december 14 - 31

december 17 saturday
finally we got ourselves back on the road again though it was quite hard to leave. after a couple of days living in the same cabana, a very nice one, you get used to the static life quickly and after that to head out into the big world again with no security and stuff... well we had to. so we could sing, on the road again... and it was nice and paved for the first 25 km to trevelin. we asked for local information at the visitor center and had real gorgeous ice-cream for 2,5 pesos. after that we were ready for "ripio" meaning dirt road of the best quality. it wasn't too bad though. we had lunch at the shore of a nice little river and coffee shortly before reaching los cipreses. by that time i felt like finding a place to stay but unfortunately there was none. the wind had picked up and as i asked for accomodation in a tiny supermarket in los cipreses a senor offered us a ride to the next camp. the cabana there should have costed 80 pesos and was rotten so we preferred to camp. had spaghetti for dinner and felt asleep very tired around 9 p.m. i guess we had to get used to cycling again. (56.26km 3:49h)

december 18 sunday
half an hour after a late start we arrived at the chilean-argentinan border. erk was as nervous as usual because we had cheese, butter and stuff like that with us. and for some reason the chileans are quite strict regarding the import of vegetables and other fresh produce. but there was no problem. the officer even urged me to make a sign in the "no" section of the questinary. from the border to the next village, futaleufu, it was only ten kilometers to go. we sort of got stuck there for a couple of hours and noticed that we were back to chile again. when we ordered coffee we were served a box of nescafe and a pot of hot water... i thought, ok, maybe i could at least pour myself another cup but senor took the pot with him. afterwards we tried to buy some food. but there was no real supermarket, just some tiny shops and the variety was poor. and the prices were just the same as in good ol' germany. anyways. we asked for camps in the information center and the senora told us to take the scenic route which we did. after a couple of ks a jeep stopped and the driver told us that this way wouldn't lead to villa st lucia but after we showed him our map he said yes is possible... the sun shone and we rode on happily until the road just ended. there had been a landslide which had taken it down. dead end and it didn't look like this just happened recently... i discovered a path over a pasture which we took but we had to return to the regular road nevertheless and to climb a real mean hill in order to reach the camp at lago epolon. nice place but in a neglected shape as all the other camps we visited and we asked ourselves why they always looked like that way. because obviously season was starting and a lot of tourists are visiting this area. anyways we had a nice risotto for dinner and erk played some harmonica for me. (31.76km 3:20h)

december 19 monday
we started fresh and enthusiastic. sun was shining and we were glad that the "wet zone" held no rain for us. the landscape was dramatic, turquois rivers running through deep valleys and rough mountains touching the sky. we had an early lunch at a hanging bridge and met a hitch-hiking israeli couple. once we arrived in puerto ramirez we decided to stay and camp free at the river. supplied in a tiny shop and had a nice talk with senora. she told us how she tried to learn some english all by herself with cassetts. had polenta and slept peacfully awoken by the song of lambs the next morning. (45.0km 3:11h)

december 20 tuesday
it looked like rain but i cleared during the afternoon. after some mean hills we arrived in villa st lucia and it was, honestly, the uggliest little town i have ever seen. it was settled during the time they had built the careterra austral in the seventies and i think it never changed. some chessboard like dirt roads with widespread houses made of wood and aluminum. internet should have been available but for some reason wasn't. we had lunch and agreed on riding on to the next supposedly free camp. direction north. it would have been possible to go south to cohaique from there but as we had already been south, having seen torres del paine and fitz roy we were sort of full of sights. maybe it would have been better to go down south step by step and not to hop around... whatsoever. our guide said it would be a steep two kilometer climb and then a nice 11 kilometer downhill, the highest pass on the caretera. but. it actually were nine damn kilometers up and we were cursing and sweating and pushing our bikes... as we finally reached puente ventisquiero i slipped in the curve and hurt myself a little. totally exhausted. some germans dontated a cold beer (and i lost my sunglases there) and we talked til late with hector the owner of the camp in the kitchen shelter which was fun. during the night a wet zone like rain developed. (48.26km 4:18h)

