Help! Rene is cycling uphill as if there’s a bee swarm chasing him! The reality isn’t far away from that: hundreds of horse flies make us escaping all the way through the amazing scenery. Only on windy lookouts we find the time to rest and take in the stunning surroundings: the turquoise and dark blue Lake General Carrera is sitting on the foothills of snowcapped mountains. On its green banks are cows grazing and all is set in a bed of yellow flowers... This is one of the most incredible places we have seen on the whole trip so far!

Some days ago we were accompanied by a group of 5 dogs through the mountains: they were gaucho-dogs and found themselves a new owner in form of two cyclists which came along. They fight all upcoming cars and defend us for about 30km. They even hold a constant speed of 23km/h and run through tunnels without any fear. Only on a very fast downhill we managed to get rid of them - it was sad, but impossible to feed 5 dogs...

Only the stunning scenery around us makes it worth to eat all the dust of passing cars on the bad washboard roads, to cycle in rain gear (because of the horse flies) in nearly 40 degrees and to climb this really tough hills. Even 4WD cars have problems to get up there, trucks get stuck in the steep corners. But the postcard picture scene is all worth the effort.

After 8 days continuously riding we finally arrive at Cochrane. This day a big rodeo is going on - the dusty, traditional and rough event is very authentic and just great to look at. Soon we will load the bikes with one weeks food and cross the border on a pretty adventurous crossing... But this is our next story. We wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year!

Did you know that the inland ice of South Chile is the third largest ice mass in the world, after Antarctica and Greenland? And that this region here has only 0.8 inhabitants per square kilometre?

Since the last report: 460km, 6600 altitude metres

Monique