Heading south on El Camino Austral.

Trip Start Dec 05, 2001

Trip End Dec 30, 2001

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Flag of Chile Chaiten, Chile
Friday, December 7, 2001

After getting off the ferry in Chaiten, we got a taste of what the population on our bike journey would be like. Chaiten is the largest city between Puerto Montt and Coyhaique with 2000 people, read, not big. But they did have stores for us to stock up on food; eggs, cheese, green peppers and fruitcake! They didn't really have anything that could be bread but they did have fruitcake. It's a bit lighter then what we prop our doors open with in the States, but it's sweet and tasty.
The first 10km out of the city was paved and lovely. Then, reality set in and we hit gravel. It was tough going for the first few km; lots of loose gravel on the road leaving a single wheel track for us each to ride in. crossing between wheel tracks was challenging, and when traffic came by we usually ended up heading off the track. It felt to me like trying to walk on a railway tie, you'd have good balance at first, but then things would get wobbly and you'd fall off

Campo Grande

. Fortunately the road improved in a few km to being covered by much less loose gravel and the riding was easier. But, while struggling with the bike vs. gravel we had beautiful views! Scenery was fantastic, lush valleys strung between snow and glacier capped mountains.
Our map turns out to be a bit on the unreliable side. So, we've named it the lying bastard. To begin with, contours were pretty sparse on the map. And while there was a nice pictogram legend, and even a distance scale, nowhere on there was printed the contour interval. It turned out to be pretty large. There were a grand total of 2, maybe 2.5 contours between us and Villa Santa Lucia, so we figured there would be a slight hill. "Slight" in this case turned out to be closer to 900 ft of climb! The map didn't show the black flies either - big, black, biting buggers, very dumb, easy to swat if they landed, but they had strength in numbers. The road went up in short steep spurts which not infrequently reduced us to pushing the bikes while trying to swat the flies.
We came to farm with a small sign out front saying "Se Vende Queso" (cheese sold here). Fresh cheese would be very welcome, and best bought from the source so we stopped and wandered through the gate. A very cute small child complete with bonnet, apron and knee-high rubber boots came out to greet us. "Tiene queso hoy?" (do you have cheese today?) Matt asked. She nodded and led us back to the cheese shop behind the house. Inside momma was stirring up a bathtub sized vat of milk with a big wooden paddle. Matt repeated the question, since we didn't see anything that looked like cheese in the ready-to-consume stage. She said "si claro" (yes, of course) and led us into the back room which was floor-to-ceiling shelves, stacked with wheels and wheels of cheese!! Ah, this will feed everyone in the surrounding area for a while. And us for a bit.