Distance: 75.40 km
Ride time: 5:08:00
Average: 14.69 km/h
Total: 21566 km
The view from my mountain top camp this morning could not really compete with last night. It was raining and I was in the middle of a cloud.
It was the 31st of December, the last day of the year. I had planned to do a hike up to Torres del Paine and camp there – a good way to end 2013 I thought, but with the rainy weather I was reconsidering my plans. I decided to wait around and see if the weather improved.
After 3 hours the rain was still coming down steadily, so I decided to continue by bike instead. On the way I met two American cyclists. They had tried to take the same closed mountain road that I had enjoyed so much the other day, but were turned away. I was very lucky that I went there on a Sunday when no one was round.
I will never be a fan of cycling in rain, but today was not too bad. The rain was not hard, and the low clouds gave a special relaxing feeling to the mountains I passed. Towards the end of the day it was getting a bit cold though.
I reached Cerro Castillo, the village where I was now going to celebrate New Year. I had somehow expected to find a hostel, but when I arrived I realized there was not even a camp sites around. Instead I was directed to the local park and told cyclists usually stayed there. I put up my tent in the corner next to a fence to get some protection from the wind.
In town there was one open cafeteria, so I went there and ordered a nice dinner. There were a few other people, but they didn’t seem to care too much that it was New Year. At 10 o’clock I was back in my tent and soon fell asleep. In other words not the wildest New Year party I remember. I thought for a moment that it would be quite funny if the villagers decided to gather in the park to celebrate at midnight, but this village seemed very quiet, almost deserted, so I doubted.
