Bodies cleaned and refreshed and bike chains cleaned and re-oiled, we set off for our last day of paved road on Wednesday. Maybe it was just to celebrate the pavement, maybe it was the plate sized churassco and avocado sandwiches waiting in Villa Cerro Castillo but we pushed past our intended 60kms and went big, finishing in the Villa with 84kms. And in true Patagonian style, we feasted on meat and beer to celebrate.
Then, with ample warnings from locals about construction and 1 churassco sandwich to-go, the first day of the rest of our journey south began. Under the watchful and wise gaze of Cerro Castillo, we started up. The section after the Villa is in the process of being made ready for pavement. And while a few weeks ago that would have gotten our hopes up about clearer, less gravely roads, we now know that a road has to go to the depths of bad road quality before it can be steamed over with the asphalt. So for about 20kms we were in the pits. Still, something beautiful was happening because despite all the up and down, the stopping for huge trucks and the gravel, we were navigating the turns like we knew what we were doing and, while slow, we were so much stronger and happier than our first day on gravel before Hornoprien.
Our next day brought us up and down around and over into the beautiful Puerto Tranquilo, along the shores of the Lago General Carrera (the second biggest lake in South America). Having a local friend and great weather, we decided to treat ourselves with a rest day full of the necessary tourist activities that await in Tranquilo. We spent the day under the sun exploring the marble caves of the Lago General Carrera by way of boat. The structures are unbelievable and my mind felt so relaxed with the cool caves above us and the electric blue water below. I even took the plunge and jumped into the glacially cold water, once I was assured there were no turtles native to the Lago.
With bellies full of ice cream and local beer, we continued south, this next day passing by both where I started the mountaineering section of my NOLS course in 2014, and then camping where we finished the course, on Lago Bertrand. We felt our closeness to the northern ice field on our ride - the road gets very close to the high mountains of the ice field in order to avoid the Lago and then turns back up towards the crossroads of the Ruta 7 and the road to Chile Chico. With wind blowing in our faces, making even pedalling downhill a necessity in order to maintain forward motion, we kept on south. We will return to Chile Chico in January but our path to get there still includes nearly 300km of pedalling south, a border crossing, a bus, and another border crossing.
We camped the night in Bertrand right alongside the start of the mighty Rio Baker, which flows through the canyons of Cochrane, down to meet the ocean in Tortel. A beautiful night left us well rested for a short ride the next day (45km) to the Estancia Chacabuco, the Parque Patagonia project of the Tompkins. Martin used to work as a guide for the park before committing to NOLS, so we spent the afternoon seeing old friends and having a spectacular dinner with more types of salad than I have every seen!
The world at the Estancia shifted the next day: the environmentalist behind Parque Pumalin, Parque Patagonia, and over 2.2mil other conservation hectares in Chile and Argentina died in a kayaking accident on nearby Lago General Carrera. Doug Tompkins was an pioneer alpinist and conservationist who fought for years for preservation and regeneration of land and animals in a style that was selfless and resilient. I encourage anyone reading to read about his work his South America and to reflect on land conservation in your own backyard. We left the park to give space to the families and workers that knew Doug best, and headed down to stay with a lovely family that works at Parque Patagonia (and their kitten).
Our biking is now on break! Our next mission is to climb Mont San Lorenzo, the second tallest mountain in Patagonia, located right along the Chilean and Argentinian border. We are awaiting the arrival of our friend Marissa right now and then it's packing, shopping, planning and we're off to the mountain for a week of some walking and sleeping on snow and glaciers!
The bikes are happy and clean in Cochrane, and our legs may not thank us for too long after a handful of kilometres walking with heavy packs but we will soon return for our final leg of biking south.
Love you all, be well and happy!
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