Erich’s Journal – Leg
20 –Futaleufú,
Los Lagos, Chile to Los Antiguos, Santa Cruz,
Argentina – April 02 to April 13, 2002 –
12 Days
As I reached the Chilean Border, there was a young man hitch
hiking at the border. Stewart was here
to fly fish. He came all the way from
I couldn’t give him a ride, of course, but I did enjoy the
brief visit. He gave me a tip of where
to stay in Futaleufú for the night. I took advantage of it and actually met up
with him later that evening.
After visiting with him for a considerable amount of time, I
realized that life in bush
Stewart had been in
My ride today was a windy one. My pace was slow as I turned west and passed
through the mountains to
Although it was mainly downhill for me today, the headwind
still made it slow going. My overall
average was less than 8 mph.
(See photos 2208, 2209,
2210, 2211,
2212, 2213,
2214, 2215,
2216 and 2217)
Formalities at the border were routine. I have crossed 16 borders on this trip. I will cross three more before it is
done. The migración
officers are having a tough time finding room in my passport for fresh
stamps. I also had to remember to change
my clock back one hour from GMT -3 hours to -4 hours, putting me 5 hours
earlier than
I bought groceries in Esquel this
morning, including two bananas, two oranges, and two granny smith apples. Shortly after I realized that
The first 15 miles today were pavement. The last 30 miles were gravel. The next 250 miles will be gravel. It is my hope that after I get out of the International Pass that the west to east wind will die for I still have to head another 70 km to the west before I head south on the Carretera Austral.
Tonight I stay in a residencial (See photo 2222)
Rain. Rain. Rain. Its only positive attribute I can think of
right now, is that it helps me sleep at night, knowing that I am in a warm
sleeping bag in a well staked out tent, while it softly beats on the rain fly
above.
The incredibly scenic ride through the fiord-type valleys
has brought me within a few miles of the
According to the South American Handbook, one-third of
The Camino Austral, on which I traveled the last 10 miles or
so of my day, seems to be in better shape and is flatter. I found a pull off, a road that leads to the
side of a good size river. I set up camp
by its shore. Slightly larger than the
Although I was fortunate that it
had not rained on me all day, nor did it rain on my in the evening when I
cooked, it has been raining since I got into my tent. The mileage done today was low, but
time-consuming. With the pitter-patter
of the rain, I think I will sleep well tonight.
(See photos c 2242 and 2243)
When it rains, it pours – both figuratively and
literally. It was a trying day for me.
When I awoke, it was still raining -- still pouring. I remember when Brian and I were in
I chose to get going, for I knew the daylight hours were
getting shorter and I did not believe that the rain was going to let up.
And it didn’t.
I packed the wet tent, which did not sit too well in my
mind. This meant I should try to find
accommodations tonight so I did not have to spend the night in an uncomfortable
situation.
The Carretera Austral is described
as pavemiento ripio, which
means paved with stones. I am glad it
was not dirt, for the mud would be horrendous.
My average the past few days has been about seven and a half miles per
hour. With stops, it works out to be
closer to five and a half. Putting in a
50-mile day is a task that takes from sunrise to sunset.
I hit a pothole very hard around
One of my bungees disappeared a
few days ago, so occasionally my clothes dry bag, which is situated on top of
the BOB bag, tends to slip off and drag on the ground. In this case, it was the mud. My extra rope, was not packed where I could
get easy access so I chose to stop often to re-situate the dry bag.
In the afternoon, my chain snapped. This is the first time this has happened to
me on this trip. No doubt, the mud on
the chain caused the stress on it. I had
to add a link and put it together as well as clean it, during the very hard
rain.
Normally I can take a little rain from time to time because I know the sun will
eventually come out which makes a very miserable experience go away almost
instantly. I had a bad feeling, however,
about this day. I sense the sun may not
come out until I get back over the
The day’s route took me through one town, La Junta, about 35
miles along. I could have stopped early
and gotten a residencial, but my desire to get 50
miles in so that I could make it to Coihaique in
three days, overcame that urge. It was
not the most pleasant looking town. A
map on the gas station wall indicated a small settlement about 15 miles ahead
at the river crossing of Los Cesares. At that settlement, it had a hotel
symbol. I would shoot for it.
I cycled on. The rain
did too.
At about
I kept going.
