The next morning we got up and decided to head for Pucon. We had breakfast at the Kiel hotel and later returned to our rooms to pack up. I took a taxi to the bus station and Tom went to the hospital to get me a cane. I bought a ticket to Pucon for 400 pesos ($.60) and waited for Tom. He shortly arrived with a cane. I threw my plastic cane away and climbed on the bus. As we rode along I could see that the road had narrow gravel shoulders and had quite a bit of traffic. I didn't envy the others having to ride along this road. We arrived in Pucon and I waited at the bus station for the boys. They arrived after a half hour and Tom, John, and Steve went to look for lodging. Don stayed with me since I could only walk along slowly using the cane. A short distance from the bus station Don and I stopped at a sidewalk café. While we were in the café Don left his bike sitting with its front end very close to the curb. While we were in the restaurant a minibus came along and clipped Don's bike. The bike flew up into the air and spun around, landing up facing us. Luckily the only damage was a bent large chain ring. A young guy who could speak good English and had observed the accident gave Don the license number of the bus. After looking his bike over Don decided that we could fix it. A couple of days later John borrowed a hammer and straightened it out for Don. Tom shortly returned and said that they had rented a cabana from the ATR restaurant and bar. We went over to the cabana and because of my injury they let me have the master bedroom. After settling in we went to the bar to drink some cerveza. Much to Don's delight there was a fraulein there who spoke excellent German. She was Chilean but her paternal grandparents were Duetch. Her maternal grandmother was Indian and her maternal grandfather was Chilean. Don talked with her for awhile; she said that she spoke family German. After finishing our beer we left to go eat. We ate at a restaurant called Club 77. Our waiter Rodriquez could also speak German, again much to Don's delight. Rodriquez said that his grandfather was German and that he had immigrated to Chile in the early 1900s. After eating we returned to our cabana. Don and I took siestas and the other three went to see if they could give Steve's bike away. Steve was leaving at 7:45PM on a bus to Santiago to begin his journey home and didn't want to fool with boxing up his bike to take it home. Tom, John, and Steve first went to a Catholic church to see if they wanted the bike but the priest didn't want anything to do with it. They decided to go to a bike shop to give the bike away. When they found one there were a number of young guys working there. Steve picked out the youngest kid and gave him the bike. Once everyone realized what Steve was doing the guys in the shop stuck up their thumbs and started chanting "USA, USA".

The next morning Don, John, and Tom were going to climb Villaricca volcano. Pucon lies at the foot of this volcano which towers over the town and is2,845 meters (11,200 feet) high. They got up early and left for their hike. After the guys left I walked downtown and ate at Club 77. After breakfast I wandered around town searching for a jewelry store where I could buy lapis lazuli, a semi precious blue stone that Chile is famous for. I found a store in a mini mal and bought lapis jewelry for the women in my life. After eating lunch I returned to the cabana and tried to catch up on my journal writing. While I was writing John, Don, and Tom returned from their climb. They were all excited and told me about their adventure. In the morning they had been taken by van to the 1500 meter mark. They were provided with a nylon climbing suit, boots, hat, gaiters, gloves, and an ice ax. It took four and one half hours to reach the top; they followed the guide as he traversed back and forth across the snow fields. They carefully and steadily climbed by taking small steps and digging the tips of their boots into the snow. They were told if they slipped and started sliding to stop themselves by digging their ice ax into the snow. When at the top they had walked two thirds of the way around the caldron. There was a strong odor of sulfur in the gas coming from the crater and they were given masks to protect themselves. They said that the crater was about 600 meters around and about 200 meters deep. Tom said that it made a sound like a freight train. Their descent was accomplished by sitting on their butts, lifting their feet, and sliding on the snow. At the top the pitch of the mountain side was very steep. They were told if they got out of control to dig in their ice axes for braking. They said that the one hour descent was very exciting and at times they had gone so fast that they had become airborne. After they showered we went downtown to eat at Club 77. Since I had eaten I wasn't going to order anything and just have a beer. However, John had ordered pastel de choclo which is a Chilean Indian dish made with corn, beans, and chicken. It looked so good that I ordered one. It was delicious.

