Coihaique

We're still alive.

The weather has been quiet crazy here. But it has changed all the way since our last message from the fish farm. First we had 3 days of hard rain. Non stop. So we stayed there two nights and the next morning when the rain was a bit lighter we left again.

But Im going too fast. Here are the pictures of the entire bike trip so far.

Puerto Montt, where we started after a 15 hour bus trip from Santiago.

The Osorno Volcano from our camping spot that first day.

Our Camping spot. It started raining when we arrived, so we had to flee inside the tent.

The next morning it was dry for a while, so all the weid bugs came out.

When Joachim has to shit, Joachim has to shit.

Still day 2. It started raining again and it wouldnt stop until the end of the day.

And it was hilly too. All ingredients were there for another great day of cycling.

Patagonia has hardly any wild mamals, but its full of birds and they're not scared of you.

Every other house in these villages is a shop that sells exactly the same stuff.

We camped at the see again and we some blue skies around Sunset. Still day 2

Bijschrift toevoegen

It rained most of day 3. Seeking shelter at a shop.

Day 4, the Vultures didnt want to share breakfadt with us

This road was actually flat

And of course it rained

We made it to Hornopiren on day 4. Finally some civilization again. After two hours pf extremely heavy rain, the skies cleared.

View from our camping spot, next to the river, kind of where everyone could see us, but Chileans seem to be very much ok with wildcamping.

Bijschrift toevoegen

Breakfast with a view

Recycled belgian fire trucks

And then we took the ferry for the rest of the day.

Hannes and Marie, our Austrian friends who cycled and camped with us for many days.

The roads got worse and steeper

And the scenery even more beautifull, no matter how much it rained

Free camp site in Pumalin Park

This volcano erupted a couple of years ago and is still smoking.

It destroyed the town of Chaiten

So we didnt have to go back to the woods to find a camping spot, more than enough empty houses there.

We had a paved road for a while

But took a wrong turn on a road that wasnt paved and cycled 50km in heavy rain

But we got some stickers and met Douglas Tomkins

And also some hot springs

And after seeking shelter with the Fishermen the trip continued. This is Yelcho glacier.

It was actually dry for a couple of hours

But then it rained again for almost two days. It took us 4 hours to get the bikes clean again here in La Junta

Pretending to cross this bridge

And then the weather started to be awesome and we arrived in Puyuhappi at the coast again.

We met 7 other cyclists in one day, but the camping spot they chose could have been a bit better.

We hiked to another glacier, but I forgot the name of it.

And then cycled up a very long and steep hill

Yay, paved roads again!

And thats how we met Marie and Hannes again

This fabulous mountain was in sight the entire day. The weather was quiet hot actually.

It took us some time to find a good spot here. The land belonged to a mining company and everything was fenced.

At this place we had actually found something that looked like a campground, but it was more like a house with some benches. We climbed the fence but nobody was there although there was classical music playing from the old wooden house, extremely loud! We knocked on all the windows but no one there. We fresh horse shit there and the lawn was very short, so we realized this house was of the guy who owned the saddled horse we sawe a couple of kilometers earlier. And indeed that night we heared a horse passing by on the main road. We were almost thinking the guy had just died several days or weeks earlier and forgot to switch off his music.

But it was worth the effort.

Is that the milky way?

This town was amazing. First bread in 3 days!

Here I got sunburnt.

And this is where we are now, about 700km far.

Tonight we re heading South again. It will take at least another 2 weeks before we can properly update the blog again. There s no more serious internet connection until we get to Argentina. No rain for the next days. Who could have guessed that one week ago.

Stay tuned!

Santiago and Valparaiso Pictures

Hi everyone,

We re safe and sound in Coihayque, the first city we see in more than 2 weeks and tomorrow we re heading back into the wilderness for another 2 weeks. We still owe you the pictures of  Santiago and Valparaiso.

Bad intermediate pictures

Sun started shining.

Yesterday saw ventisquero glaciar. Very nice. Have no smrtphone pictures of it. Sorry.
Did 600m ascend on gravel also.
Joy.
Here are some pictures of the last days..

1st week

hello hello,

we are so sorry for the internet silence, but the internet time we had so far was very limited

I will write now a summary of the last week, sitting in a fishermens house somewhere at the Yelcho Lake, look it up!
it has been pouring all day so we have been mostly drying our clothes from yesterday and well, now writing the blog.

the internet connection is too slow too alow us to upload pictures, so you will need to use your imagination for the time being

I hope to add the pictures soon!




last week we finally left santiago and by tuesday we were on our bikes



TUESDAY 30/10: Puerto montt - osorno

Puerto Montt - somewhere underneath the osorno volcano, aka mt fiji, a conical volcano. next to the lake llanquihue
we did about 30 km on asfalt and low traffic which was very nice,

We camped at the rainy and windy lakeside,
 opposite to Pauls kitchen, a swiss chalet like cafe, were we had a hot chocolate the next morning, the interior was VERY similar to any kind of skichalet, so that was a bit confusing..


