From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

The last couple of days have been very eventful. At the end of December, we had slowed down in order to take the once weekly ferry off Chiloé Island and continue south. The ferry was supposed to leave January 1 at midnight. So at around 10 pm, we headed over to the harbour with all the other cyclo-tourists. We met Elodie and Sylvain, another young French couple, traveling on a tandem. After many hours of waiting, the verdict came down that the ferry had a mechanical problem and wouldn't be leaving. The company took a long time to find us all somewhere to stay that night, and it wasn't until about five in the morning that we finally got to bed, after having to bike back 5 km from the harbor to the town.

The next morning, instead of just refunding our tickets, the company offered us to change our tickets for a different ferry. It was leaving that night, and was twice as long (12 hours instead of six) because it was going to Puerto Raul Marin, about 100 km south of Chaiten. We didn't want to wait any longer, so we took those tickets. We were disappointed not to be able to see the volcano and the town of Chaiten, abandoned after the volcano erupted in April 2008.

It took us, and the seven other cyclo-tourists, two days to get from Puerto Raul Marin to La Junta, to join up with the Carretera Austral. We had a good time camping by the side of the road with Elodie and Sylvain. The next day, the pouring rain slowed us down a lot. In fact, in the last six days of biking on the mainland, we have had rain everyday, sometimes passing showers, and sometimes heavy rain all day long, like yesterday. Our Gore-Tex rain gear just doesn't cut it, and yesterday we arrived literally soaking wet. Several of our panniers leak at the bottom, although they are supposed to be waterproof. There is water everywhere here, in many incarnations: rain, naturally, but also snow in the mountains, glaciers, lakes, rivers, waterfalls. There is water springing up everywhere, pooling when it is unable to run free. The road wasn't easy either. There were parts with large pebbles that made it difficult to stay balanced and keep going forward, and there were many hills to climb. We had to climb over a pass at 500 meters, starting from sea level. The last six days have been quite hard and we arrived exhausted. The next two days will not seem too long to rest and to dry out our things!

Happily, in order to boost the morale, the Carretera Austral also holds many delights. The changing landscape is stunning. There are lakes, forests, waterfalls, rivers, fjords, hanging glaciers, snow-capped peaks, and lush vegetation. We hardly know where to look! Just two days ago, while we were having lunch, we startled a passing fox, who watched us for a little and then continued on his way. We have also enjoyed the fact that there aren't many cars on the road, and we have found some beautiful bush camping spots beside the rivers. Unfortunately, Heather was unable to share all this with us. She had some knee problems the first couple of days, and decided not to bike. She was following the advice of Sylvain, doctor when he is not traveling by bike, who took a look at her knee. She joined up with another Canadian and an American to make the trip by bus. We met her last night in Coyhaique, where we are all sharing a cabana with Urban and Rebekka, a Swiss couple traveling bike who we had met earlier. This morning, it is once again raining, and we are having a hard time imagining heading out under these conditions...

A few words about the Carretera Austral

It is a very recent road, and the most southern parts are only about ten years old. It was started in 1976 by General Pinochet for military purposes, to protect southern Chile from being invaded by the ever-present potential enemy Argentina. More than 1000 km long, it connects Puerto Montt in the North with Villa O'Higgins in the South. Most of the road is not paved, and it is the only land route that connects the southern part of Chile to the rest of the country. Before the road was built, the only way to get to the southern regions was by boat or plane. But even with the Carretera Austral, one still can't get to Punta Arenas, the largest city in the south of Chile, by land. To do that, they would have to go around one of the biggest glaciers in the world and cut through the immense national parks of the region.

Sébastien

We continue to slowly head south as we wait for the weekly ferry that will take us off the island of Chiloé. We’ve done a couple of long days (90 km on average), and we have had more rest days than normal. But we aren’t just sitting by the window watching the rain: we’ve been taking advantage of the equipped kitchens (mostly the oven) that we’ve had to cook delicious meals. We’ve made some seafood dishes and many fruits and vegetables. We searched, without success however, for good quality chocolate… but it is very difficult to find chocolate here made without vegetable oil and without an excess amount of sugar. And so, for our most recent culinary coup, a chocolate soufflé, we had to make our own chocolate using cocoa powder, butter, milk and sugar. It was delicious!