About 15 minutes later, I saw a small round sign to the
right that said, “Restaurant”. I thought
wouldn’t it be nice if it was a “hospedaje”. Another sign appeared a hundred meters
away. It said “Café”. A hundred meters away another sign said,
“Camping”. I was picturing setting up
the wet tent in my mind, trying to psych myself for sleeping on a wet floor. It did not sit well. A hundred meters away another sign said
“Hotel”
I wanted to cry with joy.
The poor woman host did not know what to think, when I rode
up. As I was standing at the reception
desk, she handed me a pen to fill out the very clean registration card. I paused, because my hands were covered with
grease and mud and I did not wish to get her counter and card muddy and
greasy. I wiped them on my pants, which
made them worse.
It was actually a 5-star resort. In the off-season, my cabaña came to
$47.00. Although it does not look that
attractive with my wet clothes, tent and gear strung out in the various rooms
drying by the baseboard heaters, I am not complaining. I am leaving a ring of dirt and bicycle
grease in the tub – one that I sat in for nearly an hour.
So as I sat sipping at my
cabernet sauvignon, eating my asparagus salad, and listening to the rain beat
down on the roof, I was wondering what that barn would have been like. (See photos 2243, 2244,
2245, 2246, and 2247)
After a great night sleep in a great place, I ate breakfast
in the lodge before I left. The fresh
fruit, crepes, hot bread and coffee was the way to start the day. It did not matter that the rain was still
pouring as it did last night.
There was only one other group staying at this hotel, El Pangue (Check this place out at www.elpangue.cl) This group was a German
family, in which one of the family members worked for a travel agency and was
out looking for hotels to promote.
I discovered when I checked out,
they didn’t take credit cards like it advertised on the door. The host claimed it was due to the special
rate that I was given. The special rate
for the cabaña, breakfast and dinner was close to $74.00. That’s the most special I’ve been this whole
trip. It took all but about $25 of my
pesos. Since there are no more banks
between here and Coihaique (3 days ride away), the
$25 will have to get me through until then.
I set out to tackle the day, feeling as refreshed as
ever. Much like yesterday, the hills on
the gravel road were slow going. I broke
my chain again, this time the rain had let up for a bit while I fixed it. (See photo 2248)
I stopped briefly in the town of
I stopped to cook lunch off the
As I soon figured out, I was going to camp. The 63 miles I intended to do, was
unrealistic for the terrain was rough.
The last 5 miles was a steep climb with several switchbacks that took me
two hours to maneuver.
Where I camped was beautiful. There was a glacier in full view, a huge
waterfall to the south of it. Near my
tent was a silt-colored lagoon with a waterfall flowing into it. If the temperature would be warmer and the
sun shining, it would have been a spectacular camp. (See photos 2256,
2257, 2258, 2259
and 2260)
The rain let up. I
cooked my usual dinner of noodles with soup, with a side of cookies, chips and
chocolate. Hot lemonade was my drink of
the night.
The winds picked up shortly
after I climbed into bed. The rain began
to really come
down. One of the flaps of my rain fly
was not fully staked down due to the rocky ground under the tent. It caused some moisture problems by
morning. Other than some condensation, I
stayed pretty dry and warm throughout the night.
I had the same start as two days ago. It seemed colder this time. I think the 1900-foot elevation played some
part of it. I had camped at about 500
foot two nights ago. This mountain pass
was very windy this morning. I packed my
gear, which was soaking wet. There was
no way I could camp tonight.
I need to find some water resistant gloves in Coihaique. I am
currently carrying three pairs. I soaked
two of them through right away during the days ride. I usually ride without, but as I said, today
was cold.
I passed through three national parks the past two days – Reserva Nacional Lago Rosselot, Parque Nacional Queulat and Reserva Nacional Lago Las Torres. There was more messy
road construction too. (See photo 2261)
I met two travelers with backpacks along the highway. They were David and Tom from
I also met a solo cyclist who was heading north. Kevin, from
I am starting to wonder about staying on the Chilean side or
not. This has been the worst riding
conditions for me on this entire trip.
Two weeks ago, my toughest dilemma was wondering how I was going to get
my laundry done. Now I am wondering how
I am not going to get hypothermia. I
need to avoid camping here as much as possible.
If I have dry gear, I can camp comfortably, but the next day is painful
as most everything is soaked from the beginning of the day. I was told today that the annual rainfall for
this area is 4 meters (157 inches). That
is a lot of precipitation. Even though
my guidebook states that it rains all year, the locals say that April and May
are the wettest months of the year.
