After a relaxing day in Tolhuin, we decided to tackle the 110 km in two days. Luck was with us, and for both days the wind was extremely mild compared to what is normal for the area. However, we are looking ahead at the weather forecast and weighing our options, as rain and strong winds are forecast for much of the next week.

For this blog post, A has agreed that we could use her (hand-written) journal entries. I’ve typed them here and added the photos.

Day 5: Tolhuín to Camping Norte (61 km)

Today we biked out of Tolhuín around 8:20 (A.M.). We were going 60 kilometers to et to a campground near the Atlantic ocean. The land was mostly down/flat with small or medium sized hills. When we stopped for lunch me and H had a stone-throwing competition. We ate Mayonnaise/Mayo sandwiches and I had tuna on mine. Just before lunch we had seen a fox den. We saw three cubs and a mother fox peek out at us, and throughout the day the family saw tons of guanacos. They had very long necks and some had black faces.

Around 1 o’clock the headwind got really bad. But we could see the ocean so we all knew we were close. My opinion was that we were going way too slow. :(. Soon, we made it to the campsite. It was a lot less windy there. :). After dinner we all went to an outlook and down a hill to see a herd of around 25 guanacos including around 10 baby guanacos. (So cute!) By the way, we had hot chocolate for breakfast and eggs and pasta with carrots for dinner. Now we are all reading or writing then probably going to sleep. See you!

Day 6: Camping Norte to Rio Grande (50 km)

Today we made it to Rio Grande. People say it is an ugly city but I think it is a perfectly fine city. To start it off, today we saw tons of guanacos and a couple big fat-looking birds. The scenery was very boring, just a buncha tall and short grass going on and on forever with small patchy groves of trees covered in pale lichen. Not my favorite. (But I do think the guanacos like it. We saw a herd of what seemed like 25 guanacos with at least 10 babies. Thought maybe that is not very exciting, because I told you the exact same thing.)

For lunch we had apple cheese sandwiches and I ate the apple separate from the cheese and bread. To get into Rio Grande we had to take a busy bridge over a river called Rio Grande. The name of the river was Big River. Then while we waited for our rental apartment to open we found a great park, me and H played on a couple long twisty tunnel slides. The family also took a photo with a huge RIO GRANDE sign. Then we went into our rental house. It is a great place with 2 bedrooms, a couch, and a kitchen. Mama and Papa were commenting on how bad the dishrack was. It was just super small. Now we’ve all finished writing. Need to go. I’m brushing my hair. Bye!