Coyhaique

We arrived in Coyhaique today, the capital of this region and the biggest town (45,000 people) we have seen on this trip by far. Did a big shop of fruit and veg in the supermarket, since they are hard to come by in the littlel towns and usually in a pretty sad state. Not surprisingly considering the roads! The hostel / campground were are staying at is real nice, so we will probably hang out here for tomorrow as well and rest up. Chiliean campgrounds in the national parks were a nice surprise so far, cheap and spacious and usually very quiet. In most we had our own private shelter and fireplace. Over the last days we made good progress thanks to the tarseal from the Puerto Cisnes turnoff onwards. We also did some walks in the Queulat national park, to the "hanging glacier" and "enchanted forest", both impressive in their own way. I loved the moss covered trees and humming birds. We saw a pair of condors cruising over our heads as well. It was kind off bizarre to hit perfect tarseal with a big shoulder and brand new fancy lookouts and picnic areas after the steep, ruggered, switchback climb just before, especially since there was hardly any traffic. Seems like Patagonia is getting ready for more tourism. Over the last three days we saw six other cycle tourer, so it seems to be quite popular for cyclists already. We had the first little taste of the famous wind yesterday, but only for a few hours and it was only a strong breeze. From tht we have been told there is worse to come, but we shall see. Our bikes seem to deal real well with the rough conditions, so far we have a few broken supports on the carriers and a broken spoke (all fixed). The weather is still warm and sunny during the day, thankfully not as hot as before. It gets quite cold at nice, and rained last night, but we were cosy in our huge luxury shelter that was actualy big enough to put the tent up in. So much for the moment. Hope you had a good start in the new year! :)