“Wake up Guys! You gotta see Fitz Roy”, is how Peter, (from London), rousted us at dawn.  Thanks, Peter.  We had all morning to see it in the changing light, drinking coffee around the campfire before loading our bikes for the boat trip across Lago del Desierto.  Then it was just 37 km on a decent gravel road to El Chaltén, (the newest town in Argentina), founded in 1985 as a base for tourists and to protect Argentina’s claim to a disputed boundary with Chile.  We celebrated over beer and pizza with the other cyclists that night and at a typical Argentine parilla (barbeque) , the next afternoon.

Monte Fitz Roy, or Chalten (3405m); -2C at dawn from Lago del Desierto.

Fitz Roy towers almost 3000m (10,000') above Lago del Desierto.

7 bikes make the final boat crossing after cycling the Carretera Austral.

Julian fills our water bottles, unfiltered, from a roadside waterfall.

Shauna roasts more veggies than meat for an atypical Argentine parilla.

We walked our bikes most of the 16k up from Lago O'Higgins on a bad gravel road to the border with Argentina.

Or last day in Chile began…

We are rewarded with this view of Fitz Roy on a nice segment of road through woods.

A primitive 6k trail greets us in Argentina.

Julie tumbled over her bike going down a steeply trenched part of the trail.

We got filthy fording streams & mud.

Here began our treacherous, final steep descent to Lago del Desierto.

Glenda's wood-fired stove, oven, and hot water heater.

Julie is cycling on borrowed tire (like living on borrowed time), and it is holding up well. Thank you Shauna!  We started out on a cool, crisp morning with fresh bread that Glenda baked in her wood-fired oven, and cheese from the corner store.  We met Chilean cyclists Nikolo and Leona heading north and found out more about the sin represtas protest signs we’ve been seeing.  Starting in 2012, high-tension power lines will be blotting the landscape from a new hydroelectric dam in the south (that won’t produce electricity until 2027) to power copper mines in the north of Chile.  So now is the last chance to see this pristine landscape unspoiled.  Meltwater from nearby snow-capped peaks creates waterfalls everywhere you look, cascading down from craggy heights.  It rains almost every day in Puerto Aysen (on the coast), but it is sunny today on the Carretera Austral just 17 km away; and the land is noticeably drier in Coyhaique, 63 km inland.  We found wider tires to fit both our bikes at a good bike shop here, but Julie will keep riding on borrowed tire because it is easier to carry the folding Schwalbe spare in her panniers.

Chileans Nikolo & Leona cycling north from Caleta Tortel to Bariloche.

Dawn along Rio Manihuales.

Eugenio at Figon bike shop fixed our bikes.

View at dusk from Coyhaique.

Lago de Las Torres

The 7am bus failed to stop for Julie, and we thoroughly enjoyed a practically perfect day of cycling. We made it 20k from town before Julie’s tire starting to bulge through my patch when Canadians Julian and Shauna (cycling from Cusco to Ushuaia) stopped to visit, joined by Philip from Austria. Shauna said “I don’t know why I’m still carrying my old tire that blew out”, and let us have it.  It is a 700c x 35 wide tire, better than we’d expect to find anywhere in this part of the world.  I cut out a short section of Julie’s tire to line the inside of Shauna’s, covering her blown-out hole (a trick I learned in India), and glued it in place. The tire still has good tread left on it and may make it all the way to Ushuaia, (but we’ll still look for a spare when we get to Coyhaique.)

We can clearly see the mountains and waterfalls on this mild, sunny day on a mostly paved section of the Carretera Austral with the wind at our back. We don’t need to rush to Coyahaique now and the only other town is just halfway, so we have time to chat with all the other cyclists we meet. We joined Martina and Fazl for lunch by a mountain stream on the 45th parallel (I started cycling at 45º N latitude). They’re a Swiss and Pakistani couple cycling north from Calafate to Bariloche. Soon after we parted we met a British couple heading north from Ushuaia. Coming into town we met Phillipp, a cycle rickshaw driver from Dresden, Germany smoking a cigarette by the side of the road. Phillipp had recently split up with Andreas, who we met a few days ago, after cycling together for three months from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia and now going north. We ate dinner tonight with American cyclists Deborah and Arnold from Seattle who also stayed at our hostel last night and are cycling south, like us.

