10. Mountains, Lakes and Rivers
DAY 175
I didn't have too much to pack, so I quickly say goodbye to my hosts and I was on my way. The cloudy skies all around me as forecasted. I hope they would be correct with the second part of the forecast, which says it's supposed to be sunny from midmorning. Road was fairly busy with morning traffic inbound to Osorno. But the road was good and I was in no hurry. The scenery was the same as last few days, nice fields with rolling hills and farms. That all changed about one hour into the ride today when the sun came through the clouds. I got to a big lake, and I turned off the main road. The traffic or but disappeared. Those lakes are really huge, it was hard to see the other side. And one after another the volcanos started to show up. They were everywhere. Beautiful sights together with the lakes and the forest. The road was perfect until the first lake. When I got to the top of a long ocean Inlet, the tarmac changed to a dusty dirt road. It looks like I'm going to be following the inlet for at least 120 km. I'm in no rush, so I'm taking it easy, it is a sightseeing trip for me today. The water is beautiful with the white caps and snowy peaks behind. It appears that there is a lot of fish farming in the inlet. There is one fish farm after another. That's why you can find salmon on the menu in every restaurant in Chile. At this point the clouds all but disappeared. The temperature was in high teens which was perfect. There were some road closures where they were repairing a bridge. I had to wait about half an hour until they let us go. The nice custom in South America is that motorcycles always go to the front of the lineup. I did the same and it was nice as I didn't have to eat the dust of all the cars in the lineup. After long 120 km I finally came to Ruta #7 which is Caratera Austral. It comes from Puerto Montt which is a shorter route but you have to take a ferry so it actually takes longer. And this road is perfect now. Everything around reminds me British Columbia. The ocean, inlets, islands, the crystal clear water and a lot of trees. And there are beautiful views behind every turn. Few times I had to double back when I saw some nice view and wanted to take a picture of it. It'll take a long time if I gonna continue like this. But again this is not a race, I am on vacation.
And pretty soon I was arriving to my today's destination, a small town of Hornopirén. I didn't have any accommodation booked because I didn't know where I am actually going to end up today. I was thinking I might be camping again as it is a very nice and sunny all day. I was looking for a campground. After a brief search I found one. Nice grassy spots right by the river. $10 per night. I can handle it. I sent the camp, unpack and went back to the town. There's a nice waterfront so I went down there to take pictures. It was a late afternoon and I've decided to have an early dinner. While chowing down on my salmon, I was looking at the map. Something didn't make sense. The route didn't connect and it appeared that I have to take a ferry. I asked the waiter who confirmed what I was thinking. And he told me I better go and get my reservation because quite often the sailings are sold out.
I found the reservation office at the waterfront by the pier. I've been told there are only two departure every day. One at 2 AM and the second one at six in the afternoon. The sailing takes five hours. None of those departures are convenient. I have decided to take the first departure which is 2 o'clock tonight. It will be a very short night as I have to be there at 1 o'clock in the morning. The ticket is not exactly cheap. The price for motorcycle and driver cost 68,000 pesos which is exactly $100. For comparison, the locals pay only 11,000 pesos. We are getting hosed. I do expect to pay more than locals but 600% increase is a highway robbery. But there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. There's no other route you can take and they know it. So I have a ticket. I'll try to get some sleep which I know is not going to happen. I'm not sure what I'm going to do tomorrow as it will depend if I can catch some sleep on the boat.
There's nothing else to do so I have already edited my pictures from today. I have few good ones. The blog will be done as well and I will upload everything when I get somewhere with an Internet connection.
It was a beautiful first day in Patagonia. Yeah, it lived up to my highest expectations. I hope it will continue. I should have 3000 km of this. OK, it is time to try to catch some sleep.
See you tomorrow.