After MASSIVE feed of fish and chips in seaside town on Puyuhaupi we carried on to a Parks campsite. The bonus here was a mini Fox Glacier experience that we chanced on. After setting up camp we took the path to the view and had a great walk to a view point of the glacier snout and large waterfall gushing forth. Met French family (7 kids, mamma and pappa) up at the view point (a stiff 300m climb) and made me think of our family hols to the west coast glaciers.

We camped with other cyclists for the first time – good to share stories and expertise.

The next day was hard. We knew there was a  high pass to cross and that was OK. On the descent we stopped beside a creek and had a fire to cook the sausages we had been carrying in the hope of this situation. They went down a treat. Then we hit the paved road – real good news.  Then the road started following the river up (not down as expected/hoped) and up, down and up. We were knackered by the time we hit the next town but the red food bus provided fizz and hot dog to get us a further 7km to our lakeside camp. Phew. The tabona (annoying large biting fly) were pretty bad at the camp but left us in peace come nightfall.

The camp name was Pesca con Mosca (fish with flies) either adverting fly fishing or the reality..

We heard that the water rights to all the major rivers in Chile were sold off by Pinochet to different entities hence opposition to potential hydro development and trashing of the amazing waterways. Tourism should definately be the major push here as it is in NZ.

Final night of the year and we were in bed at 9. Feliz año neuvo!