DAY 3: WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? (CHAITEN TO COYHAIQUE)






Our hotel for the evening with the volcano in the background blowing off steam



Gost town with the volcano in the background

Deserted houses with evidence of the volcanic ash that killed the town

This is what happens to you when you ride behind

We departed from Chaiten late, having spent some time walking through the town and witnessing the utter devastation of an apparently once vibrant town. We left in a slight drizzle, which we decided was due to the wind coming in from the sea. As we rode inland the drizzle actually subsided and we thought that our decision not to put on the yellow BMW rain suits was the correct one. BIG MISTAKE! We had some more drizzle on and off and dried out between drizzles. The problem with the rain suits is that it is really a mission to get them on (taking boots off first etc.) and if you have it on and it does not rain to keep you cool you are wetter inside than outside! When we entered the first of 3 national parks / nature reserves the rain became more intense and by the time we realized it was only going to get worse, we were really too wet to get into the rain suits.

The rest of the day became one of the most fantastic riding experiences that one can wish for.  Soft rain enough to make the road surface as slippery as it can get, added to the worst road we have ever traveled, with generally more potholes than decent road surface (pothole patches stretching across the entire road width making it impossible to not go right through them). The depth of the potholes were generally between 100 and 200mm depth with some even deeper. The parks authority added some spice by doing road maintenance resulting in sections of road covered with a brand new layer of sand, soggy due to the rain and not favourite GS territory. These conditions made up the bulk of the day. When we reached Puerto Aisen, we were both totally soaked while temperatures dropped to below 10 deg. C. The last section of road from Puerto Aisen to Coyhaique, where we stayed for the night, was a high quality surfaced road and offered some of the most beautiful scenery of the tour yet with lots of indigenous wild flowers and a mosaic of colours created by trees and grass.

We arrived in Coyhaique around 10pm (still a fair amount of daylight left) after a 10 hour day and were very lucky to find two rooms in the excellent guest house Raices, run by the very helpful owner, Cecilia Cortes. The heated rooms and hot showers  were just what we needed after a long demanding ride. Our dinner in a nearby restaurant was one of the highlights of the tour with the fillet steak as good as one can get.