Bad news I found out today. There’s been a huge wildfire burning in Torres del Paine national park for a few days and now I’m hearing that the park is going to be closed maybe for all of January. What a shame. It sounds like the fire was caused by careless backpackers (again–there was another big fire there in 2005 caused by a hiker’s stove). The fire is still completely uncontained thanks to dry conditions and winds of 56 mph.
Not much going on in town. I’m just about over this cold. 2 days of coughing but overall it didn’t hit too hard. The hotel hasn’t been a bad place to rest up and there are 2 huge supermarkets right down the street.
I’m stocked up on Chile and Argentina pesos because the ATMs south of here are probably going to be short on cash. I imagine quite a few tourists are going to try waiting out the fires in TDP and this is the start of high season when things are normally very busy to begin with.
I brought the bike over to a pretty decent bike shop called El Figon and had them clean the chain and cables for me. They were a little mucked up from the rain/dirt/ash north of here. I also asked them to take a look and see if they could make it so the rear brake would close properly but they said I’d have to buy a smaller tire. With the new 2″ tire on the back the brake won’t close probably because the fender presses up into the cable and I can’t lower it anymore or it’ll hit the tire. I ended up fixing it myself back at the hotel by adjusting the height of the brake pads and loosening up the cable a bit.
I’m planning on leaving Sunday.
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