Over the last few weeks I've been a bit lazy so this is now a catch-up blog covering the highlights of the last three weeks. Since Valparaiso we have traveled substantially south and are now deep in Patogonia. All the experiences so far have been wonderful. In particular we've been extremely lucky having nothing but sunshine since we arrived here.
Week 2's highlights included a 2 day hill walk in a national park near Talca, followed by some wonderful riding in another National park (Parque Conguillio) looping around the bases of dormant but magnificently broody volcanoes. This was also my first introduction to riding the fully, slightly overloaded, bike two up on dirt roads - initially a slightly worrying experience but as ever the reality has proved easier than the fears (helped by Gaby being a very good pillion).
Week 3 saw us moving on to the island of Chiloé - a quiet rural backwater where life is much slower than the mainland. It was also a place we slowed down for a while taking a Cabana as a base for three days exploring. It felt good to have a few days without constant packing up each morning. Chiloé was also though the scene of our one misfortune to date; a visit to a penguin colony saw us succumb to cake in the cafe which unfortunately promptly have is good poisoning. In my case fairly mild but in Gaby's much worse (a bit unfair as I are most of the cake). A couple of days later we returned to the mainland town of Chaiten which for us was to be the start of the famed (at least in motorcyclists eyes) Carreta Austral, otherwise known as Ruta 7, the main highway south into Patogonia. Gaby's first stop there was the local hospital and I found myself surprised when called into the consulting room to find her on the end of a drip - 2 litres of fluid was prescribed as she was so dehydrated. It did it's trick as a few hours later she had me hiking up tracks to visit a local set of waterfalls.
After that little hiccup we had to catch another overnight ferry south to get around a road blockage caused by a major landslip before we could start the ride proper. The next week saw us traveling 800 km south through some stunning scenery - high snow capped mountains, glaciers, forests, wide rivers - it was all there. And like all of our first four weeks in Chile we saw it at its best in wonderful sunshine. The first half of the road was mainly tar but the second was generally gravel roads, fortunately mostly in good condition and not too hard to ride.
The week ended in Puerto Yungay where we now catch another ferry south, this one for two days, as the Carreta Austral e finishes just south of here in a dead end
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