This is going to be a long post as I have found a good internet cafe and need a break after a morning ride.
We are in La Junta after taking a bus to Santa Lucia and riding south We had heard from a couple of bike tourists that the construction north of Santa Lucia was the hardest riding they had encountered since starting in Ushuaia (about as far south as you can go). That did not sound too appealing so we took the bus for about ten dollars each. La Junta is a nice town at the confluence of two major rivers. It is especially nice compared to the depressing chaos of Chaiten. From Santa Lucia it has been mostly downhill following the river with beautiful mountains the whole way. It is easier to account for where the scenery is not stunning than where it is. We made about 40k in four hours which is about as good as you can do on dirt roads with full loads. I could probably go a bit faster by myself but am glad i have a wife over fifty who can even do this. The roads are still dirt for a couple of more days but they are better than the dirt roads when we started riding them from Cochamo to Hornopiren which had more potato sized gravel and more traffic. More traffic equals more dust and more time spent on the side of the road. On a dirt road it helps to have the whole road to pick the smoothest parts. If the main roads ever become all paved the touring will be unbelievably good. The paved road from Puerto Montt to Rulun at the start was excellent with clear views of the Osorno Volcano.
It is the best scenery we have ever seen including the Canadian Rockies although the Sierras are right up there but less glaciers and vegetation. Really it is most similar to the north cascades only on a grander more continuous scale. The other difference would be that the standard of living is much lower and there is much less development. It is not uncommon to see some to die for view with a little ranch where the total materials of house and barn would not top a few thousand dollars if that. Most of the interior areas off the main roads in the mountains are totally untouched - no trails no nothing.
In Santiago the first world dichotomy between the rich and the poor that the the Chileans are proud of is very stunning. In contrast to the business men in suits in downtown Santiago there are vast slums or shanty towns. The difference between the rich and poor is far less in other parts of Chile. In an earlier post I said something about the Chilean preference for suits but that is just an urban thing. It is interesting to note that in two stand up comedy dvds we saw on a bus or ferry elsewhere the comedians had suits and ties on and much of the men in the DVD audience did as well. I guess humor is a suit and tie thing.
Camping is possible without paying all over the place and totally safe. You can clean off by taking a dip in a lake or river. There are a fair amount of mom and pop camping places as well where you sometimes will have electricity and hot water for typically about eight dollars a person less if it is just a place to put a tent. Although up until yesterday it has been sunny for three weeks which is very rare here. One person told us that the longest a local had seen uninterrupted sunny days was two weeks.
Speaking of camping part of camping is bugs. The first night we camped on a river there were these little biting gnats that only occupied the first foot or two off the ground. So every time you bent over they would bite your face and arms. Luckily we have not had any of those since. There have been these big horse flies but they are not too bad as you have some warning before they bite. They are however amazing in that you can hit them really hard on your arm and the often will fly away from that kind of like the warriors in video games etc. The climbers in Cochamo said they were up on the walls. Supposedly they only last a two or three weeks in the early summer. There do not seem to be any mosquitoes yet and I would rather have the dumb horse flys than mosquitoes.
Cochamo besides being beautiful was interesting for how different parts of the experience was from how it would be if it were in the US. The trail in was originally used to move cattle over from Argentina and at one time was big enough for a cart. The current trail is now heavily eroded from years of horse and cattle traffic with large erosional channels some as deep as twelve feet. We did not see anything like a water bar. A Forrest Service trail builder from the US would go into cardiac arrest here. We heard from the US scientists in Chaiten that this was common in Chile except for the famous parks like Torres del Paine. Interestingly some of the tourists from Europe and elsewhere thought the trail with the big gulleys were really cool. For all you male climbers out there there Cochamo has the added bonus that there are all these beautiful young chicas from wealthy families in Santiago that get escorted in on horse back to go camping, not with their parents but with girlfriends. I am not sure if they would have anything to do with poor climbers but hormones may prevail.
We see lots of "backpackers" in the towns often with enormous packs. We are not sure if they are actually backpackers as in trail hikers or if that is more of a way to travel cheap. There is not a lot of good camping gear available so it would not be hard to assemble an enormous backpack.
One thing that is a bit hard to deal with is the very loose schedule of shop keepers and buses. For instance we were told in Chiaten that there would be buses to Santa Lucia around when the ferry came in or the planes landed. The bus came at a totally different time and was actually timed to pick up the construction workers out on the highway at about three in the afternoon. The Internet cafe where i am at now has posted hours of being closed from two to three but today it was three to four. Sometimes little logistical issues like this can eat a fair amount of time up.
I only have a couple of more topics on my list. One is that the ferries into Patagonia from Puerto Montt are all booked for cars for months in advance. Some are booked for passengers for months in advance. When we went to take the ferry from Hornoperin we arrived first only to be told we would have to wait to see if there was room for bikes. There was of course room but only until we had the bikes on could we run back and buy ticket which was a little stressful. It will not be so bad next time now that we know what the "system" is. It is possible to get into Patagonia without using ferries on the Argentinean side.
Another topic we wanted to cover is the food. Most of the food including snacks are sold in much smaller quantities than the US. They typically are have much less added fat and salt. So say take a bag of peanuts, they do not add oil to them and they have less salt. The same goes for crackers and cookies. You do not eat those here and have Crisco lips like the US. We just had some chicken and it was much less fatty than US chicken as it was no doubt "free range". As a consequence there are very few morbidly obese people around. I can´t remember the last time i saw one. It is not uncommon to see chubby women but not ones that are 50 and 100 lbs overweight.
Speaking of life style the dogs here have it good. There are stray dogs everywhere and they did not look starved and often seemed very intelligent. Probably most are way more intelligent than most US dogs that are kept inside houses all day. I am sure if i asked our dogs how they would like it they would give a tails up for the free range lifestyle. The striking thing about these dogs is they seldom bark at anything except to occasionally communicated with other stray dogs around town.
I am now going to have a stab at posting some pictures as the set up here is good and the guy running it knows his stuff and some English......
