· Saludos from La Junta, Chile! (The map says that we are in Futaleufú, Chile but we haven't arrived there yet...we just had to enter it because TravelStash wouldn't recognize our current location of La Junta, Chile. We'll be in Futaleufú in about three days!)
We've been on the road just 5 days from Coyhaique but are resting up in La Junta, a small town just 150k from the Argentinian border. Karen has an infected overgrown toenail which has gotten to a pretty nasty and painful stage, so she is taking care of it before it gets any worse.
The mystery picture was of a pancake frying in a pan with some mountains in the background. Congratulations to the only person whom guessed exactly correctly, Susie Deagle!!!! Thanks to everyone else for your guesses...we love to read your responses.
We left Coyhaique loaded up with new brake pads, new tubes, a new front rack for Joel, and cleanish looking bikes. The bike shop we went to did not have front racks in stock so the mechanic there just welded Joel a new one made out of steel based on how Karen's looked. It is working fine so far and Joel is happy to have a little more balance on his bike once more. It was pavement and blue skies the day we left Coyhaique, and we were flying high after a few rest days and having gotten to talk to family members at home over the phone. We rode up and down hills, along rivers and past waterfalls. The river valley we were in for most of the ride was absolutely gorgeous with low rolling clouds on the green mountains and an aqua blue river appearing through the trees every now and then. Before we knew it, we were 91km down the road and in the town of Mañihuales, which means "the town between rivers" in Mapuche, the language of and name of the indigenous people who inhabited the region long ago. Mapuche means "people of the earth" and many of the towns and rivers of the area have names in Mapuche, such as Coyhaique (the land of lagoons), Puyuhuapi (the island of poyas, which are a type of native flower), Futeleufú (big river), and Pucón (entrance to the mountains). There is still a Mapuche population further north in Chile in the Pucón region. We will be going through there when we cross back into Chile from Argentina so more to come about the Mapuche!
In Mañihaules, we were able to pay a few bucks for an excellent CONAF campsite, which is the national forest service in Chile. Hot showers, a camp fire, and a shelter make for a good night of camping. The next day we hit gravel road once again and we were reminded of just how much your average speed is affected by bad ripio roads. Along the stretch of road from Mañihaules to La Junta there is a ton of road work going on. We imagine that once the road gets paved, the tourists will really start to flock in because it is such a beautiful place. So far, most of the tourists we meet on the Carretera Austral are bikers, but this will probably change soon! After getting held up at a road construction stop for a while, we made our way a little further down a river valley and found a spot near the river sheltered in some trees. We were spoiled again with a campfire, baths in the river, and sleeping without the rain fly!
It was more road construction the next day and some pretty bad road throughout the morning. We began to get into a more densely forested area and with the heat of the sun in midday it felt very tropical. Giant green leaves of wild rhubarb, thick bamboo, and old birch trees lined the road. We turned a corner and Joel said, "I think we will be going up for a while". Sure enough we began a tough climb up switchbacks of terrible huge rocky road during the hottest day we've experienced yet. With a few breaks and a lot of water we were soon at the top, staring at the bright blue glaciers of the surrounding peaks and the cascades of water falling from them in the hot summer sun. The view opened up and a huge space of sky, mountains, and river valleys was displayed before us. It was an incredible view, which always makes the climb worthwhile. Surprisingly, the way down was even worse than the way up and once again we were happy we were heading north instead of south. It took us a while to get down the never-ending switchbacks of impossible rocky road (with softball-sized chunks of square rock) but finally we were following one of the rivers on out of the mountains. We camped once more by the river and had a fire and a bath before the skies opened up and it poured on our little tent. It was a very rainy night but luckily it stopped when the morning sun burned off the clouds.
After a nice morning ride, we turned onto a little side road to "The Hanging Glacier". We hiked around for a while and caught some excellent views of this beautiful natural phenomenon while having lunch. The hanging glacier sits on a lip of rock and gushes a ton of water from itself and the huge mass of ice hidden behind it straight down a vertical rock wall to a lake below. The lake drains into a rushing river which then meets up with another river to form a super mega river that absolutely rips by. Wouldn't want to go rafting on that one! We set back out on our bikes and rode a good portion of the afternoon along a beautiful fiord. It was nice to smell the salt air again and see seagulls flying overhead! We made it into Puyuhuapi and were looking for a place to stay when we ran into an American biker couple whom we had met back in Tortel. With their recommendation, we found "The Siren", an excellent camping place with hot showers and a great sign to boot. We hung out with the American couple at the Siren late into the night trading stories and sharing laughs.
We tried to head out early the next morning as we had heard that the next bit of road was closed from 10am to 2pm for construction. What we didn’t know was that the construction started 18km out of town. We arrived at the road block around 10:30 and after a little sweet talking, they still would not let us go through. So, we sat down for some crackers with dulce de leche and a few hands of truco. In a little while, our American friends showed up and we all waited together until the road opened again. It was quite a site... four Americans and a few trucks with Chileans just hanging out for a few hours in the middle of the road. We set out at 2, having a great time riding with a group of four. The road was pretty rough however, and soon, bad-luck Joel had a flat tire. He changed it and we headed out again when all the sudden there was a huge BANG! It sounded like a gunshot and scared the crap out of all of us... but it was just Joel’s tire exploding. His new but poor-quality tube had blown out and so had his tire! His tube had been pinched between the rim and the tire and BOOM, that was the end of that. Luckily, we carry foldable replacement tires, so we sat for a while longer while Joel patched his old tube and put on a new tire. The new tire is good quality, but even skinnier than the old tires we have... not the best suited for gravel roads, but we will be off of those soon we hope.
