You might be wondering why it has been so long since we last updated.  Well, the reasons are two-fold.  First, we were travelling through comparatively dull scenery and we couldn’t imagine filling an entire update with the following:  Tree farms and traffic.  Eventually the tree farms and traffic ended, but then we found ourselves in an internet void for many days.  Now, we’re back on the interesting back roads of Chile and tonight we have internet!

Let’s see, though.  Last time we updated we were just heading towards the coast.  As we neared the Pacific we began to see more and more plantations of perfectly lined up Eucalyptus and Oregon Pine trees.  The coastal road was rarely actually along the coast, and mostly wove through the hills a bit inland.  We did spent a few nice nights in campgrounds near water, listening to the crash of the waves.  The ocean here is not for swimming, but many people come here to surf.

Those trees are in perfect lines…

Way too much chaotic construction like this.

Finally, a couple trees that escaped the clear cuts.

Yep, that’s me pushing!

One of our favorite days was mostly accidental.  We had planned to take the coastal road, but were low on gas for our cookstove so decided to take an inland route because we knew we’d find a gas station.  We bit off more than we could chew with this route!  There was a very steep, mostly unexpected hill.  Even though it was paved it was still too steep to ride and we had to resort to pushing.  The descent was just as steep, and we even saw a truck at the bottom with crazy smoking brakes.

We ended up at this really charming town full of artisans and government buildings.  We also met a hilarious Australian kid of about 12 who was living there for a year.  He told us he was taking care of his grandparents there for a year, and that the town had a lot of legends about witches.  He informed us that he just tries to live his life without worrying about witches.  He also wanted to know if we had been to his favorite American city of… wait for it… Miami.  Obviously, this kid was a riot.

We spent a night in the surfer town of Pichilemu, which was most interesting for its super-scary grocery store donkey ride (see picture) and its 6-way intersections.  It seemed that at every stoplight we could turn most anywhere, but the road straight in front would be one way the wrong way.  After Pichilemu we headed back inland for a couple of days, and we were really happy we took this route.  From not-so-exciting and kind of busy coastal road we went onto a beautiful, low traffic roads through arid scenery that we call ‘Scenic Western Country’.

On this beautiful road we spent one of our scariest nights of the trip.  Near the end of a day’s riding we entered a valley with a forest fire.  It was a pretty sparsely populated area, so there were no hotels or camping areas.  We asked about a safe place to camp at the police station, and they told us to just ask a local.  There was a mini-market next store, so we got permission from the family running it to camp next to their house.  That night the wind changed direction after dark, and blew the fire towards us.

Left: Firefiighter blue. Right: Forest fire.

The entire neighborhood came out to watch the smoke and flames near their houses.  The fire reached the hills directly behind us, within a 10 minute walk.  We could hear the firefighters yelling, see the flames, and our eyes burned from the smoke.  The ash fell like a bizarre snow.  The young son of the family stood with us to watch the fire, and he was so sweet and scared that he talked non-stop for about an hour.   Luckily for the whole neighborhood (and us!) the fire stayed up on the hill and didn’t venture into the valley.  Even so, it was a restless night.

We spent a peaceful couple of days with my cousin in the surprisingly secluded valley of Tunquen.  It is so secluded (and internet free) that we actually couldn’t find him!  No worries, we camped on the beach, watched the sun set, and drank the bottle of wine we had brought him.  The next day we headed into the big city to drop off our bikes at a shop and finally met up with my cuz.  We had such a super-relaxing time that we neglected to take photos… oops!

Restful cabin where we spent a few peaceful nights.

Now, we are once again heading into the unknown.  Right now we’re in the semi-desert hills and mountains to the north of Santiago.  We’ve got a few more days of ‘small’ climbs (6,000′) before  we’ll be tackling our first high altitude pass into Argentina.  The pass is gravel, and tops out at over 15,000′.  Neither of us have been that high in our entire lives, and now we’re going to pedal our bikes up that high!  We’ll keep you informed – the scenery promises to be absolutely stunning.

