26th Jan 2020
Well, maybe I should do a bit more research sometimes….I will come back to that in a minute.
I left the particularly bad campsite in Puerto Montt at about 9 this morning. I actually slept ok, but the campsite looked far worse in the morning than it had the evening before. No one asked me for money, and I didn’t look for anyone, so it ended up being a free night at least. After packing up the bike, I headed into town to fill up and look for an ATM. I eventually found an ATM at the cruise ship terminal. Quite why Perto Montt is a place for cruise ships to stop is a bit of a mystery: Peurto Montt is an absolute shithole of a place. It was the first time on the trip that I had the feeling I was somewhere unsafe. The first ATM didn’t work, the second one did. After a quick sandwich, I set off on the Carreterra Austral. It was a great ride to the first ferry, at Caleta la Arena, which was just about to leave when I rocked up.
The ferry took about 30 minutes to cross, then it was a fairly short ride to Hornopiren, where I needed to catch another ferry. I got held up at some roadworks for 20 minutes, but otherwise it was a nice ride on smooth tarmac, the road going through some low hills near the coast. I arrived at about 2:30pm, to find out that the next ferry to Vodudahue isn’t until 11pm tonight. That would mean continuing in the dark, so I think I will stay here for the night., and catch the 7am ferry in the morning. It is a very beautiful little town here on the Pacific coast, so there could be worst places to be stuck. While at the ferry terminal, I met a group of cyclists, Joaquin, Anna, and Cesar, who were also waiting for the morning ferry. First we had to get tickets, which meant waiting until 4pm at the ticket office. After that, we all headed to the same campsite. After putting up the drone for a bit, we had a shared dinner of It was a very nice evening, sharing a bottle of wine and cooking a communal meal. They are all off to Villa O’Higgins too, but it will take them ten days longer than me.
Joaquin and Anna work in shipping, Cesar is an electronics engineer. All are Chilean and they all speak good English. I also washed some clothes, but too late for them to dry. We only went to sleep around midnight, and my air mattress kept deflating, so I didn’t get the best sleep. More from the Carretera Austral tomorrow.
