Quellon to Puerto Varas: weighed down like Pharlap

Just out the gate and we’re away. We make the first climb out of town and our cheer squad is so excited for us they run along beside us to keep the support coming. As we turn around the bend the camera is on and us and we are waving in ecstasy, ‘we’re winning!’ The whirring sound of 50 road bike tyres spinning with a momentum we could only dream of sneaks up from behind and before I know it, the peloton has whizzed past. But that's okay because we’re weighed down like Pharlap in his last race and unlike that Iron willed thoroughbred, we know this is not our race to win. So with our steady 5 km/h up hills and rolling 45 km/h down we slowly but surely make our distance. 6 km out of Castro, this island ride is like the rest of this trip, a mixed bag of lollies with those ones you wish didn't end up in your bag; like the huge number of trucks wooshing by, or that downpour just as you get the best downhill run, or the Chico blowing you kisses from the top of his truck, or the chill that sets in after you sit around too long, or the rain that came to spoil your lunch break only to give way to the sun as soon as you're back on your bike with all your rain gear on! At the very least the riding is easy and there was enough sun to dry out All that got wet. 

We've been here 2 months now and I can't really piece together the journey, it still feels disjointed, like it doesn't really fit but despite that it is starting to feel like we've done something or have something behind us... Whatever that is. The headwinds of the pampas feel like they were a whole other trip, in some distant land. Guess they kind of are now that we are leaving Patagonia behind. There is a slight sadness that comes with that. For two months now we've pushed through her elements, continually blaming Patagonia for all our, or rather my, shortcomings. We've ridden Tierra del Fuego, the pampas, parts of the Carreterra Austral, we hiked our  bikes over the O’Higgins pass and now we're making our way across the Chilean isle ‘Chiloé’. That's a lot to fit into 2 months. 

Be xx

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ADCJLU5i0RE