Coyhaique or Bust!

We definitely needed the good night of sleep to prepare us for the gut-busting soft-dirt and steep climb to start the morning. It would have been challenging enough on the tandem in race setup, but schleping 90 lbs of gear had us wishing for lower gears. The many waves and thumbs-up of passing motorists kept our morale afloat and we were very grateful to see our family and pavement at the top of the mountain!

So it was onward to Villa Amengual where we scored a nice salmon lunch and found a cyclists’ refugio. Anne and I opted for the senior citizen’s private room upstairs while the kids stayed in the common dormitory with several other cyclists. We had fun sharing adventures and getting tips from bikers riding the Carretera northbound, especially about the ripio “fun“ that awaited.

The next morning was a nice wet departure to Villa Manihuales, but not without a proper latte and pecan pie at the cafe beside the refugio!

En route we passed the 500 km point of the Carretera and reconnected with the German couple bikepacking from Columbia and a group of Americans on an e-bike tour.

Very happy to be in Manihuales, we found a panderia for lunch empanadas and nice hospedaje to sleep (rooms in a family’s private house) and go to sample the local beers and calafate pisco sours - yum!

The lady of our hospedaje offers to cook us a dinner of steak and rice which we readily agree and retire to ready ourselves for a marathon day to Coyhaique, the largest town we will see on the Carretera and roughly the halfway point of the Austral road.

From several sources, we are advised to skip the 25 km of rough gravel on the official Carretera and enjoy 15 bonus kms of asphalt, despite the prospect of heavy traffic and trucks.

Along the way we cross paths with Roz and Jeff Tonner from Canada. They are riding their tandem north on the Carretera. We noticed their post on a Facebook tandem group about two weeks ago and have been eagerly awaiting our eventual rendezvous. A super nice couple and we end up knowing people in common. A big bonus is that we can now follow their blog for ideas on camping spots and things to do - like getting great massages in Coyhaique!

And after a long day of rain, we approach Coyhaique and the sun pops out in time for a final long climb over a pass to reach the city. We are tired but happy to be in an area of creature comforts like restaurants, washing machines for laundry, artisan ice cream and bike shops. Oh and the great deep tissue massages we mentioned earlier!!!

It was Saturday in the central plaza and we caught a concert by the Hare Krishnas and pick up chess games.

Another ice cream for the road and we do a late afternoon roll to our next stop of El Blanco to camp for the night.