Nothing worthwhile was ever easy… How profound. Anyway, whoever created that saying was quite right. Since writing last in January, I’ve made it about 500kms further north. I’m going to be on holiday forever at that pace. Woe is me. The reason for the snail’s pace is mechanical. Doris, the bike, “broke down” in Puerto Guadal in southern Chile with a snapped clutch cable. I ended up putting it in the back of a truck and taking it to Coyhaique, the nearest big town, about 300kms north as I couldn’t fix it. Clutch cable repaired, the engine was overheating. I left the bike with a mechanic to try fix it and hitchhiked up to Chiloe, a big island further north in Chile. That expedition took a week or so and included a fried fish festival, thermal baths and a broken tent. I made it back to Coyhaique and it turned out the radiator was stuffed. A new one in Chile was cost prohibitive, to say the least, so I ordered a new one on ebay from USA which takes a month… Luckily I met Lucho and Abbey who had a farm out of town and I worked for them in the meantime in return for a bed and food. They did horseriding and rafting tours so that was my job, plus picking up horse shit and other farm things. I had a great time and eventually became an expert in whitewater and on horseback. We went cow herding one day on the horses, which was great fun, but I was quite useless on the horse and it just galloped off into the distance with me flailing around on its back… Eventually we came to an agreement that if it did what I said for a short time, I would get off it. That worked much better. My new radiator eventually arrived and I got the bike to work. To celebrate, I went on a hike around Cerro Castillo near Coyhaique for a few days. Fantastic experience except when we, the fantastic gang I met there, had to cross the highest point of the hike and were hit with a blizzard and 100km/h+ winds that blow you off your feet. I had been told about these though and we survived, we were just fucking cold. I got back to Coyhaique eventually, packed my bags and headed back to Argentina and then north. The next day, my bike’s battery died. This luckily happened near a farm outside of Corcovado in Argentina. The farmers put my bike in the back of their truck, after not being able to jump start or charge the battery, lunch, novelas and a lot of maté, and drove me the last 20kms to town. I hitchhiked to Esquel, the nearest big town, found a battery, returned to Corcovado and got the bike going again. And eventually I made it to El Bolson in Argentina; somewhere I had wanted to visit for a long time and only about 2 months later than I had “planned”. I then met a lovely chap at my campsite who was shortly driving back to Buenos Aires and he said I could come with him. I did take a quick sojourn to Bariloche first or a night to visit Kim and Stephen from back home, which was great. Then I left the bike at El Bolson and came to BsAs for a cheeky little city getaway. I’ll head back tomorrow I think, probably by bus and keep bikepacking north. Anyway, things haven’t been going to plan lately but I can’t complain at all. Nothing worthwhile was ever easy… Anyone planning a visit and want to jump on the back?
dededos
areudirty
vaporwave
romaincrisis
titsay
germansingergirl
snowghoul
blakekathryn