Day 10 - 247 KMs, Puerto Rio Tranquilo Campsite, Lake Tranquilo, Chile (07:00) to Coyhaique (Campsite Northern end of town), Chile

 Rough Hot Dusty Roads Ahead - Again!?! - Yes AGAIN!

Some feed for the belly!!

 I woke up at a nice campsite at 7am.   I kept the door open so I could see the lake  at night.   It was  beautiful.   And it was beautiful in the morning too.  However I was tired from last night still so I went back to sleep to about 8:30am.   I woke up for good at 8:45am.   I made my standard porrag and coffee breakfast.  You know, I am getting very bored of porridge now.  

Pt Rio Tranquilo, Lake Tranquillo, Chilean Patagonia

I wanted to go boating today but I needed to be there @ 9:45-9:50am to get a place on the boat.  I ate, cleaned up and packed as best I could.  I drove into Pt Rio Tranquillo (2 kms away) and went to the registration batch for the boat. It was locked and no one there.  I was there at 9:50am with cash in hand (12,000 CLP). No dice. No one there.  So I drove to the boat ramp.  No one was at the boat either. WTF?  Oh wait, the guy told me yesterday that he needs at least 4 customers to go.  I guess he had none so far so he gave up for his 10am boat ride. This is too bad because the boat is a glass bottom boat and the ride would have been fun!   The other boat tours were zodiak boats that go close to glaciers but that did not interest me considering I was just in Antarctica doing that for 11 days!  How can I ever compare glacier viewing via boats after seeing Antarctica up close?  ;-)

Stopping the last turn off before I ventured off into dust!

Sooo there you go, I then left for the long drive to Coyhoique.   This was a hard drive, but not because any steepness problems as such was on day 9 of the ride when I thought I was going to get killed high on that ridge above the lake.  No this just HOT, very bumpy and flat.  No hiding from the hot sun in this van for all day.  When I got to about 56km into the drive, I saw a car on one of the few shady spots on a downhill area (blind from above).  He has a some sort of issue with his SUV.  He had help with him.  As I drove by I saw a hazard marker on the road but it had fallen over.  This guy and his car is going to get hit from a speeding bus or car.  He’s in a bad spot. It was too dangerous for me to stop and turn around to warn him so I kept going.  At 66km into the drive, I made a sharp right turn and saw a Mercedes tourist people mover van (smashed up) on the rocky wall to the right side of the gravel road. 

A tourist people mover that hit the side of the road earlier

I almost hit it, but managed to avoid it.  I stopped to offer help, but when I walked over to the bus, no one was in it.  I guess it has been there for a few days?   Both these incidents have taught me to take it easy on these treacherous roads and if someone wants to pass me going too fast then they can just go F themselves because I am not risky life and van driving 80km/hr on a bumpy gravel road. ☺

I made to what seemed to the halfway point of the drive to Coyhaique and lucky for me there was a river/bridge with a turn off with SHADE under a tree. Wow!  So I turned around when back over the bridge to park the van.    I checked of the van and why the driver’s side washer fluid was not working.  It turns out that DUST got into the line and clogged it!  What?  How the f*ck did dust into a closed system like that?  I was unable to fix it. Will have to wait until drop off the van or stop in a larger to town to fix it.  I ate my lunch, a can of tuna, can of strawberries and some avocado with juice to wash it down. Not bad! I was so hot, tired, dusty and miserable that I forgot to taken photos.  Ouch!

A large cliff if in back of me makes for a nice viewing rest
stop

I kept driving the scenery got better,but so did the roads got harder to drive.  They were very curry and bumpy. Ouch.  Luckily this did not last long because at last I could see the next town and sealed roads.  I saw a lone hitchhiker sitting at a bus depot so I pulled over to offer her a ride. Her name was Melina, from Israel.  She was friendly and spoke good English—lucky me!    She was originally from Buenos Aires though.

WOW!  Sealed (not gravel!) roads!  Oh man
I am so happy now!

We drove along and hit some construction near the city of Coyhaique.  Once through it, we finally hit the “big city” 30 minutes later.     I was not impressed.  It was hard to tell  which direction each road went. Also there was no where to park and the local drivers drove like arrogant asshats.  

They were bad drivers - everywhere.  Anyway, I dropped off Melina and she wandered off to find a hostel for the night. Like the other hitchers, she gave me her name, email address for my blog.   I did however forget to get a photo of us together. Dammit.   My fault.

Van camping under a shady tree hits the spot after a
long hard day of driving on nasty dusty bumpy hot roads

So I then parked the van after 20 mins of trying to find a spot.  I walked around, got an ice cream cone!  Yummy.  It was an OK town, but I was tired, sweaty hot, and not in agood mode. So I went back to the van to find a camping spot.  I though I found one spot,  but the road upthen hill almost did me in. I had to turn around and try somewhere else.  I tried a cabin / B&B but it was $90 NZD a night. No way.  I drove around some more and decides to leave town and go North.    I got lucky and found a little campsite right off Rte 7 North.  I was only 4000 CLP. So I paid and got relaxing.

A Mercedes super custom survival van parked near me.
Yes the van is German, but the owners are French.
This is has solar panels, water purifiers, and is diesel. Nice!

I got a well needed shower, and made dinner – pasta and etc. And then sat inside a little make-shift cabin to do my blog.  However that blog entry work did not last long. The mozzies were eating me alive, so I moved into the van.    I then did some paper blog writing and soon went to sleep I was too tired. It seems I am a day behind the my MS Word blog each time. Oh well.  It’s now 2100 on 28/2 and I need to write the blog for the day bedore. Nope, I am too tired to do it.  Fuck it..  LOL..  

The Mercedes Survival van that travels the world!  How cool is this!??!

Daily Summary:


Today was a very difficult driving day. It was not because of the steep roads that did not exist.  It was because it was so fucking hot and dusty.   I couldn't roll down the windows otherwise the van would've been full of dust from oncoming vehicles and ones that I'm following.  Getting off the gravel road was nice, very nice.  Picking up a friendly hitchhiker was also nice.  The big city I drove through was miserable. I'm glad I found a peaceful place with trees to rest my van and my sanity.  I'm looking forward to another day of adventure, preferably on nicer roads. LOL!