Santiago – Atlanta – Los Angeles

After the adventure South America, I had to fly first to Atlanta and from there to Los Angeles. Luckily, my friend Mari helped me to transport my bike and the luggage to the airport on Sunday where I left it in storage for 24 hours. Muchas gracias, Mari! It would have been very difficult to transport it by metro and bus. On Monday, I finally went to the airport again and checked in. Everything went well and payed 150 USD for the bike at Delta. This was average, I think.

The journey itself was pretty uneventful except that the guy just behind me got unconscious shortly after start. Luckily he came back shortly after and stayed ok for the rest of the flight.

Immigration in Atlanta went smooth and I got the permit for 6 months (thanks to the Visa I already had). Unfortunately, my bike didn’t arrive at first and I had to claim it once I arrived in LA. It got delivered the same night at 1.30am to the place I stayed (Thank you Sarah and David for letting us stay at your place and the great time!). I rented a car in LA and also picked up Ines, my travel companion here, in the evening at the airport.

During the next few days, we went shopping some missing parts for our journey and built together our bikes.

Los Angeles – Malibu – Ventura – Santa Barbara (El Capitan) – Lompoc – Santa Maria

On Saturday, we finally started biking again. First across Los Angeles (Thank you Eric and Tim for showing the path and helping out with good advices) and then along the coast. First the weather was very foggy and we didn’t really see that much. And also the traffic wasn’t that great (The 101 should definitively be avoided during night times…). However, both got better the further away we got from LA.

We finally reached Santa Maria and stayed here for two days in a motel. This also for letting Ines knee getting a bit better again. It doesn’t like cycling so much so far.

We will keep going on Friday towards north. Our already adjusted plan is to follow the coast up to Monterrey and the cross the valley towards Yosemite park. Will see if that works out. Somewhere in May, we should reach San Francisco finally.

All the best from California,

Stefan

San Pedro de Atacama

This area is very touristic. Which means there are a lot of tourists (like El Chalten oder similar places). But it means also, that there are a lot of guided tours available, which is great if you are by public transport in the area. However, I’m not so much the type for guided tours and therefore only did the most important ones. Those were:

• Valle de la Luna, Valle de la Muerte
• Geyser Tatio
• Laguna Chaxa, Lagunas Miscanti and Miñiques
• and an astronomic Tour

The trips were good but I prefer to do them by bike . I didn’t do the big tour across the Salar Uyuni and further to Bolivia. I really want to do this one by bike and I want to be surprised because it’s the first time. So that means I have to get back. Who is coming with?

Keep going

After a bit more than a week in San Pedro, I took again the bus back to Santiago. I’m very happy that I could spend the last two days at the place of a Chilenien friend. Muchas Gracias, Mari a te y todo la familia! I hope that was more or less correct Spanish.

So that’s it from South America. At least for now. I really hope to get here again on this journey. It was fantastic.

But first I will go to the USA. The second part of my journey is waiting there. I’m looking forward to it and hope, that you will travel with me again. It would be great.

Hear you soon,

Stefan

PS: Pictures from the San Pedro de Atacama region can be found in a separate album in the gallery. And yes, I completed all the older entries also in English. Enjoy!

Melipeuco – Conguillo – Curacautin
Volcano Llaima was on alert level yellow, which meant that an eruption can happen within days or weeks. When we were driving from Cunco to Melipeuco, we were of course the whole time looking if something can be seen. However, the volcano was hidden behing clouds and wasn’t visible till we reached Melipeuco. Luckily that changed when we were eating our sandwiches at the main placa; but no signs of an eminent eruption. Because we got different information about if the Parque Conguillo (volcano Llaima is in this one) is open or not, we decided to stay for the night in Melipeuco. If it would erupt, we would have a great view as well. But nothing happened and we went sleeping therefore…

