In Patagonia

Hello from the middle of Parque Nacional Los Alerces, named after some very old very slow growing trees which the park aims to protect. It's pretty remote here, so obviously no wifi and I'll post this in a couple of days...

The park was founded by Aled Jones (not that one) suggesting we're approaching the parts of Patagonia that the Welsh inhabit. We've been cycling through some truly beautiful scenery, but with some pretty irritating rocky sandy ripio. We're covering about 25-30 miles a day cycling for about 4 hours a day. I expect we could go further but we're both pretty tired by the end of the day.

Over the last week we've seen far more rain than for the previous 2 months, and to get us in the Christmas mood we've also cycled through snow and hail. We've also experienced some Patagonian wind - one tailwind helped Pob top 44mph, (assisted by a steep hill and the slipstream of a lorry).

We treated ourselves to a night in a very fancy hotel, that happened to coincide with constant rain, so we felt obliged to enjoy the respite from the weather for an extra night. Fog meant we didn't get to appreciate the views fully until our second morning when it cleared up revealing the previous night's snow.

Yesterday we passed through Cholila, a pueblo famous because Butch Cassidy alledgedly holed up here after fleeing Mexico. Most of the way was ripio, but with a section of freshly paved road. Unfortunately it was a bit too fresh, as I discovered after stepping onto the side of the road, then spending the next 20 minutes picking the tar out of the clips in the bottom of my shoes. I was terrified it might dry with me clipped into my peddles, but we got almost all of it out, and if anything it's added a bit of lubricant so clipping out is easier than ever.

We've found our Christmas accommodation in a pine forest just west of Esquel (I love this map). It's unseasonably cold, which is helping with the Christmas feeling, but we're off on a trip to the sunny east coast before then to a national park famous for it's marine life, sea lions, penguins, maybe whales. Photos to follow...