SubscribeThe hotel allowed me to check out at 5PM so I stayed till the bitter end. It would be another six hours after that before I could board the ferry that would sail down the coast to Chaiten so I needed to kill time. As I roamed around a deserted post holiday Puerto Montt I spotted a little treasure in a gas station that I quickly snapped up and hurried back to the ferry terminal with.
Archive for January, 2012
Jan
8
Maniguales, CL (397 kms)
It was a great night in camp with my new friends but when I finally got into the tent and bundled up I was quietly upset. The entire day I noticed that when I rode I was a easy 10-15 km/h slower on lefthand corners. Maybe I was tentative from my fall in Bolivia. The tension later eased and I laughed and thought… great, I’m the Zoolander of adventure riding. I can’t turn left!
Jan
5
Puerto Tranquillo, CL (457 kms)
The name of a community tells a lot. Puerto Tranquillo stood out on the map just by its name and when I entered town mid afternoon I figured it was as good a spot as any to stay. There was a nice little cafe with good food, a gas station and a side road to a glacier. Nice! I wondered if it was called Wreck Cove would I have even stopped?
Jan
9
Villa O’Higgins, CL (342 kms)
I liked his confidence as soon as I shook his hand. I needed some help fixing my pannier and Joe seemed like the guy. He took me back into his shop, we discussed how to fix the rip in the aluminum and he picked out some highway sign grade material he had in the corner. The other side of the metal said “Curvas Peligrosas” and I thought I hope he didn’t get this on the road south.
Jan
5
Ruta 7 40 kms south of Cochrane, CL (319 kms)
I thought back to the Guatemala / El Salvador border. Then I was standing on highway CA2 at Pedro de Alvarado looking across a river where a bridge had been days earlier. There was never a bridge in Paso Mayer but I had ideas of finding a way to Argentina there but the river was high from glacial melt in the warm Patagonia weather. In the end I would have to double back like I did in Guatemala to get to the next country.
Jan
5
Gobernador Gregores, AR (521 kms)
I had been warned by another rider the day before that crossing the border from Chile to Argentina could be a complicated ordeal. It was lunch time in Paso Roballos when I arrived and the Chilean Carbineros couldn’t get me out the door quick enough to resume their meal. The Argentinian police took a bit more time but only because they wanted to talk motorcycles.
Jan
9
El Chalten, AR (300 kms)
How often I used my GoPro camera became apparent on the ride along Ruta 40. Taking photos of Guanaco leaping fences, Rhea racing down the road ahead of me and even a large bull charging at the bike head were missed on the long road to El Chalten as I reached for the ghost of the camera that now sat in the pannier.
Jan
5
El Calafate, AR (218 kms)
It turned out to be a short day. Leaving El Chalten I figured I would head straight to the glacier at Perito Moreno, set up camp in the park and call it a day. Unfortunately fuel shortages like those in Tres Lagos and El Chalten appeared again and the long lineups at the pumps would hold me up just a bit longer.
Jan
5
Cerro Castillo, CL (449 kms)
I don’t know what made me go to see the big chunk of ice. I have seen glaciers up close in Jasper National Park, viewed icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland and lived a couple years in the Arctic. How much more impressive could frozen water get? But later that morning while watching seemingly small ice cubes drop from the Perito Moreno Glacier and land with the sound of chunks the size of pickup trucks I was sufficiently blown away.
Jan
10
Cerro Sombrero, CL (680 kms)
A twelve hour day in and I found myself in a small oil patch town on the final slide to Ushuaia. There was only one day left and if all went well I would be at the “end of the road.” It was very apparent to me that I had been moving fast over the past week pushing to get it done and I was drained. The feeling of being physically exhausted like when I worked on the rigs.