To reach Patagonia starting from Santiago I needed a total of three weeks (Day 01 – Day 21). Cycling distance: 1503km; vertical incline: 14’289m
Day 01 (15.11.2023) Santiago – Melipilla
First day of my Patagonia Adventure. After returning the pickup-truck to the airport car rental I loaded my bike with all my bags. Not realizing that it might be slightly overloaded (around 60kg luggage) I almost fell just by pushing the bike the first three meters. No way I can do this trip under such conditions, were my first thoughts. But first I need to come out of the airport area…hopefully alive. After five minutes I finally could cross the one direction two-line driveway around the parking lot and start my tour. Hundreds of cars, buses and vans passing didn’t allow an earlier take off. Somehow, I did an extra loop before finally drifting on the right highway. And right at the beginning the big black bag fell of the rack and the bungee cords got entangled in the back wheel. Luckily no car came at this very moment. My next thoughts were how I’m ever going to make it out of that seven-million-people town. The blue bag on the front rack made a navigation almost impossible and the brakes were evenly hard to handle. Crashing in a car or just falling due to the extremely damaged road were about similar possible as well as getting a flat tire or breaking one of the racks, due to the heavy overload. At the next possible stop I took my backpack from the black bag and filled it up with as many as possible heavy items to reduce the weight on the two racks. Now, I finally could ride in a more normal way. Riding extremely careful, I made my way through some of the suburbs of Santiago. At one traffic light a young man made an artistic show whenever the red traffic light was on (Vid. 01). I was so impressed by his talent that I sponsored him with 5000 Pesos (around 5 Swiss Francs) followed by a small chat about his life and my travels. Since it was already late, I continued my journey and rode out of Santiago. I tried to follow google-maps, which wasn’t always the best choice. Once it guided me on a terrible gravel road, which turned into a small path that ended under a bridge, where it was even impossible to go by foot. So, I had to somehow turn my bike around and go back to the last intersection. From now on I just followed the main road that brought me finally to Melipilla. It was already dark and so I took the next possible hotel. The places was a bit strange, because I had to pay for the hour. For dinner I cooked beans on the small camping gas stove I brought along and went to bed quickly. My main thoughts just before falling asleep and during most of the time on the bike during the day were about sending a huge parcel with clothes and gear to Switzerland which I wouldn’t really need here on this Patagonia trip. Otherwise, this adventure wouldn’t last too long.
Day 02 (16.11.2023) Melipilla – Lake Rapel
First time in the morning, I went to the post office and sent an 8kg parcel back home. The content is probably not half as much worth as they charged me (CHF 140.-) Just didn’t feel to throw my Spartan medals away, even though at some point they will find their way to the garbage in Switzerland. Some clothes I gave to the cleaning lady and others I threw away. Altogether around 12kg lighter I continued around 1.30pm my trip. Still felt extremely heavy to ride but at least I could properly maneuver and break the bike. The heaviest things were still the food containers that I put in my backpack. One day soon I hope to be able to ride without it. Don’t think I will need that much spare food to carry anyways.
Going further south I passed through a marvelous landscape, mainly agricultural land and vineyards. One nasty hill with an incline of up to 12% made me suffer today. Normally I wouldn’t even consider this as a hill but know I can imagine how it feels for people that weigh around 140kg (80kg me, 10kg bike; 50kg luggage). After a bit more than 60k I found a quiet campground right by the lake. Besides a young couple from Santiago, that also arrived on a bicycle, no one seemed to be here on that huge campground. Now I finally could test my new light weight camping gear.
Day 03 (17.11.2023) Lake Rapid – Santa Cruz
After my first night camping, I woke up under the rain. After checking the forecast, I hurried up to put my already wet tent in a bag, since the rain should even worsen up. By the time I left the campground it stopped raining, and I could get rid of the raincoat and -pants. Google Maps then sent me through the first dirt road. It was on good condition but unfortunately with lots of garbage on the side. Suddenly I saw almost a dozen black vultures on the road fighting over something. They even chased each other while flying. When I got closer, I saw these scavengers were fighting over the leftovers of a halfway rotten dog.
