Woke up at my usual 06.00 to a freezing room in a freezing building. Ice in the bedroom. All ideas of a morning shower evaporated, as did the prospect of waiting in the cold until breakfast at 08.00 so I decided to cut my losses and drove off in the dawn.

It was actually nice at that time of the morning – all a little crisp, and improvable with a coffee but nothing was open in Puyuhuapi or indeed down the Carretera Austral for more than a hundred miles. But I had some juice and biscuits in the car, and the views were again stunning.

I was puzzled by what seemed to be rhubarb growing abundantly on the roadside – must be some other local plant.

I stopped to admire the view a few miles along my way and chatted with some cyclists who were just striking camp. Hardier than me, they were cheerful enough and seemingly not bothered by the cold. Oh, to be young again.

The road was partly paved with excellent asphalt, partly made up gravel and partly nightmare through some of the hilly sections, where there were small amounts of snow and very twisty pot-holed roads that made me grateful there was no ice by the time I reached them. But most of the road hugged lakesides and was mesmerisingly beautiful …

… and in the absence of heavy slow good to drive on.

Had coffee and a sandwich along the way, in a town called Amengual which had one of the beautiful chapels you see in southern Chile. Apparently this was built in the 1880s by one man, with no building or architectural knowledge, who carved every wooden pantile* by hand (if that’s the word?). Reminded me of the chapels Caroline and I saw in Chiloe.

Stopped for another coffee at a COPEC in Mañihuales, and remet some fellow travellers. It’s inevitable when you’re all doing the same long route over several days that you’ll meet up, and kind of fun too.

Got to the days’s destination, Coyhaique, in the early afternoon ready for my delayed shower. Nice comfy hostal, good shower (hot, good water pressure). Coyhaique is a sizeable town so I’ll hope to find a decent restaurant for supper tonight.

I’n staying two nights in Coyhaique as I have some Peer Review work to catch up on and the Internet connection is good. Another good thing is I don’t have to think about the route, hotels, diesel, etc for another twenty-four hours.