At 3h in the night, there was suddenly a siren going off in the village. I haven’t been so fast out of the bed and on the window for a long time; but again nothing. Some people were running around on the street but that was it. As we learned later, it was a false alarm.
It was still not clear the next morning, if the park would be open or not. The Carabinieri in the village were very friendly but couldn’t give us a final answer as well. Therefore, we decided to just try it. This worked out pretty well so far. So we kept driving the hill upwards towards the park entrance. On the way we heard again the siren but ignored it. Also nobody was stopping us so far.
We finally reached the park entrance. And there, the barrier was really closed. We got told, that the volcano is on alarm level yellow and the park closed, therefore. After some discussions, he said that we would have to be again out of the park at 18h and wanted to know, if we could do that. That would be around 5.5 hours and we thought, that this should be possible (without really knowing how it would look like). He got the permission by radio and we were allowed to get in. But no over night staying and if we wouldn’t be out at 18h, the Carabinieri would search us…
So we kept going uphill. First through some forest and afterwards across older and never lava fields. The volcano was calm, the sandy road exhausting. But we took km after km and even had time for some picture taking stops. Finally, we reached the Araucanias (typical trees in this region) close to Laguna Conguillo. At that point we got a bit frustrated that we were not allowed to stay over night because it looked beautiful. But I could at least learn, that I had one of those trees just in front of my apartment in Lucerne, Switzerland .
We kept going and after some time, we reached the control within the park and registered us there as we were told. We should have any problem to be out on time, we thought. But just afterwards, the road got extremely steep and we weren’t that sure anymore… Surprisingly, we reached the end of the park already before the told 37km. We were one hour to early…
The road kept going down across an area which was devastated by hot avalanches during the eruption of 2008. Definitely not the place to be during an eruption…
Because everything was closed, we kept driving till Curacautin. And Llaima was already pretty far again…

Curacautin – Termas Manzanar – Curacautin
After the somehow exhausting ride yesterday, we went today to the Termas Manzanar. We planned to do that at the end of our journey but a hot bath is also good in between. We didn’t just soak in the hot water, we also enjoyed a very nice lunch there. And all together for around 30 USD. It’s almost unbelievable but we were really full afterwards and did not even think about getting some Kuchen on the way back so we really can recommend that; even for cyclists .
And there was something else as well. We were just doing the dishes, as we thought somehow to move around a bit. First idea was, that it was the wine which we had for dinner. But when we recognized, that also the rest of the kitchen was moving, it was clear: this is an earthquake. The question was now only, if it was a weaker closer one, e.g. the volcano Llaime or a stronger one, which happened further away. We got the answer already a very short time later on TV: It was a pretty strong one (7.1 on the Richter scale) and a few hundred kilometers away in the Maule region. There it was pretty heavy but luckily no Tsunami was generated. For me, it was a soft introduction to earthquakes.

Curacautin – Cherquenco – Vilcun
We had now the choice either more or less cycle straight to Temuco and finish our bike adventure for the moment or to cycle again closer to Llaime. We decided to do the second. Therefore, we were biking back on the road which we took two days ago. The volcano was still on yellow alert but nothing special could be seen. We decided after a few kilometers to stay for the night and to camp. Unfortunately not camping was really open; also not after waiting for several hours. And we were not really in the mood for wild camping. Therefore, we took the second time a cabana. And with it, we got a snoring dog . And for me the possibility to do again some night pictures.
After a great breakfast, which was brought to our cabana, we kept going uphill. The weather got hotter and hotter and the road worse. Big stones and sand forced us to push the bikes for a longer time. Extremely exhausting and slow. We were making just around 7km/h. But the landscape was great and we got a bit compensated for not being able to stay in Parque Conguillo.
We passed the Centro de Esqui (ski center) and drove down again. On the way, we made some pictures of Michu and me cycling. Probably the only ones we have . We planned to stay in the village Cherquenco but there was nothing. Therefore, we kept cycling till Vilcun and were pretty sure, that we would get something there. However, we had again a hard time to get a bed. Finally we got a room in a house. The bedroom was ok. The rest we better forget. But at least it was cheap and we had a bed .

Vilcun – Temuco
After a surprisingly relaxing night and a good breakfast, we drove further towards Temuco. Our last cycling day together. There is not much to say except that there was for sure less traffic on the carretera austral. We reached Temuco already around lunch time and went to the Hospedaje TribuPiren, which I already knew from my last journey. For celebrating the day and our journey, we went for dinner to an Italien restaurant in town. And the pizzas there were so big, that we were happy to walk back home for some time. But they were great, as the last 1.5 months together have been .