Later the gravel merged into an aasphalt road. Thanks to decent tailwind I could go quite fast. I passed some nice scenery but to my surprise one farmland was totally fenced in, even with additional electric wires. I guess the owner watched too much Jurassic Park or felt himself in Guantanamo.
About 20k before Santa Cruz, heavily rain shower started that didn’t seem to end until midnight. So, I took one more time my rain clothes out and rode my bike into the next town to find shelter where I could wrap my bags waterproof. Luckily, I found a cute little restaurant, where they made Empanadas in a still traditional way using wood and a stone oven (Vid. 01). This was about 15k before Santa Cruz. After the tasty Empanada and a hot coffee, I rode to Santa Cruz, where I would spend two nights in the lovely Casa Suiza. Parts of the street were already very messy and turned into a pond (Vid. 02).
Day 04 (18.11.2023) Around Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz is a very nice small town which is famous for their Chilean Bodegas with lots of good wines that they export to all places in the world, including Switzerland. In the later afternoon, when it finally stopped raining, I left the Casa Suiza and went to a local bicycle store, where the mechanic guy helped me to adjust the gears a bit. At some point the chain didn’t jump properly to the next gear anymore. All he did was just turning a screw a bit to the right and the problem was fixed. He didn’t charge me anything for this, so I bought a small bottle of chain lube, that I will need anyway. I left the town and followed the signs that brought me to the famous Wine-Road. I followed the road to a lot of nice wine yards which reminded me a bit of the Wallis of Switzerland. At one Bodega I made a stop, tasted a wine, and bought a bottle. Back at the Casa Suiza I drank half of the bottle for dinner and saved the other half for the next day.
Day 05 (19.11.2023) Santa Cruz – Pichilemu (Happy Birthday my beloved brother Yves)
This was the longest tour so far of my trip with the most vertical meters as well. However, the whole way was pavement and so it turned out very easy to go on proper speed. The last incline to almost 600m was quite heavy. In Pichilemu I went first to the beach to see the black volcano sand. Pichilemu is very famous for surfing and someone told me they had the Panamerican Games of Surfing there. After drinking some coffee out of my thermos, I looked-up for a place to spend the night. Luckily, I found a very nice small apartment on the second floor with a bit of ocean-view. After taking a shower I went down to the rocky beach to watch the sunset with the rest of the bottle of wine, remembering my brother Yves whose Birthday was today. I’m sure Yves would have loved this place as well.
Day 06 (20.11.2023) Pichilemu – Santa Rosa
Today was the hardest ride so far. After a light outdoor workout for my arms and core (mainly pull- and push-ups, since the only smart machine was a pull-up rack) I checked out around noon. Then I rode to the World class and Chile’s rated first surf spot called Punta de Lobos. For a bit more than half an hour I watched the happening and every once in a while one of the surf cracks caught a nice wave. The spot looked extremely rocky and a bit dangerous as well. It might be in fact a rather dangerous spot when considering all the memorials of young people that died there. Around 1.30pm I left the spot and took the highway towards Bucalemu. Unfortunately the wind turned the last days into head wind. Luckily there were not many cars on the road. After Bucalemu I left the highway and took a smaller road that would sort of keep me on the ocean side. I passed some interesting landscape and a plantation for salt. Shortly after four I went to a small restaurant for late lunch. I had an Empanada, mixed Salad and Strawberry Juice. Full of Enery I continued my journey and ended up in a dead end street. Good I opened the google map before because from now on the internet connection was over. I turned around and took the first dirt road two the right. After a proximate 1km on that dirt road two street workers told me that this isn’t the correct road to the town I wanted to go. So I turned around once more and remembered an earlier seen incredibly steep dirt road. Unfortunately this was the only option to proceed my journey. Hoping that the road wouldn’t continue to be as steep I continued until I saw literally a beige wall ahead. Now I remembered the meaning of the earlier road sign that indicated to take this way only if dry conditions. So it turned out in an extremely steep and sany dirt road. The incline was most the time above 10% and peaked over 20% 😱. My riding was over by now and I started to push the bike uphill. The headwind got more intense which was an additional challenge. Finally, after pushing 250 vertical meters uphill I found myself on top. Luckily the road wasn’t too even so I could use the small waves and holes as foot steps. An important help, since my bicycle shoes had almos no traction on the sand. Finally on top I had a marvelous view over the huge wetlands. Almost 4 hours later I made it to Santa Rosa and just after sunset I found a very clean apartment to relax and spend the night.