december 21 wednesday
so we had to pack the wet stuff. it seemed to be just not my day. i felt worn and the landscape was boring and dull, maybe due to the grey skies. but as always we arrived somehow. the ferry to quellon on chiloe had just left and the next was supposed to leave on saturday. that left us sort of stuck in chaiten. but we rented a real nice cabana for three nights and made ourselves comfy again. from a mail from nikos we learnt that our nephew moritz had been born on the 19th and we were very happy to learn that mother and child we well and everything went ok. welcome to earth moritz! (62.41km 4:24h)

december 22 thursday
rest day. went for two walks, one leading east along the coast in the morning and the other one leading west after the siesta. the latter was the highlight of this day cos i spotted some dolphins very near and we watched them for a while. at the end of the day we were fighting about something i don't remember but it was good, sort of a clearing thunder storm, we both felt better afterwards.

december 23 friday
we took the bikes for a short ride in the morning (only 22km) and watched again some dolphins at a beautiful black sand beach. in the afternoon we got organized for chiloe and i suggested to celebrate x-mas eve on that night. we had a real nice chicken, baked potatoes and pumpkin. and we unwrapped our only gift from andrea: a tiny plastic x-mas tree with little red bulbs and candles... and i had told her that i was not in this life going to buy a thing like that... we were very touched by that somehow and decided to put it up in our tent the following night.

december 24 saturday
but things always develop differently. on the ferry we talked to a real nice couple from the netherlands which was travelling in a camper, a couple from colorado on x-mas vacation and another guy from our neighbour country traveling south america for 15 months. he was very ecologically orientated and even didn't fly but reached buenos aires by boat... impressing. i talked to him for a while and got new ways of looking at things. arriving in quellon six hours later was really bad though. the city was really ugly and accomodation was very hard to find. we had thought of cycling to the next camp nine kms out of town but as we noticed the rolling hills and the dirt road we preferred to stay in town. after asking two police man we found a hospedaje. first the room should cost 9000 pesos but then it was already taken and we had to pay 12000 for a dump. while i was talking to the receptionist erk talk to a senora living upstairs. she invited us for x-mas dinner after some discussion we just took the invitation and experienced a chiloe x-mas eve with marcia, valentin and little nicola. went to bed way too late.

december 25 sunday
therefore slept in and started at ten in the morning, sun dashing down on us with the ozon hole right on top... and we were welcomed by some of them nice rolling hills (remember nova scotia?). they are real killers. you go up (10-15%) for a km and down and then up again just repeted until you are completely exhausted, no break in between. and it is very frustrating to go up knowing that you don't really reach any top. well and the landscape was boring. a lot of agriculture and houses surrounded by piles of gabage and every peace of land fenced. so we didn't even find a place to rest. we desperately needed to so we ended up climbing over a fence and settled in the shade of what once might have been a picnick-area.
we waited for the heat to fade but it did not. we finally cycled on and started looking for a place to sleep. the first camp we saw was covered with junk so we went on to the next which looked a little better. a lot of chilean families were celebrating x-mas with huge asados, children running all over playing soccer almost in our tent until erk lost his nerve and asked them to play somewhere else (there was lots of space).
all of those little annoyances added up and we decided on leaving chile as soon as possible and on trying to reshedule our language class to the 2nd of january. my view possibly is too negative but i just couldn't enjoy being there any more. (45.88km 2:41)

december 26 monday
we left late again cos we wanted the tent to dry. it was already hot at ten in the morning and the hills weren't any better. i was absolutely exhausted and pissed after two hours. but somehow we reached castro and rewarded us with huge hamburgers for lunch. after that we found out that the bus for puerto montt would leave in about an hour and for a little extra money they agreed on taking the bikes. on the bus again. it took us a lot longer than we had expected. there was a long stop in ancud andwe spent about an hour on the ferry. then the main road to puerto montt was closed because of a accident and we had to take a long dusty dirt road... we arrived in puerto montt around 9 p.m. and took a room in a shaby hostal not too far from the bus terminal. (44.52km 2:52h)

december 27 tuesday
we stayed in the city for that day to get organized and there really isn't munch to say about that day. i disliked the city. it was dirty, loud and crowded. and they have quite interesting trees there...