The next morning we got up and waited until about 8:30 before heading down town. The restaurants here don't open up until 9:00. Don wanted to eat at a German restaurant so we ate at the Westfalia. After breakfast I took John and Tom over to the store where I had purchased the lapis lazuli jewelry. John bought a necklace for his wife Nancy and Tom bought one for his girl friend Terri. After we returned to our cabana Tom left for Villarrica to pick up my bike. Around noon Don, John, and I went downtown for lunch and on the way passed a stall that was selling lapis lazuli jewelry. Don went in and bought a necklace for his wife Mona. After eating John went back to the cabana to wait for Tom. Don and I strolled along Higgins street (the main English drag in Pucon). We bought an ice cream cone and while the girl was scooping up mine Don walked down the street for a little ways. He returned and said that people were greeting him by saying " meeta, meeta". He wanted me to ask the ice cream girl what this meant. She didn't know so Don and I left the shop and headed down the street. When we reached the entrance to a large supermarket a number of women standing there started shouting "meeta, meeta". I stopped and gave one of the women my electronic translator and asked her to spell out the word they were saying. She spelled out umita which sounded like short "u-meeta" when spoken. The meaning of the word was offering food for sale. The woman who I had handed the translator to grabbed a tamale out of a sack behind her and stuck it under my nose. She actually touched my nose with it and this caused the gathering group of women to start laughing. One girl asked in English where we were from. Don started getting uneasy and started pulling on the sleeve of my shirt and saying "Let's get out of here". I think the women were just having fun but I said goodbye and Don and I continued down the street. We had told John we would probably go to the beach and would meet Tom and him there. We headed for the beach and were amazed when we arrived. There must have been five thousand people lying or sitting on a beach that stretched for a couple of miles. Don and I went over to a stand where we tried to order cerveza. We were told they couldn't serve beer on the beach so we ordered mineral water. At the stand they were playing American rock and roll music. We sat drinking our water waiting for John and Tom to show up. After awhile they came strolling by. I watched John, Tom, and Don's valuables and they went in swimming. They ran as quickly as they could across the beach to the water. John said that his feet got so hot they sizzled when he hit the water. After they came back from their swim I left and went back downtown and they went over to one of the hotels to drink cerveza. I went back to the jewelry shop where Don had purchased his necklace and bought some more lapis jewelry.

The next day we decided to go to Quimey-co thermal hot spring. We had breakfast and after eating returned to the cabana where Don, Tom, and John loaded their bikes up for the twenty mile ride to Quimey-co. I asked the woman who owned the cabana if I could leave my bike and some gear there and she said no problem. I got her to call a cab. Don, John, and Tom asked if they could put their gear in the cab so they could ride their bikes unloaded. About five miles out of town we passed the boys on a bridge over the Villarrica River. A short distance beyond the bridge we turned off the tar road unto a gravel road which wound its way up through a narrow canyon. When we got to Quimey-co the cabbie drove into the campground entrance. There were two large orange and black German shepherds chained near the entrance to the campground and they barked desultorily as we drove in the gate. Over the crest of a ridge just beyond the gate you could see the thermal baths. There were two, one was a small kidney shaped pool and there was a large diamond shaped one. There was a restaurant behind the baths and a medium sized creek flowed down through the canyon. The cabbie and I unloaded the gear and he agreed to return in three days to pick me up. I registered at the office in the restaurant and paid for three nights. It wasn't long before the boys came and we went down to the campground and set up our tents. Afterwards we took our first dip in the larger pool. The small kidney shaped pool didn't have any people in it and I soon found out why. When I dipped my toes my foot was practically scalded. I went over to the larger pool where all the people were and went in. After supper John borrowed my fly rod and he and Tom went down to the creek to fish. When they came back Tom suggested we play cards. He had a deck of miniature bicycle cards (an appropriate deck for him to be carrying) and we played hearts until dark passing a bottle of wine back and forth that Tom had gotten at the restaurant. We crawled into our tents and sleeping bags expecting a peaceful night's sleep. About midnight the dogs started to bark. They barked for a couple of hours. John in particular was bothered and the air around his tent turned blue.

