Day 144/164: Rest day in Coyhaique

21 days today until the end of the ride! 16 riding days and 4 rest days, plus 2 nights in Ushuaia, then I am on my way home. I can’t wait to see everyone.

I was woken up a few times during the night with pain radiating down my leg and around my hip, so I am now also taking anti inflammatory pills. Luckily I have bought two bottles and have hardly used any. The anti inflammatory medication settled it down really quickly.

Today we have a beautiful clear blue sky, not a single cloud, so subsequently we had great views of the surrounding mountains. I hope it is like this for a couple of days as the scenery is stunning and it would be good to be able see all of it.

The service ethos in Chile (and Argentina) continues to surprise me (not in a good way). Today at breakfast I got there with an hour of breakfast time to go. At least a third of the riders had not yet had breakfast. There was no milk as they had run out and no plan, or even a thought that there should be a plan, to get more! There is a shop they could have bought some from about 200 meters away.

I don’t bother getting snarky with the staff, but some of the riders get really riled up. There is no point, the staff just shrug and say they “Have run out”, like it’s an occurrence totally beyond their control or remedy. A bit like being ignored when you go into a shop, even if you are the only customer. However as mentioned in an earlier blog I know how to remedy this: walk into an area I am not meant to be in and I get instant attention.

After breakfast I skyped with my daughter Tracey, and then went up to the shops to get a few things. I went to the ATM and was about 100 meters away from the machine when I realised I had been pick pocketed! A bit startling that someone had had their hands in my trousers and I had not even noticed! Thankfully I only had approx equivalent of NZ $100 and 1 credit card on me, I have 3 (hmmm actually 2 now) and never carry all 3 together.

I rang up to cancel my card when I got back to my hotel and luckily it had not been used. Probably the thief was watching me and realised that I had noticed pretty much straight away. I looked with great suspicion at everyone around me, apart from the baby in the push chair, but I could not rule out the mum.

Early morning in the Plaza De Armas (Photo credit: Jo’s Facebook page)

One thing that is very pleasant, but a bit startling after the rest of South America, is here the traffic stops for you – not just on pedestrian crossings, but also when you are just waiting on the side of the road. Most unexpected, given the other places totally disregard any pedestrian crossings laws and rights.

I spent the afternoon catching up with emails, blogging, and napping. For the first time for a long time I am up to date with the blog 😀😀😀😀😀.

Despite two riders not getting any laundry back at all at the last rest day, I still send my clothes to the laundry. Given the amount of times we have sent clothes to the laundry, with 40 plus riders not getting clothes back twice is pretty good averages of the whole trip. Of course it sucks if you happen to be the two rides who got nothing back!

I balance off the occasional missing items against the time it would take to hand wash and wring out. Plus at a number of places the only place to hang it would be in the room and I am not going to spend my rest day living in a laundry. I did not send my gortex rain coat but everything else went. It all came back 😀.

I went to a restaurant just up the road and had salmon ceviche, plus a tomato, onion and oregano salad for dinner, it was delicious.

Then packing bags etc, getting ready for the next 6 day stretch.