Food Glorious Food

Food Glorious Food!!

Although located in a stunningly beautiful area, the Carretera Austral which stretches about 700 miles (1388 km) all dirt road except for about 135 miles (225 km). I have just finished riding my first 340 miles (566 km) on it and recently hit the small part that is paved in the middle. 

Villa Cerro Castillo and the paved road!

The road which is not the busiest road in the first place has been super slow due to the labor strike and it has been really nice having the whole road with only about six cars per day. There aren’t as many bicyclists traveling here now because they are afraid of getting stuck due to the problem of no fuel for the boat.

At times during this strike there have been road blocks set up in places and demonstrators weren’t allowing the passage of cars and/or only allowed passage during certain times. I didn’t have any problem in that realm because I am on a bike. However, not having transport available has caused some other problems for me.  I have become an eating machine and seem to be hungry all of the time. Fellow cyclists told me that on the Carretera Austral I would never be more than two days away from a resupply of food but because of the strike, the grocery stores in what few towns there are here are running out of supplies. In some towns I couldn’t get any bread at all, there are often no eggs, no butter, and few other staples. So I am stocking up whenever I can and continue to carry a lot of weight in food. Today I found cheese for the first time in 3 weeks and I got the last egg at the supermarket.  The owner of the campground on my last stop took pity on me and gifted me a loaf of bread after she found out I couldn’t buy it anywhere in town!

Finally I arrived in probably the only real city on the Carretera Austral, Coyhaique. I am now fairly close to the northern part of the strike zone and the government has insisted that road blocks be removed, so there is food in Coyhaique.  I shopped the grocery store and was as excited as a kid in a candy store or better yet Disney World! I had to stroll down every aisle as there was so much to look at, so much variety. I had forgotten about some foods which used to be staples but were unavailable for so long like salami. These things were calling out to me and I made a rookie mistake of shopping while I was hungry! Everyone knows not to shop while hungry! I paid for my mistake literally by buying about $55 worth of food and my panniers are now stuffed with enough food for a few weeks and I am back to having a super heavy set of front panniers.  But at least my first few days outta here won’t be on dirt roads!

Yummy breakfast-plain yogurt, fruit,coffee, juice, and toast with marmelade! One of my favorite meals!