Carretera Austral till Coyhaique

Right now, I am in Coyhaique. The road has been crazy. Crazy good, crazy bad, crazy amazing, crazy everything. If there is to define somehow carretera austral I would say it's amazing in every aspect; landscapes, weather, people, experiences. It's hard sometimes, because the weather treats you hard, but it's possible to overcome anything afterall, with the right attitude everything is possible.

Boat Crossing from Quellón.

Entering Carretera Austral with the ferry from Quellón brought bicycle tourers even before leaving the boat. I met several guys on the crossing who were also heading south on bikes. What I thought would be a lonely journey towards Coyhaique, my next big stop, became a journey full of people all the way down.

The ferry stopped in Chaiten, a town that got destroyed some years ago by the explosion of the volcano in the area. Still, almost nothing from that destruction can be seen nowadays. Nature has dealt with it pretty fast. From time to time though, it is still possible to see abandoned houses on the way.

The ride started with an Argentinian guy who was going back to his country because had to go back to work, a few minutes later we encounter a couple of Asians who were also going south so we teamed up forming a group of four, on the first day.

Because weather and also because the ship departed from Quellón at 3 am we had a rough night of sleep and called it a day pretty early, after only 40 kilometers. This gave time for some fun under a bridge which we found was pretty descent for camping. Some fishing in the evening plus some harmonica playing made the day enjoyable.

South we go.

The road south changed the second day, no more pavement for us but gravel and climbs all the way. The pedaling got harder and advancing became much slower than I thought. Still, pedaling in carretera austral got to be much much better than pedaling in the Chiloe Island. Not that many hills to climb but more flat areas. Nontheless, climbs would show up on the way that would suck our energies pretty bad, adding to this the bad shape of the road which made the advancing slower than expected.

Still, many surprises on the road! Like some Mineral Water natural springs which offered an ambrosia of water for the body. At this point the group got disassembled, I kept riding alone again. Also at this point, I realized how sad is to have an schedule. The Asians guys couldn't join me to check the mineral water spot, because they had an schedule to follow. Loosing time walking the trail to reach the mineral water spring would have meant getting behind schedule for them, so they kept on the riding while I took the time to explore the area around the mineral water spot.

While walking towards the springs I thought, fuck the schedules man! When will be the next time you will be able to visit a place like this! For them, probably never, still they had to follow what they had planned. Later on the day I found them again resting because the way was to hard. At the next town they called it a day because they were too tired to continue, and with a reason. The carretera austral can easily eat your legs as the road got worse and worse as we advanced south. For me, it was too early and the spirit was way up. This allowed me to keep up pedaling so I kept on the move for some more time till I found an amazing wild camping spot to spend the rest of the day and the night.

Alone with the worst road ever.

Next day I expected to ride nearly 80 kilometers. Being alone again made me think I could advance much more that with more people around me. So I took it really easy in the morning and ended up leaving the camping place around 11 am. Quite late compared to the times I used to leave my camping spots in the central area of Chile, 6 am. As I started to advance I realized I had commited a really bad mistake. This portion of the road was the worst I have ridden so far in the whole trip. Big rocks, loose on the road, made the pedaling at some points impossible. It was the first time so far I had to push the bike on a FLAT surface. Shit the road was bad man!. But this shouldn't be the normal shape of the road. Later on the day I found out the roadworks on the carretera austral made this portion the worst ever. They are fixing the road to put asfalt on it, so in order to cover all the wholes that trucks and cars make during rainny days they are filling the place with small stones, and sometimes not so small. Quite ok for cars and trucks, reaaally bad for motorbikes and bicycle tourers, some guys told me how they saw a motorbike guy go straight towards a truck and almost got run over becayse he lost control of the bike.

I managed to cross the 20 kilometers section in around 4 hours! The slowest pace so far on the road too!. Gladly, my mood was ok for that day and despite facing the slowest and hardest strecht ever I managed to reach the next town, La Junta. Still, the way I looked was awefull to say the least so after getting supplies in the town I went straight to a lake I had seen on the map and took the next day off right next to the lake.

Lago Rosselot and towards Puyuhuapi.