december 28 wednesday
i was so glad to be on the bus to bariloche that everything else didn't matter. going with "andesmar" turned out to be very comfortable. we were served coffee and a little lunch. had to spent a lot of time at the border but were lucky. they didn't examine our luggage. finally reached bariloche around 4 p.m. talked to some other cyclists at the bus terminal but they were only on a two week x-mas vacation trip. as we checked mails we learnt that we can start the language class on the 2nd!!! found shelter in the "el gaucho" hostal with a very friendly owner. she actually speaks german cos her parents immigrated from there. we went out for dinner to very good restaurant. tasty furnished and great service. and of course with delicious food. we shared a big bife chorizo (there's nothing like argentinan beef...) with salad and fries and a decent bottle of uxmal cabernet-malbec. yummy.

december 29 thursday
i had a little run before breakfast. we tried the whole day to find some cheap accomodation for about 2 or three weeks, the time during our spanish class, but found nothing cos high season started in bariloche and every shack is rented. i cooked a nice risotto, which we shared with henk from holland and had a nice evening with talking.

december 30 friday
we were checking out the cabañas along the way to llao llao by bike. but they were expensive as well, no 50 peso per night anymore. we had a break at a nice little beach and decided to spent the two weeks on the campground, three kilometers out of town. we had a look at the place and it was a real nice one, quite, clean and cheap. so we made a reservation for the 1st of january. after a stroll through the centre of the town, i bought a pair of new oakley sunglasses, if it is a copy, it is worth the money cos i like them. otherwise, i will never know. in town is a fantastic fruit shop, so i made a salad-surpreme for dinner.
before bedtime, we had a little look on jewish hanukka, because some guys from israel were celebrating it on the terrace of the hostel.

december 31 saturday
jipper, today is new years eve and we are going to stay at the hostel and participate on the asado, which is a big bbq. we hope oscar will do a god job. we bought a cheap alarm clock cos we have to get up early, when we go to school next week. erk got a nice "boca" soccershirt (i think its a big club from buenos aires, the real clubname is club atletico boca juniors), which is a good start for spanish comunication. sometimes you have to pay only half prices, sometimes you pay double with this shirt and there is a lot of discussion about soccer cos everybody has an opinion. well, the argentinos are watching soccer the whole day long on tv, even matches in ghana or laos, crazy.
in the afternoon we went for a short hike to cerro otto. and i wish i could do something like this one day...

january 1 sunday
new year started with fruitsalad and yoghurt after the asado yesterday. going to a campground seemed not to have the no.1 priority cos it was raining when we looked out of the window. might be that the senor, we stayed a couple of weeks ago, has some cheap accomodation yet. but its highseason now and he charged 100 pesos a day. eva was in a bad mood for that and the campground was suddently the worst of all possibilities. after a real good icecream, she felt better with the decision, to stay in a tent for the next two weeks. finally the weather was clearing up and we left the hostel at noon.
we had to climb a very steap ramp to the campground, now with heavy loaded bikes, when halfway up a pickup-truck stopped and the nice guy offered help. we had a ride for our luggage up the hill and found a nice campsite on a plateau under a tree. cos the campsite was cheaper than we thought, our mood was better and we were glad to go up to this place. and it is a very good one, compared to the chilean junkyards, we were camping at. we had even nice neighbors from holland and were invited for a glass of wine.
we had a date for going out for a beer with monica and christof, a nice swiss-polish-couple from the us, we met at the asado. it was a nice evening with a lot of talking. we had to go back to the campground early cos tomorrow is the beginning of our spanis class. exiting !!!