The next day John, Tom, and Don went on a bike hike toward Huerquehue National Park. While they were gone I took my fly rod and fished for awhile in the pools above the restaurant catching four small rainbow trout. The boys returned about 3:00 and said that the road to the park was almost all up hill and quite rough. Don in particular had had a difficult time riding his recumbent on the rough gravel road. For the rest of the afternoon we lazed around, sitting in the warm water at times, drinking cerveza and wine, and eating big delicious hamburgers. I told Don that they were better than big Macs but he disagreed. During the night we again had to endure a chorus of barking. The dogs were even worst than they were the first night. There was a bitch we had seen around camp during the day and she would go "yip, yip, yip -pause - yip, yip, yip" very rhythmically. She kept barking for what seemed like hours. She was a catalyst for the two shepherds and they added their barks to hers. John tried clapping his hands, hitting a plastic water bottle against a tree near his tent, and throwing our empty wine bottle in attempt to silence them. All John's actions did no good and the dogs continued to bark.

In the morning we packed up and the boys rode off. I went over to the restaurant and had breakfast. After breakfast the manager called a cab for me.The cabbie dropped me off at the Tour bus station. We unloaded all the gear and I sat waiting for John, Tom, and Don. After meeting the boys I walked over to our former cabana and picked up my bike and gear. After I returned to the station we bought our tickets to Santiago. We were told that we would be able to put our bikes on the bus. After getting our tickets, Tom and John went off to find another cabana and Don and I started walking our bikes toward downtown. John and Tom rented a house that had a big living room, a big screen TV, a well stocked kitchen, a full bath, and three bedrooms. The owner was a very friendly man who spoke only Spanish. When John had talked with him about renting his house the man had used descriptive gestures for sleeping and leaving which John thought were quite comical. I asked the owner for a recommendation for a restaurant and he said we should eat at the La Ollo de Chilean. We decided to eat there. Our waitress was auburn haired who looked Irish to me. We had a buttery cream fish soup that was filled with oysters and clams and we ordered pastel de choclo for the entrée. The choclo was much better than what we had had at Club 77. This was the first restaurant we encountered in Chile that served large portions and we all felt stuffed after finishing our meal. Our waitress had three plastic bands around her wrist and asked us if we wanted one. They were entrance tickets to a local discothèque but we declined her offer. After eating we returned to our cabana and watched American movies with Spanish subtitles. Later in the day I walked around town. I went into a book store and saw three books on the Nazis in Chile. One book's title was "The Third Reich in Chile". When I got back to the house the boys had been drinking Carmenere wine. We sat around drinking this excellent Chilean wine and watching TV. Afterwards we went to bed and were pleased because we could hear only one dog barking way off in the distance. This had been our first cloudy day in Chile and in the evening black clouds had started to enshroud the surrounding mountain peaks. During the night we experienced our first real rain.

The next day the sky was still cloudy and it was still drizzling. By late morning it had quit raining so Tom and John decided to take a bike ride and Don and I wandered about Pucon. I took Don to the book store and showed him the three books on the Nazis that I had seen the previous day. After eating lunch we walked down to the beach. Because it was cloudy and cool we didn't see any heavenly bodies. It was getting later in the afternoon so we returned to our cabana where the owner had allowed us to store our bikes and gear out behind the house. John came and said that he had had a great ride along the Villarrica River. The road had been rough with large rocks but the scenery had been good. Tom arrived and we decided to go to the bus station. While waiting at the station the cabbie who had taken me out to Quimey-co showed up. I had asked him to take me back on Friday but we had left from there a day early. I had tried to find him to let him know and had told some other cabbies on Thursday to let him know that he didn't have to come and get me on Friday. I hadn't found him and the other cabbies hadn't told him. He had driven out to Quimey-co on Friday. He wasn't angry but he wanted some money. I offered him 10,000 pesos but he said that 5,000 pesos were enough. I gave him the money and we shook hands. About 7:45 our bus pulled up to the front of the station and we loaded our bikes in the lower luggage compartments. I left my panniers, tent, and sleeping bag on my bike but had to remove the front wheel. Tom, John, and Don had partially broken their bikes down and they quickly loaded their bikes and gear on the bus. I was having problems manhandling mine so Tom picked it up and set it in the compartment. The baggage handler put a bunch of stickers on our bikes and gear and handed us a handful of baggage claims. We climbed aboard the bus and waited for it to pull out of Pucon. The bus was quite long (almost as long as some RVs I've seen in the States) and had only seventeen lushly padded seats. The seats could be made up into beds. The bus must have had excellent air shocks because it felt like we were floating as we rode along. All of us slept pretty well and we arrived in Santiago at 7:30 the next morning.

