Villa O´Higgins

hola! estamos en villa o´higgins and back in chile! we had a crazy 3 day trip from el chalten to our current destination of villa o´higgins. just one more story to chalk up on the board on the duration of this long journey. our first day out from el chalten to lago del desierto was quite enjoyable. we had amazing views of fitz roy, some wind, but it wasnt bad. we saw two waterfalls and ended up camping next to a river.

the next day we were on a ferry to cross lago del desierto. once across it was barely after 11 am and we had the entire day to get across the 5 km trail. we didnt really know what we were in for. we had heard horror stories, worried looks on peoples faces when they saw our trailers and we told them lago del desierto, but the day before a man told us it was only the 1st hour that was hard then it was ok. for some reason all the previous horror stories disappeared and we only thought of the man on the last day. we checked out of argentina and loaded our trailers, packs, everything excluding our bikes onto our backs and started up the trail. super difficult for me. i pushed my bike and carried my pack for 20 minutes before giving up and ditched my bike. thomas was just up ahead and the next two hours we struggled up the trail. eventually we came to a muddy creek and i stopped to drop my pack and return for my bike. we made 4 trips total. two for the packs and two for the bikes before we made it to the chile/argentina border. it was probably the most difficult thing physically i have ever done in my entire life. by the time we had our trailers put back together it was nearly dusk when we rolled down the less than adequate one lane road that would ultimately lead us to lago o´higgins. we made it to the washed out bridge, and found the small alternate foot bridge just up river. we crossed and camped about 5 km up the road beneath a tall forested section. we were both exhausted and fell asleep quickly.

yesterday, the 3rd day in this crazy escapade we had about 10 km to ride before we arrived at the shores of lago o´higgins. we did so on treacherous roads. steep loose gravel sections but amazing vistas, we slowly made our way down. about 1 km from the chilean border post i looked back and the right wheel from my trailer was almost falling off. we stopped and made a quick repair and after crossing into chile officially we arrived at the ferry dock on lago o´higgins. the ferry arrived at 530ish but then we realized the time change was one hour so we fell back an hour and it was 430. the lake was super high. and the dock was nearly covered over completely by water. once on the ferry we relaxed and took in the view from the bow until the wind was too strong and the water was crashing into the boat. we arrived around 730 pm and it was pitch black by the time we landed and were underway to the pueblo of villa o´higgins. it was an exhilirating 7 km ride into town, flying through the dark, along the lake and eventually into town.

now we´re here relaxing in the town of villa o´higgins. completely surrounded by steeo green mountains, under the all too common cloud cover and thick patagonian mist. we´ll leave tomorrow and head north to the next pueblo of puerto yungay, 100 km away. it should be exciting. haha id love to write more but im super hungry so i think ill grab some food. tonight we have salad, potatoes, and beef, prepared for us by the hosts of el mosco hostel :] delcious! haha ok chao chao!


zach