I´m not going anywhere today!!

---

I was woken this morning by Christie getting up, banging her head on the hostel roof (hard). After crawling back into bed, she turned on her side, pulled the sheets over her head and stated in a very, very unhappy tone ¨I´m not going anywhere today!¨

That, I figured, was that for day one of our great cycling expedition.

I went downstairs in a bit of a huff, but my spirits were soon brightened by the general course of conversation over breakfast, and soon I had been invited along for a days ride up towards Mt Villarrica with George and the owner of the hostel, Beat (Beat and Claudia who own the hostel are an amazing couple, having cycled half way around the world from the Netherlands before settling here and opening the hostel. You can see their website at La Torre Suiza).

With George´s confident cry of ¨You won´t get a better offer today¨, I went back up to the room to tell Christie that I´d found a good compromise for teh day ... except when I opened the door, I found her half packed and ready to leave ... Oops. Today really wasn´t going well.

After spending an hour convincing Christie not to return to Santiago and fly home (In her defence she´s been suffering from insomnia for pretty much the last two and a half months so isn´t in the best mood in the morning), I had to race downstairs to join the other two for our days ride. As we left from the hostel I realised that I had no food, no water and I was scarily unfit.

If it wasn´t for George having enough food for the two of us, and George and Beat´s patience with me (read frequent stops waiting for me to catch up) I wouldn´t have made it more than 17.4 kilometers (this being the exact point where I stopped, got off my bike and started pushing up a hill in a complete sugar slump thinking that I just wanted to go back to my bed).

Sultanas, chocolate and a muesli bar repaired most of the damage, and I have to confess that it was an absolutely gorgeous ride. It was about 28kms uphill rising slowly from around 200m to around 950m (I think) with the Volcano gradually getting closer and closer in front of us. I just wish I had had my camera handy to take some photos. After about three hours uphill we stopped at the gate near the national park and George and Beat took pity on me. They deciede to have our lunch there and then turn around and return back to the hostel.

We spotted a really cool Tarantuala wandering around my bike during lunch, and as George and I were scrambling around taking photos, Beat more sensibly stood back saying ¨They´re not poisonous, but I´m not going near it¨.

The return ride was mostly downhill with Beat heading off on some short but great singletrack about half way down then taking an alternative route back to the hostel. I got to discover the joys of Ripio (heavily corrogated gravel roads) and of course dogs and more dogs, but none of it can take away from what was a brilliant days riding.

George and I finished with a beer (which I later realised I now owe him for as well as the food), but after a few hours back chatting at the hostel I retired for an early night. It was nice to lie back in our room (Christie was in a much chirpier mood) and watch the red glow of the volcano as we drifted off to sleep knowing that tomorrow we´d definitely set off on our bikes.

Promise!

=====
Todays Distance:56.20km, Total Trip Distance 63.9km.
Mood: Exhausted, exicted and sore!

---

Photos

Tarantula
Cute little bugger isn´t he ... moves fast too.

Volcan Villarrica at Night
View from our bedroom window. You could see lava coming out from the top at night. ´twas great.

Tarantula
just a close up ...

Comments

[george]

I had a great day too
Nice to read about our great day. There is no need to recompense me for the food and beer, the look on your face all day ( kind of red and puffy was payment enough) good roads my friend. George