Tom bought a city map in the bus station and we found out we weren't too far from the Vitoria hotel. Don, John, and Tom rode their bikes over to the hotel and I took a taxi. The cabbie loaded my bike and gear into the trunk and bungeed the lid. The cabbie asked me where I wanted to go and I said the Vitoria hotel. He didn't know the address and leaned his head out the window asking another cabbie the directions. The hotel was only four kilometers from the bus station, but Don, John, and Tom beat us there on their bikes. After registering and packing up our bikes we went in search of a restaurant. As we were walking along the plaza a woman asked us what we were looking for. I said a good restaurant and she said we should go to the central fish market. After giving me directions she decided to take us over to it. The guys kidded me on how fast I was walking with my cane trying to keep up with the woman. They said that I was enamored with her since she had been touching my arms and leaning close to me when she talked. When we reached the market she indicated that any of the many restaurants there were all good. We went into one and sat down. Immediately a waiter came over. He could only speak Spanish but a young woman at the restaurant bar overheard us speaking English and came over to help us order. She had lived in Dallas for a year but had recently returned to Chile. We all had a very large fillet of salmon in a cream sauce, a salad, and bread. They gave us ceviche (pickled fish) as a hors d'oeuvre and also gave us a small bowl containing raw sea urchins. The sea urchins looked liked small puffed up tan worms. They were soft and mushy and had a strong, raw fish flavor. To drink we had mugs of schop Cristal cerveza followed by an excellent bottle of white wine. The whole building reeked of fish, I was slightly nauseated but Tom liked the smell and said that it reminded him of the ocean. After our meal we wandered around the fish market for awhile. After leaving the market we went back to the plaza and sat down on one of the benches. An American came up to us and started talking. At one point he said that he had gone to a colorful drag show. Don piped up and said "I didn't know they had drag races in Santiago". Of course the guy was talking about drag queens. When he saw our negative reactions to his statement he asked us where a Café was. We had passed by a number of these on our way over to the plaza. When we passed the first one John had opened one of the darkened double doors and said "This is nothing but a strip joint". Apparently these are establishments where you are served coffee (maybe tea also?) by scantily clad or nude waitresses. We gave the guy directions to one just down the street from the plaza and he went off in search of a good cup of coffee. After sitting in the plaza for awhile we visited the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian art. After leaving the museum we wandered down streets close to the plaza that had been closed off to vehicle traffic. In the center of the street we saw people selling shampoos, knifes, sunglasses, clothes, jewelry, crafts, and other articles. We also saw some beggars. One man was lying in the street holding his cup up to receive coins. He had a skeletal deformation and his body was badly twisted. We also saw a dirty, bearded guy dressed only in a loin cloth and carrying a fish head on a wire coat hanger. He was talking to himself completely ignoring the people around him. John said that he was probably a schizophrenic. A little later we came upon a group playing flutes and guitars accompanied with recorded music. The group was quite good; the flute music was beautiful and emotionally appealing but haunting. A little further on there was a mime who was dressed in a top hat, tails, a white shirt, and a bow tie. He had his face whitened and was holding a cane. He would assume the position of a statue but whenever a woman approached he would reach for her hand, take it, bow, and kiss it. A little boy was enthralled by the mime and when the mime took his hand and kissed it the boy danced with joy. After strolling a while longer we returned to the area of our hotel. There was a park near by with a hill that had a Spanish castle on its top. We climbed to the top and got a magnificent view of Santiago. We could see the city spread out below us and see white capped mountain peaks shimmering in the distance. Later in the evening we returned to the plaza and had supper in a bar and grill located on a side street. After eating we walked back to our hotel for our last night in Chile.

