5th January La Union – Curiso 461 miles

We start by going to go back to the cafe we were at last night and have breakfast and then hit the road. The plan today is to visit one of the lakes and then get a few miles under our belt.
The lake we visit is enormous and we now seem to be struggling with maps. I am still using the Argentinean mapiar maps but the detail in Chile is not as good as we have been used to, Martin however decided to put the Peru maps on in preparation and in doing so deleted all the other maps, not intentially, the system did it automatically, so he is looking at a blank screen with a purple line (the route) on it.
The ripio links we had wanted to go round do not seem to link up so in the end we cut and run retracing our steps back to Route 5. Once on that road we start to move as this is a motorway, now we thought it would be boring but this is not a motorway as we understand them, more like a dual carriageway with no rules. It is a toll road and we have to stop at a Peaje periodically, but there are cyclists cycling towards us on the hard shoulder, people walking along it, entrances to farms, breaks in the central reservation with lorrys towing trailers doing u-turns, you get the picture. Also there are real bends and not the simple curves that we have and the road surface is varied, not too bad mind you, and lots of road works but at least men are working this time.
We make good progress and stop to refuel the bikes and us and take half an hour off, there is Wifi so we make good use of it and sort Martins maps, an hour and three quarters later we get going again, doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun.
The miles fly by and we stop for fuel and decide our stop for the night, it is just 15 miles up the road. When we get there it is on the other carriageway as are the next three. Wecome off the motorway and into a little village where there is a motel and soon turn round and join the road again, a little seedy, thats the whole village.
I wont bore you with the detail but ages later we check into a hotel and pay more than we had wanted to but we are both exhausted and fed up of riding around. It has secure parking underground and a swimming pool and we can have dinner here.
Only 200k to Santiago so we should get there reasonably early and get sorted out, I can then Skype Charles as it is his birthday, fantastic.