The border at Mendoza opened again the next day, so after passing the crowds of people waiting to cross we made it into Chile! Together with Paul & Lauren we rented an AirBnB in Santiago de Chile to stock up on spare parts and work on the bikes, before heading down to Patagonia. In Patagonia and generally in Argentina parts are more expensive and the further south you head the more sparse the parts get. Basil decided to spend his last month riding around Northern Argentina, so our ways parted from here.
Our plan was to ride down the Carretera Austral. This highway heading south in Chile runs from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins over a stretch of around 1’240 km through a rural part of Patagonia. There had been a major landslide on one part the previous month and the only way to get around this area was by ferry. Reaching Puerto Montt the challenge was to inquire how to get onto the ferries, as they were booked out for weeks. With the help of Paul & Lauren’s next level Spanish, we managed to book tickets and were told to just turn up. Luck was on our side and we managed to roll straight on. The first ferry took 5 hours from Hornopiren to Leptepu followed by an overnight ferry from Chaiten to Puerto Marin Raul Balmaceda. Arriving at 5 in the morning after sleeping on the deck of the ferry was epic – we were heading out into the morning sunset with everything frozen around us!
The next day riding was on tarmac followed by camping at Laguna de las Torres with Paul & Lauren. From there we said our goodbyes and headed on to explore. The plan was to cruise along the gravel roads winding down the famous Carretera Austral and stop off along the way to visit a the National Park. The landscape was truly amazing passing through dense forests with the occasional view of the surrounding mountains peeking through – and then leading out into the open, along lakes with incredible electric blue water.
The road turned out to be very overused though and this led to a very bumpy ride for hours on end – we definitely rode more fun gravel roads. Also it was high season and there were so many people everywhere. Adding to this it costs to go into every park and even for some smaller hike one has to pay a fee. Tourism had truly taken over! So we decided to head on and explore the National Parks in Argentina instead.