And the rain… Up until recently, when people have asked us whether there has been a lot of rain on our trip, we’ve told them only couple of days, not too much, and nothing that made us change our plans or prevented us from continuing on. But we will have to modify our answer now. Since we’ve been back in Chile, it has rained almost every day, and we’ve had some pretty serious showers. Our Gore-tex raingear can’t always stand up to them and we’ve been soaked to the skin, shivering with cold. So what do you do in those cases, stranded in the middle of the Chilean countryside? We’ve often huddled under the open bus shelters that line the road, but they are cold and damp. We quickly start to shiver and so half-heartedly get back on the bikes, braving the storm, and hoping for a hot shower when we arrive. In this weather, we can’t really camp, and so even though the budget has taken a hit, we head towards more comfortable lodgings than usual. Can you imagine us arriving in town, soaked and shivering, and asking the owner of a hostel to show us a room? We’ve had to do that several times in the last couple of days… Like they’ve been saying since Anchorage, the locals tell us that this weather is not normal, that it never rains this much. We did some research and found out that this year we are again under the effect of El Nino. It’s a regular heating and cooling cycle (between 2 and 10 years) of the Pacific Ocean that can disrupt the normal weather patterns in the Americas.

On Christmas day, under the pouring rain, a American family drove us in their van to see the penguins! We went to a scenic beach on the north-west corner of Chiloé Island. The sea was too rough for us to take a boat out to see the islands where two species of penguins, Humboldt and Magellan, nest together. We had to be satisfied with scoping them out through binoculars.

For New Year’s, we had only planned to cook something nice for diner, and we said we would see if anything else came up. If we’ve learned anything this trip it’s that destiny always has something in store, especially when you least expect it.

Just as we were settling into our cabana, a couple of cyclo-travelers from New Zealand staying next door came to welcome us and suggested that we do something together for New Year’s. We agreed and said that we would take care of the appetizers and the main course, and they would make something for dessert. Then in the afternoon, the two cyclo-travelers from Switzerland that we had met in Ankud also showed up and took the room beneath us. We invited them for dinner and they said they would bring more appetizers and a salad. Towards the end of the afternoon, a Canadian cyclist showed up, and an hour later an Irish cyclist, all staying in the same place! In the end, there were 9 cyclo-travelers and 5 different nationalities to ring in the New Year!

We wish you all a healthy and happy 2010!

Sébastien

"Where are you going to be for Christmas?" "What are you going to do for Christmas?" These are questions that we've been asked a lot lately. And we don't really know what to do for this holiday season, normally spent with the family. And it doesn't really feel like Christmas here: it's warm and sunny, and there are no lights. It's hard to really get into the Christmas spirit!

We decided to make a reservation for a little apartment/cottage in Ankud, two bedrooms and a kitchen. We never make reservations normally, but we made an exception for Christmas. We found a good deal on a place that looked pretty nice (actually, it was even cheaper than a hotel or hostel!).

We invited Dave to spend Christmas with us. He's an American, teaching English in Santiago for a year, who we first met on Easter Island and then met up with again in Puerto Varas. The more the merrier! It's an international Christmas this year, with a Canadian and an American and us!

So after 2 days of biking (one short day to get to Puerto Montt where we had microfinance interviews, and one long day of almost 7 hours biking) we arrived on Chiloé, famous Pacific Island.

Tonight we're cooking a special meal, taking full advantage of the oven and equipped kitchen to cook a meal that everyone had a hand in:

• Cocktails: Guacamole
• Appetizer: local oysters and shrimps, smoked salmon
• Main: Stuffed tomatoes and rice
• Dessert: ice cream, fruit salad, shortbread and chocolate chip cookies

To accompany the food, we have pisco sour (a typically Chilean cocktail, although both Peru and Chile claim it as there own), cola de mono (a strong liquor with milk, coffee and aguardiente, drunk mostly at Christmas time), and Chilean wine: syrah and carmenere.