I had debated whether I should go to
I do not know. All I
know is that I hate the cold rain. I
hate it as much as Brian hated the desert.
What I would give right now to be camping again in the Atacama wearing nothing but shorts and a hat. How things can change so fast.
Don’t get me wrong, the terrain is the most spectacular
thing I have seen on this trip. It is
just rather hard to enjoy when you are freezing your cohones off and you are wondering
where your next warm bed will be.
I finally reached paved road (unmarked on the map and
unexpected), which increased my mileage considerably in the afternoon. In fact, I made it to my destination, nearly
one and a half hours earlier than anticipated.
I am in a hospedaje, staying in a plain but
dry room. They did not seem to mind that
I was dragging in some muddy bags. This room
was also one-tenth the cost of El Pangue. I cannot complain. I am chilled to the bone as I staying in my
sleeping bag for most of the evening.
Dinner was a delicious steak, mashed potatoes, sliced
tomatoes, and fresh bread -- for about one tenth of my meal at El Pangue.
The road to Coihaique from here
should be paved all the way. I plan to
take a day off to get my bike cleaned, do internet, do laundry (now my
insignificant problem), and rest. It has
been 9 days since my last break in Bariloche.
A note I would like to make is
that the next stretch from Coihaique to El Califate should be the most remote on this trip. I will have close to a 7 days stretch on the pampa (
So far, I have seen it spelled Coihaique,
Coyhaique, and Cohaique on
various street signs, maps and literature.
I guess it just does not matter.
I read once where
I made it finally.
The rain cleared up too. I read
that due to the location of the Northern Glacier Field (Campo de Hielo Norte), which is just south of here, the weather here
and south to Chile Chico is drier for the most part. I awoke this morning, cold, but with blue
skies. Looks like a great day to dry my
gear out.
Yesterday’s ride was paved.
(See photos 2263, 2264, 2265,
2266, and 2267)
The 55 miles went rather quickly compared to recent days. I ran across three Australians on bikes
heading south. I think their names were
Cal, Fiona, and Joe. (It was a wet one
and no pens and paper came out. I did
not get pictures either – batteries were dead).
They left Ushuaia on March 20 and are working their way to Puerto Montt. They verified
too that the ferry crossing at Villa O’Higgins is on Winter Mode now so my best
bet was to head across the Pampa del Asador in
Coihaique is a rather large city
compared to anything that I have been too since Bariloche. With a population of 37,000, it has all the
comforts that I found during my other rest stops – restaurants, stores, hotels,
laundromats and internet. (See photo 2268)
I chose to stay in a room at hospedaje. I get
free use of the kitchen. There is also a
wood stove downstairs so I can dry out some of my gear. My tent, riding clothes, gloves, and shoes
are soaked through. The temperatures are
in the 30’s - 40’s (0 – 10 degrees Celsius).
There are snow-covered mountains all the way around.
It was by far my coldest day yet. According to the owner of the residencial, where I am staying, it is not typical for this
time of the year. Camping would not have
worked too well for me tonight. I needed
to get inside a building. Although the
room was / is cold, the piping hot shower I took seemed to warm me up
immensely. The hot soup and roast beef
with mashed potatoes helped as well.
The day’s ride took me out of Coihaique
to the west, then south, (see photos 2269,
2270, and 2271) climbing up to an elevation of 2000
feet. The views were spectacular as one
could see 50 miles in any direction. The
terrain now is more arid than what I had a few days ago to the north. The autumn colors of the native trees here
are pretty with red and orange colors.
Snow lies on the tops of all the mountains.
I had a tailwind too for most of the time. The morning was below freezing. As the sun came over the mountains, however,
it warmed up such that I road until late afternoon with just my cycling jersey
and tights – no jacket.
I entered
I met another cyclist heading north today. Carl, from
He said there were plenty of services along the way, where I
was thinking there were very few. He
talked about a number of estancias along the route where one could get a rather
expensive room, dinner, and breakfast if needed. He camped most of the time as he was on a low
budget. Again, my perception of the
The residencial owner and I talked
a bit during dinner. It was rather
comfortable, as he had gotten the woodstove going just for me. It must be kind of a pain to get the whole
place going for just one person, but I was very appreciative of his work.
