Waiting at the ferry ramp.

THE BAD

1. Flies
It’s not that they bite (though they do); it’s the constant buzzing sound, which is not only annoying but also taunts me with how slow I’m going (i.e. slow enough for flies to keep up with me).

2. Ripio
I was prepared for the gravel roads (ripio) that make up a significant part of the Carretera Austral, at least in theory. I was also prepared for hills. But I hadn’t considered the two in combination.

It’s awful. Some parts are relatively smooth, but when the rocks get bigger, you have to maintain a certain speed just to keep your balance. Which, when you’re going uphill… Yeah, it’s terrifying, especially with clip-in shoes. After nearly falling, I gave up and resigned myself to pushing the bike uphill whenever the rocks felt dodgy. Going downhill was almost equally terrifying, so I clipped out of my shoes every time just in case an awkward rock made me fall. (I just read today on the Carretera wiki that the section I’m talking about is one of the two worst, so that’s comforting.)

3. The sun
The sun here doesn’t care about sunscreen. I could feel my skin burning by early afternoon and so added a third layer of sunscreen, then eventually put on my jacket-vest when my skin started to feel even worse. The ferry actually had a UV forecast, and that day’s rating was the highest possible level.

And it was hot. Toward dinner time, I was feeling woozy and realized I was at risk for heatstroke, so I stopped at a random house where people were sitting outside in the shade and I asked if I could join them and rest awhile. After ten minutes I thought I felt better, but the moment I was back in the sun again, I started to worry. Would I make it to the next town? Where was the next town? There was thick forest on both sides of the road, too dense to push through and set up camp, so I had to at least wait for a clearing, and who knew when that would be? I’d been looking for hostel or campsite signs for almost two hours and I hadn’t seen anything.

Then the very next house had a sign: hospedaje familial.

THE AWESOME

I spent the night on this amazing farm with the nicest family. They have pigs, turkeys, goats, an apple orchard, a greenhouse with flowers and spices, and a full garden made doubly impressive by the fact that it’s on a steep hill.

The are also bees, and some cousin came over for an arthritis treatment I’d never heard of — Marilyn, my hostess, plucked a bee from the hive with tweezers and handed it to her cousin, who held the bee to his knee until it stung him. He left the stinger inside for about a minute and then removed it. Apparently that’s a thing.

Their homemade treatment for my sunburn (oil and sugar) was less effective, but I did get a couple of aloe leaves from the greenhouse. Then Marilyn brought me a white long-sleeved shirt of hers and insisted I take it with me.

Also, I lied — the sun does care about sunscreen. My back is red but the spot on my neck that I missed with the sunscreen is blistered.

We stayed up late talking and drinking mate; Marilyn lives with her parents but her daughter and grandson were also visiting so there were four generations in the house, and they were super fun. (I love making people laugh in Spanish. In English too, but in Spanish it feels like more of an accomplishment…)

I had such a good time that in the morning I decided to take an early rest day — after all it’s not like I’m in a hurry. Plus, it would give me time to investigate the strange shakiness I was feeling in the front of my bike…

THE KIND OF SHITTY

It looks like I may be bussing back to Puerto Montt to get my bike fixed. The headset is broken and I’m not thinking any of these tiny towns are likely to have replacement parts. I’m still investigating, both whether the next town might have a bike shop, and how dangerous or important this particular broken piece actually is.

Slightly less shitty but still a problem: I can’t find the fuel I need for my camping stove. Apparently it’s available in bigger cities, but as it’s less common for camping stoves than regular gas, not one place I’ve been to has had it. I could hypothetically live on sandwiches and other things that don’t require any cooking, but once I start camping (which I haven’t actually done yet) I’m going to at least want coffee in the morning, and mooching off other trekkers doesn’t seem like the best solution. So if I do have to go back, it will give me another opportunity to at solve that problem.

Plus, I’m really not in a hurry. When I first realized I might have to start over, I felt like crying, but really, I only did two days of the trek, the paved parts were gorgeous and worth doing twice, and for the ripio part, there’s actually an alternate, slightly longer but flatter coastal road I could take instead, so I’d only be repeating a few miles of the same ripio. And I could stop by and visit this family again.

So yeah, overall, everything’s still pretty awesome.