Cycling in the shadow of Volcan Villarrica

30th March, Panguipulli to Pucon (54M)


Now today wasn't to be my crowning glory, by the end of it I was practically on my knees. Why? Well my body decided to give me a lesson on recovery.
I woke up feeling a little under the weather and thought very little of it, partly due to the fact that it was the fifth day of cycling and it was usual for me to be a bit off colour. I however didn't think and paid the price.
The cycling was all tarmac and on relatively quiet roads the day was perfect with amazing scenery and a slight tail wind. We covered miles well, but as we got further into the day I started to struggle, so we found ourselves in Lican Ray a small town which in the summer months is a tourist attraction, but when we arrived it felt very shut down and only school kids were wondering the streets (on their siesta). Anyway, we found the central plaza and sat down and had some lunch. After this, we headed on and up a climb out of the town. I really suffered there. The air was still and I started to over heat and I was soon calling for a rest and a drink of the old faithful coka cola to see if I could get a kick start. It had the desired effect and I made it to the top, but from there on in I was to be  "THE WEAKEST LINK".
We past though beautiful scenery and views of volcanoes popped up here and there, but still I felt bad. My head was starting to pound and I had bad indigestion, something I never suffer from. Sarah had had a bad headache yesterday and we thought I might have got it off her. I really didn't care much for diagnosis, more interested in cure. I downed some ibruprofen and it worked, though another drug sorted out the stomach thing. We kept on going and we soon found the outskirts of Villarrica and the decision was made to carry on to Pucon. Not a good decision, but I wasn't to keen on having to get on the bike again tomorrow.
This was a very busy road and we were pleased when we had got to the end of it. At one point a nice Chilean stopped and offered a lift and we declined, I was later to regret this. Sarah decided to stop and go and have a look at one of the beaches along the road, but I had to keep going as I was now in autopilot and if I had stopped I probably wouldn't of got going again. She caught me up pretty quickly and we found that there was a descent all the way into Pucon. We found the tourist office, Closed! So, we counted on our lonely planet and went to the only campsite in town and this is where I rested my throbbing head and fell asleep.