After that, it was a fairly quick ride to the town of La Junta, which is where the road construction stopped. We stopped in the town while the other American couple went on to camp at a place 1km up the road. At first we thought we’d just stay for the night, but after looking up some info about ingrown toenails on the internet, we decided that Karen should have her toe looked at by a doc in town. So the next day, Karen went to the health center and received a free consultation and free medication. The infection is bad, but with some antibiotic meds and good rest, hopefully we will be on the road again soon. We have talked to various other travellers who have received free medical help and medication here in Chile... it’s amazing, considering we’re not even from Chile! Pretty incredible. La Junta is a nice, small town, and I believe we are the only gringos in town. We tried to go to a horse race today, but a horse fell, and by the time we got there, it was cancelled for the day. Tomorrow puede ser.
Since this is a somewhat shorter blog and we have some time to spare, we thought we’d include a little info about the tradition of maté since we talk about it often and it is a huge part of the culture in many South American countries. Maté originated in Paraguay with the Guaraní people. Yerba (a Spanish word) is the name of the plant which is a smallish tree that can reach up to 15 meters in height. The trees leaves and small branches are cut once a year for the yerba harvest. Karen was able to witness the actual process when she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay since quite a few farmers in her community grew and processed yerba. The traditional way of processing it is a fairly complicated and long ordeal which involves an initial brief passing of the leaves and branches through fire, and then a 3 day drying/smoking over heat which comes from a distant fire built inside an underground tunnel. The industrial processing is all with electric ovens and such... the different processes produce very different tastes in the yerba. After the leaves and branches are all dried out, they are ground up and ready to be consumed. Maté is the name for the hot beverage with yerba, and is drank in Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, and parts of Chile. Tereré is the name of the cold beverage and is only primarily drank in Paraguay and border regions. In both cases, the yerba is put into a cup called a "guampa", as they call it in Paraguay or a "maté" which they call it in Chile. The cup can be made out of wood, gourd, metal, glass and pretty much whatever works. Then hot or cold water is poured into the guampa, and the tea is sucked up through a metal straw/strainer called a "bombilla." The Guaraní people used to use small sections of bamboo for their bombillas, but the metal straw is most common today. Usually only one person pours the water, and the pourer passes to each person in the maté circle a full guampa to drink. When the drinker has drank all of the tea in the guampa, he/she passes the guampa back to the pourer, who then pours and serves the next person. We love the tradition as it is a unique sharing experience, and it is a slow process...it allows you to take the time to be with people. Thousands of liters of water were consumed during tereré sessions in Paraguay, over laughter, over silence, over stories.
Many Argentinians like to drink maté dulce, or sweet maté. They put a little bit of sugar on top of the yerba before each pour and drink it like that. In Paraguay, maté dulce is different. It is frequently made with milk instead of water and the sugar is burnt and carmalized with an ember from the fire. The ember and the burnt sugar is all added to the milk and then drank with the yerba. It is super rico! Of course there are many, many variations to maté dulce, but one of our favorites is to add shredded, dried coconut as well as some toasted, ground peanut to the yerba!!
The maté that is most often drank in Paraguay is served with boiling hot water and is known as "maté amargo" or rather, bitter maté. This is due to the very, very bitter taste that the pure yerba has as one drinks it. In fact, the first few drinks are so bitter that the server generally draws the maté into her/his mouth and then spits it out until a more suave flavor is obtained. Maté amargo is very common to this region of Chile and many people here drink it through out the day.
In Paraguay it is much more common to drink tereré during the day and have maté reserved to the early morning before breakfast and the early evening before dinner. There are few ways to beat the heat during the summers in Paraguay so people love to drink tereré. A very interesting aspect to tereré is that it is often drank with medicinal or flavorful herbs added to the water. Many Paraguayans posess an amazing knowledge of different plants and herbs that grow in the area and their medicinal or refreshing properties. Of course, there is an unspoken protocol for which herbs go with others and how many to add to the water. Generally, it is a blend of three differnt plants that have been mashed up with a morter and pestle. One who visitis Paraguay, especially Asunción, will see people on many a street corner and in plazas selling these herbs displayed on tables. We have fallen in love with the tradition of drinking yerba maté in both the cold and hot forms. It is a great way to spend time with people and get a little pick-me-up at the same time.
We could write on and on about the history and culture of maté use in South America, but time is short and the blog getting longer and longer. If you are interested in learning more about maté check out some of the following websites:
Wikipedia: Maté http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yerba_mate
Tereré http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terer%C3%A9
Mi Yerba Maté (in English): Learn about yerba maté http://www.miyerbamate.com/content/index.html
Yerba Maté Drinker: More about maté http://www.yerbamatedrinker.com/what_is_yerba_mate.html
Well, that's all for now! We hope that you enjoyed reading this blog and we look forward to hearing from you all as we continue riding towards Paraguay. We will be heading east to Argentina and the next time that we will be writing will probably be in about two weeks or so. Until then, be well and THANKS SO MUCH for all your support! Please remember to check out our website www.bikingtobuildschools.com and help us spread the word about our project!
Hasta el proximo!!!!! Suerte y muchos saludos!!!!!!
Joel y Karen
