Riding day 6: Coyhaique - Perito Moreno

New Years day so we started a bit later. From Coyhaique to south we had basically three options; straight to Argentina and then south to Perito Moreno, ride to Lago General Carrera (Lago Buenos Aires in Agrentina) and follow it next to northern shore to Perito Moreno or go around the lake through the western side. We ended up taking the middle route because we got a tip from the tourist info in Coyhaique that this route is shortest and fastest. Well, we will never know the truth but the route turned out to be truly interesting. 

Starting from Coyhaique we were first delighted to drive on a nice scenic and smooth Carretera Austral (Ruta 7) through the hills in Cerro Castillo national park. 

After some 90km we turned to another road towards Rio Ibanez. 

We planned to fuel the bikes and have some lunch. Both turned out to be a bit more challenging than usually. There were no actual petrol station in the whole town of Rio Ibanez. We asked from the locals and were quided to a regular house where we managed to buy fuel. We got receipt and everything so I guess this really was the local petrol station.

 Next challenge was lunch. We found two restaurants but they were both closed. Eventually we found a small store where we managed to have some bread and so on.

 After having a quick outdoor pique-nique we jumped on to our bikes and headed towards Argentinian border. And this was the moment when we did our first true fuck-up... We drove over 20km of this very tiny road with rocks size of a fist to the border. It took us over an half an hour and some close calls to reach there. Once arriving to the border we go surprised, it was Argentinian border, not Chilean! The border guard noticed that we didn't have the Chilean exit stamps in our passports and sent us back to where we came from...

 When we originally left Rio Ibanez we were so excited to get going that we actually didn't notice the Chilean border control which was located in the town, some 20kms from the border... So a tip for everyone; if you plan to go over a border in remote location, keep your eyes open! 

So, after we did this 22km x 3 offroad training and finally got over the border we still had almost 100km of poor gravel roads ahead of us. Sometimes the rocks on the road were size of a watermelon. Hitting one of those with speed would end the trip either for the bike or the rider. 

We were tired, hungry and exhausted when we finally reached the city of Perito Moreno. And we still had to find a place to sleep and eat. We managed to find only one hotel and one restaurant which were open. But those were enough. 

Couple words about navigation. We got a "Chile 2016" map with the bikes but it has turned out to be unreliable. Problem is that the sizes of the roads and which sections are paved and which are not is not correct. Every time when we see a different map in hotel or petrol station they look different. We honestly have never seen two maps telling the same story! And none of those stories match the reality! But luckily reality is usually better than maps because both in Chile and Argentina old gravel roads are under construction to be paved. So most of the surpises are positive when we expect a section of a road to be gravel and then it is brand new asphalt instead.

Route: Coyhaique - Perito Moreno (via Rio Ibanez)

Distance: 284km

Total distance: 1842km

Weather: 22 degrees Celsius, sunny with few clouds