A lot of photos didn’t make the cut for the narrative above.  Here are a few:

This kitten really wanted to share our meal.

Our bikes got some new parts at this bike shop on the coast.

A nice bit of riding.

There was dirt too in this section.

A typical Chilean snack: mote con huesillo. It is some sort of soft grain with peach and syrup.

Of course, puppies.

As we said in the last post, riding through the gentle farmland and along the pretty lakes was just a bit too… easy.  For this reason we looked at the maps to see what we could do to spice things up a bit.  There were a couple dashed lines around and through some national parks in the mountains, so that’s where we decided to go.  There were more direct (and more paved!) routes through this area, but none of them called to us in the same way.  Into the mountains we went!

We set off from the tourist town of Pucon.  You may have heard of this town because it’s been in the news recently.  One of the big, iconic volcanoes we rode past erupted just a few days after we were out of the area, and all the town’s residents were evacuated.  Here is a picture (that we didn’t take) of the dramatic eruption:

The same volcano a few days earlier.

So we set off from Pucon heading due East, towards the Chile-Argentina border.  There is a town there that is mostly composed of Mapuche people: the original inhabitants of the area.  It was a really lively town, with tons of Argentine tourists and a lovely plaza.  When we stopped to ask for directions the folks at the municipal building warned us that we would need a four-wheel drive vehicle.  They laughed when I told them we were on bicycles.

Jason on the bridge over a deep ravine.

After the pavement ended we began to climb up a steep river valley.  At times the river was a deep canyon, and various bridges crossed it to connect small farmsteads.  We ventured out onto the most impressive of these bridges, and it was terrifying.  We didn’t even make it halfway across before we were too scared to continue and gingerly made our way back to firm land again.

A section of incredibly steep road.

That night we found a great camping spot: in a cow field next to the river.  As we cooked dinner various cows and horses wandered by to check us out, but nothing bothered us.  It was one of the quietest nights we’ve had in a long time, in spite of the little dog that barked at our tent around 2 am!  We were grateful to the dog though, since when we went out to chase it off we saw the most spectacular stars.

View of the river at our wild campsite.

The next day we climbed up and up into the mountains.  We went three hours without seeing a car, and it felt like our own private nature preserve.  I (Daisy) found an insane beetle stuck on its back in the middle of the road.  Once I flipped it over I could not believe how awkward it’s giant mandibles made it.  We later learned it is called a ‘ciervo volante’, or stag-beetle.  Jason found a Chilean tarantula just down the road.  Around here they call them ‘little chicken spiders’ because they are known to be calm and friendly.

The lizard was half the size of the spider!

Here are some of the more macro vistas we saw on this day:

Ominous clouds as we start into the national park.

After this great loop in the mountains we spent a day on pavement to get to our next gravel road.  This one ran through a national park containing a massive volcano and its lava flows.  It was only a day’s worth of riding, but it was beautiful.  It was surreal to climb up black lava dunes, eat lunch overlooking a green lagoon, and ride through a high forest of Araucana trees.

We reached the top of the climb and began to descend.  At this point the road surface deteriorated and it was full of loose rocks and corrugations.  When a car came to pass us I moved over to give it some space, but I hit a loose spot and fell down while moving quite quickly.  Luckily I didn’t fall into the truck, but I did fall on top of a sharp rock that dug a deep gash into my knee.  It was only about a centimeter long, but it was full of little volcanic rocks.  The cleaning process was awful!  We had to use our water filter to squirt clean water in as we attempted to flush out the rocks.  When that didn’t work all the way I resorted to picking the rocks out with tweezers.  Yuck.

In retrospect, I am insanely lucky that this is the worst injury I’ve had on this entire trip.  Jason’s worst was the sting ray.  In both cases, we had less than a day’s worth of pain / discomfort before being back on the bikes at full strength.  Now, you probably need cheering up, so here’s some pictures of a couple more puppies we met this week!