That’s it for now. Thank you very much for reading and writing! Maybe I will write some conclusion thoughts and other stuff about my last days in Chile. Depending on what I’m going to do. Otherwise, starting from mid of April, you will get here the news about the cycling journey from “Los Angeles (California) to Anchorage (Alaska)”.

All the best from the bus to Santiago,

Stefan

PS: As usual, the best pictures can be found in the gallery :-).

Entre Lagos – Puyehue

We were on the way to Argentina and would pass bye the active volcano Puyehue. I wanted to visit it but it seemed that this wouldnt be that easy. I didnt really think about this anymore. Therefore it was a very nice surprise as it got possible on the camping in the Parque Puyehue. Read the report about this trekking in the blog entry before.

Puyehuhe – Siete Lagos – San Martin de los Andes

After the trekking, we kept going towards Argentina. Right and left to the street, there were huge amouts of bimsstone and other eruptive material from Puyehue. It looked like snow but it wasnt. Several lagunas were completely covered by it. After a very sweaty ride up, we finally reached the top at around 1300m. We passed the Chilenien border already before without problems. Also the Argentinian one was fine because we ate the big portion of ham/cheese and bread which we got from some friendly car drivers before the border. They couldnt transport it into Argentina but we could; in our stomachs .
We stayed over night in already closed camping at the beginning of the Siete Lagos route. It only had a cold shower but was cheaper therefore. However, we were the only guests…
The next few days, we drove across the parc. Signs of the vulcanic eruption where frequently visible. And we could also feel them. Some parts were almost like a desert. Finally we reached San Martin de los Andes and enjoyed all the advantages of an Argentinien city like “All what you can eat” restaurants (Tenedor libre and fantastic bakeries.

San Martin de los Andes – Puerto Fuy – Conaripe

After a break day (yes, we are doing that sometimes too), where we met the Swiss cyclists Julie and Alex in our hostal, we kept going towards Chile again. Also this time across a mountain pass (when also a very low one) and further by ferry. Kind of similar to what we had planned in Ensenada. However, we expected it to be by far cheaper than the 280 USD the last time. We left San Martin around 10h and knew that the ferry will be at 16h. We would also have around 6 hours for the 60 km gravel road. That should be enough, we hoped. Otherwise we would have to wait another 24h for the next ferry….
We were pretty fast on the 50km to the boarder and also the Argentinians didnt make us any troubles. The Chilenians took it very serious and searched all our bags, also if not really in detail. Time got kind of short. However, the guy there ment, that its only around 8km far and everything down. The 8km were more or less right. But downwards was the view of a car driver. I for my part was hopeing the whole last part, that there wouldnt be any issue with the bike. At the end we had around 15 minutes left…
The ferry trip acrossss Lago Pirehueico took us 90 minutes and was only around 8 USD per person and bike. On we way we got entertained by a thunderstorm and because it was still raining when we arrived in Puerto Fuy, we also stayed there over night.
We kept going the next day. First fast down slope on a gravel road and then paved along Lago Pangupulli. Then we took the gravel road 201 and this one was partly very steep. So steep that you cant do it without some swearing…
We planned to camp somewhere before Conaripe for taking some pictures of volcano Villarrica at sunset. Unfortunately all campings where closed and there wasnt really another opportunity. Therefore, we drove till Conaripe and stayed at a hospedaje. But not before having a bath in the lake .

Conaripe – Villarrica – Cunco – Melipeuco

Over paved streets again we drove first to Lican Ray and bought there some nice Berlines (in Switzerland we call it Berliner) and empenadas which we ate a few kilometers further up the hill. We reached Villarrica already in the early afternoon and stayed there in the Hostel La Torre Suiza of Helena and Alonso. They took over the hostel from Claudia and Beat two years ago but will get back to Switzerland already in April. Two young Chilenians will be the hosts afterwards. Thats life. Everything is changing .
We decided not to climb volcano Villarrica and to drive further to Cunco and volcano Llaima. When I was serving the Internet in Cunco that evening, I couldnt believe my eyes: Volcano Llaime was on higher alert (yellow) since the day before. That ment that the volcano can erupt within days or weeks. Because of that seems Parque Conguillo (where Llaima is situated) to be closed or it can only be visited during the day. That means probably for us, that we cant visit the parc. But first we hope that an eruption is really going to happen and have our cameras ready. It would almost be unbelievable, if this would really happen but you never know .