Shauna gave Julie a blown-out spare tire here, accompanied by Julian & Philip.

Fazl & Martina on the 45th parallel.

Brits Jay & Jenny cycling north from Ushuaia.

Lupines & mountains along the Manihuales valley.

The road along Puyuhuapi Fiord.

Colgante hanging glacier above the Carretera Austral.

Julie’s front tire blew out at the end of a long rainy day on muddy gravel roads. We don’t have a spare tire. Ten days ago we put on her only spare to replace the rear tire that had worn out after only 2,000 km. Every bike shop since then has had only narrow racing tires that fit her 700c wheels. We were planning to get wider tires in the regional capital of Coyhaique, 130 km away. So Julie will take her bike on the 7 am bus to get a new tire there tomorrow, and I’ll bike hard to make it there in one day. A festival celebrating this town’s 27^th anniversary is happening tonight and our hostel’s cafe is closed. All we had for dinner was tea and cake at another hostel, then fried potatoes at the celebration. There are seven long-distance cyclists staying in this little town tonight, including us.

Traveling with David on his recumbent is like traveling with a beautiful woman. All over South America he has turned heads, from toddlers to young men and women to old men and women. While riding to Cuenca, Equador I began formulating my own lyrics to one of David’s favorite songs “The Girl from Ipanema” to describe what it is like riding behind him. Somewhere in the deserts of Argentina the song was finished. Thanks to the Lewis family’s mp3 player we are able to post it to the blog and share it with you:
Fast and sleek mp3

Julie sings for Jonathan & Dawn Lewis.

The rains have returned after a rare week of sunny days in this temperate rain forest.  Since it is only a light mist and, occasional sun, I don’t bother putting on my rain gear.  We met three cyclists heading north from Ushuaia, who had also seen Goat (of  Riding the Spine).  Little traffic passed for the hour we talked about the road ahead.  The rain increased and continued through the night as we arrived in this town settled by Germans from Sudetenland (now part of the Czech Republic) in 1935.  We are taking a rest day here to do laundry as the rain continues.

Suspension bridge over the Rio Palena.

Finnish cyclists Temol & Sebastian. Ian (center) is British.

Rainy day lunch next to a warm stove in Puyuhuapi.

Carlita, Josefa & Luka.

After waiting for our clothes on the line to dry more, we packed up and climbed to the high point on the carretera (650m). The surface of the road is worse than expected and I realize that I could put wider tires on my bike to get better traction. We had to get off our bikes and walk for about a fourth of the last 6k to the top. Julie started feeling weak in the afternoon, due to a cold (and we discovered that the cookies we ate were over a year out-of-date) so we are staying at a smaller town than planned, with a view of Cerro La Emperatriz, which resembles the Matterhorn.

Parque Pumalin is privately owned by The Conservation Land Trust.

The pavement ended on the Carretera Austral after the first 31 km on a sunny day with snow-capped peaks poking up everywhere. We ate a gourmet lunch at a lakeside hotel then camped nearby. After washing clothes we took the 6k hike through this temperate rain forest to get closer to the Ventisquero Yelcho glacier.  We passed by Pumalín Park, a nature sanctuary owned by The Conservation Land Trust which was founded by Douglas Tompkins; an American billionaire who started North Face outdoors gear and Esprit clothing.   Though many Chileans are skeptical of a foreign-owned national park, they seem pleased to have it saved from development.

Reflections in the Rio Yelcho.

The Ventisquero Yelcho glacier.

Julie in Wonderland, under a canopy of Nalca, or Pangue, leaves. They look like gigantic rhubarb plants, and their stalks are also edible.

Castro harbor at low tide.

Valentine’s Day is the anniversary of our first date. Little did we know then that ten years later Julie would be following me to the ends of the earth. We crossed the Gulf of Corcovado on a seven hour ferry ride that showed a pirated copy of the movie Avatar. Two years ago Chaiten was buried buy mud after a volcano heated up and melted a glacier. The town was evacuated in time so that no one was hurt. The government has decided to move the town and has not restored the power and water systems; but many of the townspeople have no plans to move. (We heard that the day after we left, the town was put on yellow alert due to volcanic activity).

Mud flows buried Chaiten in May, 2008.