A Week in the Cochamo Valley

Maybe it is because in my last post I tried to make my (mostly northern hemisphere) readers jealous about the amount of sunlight Hawk (Steve Hawkinson) and I would be enjoying.  But mostly it was probably because we went to a temperate rainforest and had some unusually rainy weather.  Following is an account of the very wet and muddy week in the Cochamo valley, which included being stranded waiting for a flooded river to recede.

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Santiago, Chile

Very quick update from Santiago, the capital of Chile.  I picked Hawk up at the airport yesterday and we’ve been running around doing errands and doing just a little planning.  We decided that instead of trying to line up a bunch of small field trips in the area around this smoggy megalopolopolis, which seems like a logistical nightmare of figuring out transportation, we were going to go “all in” and take one long bus ride south to an area we had heard about at our hostel where we’ll be doing a 5-7 day hike.  Any time we have left over after that we’ll figure out later.

In less than an hour we’ll be on a 13 hour bus ride south to Puerto Montt, which is in Patagonia.  We’ll get there tomorrow, stock up on some groceries, take a local bus to Cochamó, which is the last town on a road before a valley that makes its way up to a pass that will get us into Argentina. The valley has no road, but a horse and hiking trail that connects small settlements along the way, where we’ll be able to get basic things like bread and shelter should it rain on us all day (and it will likely do that at some point).  There are reports of a road making its way in little by little (and tension between development by power companies and locals), so we may be there just in time before the secluded nature of the area is ruined.  To top it all off, supposedly Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had a ranch in the area and used the trail to herd cattle down to the main town.  Sounds like fun.  And since we’ll be about as far south of the equator as Chicago is north, and we’re so close to the (Southern hemisphere) summer solstice, we’ll have a nice 15 hours of sunlight everyday.  Woo!

The hike from the road to the border pass should take 4 long days of hiking,  but we have enough time to slow down and maybe take a day off somewhere and relax.  After getting to the border (yes, there is a border post at the pass and we will check in with the police in Puerto Montt to see if we need any paperwork done before heading in), we’ll hitch back to the main highway that heads north, and make our way up to Mendoza with another long bus ride.  From here Hawk will take a bus back to Santiago to catch his flight back to the US, and I’ll head back north to get back on my bike.

So all in all lots of bus travel lately but no idea when I’ll be back here, so I think this hike is going to make it all very worth it.

Hawk delivered dozens of letters, which I actually haven’t read yet!  I’m saving them for Christmas!  So thanks so much to you all, I feel very loved so far away.

Got to run!

La Quiaca, Argentina

Woo Hoo!  ”Only” 5121km (3182 miles) to go!  I think this number seems a little high, but at any rate, it all depends on the route I take.  But it was fun to see a sign for my end point!

About 12 hours in Argentina and I can tell you things are rather different than Bolivia.  The shower in the hostel was too hot (the cold water didn’t work)!! There is hot water in the sink.  My room had a pleasant smell of cleanliness without awful aromas.  There was an ad for Danielle Steel books on TV.  Stores are well lit.  Gas stations with neon signs, ad campaigns and frequent customer reward programs.  Things are noticeably pricier.  The accent is going to take some getting used to.  Everything uses the ‘vos’ verb form.

I have four more days riding before I get to Salta, where I’ll be leaving my bike and go catch up with my friend Hawk in Santiago, Chile.

Tupiza, Bolivia

Yesterday I arrived in Tupiza, which is only 60 paved miles ride away from the Argentina border and at about “only” 2,950m (~9,700 feet). For about the past 4 weeks I’ve been above 3,000m, and for the past 3 weeks and 800 miles, never below 3,650m  (~12,000 feet), along the rather flat altiplano of Peru and Bolivia. Perhaps not a coincidence, but all this time I was also in the watershed of Lake Titicaca, Lake Poopo, and the Coipasa and Uyuni salt plains. From what I can gather, this area doesn’t drain into either the Pacific or Atlantic.

But yesterday I went over a pass and down 1,000 m into a scenery very different than the one I’ve gotten used to (and that eventually drains into the Atlantic for what it is worth), quite similar to the appearance of southwest US. Most notably is the large amount of leafy green vegetation as opposed to scrubby little plants. Trees not only taller than me, but several storeys high. Bright fragrant flowers, and crops like corn. Cows and not llamas. My supply of butter rather runny! The boiling water for my morning coffee noticeably warmer. Locals bundled up considerably less. For the most part this is a welcome change, though I must say the chilly days up at the high altitude were good cycling weather. And by the end of my time in the altiplano I was able to finally get some deep restful sleep at night and not feel out of breath all the time.

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Uyuni or Bust

A quick note before I leave Oruro, I’m on my way to the Uyuni salt flat.  I’ll most likely be without internet for the next week, on a particularly rugged part of Bolivia.  The salt flat has been on the top of my list ever since I set off on this journey.  It is several thousand square miles large, and almost perfectly flat.  Riding on the salt flat is easy, but the “roads” nearby are notorious for being sandy and very tough to ride on.  But the experience of riding on this huge expanse of nothingness will certainly be worth it!

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13500 from Matt Kelly on Vimeo.