Monthly Archives January 2013

Beat the heat
Cycle at dawn
Start with ascent
Legs like pistons
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We woke early, mixed up a yummy Nescafé instant coffee with powdered skim milk (yum, yum, yummy). Our staple breakfast of oatmeal gave us energy for the day.

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Click here for ideas on chairs for canoeing. and hiking

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Striking views from the summit.

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After more or less a day and a half of climbing (about 1,500 meters total ascent) we were ready for a nice decent. T get a feel for what this is like unassisted, take your 30 pound bike, add 50 pounds of supplies and 10 pounds of water, go to the bottom of Armour hill and spend a day and a half climbing 5,000 feet of ascent. Add to it 35 degree weather and you pretty well get it.

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I left the camera run for about 6 minutes on part of our 15 km downhill decent.
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Click here...

Climb, climb, climb
Hot, hotter, hottest
Horse fly infestation
Like flying piranha
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We left El Blanco and started the climb. Not too steep but lots of it.

We met a lady, Nicole, who was walking the same route we were biking. She walked 22 km per day with a full back pack, including food in a pouch on her shirt and supplies in the bottom of her pants (whatever it takes).

We are on the Carretera Austral, a famous highway in Chile, built by Pinochet.

Click here for more information on Carretera Austral

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We even heard there was a man on rollerblades pulling a little cart a few days ahead of us.

Every once in a while there are roadside monuments put up by truckers to watch over the highway.

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Birds along the way.

It was so hot that sometimes you rested in the bushes away from the sun...

Attachment to places
Amenities are addictive
Can’t stay forever
On road again
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We got all packed up to cycle down the road and the calling of one more coffee changed our minds. We stayed a second night.

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We also met up with Alejandro, he was the cyclist who switched rooms with me on the ferry boat so Janis and I could be in the same room. We call him Wyatt Earp. (Love his cycle hat). He is cycling south to capture the heart of a young lady. We wish him well.

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Lovely waterfall along the way.

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We arrived at El Blanco and enjoyed a hot shower. Next we toured the Mate museum. It is the name of this region and also the name of a tea that people of Argentina and Chile drink. It is more than a tea, it appears to be a lifestyle...

Magnificent river ride
Man eating rhubarbs
Hot long climb
Where’s more water

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We got off the ferry at 7:30 am and were told it is very flat to Coihaique. We believed them. For the first 60 km it was amazing, tail wind, good flat road. For this reason we passed up a couple of nic campgrounds as we were having a very lovely ride.
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Click here to view Cycling in Patagonia

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You can’t believe the size of the rhubarb plants.

Click here to watch a human being consumed by a plant

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Click here to view Bamboo and Berries

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The last 20 km were mostly uphill which surprised us. We climbed and climbed. It was hot and we were running low on water.

Right near the top of the climb was a gut wagon. What a pleasant surprise.

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We consumed lots and filled our water...

Scapolomine and gravol
Eliminate queasy feeling
WiFiless for days
Technology withdrawal symptoms

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This is our ferry boat, the Don Baldo.
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Waiting to get on the boat.

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Janis put on a patch and took some gravol and got through the trip in flying colours. During the night we were tossed around a lot, sometimes rolling us from one side of the bunk into the wall. It took about 4 hours to cross the open part and the. We were among the islands the rest of the way.
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Click here to see our room on the ferry

We made lots of new friends on this journey.
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We stopped between these two large islands. As you can see the communities on the islands are very near each other with a small bridge connecting them.

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click here to view dolphins beside the boat

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This i...

Hills are alive
Sound of construction
No Von Trapps
Only dump trucks

This was a great cardio. Two big climbs and lots of construction. We stopped at this river/falls and had a very refreshing dip.

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We stopped and had lunch at a roadside cafe, with fresh eggs, home made rhubarb jam and alpaca.

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Sue, you and Carol would love Quellon, full of sailors.

Highway 5 comes to an end In Quellon. It begins in Anchorage Alaska and ends at the southern tip of Chiloe Island.

click here to read about the Pan-American Highway

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Click here to see a Summary of Quellon

Cloudless sky above
Hard pavement below
Wind in hair
Hours pass quickly

It was a lovely ride today with nice shoulders and moderate traffic.

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Click here for a mini video of birds along the way

Just when we were ready to call it a day, Camping Don Juan appeared. Funny hose that can happen.

We arrived and set up our tent and the campers beside us presented us with two small fresh trout they just caught (yummy).

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Tides come, go
Days come, go
Experiences come, go
Memories lasts forever

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A 40 minute bus ride and we were in the national park. The horse flies were almost the size of a small humming bird, and the bees even bigger.

The sea was calm and lots of frolicking in the waves.

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Route decision made
Booked our ferry
Bike for days
Boat for days

Before cycling out of Castro we visited the old Woden church (UNESCO is helping restore it)

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We met a new friend from Vancouver, Nick. He is on a motorcycle and has done 55,000 Km’s so far on hiss 18 month trip.

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We have a few options off the island and have decided to bike to the bottom of Chiloe and take a 28 hour ferry ride to Chacabuco. There was lots of research done on weather to take this route or take the 8 hour ferry rode to Chietien. By taking the southern journey we will see more of the coast and miss a few hundred Km’s of ripio.

Lots of construction today along the rolling hills at times it felt like a ride along the Old Norwood Road with bigger hills.

We arrived at Chonchi late in the day.

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Our hostel ...

Up and down
Wetlands beside us
Birds of chiloe
Kept us company

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The ride was very hilly, great shoulders along the way. We had done 25 km when a truck driver stopped ahead of us and asked us if we would like a ride the next 25 km to Castro. David and I had a quick committee meeting and I seconded the motion to get in the truck. Along the way the driver practised his colours in English and we talked about family etc. Indeed
it was a very hilly day and we arrived by 1 pm and checked into a hostel.

Castro is famous for its stilted houses (palmitos). This area suffered a devastating earthquake in 1960 but these houses were spared.