Saturday 22nd November 2014. Stage 89. Coyhaique to Puerto Ibanez. 120 kms, 100% paved, climbing 1989 metres, summit 1420 metres. A long slog in the coldness of Chile.

One thing about sleeping in an apartment in Coyhaique is the bed. I love sleeping in a good bed instead of 'Tent Hilton'. I think it has something to do with the odour.

With breakfast completed we went out the front of the complex and waited for our taxi to take us back to the campsite to meet up with all the other cyclists. All we had to do was throw our bags on the truck, add some water to our bottles and get some snacks for the 62 km ride to lunch.

Today we hit the road at 9am and started the 120 km ride to the lakeside town/village of Puerto Ibanez. Barry and I rode off with the group, but like usual on the first climb the bunch split to pieces. It was my goal to sit on the back of the bunch and listen to music all day. I had purchased a set of ear plugs after breaking 2 set already. In total I think I rode about 110 kms on the front of the bunch all day.

The first part of the ride was on nice pavement with gentle undulating hills, full of cows and good looking pastoral fields. The snow capped mountains would continue with us all day, and I have no doubt as we get higher it's going to get seriously cold. I've got my cold weather jacket on, leg warmers and booties. I love having warm feet when on the bike. After 2 hours of riding we had climbed 600 metres. The wind off the snow was bitterly cold and some of the riders only had short gloves on, whilst I had my winter gloves on. My hands were as warm as toast.

 Those 2 cyclists are Barry and Jurg.

I was getting pretty tired as we got close to the lunch stop, and I don't know whether that had anything to do with a lack of sleep over the past 2 days. I know I should have gone to sleep earlier, but I'm on holidays and staying up late is part of the game.

 The photo above was taken by Jurg on the way to our lunch stop today. I never get bored at looking at these mountains, and when I ride I'm always glancing around and taking in the amazing scenery. I do pay attention to the holes in the road at the same time of course.

As we rolled into lunch it was very cold. We had dropped of rain all morning and I was not going to sit around talking when I should keep warm and get back on the bike.

After lunch we were joined by Diderick and we both sat on the front for the next 40 kms. We still had another 1300 metres of climbing before we started the descent down onto the lake. The climbs were much better in the afternoon, long drags, but not steep. The wind was now changing and I could feel it pushing into my back and making the climbs much easier.

Still the rain was coming down, but this time I was getting drenched. My clothing is pretty good for light showers, but when it pours, I get drenched. We turned east at the 93 km mark and now we could fly. The wind was blowing a gale and we had 30 kms to go over rolling green hills with very little traffic.

I wanted to get to camp before 3 pm so I could pull out my tent and try and dry it out. It was still wet when I rolled it up the other day. All my clothes had been washed in Coyhaique which I think was a waste of time and money. Give them 2 days and they will stink and look terrible. I'm going to throw most of my gear in the ocean at Ushuaia because that's all there good for.

We finally crested the last climb for the day and could see the twisted road before us. The photo below shows the road we roared down at crazy speeds trying to be the first to the bottom.

The photo below was taken from the top of the mountain looking down into the lake that surrounds Puerto Ibanez and also borders Argentina where we are going to tomorrow.

 Once at the bottom of the climb it was an easy ride in to the camping ground. I had a boiling hot shower to warm up and also took in some food. It was off to the centre of town to check out this place. I found a little cafe down on the lake with a couple of cyclists already inside having a beer. I went in for a nice cold drink and too the photo below looking down the shoreline to the boat that can take you across the lake and onto Argentina. We don't have the luxury of the boat tomorrow, we have to ride around the lake.

The Chilean border control point is 2 kms from our campsite and then we have to ride another 20 kms to reach the Argentinian border control. Although we have the hassle of crossing borders tomorrow, these posts have very few tourists passing, so we should get through straight away.

It will be an early night tonight in 'Tent Hilton', and an early rise tomorrow, 7am breakfast, 8am departure. I'm now nice and warm back in my tent and looking forward to day 2 of 9 on the road to
El Calafate.

On a side note I received an email from my good friend Mr Geoffrey Hunter of the mighty GONG. Geoff had organised the TRN company to sponsor eXsight Tandems of the Illawarra. They made a significant donation to the charity that goes a long way in paying for the maintenance of the bikes and many other ares of business.

The photo above shows Mr Geoff Stratton presenting a representative of TRN with the framed jersey in appreciation of their support of eXsight Tandems Illawarra. Geoff is wearing the eXsight jersey in the photo and president of eXsight. I look forward to getting back on the tandem in 2015 and going on my Tuesday rides again.

Time to turn off the light and sleep.

Until tomorrow, safe riding.