Two weeks ago I left Coyhaique with the
goal of reaching Villa O'higgins, the end of the Carretera Austral.
Finally, and after struggling and fighting against the road I managed
to reach this last town in the Carretera.
Several things have happened in the
past two weeks, I think this last stretch of road has been the
wildest, deadliest, most difficult and most beautiful of the
stretches I've been pedaling so far. So many things have happened in
the last two weeks that would be too long to write them all, so I'll
just write a couple of the most important ones in the hope of not
writing a long unreadable testament of the experiences, the rest,
will be just pictures of what I've seen so far and memories that I'll
keep with me.
Leaving Coyhaique and the first snow of the season.
After saying my farewells to my friend
Pato, I left Coyhaique with the hope of having nice weather for, at
least, the next couple of days. According to the forecast there
should have been a good weather span of time. How wrong can the
weather guys be?, well, pretty wrong most of the time. After leaving
town, dark clouds started to show up on the sky, being a really cold
day this made it even colder with no sun to warm the day. Pavement
should last at least another 100 kilometers so, despite having front
wind which made the pedaling harder, it went smooth for the first 30
or so kilometers.
The morning went smooth, but in the
early evening, the rain started. I hadn't really noticed, but I had
been pedaling upwards most of the time, reaching an altitude of 1100
meters over sea level. Also, I didn't really notice how cold it was
till I stopped pedaling. Being on the bike helps to keep good body
temperatures, despite the coldness. At 5 pm the rain got thicker and
temperature dropped even more. I decided to call it a day because it
was really difficult to keep on. Having a thick rain made it
complicated to see what was laying ahead and the low temperatures
would make it hellish to dry my clothes with such a rain. I was
outside the entrance of a National Park so I decided to get in and
check if it was possible to camp in the park. According to another
bicycle tourer I had met on the way, there was no rangers around so
it was possible to camp for free.
Several signs pointed that it was
possible to camp after paying a fee for the place, but no one was
around as the guy said. At this point the rain kind of stopped a
little and I got the thought of pedaling again. A ranger showed up
and asked me if I was going to camp, I told him I was just checking
the place and that probably I would continue the pedaling, he told me
it was snowing on the road ahead and that if I decided to stay I
should go to his house and pay him the fee for the camping place.
Yeah man, right. He left the place and there I stood, whole alone
with several places for camping. The thought of snow made me
re-think about pedaling so I decided I would stay in the park, not to
camp though. I found a huge dome which was being used as museum which
seemed nice to spend the night in. Sometimes you get lazy when you
have to mount and unmount the tent everyday so every opportunity I
get to not mount the tent I use it.
Seba, another bicycle tourer I had met
on the way showed up and told me he was going to spend the night
there too. I told him about the ranger, and we agreed on leaving
early the next day to not pay the camping fee which was too much to
not even have warm showers. Right when it got dark, snow started to
fall. I must say, that when I decided to keep on south instead of
going to Buenos Aires, I started to accept the fact that I would face
some snowing, but snow, this early on the season, was really
unexpected!. Having such temperatures would be a nice test for my
sleeping bag which didnt let me down. I spent a warm night inside the
dome.
We woke up early next day, but the snow
that had fallen during the night had already melted and a nice, warm
and sunny day was coming ahead. Weird weather probably due to the
full moon only. We left the national park without paying the camping
fee, which actually we didn't had to pay as we didn't camp, we slept
inside this huge dome, so technically we weren't supposed to pay for
camping but for using the dome.
The road shall provide, actually, the lakes shall provide.
When I was in Metri, they gave me the
idea of buying fishing line, hooks and a small can to be able to fish
on the rivers of the carretera austral using the “Pesca con
Tarro”, a local technique for fishing. This technique though,
hadn't been working for me so far. Someone on the way told me the
best time to fish was when you were able to see some fishes in rivers
or lakes. As I was pedaling along the road I saw some fishes in a
small lake right next to the road, which instantly made me think it
was my chance to catch a fish for dinner. I got all my really simple
fishing set and started to try some luck. Some minutes later, Seba
showed up and asked what the heck was I doing with half my body on
the lake, my hook had got stuck in a branch and I needed to retrieve
it. Then he told me how his uncle had been fishing, also with no
luck. Right when he told me this, a nice trout got closer to my hook
and it thinking it was an insect, bit my hook!. A nice and healthy
trout for dinner! I was so happy and it was so unexpected to catch a
fish that I needed a picture of the moment. It was an awesome dinner
that night.
The road itself.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this
post, the road so far has been the wildest, deadliest, most difficult
and most beautiful part of the whole trip. I fell of the bike 3
times on a day due to the washboard road, but I have to say that
Daniel's theory of the 21 kms/h is wrong. I have been reaching 50
kms/h on downhills over the gravel washboard roads. Also all of the
three times I fell happened in a single day, which probably was just
bad luck for the day because I haven't fell again since then.
The washboard road makes the pedaling
really damn difficult and slow. My average pace has been reduced to
days of 50 to 60 kilometers of pedaling. Compared to the central area
of Chile where I could pedal 90 kilometers on average, reducing the
pace to 50 kilometers makes a huge difference. It's impossible to
pedal more on gravel roads though, if I pedal more then I wouldn't
get the time to see other things and enjoy the landscapes I am
crossing through.
The wind has been deadly in some
stretches too, three days ago we faced a huge storm with winds that
stopped me on a downhill. I wouldn't advance a meter due to the wind.
Picture the fully loaded bike with me over it, standing still for
around 10 seconds not moving forwards and not moving backwards.
Crazy. Lucky me it was front wind and not side wind. Had it been side
wind the story would had been quite different. At some point I saw
how Seba almost got blown up in the air due to a strong wind coming
from down the valley up the mountain. The elements try to get rid of
us sometimes.
Mountains, forests, lakes, fjords,
jungle, glaciers, rivers, towns that look like if they were taken out
from some fairy tale, I have crossed all of that on a stretch of
around 600 kilometers since I left Coyhaique. It's crazy how
beautiful this part of the world is, it's incredible to be able to
see this and I'm really happy I'm able to be here and now. Somebody
asked me the other day if I missed any of the commodities I had in
the city; a roof, a bed, a warm shower everyday, internet!. I have to
say that, no, I don't really miss any of those commodities. It's nice
to have them, yeah, but being here, and being able to see all of
this, overcome all of those commodities. The only sad thing about all
of this, it's that the camera can't really do justice to the
landscapes and the beauty of the places I stumble upon. So far, I
have been taking many many pictures, but seeing them in the screen
does not show the complete beauty of the place, I think there is to
be here to be able to admire everything the landscapes has to offer.
Villa O'higgins and to Argentina we go.
Yesterday we arrived to Villa
O'higgins, I write we, because we met so many times on the way with
Seba that we decided to join forces. We both are going south and we
both are taking the last of the boats that will cross the O'higgins
lake towards Candelario Mancilla. Four other cyclists have arrived to
town to also do the crossing with the boat. As reports and other
cyclist tell, the crossing is going to be even wilder than the road
so far, we will have to face a small jungle and cross it through a
small trekking trail which is not made for bicycles, but as they say,
it is possible to do it with the bike, somehow. I'm really looking
forwards for this part as everybody speaks about how crazy this
crossing is, full of mud, branches, ups and downs. It's going to be
tough, but certainly worth the effort. The boat leaves tomorrow
morning and the next time I get to write it will be, mmm I don't know
then, maybe in El Chalten, maybe not.
Until then.
Cheers.
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