Since the volcanic road we have been on pavement, climbing over hills and mountains on our way to the coast.  Not too much exciting has happened – we are just trying to put in the miles to get to another family visit and then on to Northern Chile.  Oh!  One more milestone to mention: 11,000 miles!

Back on some pavement

Where we’ve been in Chile this past week.

We love Chile. You might think by now that we just love everywhere, but that isn’t exactly true, since we didn’t love the Yucatan very much at all. Anyway, back to the positive: we love Chile. It is home to a grand variety of landscapes, and after spending a month in the forbidding Patagonia on rough gravel roads we were ready for a bit of a break. We planned a route through the famous Lakes and Rivers Regions, and hopped among huge inland lakes for most of a week.

We finally discovered some of Chile’s famous fresh produce, and we rode gentle hills through bucolic farmland. We also got kind of bored from how easy it was, and for that reason we have taken a turn towards the Andes where we are once again bouncing along the gravel backroads and climbing among mountains. We’ll talk about these latest mountains in the next post though. For now we’ll focus on the giant sparkling lakes and the volcanoes that tower above them.

Our first big lake was called Lago Llanquihue, which is quite a tongue twister. This lake’s perimeter is quite developed for tourism, and it was a hopping place for vacationing Chileans. A neat aspect of the tourism here is that they are actively promoting cycling, so there was a designated bicycle path along the road for many miles. The nearly perfectly conical volcano overlooking the vast lake provided a perfect backdrop too!

Riding towards Volcan Osorno

Ut-oh, Daisy fall down!

The glorious moment when we realize that the gravel ends and pavement begins.

Field of wheat with a big sky

After that came Lago Puyehue after yet another stretch of bumpy gravel road. We had expected gravel for about 45 miles, but after a mere 20 there was a sudden, wonderful section of brand new pavement. We call this unexpected treat ‘bonus pavement’. We got more bonus pavement on the way to the next lake, Lago Ranco.

Morning riding through gravel and roadwork.

Daisy makes some new friends

Daisy makes yet another new friend!

Right before our bonus pavement was a man-powered ‘ferry’ (raft) crossing. The two guys used metal hooks to grab the rope and then walked the length of the raft.

In Lago Ranco we stayed in a funny campground where the owner met us wearing teeny tiny black shorts and nothing else. The place was crammed with kids and dogs and barbecues. We snagged the very last site crammed between a young family and the playground. We were in for a long night, especially since the town fireworks show unexpectedly began at 11:30 pm.

A view of a lake

Fields with lines of corn

Farm with a view!

We started to see fields of wheat, blueberries, and corn. Fruit and vegetable stores are found in every little town, and at night we often have so many veggies in our dinner that we can barely eat it all. We even discovered a brand new fruit: the sweet cucumber. Inside it has thick flesh that tastes like a fragrant sweet melon.

Sweet cucumber, locally known as ‘pepino dulce’

Fruit and vegetable market – it is wonderful to be in the land of fresh produce!

Daisy and volcano

The weather started to get hot – in the 80s or even 90s. Because of this heat we decided to take a rest day in the small tourist town of Lican Ray on the banks of yet another large lake. This one was situated beneath the Volcan Villarica, and was home to a black sand beach that was packed with Chilean tourists. We found a backyard campground at the edge of town and settled in. Rest days are full of chores and very little rest. There are blogs to update, clothes to wash, families to contact, routes to plan, shopping to do, bicycles to repair / clean. On this day I (Daisy) had work to do on a statistics manuscript as well.

Black sand beach of Lican Ray

This pig loved the trash pile across the street from our campground.

Our safety vests got a much-needed cleaning.

The laundry water was nasty!

