March 14, 2016
Easy Day: Rio Yelcho to Chaiten.
After yesterday's hard effort of about 80km, more than half on rough ripio combined with all the climbing, an easier day is called for today; 45km on smooth tarmac to Chaiten will do.
I am out of the sleeping bag at the now usual time. My watch shows 07.45, though it seems much earlier, like just after six o'clock, as it is only daylight a half hour and the sun won't show above the mountains until after eight.
There is talking coming from Vincent and Millau tent, and I see Ricardo outside his tent as I go about my morning breakfast routine. The porridge much enlivened by the sharp fruity taste of the blackberries I picked. And of coarse milk. Milk makes all the difference to porridge and having milk for tea, from the shop in Santa Lucia which opened up for us cyclists, building the spirit for the day ahead.
No sooner does the sun rise than it is gone again as fog descends down over the river, making the grand suspension bridge look like the golden gate in San Fran on a foggy morning. I thought this would delay getting on the road, but then it clears as quick as it appeared.
Ricardo departs. Then a bit later the Argentine couple who didn't make it this far yesterday, pass along the bridge up over the riverbank, stopping for a few words of greeting.
Vincent and Millau are only going 20km today, to a national park to do some hiking, so there is no hurry for them as I say goodbye by their tent, where he is settled into a morning of bike maintenance. They finish their journey in a week from now in Puerto Montt, so this will be the last time we'll see each other.
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The road is gently up and down with green wooded slopes to the side of the valley all along and snow capped mountains ahead. Something I've gotten used to this pass week along with warm sunshine. I press on rapidly and catch the others in Villa Armarillo, passing Ricardo first, then the couple, continuing on by myself until a fresh breeze turns to headwind and I start feeling the fatigue in my legs stored from yesterday, whereupon the couple catch me and pass.
I reach Chaiten around one o'clock, alone and feeling exhausted and hungry, the others drip into town sometime. I find most of the shops have already closed and won't reopen until three, until I find one open where I buy cheese and tomatoes, but there is no bread to make a sandwich. Later though in the town's plaza, Ricardo gives me some, which was kind of him, having seen a house selling bread on the way into town.
Chaiten is forlorn. There's a kind of eeriness about the place. The plaza where we lunch is uncared for with grass growing through the pavement. There is still a white column of steam rising from a mountain looming behind town. The volcano which erupted in 2008. The Chilean government evacuated the town at the time, but I heard some inhabitants resisted evacuation, saying this is their home and where else would they go. There certainly is very few people here in comparison to when I was here in 2005. Then it was a lively place.
There is concern between us, me Ricardo and the Argentine couple (Mikael and Janna, my spelling). The once a week ferry tomorrow, very soon becomes booked up. So we rush to the ferry companies booking office for three o'clock opening, where there's already a queue of people waiting for the door to open. However, there are places: 9000 pesos for foot passengers, plus the same again for a bicycle and 3500 administration. While over all that comes to only £23, its a bit unusual they charge such a high sum, the same as a foot passenger for a bike when most ferries, bikes go for free.
Then there's a big come together of cyclists by the tourist information booth, which is closed, down by the waterfront, well what used to be the seaside, but the coast for whatever effect the volcanic eruption had, has moved out a couple hundred metres; anyway, there's a French couple, a Swiss couple, riding a funny kind of tandem which is recumbent at the front and ordinary for the stoker, and a Dutch couple. I met most of them early outside shops.
I came along with the Argentines, where they where hoping to find through tourist information a campsite in town. I leave them and cycle out of town on route 7, which follows the coast passing the ferry ramp where we will board the ferry in the morning, and a matter of a few hundred metres further, come to a picnic park, enclosed by trees, without vehicle access and looking out to sea. It is an idea place to camp with the added advantage of there being picnic tables. So I wheel the bike in, find the best spot and pitch the tent.
It is only five, so I busy myself rubbing the bike down with a damp cloth to get all the dust off. Then oil the chain. I think the bike is soon going to need major surgery. The rear hub cones are loose again, the wheel showing signs of side-to-side play then I check. And I'm going to have to buy a new cassette soon (the cluster of gear sprockets at the rear).
Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 6,862 km (4,261 miles)
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