Perito Moreno to El Calafate...

We arrived back in Argentina and the first stop was the supermarket to pick up some steak for dinner…only A$15 for 1kg fillet! while there we met a couple Martin and Lauren from South Africa tha had been on the road for 8 months. We had been looking forward to meeting some other bikers and it was great to hear about their travels and pick up some tips. We were all heading south so planned to meet up down the road.

Ruta 40 highway south was a spectacular ride and really enjoyble to share with some other bikers. Most of it is a decent dirt road but the never ending side wind makes for a fairly tiring ride.

The first stop was El Chalten, a rapidly growing tourist town at the northern end of the ice fields. We enjoyed some free camping to help get the budgets back on track. We did a short hike to check out one of the glaciers and were lucky enough to see a massive chunk of ice break off and crash down the mountain side…we were luckily well out of the way.

More of Ruta 40 to El Calafate and more bikers in the group that we met through Martin and Lauren…big cook up and a couple of days rest are in store.

Coyahique to Perito Moreno...Back into Argentina

After the accident David needed a couple of days to recover so we stayed at a hostel just out of town in a pine forrest called Las Salamadas. David managed to get an X-Ray done in Coyhaique on his foot that luckly showed no bone fractures just bruising. The bike also had its recovery time we managed to do the final repaires on David´s bike to stitch together the front fender and get some welding done on the pannier frames. The bike finally looked pretty again.

Matteo and Kate went on a day long horse trek into the mountains to look at the views over the valley. The horse riding place had a fantastic show jumping ring, and at the end of the day Kate managed to do a quick round on the poor tired western horse in all its western sadderly... a tough ask!

With David feeling better it was time to leave as the hostel was costing us more the we should be spending. So we hit the road again… this time slower than before the accident and headed for the secod largest lake in South America that sits between Chile and Argentina, Lago General Carrera. We had the best ride any of us had ever experienced as we rode around this amazing lake from a little town called Tranquillo to Chile Chico. We liked it so much that when David realised he had lost his wallet none of us complained as we rode 100km back to Tranquillo to see if the wallet we left at the fuel station. We crossed into Argentina at Los Antiguos and camped at Perito Moreno were we meet a South African/Swiss couple on an Africa Twin motorbike.

Bariloche to Coyahique Chile..Falling and Rising

The road out of Bariloche was spectacular with twisting roads, lakes, mountains and everything we had hoped for when we were planning this trip. It was amazing how the scenery could change so quickly... the Argentinian side of the Andes was so different to the Chilian side with the rain shadow creating a dry dust bowl along some parts of Ruta 40. It was a long ride with plenty of k´s to cover as we were keen to get back into Chile. We were lucky to make it across the Argentinia border, rocking up just 20mins before it closed and then having to rush to the Chilian border with only 5 mins to spare... its great that the borders between these 2 countries are efficient and easy to deal with.

We rode into Futalafu just as it was getting dark and found this little camping place in the front yard of an old lady who baked us wood fired bread the morning.. nil complaints from us having a little mama looking after us! the recent volcanic activity of Chiten which is about 100kms away meant that 1 foot of ash had fallen in the are... all our gear ended up grey and has stayed that way since!

Leaving Futalafu we set off south for the Carratera Austral (Route 7) which is the main highway running through the southern end of Chile. This amazing dirt road offers so much traveling on a motorcycle. The 4 to 6 meter wide gravel strip winds its way through along the edge of the Andes most beautiful region and produces views worthy of a top notch postcard as each new bend unwinds. The road although beautiful is riddled with potholes and wondering livestock and on the ride out of Futalafu Dave hit a darting sheep which sent him down hard at 80km/h. Fortunatly he escaped without too much injury, however the bike wasn´t so lucky and a large number of zip ties and duct tape had to be used to make sure the bike could continue on its journey. The farmers didn´t seem to mind too much, as we think they were hanging out for a good lamb dinner. But they where more than helpful helping getting the bike ready for the remaining 70km we had to travel to reach the next town - La Junta.

After a night in a nice hotel in La Junta we had to figure out what to do as Dave´s foot was in bad shape and we needed to get some xrays. The issue was that the Coyahique was the closest town with a hospital, but it was 360km away. Amazingly a Jeep load of Aussie boys pulled into the hotel that day for lunch and offered Dave a spot in the car to Coyahique. Two of the guys took turns riding the bashed KLR down to meet us. I think they were quite happy to get out of the car and have a bit of fun on the dirt. This crash was the first of the trip...and hopefully the last!

Chile to Argentina....Crossing # 1

We rode south from Pucon with the aim of hunting out some decent dirt roads. We were not let down managing to hook up to an amazing road south through the lakes district. The dust was kicking up and the view was spectacular. We pulled off the road a couple of times to really soak in the serentity, I think the reality of this epic adventure was definately starting to come to light.

The night was spent in a lush camp site just before the Chile / Argentine border. The fact that it had been raining in the days passed made the area seem like a tropical rainforest! Our persistant efforts to get the fire going from the avalible wet wood paid off as the cold night set in. We have been throughly impressed with the camping facilities on offer in Chile.

After the morning cuppa we took off for the border. The sun was out as we set off for what we later agreed was our best day of riding yet. The time spent at both the Chile and Argentina check points was brief and effortless. This was a pleasent surprise to us as we would be doing this a few times in the near future. With the paper work out of the way we focused on getting to Bariloche. The roads were unbelievable with hair pin after hair pin as we weaved up and down the Andes. The expansive lakes and snow capped peaks set the scene for a thourougly enjoyble day of riding.

Bariloche is another vibrant tourist town with much on offer. We were told that the steak here was to die for and we had to try one. We sort out the best steak house in the town ´El Boliche de Alberto´and took a seat in front of a half kilo slab. Its true what they say about the beef in Argentina.....bloody fantastic!

Check Out More Photos!

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Pucon adventures...

Pucon is one of the main tourist towns of Chile and most of the activities are centered around the volcano, mountains and lakes that surround the town. Pucon strangely looks like something out of Switzerland with log and stone buildings everywhere. There is heaps of adventure activites to do around the town. But with bad weather for the whole week we were there we were pretty upset not be able to climb up to the volcano but we still managed to stay entertained! We went horse riding to a beautiful waterfall, sat in thermal baths for hours and a went down white water rapids with boogie boards... or what the tour operators call hydrospeed! All good fun... next stop Argentina.