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South America en Bici

February - May 2024
Cycling north from Patagonia, aiming for Colombia/Panama with the help of a few buses/planes! Read more
  • 27footprints
  • 5countries
  • 91days
  • 182photos
  • 5videos
  • 38.9kkilometers
  • 18.4kkilometers
  • 5.2kkilometers
  • 491kilometers
  • 94sea miles
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  • South America en Bici
    Day 26–27

    Doña Dora Estancia

    March 7 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Horrible first hour on terrible washboard gravel (think - cycling on a corrugated roof) reduced us to walking speed but gravel improved after 15km and we then stumbled on the cutest little estancia so decided to call the day at 38km. We were given a refugio to stay with a log burner, and the couple also invited us in for lunch with them, along with fresh sopapillos (donuts bread) and eggs for tomorrowRead more

  • South America en Bici
    Day 27–28

    Estancia Rio Cajón 🌧️

    March 8 in Chile ⋅ 🌧 5 °C

    A horror day! Very heavy rain overnight made us very grateful of our refugio & warm fire, and it continued all morning. Great breakfast of home grown eggs (the chicken were literally running outside the windows) and bread made by our host and we were very tempted to stay for the day in our cosy cabin. It looked like it was brightening up so with 80km to go to Cerro Castillo, we made a dash for it … but we were very wrong and got soaked, really soaked. At 30km Izzy’s brake rotor broke off and with a lot of downhill & rain to come we managed to flag down some friendly Argentinians to give her a lift the rest of the way. Hannah and George made it a further 10km to the next refugio and with a welcoming wood fired aga there called it a day.

    Fancy 3 course dinner on georges bday eve cooked
    Starter: mash potato (powered obv) topped with half an onion left by a previous camper
    Main: ramen, dried veg and topped with 2 fried eggs
    Dessert: plan was chocolate milo, but we settled for the rest of the litre of boxed wine the gaucho gave us as we were quite full    Read more

  • South America en Bici
    Day 28

    Georges Birthday!

    March 9 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Fried eggs on the Cocina economica (wood fired aga) to start the day, followed by a glorious 50mph tailwind for the short ride to Villa Cerro Castillo and amazingly paved roads for the final 14km! Cake & coffee with an amazing backdrop of snow capped mountains following heavy snow over the previous few days and a Chilean boiner (gaucho hat) as a present for George before a hike to see some hand paintings from 10.000 years ago … accompanied throughout by our newly named pregnant dog Bonbon, who followed us from the town and then somehow also escaped past the park security. Met back up with Margo, Alexander & Simon from earlier in the trip for a dinner to end the celebrations. We also had a very cool ‘dome’ to stay in at our campsite … which was very reasonably priced at just £1.70 more than camping - an absolute no brainer!Read more

  • South America en Bici
    Day 29

    Cerro Castillo Hike

    March 10 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Very steep hike with Izzy, Margo & Alexander up to the stunning Lago Cerro Castillo, beneath the glacier and towers. Weather seemed very good as we started the trek but when we got to the park entrance, we were told that there’s 5cm of snow on the trail at the top, it’s going to rain all day so we’ll get soaked and we wouldn’t see anything due to the cloud. They strongly recommended that we do a different hike. They also said our shoes were completely inappropriate. After much deliberation between the group we decided to ignore everything that they said and plough on regardless … and it turned out to be an excellent decision! It was very windy and quite cold at the top, but stunning views and justtt warm enough for George to have a swim in the Laguna albeit a very brief one.Read more

  • South America en Bici
    Day 30

    Cerro Castillo Switchbacks

    March 11 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    Following the ‘rest day’ spent hiking up Cerro Castillo, it was time to get back on the bikes and straight into the biggest climb of the Carretera, climbing up the stunning switchbacks to 1100m … although mercifully if was on paved road now! With the encouragement of almost every driver who went past, especially the ones who tried to lift Izzy’s bike at the viewpoint, we made it to the top. The descent was glorious, albeit with a slightly annoying headwind meaning we had to actually pedal, but we can’t really complain!

