11-4 

 

Good bus ride from San Fernando 7 to 8 hours and approximately 500 kilometers to Villarrica.  We had to take Bici apart.  Off came the front end and parts piled in a heap thrown together with panniers and other bags piled on top; hurts to see our Bici treated so poorly, but it was the only way.  We left in cool overcast and drove into blue skies.   Off in the distance to the left one valcano after another, all looking like Mt. Fuji: pointed cones covered in snow.  The Pan American is forested on one side, farms fields on the other moving from rather flat valley to rolling hills.  When we leave the main highway a short piece south of Temuco to head east into the foothills of the Andes and arrive at Lago Villarrica. 

             

The hostel we chose, La Torre Suiza (www.torresuiza.com), is operated by a Swiss couple who happened to have bicycled the world in the mid-90’s and now have hung up their pedals.  We have a breath-taking view of Mt. Villarrica out our window and warm sun on our bed in the morning.  Judee has been experiencing increasing pain down her bottom and right leg to the point that she is having trouble sitting and now last night, sleeping. Both front and back wheels are also grabbing when I apply the brakes.  Judee is in seeing a lady German Reflexologist and Bici will see the bike shop later today. 

 

Me, I am still feeling my badly bruised right shoulder and now my right eye is black and red.  We are one pair of sorry cookies at this point, but we are in an area of beauty that beckons us on.  Probably one or two more days here exploring and taking it easy will fix us up.  To see you must do...so we move on!

1.Mt. Villarrica from our hostel window 2. Black eye 3. Torre Swisse Hostel

 

 

Note:  As I reflect on our accident with the car, I thought of the analogy to floating down a river seeing only just what was visible on the banks on either side: a one house deep view.  We smack the car and all these helping hands come from nowhere.  It feels as though all these support personnel are kept in a storage bay hidden from the road and they appear – pop up - only when needed then receed back into the river banks until needed once again.

             

Well, Judee came out of the docs, she precribed a week of bed rest on ice packs and herbal rubs.  This is not good news!  For two active people, bed rest is a challenge.  Oh well, it will give us time to work on Bici and plan our New Zealand leg of the journey.

             

We cook dinner together at the hostel with the only other resident, a Swiss woman working in a school in the Chilean Andes here for vacation.

 

11-7

 

 “It’s the unknown around the corner that turns my wheel.”  Heinz Stucke

Mt. Villarrica lava flow

 

To wile away the time Judee is resting, I have been perusing the hostel´s bicycle log books.  The travels of Claude Marthaler and Heinz Stucke are to say the least: inspirational!  These two share that it is not the physical hardships that are most challenging but the emotional ones! We, at this point, would heartily agree.  One’s own mental toughness is what gets us through the ups and downs that the road throws at us.  We are lonely, afraid, sad, mad, elated, all in the same day!  For us as active people, having one of us down, hurt or sick, puts much strain on the other.

             

Yesterday I took off Bici’s tires to have a good look at the rims.  The front one was grabbing as I applied the brake, the same with the rear.  Once again I found that the new Mavic 519 rim with only 500 miles is splitting and will have to be replaced.  I got on the net and contacted Velocity, our wheel sponsor and Matt – thank you – is sending us new rims: the very heavy duty model, the Cliff Hanger.  Since we now will lhave gone through 5 rear rims is 13 months, we are considering moving to using a Burley Nomad trailer to get the weight off the rear wheel.  I contacted Burley to see if they would help us.  Burley provided us with a set of Rock Point rain suits before we left, which have been worth twice their weight in gold and which we have “loved” to death.

             

Today Judee was able to take a couple hour shopping and sight seeing walk around town.  She is still in pain but it seems to be improving a little each day.  The last two days have been very bright and warm in the sun.  At night a very brisk wind comes up and it gets mighty cool.  No central heating here, so fires are set and the smell of wood smoke fills the night air and like last night also fills our room.  So we sleep with an open window!

             

This morning we ate with a young American couple (mid-twenties) who are touring South American for five months before she starts grad school at Georgetown in Washington DC.  We had done some of those areas on our tandem and enjoyed sharing experiences. 

 

11-12 

 

Well, today brought a torrent of rain – all day.  So we adjourned to the internet to bring our journal up-to-date.  And – I (Judee) am actually SITTING and typing.  Many days on ice and a wonderful day in and out of various hot springs yesterday is making tremendous progress in the healing of the sciatica.  Perhaps tomorrow we will attempt a short bike trip!

             

The hostel has been filling with exciting young people traveling from all parts of Europe and Canada, about 5 to 6 couples, and Raphael, a young Swiss man who has been on the road for 7 years. We share laughter, stories, and food as we all try to cook on the one tiny stove in the small kitchen. We are so enjoying this time, even though we are losing the biking time we need to cover the distance to meet our flight to New Zealand on December 25. It is difficult to not be active, but there are such benefits to healing and recovery time!!        

 

1.Raphael, Swiss rider 2.Matthieu, master mechanic 3. Hot springs R & R

Because we had the time, Art also ordered new rims–again!  And there is a wonderful Swiss mechanic (Matthier Bisson from a Geneve shop, www.Hot Point.ch and his interpretor and companion, Veronica) staying at the hostel who wants to rebuild them, if he is still here when the rims arrive.  He looked over other parts of our bike and made some corrections.  He handles the bike with the same sensitivity he might caress a woman, repairing things when he “feels” they are not right!!  Lovely.  He also explained that our present wheels are built incorrectly, using spokes of the wrong length.  It is only now that we truly understood that the wheel builders have been using the same spokes that we left home with, but they are far from the correct length and that the nipples are starting to crack.  Spokes have not been available in Mexico, Central or South America – just cheap ones and only a couple of sizes.  An expensive spoke machine is not one the bike mechanic’s tools, either.  We are not certain what we will do – yet!  But there are a number of bikers, coming and going from the hostel.  This problem will be solved!