October 29, Day 23: Puyuhuapi to La Junta
Puyuhuapi turned out to be underwhelming. I'd been thinking of staying two nights, but it didn't work out - it's before the tourist season and the town is not yet open for business. The only available tourist attraction was the hanging glacier, which I'd seen and got photos of yesterday - albeit from a distance. There was exactly one restaurant open which was OK, but not good enough to stay a second night. (There were a couple more interesting ones but they looked closed until the summer season.) The place I was staying was thoroughly nice, but also was the only option in town.
There's so few options that most of the people I saw at the restaurant last night, were also at breakfast...
So it's time to move on. The next stop is La Junta, which is 50km up the road. Not far, mostly flat, Komoot thinks it'll take a bit over 3 hours.
I left late-ish since there was no rush. The route started with a sneaky ride down a walking route, over a pedestrian bridge, and then a surprisingly big climb out of town. The wind was not an issue; this is a nice change so it's worth mentioning!
I have one complaint about the route, and it's the dips. The road had ups and downs, but they were big. So big that I'd hit the top gear on the way down, but not be able to get up the other side without dropping down into the hillclimbing gears. Annoying! If the dips were smaller I could carry enough speed to keep a good pace, instead of having to slow down to walking speed.
From left to right: Departure, the hotel owner took my photo. Taking the pedestrian route. Still surrounded by the Andes! Making good progress. This Men At Work sign looks a lot like a dance move to me. Waiting at the roadworks, might as well take a photo…
Got stopped at some roadworks. It looked like nobody was on duty but nevertheless I politely waited for a minute - then someone emerged from a portaloo-sized cabin (which I thought was empty) and waved me through without changing the sign from "stop" to "go". I didn't stop to argue.
The roadworks was trimming the plants on the roadside and repairing some of the wire mesh enveloping the rock face of the steep cutting on the west side. The slope wasn't stable; there were spots where parts had broken away. There were some rocks that had been caught by the wire mesh, and a lot of loose stones on the road where they'd escaped. The wire mesh had torn open in one place and the work crew was looking at it. Thread the gap between the trucks and digger, throw a wave to the guy driving the trimmer, past the cones on the far side, onwards.
Passed a few groups of cyclists along the way, they're getting steadily more common. An older couple had parked their bikes and were having morning tea while looking at the lake; they nearly didn't notice me go past. A younger couple coming uphill the other way, we swapped a ¡Buenos días! and kept going. One of the hostel owners in Villa Cerro Castillo said they were seeing couples instead of solo travellers these days, and as a result were renovating to change from single to double rooms. That lines up with what I'm seeing...
From left to right: each of these two bridges got its own sign. More Andes. And more, it felt more exciting at the time. Waterfall, but the sun direction isn’t helping here. The grazing horse outside La Junta. The town is also surrounded by snowcapped mountains…
And suddenly I'm in La Junta. Someone's horses are grazing on the grassy verge beside the main road into town which you don't see every day. I've got a couple of options for accommodation so I thread my way through the town checking them out. Like most other towns there's a lot of places that aren't open yet, presumably waiting for the summer crowds. I get a room on the north side of town, on Nov 1 the prices switch to the high season and go up about 15%. The cheaper prices are a nice advantage to doing this trip as early in the season as I did, but I’m not sure they balance out the weeks of freezing cold.
It’s only early afternoon, so I have a bit of free time which feels quite luxurious. The main thing I need to do is plan out the next couple of days: I've got three days until the ferry to Hornopirén and there’s not much on the road ahead, so I need to figure out what the options are. I might spend an extra day in Chaitén. It's the biggest town around here and while whelming is not a thing, I can hope it isn’t underwhelming.