One more day of riding brought us to the edge of the mountains again, although we spent one more day camping on a lake. We had tried to stay at a cheap campground away from the shore, but the power was bizarrely out and it was closed down. Instead we stayed at a much pricier place, but it had a bonus kitten that happily drank the milk we offered and settled in for a nap on my lap. Bike touring certainly has its advantages!

Daisy feeds the kitten

Next up, we hit the mountains again on one-lane gravel roads. Spoiler alert: we found a giant beetle and a Chilean tarantula!

The tarantula we saw crossing the road…

Well, we finished the Carretera Austral.

Technically we ‘skipped’ the last 45 km to the big city of Puerto Montt, but they were all paved and we took the unpaved alternated for an additional 60 kilometers of rough gravel. We decided to call this latest section the ‘Carretera Austral Plus’. If anybody asks, we’ll tell them we rode the whole thing!

Dead trees standing sentinel in the park.

From Chaiten we rode for a day through the beautiful park of El Pumalin. It is a very large private reserve (owned by an American, strangely enough), with many well-maintained trails and campgrounds. It was a mistly morning when we entered the park, but by midday the clouds cleared and we could see the lovely forest that was clearly recovering from the volcanic eruption. We even took a hike to see some old growth trees!

Smoking volcano of Chaiten

Still many dead trees from the volcano.

Waiting for the ferry

That evening we took a ferry across one fjord to a tiny spit of land between ferries. We decided to camp here for the night, which was a great decision. It was like we had the whole place to ourselves, and we wandered a side road free of traffic, just to see where it went. That night we camped in a shelter next to the following ferry landing.

A beautiful spot on a side road.

Home for the night.

The following day we had the whole bay to ourselves for the morning, and we lazed about reading and drinking tea. Just as the first group of motorists arrived a small boat motored across the water to unload a family and about a dozen coolers. They set up shop in the same shelter we had slept in, and proceeded to sell a delicious assortment of food. We bought empanadas and salmon ceviche from them.

Chaos as the family sells food from the shack.

The truck debacle.

The ferry eventually came and it was a production to get all the cars on and arranged properly. One long truck couldn’t make it around the tight corner, and it took about half an hour (and the assistance of another truck) before the long truck jolted down the hill and onto the ferry. The onlookers clapped.

Look how high the rear wheels are off the ground.

We found a puppy at the campground.

That night, on the far side of the fjord, we followed a 9-year-old girl back to her house where her mom ran an unofficial campground.

From here it was only another half day of riding to the ‘end’ of the Carretera Austral, and to be honest it was pretty uneventful. The scenery got a lot prettier once we took a smaller route north along another fjord lined with steep mountains. For the next three days we wound along the side of the cliff over the saltwater, sometimes finding flat spots where rivers flowed. One night we camped in an abandoned soccer field. The following night we stayed at a very posh eco-campground with lovely sites on a river.

Perfect riding at the very end of the Carretera Austral. Very far from the hardship we endured farther south!

The road followed the fjord inland.

A beached boat near our campsite.

The posh eco-resort

We finally reached the end of the fjord and climbed up and away from the ocean. The forest here was beautiful – lush and green with tall trees and ferns. As we rode we approached a perfectly conical 8,000′ volcano. It was topped with snow, and sometimes hid behind a bank of clouds. Now, we’re in the Lakes Region of Chile. There are volcanoes, large lakes, and farmland. We are looking forward to finding more and better produce in the town markets, and to riding the mostly paved routes that weave between the lakes.

Fishing is popular here on the lakes and rivers.

Near perfect riding.

So many bees!

Volcan Osorno rose above us.

Birds-eye view of our budget campsite.

It is our first night in this region, and we camped in the center of a small town. The wind is blowing off the lake (which is huge, by the way) in great gusts. Luckily, this budget site is well protected from the wind by a bamboo fence, even though it only cost $3 each. While we made dinner the campground folks played loud pop music, so we danced while the lentils boiled. It is a minor miracle, but we are still not sick of lentils – even after 3 months of eating them most nights!