31-Mar-2004 -- It had rained during the night. I biked from Traiguen to Los Sauces on wet roads. Turning west towards the confluence, I began to be pelted by an occasional raindrop.

My old Operational Navigational Chart showed the confluence as being about 10 miles from Los Sauces, and directly on the road. However, with a scale of about eight miles to the inch I feared that it might lie in trees that were common along the fence line. The area is heavily reforested with eucalyptus or pine, and I estimated the probability of the confluence being in the clear at about 70 percent.

While cycling the last mile the arrow pointed almost directly down the highway. But slowly it began to favor the left side, and when the bearing of the confluence was at right angles to my path the distance remaining was only 100 feet. On the other side of the fence was a field.

I walked my bicycle up a path and parked it about 10 feet above the highway. Slipping between the strands of barbed wire, I then walked just a few feet to what may well be the easiest confluence to reach on the continent.

The view to the north is the most scenic, the highway being barely visible. Views to the east and west show the burned field that contains the confluence. About 75 feet to the south is a lone handsome pine tree.

It began to rain just as I started to take pictures. The “evidence” picture shows some drops on the GPS, but the accuracy figure of 17 feet is visible as well as the exact coordinates I sought.

After taking the scenic shots I finished up with a self-timer photo of my bicycle and me. This confluence is the third and final one that I’ll reach on my Chilean bicycle ride.