January 7th
Distance – 318km
It is hard to believe that we are almost a week into the trip. After a fantastic breakfast at the hotel, we had to stop by and see the monument erected by the local people to Pinochet. Apparently, he is quite revered locally for driving the building of the Carretera Austral. He realized that in order to fight territorial claims from Argentina, he needed to populate the south, and that means infrastructure. Today, the road is mainly ripio, gravel. However, they are replacing great chunks with pavement.
Our second flat happened today. This time George was the unlucky one. Somehow he’d picked up a thorn which was barely visible and caused the issue.
Once the tyre was taken care of, it was a quick rip down to the Puyuhuapi hot springs. The water flowing from the spring is 80 degrees Celsius.
Puyuhuapi Fjord from the termas.
The weather was grey and cool for most of the day. A lot of rain was coming down on the mountain tops and creating great waterfalls.