The heavy overnight rain continued all day with only a few short dry interludes, we weren’t too disappointed at being unable to ride today. We looked for some antiseptic wipes for Christine but there’s no chemist here, the two small supermarkets don’t stock them and the health centre doesn’t sell them. The electricity to the town failed in the afternoon but the service was restored in the early evening.
We started looking into how we could leave while avoiding the ripio, which would involve getting the bikes on a bus. The sign at the bus terminal said to come at 16:00 for information, no timetables were posted. In the afternoon I came upon the two British cyclists who’d shared the wild camping site with us, they were sitting out the rain and would carry on south tomorrow.
Back at the bus terminal they advised people to come at 08:30 in the morning to see if there were any tickets available for the bus to Cochrane which leaves at midday. If we caught that, we’d then have to get another bus to Villa O’Higgins, the end of the road. At this point we were undecided whether to press on south or backtrack. Lots of backpackers were milling around, some hanging round the bus terminal, others trying to hitch a lift. Puerto Rio Tranquilo is reminiscent of the Hotel California, would we be able to leave? And is that why it’s so busy when the road is not, people stack up here and can’t get out?