It’s a Zoo Out Here

I had a good rest in Cochrane and reconnected with my Italian buddies for coffee before heading out. Francesco and his friends are really sweet and it’s been great to have some company in the evenings. I think I recovered enough for my next leg to a farm stay about 30 miles from the next ferry crossing. Leaving Cochrane felt like leaving civilization for good. I haven’t seen but a handful of cars since I rolled out of town and the animals have come out in force. I’ve had to slow down for horses, sheep, cows, bulls, rabbits, pheasants and geese that have all spread out from their farms onto Route 7 to hang out.

I love seeing all of these animals up close. The ride from Cochrane was beautiful but there was some serious work to do as I hit a few sections of strong headwinds that were pretty challenging. I didn’t mind the extra challenge though since the mileage was much less than I’ve been doing over the past few days. I got to my farm stay called Camping El Risquero around 4PM and the hostess showed me around her impressive set up. She had a nice cabin, hot showers and a covered camping area for us. The best part of the stay was her friendly lamb that seemed so excited to greet new cyclists. He followed me inside the cabin and showed me around his digs.

I had an amazing sleep tucked in my tent with a light wind coming up from the valley. The morning on the farm was so peaceful. The roosters and sheep woke me up gently and I spent a few minutes walking around with a cup of coffee to see how all of the other animals were spending the morning. The geese were grazing in the bright green field next to my tent and the cats were out and about hunting. The view from the farm was impressive and I wanted to stay longer and explore. I keep forgetting that it’s spring time here and the countryside is covered with cute lambs and chicks.

I had a hard time tearing myself away but I had a pretty good climb to finish before getting to Puerto Yungay for my last ferry ride of the trip. After a pretty calm start to the day, I came to the turnoff for the mountain and the grade got pretty intense real quick. Nothing more than what I rode at the beginning of last week, but my legs are pretty beat up and it’s getting harder to push my fully loaded bike up these mountains. The views were worth it though and I finally descended into Yungay to wait for the ferry.

I got to the port around 2PM and the ferry wasn’t due for another two hours. I asked a nice local what time the ferry was due to depart and he held up his right hand with four fingers and said “cuatro.” He then flashed me a mischievous smile and held up his left hand that was missing a finger and said “tal vez tres.” He was a sweet guy and he was in awe that I was cycling the route.

I made lunch and coffee in a little shelter packed with Brazilian motorcyclists that were frantically scrolling on their phones. There was a cell tower on the hill and they were taking advantage of the 4G coverage. We were just killing time and then heard some commotion outside to find that a small barge had pulled in much earlier than expected. I’m not sure if this was the 4PM boat that was early but a boat is a boat so we all gathered our stuff and headed to the dock. They invited the first few cars in the line and all of the motorcycles to board. I was the last one to get on and it was a pretty wild experience. It truly was just a barge – no where to go except hang out on the deck for the forty five minute crossing.

It was interesting to check out all of the fancy motorcycle gear. Many of the bikes had computer monitors on their dashboards and their luggage boxes were packed with heavy food and sodas. I was so jealous that they could carry so much and I marveled at the two liter bottles of Coke so casually stored in a luggage rack. Now that’s living! I packed one can of soda as a treat for the last three days and promptly crushed it during my first lunch. Yeah, it was supposed to be there for emergencies. There was a friendly dog that worked on the boat and he was super affectionate. We passed the time together until he saw the shore and he barreled down the gangway to herd everyone off the boat.

It was a short ride from the port on other side to the only covered camping spot between here and Villa O’Higgins called Camping Maria. It’s really just a big shed but they also built a toilet room and even had hot showers warmed by a wood stove. I was shocked that they also had WiFi via Starlink that they turn on for a few hours in the evening. The hostess told us that we will have internet access when the light bulb on the wall comes on. Sure enough, the light came on and were connected to the world again. There were three other really friendly cyclists there from the Netherlands, France and Germany. I know a bit of French and a tiny amount of German. Absolutely no Dutch. One of them spoke a small amount of English. It was a confusing but fun conversation and we laughed a lot and showed each other pictures from our trip. They didn’t know where Seattle was but they had all seen the famous Tom Hanks movie and I showed them where the houseboats were docked on Lake Union.

Tomorrow is going to be a real adventure. It’s payback day for all of the amazing weather I’ve had as a big storm is rolling in. The wind is howling and the rain is coming down in sheets. It is supposed to rain and snow hard all day tomorrow with strong winds for my final fifty mile ride to O’Higgins. I’m leaning against the cabin wall as I write this and it is shaking violently in the wind. I hope the roof makes it through the night but it sounds like it is going to rip off any moment. It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is my last day on the bike. I have so much to be grateful for on this adventure so I’ll count up all of the happy moments and good fortune along with the final miles.