Day 21– Thursday March 17: The road to Villa Amengual
And so it was: a 91km ride, 50km on potholed gravel in the rain, including those 33 switchbacks over Quelat Pass. We started early out of Puyuhuapi and made our way along the edge of the fjord before turning inland. After about 40km we started up the steep road to the pass, which snaked back and forth while gaining over 1600 feet in about 4 miles. The way down was tricky, steep with loose rock and gravel mixed with mud, but at the foot of the road we found pavement waiting for us to finish the last 40km into Villa Amengual.
Also waiting for us at the end of the day was our destination, the completely delightful Cabanas Lago Las Torres, where we arrived fairly exhausted, having climbed over 5100 feet. This ranch and fishing lodge had several cabins, all vintage. The largest one was a kind of lodge house where we ate dinner and breakfast at a long table and hung out rehydrating. On the walls were framed faded photos of men holding big fish up to the admiring camera, and next to the coffee table in front of the woodstove crouched a stuffed puma, four or five feet long. It had seen better times even as a stuffed animal; now it had only one glass eye and seemed to be running out of stuffing. Clearly the same taxidermist had been at work stuffing a large toothy fish about three feet long mounted over the dining room mantle; it sported a permanent grimace but gave off a vaguely cartoonish air.
The whole place was owned by woman in her thirties, well over six feet tall and always in a baseball cap, with a small Indian helper. Together they cooked up our food on a wood stove, and we came to learn that the ranch/fishing lodge itself existed completely off the grid, supplying its electricity needs with a stream generator, and all the rest of its energy needs for heating and cooking using wood.
It was an early night. Even though the next day was relatively short, we needed to recharge.
