Distance: 109.51 km
Ride time: 5:45:28
Average: 19.05 km/h
Total: 23961 km
As we cycled out of Pucon people were enjoying their holidays – getting ready for another day at the lake. We treasured the last 50 kilometers on rather quiet roads as we knew that we would be leaving the mountains, the lakes, and the volcanos behind.
The plan was to join the famous Panamerican Highway towards Santiago. From other cyclists we knew that the highway would be busy and noisy, but that it would be possible to cover distances fast. This was the exact opposite of what we had been doing so far – cycling in amazing landscapes but moving very slowly towards north. Sometimes change is good.
It was a strange feeling that we would be standing in Santiago in a week. The capital of Chile had seemed like a distant place for a long time. Now it was rather close.
Another thing that felt very different was the fact that all tourists were gone. Ever since I landed in Ushuaia some 2.5 months ago I have felt that I have been on a tourist trail. Even the smallest town in Patagonia seemed to be geared towards the tourists. Now I was suddenly passing small towns where no tourists would be thinking about stopping. I was somehow feeling that I had arrived in the real South America – a thing that I liked a lot!
[…] As I left Juan Carlos’ house in the morning I only had a few kilometers to cycle before making a right turn away from the Panamerican Highway. Since my new plan includes visiting Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, I will no longer be following this iconic highway that I first joined a summer day in Chile more than a year ago. […]