Surprises Around Every Corner

One of my favorite movie quotes is, “Life is like a box of chocolates, ya’ never know what’cha gonna’ get,” by Mrs. Gump. This quote carries a lot of significance for us on this trip, because when we ride out each day from camp, we have no idea what’s around the next bend. There could be a riot or a glacier or anything! And this spontaneity is one of the reasons I love traveling this way. Spontaneity can lead to really good things, and since we run things pretty loosely around here in the One Road South world, there are a lot of chances for wonderful things to happen. One thing we’re learning is not to take life too seriously. I’ll give you a great example of a great day, full of spontaneity, that happened to us just recently.

Return to the Wilderness

We are pedaling out of Cochrane. The road is hot and dusty. The sky is big and blue above us. The cold ‘Rio Baker’ flows swift and deep below us. What is happening? Are we sweating? It hasn’t been hot and dry enough for sweat in quite a while. The sun burns our necks gloriously. A sun burn never felt so good. Nevermind the depleted ozone layer. Patagonia has turned a deep shade of blue, cool green, and snowy white. We climb up to the other side of the valley. Our late start has caught up with us, so we camp after a short day’s ride. A grassy meadow is our home, a fire is crackling on our hearth. We have stacked up a pile of scavenged firewood big enough to last us for the winter. The sun sets over the Andes, while we cook hotdogs over the hot coals. Save for the pies the local livestock have generously left us, things couldn’t get much better. The next day, our dreamworld of green pine forests, and tall mountains continues to pass by us, gently spilling us onto the shores of Lago General Carrera. I sit down beside the edge of the dusty road. It’s time to eat, I take out my lunch of apples, ham, cheese, and a few rolls of ‘hallulla’, the round table bread so commonly eaten down here. A lunch on the road never lasts long enough, but sooner or later we have to keep on moving.