Day 7 -- a route change that led to another great ride

As originally planned, we were to continue riding around Lake Llanquihue in the direction of Petrohue, with a stop at the water falls on Lago Todos los Santos (Lake of all the Saints). However, road construction has made this route all but impassable, so we shuttled in the vans to the small village (hamlet?) of Ensanada, and got on the bikes for an out and back ride to Ralun.

This turned out to be a windfall. The road was very lightly travelled, had good pavement, lots of great views, and a considerable amount of climbing that never got real steep. Once again, the weather cooperated with clear skies and lots of sun.

Jeff Bartlett, a professional photographer on our trip took the photo of me (below) with my camera. For some really great shots of our trip, you might want to visit his blog at http://blog.photojbartlett.com/.

Yep, that's me!


We stopped at the turnaround point and ate what we had with us -- a banana here, a ceral bar there, a couple of energy gels, and some cheese that Elsbeth generously shared. For dessert, I just pulled over to the side of the road and got my fill of blackberries fresh off the bush. I didn't even have to dismount from the bike.

When we got back to the main road at Ensenada, we continued on to the famous "saltos" or waterfalls. After a pleasant stop and some very welcom ice cream, we loaded the bikes on the van because the pavement ended at this point and the last three miles to the lodge where we are staying this evening. This is also the terminus of the route from Barriloche (our starting point) that combines a series of boat and bus rides through the lakes of the region.

More beautiful scenery

Guy, Doug and Elspeth

 Tomorrow is the end of the first part of the tour and a few of our number will be leaving us for home. The rest of us will be transferring to the Island of Chiloe.