He said he lived in
Now I lay in a bed with three very thick wool blankets on it
as I type this entry. Creature comforts
make painful events tolerable.
What is the plus to this part of the journey, you might
ask? I can see the beautiful Campo de Hielo Norte and Campo de Hielo
San Valentin from here. These sights make it all the worthwhile. I am also learning that the further south I
go, the more similarities with
For the day’s
dessert? Bananas, sliced, topped
with some kind of liquor. I also was
able to see some elderly British people roaming around town with shorts
on. Listening to them attempt to speak Castillano with no attempt at pronouncing words correctly
was just short of comical.
It was a long ride today.
As I usually say, it was incredible.
The autumn colors are becoming more awesome each day. The road went toward the west today close to
the Campo de Hielo San Valentín,
which is a glacier field. Just below
that is another big one called Campo de Hielo
Norte. I will be passing by both of
those as I head south tomorrow. (See photos
2284, 2285,
2286, 2287,
2288, 2289,
2290, 2291
and 2292)
I am just on the north side of Lago
General Carrera.
I will spend the next 4 days cycling around it. The lake is a long lake that stretches east
and west. Half the lake is in
I had eight and a half hours of riding time today. That is pretty long considering there is only
11 hours of daylight. I stopped to cook
breakfast and lunch too, along the way.
I am currently in a small
I am glad I went this
route. The trees, glaciers, mountains,
and streams are simply incredible.
I began with a stormy sunrise. (See photo 2296)
By
The guidebook does not mention anything about the
relationship between
I do notice that crossing the border is not common by either
nationality, but I would say I see more Argentinos
cross into
When I was in
I am staying again in an expensive resort. (See photos 2307 and 2308)
This time I did not check in to escape horrible weather as I did a week
ago, for the weather was almost summer-like yesterday. This was sort of a spur of the moment
decision. I saw the sign. I thought I would check the price. It was $20,000 -- about 60% of the one last
week. This one has a very nice suite
with a big king sized bed with a big screen satellite TV. This place is not open all year; in fact, it
looks as though they are shutting down very soon. The kitchen is closed and he had to bring in
a portable heater for me because the fireplace was cleaned and he did not want
to dirty it. It had been close to three
weeks since I saw a TV, so I was engrossed in the incredible variety of news
channels available to me.
The ride today was more arid as the lake sits low in
elevation and the road skirts it. The
sky was clear blue. The lake is an
incredible green color from Glacier silt.
The Campo de Hielo Norte stood out in contrast
to the sky and lake that was just breath taking. Tomorrow I travel northeast along the south
shore of the lake. (See photos 2302, 2303, 2304, 2305, and 2306)
I will not be able to make it to Chile Chico, as it is a bit
too far. I ran into some road construction
yesterday and waited for nearly 2 hours as they buried a drainage pipe in the
road. I guess since only a few cars pass
each hour they did not feel it was necessary to plan a detour route around the
construction. Therefore, I sat and
watched them work. (See photos 2300 and 2301)
A group of young traveling Isrealis
was in Puerto Tranquilo as I passed through and
stopped for coffee. They were interested
in the BikeAmericas Project. They were
all fluent in English. I am meeting more
and more backpacking type tourists it seems the further south I go. (See photo 2299)
The past three days have been some of the most peaceful on
this trip. Traffic is basically
nil. I stopped for lunch today
overlooking the lake. There was no wind,
no noise. Occasionally I would hear a
chainsaw that was several miles away.
Other than that, it was silent.
I paralleled the south shore today, winding up and down
cliff sides. The road was not as good as
the Camino Austral, ruta 7, which I had turned off
right away this morning. At best, I
cruised all day at less than five mph. (see photos 2309, 2310,
2311, 2312, 2313, 2314, 2315, 2316, 2317, 2318, 2319,
2320, 2321,
and 2322)
I have been circumventing this lake for 3 days now. Tomorrow will be the fourth. I can see the Cerro Castillo across the lake
where I stayed at its base two nights ago.
I have come in a semicircle.
Perhaps it would have been quicker to take the ferry across from Pto. Ing Ibañez, but I would have missed the Northern
Glacier and this awesome route.
Toward the end of the day, the road and shoreline swung more
toward
Tomorrow I shall reach Chile
Chico, where originally I was thinking of a day off. Due to the low mileage I have been acquiring,
I will press on, as I would like to arrive in Calafate
on the 21st, the day before Marc gets in.