Day 9. Bikes and wilderness.
He said: Today, Rachel and I planned to rent some bikes - another of our wedding gifts. We had decided to leave after a leisurely morning, stop at a local shop that made maté (a caffeinated herbal tea) in the traditional way - served in a gourd, and consumed with metal straws.
Unfortunately, Tematyco was closed until 4pm, so we went to catch the bus into town. At this point, we discovered that Rachel didn't have her bank card. It turned out that the ATM we used that morning decided to eat her card, and we didn't even notice. Once that was figured out, we had missed the last bus before siesta time, so we delayed plans for a couple more hours and stayed a bit longer at the resort.
Once we finally got downtown, we went straight to the bike shop - I rented the bikes (mostly in Spanish, but some pointing and nodding was involved too), and we headed out. The ash was starting to look bad on the horizon, so we wanted to get as much out of the ride as we could. We had no plan, but made one up on the spot. Rachel noticed there was a lookout and a waterfall up the road a ways, and down a trail. So off we went. We didn't get very far before we had to stop for water, and I put on a dust mask (actually my winter running balaclava, but it worked well enough). We eventually got to the path after a few nasty hills, nearly getting run over by a water truck (they wash the roads a lot here, because of the volcanic ash), and a couple of angry dogs who really didn't like cyclists.
Another kilometer (or so said the map) brought us to the lookout point. I can see why mountain climbers do it - being able to see such a huge vista is mind blowing, even if you're standing on a peak in the middle of a giant ball of ash. Also, ash looks a lot like fog. After a few minutes there, I stomped around, trying to find a volcanic rock to take home for Jeremy. Everything crumbled into powder. I suspect a lot of the rocks have been taken already, as the initial eruption was quite a long time ago. I got volcano in my boots.
We headed down a different path, to get to the waterfall. It's no Niagara Falls, but it had the benefit of being able to stand right in the center of the river that fed the falls. Again, we have photos. Rachel had some fun playing with her camera controls, trying to get that glassy waterfall look, and I got to play teacher. Haven't seen the results yet (besides on the back of the camera), but I think that's what she will be posting with her blog entry.
We headed back down to return the bikes, and got thoroughly lost in the woods, though not without finding the heart-shaped log in today's photo. We had no compass, no GPS, no sun (ash-overcast by that point), but we did have a map. I was having trouble breathing, so I just concentrated on moving in roughly a straight line, and Rachel figured out the map. We got out just fine, and even got the bikes back a couple of minutes early.
We wanted to get some Argentinian wine before we leave tomorrow, so stopped at a high end shop. Rachel noticed some nice wine - 3 bottles in a shipping case - that we wouldn't be able to get back home. "¿Quanto questa?" AR$550 - about US$145. Ouch. We thought, ok, special occasion. Let's go for it. Then we found out that was PER BOTTLE. Yeah. I don't care about wine THAT much. We went somewhere else.
We caught a cab back to the resort, planning on stopping at Tematyco on the way - but, they were closed again (still?). We went for a nice dinner instead. Mushroom Risotto and a local beer we hadn't tried yet. Both were quite good, though I don't think I'd get the beer again. Nothing spectacular, just good.
Tomorrow, we (re)pack! And then we head back to Puerto Montt, Chile, for the next leg in our adventure.