All the best from Melipeuco,

Stefan

Its starting

During the night and still on Monday morning it was raining heavily again and it didnt look good. Luckily the weather got better in the afternoon and we could start the trip. First by car, afterwards by foot did it go up. With us Gonzalo the guide, Diego a young local employee and Mara, the dog. First through some forest where the trees where damaged through the eruption or better the ash and other eruptive material.
After around 1/3 of what we wanted to do today, we had to fill our water bags because there wouldnt be any drinking water available later on. The weight on the back got now really to the limit. Michus bag was even heavier because he was also carrying the tent (my backpack was too small for that).

In dense fog we reached the Refugio Puyehue in early evening. In and around the refugio was everthing covered by a thin layer of ash and also the air was pretty dusty. After a healthy portion of Spaghetti, we went to bed (or better in our sleeping bags). We will keep going tomorrow.

The volcano
We got waked up by the sun in the morning. The landscape looked much nicer in this weather although if there was still a lot of ash. After the breakfast (including cooked eggs!), we kept going. First in the direction of the central crater of the Puyehue volcano. Soon everything was covered by ash no grass or similar vegetation was visible anymore. Climbing got more and more difficult because the ash wasnt very stable and additionally rain had already eroded small canyons into it. We had to pay attention to not fall into those and damage knees or other body parts.
In the afternoon, the active part of the volcano (Caulle) got finally visible. First only the upper part of the plume but then also the crater area. I was impressed but also a bit disappointed, because the active area was still pretty far away and not really reachable because of the canyons. But our “camping” was great (especially after we adapted the mountain side a bit) and we had a pretty perfect view. Michu und I started immediatly to take pictures. Our guide Gonzalo prepared the dinner in the mean time. It was unbeliveable what he all got out of is backpack!
After sunset, also some glowing material got visible. However, it needed long time exposures to also make it visible in pictures.

And back down again
After a short night (I took some night pictures for time laps), we got a wonderful sunrise. What do you want more? It was hard to leave again but we had to go down. The backpacks were leighter but the path was still difficult and my feet and knees started to hurt. And I recognized, that I slowly dehydrated because I didnt drink enough. I didnt really trust the water in the bags and avoided to drink it therefore (which was a bit stupid when I already transported it up the mountain…). I was therefore happy when we reached the refugio again because there was a little stream which was good for drinking 24 hours ago. After some lunch, we kept going down. After walking down almost 1’500 meter, we finally reached our taxi again. I was pretty tired but at the same time very happy about our expedition. Thank you, Gonzalo! It was perfect!

Some pictures from the expedition can be found below. The best pictures as usual in the gallery. I created a special album for this. Enjoy! .

We already drove a bit further and are in San Martin de los Andes in Argentina. If everything works out, we will drive back to Chile tomorrow. We still have 12 days left together before we have to be in Santiago and there is still so much to see!

Thank you for reading and commenting!

Stefan

PS: You can read (in German) and see a lot of nice pictures in the blog of Michu as well!

Hornopirén-Contao

After it rained again the whole night, Petrus luckily cared about us poor cycslists and stopped it in the morning and sent the sun. We stocked up our food and left Hornopiren uphill. We passed the Termas de Pichicolo after around 15km but it was just to early for an hot bath, unfortunately. So we kept going; up, down and up.
Later in the afternoon, we finally reached the village of Contao and defined it as our destination for today. La Señora in the hospedaje served us with bread and butter and said that this is a gift. And we love gifts of course; especially if they are food .