WEDNESDAY 31/10: osorno - cochamo

85 kms: from somewhere along the lake and volcano to somewhere to cochamo village,
halfway the day the asfalt stopped, only to return 3 days later in hornopiren village
The views improved where the road became worse,
the fjord ends at cochamo, combined with a view on two vulcanoes, a river and the surrounding mountains, we had not enough eyes to behold all the natural beauty.

our camping site with view on the sea some kms further was also very nice.
the evening was only slightly ruined by a malfunctioning fire (too hot/
and a local kid who wanted to help but put all our lentils in the water, where we only wanted to cook a part of it/


THURSDAY 01/11: Cochamo - Contao

Horrible road - malfunctioning bicycle

the gravel became worse and combined with many steep hills this was a day to remember: my bicycle which had been slightly damaged during the flight, but repaired in santiago started to give problems.
the last 3 speeds refused to work which does not help when climbing the hills

an nice end to a horrible day was the nice meal we had at the hostel in contao, which looked as if it had opened the kitchen only for us, this may very well have been the case :p
AND the meeting with two crazy austrians on the road, hannes & maria, with which we shared a free campsite


FRIDAY 02/11: contao - hornopiren

the day my bicycle was miraculously repaired and the da/trip was saved

we used a spare part to fix my bicycle problem, all my thanks to Corneel of CADANS bicycle repairshop, as without his experience we would never have had the part with us

the ride to hornopiren was nice with changing views and a clear sky, a rarity so far on our trip
when we arrived we were very happy with the abandunce of asfalt, supermarkets and the best camping spot ever
the two banks had no money in the atm, something quite normal in chile, I shoul clearly have taken out more cash in santiago!!!

we tried to find the austrians, Hannes & maria, in their camping spot in hornopiren, but failed,
in the meanwhile we found a free campingspot right next to the river, yet again with view on both the sea, a volcano and the mountains, the views only get better!
I woke up at 6.30 to get pictures, which were definetely worth the early rise



SATURDAY 03/11 Hornopiren - parque pumalin

the ferry to caleta gonzalo from hornopiren provided us with amazing fjords scenes, and me with a burnt nose and ears,
we also found the austrians back

between leptepu and fjordo largo we had to get a ride in order to catch the ferry to caleta gonzalez
10 kms in 30 min seemed a lot to me and hannes&maria,

siemen however accepted the challenge, as everyone said the terraib would be very flat ...

It was not

a fast and adrenaline full ride standing up in the back of a pickup brought us to the ferry,
siemen arrived just in time to get on the ferry, and got a nice applaus for it


the night we spend in one of the amazing free campsites in parque pumalin, at the cascadas  escondidas,
we cooked our own hot meal with the newly found fuel and shares it with hannes&maria,
lentils rice and soup never tasted better.

right before the campsites there is a series of wild waterfalls, where we took many pictures

drinking water from the clear rivers taste great as well, water is abundant here so never a problem if you dare to take from the rivers,

so far this water has given us no stomache problems


SUNDAY 04/11: Pumalin - Chaiten

i wish we had spent more time in the park, taking a walk to one of the volcanoes,
we were however out of the park before we knew it

the last few kms we cycled throught a wood which was devastated due to the 2008 explosion of the chaiten volcano, it was an impressive moonlike landscape

so is the slowly recovering city of chaiten, part of it is cleaned up, the rest still seems empty and part still lays under a layer of ash

we camped in one of the abandoned houses right outside the city together with hannes and maria, which was a very special but rewarding experience


MONDAY 05/11: chaiten - yelcho

A slow breakfast at our house was followed by the first kms on asfalt since hornopiren,
at amarillo we stopped to shop at the PUMA VERDE,
where we said hi to, douglas Tomkins, former owner of the north face and esprit, now ownerof the pumalin park: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Tompkins

another special experience on this trip,

from the shop to the thermal baths of Amarillo, the best thing ever after 7 days of cold showers only,
we stayed there for almost 3 hours

after the terms, our heads were probably fogged by the thermal baths,
we went 15kms wrong, which we had to do again when we traced our steps to the actual road,
driven by adrenaline we drove for 1.5 hour in the last hours of light in a tremendous rainstorm for 25 kms
until where we are now, a trout fish company of which the fishermen are so kind to host us, and more importantly gave us a dry and warm place for our soaked clothes


TUESDAY 06/11: the day we surrendered for the rain: yelcho lake

the pouring rain and the hot room was the reason we stayed at the fishermen one more day, we rested from the effort of the day before and are warm enough to face tomorow, which promises more of the same,

Internet

So far we did not found much internet spots.. So here are some crappy pictures from the smartphone..