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Published: November 17th 2005
Cycling along Lago Calofuén
Not too hard a way to start the day ...We were woken this morning by rain. Yay.
We were pretty much confined to our tent (being fair weather cyclists and all) until 9am and hence didn´t get on the road until about 11am. Still got some efficiencies to gain in the packing department.
The first 5.5kms were perfect cycling country with ever changing views as we rode close to the lakes edge and then climbed fairly steeply up over a small pass and into the next valley. Because the roads are so narrow and slippery we had to stop for every truck, bus and car that came past ... it soon became fairly annoying, but you got into the rhythm of it. If you don´t laugh, you´ll only cry.
We stopped for lunch about 13kms down the road (what progress I hear you say). We planned to have lunch by a nice little lake on the map, but they were doing construction work so we ended up sitting in a couple of concrete culvert pipes, trying to talk to one of the truck drivers in very broken Spanish with two very cute dogs and a very unhappy horse for company.
After another 10kms of pleasant riding
Yellow Flowers
Did I mention that Spring is well and truly here. The flowers everywhere are incredible. through beautiful countryside we hit pavement again. You gotta love hydro electric schemes due to the wonderful roads they build out to them!
We managed 20kms along the bitumen before the fateful sign ¨Fin Pavimento¨and there started 30kms of steep, corrugated road that was so bad there were corrogations inside the corrugations. I swear it´s true. I´m starting to understand why people hate Ripio.
It was a tough slog all the way to Choshuenco, not helped by the fact that our map again understated the total distance by about 20kms. I hate JLM Maps. That aside the scenery was breathtaking the whole way so other than the last hour when I just wanted to get there because my neck was killing me, I quite enjoyed the ride.
Poor Christie though was developing a knee and achilles injury and finding cycling very painful. She even managed to crash her bike going up a particuarly steep, nasty hill. Feel free to send sympapthy emails to fludo1(the symbol)hotmail.com. Just send hate mail directly to me.
We finally pulled into Choshuenco just before 6pm. Thankfully the last 4km were all downhill. We stayed at Hospedje Claris (4000 pesos each) which
had super comfy beds and hot showers. I volunteeered to do the shopping and bought out the local mini-supermarket and bottelshop whilst Christie had her shower. For the record Choshuenco doens´t have much food, and there wasn´t a single restauant open in off season.
After a dinner of Beer, chocolate and potato crisps we crashed.
Things don't seem so bad when you´re in a nice warm bed, but if today is a sign of things to come I think we'll have to adjust our expected daily distances. At least tomorrow will be an easy day.
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Coñaripe to Choshuenco. Distance 65.31km. Total Distance: 188km
Mood: Tired and sore, but blown away by this area. Loving it.
Route Description: Lots of short steep ups and down, hard to get a rythm. Some killer Ripio. A hard day all around, especially if just starting out and not cycling fit. No food along the way until you get to Choshuenco, and even there pickings are slim.
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John Rock
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What a journey!
I'm watching the saga unfold. What a journey! I'm envious of this freedom. It's an adventure of a lifetime, enjoy it!