January 26, 2018
Puerto Rio Tranquilo: Best ripio yet
Traffic continued on the road outside the abandoned house all through the night the noise from a small rockfall joining in. Nonetheless, we had a good sleep and woke to a morning not as cold as the previous few. We got going soon after nine o'clock and managed to get an hour or two riding in before the traffic started to build up. The first thirteen kilometers was flat and fast with a fresh north-westerly blowing behind us coming over our right shoulders. Apart from helping us along it also kept the dust from passing cars away from us. Today's ripio was really good and, apart from the last fifteen kilometers, was smooth and easy to ride. Even those last kilometers had smooth sections and today's was the best ripio section we have ridden so far. The sting in the tail was a bit of roadworks two kilometers from the end when we had to ride through thick sand and gravel that had yet to be compacted.
The first thing we did on entering the town was be taken aback at what a tourist trap it was. It turns out that it is the gateway to a number of tourist activities such as the marble caves and glacier hikes. It was heaving with people and full of cars - now we know where all the traffic was heading towards or coming from. We found a cafe and sat down to a cheese and ham sandwhich after which we went looking for a campsite. We eventually settled on the Bella Vista, everything that we need apart from the internet connection being almost not worth the copper wiring it is using.
A French couple, about five years older than us, who we chatted to briefly in Cerro Castillo are also camping here. They are riding recumbents so they are easy to spot. We saw them pass us us while we were at the abandoned house yesterday evening and they camped a little bit further down the road. After supper, Eric (the French guy) and I had a long conversation encompassing a number of topics using Google translate. His English seems to be as bad as my French and his wife, who has a workable command of English, had being doing the translating in prior conversations. They seem truly hardened cyclists having left Puerto Montt nine days after us. He worked in mountain rescue before his retirement, which might say something about him.
Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 832 km (517 miles)
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