Contao – Puelo

We started again by sun and passed by the ferry port of Caleta Puelche after 10km. From here the ferry drives to Caleta la Arena from where we could drive further to Puerto Montt. But because Puerto Montt was not our destination, we kept cycling along the fjord. This part looked very hilly on Google Maps, which was luckily not the case. And it offered a few great views to the surounding mountains and volcanoes. Therefore, we had to stop a few times to take pictures.
Just before Puelo a farmer stepped on the street. He was repairing fences, which wasnt that special. But he was wearing a T-Shirt with a big Sinalco Logo on his back. And there is not much more typical Swiss than this softdrink. He disappeared again as sudden as he arrived and we therefore will never know how he got this shirt….

Puelo – Cochamó

After we bought the last four appel empenadas of the hospedaje, we kept driving. Today it would only be a short drive because we also wanted to go hiking a bit in the Valle Cochamo. Lonely Planet was talking here about the Yosemite of Chile. Unfortunately our ride into the valley already stopped after a few km in a dirt hole. And because we didnt have the time to go hiking several hours, we just enjoyed to bath our feet in the river before we kept going to Cochame, the village. There we met a German couple (Mareike and Björn). They are travelling around the world and were already cycling before in New Zeeland. I had of course to ask some questions because New Zeeland is also on my list of the countries which I would like to cycle in. In South America they are traveling by bus and car.

Cochamó – Ensenada – Petrohué

The sun was our friend also today, which was almost a bit strange in the mean time. I guess the climate changed. The first 15km were gravel along the fjord but than it got paved again which we didnt expect that soon. However, we were fine with it . Soon we saw the perfect cone shaped volcano Osorno the first time. It would lead us till Ensenada where we stopped in an Internetcafe. Here we wanted to check the details about the journey by boat to Bariloche. What we saw was too much: The operator wanted to get 280 USD for this. And that with a luggage limit of 30kg. So we maybe would had to pay extra for the bikes. We were not willing to pay that much; it was the equivalent of 14 nights in a hospedaje. This for a few hours of boat and bus journey.
We decided to not do this and keep cycling on the Chilenien side instead. But we still visited the waterfalls of Petrohue and camped on the Lago Todos Los Santos.

Petrohué – Ensenada

It was our plan to make the siteseeing tour on the lake. However, the ships were so full that we did not even ask for a seat at the end. We drove directly to Ensenada instead. There we stayed in the nice Hospedaje Ensenada which is owned by German immigrants.

Ensenada – Entre Lagos

The first 40km were paved and along the slopes of volcano Osorno. we changed to a very dusty and bad gravel road up to Lago Rupanco afterwards. Luckily it changed there again back to paved till Entre Lagos, our destination for today. Not a very pretty town but I could at least get here a new spare tube for my bike . We saw frequently the eruption cloud of Volcano Puyehue Cordon Caulle on the way. We knew that it was active but didnt know which effect it still had on the streets. This seemed not to be really a problem (anymore) and we therefore decided to drive from here towards Argentina. Without a boat this time…

Now we are on the camping in Parque Nacional Puyehue and if everything works out (especially the weather) we are going to do a trekking to the active volcano. More about this later .

All the best,

Stefan

PS: The best pictures can again be found in the gallery .

Villa Santa Lucia – Puerto Cardenas

We had a hard time to leave our cabana; especiallly because it was very rainy and windy outside. But we finally left and made us on the way up the small pass. It got less windy but the rain got stronger. And our shoes slowely but surely got filled with water. On the way down again, I got cold as I never have been so far on this journey. We were thinking about staying in a lodge on Lago Yelcho therefore. However, the prizes were just outside of our budget. The camping there would have cost us 60 US$. Around sixfold what we pay normally which surprised us. And that without any special service.
So we just enjoyed the table tennis room for changing clothes, eating something and kept going afterwards towards the end of the lake. There we found a hospedaje (simple hotel) and payed for dinner, bed and breakfast around 50 US$ – for two person together…

Puerto Cardenas – Chaiten

It rained the whole rest of the day and also during the night. Luckily it got less in the morning. However, our clothes and shoes were still wet from yesterday. We kept going towards Chaiten but stopped on the way in the Termas El Amarillo and soaked in the 41°C hot water. We needed that. In the Termas we also met again Nicolas from Chaitur.com. I know him from my last trip in 2009. He brought some tourists to the hot springs. I took the chance to ask him a lot of questions for the next few days and he was as usual very helpful. Thank you, Nicolas!
With heavy legs (because of the hot water, nothing else), we drove again down the hill and further to Chaiten. We were pretty fast, because the road was paved again. The signs of destruction in this by a volcanic eruption in 2008 heavily hit city are still well visible. But things are getting better because the city gets now also officially rebuild. Electric power and the water system are working again. Also much more people live and work again in Chaiten. Its quite a difference to 2009 but a good one.

