Continuing on the C. Austral. Coyhaique ( Monday 17th of January and the last week of the month)
We left our expensive, but comfy, clean, lovely shelter in good weather and hope for a few days rest from the moody weather god and we were granted a fairly easy road through an impressive valley and numerous dead trees laying around like some giant had pulled them out of the ground and left them laying around. This dead tree valley kept on and on and on and when we got to Villa Mañiguales about 100km before Coyhaique and settled in the Casa de Ciclista we found out that a two year fire raged through the valley when the first settlers around the turn of the century had cleared their fields by burning. Truly a sad sight....It looked like an enormous person had played "pick-up-sticks" and went off to play with something else leaving the sticks just laying around...
At the C.de Ciclista we found ourselves amongst a bunch of other cyclists of which we have known one young fellow -last seen in Cusco, Peru and another couple heading north. They were just raving about the C. Austral and how much it is worth riding the whole thing all the way to Villa O'Higgins. But James and I had agreed to "bail" out and head over to Argentina to continue down 40 by Chile Chico a few hundred km before the C. Austral ends. Those young people were so excited and positive......their energy had me all going and I was convinced we needed to ride the whole thing and take the tough, rough and crazy part at the end after O'Higgins (which we heard was quite treacherous) instead of riding the boring, long, windy pampa. James was not there yet....he "kept the door open" to either side. After C. Chico we would be committed to ride the rest, that was clear.
Fred and Opelie (the frenchies) would be riding their recumbent bikes (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle) to the end and they had no doubt to do the whole damn thing....single trek in mud in the boonies at the end or not..
Anyways, we still had some km to ponder the idea and the half way point of the long windy road is the little town of Coyhaique. The frenchies stayed at a near by campground - James and I were fired up by the good weather and our tireless legs combined with the strong, strong tailwind- we were over and up on that last climb to Coyhaique in no time. I actually had to upshift while climbing. I have enough stuff on my bike for the wind to get a good hold of me and just pull me all the way up - all I had to do was make sure I kept balanced on the bike.
In Coyhaique it was time to restock on good food and take a day off, do laundry and all that stuff we always do once we hit civilization. In one of the big supermarkets, standing in line, watching the locals do their shopping, I observed how often the toddlers get kissed while carried around. We are still in latin America and the kids get carried by the fathers as well as by the mothers or an uncle or aunt....somebody carries this precious load ( not many strollers) and the love is expressed in abundance in form of kisses and touches, hugs and playfulness from men and women equally but also the kids can't get enough of all this snuggling. I watched a woman kiss her -maybe- one year old, holding his face and continuously kissing him - I expected this kid to complain sooner or later or try to get away, but no......and after a while, if she stopped kissing him for too long, he started to demand more kisses by doing the same to his mom - holding her face in his pudgy little hands and basically sucking on her face where ever his mouth could land. This scene is not unusual and I can't get enough watching the love being shared like this ...it feels like it's been spread..it goes beyond mother and child...
We didn't find Fred and Ophelie until the next day - wound up by chance on the same beautiful campground in the mountains of Cordillera Castillo Reserve 100km south out of town.
It seemed still unclear if we would take the bail turn to Argentina, but km were ticking and we only had 35 of them to make the decision. We were all so happy to see each other....together is better!
Fred told us about the burger bus we would encounter if we didn't bail - I was sold already.
Don't know if it was the burger bus or the friendship with this nice couple...James was game the next day....C. Austral all the way to the end....here we come!
(27th of January) Just a few km ago we left the pavement - we could see the end of it from the burger bus and who knows when we will see/ride and feel the smooth tar again...Ushuaia? Buenos Aires? Makes me a bit nostalgic - my friend the pavement - it stayed with us all the way from the rainy town of Villa Amengual until today 120km past Coyhaique. We had enjoyed almost 300km of pavement....easy riding with a lot of tailwind, national parks and even some beautiful flat valleys which reminded me of home: Marin County, CA. The sun has been good to us and while riding I forgot where I was at times.....gentle hills and good roads. Hard to believe this is the C. Austral and we are closing in on the end of the world. But then the wind started up from behind -yesterday- pushing us up the mountain as if by an invisible hand. As soon as it led up I felt the weight of the load I have pedaled around since San Francisco. I can't believe I rode all this stuff through the Andes....
Today we get headwinds and dirt roads, steep roads and more traffic with trucks - why? I mean why did the traffic increase and why the damn trucks? Where do they go- anyways- and why? I got no answers! Villa O'Higgins marks the end of this famous road - some 400km still to go - the whole thing is something like 1250km long (Puerto Montt - Villa O'Higgins), so we got two thirds and the most amazing part is yet to come so they say....