The next morning the hotel manager called an airport van for us. At the airport Tom had to pay $80 to take his bike but Don convinced the ticket agent that he and I didn't have to pay. After getting our tickets we had one last round of beer together. At the boarding gate some women were taking a tourist survey. I wanted to participate and beckoned with my hand for them to come over. After looking at me for awhile the youngest woman diffidently approached and said that the older women were embarrassed by my actions. I immediately offered my apology. She seemed satisfied and gave me the survey. She asked me questions in English and I responded in Spanish. After the survey she left but returned shortly with ball point pens for Don and me. Shortly afterwards we boarded our plane, took our seats, and soon were on our way back home. We looked out the window and we both said "Hasta Luego" (until we meet again).

When we landed in Houston Don and I sailed through customs. We didn't have to open our bags or bike boxes. When going through security to board our flight to Minneapolis I was still carrying my fishing rod. A security man approached me and said "What's in the case"? I said "A fishing rod". He looked at me and said "Don't ever say that word in a public airport". However, he was grinning when he said it. We boarded our flight and arrived in Minneapolis a couple of hours later.

The next morning Leo came by with bread, cheese, and hot water for coffee and we all enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. Leo told us that a bus left for Melipeuco at 10:00. When I moved my bike to get into my panniers my rear brake pad rubbed against the rim. When I looked at the wheel I discovered that three spokes were broken. Shortly before 10:00 we walked out to the bus stop. After a short wait the bus came. The fare was only 500 pesos ($0.75). When we arrived in Melipeuco we started walking down the main street. There was a political rally in the plaza and a band was playing music to a gathering crowd. I was carrying my bike wheel and a man came running up to me and told me that he could fix it. He had a shop in his house. When we got to his house he invited us in. His teenage son was watching TV and he made him get up and offered us seats in front of the TV. John, Tom, and I followed him out to his workshop which was in a shed behind the house. He immediately began to fix my wheel. He had a chest full of spare parts and out of it he selected three spokes that would fit my wheel. After replacing the spokes he trued the wheel. When he was finished I asked him how much and he said 3000 pesos ($4.50). After leaving his house we returned to the plaza where a young woman was dancing with one of the politicians on a cement pad. There was a lineup of politicos sitting on folding chairs along the back side of the pad. When we walked up the woman was just finishing dancing with her partner and selected another man to dance with. After each dance the crowd would clap politely. When she finished dancing with the second man she sat down and a man came up to the mike. We were directly across the street and he said to the crowd that they had visitors from the USA. He asked us to say something in Spanish. After a long pause he asked us to say something in English. I stood there completely tongue tied and after a short pause he said that we apparently couldn't speak in either Spanish or English. The crowd got a good laugh out of this. We decided that this was a good time to leave so we went to a supermarket to exchange some dollars for pesos. We also bought some fruit, bread, and more sardines to have for supper. The owner of the supermarket had a van and offered a round trip to the park for 30000 pesos or $50.00. Since it was already afternoon we declined his offer and went to a restaurant on the other side of the street to eat. We all had steak served with a fried egg. To accompany our meal we drank Cristal beer. By the end of the meal we started arguing about star wars in loud voices. As the argument ebbed and flowed I could see local people looking at us with bemused expressions. After eating we went back to the plaza to take a nap and wait for the bus. Don said that he was disappointed in Melipeuco as a resort town since it was run down, hot, dusty, and had only a few tourists. We told him that they were just developing this area and he should return in ten years. After napping we went over to the bus stop and sat down waiting for the bus to come. A group of girl scouts came along while we were sitting there and one of the girls said "Hi". She was a cute girl with light hair and skin who could speak excellent English. She looked like a typical US teenager and could have been from Stillwater, Minnesota. She said that she had been to the US three times and had visited Disney World, Tampa, and Miami. All the scouts were from Santiago and they had been trekking in the surrounding mountains. John took the girls picture and like any teenagers they all posed; assuming funny positions and grinning impishly. The bus arrived about an hour late. After supper we stood around drinking beer, looking up at the night sky, philosophizing on life, God, the soul, and human existence. We spotted a number of satellites and I saw a shooting star. We all had varying opinions on life but before going to bed we all gave each other high five handshakes.

