clouds could make it impossible for pedaling. After 2 hours clouds surrounded everything and heavy rain started. Gladly we were in our tents facing the elements.

Next morning we woke up early, as usual, but the rain wouldn't allow us to leave our tents, so we had to wait till around 10 am in order to start dismounting everything to keep on. Near to our tents, a motor home had parked to spend the night in the same spot we were. A man came out from it and yelled if we wanted to share breakfast with him, we agreed. We ended up talking about neuroscience and Tibetan monks. Easy talks for a rainy morning I suppose.

We can't stop here, this is lake country.

After crossing the panguipulli lake, we had to keep going next to several lakes in order to reach the norpatagonia area. Since we left Temuco, we had already crossed next to the Huilipilún lake, Villarrica lake, Calafquen lake, Pellaifa Lake, Neltume lake, Riñihue lake and Panguipulli lake. After leaving the area of Panguipulli we kept on going next to the Ranco lake, Puyehue lake, Rupanco lake and Llanquihue lake till we finally reached Ensenada area where there were no more lakes and the carretera austral starts.

Am I in Chile?

Once we entered the ensenada area, the landscape changed drastically. No more lakes from now on but the Petrohue river, famous for the “Saltos del Petrohue” national park. Landscape here turned to a different green that we had seen so far. Vegetation turned to be way more dense around the hills and big rivers turned to a turquoise color while small streams coming from the mountains had no color at all and you could see through them as if there was no water at all. Pristine and unpolluted nature all around us with houses now and then to remind us that there was people living in the area.

Then suddenly, the sea. From Ensenada we reached the Estuario de Reloncaví, a fjord south of Puerto Montt and the first one of the several that are found in the Carretera Austral. Being there reminded me a lot about Norway and its amazing landscapes. The only difference maybe, in Norway they would have a paved road in a good condition. Here, being the countryside, lost in the tip of the austral area of Chile, no way there was pavement, and no way the road is in good shape. With several devil's climbs I faced the first real problem with my bike. My chain broke right before a huge climb. Too much force and changing the gear in the wrong moment made the chain collapse and break. Lucky me I had the right tool to fix my problem and in 15 minutes I was riding again.

The condition of the road was bad or the worst I've faced so far. Too much loose stones, the road not being width enough for 2 cars, add to this buses coming and going every 3 hours at high speed not caring about us cyclist on the road. It made it difficult to pedal but the landscapes, shit the landscapes made all that not matter as the eyes and the brain enjoyed what they were seeing. We easily spent 2 hours everyday just looking at the landscapes we found on the roads.

Soon we reached Metri, where I am right now. Sadly there is no good Internet to upload the pictures, so I'll try to upload them from somewhere else at some point.

Briefly.

So far, so good. The broken chain was a minor pane that I managed to fix easily, it could have been way worse if I hadn't know how to fix it. I'm still waiting for some spoke to break too but I hope that doesn't happen soon but once I reach Coyhaique or further south.

After the 10 days of pedaling my legs hurted. Despite the fact I rode almost 800 kms from Santiago to Temuco and my legs were trained, I had never rode non stop for 10 consecutive days, so the rest in Metri was more than welcome to recover and create more muscles in my legs.

I passed the barrier of 1000 kilometers several days ago, I think I passed it near Panguipulli, I can't really tell as I am not really counting the total distance but the places I've been in. I think the chain broke near the 1500 kilometers.

Riding with a partner made a huge difference in several aspects of the ride. It's easier to buy things and to carry things around as it is possible to split what you carry. You carry less, you advance more (?). I spent more money though, I bought more things and ate way more than when riding alone. Also it was more difficult to find a place where to sleep, lucky us though, we found splendid camping places where nobody really bothered for our presence, so we managed to sleep more that what I was sleeping so far.

Funny thing, people don't go protective when riding with someone. They didn't pay that much attention to us compared to when I was riding alone. They would continue greeting though, but funny thins was that they would greet when I was in front rather than when Daniel was in front. Daniel says it's because they think I'm not Chilean, so they assume he is not Chilean too. If he was in front, they would know he was Chilean and assume I was too, therefore they wouldn't greet. Funny people.

Ask Daniel about the name of the hot springs we visited. He knows why they are called like that. Lol.

Next step is to reach Chiloe, visit Ancud, Castro and then Quellón where I will stay for a few days to visit friends. From there I will take a ferry towards Chaiten and ride the Austral road till who knows where.

Till then.

Cheers.  

Update; I'm uploading pictures now, but they are too many and I won't have the time to be here till all the pictures are uploaded, so it will be till next time.