Day three saw us staying in Pucon (pronounced with a hard C), the "adventure sports capital" of Chile. Here there is much mountain biking, ziplining, rafting and horse riding undertaken by all and sundry as it is in Queenstown NZ.
We decided to take a recommended ride of 140 km around the mountain lakes, and ended up at Lake Caburgua where the trials for the Chile Olympic triathalon team were underway, resulting in a long wait for traffic on the way into town. It was a perfect summers day for swimming, running and cycling. As for other places, everyone wanted to talk about our bikes, and one young lady a "chico" of about 8, wanted to sit on a bike, so we all took photos of course. She was a delight and gave us all chewing gum, provided by her adoring mother. The chileans are overall family orientated people and very relaxed.
After the lake, we headed up a winding gravel road towards three waterfalls. On recommendation from Paul, I put the bike into "enduro" mode, one of four on the BMW, the others being road, rain and dynamic. Modern bikes are run by fancy software that provides ABS, traction control, hill start control and many other things, that can be an advantage on a sealed road, but not on washboard gravel. In Enduro mode, ALL of these are turned off, so you are back riding a bike where you CAN lock up the back wheel and manage it as a good rider must. And this is important on a switchback mountain road to the falls (Sala).
There was a 4000 peso fee to enter but it was well worth it. Rahn and I then walked up a steep track to the other two falls and took photos. The forest was spectacular.
On return we tried to ride to another set of falls, on a very dusty and loose-gravel road, but after a few kilometres, returned, filled with gasolina and had a chicken hamburger and a beer for lunch. Now for Siesta.
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