Huilo Huilo to Niebla
We had our last breakfast at Huilo Huilo and hauled out luggage and gear back through the maze of tree-lined hallways to the driveway. While I was fetching the bike Tori met Gary & Karen, another American couple renting bikes from Moto Patagonia. They were each on their own V-Strom 650 and their route was pretty similar to ours; we chatted for a bit in the driveway before they went back inside for breakfast and we got on our way.
There were some nice twisty roads and more lake miradors as we descended back through the valley, but holiday traffic was heavy and we mostly kept moving into the lowlands. The one time we did stop for a roadside stretch, Tori found an unmarked path to a local fishing beach where we she scored some cool rocks for her collection. The roads got flatter and straighter as we crossed the farmland to the coast and we made it to Niebla in the late afternoon. The semi-stray community dogs greeted us as we made our way into the AirBNB for the evening and were recurring visitors to the deck overlooking the beach.
We walked into town for an early dinner and to visit the beach. I convinced Tori to explore some of the coastal rock outcrops connecting two beaches and we almost got caught out be the incoming tide when we realized that there wasn’t an obvious way out from the second beach. The local pups joined us on our walk back up the hill to the rental and we settled in for the night.
Niebla to Puerto Varas
The road back to Puerto Varas was a relatively straight shot back through the lowlands to town, hitting some of the same mountain roads as we used to get out of town at the beginning of the trips. The skies were threatening all day, but we managed to avoid until the last 10 minutes through town. There wasn’t much to report and we kept on the gas most of the day to try to miss the rain.
Saturday in Pto. Varas was intended to be a local exploration day, but the low-hanging clouds and intermittent rain kept us inside through the morning. In the afternoon we worked up the motivation to attempt to climb Orsono, the local volcano. The climb up the volcano was tight & steep, and we had a few very narrow passes with oncoming tour buses on the way up. The rain held off until we were literally riding through the clouds at the top of the mountain, reducing visibility to meters and battering us with wind gusts. The clouds were thick enough that we missed all the views at the top but we did manage to score some good coffee, empanadas, and sandwiches at the summit cafe before heading back to town.
The evening and next day were well-needed rest and logistics days were we’ve been doing laundry, repacking for the next leg, and getting ready to trade the rental bike in for the rental car.
