South to Central Chile (Puerto Montt to Santiago)

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The next stage of our trip was on the pan american highway from Puerto Montt to Santiago. It's just over 1000km to Santiago but as we soon found out, distances are much easier to cover on the pan american with paved roads and no headwind! Most days we did around 120-140km before stopping, although we usually leave shorter distances to cover on the days we're going to arrive in a city so that we have the afternoon to look around. Since leaving Puerto Montt we've visited Temuco, Los Angeles and Chillan which are all resonable size cities. We spent two days in Chillan as we got a bus to some thermal baths about 80km from the town. We were the only tourists there except a couple of German guys, loads of Chillian families seem to go there on the weekends to relax so we got some funny looks as we stood out a bit!

A typical days riding for us when we´re not stopping for anything consists of waking up around 8am, packing up and having breakfast and then getting on the road between 9-9:30am. We do 2 hours riding (usually around 40-50km on the pan american) then have a snack break. Then another 2 hours until lunch where we stuff our faces for an hour. Then a final 2 hours after lunch, although we usually cut this short when we see a good place to camp once we've done at least 120km. Along the way we've taken a few detours to see things like the Salta de Laja waterfall and Termas de Chillan as well as checking out the cities along the way.

As we got into central Chile we hit the main wine growing region so rode to Santa Cruz, a town about 45km from the highway famous for it's wine. Along the road to the town we passed loads of vineyards and the scenery was pretty amazing with mountains in the background. We stayed in Santa Cruz for a day to do a wine tour where we went to Montes vineyard which produces some really expensive wines - sells for $200USD a bottle! They showed us round the vineyard and how the wine is made before having a tasting. We paid an extra 5000 pesos (around $11 USD) to try a glass of the really expensive wine although i have to say it was wasted on me as i couldn't tell the difference between a $30 bottle and a $200 bottle! We spent a couple of hours after the tour drinking a bottle of white wine in their cafe which was really cool.

After Santa Cruz it was a day and a half of riding to reach Santiago. Getting into the city itself was pretty hectic as there's a lot of traffic but we found a nice hostel to stay at. We're planning to stay in Santiago for the next 2-3 days to see the sights and have a bit of a break from cycling. My bike computer now reads 3516km cycled now so we're racking up the miles!

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Photos

Collipulli Bridge
Along Route 5

Salto de Laja
Waterfall about 5km off the highway

Termas de Chillan
Thermal baths near Chillan

Montes vineyard
Near Santa Cruz

Montes vineyard
Near Santa Cruz