And of course, how could we forget the little plastic Christmas tree that the owner of the cabanas lent to us for Christmas.

Happy Christmas Eve to everyone!

We're thinking of you!

Merry Christmas!

Sara

Change of plans

We had planned to take a combination of boats and bikes from Bariloche, but in the end the prices were prohibitive – more than $80 for 3 hours on a boat. We decided to take a bus back to Villa La Angostura, and then bike back to Chile from there, crossing back over the Andes once more.

The bus company sold us the tickets, knowing full well that we each had a bike. No problem, they said. Then, 10 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave, an employee came over and told us that we would have to pay for the bikes. Another ridiculous price – almost 3 times the price of the ticket, for each bike! We jumped up and went back inside to talk to the company. And after an hour of negotiations, we finally got our money back. The employee claimed the whole time that he had told us about the charge for the bikes, entirely untrue.

So, at 3 in the afternoon we had to set out to bike 55 km! We camped at a site in the Nahuel Huapi Park, right next to the lake. So in the end, it all worked out for the best. The next morning we got to Villa Angostura, where we were familiar with the hospital. We had one last parilla (grill/bbq) before heading back into Chile.

Crossing the Andes again

Crossing over the Andes was a big day for the 3 of us: very hilly and tough going. The campsite that we were hoping to stay at was closed, and so we were happy to arrive finally at Lago Puyehue and find a place to pitch the tent, almost by the light of our headlamps.

A third member of the team

We got rained on on our way back into Chile, unsurprisingly. We found shelter during most of the showers, including the biggest storm. We hid under a bridge and watched the fishermen. There was a salmon farm in the middle of the lake, and the fishermen stood right where the river met the lake and caught many of the escaped fish. They told us that today wasn't a very good day – although some of the them had caught more than a dozen! Normally they catch a lot more.

It was at the river that we met Scooby Doo, the name we gave an abandoned dog. He was very friendly and well trained, and he slept all night beside our tent. The next morning, he ran beside us for more than 20 km, never even slowing down. He was tenacious, but not very brave – he would hide behind us whenever there were other dogs or cows. We couldn't figure out what we were going to do with him. Then just when we got back onto the paved road, he went off the road a little and when we went to leave, he got stuck behind a barbed wire fence... we felt bad, but traveling with a dog just seemed a little too complicated for us.

Puerto Varas

We spent 6 lovely days and 5 nights camping in beautiful and varied countryside with rivers and lakes, dominated by snow-capped volcanoes.

We're in Puerto Varas now, where we'll spend a couple of days. Because of an article that ran in a newspaper of the Gard in 2008, we have been invited to stay with Nicolas, a Frenchman who runs a hostel in Chile.

After a little bit of hesitation, Heather has decided to bike with is all the way to Ushuaia! We are delighted, and very happy to be sharing our adventure!

Sara

We left San Martin de los Andes following the “Ruta de 7 lagos,” which runs 110 km to Villa La Angostura. It is a very scenic route winding through seven lakes, with breathtaking views across the waters, nestled in a picturesque landscape. Morale was high, despite the thunderstorms all around us on the horizon. We played hide and seek with the rain clouds, waiting for the storms to pass, and barely got rained on.

We camped that night beside Lake Falkner, amidst spectacular landscapes. We had brought some steaks with us to cook, and we grilled them over the campfire. It was a campsite “organisado,” which meant bathrooms, showers, picnic tables, running water and barbeque pits. There was even a little restaurant, but it wasn’t open yet – too early in the season.

The next morning, we headed out to take on the gravel road. It was rocky, and only got worse as we went along. The rainclouds thundered once again and this time we weren’t able to avoid them: we put on our raingear. Happily the sun came out afterwards and we dried off.

As we were going downhill Sébastien pulled quickly ahead. Heather followed his lead.. and that’s when everything changed. Her bike has thinner tires then ours do, and bounces around a little more on the gravel. She lost control of the bike and hit the ground in a cloud of dust. I yelled. Sébastien saw what happened in his rearview mirror and turned around. I left my bike in the middle of the road and rushed over to Heather to see how she was. It didn’t look good: her shoulder seemed dislocated or broken, she had hit her head, and she was in total shock. She tried to get up right away, but I calmed her down and got her to talk to me. I first got her to wiggle her fingers and toes, and to move her wrists, knees, and ankles to make sure that nothing was broken, and then helped her slowly to her feet. It took her quite a while to sit down by the side of the road. Her knee was bleeding, but other than that she seemed alright.