The next morning Leo again brought bread and cheese with coffee for breakfast. After eating we walked down to the bus stop. After a short wait the bus came and we again returned to Melipeuco. When we were walking down the street a young guy in a green Chevy Luv pickup pulled up to us and asked us if we wanted a ride to the park. After establishing that he would make the round trip for 30,000 pesos John, Tom, Steve, and Don jumped in back and I got in front. We left Melipeuco and started down a single track dirt road. We arrived at the entrance to the park and had to pay an entrance fee of 2800 pesos apiece. A few minutes after leaving the entrance we came out onto an immense black lava bed that was at the base of the Llaima volcano. The road became quite rough in places and the truck bounced and shuddered over areas of exposed rocks. The lava looked like giant cinders randomly scattered across the landscape. After going across the lava bed we entered a forest. We passed by a small clear pond that had a vivid green color. We continued to climb going around blind curves at a fairly rapid speed. Alejandro, our driver, would honk when we approached one. After going around one curve we just managed to avoid colliding with a Nissan SUV. Alejandro made the Nissan driver back up to a wider spot to allow us to pass. The Nissan driver was upset and he shouted at us and gave us a dirty look as we went by him. Alejandro just shrugged, smiled and turned up the volume on his radio. We finally arrived at Laguna (lagoon) Quillo and Alejandro dropped us off. He said he would return to pick us up at 7:00. You could see trout feeding so Steve and I decided to stay and fish and Tom, Don, and John started out to hike on the volcano. The fish we could reach from shore turned out to be small. I managed to catch one about four inches long. The lake was a couple of miles long and was surrounded by snow covered ridges. The water was quite warm and the plants and trees were lush and looked semitropical. After fishing for a couple of hours Steve and I decided to take a hike along the road. There were a number of Araucaria trees near the lake and on the ridges. This unusual national tree of Chile grows to a large size. The branches primarily grow from the top and stick straight out from the trunk. The leaves are oblong with a thorn on their tips and are bundled tightly around the entire length of the branches. The shape of the tree is like a giant umbrella or mushroom. The trunk is covered in Spanish moss and reminded me of a hairy mammoth leg. The bark is pebbly like the skin of a pineapple. We walked down the road for a couple of hours and then returned to the lake. Don, John, and Tom got back and we sat around waiting for Alejandro to return. The three of them had had a great hike and had reached the snow line on the volcano. When Alejandro came I hopped up in the back with Tom, John, and Steve and Don got in front. About half way back Alejandro pulled off onto a side road and drove a short distance to a house. Alejandro said that we were picking up a couple of other passengers. Just after he said that a couple of girls came and jumped up into the back. One girls name was Francesca and the other was named Anna. Francesca was a beautiful girl with light wavy brown hair, hazel eyes, and tawny colored skin. Anna had black hair with light skin and an animated face. Francesca was nineteen and Anna was eighteen. They were sitting along the tail gate next to Steve and you could see that they were attracted to him. When they asked him his age he told them he was thirty five. This surprised them and they told him that he looked like he was twenty three. Tom and John told me to tell the girls that we had biked all the way form Santiago to Melipeuco. When I told them this their eyes got big and they laughed in wonderment. At the end I told them that this really wasn't true. We got back to Melipeuco and dropped the girls off. We then went over to a restaurant to eat. I had invited Alejandro to join us. We ordered and started the meal off with a round of cervaza. After finishing our meal we got Alejandro to take us back to camp. I think he was apprehensive about taking the five of us because he drove to a friend's house and the friend jumped up in back with the four of us. Alejandro dropped us off at the bus stop near our camp and we paid him another 14,000 pesos. We walked back to camp and crawled into our tents.

