From Futaleufu it was 10 kms (6 miles) of heaven, cycling on a very good paved road with only a few little hills. After that, there was the Chilean border and it was over with the good road. For a change it didn’t take another at least 10 kms (6 miles) to get to the Argentinian border. It was right around the corner. After that we had another 40 kms (25 miles) of very bad road to Trevelin.

We thought it couldn’t get any hottter than the days before. Wrong again. Indeed it could get hotter. The stretch to Trevelin was almost completely flat and kind of boring and also very, very hot. The temperature rose to almost 50˚C (around 110 F); in the sun, but that’s where we were cycling… It really wasn’t the type of weather to be cycling in, but we were already on our way and there was nothing there. Resting in the shade of a tree now and then was the only thing we could do. Fortunately is was flat terrain, if it had been hilly it would have been almost impossible to cycle in those conditions.

Finally we arrived in Trevelin, a larger town than we expected. And even better: a large supermarket! Found a campground, pitched the tent and went to the supermarket to get a cold drink.

The next day it had cooled off a little bit and there were some clouds. So we headed to the National Park Los Alerces where it must be beautiful according to many people. The heat came back quickly, but the first 40 kms (25 miles) were on paved road so it was good cycling. There is a (much) shorter route to the park, but that’s unpaved and we’d had enough of that so we decided to take the longer route. In spite of the climb, it wasn’t a bad choice. We found a campground at the beginning of the park and tried to cool off in the lake, but the water was cold and it had become cloudy with a strong wind.

Mooi

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Mooi/ nice

The weatherforecast didn’t predict very good weather for the following days. Some rain the next day and very bad weather with a lot of rain the day after. Indeed, it was cloudy, but we managed to stay dry pretty long. We cycled through the park, to a campground at the end of the park. It is beautiful here; rivers, lakes and mountains. The road is hilly and unpaved, but good. It did start raining at the end of the day, but it didn’t last long. Then the sun came out again.

We had decided that if it really rained the next day, we would stay at the campground. We don’t want to be cycling in the rain when we don’t really have to. And yes, it was raining. And it didn’t get dry all day. So we stayed in our tent, looked at routes through the different countries we still have to cycle through and read. A nice and lazy day. This time forced by the rain instead of the heat. Something different for a change…

The whole of the next week it stayed rainy and cool, something we didn’t like at all. After the national park we had another 25 kms (15 miles) of unpaved road but then we fortunately came back on tarmac. Via hippie-town (which has turned into a big town by now) El Bolson we cycled on a way too busy road to Bariloche. We had to go up to 1000m (3000 ft), but after that it was pretty relaxed cycling all the way to the city.

We entered the city not at it’s most beautiful side; looked like slums. It went steep down to downtown which is on the waterfront. At the touristoffice we asked for a map of the town and went looking for the nearest campground. From there we can take the bus downtown.

We had to go to the postoffice because the tentmanufacturer had sent zippers (just the sliders) over there. The zippers of the innertent don’t close anymore. But there was no package for us. That sucked! But the next day it sucked even more, when we went back to the postoffice to ask if it was possible to try and trace the package (we already tried it through UPS, but they didn’t know anything). Well, that wasn’t too hard; just type the number in the computer and there it was. But it was with customs, right on the next floor of the postoffice. Not too hard, but it was Saturday so customs was closed! If only the guy had told us the day before that it might be possible that the package was there… Now we have to stay here till Monday.

And we don’t like that much because we don’t really like it here. It’s busy, touristy and (the campground is) very expensive. But, we want those sliders so there’s no choice but to stay here, in rainy and cold Bariloche. Too bad, because we cycled about 3000 kms (1800 miles) to get here and had hoped it would be nice here so we could stay for a few days to rest.

But there’s also good news to tell: the SPOT is finally working (till here there was no satellite coverage)! So finally you guys can start seeing where we really are (see ‘where are we’ on our website). Also we’re in contact with some nice people in San Martin de Los Andes (about 200 kms (120 miles) to the north) where we can spend the night when we’re there. It’s supposed to be a nice town so we can also stay on a campground for a couple of days to finally get some real rest again. That is, if the weather turns better…!

We were also able to arrange that Linda’s broken back panniers will be replaced by the manufacturer. Vaude sends new ones to an address in Chile. Hopefully these will last longer than 6 weeks…

Fortunately the sun has returned and it hasn’t rained for a whole night and half a day. Now all we need is the

nice temperature back and then we’re happy again. It’s cold over here right now!