Day 101: Patagonia-Around Every Curve

After getting new shoes for the babies and replenishing their fluids, we moved south from Santiago through Chile’s lake district. The part we drove through was reminiscent of the Midwest….verdent green and lots of water and ranching. We moved through rather quickly because our goal was Patagonia.

We entered Patagonia when we crossed from Chile into Argentina. On the crossover, we rode over a mountain pass where all the terrain was covered in volcano ash from the Puyehue volcano chain that blew in 2011. When it blew it disrupted air traffic as far away as Australia. What they call ash actually looks like small gravel. With the ash and dead trees it was very unique to see.



Right before the Argentinian border, on the top of the pass, we left the alpaca skin on a post. This was the alpaca fur that we had bought in Peru high in the

Andes for $15 for the purpose of having a cover made for Bruce’s moto seat. It was easy for Bruce to say goodbye because it was really smelly by now, the skin was getting hard and it had too many memories associated with our tough times in Peru. Besides, we were told it would be confiscated at the border. We hope someone made good use of it.

We cross the border and arrive in Argentinian Patagonia. We are excited to be here!

Our first couple days in Patagonia were spent riding through some beautiful mountains to a ski town called San Martin de Andes. We did our first camping by a scenic lake. After carrying a 125-liter drybag of camping gear for 15,000 miles, it was about time that we actually used it. It felt good to be camping again and we’ve done more since that first time.

Then we headed south on the infamous Argentinian Ruta 40 where we traveled through terrain that reminded us of the plains of Wyoming….dry and windblown…..REALLY windblown! Patagonia is famous for its wind. It’s one of the reasons that we don’t plan on riding all the way to the southernmost town of Ushuai.

After a few days of practicing body angulation (good practice for mountain biking and skiing) as we leaned our bikes into the wind for hours, we crossed back into Chile at the town of Chile Chico. Our next goal was to ride Chile’s famous and splendid Ruta 7, also called Carretera Austral. We started by riding partway around the second largest lake in South America (Lake Titicaca is the largest), Lago General Carrerra. Stunningly beautiful around every curve!! The road you see on the left is the route we rode.

Great bathroom view!

Much of Carretera Austral is gravel road or “ripio” as it is called here. Ripio is MB’s favorite terrain to ride on! Some sections are large, loose and deep gravel. A rock version of sand. Extremely fun riding! (do you sense some sarcasm here?). The extreme dust only adds to the pleasure. Bruce loves riding along at 15-20 mph in the dust (right in between 1st and 2nd gear) because MB won’t go any faster. MB won’t let Bruce ride any further ahead or

behind, so he is screwed!

While stopped alongside the lake road, another ADV rider couple stopped to say hi on a BMW GS1200 (just like yours Tim. It’s a popular bike for the ADV crowd). Turned out they were friends of friends we had met on our sailboat from Panama to Colombia. “It’s a small world after all”. We continued on together to spend the night in Puerto Tranquilo. There were no rooms available in this one-horse town but some Chilean dude drove up and said “follow me”. He had cabanas for rent just up the road…..turned out to be about 5 miles and included more ripio and 6” of freshly laid dirt which is just another version of sand riding!!! At least we got a cabana where the shower worked. When they pulled back their shower curtain in their cabana, our friends discovered there was no shower head or faucet. They had to wait for it to be installed. The joys of traveling in Latin America.

Next morning we took a break from the motos and did a boat tour out on the

lake to some marble caves. The turquoise blue lake water surrounded by white capped mountains overlooking the colorful marble was gorgeous! The Patagonian winds can make for bumpy boat rides though.

Since we entered into Chile near the southern end of Ruta 7, our plan was to ride north and then back south on Ruta 7 before we continued our overall southern journey. As we continued riding north on Ruta 7 after one more day of ripio, we hit the asphalted section. How fun it was to rip along a curvy, well paved, mountain rode with snowcapped peaks and huge rock walls around every turn. Motorcylist dream…..especially after Bruce had spent two days on ripio waiting for MB to putz along. More gorgeous mountain scenery around every curve. Lots of glaciers.

Our travels north on Ruta 7 took us to the town of Coihuique where we randomly picked a hostel that turned out to be owned by a man who also works for NOLS (a wilderness educational school similar to Outward Bound) who we have several friends in common with. What a coincidence half-way around the world!

Continuing north on beautiful tarmac we then hit the dreaded, supposedly worse section of Ruta 7 which turned back to ripio and potholed dirt that switchbacked up and down over a pass. MB was somewhat dreading this section after reading about it online. However, after Peru, No Problema! We were up and down in less than 1 ½ hour which was only 30% more time than what our Google GPS told us (as Bruce points out). Here is a photo of the google map route.

After the pass we were rewarded with three nights of camping on a lovely Patagonian fjord. Our “showers” were a swim in the cold fjord……at least for Bruce. MB could only get in up to her waist so she just splashed her armpits.

Camping Latin American style.

We took a day to hike in Queulat National Park to the glacier.

We ended our northern journey on Ruta 7 at a small colorful German-settled harbor town called Puyuhuapi. Now our compass is turned south again and we are on our way back down Ruta 7. We plan on looking up our old friend, Rolando, who owns a kayak tour company in Chile Patagonia and then we will head back into Argentina Patagonia. Can’t wait….another border crossing! (although crossing into Argentina is pretty easy).

The toughest section of ripio is yet to come once we get back into Argentina on Ruta 40 again. Apparently it is infamous….really deep gravel. We have been told that ADV riders are falling on it every day. It lasts for about 50 miles. However, we got the scoop on a supposed bypass route that we will probably try to do. Wish us luck!!