After 2 nights in the very nice hostal in Curacautin to recover from stomach problems a bit, we got back on the road. We needed to move on. We wanted to cross the country to get to the shore at Concepcion. That proved to be a pretty long trip. Continue reading
After another restday, forced by the bad weather, we did a sidetrip to the next vulcano; Lonquimay. The town is at an altitude of about 950 meters (3000 ft) and we had to go up to 1815 meters (5500 ft), where a hike to a sidecrater of the volcano started. The volcano last erupted in December 1988 and on Christmasday of that year, there was a second eruption from this sidecrater. Continue reading
The campground close to the not-so-interesting town of Cunco was very nice, so we decided to stay there for a day. We had a great and big spot with a picknicktable with a roof, light and electricity. And also, just, view on the volcano Villarrica in the distance. There also was a pool; the water was pretty cold, but it was nice to just sit there in the sunshine with the legs in the water. Continue reading
After a day of rest (which are always filled with doing little things) in Pucon, we went to the National Park Huerquehue. Continue reading
There are 2 different routes from Junin toward the Chilean border. The one is a sheltered route through a forest of monkey trees and the other is more open and passes the base of the volcano Lanin. Because the wind was going to be favorable for a change, south/southeast instead of the usual west, we decided to do the open route. With tailwind on a paved road that should not be a problem. Continue reading
Finally, it was already 11:30 am, we could leave Bariloche. First to Villa de La Angostura, about 85 kms (51 miles) away. We wanted to try and get there that day, but if we’d make it all depended on how the road would be. The only thing we knew was that it was paved. Continue reading
We had to stay another obligatory day in Bariloche. Went back to customs on Monday for the zippers only to discover that they had probably arrived (on Feb. 6th) but that the bag where they must be in hadn’t been opened yet. It was only the 18th so…. The next bag would be opened the next day. All international mail must be opened and looked at by somebody from customs to see if taks needs to be payed. I could come back on Wednesday to check if it was there. Continue reading
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. Continue reading
Finally our SPOT works! We had to cycle about 3000 kms (1800 miles) for it, but now it finally works. The satellite doesn’t have any coverage in the South. From now on it should be possible to also follow us on the map and to see where we really are at that moment.
After an adventurous borderpassing between Argentina and Chili, there was the Carretera Austral! We had heard and read a lot about it. According to some it was even more beautiful than according to others. And about the difficulty of the route we heard many horror stories. Continue reading