What a great start into the day. We decided to have breakfast at the lake and in a super beautiful restaurant far outside on a pier overlooking the shores of the area. We continued…
our ride pretty late and we enjoyed thereby the morning to the fullest. After a ferry ride we arrived on the island of Chiloe while the weather was super beautiful. We were invited for another night at a home of a motorbike traveler supporter and were making our way down along the coast line which was absolutely beautiful. Gravel roads, intense green grass and cute little colourful houses were determining the landscape. I felt that someone turned back the time… it seemed stress was not existing on this island!
We were very warmly welcomed by our hosts the same evening and enjoyed a nice dinner together while I opened the bottle of whiskey which I bought in Santiago. A delicious drop of alcohol and we were having so much fun that we actually also finished it, lol.
I was surprised that we managed to get up the next morning really on time and after a short breakfast we were already on our way to our today’s main destination. Hitto Zero, the end of the famous Panamericana.
On our way we decided to stop “shortly” at the main square of Castro, the capital city of Chiloe to admire the cathedral which was beautifullly painted in bright colours. Suddenly a well dressed guy came over to greet us and showed a lot of interest for our bikes and our travel stories. Pancho, the name of the cool trendsetter, was surprisingly the owner of Chiloe360, a new TV channel on the island and asked if we would have some time available for him. We said yes of course, why?
Before he answered he was already gone and after 10 minutes he showed up with another guy and tons of camera equipment. Now we understood… he wanted to do an interview with us. The only thing we did not know was that a little bit of time was like 2 hours for him, lol. It was a lot of fun and we highly enjoyed the interview… until… well, until… we were supposed to get the bikes off our main stands and drive a couple of times around the block.
It always takes some efforts to get the heavy bike off the stand but this is usually not the problem. The problem is to do this in such a way that the bike comes down smoothly on both tires. Of course, this time this was not the case and the bike was falling in slow motion to the right side. NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! What a SHIT! The cameras were still running and I felt super ashamed while my friends immediately came to help picking up the bike again.
Well… It had to happen at some point but that it had to happen during the interview was just a pain in the a**!!! LOL!!!
Finally continuing our ride we reached Quello in another hour or so and also immediately found KM 0 of the Panamericana. The place was quite nice, nothing too special but the historic meaning of the attraction made the whole difference. It felt great to have been there where so many people either started their adventure up to Alaska or where coming down to head further south to Ushuaia. Amazing!
Driving up North again it was about time to say good bye to my Colombian travel buddy. I just did not want to rush through Patagonia and take a bit more time to explore the region than what Gerardo was intending to do. His plan foresaw to be back again in Colombia beginning of December… WOW… I just wanted to be in the South of Brazil at this time which made it more than difficult to share the same route.
Enjoying the beautiful landscape and views along the salt water lake of Cucao I made it finally to the sand dunes and the sea of the west coast of the island. After 100 meters of driving I suddenly felt something must be terribly wrong with my back tire and I thought I would face my first puncture of my trip.
After stopping I realised that the pannier fell off again… AGAIN!!!! No way!!!!! Such a shitty quality… this time the screw came off at a major point and let the heavy weight fall down which affected again my back tire. Luckily not so much that I could continue my ride. I took the elastic straps and fixed the pannier back again into the right place and drove carefully back again to Castro where I hoped to find a garage which could help me fixing it.
Stopping at the main square I simply wanted to buy a tooth brush and when I came out of the shop I saw by my astonishment Pancho standing in front of me. God must have a plan for me, LOL! “Tranquilo”, he said. “I have a friend who is mechanic and whose nick name is Mc Gyver!” Indeed, he carried the name not just by chance. The same evening he came to fix the broken part and even modified the screws with rubber rings so that I could drive the routa Austral and routa 40 without being worried.
I was super lucky this incident happened on the island and not on my way down to Patagonia where such a thing as finding a garage is almost impossible.
Pancho offered me to stay for the night at his place and I happily accepted his invitation. Arriving at his home I met his super friendly girlfriend and her amazing son who intends to live in Germany. We became immediately best friends and Jose immediately showed me all his toys and even proved this English skills to me 😀 I got sooooo many presents from him that I was carrying almost half his toys with me. What a great child!
After organising some more tools and other things in town, I finally made my way up to Ancud where I already postponed a penguin tour for the 3rd time. The next day I thankfully made it and could observe the cute animals in their natural habitat. So beautiful to watch them…
I simply loved Chiloe and all the people I met on this island. It felt like traveling back in time… precious moments!
