Carretera Austral Day #5 Villa Vanguardia to Parque Nacional Queulat

January 10, 2020

December 31, 2019

Villa Vanguardia to Parque Nacional Queulat 102.7 Km

Ride Time: 11:04

Pedal Time: 7:55

Tour Total Pedaled 379 Km

On our Itinerary we were aiming today for the town of Fresia, which existed on a map that I downloaded from a cyclist blog. However it didn’t exist on Google Maps or along Highway 7. We stealth camped in a sheep pasture 5km north of Villa Vanguardia. We set up right before dark and Scott cooked ramin. I rolled over two giant logs for us to sit on.

There was a sheep baahing outside my tent in the middle of the night. The grass was level and my pillow was inflated just right.

At 8am the inside of my tent was getting warm and it was time to get up. Everything that had been exposed to the condensation was drenched.

Scott made himself oatmeal and we began the morning routine of finding the best sun angles to dry our equipment. We leaned our bikes against the logs and spread our flies over the fence and bikes.

Scott was concerned about giant hornets on the trail leading out, but neither of us were stung. We had a 10am start.

A couple from the campground at Villa Santa Lucía passed me when I got to the road. It was 5km to the tiny town of Villa Vanguardia.

In the small town, outside of someone’s house, read a sign ‘mercado’. I asked a few people if this was really a market, before entering. It was basically someone’s living room, with a basic assortment of drinks and snacks for sale. I purchased three juice boxes, a pack of chocolate cookies, and two oranges. I ran into the Brazilian guy who had passed me on day two when I was waiting for Scott. He and his companion had spent the night in Villa Vanguardia. They were traveling at the same pace as Scott and I.

The nice lady at the mercado let me fill up my water bottles from her garden hose.

Tonight is New Year’s Eve. It’s the last day of twenty teens. There’s no other place that I‘d rather be. Years, dates and hours don’t matter out here. I get up when it’s light. I go to bed when it’s dark. Days are marked by destinations and stops along the way. I have no idea what day of the week it is. I only know that it’s the 31st because it’s marked on my map.

It was smooth tarmac on rolling ups and downs. I was following a river downstream but doing a lot of climbing and downhills because the road remained west of the river and was not always in the floodplain.

It was another 38 km to La Junta the next town hopefully with services. I crossed over to the east side of the river on an orange suspension bridge. It was narrow and only had the capacity for one-way traffic. I continued on uphills and downhills.

Right outside of La Junta we stopped at a small roadside cafe that was basically someone’s living room. I had breast of chicken with rice, lettuce, and pudding for dessert. To drink I had two raspberry smoothies.

La Junta was another 3 km, and I had phone service. I uploaded a few photos and a little bit of text for yesterday‘s post. I noticed restaurants, cabañas, repair shops, and homes in La Junta.

I passed a monument to fascist dictator General Augusto Pinochet who was responsible for building the Carretera Austral. That gave me pause. The road brought me here, but the road and subsequent development will eventually destroy this beautiful place.

South of town and back on the open road resumed the sounds of rushing streams, waterfalls, and my squeaky fender.

The bright sun was hot. I pulled over to soak my feet in the cold water, underneath an overpass. The tarmac ended 15 km before Puyuhuapi.

I entered the state park and rode around Lago Risopatron. The dust from passing cars was insufferable. I was riding wash boards, rocks, and still squashing caterpillars.

I rode into Puyuhuapi and purchased groceries and beer. I sat in the park across the street to enjoy the shade along with the dogs.

I saw the Brazilian cyclist and another cyclist from Barcelona. Two American girls, who were traveling by car, were impressed with the cycling we were doing. Team Barcelona would be starting tomorrow morning at 6am.

Scott and I schemed our strategy for the next two days. There would be a lot of ripio and climbing. The goal was to get to Coyhaique in two days.

I enjoyed nice tarmac on the way out of town. People were stocking up on booze and preparing for New Year’s Eve. Stores were closing early.

I crossed a bridge named for Helmut Hopperdietzel. There is definitely a German influence here.

It was getting dark, and there was no hope of getting to the Camping Ventisquero Colgante in Parque Nacional Queulat. We weren’t even certain it existed. We spotted another campground and decided it was worth a try. We were told that the proprietors were away for New Year’s Eve and that they would be back tomorrow. It was $5,000 to camp.

We set up our tents outside of a wooden stall where we cooked dinner. Two friendly South Africans shared a bottle of Amarula, which tasted like Baileys.

I took a cold shower before going to bed. There is no toilet paper in any bathroom in Chile.