It's a beautiful clear morning. We pack up, eat breakfast and start off on the Carretera Austral again. The road follows a wide valley, slowly rising to El Amarillo. The road is narrow with two good compacted, smooth car tracks worn into it. We make good time and decide not to turn off towards the hot springs John told us about but instead to continue on towards Puerto Gardenas. We arrive at the campground there, and again decide to go further. A great tailwind is helping us along and it's too good a day to stop early in the afternoon.

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We stop for an extended lunch break at a raging glacial river just past the trees we can see the glacier spilling over the mountain side. A pass awaits us. It's quite a climb from nearly sea level to 650 meters and we get rewarded with an awesome view into a long valley with jagged Andes peaks on both sides. 

As we descend to Villa Santa Lucia dark clouds start to flow in, forming weird shapes above the mountains. In Villa Santa Lucia we find a small shop where a woman staunchly guards precious wares displayed on shelves behind her counter. A man sits behind a desk doing serious paperwork. Prices are much higher than on Chiloe but it's supply and demand and we are sure supply is expensive here. We buy enough stuff to get us down the road. Bread is found at a house down the street, big chunks that we end up throwing away despite 400pesos apiece.

We are still riding with Alan, the Englishman. He is in no particular hurry and doesn't mind waiting for us on the hills and we enjoy the company. About 8 km past Villa Santa Lucia we find a beautiful, secluded spot with flat, green grass along the river. Only problem is that the river is too wild and tow far below its steep bank to approach. The water is too loaded with glacial silt anyway to attempt to filter. 

After we pitch the tent and Rachel starts diner, Patrick rides back about 50 yards to fill up the big coke bottles we are carrying for occasions like this from a small mountain stream. 

The clouds are growing darker and denser, but we manage to prepare a spaghetti dinner, clean up and filter drinking water before it gets dark.