After Buenos Aires

Sunday, 28 March 2010 00:00

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Sorry for the delay in updating the RR. It seems like the earthquake in Chile has cut off the internet at a lot of hotels in Chile. In the morning you can have a connection, but by night it’s gone.

Having dropped Wendy off for her flight, I contacted DakarMotors to see if they had a set of tires for my bike. I wanted something a little more dirt-oriented since the Anakees were slipping around a little too much on the gravel. Additionally, the rear had been patched with a plug, and if I wanted to continue using them in Patagonia, I would need to get a proper patch.

DakarMotos had a set of Karoos, so I set off to their shop, hoping to get there before they closed. With the tires taken care of, I booked a bunk at Hotel DakarMotos and arranged a taxi for my morning flight back to Bariloche. At this point, I’m still not sure what I’ll do. I’d been to Ushuaia with Wendy, so do I really need to ride down there? I could head north, ride through Bolivia, then east to Brazil. I decided to get back to Bariloche and see which way the Beast turned when I road off in the morning.

I got the tires mounted, spent one more day in Bariloche, packed up and headed out of town. The Beast hesitated a bit, but then turned south toward the Carretera Austral in Chile. I guess we both wanted to see more of Patagonia.

As it turns out, this is one of the nicer roads I’ve taken. You leave Argentina, which is fairly dry due to being on the east side of the Andes, and enter Chile at Paso Futaleufú.

Nice Cabin in Chile

On I-17 to Carretera Austral

Once I hit the Carretera Austral at Villa Santa Lucía, I turned south and headed for the town of Puerto Puyuhuapi.

Yup, they have billboards down here too

Puerto Puyuhuapi

Fish farm

At this point, I’ve crossed the Andes and am on the west “wet” side. There is a lot more foliage and some of it's large

From Puerto Puyuhuapi, it was another day to Coyhaique.

Coyhaique, my stop for the night

The next morning, I was off to Lago General Carrera (or Lago Buenos Aires on the Argentinean side) as the border splits the lake. This section of road the best part, as you ride down a glacial valley with a roaring river fed by glacier runoff, something I hadn’t seen since living in Alaska.

Lago Buenos Aires

In Chile Chico, I crossed back into Argentina, and once again, had to decide if I wanted to continue riding south or head north. I really wanted to see Torres Del Pain, so I turned south onto the Ruta 40, for the start of 600 miles of infamous Ruta 40 ripia (gravel) roads, high cross winds (I measured 55 mph cross winds with gusts up to 65), and a little tarmac thrown in for good measure.

Oh, and did I mention that sometimes there was mud?

This was from about 8 days earlier. I met a guided tour and they told me it took 12 hours to go about 60 miles in that mud. Another guild had told me that for 65 miles, it was impossible to stop the bikes because when you did the bike was blown over. Luckily, I didn’t see those high winds or mud. Still, the constant 55 – 60 mph winds were enough.

The first stop was after 250 miles of gravel and tarmac at the Estancia La Angostura, a working sheep and cattel ranch.

The window of my room

The next day, it was off to El Calafate. I won’t go into the details here, other than I met my first 2 riders heading South. Oliver was an Englishman riding an R1150GS. He had started his trip in May in Vancouver, BC and then ridden to Alaska. I met the other rider, Ben, in San Cristobal.

From El Califate, it was another 200 miles to Torres Del Pain and yep, I got to ride more Ruta 40 ripia with a nice 60 mph rosswind.