Day 6 – Sunday, February 1, 2026

In the morning - just to continue with the generosity of the Chileans - I was offered a full employee breakfast - for $0.00. Is this dome kind of a candy camera that I am being filmed with?? The chef prepared an amazing omelet with paprika and tomatoes.

My employee breakfast for free; gracias!

The friendly chef

I thought of staying one more day, but even if the pass would be opened the following day, I would come across wintry conditions (snow, ice, wind) - so I decided against it, being quite disappointed. This would not be the first time weather conditions would change the course of my route...

Talking about weather - apparently back in Santiago, where I had started on January 28, experienced flash floods, as torrential rainfall had hit part of the city...This is something I watched on TV along with all the other employeed enjoying their morning meal.

Floods in Santiago

So I guess I was lucky not being washed away. On the way back/down, I again enjoyed the spectacle Nature provided (on pretty much empty roads, not like the way up)...

My private road

Many curves ahead (easy the way down...)

j

White snow and blue skies

Loved it...

Once again I was appreciative of me getting the room up in Portillo, as further down the road, a complete gas station was washed away by landslides. The owner just smiled, offered me a bottle of water -apparently this was not the first time it had happened.

I did have some bike trouble, the front wheel being both a bit flat and giving some weird noise. I stopped to fix it in Los Andes, in a residential area. As I was changing the tube, a motorbike rider stopped to help me. It turned out he was from Venezuela and all he said was, in Spanish, "thank you for everything your country is doing for us". Well, it seems all foreigners are Gringos. He told me to be careful in this area - so once the bike was fixed, I went back to the main road.

Following Los Andes, I started riding in a rather affluent, wine-growing area, which strongly resembles rural Italy. Interesting to see was a number of picnic spots with pools - they also offer camping - at least a dozen of them were in my vicinity. Most were full for the day, it being a Sunday. I thought staying in one would be nice for the night - and did find one open for business (most were just operating during the day), but I managed to find one open for business - and paid dome €12 for the smooth patch of grass I pitched my tent on.

This was a wine growing area

The pool

Dinner was in a busy kiosk not far - street food at its finest! It was a Chilean version of a hamburger - for way less than €10!!

This was the kiosk

I rode 100km, and ascended around 500m (the major altitude change was a gigantic drop from 2,880m to just a couple of hundred).