January 12, 2026
Los Antiguos to Puerto Iban̈ez
It is early afternoon and sat in a cafe I'm writing this-the wifi having long given up and I've ran out of other things to do while waiting for a ferry across Lago Carrera as the lake is called in Chile.
The border crossing took an hour having arrived at the Argentinian migrations well before openning at 08. There were two others in front of me; then at 07.55, a big group turn up which treatened to cause chaos but I managed to get the passport stamped and slip of paper for Chilean migrations, which is a kilometre detour to the left to crossover a bridge and back on thr other side of the river with a headwind and just as I struggle the last hundred metres, the bus with the large group passes. But I needn't have worried as there was one queue for them with another for the few others. I got a stamp then the bags scanned and thumbs up to go.
A longish ride into Chile Chico still with headwind. In all it must be almost 10 kms from where I started in Los Antiguos at 07.15 this morning and will perhaps be the sum total of today's ride as the ferry is at 17 hrs. I bought a ticket and was told to return at 16.30, so went to this cafe at the bus terminal for coffee. The wifi was working well for a while until the big group came along. All twenty year olds. I think they are Israéli as they use English comunicating with staff and a gutteral lanuage when chatting between themselves. Anyway, their phone use soon knocks out the connection just as I'm starting on a journal page.
Earlier when I sat down, I checked a journal I've been following on another site, knowing the authors are in the area. I see they were in Chile Chico yesterday and are in Las Antiguos today. However, I have no way of contacting them because my account on that site is locked simply for having my journal here.
I remain in the cafe until its time to go for the ferry, struggling with stop-start internet, but manage to get the page finished. There is wifi on the ferry but I am too fed up with tapping the phone so read my book and slept for a bit.
Disembarkation after two and a half hours is to bracing cold wind, overcast sky with spots of rain. A big difference to the arid warmer climate on the other side of the lake. Stop at shop for bread and few other items before riding to campsite where I find nobody about, so ride out of town, passing another campsite with no one there either. I continue on and find a rough lane up off the road to a level area amongst bushes at the bottom of a rocky hill above the village and lay out the bivouac. The hill providing great shelter from the northwest wind.
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