My italian brother

I continue to go up the Carretera Austral and our duo is joined by a third Italian musketeer.

Davide, proud of a harvest of wild raspberries.

It is shortly after the village of Puerto Río Tranquilo that we pass a sleepy cyclist by the side of the path. At my low cruising speed, it is rare that I overtake someone!

The traveler is called Davide Pasqualetto and comes from Turin in Italy. We continue our journey side by side and the light traffic of the Carretera Austral allows us to learn a little more about this merry fellow. Traveling for a few months, the 26-year-old Turinese left home for Spain, before flying to South America. Like Freddy and I, he goes north from Tierra del Fuego to the end of La Carretera.

As with any new relationship, however, we don't engage too quickly. Driving at the same speed as us, Davide spends the day by our side and camping with us in the evening. Ready at the same time the next morning, we leave the three together. Then gradually, our relationship becomes more serious. Without saying it officially, Davide becomes our third musketeer. A bit like when I had myself met Freddy and his friend Pierre in Tajikistan.

The sand in the distance is blown up by the strong wind from the mountains.

The mountains flatten as you go up north.

Davide

This is our new friend's first long bike trip. And Davide is simply the perfect Italian. He always has a liter of olive oil with him and he even carries a silk dressing gown for the (very rare) times we stop at an inn.

He greets the cows as he walks by and looks around him so much that he zigzags along the road. He is also a terrible daredevil. The Italian descends the hills lying on his bike, most often without his helmet and at crazy speeds. One day, he tells us about some of the times he was injured in the past. Like when he tried to jump over a barbed wire fence, slipped and got caught with his leg hanging in the air on the metal thorns ... Perfect, I tell you!

Davide meeting Dafydd, a 67-year-old Welshman we chat with on the road.

Davide “Pasco” Pasqualetto launched once again at full speed!

Friend Davide is also cultured and thoughtful. At our evening campfires, we discuss Italian and European politics, South American history, and play a lot of this invented new game called “Guess what country I'm thinking”! And yet, he never went to college. He believed at the time not to be of this level. He has since realized that he had greatly overestimated the university population. His twenties therefore passed from one job to another, including selling auto parts and doing theatrical events, until this cycling trip. He would like to have his own business when he gets back, maybe a bike shop.

Davide and I keep smiling even in the rain.

Chain repair on the Italian mount.

Asphalt pleasure

On the gravel, our progress continues to be slow and disorderly. To give ourselves some juice, we pretend we're playing the Mario Kart video game on our bikes. We throw fake bananas and shells at each other, we hang on a bit with our saddlebags, we accelerate while singing as if we had just “caught a star”… and Davide repeats “IT'S MEEE, MARIO! »With a strong Italian accent!

These games bring us up to fifteen kilometers before the village of Cerro Castillo, where we find with immense joy a recently cemented surface. As soon as you leave the gravel, the bike seems to move forward on its own. Davide stops and kisses the pavement “à la Jean-Paul II”. After hundreds of kilometers of climbing and descending on soft rock, the hard surface is exhilarating.

The other advantage of riding with others is the sharing of tasks for preparing dinner. That evening at wild camping, we eat rice, vegetables and sausages cooked over the embers of a campfire. Camping in Chile is hard to match!

Davide and Freddy are cooking at the camp. I take care of the photos with both feet in icy water.

Davide, fire prevention officer.

The “queque inglés”, or English Cake, a rocky outcrop near the town of Coyhaique.

The Mañiguales river.

Some houses in the mountain village of Villa Amengual.

A different rhythm

Davide and Jonathan in front of Lake Las Torres.

It was the first time Davide had traveled by bicycle with other cyclists. Like me two years ago when I first met Freddy. It takes some adjustment. But living in nature, and facing challenges together all day long, form deep friendships that will remain with us all our lives I am sure.

I take more photos, and take more of my time, than my two companions. Which forces them to slow down. We drive less, but we see more. And they inspire me to eat something other than my endless bland pasta. It's also much more fun to chat, sing and play Mario Kart with friends than alone.

So three days and weeks go by now. To the rhythm of efforts, ascents and descents, meals, conversations and games.

I already had a German brother. I now have an Italian brother.

A German, a Canadian and an Italian… at the top of a climb.