    As with every mountain pass, we left one valley in the sun and made it to the next one with very different weather … rain this time. Our initial plan had been to get to Coyhaique but with headwind and rain, we called it a day in El Blanco after 62km.    Read more

  • South America en Bici
    Day 30–31

    El Blanco

    March 11 in Chile ⋅ 🌧 9 °C

    Quick overnight pitstop in the tiny town of El Blanco 35km short of Coyhaique. Very cool campsite, with amazing communal area & welcoming owners. Burritos for dinner and very comfy beds (general rule of thumb - if it rains, we don’t have to camp!). Bacon for the first time in South America & scrambled eggs for breakfast so we were well fuelled for what we thought would be an easy roll into Coyhaique that morning…Read more

  • South America en Bici
    Day 47

    Villa La Angostera ➡️ Bariloche

    March 28 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    A bit of mixed day.

    Having found 2 bike boxes the previous evening, we thought it best to take them rather than gambling on finding some in Bariloche over the Easter weekend. Sadly this meant getting the bus for the final stretch along the lake to Bariloche, although we were quietly pleased to see it was quite a busy road so cycling wouldn’t have been as glorious as the previous day.

    Once in Bariloche, we collected our 10kg clothes box (shipped 6 weeks earlier from El chalten) and set about repacking it, ready to ship to the UK before the post office shut for the 6 day Easter holiday, only to find that the kg limit today was just 2kg, meaning we’d have to ship 5 separate packages at significant greater cost. Not worth it, and having spent 2 hours sorting we decided to enjoy rest of the day and that we’d take the box with us to Mendoza instead and sort once the easter holiday was over.

    From here, the day improved dramatically; we made it to Julian’s house had kindly leant it to us for our time in Bariloche. Hes an old family friend from Sussex, and you could tell his affinity to UK from a few photos of Firle and Alfriston on the walls to make us feel at home! He took us down to the nearest beach for the afternoon and then led us on a mad mtb bike ride around the local area, us very much struggling to keep up!

    He was off on a 4 day hike with his nephew the following day so cooked us all pizza for dinner. They arrived very late from BA, after an 18hr drive so we only met them briefly.    Read more

  • South America en Bici
    Day 48

    Villa Llao Llao - Bike/Beach/Beer tour

    March 29 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    50km bike loop round northern region of Bariloche Llao Llao. Lovely roads with views of Mt. Tronador (highest volcano in the region) and beaches (albeit some less accessible on bikes than others). From here we started our own beer trail, starting at the Patagonia brewery with stunning views over the lakes towards the snow capped Andes, then to xxx, and finally to the *Stella Artois* . The final stop was a very unexpected one, but the view was stunning so we veered from the craft beers, and shared a can of Stella before rolling slowly back to Julian’s house.Read more

  • South America en Bici
    Day 49

    Cerro Cathedal & Refugio Frey Hike

    March 30 in Argentina ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

    Our final day in Patagonia was a good one! We started with a cycle up to the Cerro Cathedral ski resort, which is the start point of the Refugio Frey hike. From there it was a beautiful 10km hike alongside Lago Gutiérrez and then up to Refugio Frey, made of stone and sitting on shore of Laguna Toncek. It has beds for those on multi-day hikes, but we had a quick empanada, lap of the lake, swim and back down.

    In the evening, we went into Bariloche town when the Fiesta del Chocolat was taking place and they’d just paraded the worlds biggest chocolate bar through the streets - sadly we were just too late to sample some of the 210m long bar, but we did have time to head into one of the many chocolate shops and another mouth watering steak for dinner.    Read more

  • South America en Bici
    Day 50

    Mendoza

    March 31 in Argentina ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    A horribly early 3:30am start for our flight to Mendoza and the morning warmed helped by the various luggage related difficulties at the airport - one bike was overweight, extra fees from the depths of the T&Cs , signing a disclaimer that our box of clothes wasn’t for commercial use, needing shrink wrap for one etc.

    Once in Mendoza, the day improved dramatically - for one we had a truck booked that meant transporting the bikes to the Airbnb in the beautiful leafy area of Chacras was easy. We also had them most amazing hosts; within an hour of arriving they’d invited us to their family Easter Asado - we accepted imagining a short lunch and we’d disappear off, but 4 hours of wine and endless meat later we were still there, now loaded to the hilt with recommendations for wine, cycling and activities around Mendoza; Tola, the daughter had even booked us lunch and wine tastings for the next few days.

    When we eventually dragged ourselves from the table, we cycled downtown on the incredible bike lane network for a rooftop cocktail for sunset.    Read more

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