Manuel works as an accountant and Patricia is a teacher but also works as a volunteer in a student foreign exchange association and so their house is quite often full of teenagers who come from abroad to study and live in Argentina, this time it was me......
I met their son Santiago, we had a chat and something to eat and they showed me where I could sleep and have a shower.
They then introduced me to their friends Norma and Rafael and we had dinner all together, Rafael is also a teacher and a cyclist, so I took the opportunity to ask him if he could take me to the bike shop the next day to fix a couple of small things.
I then volunteered to cook a nice italian dinner for everyone and it was a success...on the menu: "prosciutto e melone" (melon and parma ham), risotto con salsiccia e funghi (sausage and mushroom risotto) and tiramisu.
I spent a few days in Zapala, resting, eating nice food (Grandma even made homemade pasta....), planning the route ahead and enjoying my time with lovely people who treated me like if I was part of the family.....GRACIAS !!!!!!
The time to leave had come, and last wednesday I cycled out of Zapala very early in the morning, crossing the mountains (not the very high ones yet....) to arrive after about 50km at the ski resort (in winter...obviously....) of Primeros Pinos where I had a good rest during the warmest hours of the day.
As it got a bit fresher, I cycled a bit more towards my final destination of Villa Pehuenia on the Lago Alumine, and when I just felt too tired I stopped to put my tent up in the nicest place I could find for what was going to be my first wild solo camping of the holiday.
On the morning after, waking up in such a beatiful place made feel fresh and ready to complete my journey, I arrived in Villa Pehuenia around lunchtime in a very hot weather and went to llok for a place to eat and for the camping.
I spent a couple of days resting and enjoying the lake, before the weather turned nasty and forced me inside my tent for an all day as the temperatures during the night were getting closer to zero.
I visited the Volcano Batea Mahuida, inside a Mapuche (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mapuche) owned land only 5km away from the Chilean border.
After a steep uphill ride I arrived at the Laguna, a small lake on the Volcano crater where I had to leave my bike to walk up to the top to enjoy the beatiful view, from there you could see the Andes and three of the highest Volcanos in the Chilean territory covered in snow.
I then went back to the camping where I spent a nice evening with my neighbours, Pablo and his family, eating nice food and chatting.
On the next day I left Villa Pehuenia to cycle about 30km south through amazing places to the next lake, Lago Moquehue, where I spent the afternoon swimming and enjoying the sunshine on the beach.
After a cold night I woke up very early to enjoy the view of the lake covered by the mist as the sun was starting to warm up the air, I then cycled 35km to the Lago Ñorquinco where I camped in an Eco-friendly camping by the lake.
There I met Hernan and Alena, two German cyclist who had been travelling south for a month from Mendoza, we had a nice chat and after enjoying the afternoon on the beach, we had dinner together and warmed up by the fire before going to bed.
I left early in the morning to cycle about 60km to the town of Alumine, it was a hot day but the road was nice and the ride very enjoyable.
1 comment:
Hey!
Happy to see that everything is alright for you. Everything looks amazing.
Take care babe
xx
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