Chaiten – Caleta Gonzalo

After a few days in Chaiten and suroundings (were waiting for better weather), we kept going north to cross the fantastic Parque Pumalin (or better a part of it). We also passed by the volcano Chaiten. And we (especially I) couldnt just pass by here. We had to climb it. Also because this didnt work out in 2009. We reached the crater rim after around 90 minutes hiking up through the destroyed forest. Very impressiv. From the rim we had a great view on the newly build dom. This kind of volcanic features are build if the lava is very thick. If the pressure within the volcano is big enough, they get destroyed again through an explosion. However, the eruption has ended so far and only some degasing is still going on. I took the chance to create some panoramic picture with my camera and Michu created some time laps. Both will be available later, hopefully.
I could have stayed here for ever but we had to get down again; the sun was slowely setting. We reached the camping El Vulcan just before it was completely dark but there was enough time to take some pictures of the sunset. Just a question of priorities
It started again to rain heavily during the night and we had first to let the tents a bit dry in the morning before we kept going. We had lunch break at the camping Los Cascadas and made a picture taking safari to the water falls. Those pictures can be found in the galary, as usual. We drove further and had only a short break at the big Alerce trees. It rained heavily again in the mean time and didnt stop till we reached Caleta Gonzalos. We were again pretty desperate and thought that we could maybe rent a cabana there. However, it was with 130 US$ again by far outside of our budget and we had to camp therfore. This was free because the campsite was somehow officially closed…

Caleta Gonzalos – Hornopiren

It kept raining the whole night and the rain got another friend as well: heavy wind. I would even call it a storm, which made it difficult to sleep. Luckily there was a big covered area just next to our tents so that we could somehow dry our stuff and put everything together again in the morning.
For getting back to the street, we had to cross a river over a hanging bridge. Not that easy with a heavy bike. We were just getting our bikes ready as a pickup stopped next to us. Cesar, a joung chilenien guy asked us, we want to take the ferry and therefore want to put our bikes on his car. It was unbelievable but this was our goal and we just didnt know yet how we would do this. But great, problem already solved before even asked. Thank you very much, Cesar!
After a short meal in the restaurant, we drove on the ferry and sailed for around 20 minutes. Afterwards we (or better the car) had to drive around 10km to reach the next ferry. This part is probably the reason that cyclists by themself are not allowed on those ferries (or thats at least what we were told). After a few hours sailing with the second ferry did we finally reach Hornopiren where we stayed over night.

We will keep going north in the next few days. Puelo (where we are when Im writing this), Cochamo and Ensenada are some of our destinations. Afterwards we will probably go to Bariloche (Argentina). The latest updates can as usual be found in the right coloun under Twitter. And the best pictures in the gallery at http://pictures.biketravel.net . Those pictures are not shown below the text. Or of course also in the blog of Michu, with whom Im still travelling (and hopefully still for some time).

All the best from Puelo,

Stefan

PS: Some of the pictures below this article are from 2010. The street through the Parque Pumalin is repaired in the mean time.