Meanwhile, a car had stopped. Beatriz and Catherine were from  Argentina and spoke English. Right away they offered to help us and to take us to the hospital in Villa La Angostura. The situation was clearly serious, since Heather couldn’t remember anything. Sébastien said that I should  go with Heather. After conferring with our “rescuers,” we decided to hide Heather’s and my bike in the forest and that Sébastien would bike all the way – 30 km, and it was already 6:00 pm.

We unloaded the bikes as fast as we could, so as not to leave them in the woods, and to make sure that we had everything we needed with us. While we were unloading quite a few cars and buses stopped and even took pictures of the accident – which I did not at all appreciate. In the car Heather had a hard time remembering what we had told her five minutes before. She alternated between hysteria and shivering – clearly in a state of shock.

We arrived at the hospital in Villa La Angostura, and Beatriz went to find an emergency nurse. Bad luck for us, it was December 8, a religious holiday (the immaculate conception) and although the hospital wasn’t fully staffed it was still efficient. A nurse came over to Heather, but she doesn’t speak Spanish, so the nurse called over one of her colleagues who spoke English. Heather was very much reassured. She was wheeled into the hospital, with a neck brace. I broke down then, worried that she was seriously injured. Beatriz hugged me and told me that everything would be alright. They gave Heather a full check-up, including x-rays. I gave her helmet to the head nurse who cut the straps. She said that it was unusable now, and that traditionally, the injured party breaks the helmet in two and gives the pieces to the person who came with them. But Heather couldn’t break it, having injured her shoulder. She’ll have to do it later.

In the end, Heather didn’t fare too badly: a strained shoulder muscle, some scrapes and bruises, and a bump on the head. But nothing broken. She didn’t pay anything either, since the hospital was public and free for everyone.

Beatriz and Catherine waited with us at the hospital and then helped us to find a good hotel, a little expensive but quiet so Heather could rest. Sébastien soon arrived in town and we were able to relax a little.

The next day (Wednesday), we decided to rent a car to go back and pick up the bikes who had spent the night in the forest, to pack up all our bags and drive to Bariloche, 80 km away, where we could find cheaper accommodation. We headed back to the site of the accident, strapped the bikes to the roof of the car as best we could, and drove the rest of the way along the “Ruta de 7 lagos,” towards Bariloche, the Argentinean chocolate capital. We’ll stay there a couple of days, to give Heather some time to recover.
The morale of the story?

We realized that even after having biked thousands of kilometers, a accident can happen when you least expect it. It might have been either one of us instead of Heather. We also realized that we weren’t well prepared in case of an emergency. Our first aid kit is buried at the bottom of one of our bags, almost forgotten. The numbers to call in case of emergency were not all together. We’ll have to think of how to organize things better.

And to all those who might be worried about Heather: she’s fine (and so is her bike!). It was more a scare than anything else, and she was lucky. She’s mending now, slowly but surely. Despite her injuries, she was able to get up without too much difficulty the next morning. She was feeling a little down, but her morale is coming back and we (Sébastien and I) are keeping an eye on her, and trying to make her smile as much as possible. Laughter is the best medicine, is it not?

Sara

A word from the injured: Thanks to Sara and Sébastien, and also Beatriz and Catherine, I’m just fine! Like Sara said, some scrapes and bruises, and a bump on the head. A strained shoulder too, but given the fall, it could have been a lot worse. Well, from what Sara tells me about the fall, since I don’t actually remember much. I remember losing control of the bike (I was going too fast down the gravel road) and thinking I was about to crash. And then I remember being in the car, on the way to the hospital. Sara says I must have asked 50 times what happened. Sara and Sébastien have been wonderful, of course, urging me to take it easy, but not for a moment letting me feel bad for myself. And now I get to buy a new helmet!