Aussie Brian(center) cycling north, Spaniards Gari & Santiago going south.

Though we can’t keep up with the Spaniards, we are pushing hard to make the Wednesday boat trip across Lago O’Higgins.  At dusk we wild camp along the greenish-grey glacier-fed Rio El Paso.  I skinny-dipped in the ice-cold water in the dark just to wash off sweat. Mosquitos are thick for the first time this trip as we eat cold tuna fish from a can with onions and bread.

Breakfast log along the Rio El Paso.

Making coffee without a pot.

I’m starting to enjoy “slumming it” like most other cyclists we meet; after verifying that, indeed, we cannot get cash in Cochrane. That’s how I cycled my first time around. Until now, on this trip, we’ve been living high on the hog, not worried about running out of money. We pooled all our emergency cash (some hidden in the seatpost) and after buying three days worth of food for the last, remote section of the Carretera Austral; think we have enough to make it to Argentina. We’ll be in trouble if the finicky ATM in El Chaltén is out of cash, though many businesses will accept Visa. We meet another Spanish cyclist in our campground, Gari; who will team up with Santiago. Though both are Spaniards, Gari calls himself Basque and Santiago is Catalan, from Barcelona. We heard about the Chilean earthquake that struck 1,000 km north of here today and briefly saw TV images, but didn’t realize the full extent of the damage. Not until several days later, after other cyclists mentioned that worried family members had contacted their embassies, did it occur to us that not updating this blog for our week in the wilderness might cause some to worry.

The Rio Baker will be dammed here to produce hydroelectricity.

A well-organized opposition has little chance with Chile's new, pro-business president.

Western shore of Lago General Carrera.

Today is spent cycling the western shore of Lago General Carrera, (called Lago Buenos Aires on the Argentine side), largest of the many deep, glacier-carved lakes dotting the Patagonian Andes (roughly south of 39° S latitude). We meet Spanish cyclist Santiago at the hospedaje we are camping at, who is cycling south from Bariloche, and had previously biked with Arnold and Deborah from Seattle. Three Brazilians, who just graduated with geology degrees are also staying here. We stay up late discussing a variety of important topics.   Santiago is an engineer working for the European Commission, which he thinks is doomed to fail.

Lakeside picnic hors d'oeuvre: mermelada y queso en galleta.

We meet Shauna, Julian, and Philip here for lunch on the beach. After spending $8 on a delicious chocolate merengue pie and $20 for a boat trip to the caves of Marmol we realize the need to pinch our pennies before we run out of cash. After finding all the hospedajes full or owners absent in this little tourist town, we camp at one to get the laundry done while the sun still shines.

Another emerald green glacier-fed lake.

We have 98 km of ripio (gravel road) to cycle before the next town. We do make it, barely, after a very bad 20k stretch early in the day when we doubted we would. The gravel was so loose we needed to walk our bikes on level ground, until a watering truck passed and we could peddle before the moistened road evaporated. Two Japanese geologists, and a Brazilian grad student, staying at our hostel are studying nearby volcanoes.

Nature's palette of mixing waters.

Castle-like Cerro Castillo (2675m)

We depart Coyhaique on a perfectly sunny day, with the last pavement we’ll peddle on for two weeks.  Among the cyclists we meet are Swiss honeymooners heading north and Chilean chicas heading south.  By exchanging information we soon learn that the ATM in Cochrane, the provincial capital, accepts only Mastercard and we carry only Visa.

Chilenas Josefina & Isadora and Swiss honeymooners Malice & Tomas.

Isadora, along with Josefina, are cycling the entire Carretera Austral.

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.

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.