For the first time on the whole time on Carretera Austral I managed to spend the whole day alone. It's nearly impossible to be alone while riding bicycle in these roads. You meet other cyclists either going north or south from time to time and it's useful to get information from them and pass on what you have experienced so far, like those 20 kilometers of hell. Still, I really needed to be alone and enjoy the beauty of the place and just chill out. So the day I spent at Lago Rosselot was marvelous. I saw nobody in the whole day and spent the time hearing the birds and mices around, the wind and contemplating the amazing nature we have here in Chile. Definetely an awesome day next to a lake.

Next day I had to keep on though, so I kept onwards south to reach Puyuhuapi. The road on this part got much much better and having the mood up thanks to the resting day made things quite easier. At 5 pm I was already on Puyuhuapi where Christian, a german bicycle tourer, found me and told me about a camping with other bicycle tourers. Guided by instinct I decided to camp with these guys and spend the evening there.

Christian was also going towards Punta Arenas, so we decided to team up for some days and the next day we departed to a National Park near Puyuhuapi. There we found more people who I had previously seen on the road and made a huge group for a night of beers/wine, music and fire. We also found Denise, a girl who had been cycling from Puerto Montt and was on her way towards Coyhaique who also made team with us. More people who to share the road, for a road most of the people knows me thought it would be lonely.

The road shall provide.

After a couple of days of pedaling onwards south we reached the last town before the final destination for Denise and the resting point for Christian and me, Coyhaique. We departed as usual, in the morning with the goal for the day. We stayed that night at the cyclists shelter in Mañihuales, where the bicycle hunter lives and offer shelter for any bicycle tourer that happens to cross the town. We heard of Boris, another guy who offered shelter for cyclists in Coyhaique and where you can stay as much as you want. Some french lads had said the place was full though, having around 18 cyclists in one house. They said we had to be ready for partying and for lots of noises as the place was full with young pedalers from all around the globe. A nice picture for some people with all the booze and the party you can get, but a not so nice picture for me. Coyhaique for me meant resting time and relaxing time in order to get ready to keep on south. Maybe partying, but everyday? Heck no. The french lads said they had to mount a tent in the patio in order to rest a little bit because the noises in the house were too loud to rest. This made me picture a not so nice place where I wanted to spend my resting days. I left Mañihuales thinking about this and trying to come up with an idea of how to find a cheap place where to sleep.

The thinking kept in my mind for around 2 hours after I left Mañihuales till I just let it go and started focusing on the road. Just right when I had stopped thinking about this matter the most unexpected thing ever happened.

I was taking pictures of some abandoned building next to the road when I saw a jeep approach to where I was. The jeep passed by my bicycle really really close and I thought it was going to run over it. I wondered what the hell was wrong with the driver and what the shit was he doing there. I was about to start swearing against the driver when slowly the jeep approached to me and lowered the co-pilot window. Then the driver said; “O'car! Remember me?!”. Holy mother of cows!!! A friend I hadn't seen in YEARS showed up in the middle of nofuckingwhere! What the heck man!!. My mind collapsed for about 2 seconds and then I came back to earth. “Pato! What the heck are you doing here man!?”

The first time I met Patricio I was like 7 years old. We went together to a scout group and then we got to be part of a group of like 50 guys who grew up together in Talca. Last time I saw Pato was around 8 years ago, so meeting him there, in Carretera Austral, in the middle of nowhere, was to call it the least, unexpected.

We talked a bit about life and he asked where I was going to stay, I mentioned my problem and he told me just to call him in the evening so we could sort all out. Thanks to this encounter my problems got solved instantly and here I am now. Staying at Pato's house for the rest of my stayance here in Coyhaique.

Ask and you shall receive a guy told me the first day of my trip here in Carretera Austral, and so, it seemed to work! Hahahah, crazy shit.

I will stay here in Coyhaique longer than I expected mainly due to my encounter with Pato. He has been showing me places around the city that I would have never visited with the bike. I've been having lots of fund with Pato and Pame (Pato's wife) and definetely I've have gotten the rest days I wanted in order to keep on.

During the weekend I will start the pedaling again, now towards Punta Arenas. Just as I left Quellón, when I leave Coyhaique I have no idea when I will get online again and when I will be able to upload pictures again. Towards the unknown I go but it's so fun and awesome that I love it.

Till then.

If you want to see pictures, check this link.

Cheers.