From Esquel to the border, the ripio was rough and steep--washboard in the first 15km, then smoothing a bit until the control. The control went without incident, and I rode 10km of *pavement* to Futaleufu where I paid to camp. It was late at night, I was exhausted, and everything was fenced. I was able to used a gas stove at the campground and an old woman put wood in the water heater for a hot shower. Her elderly husband liked chatting with me in the kitchen. I understood nothing because he had a thick accent and spoke in sharp jabs of slang. The woman didn't have change for the bill I had and so I bought a half dozen eggs across the street and ate them for dinner and breakfast, hard boiled.
The riding was very steep, with constant rolling hills that had me out of my saddle most of the time. Since Esquel I have been in my small chain ring. The ripio is generally well-behaved. The washboard hasn't been bad, and the loose gravel is only in sections.
From Futaleafu I rode 38km in about 5 hours, and arrived at a villa that had no provisions, except an elderly woman who fed me a slab of meat, a sliced tomato, bread, and tea. I helped her moved a huge table she was trying to move into her kitchen by herself. She would have been fine without my help.
I rode about another 8-10km until I reach a hidden entrance to a beach for Lago Yelcho. I pushed two wooden logs through the slats and pushed the bike on to the shore and had a large beach to myself. I noticed four homes, all very modern, but they didn't disturb the landscape.
I washed in the lake and laundered the cycling clothing and cooked polenta and yerba mate for dinner and polenta and yerba mate for breakfast. I rode a very, very steep 20km to reach Ruta 7, Carretera Austral, in Villa Santa Lucia. On the way I passed striking waterfalls, rivers, streams, cliffs, lagoons, small, green farms with huge cattle and healthy horses. Water was everywhere to filter and I often did so. In Santa Lucia I bought cream of wheat, a can of tuna, lunch meat, bread, cookies, and apples.
I continued South and was quite spent from the 20km of climbing. I stopped by an arroyo (stream) and washed and drank some instant coffee and ate and apple. I rode on until I passed an excellent beach on Rio Frio. Yet I spotted what I believed to be a lone cyclist, perhaps the American Adrian the 4 Brits had spoken of. I didn’t want to disturb him, so I rode on. At 7, I knew I had little sunlight, and when I passed another river with ideal camping, I did not let the smoke of the campfire deter me.
Two Brazilians, Anna and Andrei, has set up camp, and said I would be welcome to joine them. They were from Floripa, a town a knew well, and had been riding from Brasil for 200 days. I set up camp, filtered water, cooked a large package of cream of wheat, spoke with the two for about an hour, and then slept.
It rained heavily through the night and the rain did not stop until 11, when I packed up camp and got on the road. Heavy construction began almost immediately and the road changed from gravel to deep mud. The grind of the mud in the drivetrain was difficult to listen to.
I encountered a Polish man in his early 40s who lived in Syndey and was running, hiking, cycling, and kayaking across South America. When I ran into him he was pushing a wheel barrow, and had his signature yellow inflatable duck with him. Michael also knew Peycho, the Bulgarian. Michael had surveyed the area earlier, hitch hiking around South America, dropping off food bags in trees and in homes. Out of the last 20 food drops, only 2 had been lost. In Argentina, one food bag had been lost when another man went on vacation. The remaining man at the outpost refused to help him or sell him food and he had to run another 50km to the next food drop.
I continue south. The knees and the hands are adjusting to the new terrain. I spent last night at a hospedeja in La Junta, and the drive train is now clean once again after a bath and a lubrication of the chain. I will need to find a bank eventually to exchange dollars, as the ATM card has not been working, and I am getting down to my last few pesos.
