Puerto Asyén to Puerto Chacabuco (Mon 2/22)

Stats:
- 10 miles
- 200 feet of climbing
- Weather: full head wind, mostly cloudy, light drizzle
 
Food ---- it is an important part of life for Arn and me.  One benefit to all this riding is the ability to enjoy food.  However, this assumes you have good food to enjoy.  At the end of the ride yesterday, Arn mentioned the book he is reading --- something about the history of In-n-Out Burger.  He said it is too much at times and he has to switch to another book.  I laughed until I hurt.  I cannot imagine reading about In-n-Out burgers.  I have remained silent about my food fantasies; however, this conversation opened Pandora´s Box.  Arn talked about BBQ ribs, In-n-Out Burgers, french fries, and a good steak (have not had this since Argentina).  I mentioned all my burger fantasies --- Five Guys, Red Mill, Fat Burger, In-n-Out.  To this Arn said, "Wow, I forgot about Five Guys". 
 
Our food options have been bad to basic for the last 9 days.  Here is how to think about it.  Breakfast = bread, butter, jam, and instant coffee.  Lunch = more bread with cheese (always the same non-descript mild cheese).  Dinner = chicken / bad fish / mystery meat with potatoes / rice.  Snacks are the highlight.  Snacks = dry crunchy cookies (think Chips Ahoy), chocolate bars with almonds or a fruit filling, and peanuts.  Now, I know what you are thinking --- "Hey, you guys need to get more creative and hit the grocery store".  To this I say, YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE STORES!!!  There is ONLY one kind of cheese.  We cannot carry meat (salami, etc) that needs refrigeration as the sun is warm.  Peanut butter has not been seen since Pucon and our jar went empty a few days ago.  Sure, we could buy fresh fruit.  HA HA HA HA HA!!!!  The summer has been so bad that all the places that grow fruit have nothing.  Everything is coming by truck and it is not great.  Now, I happen to like pears and all stone fruit as hard as rocks.  Ocassionally, I have gotten lucky and found a few cement like pears.  The bananas are all split open.  The apples are scary looking.  The citrus has mold.  The stone fruit is more like apple sauce than an actual piece of fruit.  There are no such things are soft chewy cookies.  The packaged cakes (think pound cake) we saw in Pucon and Argentina are NOT here.  Dinner is the hardest...no spice, no choice, no change.  We are a couple of foodies walking around hungry.
 
So, last night, we went to dinner with two fellow cyclists.  Dominque and Michelle are traveling from the UK and we met them yesterday in our hotel.  Given that we are in a port town, there is actually seafood in the restaurant.  I say "the" restaurant as there is only one.  However, the place had a menu --- we actually had choices.  Dominque and Michelle do not speak Spanish, so they were thrilled to go to dinner with two people that would help them to fair better than their previous attempts.  We introduced them to Pisco Sours and Chile´s red wine.  We talked about the Carretera food experience.  It took us 20 plus minutes to fully study our choices and decide what we wanted.  Arn and I ordered one dish of a shellfish stew and another of a baked shellfish casserole.  Of course, Dominque and Michelle ordered the same thing.  It was a great night of sharing Carretera travel stores --- their stories from the south and our stories from the north. 
 
You will remember we arrived into Puero Aysen with a "limping" rear hub on my bike.  The best way for me to describe the riding experience is this --- think of when you were first learning to ride a bike and the bike would wobble around as you were developing your sense of balance on a bike.  That captures the feeling pretty well.  After breakfast this morning (bread, jam, butter), Arn headed off to the bike shop with the bike in tow.  The man in the internet shop next door said the bike guy does not open until 3pm.  He told Arn about another man in town that fixes bikes.  He told him where to go, but his directions were wrong.  Arn asked some guys working on a truck and they showed him the bike guy's house.  Arn showed him the problem and he pulled out a set of cone wrenches.  He completely serviced the hub and repacked the bearings.  The hub was dry!  No grease at all!  Can you say RAIN??  Rain is very hard on a bike.  So, my "pony" is good to go --- even on ripio!
 
Before leaving town, we stopped at the grocery store.  Much to our surprise, this was a SUPERmercado!  It was huge!  I stayed with the bikes while Arn did our shopping.  He returned and asked, "Do you want the good news or the bad news?"  I said, "Give me the bad news".  He replied, "There is no bad news!"  He opened his bag of goodies and revealed TWO jars of crunchy peanut butter.  I nearly started dancing in the streets.  I finished our first jar (of creamy - beggars can't be choosers) a few days ago and have been carrying dulce de leche --- a very poor substitute.  Also in his bag of goodies --- two dark chocolate bars with orange filling, bread rolls, a package of strawberry jam, peanuts, a can of potato chips (think Pringles knock off), and a banana.  In South America, most jam comes packaged in a foil bag.  So, once it is open, it does not close again.  It can be messy.  I figured Arn had to have some big idea and then he said it --- peanut butter and jam sandwiches for lunch with potato chips and a diet coke.
 
Today´s ride was really just a "repositioning" to set us up for our boat trip tomorrow.  We decided to move the 10 miles down the road to be at the actual port.  Puerto Aysen used to be the port, but due to silt deposits the port was moved.  The actual port is now in Puerto Chacabuco.  It was a uneventful ride -- head wind, light drizzle, and more traffic than we have seen in two weeks.  Arn kept saying, "I hope we can get there without rain.  I just do not want to have to deal with the bikes again after the rain". 
 
Now, I have to admit, I would gladly punch a 10 mile head wind for the shower I enjoyed today.  It was clean --- our first mold free shower in 9 days!!!  The water was as hot as I wanted and it had great shower pressure.  It was also the first actual shower curtain rod we have seen in nearly two weeks.  There has been a lot of creativity in the creation of shower curtain rods --- used pipes both plastic and rusted, bamboo cut, tree branches, a "system" of plastic bags braided into a hanging contraption.  This is the first place in almost as long that has provided little bottles of shampoo.  And, the towel I enjoyed was big enough to wrap around me.  I know -- I am a spoiled brat.  But see how much I appreciate these sweet luxuries in life???  But the best part of the day was still to come --- peanut butter and jam sandwiches!  The peanut butter was crunchy, sweet and salty all at the same time (brand was Planters).  The jam was thick with chunks of real strawberries.  The bread was a fresh, soft kaiser roll.  The Diet Coke was cold and the potato chips were very much like Pringles.  It was the best PBJ sandwich ever!  After Arn finished his, he said, "You know the best part of waiting to eat your sandwich until after you washed our pants?  You still have your sandwich to eat!"