Coyhaique – Villa Maniuales

As already written, there are some social unrest in the Aysen Region. As part of this, some of the street gets blocked. Because of this, there is a shortage of fuel in the region. Fuel is here not only used for cars but also to produce electrical power. Therefore, it wasnt that much of a surprise, when there was a total blackout when we were haveing dinner in Coyhaique the evening before we left. Our dinner was already prepared fortunately and we just got a candel light dinner . Power came back during the night though.
On the next day, we kept going with the bike. First over the pass next to Coyhaique, which I cycled now already the third time, down the valley and again up the next one. On the way we met a lot of cyclists. I have problably met that many on my whole cycling trip in 2009/2010. Shortly for Maniuales, we passed the first blockage but it was not active at that time anymore. However, because of the blockages at other places, there was not a lot of traffic, which was great for us cyclists.
In Maniuales itself, we stayed in the Casa de Ciclistas of the Chilenen Jorge. He is offering a place to stay to all passing cyclist. Thank you again, Jorge! That night there were 9 cyclists at this place…

Maniuales – Near Piedra del Gato

On the next day, we kept going north. First we passed without an issue the next blockage because we were cyclists. Afterwards we drove by sunshine through a wonderful area. On the way we heard from cyclists, that there was another blockage just before Villa Amengual. This one could only be passed every two hours; also by cyclists. After a longer lunch and picture break, we finally reached this blockage. And it was opened on time. Thats also Chile . We bought some food and drove over a little pass down to the Rio Cisnes valley. When I passed through here in 2010, the road was still gravel. However, now everything was paved. Shortly before Piedra del Gato, we found a place to camp at a farm. In the evening, we had the pleasure to listen with the guy there to Radio Coyhaique, which was hardly receiveable. And all this by candle light. Those are the very special moments on such a journey… During the night I made my first pictures of the night sky (see gallery).

Piedra del Gato – Puyuhuapi

After we dried our tents more or less (it always takes a long time…) we kept going. At the junction to Passo Quelat, the road changed again to gravel. Some parts of the road just got renewed and we had to push the bike up the steep path towards the pass. However, this time it felt less hard than when I did it in 2010. As steep it goes up one side, it goes down the other. On the way we met again multiple cyclists, like to sisters from Germany and a whole group from Chile. The Chilenien thougt, that the Camping at the Colgante glaciar could be closed because of the protests. Unfortunately, they were right and we kept a bit frustrated going till Puyuhuapi. At least the weather was great. After we passed again a road blockaged (this time without waiting), we stayed in the very nice Casa Ludwig, which is owned by the daughter of one of the founders of this village. Because the weather forecast was not good for the next few days, we stayed for another night. And because we couldnt just sit around, we paddled with a kajak through the bay. Was good to do once something with the arms and not just always with the legs.

Puyuhuapi – Villa Vanguardia

The protests kept going also today. One of the main goal seems to be, that the president and his minister come to the people and talk to them directly instead of sending just deputies and still deciding everything in Santiago. They see the blockage as the only way to get some attention also in the national medias. So far the media are only talking very little about the protests and mostly only on the negative parts, e.g. violance…
For us, the protests had still the positive side affect, that there was very little traffic. In scatering showers, we drove till Junta and bought there Empenadas and other food. We wanted to keep going and hoped to find a place to stay at the next few kilometers. That wasnt the case, unfortunately. Instead of a few km, we finaly got 40km. We hoped to find something in Villa Vanguardia but the owner of the hospedaje/camping was not in the mood to host anybody. We slept in a not finished Cabana, which was fine. At least it was dry.

Villa Vanguardia – Villa Santag Lucia

We left Villa Vanguardia again the next morning. Just a few km afterwards, we saw a sign where they offered coffee and bread. We had to stop there, of course. It definitively would have been a better place to stay over night… After a longer break, we kept going. It was pretty rainy today and we didnt drive that fast therefore. I was in my thoughts, when there was suddenly a very loud bang just behind me. Michu thought that somebody was shooting in the next town. However, it was my tire which now had a big whole in it. And a small crater was even visible in the gravel road…
It took some time to repair all that because I had to figure out that my spare material wasnt that great. Thats the risk if you dont have any issues for several thousand kilometers… However, with the help and patience of Michu, I finally fixed it and we kept going. It wasnt the idea to just get to Villa Santa Lucia today but we lost so much time because of the repair that we decided to stay there. We had again some issues to find a place for the night but got a cabana at the end. And it was a very nice one with a flat screen TV which even had two channels .

Tomorrow, we will keep going towards Chaiten. Hopefully the weather is getting a bit better again…

PS: The best pictures can again be found in the gallery.