lago ranco y lago puyehue

I left Niebla on a cloudy day after having breakfast with Jorge and his family from Santiago, and got caught by heavy rain in the second part of my 70km ride towards the town of Paillaco.

As I arrived in town completely wet, I found a family run bed and breakfast and stopped there for the night, I spent the next day resting in my room, waiting for my clothes to dry and mixing with the locals............

As the weather got better I cycled through the countryside on unpaved roads, met Brad and Sue (two american cyclists on a tandem) and crossed a river on a "balsa" to arrive in Lago Ranco, where I found a cheap camping in the backyard of a house.

The friendly owner was known as El Frances, as he spent 35 years of his life living and working in Montpellier, we had a good chat and he even took me to the butcher to make sure I got a good price on my meat.....

After resting, and once again waiting for sunnier days to come, I left Lago Ranco and cycled 70km through the beatiful and quiet Chilean countryside to arrive in Entre Lagos, a quiet town on Lago Puyehue, getting closer to the Andes and the border with Argentina.

There, I stayed in a quiet and cheap camping on the beach and ate at a very nice restaurant where I met Hugo, a Chilean man who was travelling with his french wife Sylvie and her friends Yoyo and Serge.

They invited me to their table and we enjoyed a nice chat before going to their Cabaña to have a drink and some sweets, we talked a lot about our trips and many other things (Mercie a tous.....Gracias Hugo, de verdad serias un buen compañero de viaje y Pisco.....).

The day after I visited the Termas de Agua Calientes, a thermal centre in the middle of the Parque National Puyehue, where I enjoyed a nice walk up in the mountains to admire the scenic view of this complex, built in a valley surrounded by the thick forest in the Pre-Cordillera.

I then went for a nice hot bath in the open air pool, where I relaxed alternating the thermal waters with a quick dip in the freezing river by the side.

I returned to the camping for my last night in Entre Lagos and met Carl, a cyclist from Oxford who was travelling with his bike towards the north of Chile, we had a good chat and ate together, exchanging experiences and advices.

I left early in the morning to start my journey towards Argentina, stopping at a hostel in Anticura, 40km before the border.

There I had a relaxing afternoon, walking around the woods to see two beatiful waterfalls and preparing myself for the hardest ride so far....crossing the Andes through Paso Cardenal Samore' at 1300m.

I passed the Chilean customs after 5km and cycled 17km more (almost all uphill) to arrive at the international border and become the descent towards the Argentinian customs.

It was surely the hardest ride so far considered how much uphill I had to do, but it was also one of the most enjoyable and satisfying ones, arriving at the top of the mountain dividing the two countries and go all the way downhill to return to Argentina gave me great emotions.....