Day 47 - Sunshine on a rainy day

Chanco to Buchupureo (70km) Tuesday 11th October

Today was another beautiful days cycling. This time the hills and farms allowed us to get regular glimpses of the roaring pacific ocean, its massive surf and the brave and talented soles venturing out with their boards!

Our early start meant we could do something we rarely do - stop to make a second breakfast that was still early enough not even to call brunch! If only we have more morning will power every day could be like this! We were armed with fruit, yoghurt, bread and avocado that wed picked up from the supermarket which should be enough for today and once we reached the P town we allowed ourselves the treat of sitting by the beach watching the sea for a whole 20minutes eating said second breakfast and watching men collect slate from the rocks and take it directly to their house over the road to build with - kinda cool!

As well as the lure of the sea, we'd chosen this stopping point as it was just before a big climb (that looked between 15-20%) up the cliff to get out of town... Let's delay that a bit!
When we tackeled it we realised we weren't wrong on our estimation of its steepness, but we had learnt from yesterday - there would be no powering up these short sharpies, but instead we would sit back and spin our little legs in the lowest gear. If I'm honest, even that is tough at 20%, but our bellies filled with yoghurt and our minds with sea we were able to take it in our stride.

This set the scene for the day. Sharp ups, sharp downs and the occasional flat running alongside the sea, with strong head winds of course. And as the day went on even the occasional drop of rain. We couldn't quite believe that at first - must be birds spitting on us... Nope actual rain drops. Infrequent enough to be pleasant rather than drenching thankfully.

About 20km into this beautiful day we were anxious. The road turned from red on the map, to yellow. This had meant rippio was imminent in the past, but with the maps her being as reliable as Southern Trains, who knew!?  Just after the yellow was supposed to start and about 30km in, we stopped on a bridge for lunch, which itself looked fairly well kept, and very newly tarmacked. Could it be the yellow had recently turned to red?! Having learnt not to count our chickens in South America, we decided just to take things as they came.

Our lunch stop atop the bridge was beautiful. It ran about 50m high above a steep tree lined gorge that took a river to the sea about 100m in front of us. Beautiful. And we had home made avocado sandwiches to make us happy!
The road continued to sweep up and down steeply along the cliffs, but also continued to be tarmac - despite the challenge of the 15% gradients, we were loving it. We even stopped to take a photo of a caterpillar navigating its way between the tarmac and a mudslide.

The only dilema of the day was where to stay. There was the town beginning with B, which would come first, then the town beginning with C which would come second (sorry, can't be bothered to write them out in full!). Both were in the guide book (a rarity for the tiny places we've cycled through in central Chile) and 'B' sounded more beautiful with a boutique hotel out of town but definitely less amenities, and C sounded more promising on the restaurant front. Hmm.

We did what only we could do, ignore the choice, keep cycling and see what we fancy when we get there. The centre of B was fairly deserted with a few small hospidajes and several dogs. Let's keep going and see what we find. About 2km along and having decided the hotel was lovely but probably not lovely enough to warrant its price tag, we swept down into this beautiful cove, with big waves, brave surfers, a cool quaint looking restaurant and signs advertising cabañas.

Having decided we should definitely keep pressing on only 2km ago, we now decided we should definitely try to stay. It was simply too beautiful and isolated a place not to enjoy. Relieved that there was someone at the reception for the mirador cabañas (wood cabins on the hill overlooking the sea but sheltered by big eucalyptus trees), we took one for a night and got excited about cooking our own breakfast tomorrow in our little home (I might have made Ant cycle back to the nearest town for supplies on the promise of wrapping up and watching surfing when he got back). 


Tonight though we would try that restaurant - it looked too good to miss and there would clearly be fresh fish brought in here daily (and I've just about got over my fish phobia post Peru sickness - it only took 3 months!!).
As we sat, drinking Chilean wine and eating our muddled up food order (starters for mains, mains for starters, all very tasty!) we noticed the skies had opened and we were now snuggled inside watching the rain sheet out of the sky. There was something very comforting and strangely inviting about this. We watched a film back in our cabin and snuggled in for the night.  It might take a fair amount to make us leave this lovely part of the world tomorrow morning!