December 8, 2022
Ventisquero
The weather cleared for an hour or so yesterday afternoon so we took a stroll around the town. It doesn't seem to have changed much apart from a few new restaurants and many more cabanas for hire.
The weather forecast had given us hope that there would be a clear spell for a few hours after eleven o'clock. The target for today was just a short hop down to Camping Leontina Fuentes near the entrance to the Ventisquero hanging glacier so all we needed was two hours without rain. Unfortunately the clear spell arrived after we had already reached our destination for the day so the ride was mostly done in full rain gear.
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There was a short dry spell that coincided with the five kilometers of ripio in the area where two tourists were killed by a rockslide a few months before the disaster at Villa Santa Lucia. On our first tour on the Carreyeta Austral this section of road was closed and a ferry was laid on to get travelers past the rockslide.
Camping Leontina Fuentes has looked like a poorly managed construction site on the two earlier occasions that we had passed it. It is no different now. However, they have three simple rooms for rent at only fifty percent more than the camping rate so we have warm and dry digs for the night.
The reason for stopping here is that it means we can start the climb over to Rio Cisnes as soon as possible in the morning. Before this rainy spell started it would have meant we could do the climb in the coolth of the morning but that reason is no longer relevant. The overriding reason now is that tomorrow should be a relatively dry day - we didn't feel like doing the climb in bucketing rain.
The campground has pretty good views of the hanging glacier but it has spent much of the time hiding behind the clouds. Five years ago this was the first glacier I had ever seen.
Today's ride: 23 km (14 miles)
Total: 4,366 km (2,711 miles)
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