The next morning there was heavy dew so we packed up at a leisurely pace letting our tents dry in the morning sun. We were riding back to Temuco. John rode out first followed closely by Tom and Don. Steve and I rode out together and I experienced pangs of melancholy as we left our church side camp ground. I left a note for Leo on the church stoop thanking him for his help. In Concu we met Tom, John, and Don in the plaza. We ate at the restaurant that we had eaten at on our way out. The owner again greeted us with a wide smile and lively eyes. The ride to Temuco was much easier than when we had come because it was primarily down hill. John and Tom rode ahead of Steve, Don, and me, arriving in Temuco about and hour before we did. After we entered town we spotted Tom and John sitting on a curb drinking three liter bottles of Cristal cerveza. We joined them and after finishing the beer we rode over to the central plaza looking for a cambio and a hotel. We stayed at the Horteria hotel which was a half block away from the plaza. We got registered, brought our bikes into the hotel and went up to our rooms. After showering we went to Johnson's department store where I purchased a tee shirt and Don bought some underwear shorts. The Norwegians were having a liquidation sale. We've seen many stores in Chile announcing similar sales. We returned to the hotel and I walked over to a cambio to exchange my traveler's checks for pesos. In many of the small towns the people will only accept pesos. I returned to the hotel and after resting in our room for awhile Don looked in the "Lonely Planet" and we decided to go to a Mediterranean restaurant. Steve wanted to order lamb but it wasn't available. Instead he ordered a whole roasted chicken making up for the tamale incident in Concu. Before leaving the hotel John had turned in our dirty laundry for washing.

After eating breakfast the next day we returned to our hotel planning to pick up our clothes to get an early start. We were riding to Villarrica and wanted to avoid the heat of the day. It was now 9:30. The guys wanted me to go down and check on our laundry. When I asked at the front desk they said the clothes would be ready at 6:00PM. I returned to John, Tom, and Steve's room and told them about the clothes. Of course everyone said that this was unacceptable and wanted me to see if I could go over to the laundry and pick them up. I found a maid and told her we wanted our clothes as soon as possible and that I would even go over to the laundry and pick them up. She said only hotel personnel were allowed in the laundry and that it would be impossible for me to get them. She said that they would be done at 11:00. At 11:00 I asked the maid if they were ready. She said in five minutes and that they were currently being ironed. At 11:20 she finally said they were done and we could pick them up at the front desk. We took our panniers downstairs, retrieved our freshly washed and ironed clothes and loaded up our bikes. We pulled out at 11:30 heading for the Pan Am highway. We rode down the freeway for twenty four kilometers before turning off on route 199 which went to Villarrica. Route 199 was a newly surfaced two lane tar highway with wide shoulders. After riding for a few hours we stopped at a bus shelter. After resting for about fifteen minutes we started out again. It was an extremely hot dry day and we were still about twenty four kilometers from Villarrica. Don and I were last in line and when we started out he started riding slowly. He said that he didn't want to experience heat exhaustion as he had on a ride in North Dakota last summer. He said that his body was telling him to slow down. I went on ahead and lost him in my rearview mirror. After a couple of miles I came upon John waiting beside the road. He said "Let the young bucks go on ahead". My water bottles were empty so I went to a house on the other side of the road to fill them. When I crossed back over to where John was there was still no sign of Don and John and I waited anxiously for him to appear. Finally John spotted Don cresting a hill in the distance. A few minutes later Don came slowly riding up. John went on ahead and I waited with Don while he took a rest. We finally got to Villarrica at about 6:30 and found John, Tom, and Steve drinking beer at a local pub. They had rented a house and John had gotten Jorge, the owner, down from 20,000 pesos to 13,000 ($19.00). We followed John over to the house. When we arrived we learned that this was Jorge's family home and to make room for us the family was staying in a small lean too located in back of the house. After settling in we walked downtown to eat. Jorge had recommended the Tabor restaurant which he said had good seafood. I had gotten the directions from him but after walking a number of blocks and not finding it we went into the Vecchia Cucina restaurant. After seating ourselves the owner came over and recommended various dishes. Don told the owner that he looked like inspector Klouseau. The guy was amused at this and said that he would have to check himself out in the mirror. We wanted to order wine and he recommended Carmenere which is a red wine produced from the Carmenere grape. It is only grown in Chile. This was an excellent wine being smooth with a medium body. The food was delicious and we all agreed that this was one of the best meals of the trip. After the meal we walked back to our rented casa (mi casa, su casa). We had seen Jorge on the way over to the restaurant and he said that a friend of his who spoke English wanted to meet us. When the guy came over it turned out that Jorge wanted his friend to tell us that if an inspector came that we were to tell him that we were friends of Jorge's.