January 9, 2018
El Sauce: A night at the hotsprings
e managed to get a few hours sleep on the ferry last night and woke up about half an hour before the ferry docked at about six am. We rolled the bikes off the ferry in the company of the Venezualan and were surprised to see there were three other cyclists who must have boarded after us - a young couple and an older woman who had camped at the Las Nalcas Hostel with us the night before.
The first ten kilometers was pretty muddy but quite flat, taking us through a lovely lowland forest. It was very difficult to stop because of the threat of the mosquitos sucking us dry if we stood still for more than a few seconds. But stop we had to because we needed to adjust our clothing from sleeping to cycling. I guess we should have done it before we left the ferry.
We were surprised at the ten kilometer mark by another short ferry ride across a river. The ferry only starts running at eight o'clock so we made ourselves some tea and coffee and had some breakfast. The other cyclists did the same, the young couple actually cooking up some fresh pan. Once across the river the six of us road as a strung out group for the next ten kilomters or so. At the Rio el Salto we took a break to enjoy the view and fill up water bottles. The older woman had a flat so we waited for her to change tubes and we set off in drips and drabs, our loose peleton coming to an end. For the rest of the morning we leap-frogged one another at various times but the Venezualan stuck with us for most of the time.
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We weren't sure if we would ride the whole way to La Junta today so we were on the constant lookup for somewhere to camp for the night, stopping every now and then to check at possible sites. The best place was a bit too early in the day and the other good looking places all seemed to be on private land. At about fifty kilometers we found an open patch next to a river and decided that we would camp there. However, it was not yet even two o'clock and after about three quarters of an hour we decided to carry on. La Junta was only twenty two kilometers away and a fresh westerly wind had picked up which would help us on our way. Eighteen kilometers from La Junta we saw the turnoff to La Sauce, a natural hot spring. We had read about it earlier and there were complaints that it was over-priced (which it is) and not worth the detour (it is three kilometers off the road on a very rough track) but we decided it would be a nice change.
Today's route was all ripio, varying from some lovely smooth sections to some pretty rough pebbled bits. Most of the route has been ripio so far but we have had nothing as bad as the first ripio we encountered on the second day out of Puerto Montt. We have settled into riding on the rough roads and hardly think about it unless we hit some sections with too many loose rocks and stones.
Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 279 km (173 miles)
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