La Junta

Leaving Rio Futafeulu and the consequent torquoise jewel of Lake Yelcho meant we are headed for the famed Carretera Austral. This is Pinochet´s geopolitical road to tame or claim Patagonia for his Chile and was only opened in 1983. Our first contact was two despondent hitchers standing on it´s flank in the rain trying to escape the village of Santa Lucia.

I´ve never been in such a ramshackle place. We stayed, Kirsty´s view being it was better than wild camping in the pouring rain, my view- ´How bad could a $5 B&B be?.´It was touch and go though as the town couldn´t afford an alcohol license. Principal entertainments twofold: Watching two dogs chase a horse down the street and unarmed soldiers doing army jeep wheelspins round the barracks courtyard. We got round the alcohol thing. La Senora in the shop was persuaded to sell us an under the counter can of beer, wrapped in brown paper. A nervous moment. Drank it in our room [ four plywood walls, six nails for coats and a bare bulb].

Our first day on the Carretera was tormented. The Spanish for storm is ´La Tormenta´. There´s so little traffic on the road the hawks and even, I think, a juvenile Condor have forever to pick at the limited roadkill. May´s eruption of Chaiten not only left ash everywhere but also part destroyed the northernmost town on the Carretera. All the people were forced to move to Puerto Montt at the other end of the Gulf of Ancud, which might account for the missing traffic.

For us the day got wet. Initially we sheltered in a bridge until we succumbed to the torment. Then wetter. Four Israeli pensioners in a jeep gave us tea from a flask. Then it got windy. A powerline had come down which we gingerly cycled over and then a small tree cowped over as we sheltered next to it in a bush. Then windier. Finally the tempest came to a head and a proper tree fell and closed the road entirely. It took six of us to clear the way. Before I knew it Kirsty and bike were in a pick-up [ha!] with a guy with a dodgy eye and I left cycling. On the positive side the wind was behind us, my panniers were in the pick-up and we weren´t in Santa Lucia.