Patagonia – Day 1

Ralimo – Caleta Gonzalez, Chile

We actually didn’t realize that we were in Patagonia already. Yes, we saw the Patagonia Donuts store in the mall in Puerto Montt. But that’s hardly definitive. I mean, there’s a Patagonia Store in the Mall of America – that doesn’t make the MOA southern Chili or Argentina . . .

But it turns out that Patagonia starts as soon as you leave Puerto Montt heading south. That’s what we did yesterday – head south out of Puerto Montt. And by the time today’s done we’ll be about 100 miles out on the Carretera Austral. 

Well, I’ll say this. So far, Patagonia is the real deal. Snow covered volcanoes. Lush vegetation. The sea. Waterfalls. Mountains. And pretty tough biking.

It’s pretty cool. And I’m thinking we haven’t seen anything yet. 

We enjoyed a pretty good day of riding and climbing – with about 4,000 feet. Add in, by the time we’re done for the day, three ferry rides and we’ll be ready to hit the hay. Unfortunately, at this point we don’t know quite where the hay will be. Hopefully someplace in Caleta Gonzalez – where we disembark from the last ferry for the day – and we have some ideas – but it’s not like there will be a backyard campground waiting for us there. 

No. What we understand is that there might be a city park and the city park might have some nearby bathrooms available – but that’s about the extent of our knowledge. Oh – and I guess if you camp there you are supposed to clear out early because it is a public space . . .

But I’ve jumped way ahead. Let me tell you where we are and how we found ourselves here . . .

We’re on a 3 ½ hour ferry ride – the first segment of a mandatory portion of the Carretera Austral. That is, this highway has big sections where there is no road – just a ferry to connect unconnectable sections of road . . .

It is now dark – but this ferry ride is, itself, amazingly beautiful.

So let me back up again . . .

There are two ferries daily – one at 10 a.m. and one at 6 p.m. We arrived in Hornopiren – the town where you pick up the ferry – at about 4. Plenty of time . . . (Which, by the way, is a minor miracle for us. We are usually biking at about 37 miles per hour at the last minute – just hoping to make it because we had to stop for one last donut or something along the way . . .)

Yes, we were there on time. But when we went to purchase the tickets the attendant told us that bikes are not allowed on the 6 p.m. ferry – we would need to wait for the next ferry – tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. (This actually does make some sense – it’s not just some arbitrary bureaucratic rule. You see – this ferry ride is really two ferry rides: one 3 ½ ride, followed by a 5 mile or so jaunt across a point of land, and then finishing with yet another ferry ride across a much smaller piece of water. I think they figure that they don’t want bikers trying to bike across the smaller spit of land in the middle of the night. Not really that crazy of a rule – as rules go . . . And, really, Latin Americans are pretty good about not having dumb rules for the sake of rules – not like some other country I know . . . where success seems to generate rule because, I think, people have too much time on their hands . . .)

Enough editorializing . . . The problem with this rule as it applies to us is that if we take the 10 a.m. ferry we don’t finish the ferry trip until late in the afternoon tomorrow – meaning we basically lose a whole day of biking. Not that big of a deal – except we only have a sixteen day window to ride to Caleta Tortel – for the big three-day ferry ride to Puerto Natales. 

Because the Carretara Austral is such an unknown – and because we could easily lose several days to weather (like rain . . .) – we are pretty jealous of our days at this point . . .

So when the attendant told us that we were SOL – not in so many words – after all, she speaks Spanish – we were a little bummed. Yes, it would have made for a relaxing evening with actual dinner and a campground tonight – but not really the plan . . .

This is where the great Munger ingenuity and resourcefulness enters the picture. We type a Google Translate note for the attendant:

“If we can find someone with a pickup truck, can we put our bikes in there and have them transport us that way and then buy tickets to the 6 p.m. ferry?”

“Si. No problemo.”

Okay. Now we’re cooking with gas . . .

From here it’s just a simple matter of finding someone willing to let us put our bikes – and all of our stuff – in their vehicle – and also transporting us onto the ferry and then across the small spit of land between ferries. 

And in Latin America this really is a simple matter. People are just so darn nice and helpful around here. Especially when Dr. Liu is doing the asking. Who could say no to her? 

So now – at this moment, as the Latin Americans would say – Old Dan and Little Ann and all of the chaos of our stuff are in the back of Ricardo’s pickup truck. Ricardo is some type of scientist who travels around making sure that salmon fish farms are healthy and safe – or something like that. He confirmed that the strange edifices we’ve been seeing in the water are, indeed, fish farms where they raise salmon. The upshot of that is that there are a lot of fish farms around here. 

Once all this ferrying is done it will be close to 11 p.m. And then we’ll need to find a place to camp – hopefully the park type area we talked about before – and then set up our tent and get some rest – so we can start all over again tomorrow morning . . .

A long, beautiful, and eventful day to start our journey on the Carretera Austral. 

Tomorrow . . . It’s looking like we’ll have our first section of ripio – Chilean gravel. We’ll see how that is and how far we make it. Hopefully we’ll find a campground, a mini-market or two, and, hopefully it won’t rain. 

About 600 miles – and fifteen days – to go to Caleta Tortel . . .

Postscript – Our first casualty. Diana helmet somehow didn’t make it onto Ricardo’s pickup in all the confusion. 😳