H2O Patagonia Futaleufu

Heute ist alles wieder ganz anders: der Himmel blau herausgeputzt, sommerliche Temperaturen und zur Abwechslung einmal kaum Wind! Im Anhang zuerst noch ein paar Fotos von Argentinien.
Habe heute 3 kalifornische Freaks getroffen, welche mit ihren Raedern von Alaska her seit 3 Jahren unterwegs sind. Sie dachten, mein Velo sei neu ...

My first day in Futelafu was spent chilling out at the lovely lodge in the middle of a quaint cute town. I needed the rest and extra time in the bathroom before leaving for 6 days kayaking and camping down the Futalefu river, Lago Yelcho, and el Rio Yelcho. Then we were to paddle out to the ocean and land in a deserted town named Chaiten. The town had been covered from mud flows due to recent gas and ash burps from the ...

Next I headed back into Chile, to ride the Carretera Austral. By the way, we're officially in Patagonia, have been since Bariloche. The road is dirt and gravel, but generally in quite good shape. The scenery is wonderful. The towns are small, and feel secluded although they are pretty touristy: Futaleufu. This is a very small town, know for excellent whitewater rafting. Unfortunately ...

... crossings but couldnīt take us any further. They rang a friend in Futa to see if they could find Josh and if not then the friend would pick us up at the border. As you can imagine we were not happy bunnies especially as we were all paying $900 each for the 3 day trip. At least there were four of us is all I can say. Well we didmīt know how long we had to wait and I wasnīt walking 10kms with my 18kg pack!! Fortunately for us a pick up arrived ar the ...

... when Iberia refused to take their tandem bike on the plane. She told me she had to ring her father to come and collect their bike from the airport. In South America, they changed plans and hired a car. Left with unnecesary bicycle equipment, they decided to donate it to a cyclist. It was all brand new, very good quality equipment which happened to be matched to my bike. I rode away with two new tyres, two tubes and a pump.

Rest Day. Futaleufu marks half way. I used the rest day to catch up on some e-mails and some URGENT laundry. (If it gets to the point where Iīm not sure if it should be washed or burnt, then itīs URGENT.) There are other items of clothing could do ...

... the Chaiten Volcano, over 100 km away, lay on the ground. Each time cars passed, the ash was picked up and thrown up into the air like handfuls of light sand and having the same effect on the eyes. By the end of the day, I rode into Futaleufu tired, dusty and with eyes as red as stop lights. Time to do the washing!

... dinner, served customers in her little mini-market and gutted a sheep. Just as I was about to go to sleep, I looked out the window and she was in the backyard hanging sheets out on the washing line. The following morning, I went downstairs and there was a roll of wrapping paper and one present for each of her four children on the dining table for Christmas.

... collect it the next day but they very kindly offered me a bed for the night, so I took it without a moments hesitation and they fed me and dried my stuff out too, result! Next day I went to find a suitable tool to split my chain as, luckily, I had two spare links. I found a guy in the village who had some useful stuff and split the chain and put in the new links, good as new, sort of.

... were far from clean and the only consistency was the cat s*it everywhere. But, it was CHEAP and I had no access to funds. The bank would not buy our american money because it had creases and I found myself selling cash on the "black market" behind a local store just to buy bread. Sketchy. In the end we decided to continue on in hopes of finding a bank and getting some cash. Unfortunatly, my stay in futalufu was brief (only two nights).