We slept for eleven hours, I guess we needed the rest.  We have just a short 29 km ride into town where we will take an extra day of rest to do laundry and update this blog.  We had our first hot meal in three days at a tenedor libre (free fork) all-you-can-eat restaurant.  This town is on the huge Lago Nahuel Huapi.  We’ll bike to the popular tourist town of Bariloche on the other side, then take a ferry across another arm of the lake to Chile.  Look for the red-barked Arrayan tree in the movie Bambi.  Walt Disney visited this area before releasing Bambi in 1942.

The Arrayan, or Chilean Myrtle, tree.

We woke up to two degrees Celsius and went to the camp store for hot coffee. The pavement ended; and slowed down by the scenery and talking to domestic tourists we decided to camp one more night on another beautiful glacier-carved mountain lake. We are saving money by using our new tent,(and have camped out for five of the last six nights), though campgrounds here cost more than hotels in Bolivia.  We slept to the sound of a waterfall as the full moon rose overhead.

Lake scene while waiting for road construction.

Mountains on the border with Chile across Lago Villarino.

We slept to the sound of the waterfall.

Cyclists come here from all over Argentina and Brazil to bike on the Seven Lakes Road between San Martin and Villa La Angostura; many camped near us in our campground last night.  This is also high season for tourists, but traffic is low with today’s cooler temps.  We stopped at a tea house for tea and cake, warming up by a fire.  An endangered Patagonian Huemul (South Andean Deer) crossed the road in front of us. (and, yes, we are in Patagonia now).  After buying home-baked bread and sweet bread at a scenic overlook we coasted down to a nice campground on this beautiful mountain lake.  Dawn and Jonathan Lewis, and daughter Heather,  from Washington state are our campsite neighbors.  We visited around their campfire as temps dropped into the single digits (Celsius).

A close-up of Lupines, like those pictured above.

The Vulinanco cascade along the 7 Lakes Road.

Dawn on Lago Falkner.

Julie sings for Jonathan & Dawn Lewis.

We stopped at the Bike Hostel here, owned by Maxi, an enthusiastic bike fanatic.  He had Julie’s pedal fixed by his mechanic, an American named Goat.  Two weeks ago Goat completed cycling from Alaska to Ushuaia, barefoot!  He is 1/3 of Riding the Spine, who we’d heard about from the Cycling Nomads; then read about in Lucho’s logbook at the Casa de Ciclistas in Trujillo, Peru. His bike is a Surly longbike (made in Minnesota) with tires as wide as a motorcycle’s.  They cycled off-road (80% unpaved) along the continental divide of the Americas, hence they were “riding the spine”.

Goat & his Surly longbike.

Drier climes here in the "rain shadow" of the Andes.

Volcan Lanin (3747) and a Monkey Puzzle tree (Araucaria Araucana), the national tree of Chile.

We’re back in Argentina after a month in Chile.  Though we chose a road that is mostly paved, the 40 km of gravel was so bad that we had to get off our bikes and walk for 6 km.  After crossing the border at 6 pm we knew we wouldn’t make it to the nearest town tonight, and weren’t prepared to camp.  Luckily, a small store at a national park trailhead carried meager provisions; so we bought a can of tuna, a can of beans, and a bottle of beer.  Cycling downhill with the wind was slow-going until we reached pavement and then flew for the last 40k in an hour-and-a-half.  We are camping wild near rapids on the Malleo river and a cold meal from cans never tasted so good.

The cleats on my bike sandals are so worn down they barely grip the pedal. (There should be a point on the top/front of the cleat)

Our new tent beside the Malleo river.

Today we circled the volcano we've been long approaching.

We biked with Alex for 25 km to Pucon along the the scenic lakeshore; but high-season tourist traffic makes it hard to enjoy.  We parted ways after lunch, as Alex will spend more time on the Chilean side of the Lakes region while we are heading directly to Argentina.  We had a nice roadside chat with Argentine cyclist Nelson, who is on a three-week tour visiting relatives in Chile.  His father fled to Neuquen, Argentina to escape the brutality of the Pinochet regime.  The road is more tranquil now since leaving Pucon.

Alex Monty

Argentine cyclist Nelson, on a three-week tour.

Volcan Villarrica (2840m) dominates the skyline as we draw nearer (60 km).

After an easy ride following the wide Tolten river valley to Lago Villarrica we caught up with cyclist Alex Monty, who we met two weeks ago.  We shared a campsite and our life stories with him in this popular tourist area.  Alex is taking a year off from working as a computer game animator (the dream job of my boys’ generation).  The snow line is much lower here (maybe 1500m) than further north, making these mountains seem higher.  In Ecuador the snow line was around 4500m; and even on Aconcagua, only 800 km north, the snow line is above 3000m.

Volcan Villarrica is visible from 120 km away.

We cycled only 30 km today, just about our shortest day ever, so we could watch the movie Avatar (in 3D!) in this large city.  Serendipitously, the new mall it is located in also has camping gear.  We bought a better tent (that is waterproof), and two sleeping pads.  We can save money as we head into the more expensive Lakes Region by staying in campgrounds, and further south the towns will be too far apart to find lodging.

We talked to a farmer who is harvesting over 300 hectares (1,000 acres) of barley, for making into beer.  The road stays on a fairly level plateau, then drops down into 200m deep valleys that we have to climb out of again and again.  We’re not sure if we’ll find a town with lodging, but find a nice friendly hostal here for half the price of last night’s.

Mean, ugly flies the size of bumblebees.

Our hostal host Victor, and Duke.

Strong headwinds convinced us to cut short our planned day from 110km to 72km. We didn’t have that option in the deserts of NW Argentina where towns are further apart. I replaced our chains in a mid-afternoon break. The old chain has stretched so much that it bends into a perfectly round “O”. The new chain will only bend into a “U” shape. This is my sixth chain so far this trip and Julie’s fourth.

My old chain after 4300 km.