A Beautiful Day on the Carretera

Villa Santa Lucia – Puyuhaupi, Chile

Another wonderful day in Patagonia. Our rule still holds. Each day biking south on the Carretera Austral has been better than the day before. 

Beautiful. A misty morning – if a bit cold. Waterfalls. Mountain lakes. Streams – so many streams. Rivers. Snow-capped peaks. Lush vegetation. Bucolic scenes with sheep, goats, and cows. Lots of cow action today. And, of course, an ocean fjord.

And the riding was somehow easier today. Or at least it felt that way. Nice and rolling. No long climbs. And because we finished just a few feet from an ocean fjord in the quaint town of Puyuhuapi we had a net downhill for the day. 

Well, most of the day was easier. Except when Diana’s shifter cable broke; I think the third one on this trip. She goes through shifter cables like most people go through water. 

Fortunately, it was warm and sunny when the cable finally broke. Definitely better to do this repair work under fair skies than after the rain starts. First off, I can actually use my fingers when its warmer. And second, we didn’t freeze to death standing around while it was raining on us – which might happen next week if the weather predictions hold. 

So we were actually kind of happy the cable broke today . . .

I was pretty proud of myself for diagnosing the problem, removing the old cable, running the new one through the routing, and setting it all up so that Little Ann shifted normally again. I think the whole repair took less than half-hour and we were off and biking again.

Sadly, within a mile or so the shifting went to hell again. Not sure if maybe the cable housing is getting kind of old and maybe the cable was initially stuck in there before pulling through – and, thus, “stretching” things out again – so that the gearing was all off. Just a theory . . . 

Still working on perfecting things again – but the basic shifting is at least working . . .

But, really, it’s no problem. Because there is a bike shop in like 200 miles or so. The same place we’re hoping to purchase a new helmet . . . (Seriously, I think we are just looking at a small “barrel adjustment” – where you turn this small adjuster to increase or decrease the tension on the cable, which, in turn, adjusts the shifting so that things hopefully work going forward . . .)

Currently, Diana is riding with the helmet because we figure it is important to protect our most valuable resources. And speaking of Dr. Liu’s brain, she amended her theories with regard to the Giant Man-Eating Rhubarb today. 

I’m sharing her thoughts on this because they helped me understand some basic science. Yesterday she had said something about the weird pod thing being the male sex organ. But what she realized today is that the wired blob of yellow is probably the male part and the big phallic pod is probably the female part of the plant. 

She explained that the yellow jelly-like part probably releases pollen into the air and that pollen ends up connecting with, and pollinating, the pods. This was pretty helpful to me – because I guess I had been thinking that the big phallic part had to be the male part because it was …, well … phallic. Not so. I guess what defines the male and female is something more like this: the male is the pitcher, and the female is the catcher. In this case, the Giana Man-Eating Rhubarb has this yellow part that pitches pollen into the atmosphere. The big phallic pod thing appears to have all these flowers – and the flowers “catch” the pollen.

One of our dedicated readers, Bill M, had some more useful info to share on the Giant Man-Eating Rhubarb. Apparently the plant is native to Chile, it is called nalca or pangue, and it is actually used in much the same way as regular rhubarb. Chileans make jam out of the stalks and they use the leaves in a traditional Chilean dish: curanto. We haven’t eaten curanto yet – need to do some research on that. We’ll see if I muster the courage to try it . . .

Oh, and one other thing – somebody must have transplanted some nalca, and it is now an invasive in Ireland and New Zealand. Based on what we’ve seen of it, I’m pretty sure that within ten years there will be nothing left of those places – including the people . . .

I’m thinking we could save a lot of money on our military budget out skip tariffs even; we could just wipe out our enemies by giving them some of this stuff…

A few quick things to add . . .

First off, the weather is constantly changing here. And I thought I would help you understand with a little photo essay. See below . . . 

Second, I occasionally post some videos along with these posts. But today’s videos are maybe a bit more fun than normal. Take a look . . .

Third, we met yet another bike touring person today. Natalia from Spain. Natalia is a 24-year-old young woman who is biking Patagonia by herself. Or, rather, she biked Patagonia by herself and now she is hitchhiking back north. It was fun to talk to her because she is the same basic age as our older daughter Ellie. Natalia lived in Colorado for high school and she was going to some type of pre-college school in Terrytown, New York when COVID hit. Like so many people COVID kind of derailed her plans and she ended up back in Spain. She told us that the Carretera was difficult but manageable. We were very impressed with her courage and resourcefulness. She took a picture and was supposed to share it with us, but we haven’t seen it yet . . .

Finally, it’s looking like the next two days will continue to be beautiful around here. Sunshine and unusually warm weather. Yes! But after that all hell breaks loose; it turns much colder and starts to rain. Hopefully we’ll be in Coyhaique – a bigger town in the heart of Chilean Patagonia – by the time that happens. And then we’ll have to make some decisions . . . 

Tune in over the next few days to learn what the choices are, which direction our daring heroes will endeavor to go, and whether they survive the onslaught of the weather, the Giant Man-Eating Nalca, and the ripio of the Carretera Austral.