In Coyhaique we got some great recommendations how to continue our journey. There are 2 options. Just before Villa Cerro Castillo it’s possible to take the R7, the Carretera Austral, in order to descend to the Lago General Carrera. There is the famous and touristy town of Puerto Tranquillo. We did read that it’s one of the hardest bits of the Carretera Austral. A guy in Coyhaique recommended us a camping in Villa Cerro Castillo, to cross the mountains over to Puerto Ingeniero Ibanez and take the ferry to Chile Chico and finally to skip Tranquillo and it’s famous marble caves but to enjoy an amazing view over the lake and the mountains while going To Puerto Bertrand.
So that’s what we did. The camping in Villa Cerro Castillo was not open yet but the owner did let us sleep and store our bikes in the “Refugio” and all that for free. A little dream came true when we set up a little table and 2 basic armchairs in front of the panoramic window and enjoyed our dinner in the warmth of the sun with a lovely view on the mountain, knowing that we will be surely dry and comfortable on the floor of the refuge.
Next morning we were motivated to start a 2-day-hike which should have led us from Villa Cerro Castillo along the famous mountain formation of which the town got it’s name from to a beautiful lake and back to the refuge. Our timing was possibly not the best as the sun of the past days disappeared behind a layer of clouds. With all our luggage for the 2 days we climbed approximately 1000m positive altitude. And yes, I struggled to carry my equipment up the hill even though we have been doing such climbs with our bikes on a regular basis over the past weeks. We were rewarded with some beautiful views of the Cerro Castillo, unfortunately partially covered in a layer of clouds, and the great view over the valley until Lago General Carrera. Arriving almost on the top this pleasure did not last much longer. It started to rain and the wind speeds of up to 70 or 80km/h made the passing over the ridge of the mountain very difficult. After I have been literally blown away by the wind and landed urgently in between rocks we rethought our plan. Turning around and going back the same way was certainly a good idea. We got fully soaked through and the wind kept blowing. In the morning we saw that at the altitude were we were supposed to put our tent up it had been snowing. It’s been unfortunate that we missed the beautiful part of the lake during our hike but same time I was very relieved that we came back to the dry and comfortable refuge after our 10h hike, especially as the rain had not stop a single minute until next morning. So we got our bags packed in the morning and continued the recommended route to Puerto Ibanez.
What should I say: I haven’t had any aching muscles from a long bike day so far however, the 10h hike left it’s traces on me. During the demanding trip to Puerto Ibanez I mainly fought with my aching muscles and my will to go on rather than admiring the beautiful landscape of this crossing. The road was challenging and as we started only around lunch time some quite steep climbs and some very difficult gravel roads slowed us down so that we arrived only around 8pm at a campsite in Puerto Ibanez. 8h for 35 kilometers says it all I guess. Still I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that part of our trip as the Lago Lapparent and the almost permanent view on the Cerro Castillo mountains was just gorgeous.
The crossing from Puerto Ibanez to Chile Chico is a 2,5h boat trip. We did some shopping and spent some time at the ice blue lake in Chile Chico when we decided to hit the road at around 3pm. With some head winds we managed a couple of kilometres only when we found a great camping spot for the night at around 6pm. A Swiss couple had already put up their tent not far from there and it was without any doubt a calm place without much wind. We enjoyed the sunset, exchanged some travelling information with the others and woke up without a single cloud on the sky. A promising day had started.
Fully excited and motivated we got our bikes ready. I was looking forward to a day in shorts and shirt, beautiful lake and mountain views and some easy biking. Especially the last point was an illusion we hoped for but had actually known that it would probably not come true. The headwinds were so strong that we sometimes had difficulties to stay on our bikes. And the reward of an exhausting climb was not given to us: instead of easily rolling down we even had to pedal in a low gear to keep rolling. The beauty of the landscape and the cloudless sky made up for a lot of our effort. Still, at some point I was so exhausted and depressed about how slow we were that I held out my thumb while we pushed our bikes against the strong head winds. I did not expect anybody to stop considering the circumstances that there are not many cars passing by anyway and even fewer having space for 2 people, 2 bikes and all our luggage. I must have looked so poor and exhausted that the first car stopped and the guy agreed to get our bikes loaded on his pickup and to take us to the end of the lake. It’s not easy to describe the amazing feeling seeing things passing by in such speed without any effort. I think I just realised that going from point A to point B is not such a matter of course as I usually saw it. The guy from Tranquillo and his 9 or 10-year-old son stopped at almost every touristic view point to let us take pictures. I had some basic conversations about pigs, cows, condors and horses. Yes, I did learn some more words in Spanish and David improved his vocabulary on European and South American football teams and their performance. We got dropped off at Puerto El Maiten, where we finished the day with a small climb to an abandoned campsite with beautiful views on the mountains and some ice cold rivers passing by.
Next day we set off to Puerto Bertrant, where we bought some really tasty bread and cycled further to Cochrane, the last big stop before Villa O’Higgins. It was an other day without any rain and the landscape changed again: smaller but still snow capped mountains from Patagonia’s Northern Ice Fields in sight and our road following the bends and turns of the wild and ice blue Rio Baker most of the time.
In Cochrane we happily put up our tent in the back garden of Patricia, a lovely lady who took great care of all the guests. When we arrived there where already 2 Germans, 2 Americans and 2 French cyclists who finally stayed 2 nights at the campsite with us to take a day off from cycling. The Cochrane super market was a wonderful place where I could spent plenty of time. Maybe I should explain this circumstances a bit more. When we cycled the Carretera Austral we usually found some small shops, the so called mini-mercados with only the basics in their shelves. Well, it’s absolutely enough and we also don’t buy things which are too heavy or which we cannot consume within the next couple of days to limit the weight of our bags. So staying a day in one place and having a super market which allows us to buy most of the things, even fruits and vegetables, makes us usually go wild. The 2nd evening we cooked a lentil coconut curry soup (yes, we found everything in the supermarket apart from the fresh ginger) for the big group of cyclists, drinking cheap but great Chilean wine and exchange stories of our journeys.
Next day we continued our journey to Villa O’Higgins, the last town on the Carretera Austral and the starting point of an exciting bike-hike crossing over to Argentina. We’ll have cycled approximately 1500km by then, a distance I was not able to imagine when we started our journey in Osorno.