An old trip

 One of my last vacations before pandemic was in January, for the summer of 2020. My friend and college mate in that days, Héctor, invited me over his house days after new year's eve in his native land, Chiloé. His family spent the holidays here in Santiago and then they would return to Chiloé by car. We took the chance and carried our bikes with his family as they were driving a SUV. The trip was really nice,  I think I never travelled south that far by car and I was really amazed by the landscapes, it was a really long trip though.   

We spent like 1 week in Chiloé, staying over his mother's house and his grandma's place. Kind of hard being a vegan on an island where livestock has been the main income for many families  over the years and they have lots of traditions and typical meals, but I made it through pretty well.  I met really nice places,  my jaw dropped every 3 minutes because of the view. Also the weather was really pleasant for the time being (summer); we had 2 or 3 rainy days, which was awesome, and the rest was partly cloudy with the sun shining every once in a while.

During that week we also worked as well cutting grass in a couple of fields, which was a bit exhausting because the fields were a little to big, and after cutting the grass, we had to pack it up in sacks (also I didn't know I was allergic to grass until then). We spent the money in our next destination, Lago Llanquihue, which was actually a 3-days bike trip that ended up in 4 days.  

We put a luggage rack in the back of our bikes so we could carry our clothes, the tent, and the food. We travelled from Chiloé to Puerto Varas in a small car we parked in a parking lot that someone borrowed us.  The first day we went from Puerto Varas to Ensenada going through beautiful beaches around the lake. Then the second day we went from Ensenada to Puerto Octay and we stepped by La Cascada and other beautiful localities with beaches and an astonishing views to the lake and the volcanoes nearby. The second day was one of the toughest because the wind was not on our favor, we finally spent the night in a camping in a beautiful place called Centinela beach. 

By the third day we ran out of money. We did a collect among our friends and then we spent the rest of the morning at the beach. Then we travelled from Puerto Octay to Frutillar and the road took a turn to the interior; I was checking out the map so I took a detour to go next to the lake but it was a gravel road, which happened to be a little bit of trouble for my mate that was riding a fixed gear bike. Then we lunched by the lake and travelled from Frutillar to Puerto Varas, we arrived to the car almost by midnight.

I have to admit that it was a hard night because we were exhausted and had little discussions about the road (that day we went through at least 3 long gravel roads taking detours), and where to spent the night. We finally found someone who borrowed us a piece of his backyard and a hose, so after building the tent we went to sleep by 1.30 a.m.

Next morning we couldn't move our legs. After a while of complaining and getting recovered we decided to extend our trip for 1 more night. We packed the tent and after lunch we travelled from Puerto Varas to Ensenada again, but this time we took a turn to another highway that led us to Saltos del Petrohué and Todos los Santos Lake. A friend of mine was traveling nearby on his own so he helped us with our baggage in the middle of the route and then we met in the afternoon at Todos Los Santos just in time for the sunset.

The places I met traveling by bike are unbelievable, it's completely different and better than going by car or bus. I totally recommend doing this trip because the view is truly priceless and you can find campings everywhere (and you can always haggle that's for sure, especially if you go on bike). Also there is a bikeway all along the road at Lago Llanquihue.

P.S: My hair was a mess during the trip because of the helmet so I look awful in most of the pictures.