Riding day 10: Puerto Natales - Punta Arenas

10th day on the road was planned to be short and easy so we started late again. Packing and servicing the bikes took a while. We also had some confusion about the room prices in Hotel Glaciares when we were checking out. Originally when we arrived we had asked a price for four people. Instead, what we only now learned, we were given a price of a single room for two persons. So the hotel turned out to be twice as expensive than what we thought. Lost in translation some might say...

The route from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas is just easy going paved road with little to mention about. Day turned out to be heavily windy again so the ride wasn't that nice. 

We stopped at the only little village on the way, Villa Tehuelches, and managed to buy some sandwiches from the other local kiosk and coffee from the other.

After the stop we decided to have a bit more scenic and adventorous route for a while. So we turned to gravel again and drove to the Pacific Coast through the village of Rio Verde. We saw the ferries to Isla Riesco and continued our journey while the relentles wind was beating the joy of driving out of us.

After about 50km on the gravel route we reached the Ruta 9 again and turned south for the remaining kilometers. Just when we started to see the Straight of Magalhaes we hit our first rain on the whole trip. Already during the day we had got a few drops on our visors but this time we had to drive about 15mins in a rain. It turned out to be a good test for the driving gear. Luckily the rain changed to sun and blue skies just when we arrived to Punta Arenas. With the help of Here-navigation we easily found our 'cabana' from the city which is probably the biggest we have seen on the trip. Punta Arenas actually has buildings with more than 3 floors. Something we haven't seen since Santiago Airport.

We will eventually end our journey with bikes here in Punta Arenas. But we still have 4 days until then. Plan is obviusly to go to Tierra del Fuego and now it is only a ferry ride away. But as we have already seen the weather conditions are difficult to predict and we wouldn't want to drive hundreds of kilometres in a pouring rain. We have multiple options what to do and where to go. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Distance: 261km

Total distance: 3518km

Weather: 13-15 degrees Celcius, sunny with occasional clouds and rains

Riding day 8: El Calafate - Puerto Natales

We woke up in El Calafate at Hosteria Austral. We didn't know the day before if we'll make it all the way through the desert almost 700 km so we didn't make a reservation for accommodation beforehand, which would have been the best way to get best price-quality ratio. This time we were lucky and managed to get ok quality.

After modest breakfast we started about 10 towards the Perito Moreno glacier. First we headed for refuel and also the chains needed to be tightened.

The weather was pretty cold compared to what we were used to. It was 10,5 celcius and cloudy. The ride was 50 kms straight paved road untill the gate of the national park. From here on the road changed to curvy and more fun. 30 km more and we reached the parking lot from where we took a shuttle up to the glacier.

There were walking ways to get nearer the ice. We took it and went to see the glacier. The ice was beatiful. You could hear every once in a while crackle when the ice broke and splash when it hit the water.

Scenery was magnificient and worth the visit. We ate lunch in the park and started for the next destination.

Our next destination was Torres Del Paine national park and we had to head back to El Calafate to start since the road to glacier was a dead end. We headed back to our earlier hotell to get wifi and plan our next stop. Since we didn't find any accommodation online from Torres Del Paine/Cerro Castillo village, we decided to hit the road and catch it on the go. 

We started the route 40 towards Chile. The road was pretty straight and paved.

 Pretty Boring. Untill. There was a shortcut to the right. About 60 kms gravel. Of course we took this. In my opinion this was top 3 rides on this trip. The road was wide and straight so we could keep 80-120 km/h speed. But there was also challenge since there were big rocks and smoother gravel on the road which you had to avoid. I think we got pretty good GoPro material from here since we could ride quite near to each other.

When we turned back to paved road, there was only a short way to the border. In the end there was again a short fun gravel road. Noman's land was gravel like usually and we arrive to Chilean border and a small village called Torres Del Paine. There's nothing in the village and we have to ride to next town which is Puerto Natales. This is about 60 kms straight and curves in a bit chancing landscapes so this is not so boring. There are hills and dried up trees. Snow covered mountains in the horizon. The pavement is good.

We reached the town, rode around finding a hotell and manage to find a decent priced hotel l with a few bikes in front. More bikers checked in after us. These guys were Italian and had their own bikes and support truck with them!

We went to seek a restaurant and found a good one from the main boulevard at the seaside. We took the hotell for two nights and plan to head for the national park tomorrow.

Route: El Calafate - glacier Perito Moreno -El Calafate - Torres Del Paine/Cerro Castillo - Puerto Natales

Distance: 432 km

Total distance: 2947 km

Weather: 10-12 celcius, cloudy