Day 07 (21.11.2023) Santa Rosa – Constitución
Distance becomes extremely relative, when either pushing a bike up-hill on a dirt road like yesterday evening and this morning or on a flat pavement coastal road with extreme head wind. The bike ride of today could be an easy after-work session on a road bike in Switzerland…nothing extraordinary. However, under today’s conditions it felt approximately twice as long/hard. The decision to go on the coastline was definitely wrong, most likely the winds were not as strong on the inland. Let’s see what tomorrow brings:-)
Day 08 (22.11.2023) Constitución – Curanipe
After a good morning workout I left Constitución around noon. After a steep incline, right at the beginning the road continued mostly flat. Still lot’s of head wind but the trees that were occasionally on the side of the road broke it a bit down.
Then after roughly 20k I passed one of these small wooden bus stops and to my surprise I saw a man on a bicycle, completely packed with bags, similar to my setting. I stopped, turned to the place and began the conservation. His name is Leo, a 25 year old student from Germany who just finished his Bachelor in Engineer’s Economy. His plans were very identical to mine, going down to Patagonia by Bike. So we decided to continue our journey a bit together. To my luck he’s been on many bicycle trips all over Europe in the past five years and in an excellent physical condition. So I could profit from following him in the slipstream. Since he prefers to camp outside in the wild over a stay in a hostal, we were looking for a nice spot on the shore. Just before the sunset, we managed to put our tents, which was a bit difficult because of the strong wind and sandy ground. Finally he cooked very tasty Couscous with sausages for us…what an adventurous day 🙂
Day 09 (23.11.2023) Curanipe – near Cobquecura
One of these days you get payd off in the end for the little extra workout 🙂
Leo and I started the day eating the left overs from the previous night. Then we slowly started packing our camping gear and rest of luggage. Of course it took me much longer, since I tried to pack everything properly without taking any of the sand, which was still all over the place. Then we wrapped the luggage on our bikes and just before noon we started into a new adventure.
The wind was slightly lighter but still strong enough and right from the front to slow us down. So we set the bench mark much lower with the primary target to ride to the next town with a larger Supermarket which was around 45k away. The ride to the town was picturous but full of inclines and downhills. After the Supermarket the goal was to find a place to camp within the next 30min. This would give us plenty of time to go fir a quick skinny dip in the Pacific to wash all the dust off and to built up the tents etc. However, the street that brought us out of town was a horrible gravel road with lots of sand and huge rocks. And whenever a car passed, there was another huge dust cloud throwing more dirt on us. But worst part, we climbed higher and further away from the Ocean. After more than an hour we came to an intersection and could go down to the Pacific on the still miserable road. Already not believing of a nice sleep over place we saw a little forest on the horizon. Without any expectation I proposed to still take the extra effort and check the place out. And to our surprise it turned out as the PERFECT CAMPSITE. Totally protected by bushes, but still lots of flat terrain overgrown by soft herbs to put the tent evenly. And no more sand and wind as the previous night. So we set our tents and went for a wash in the harsh Ocean. Waves were so strong that they were full of sand and besides the wash we had a perfect deep scrub as well. Totally happy about the perfect place we didn’t even care about all the sand in the hair that was impossible to wash out. Todays dinner included cheese tortelloni on a tomato-based sauce with onion and tuna. A warm campfire in the evening was the next highlight to finish this amazing day 🙂
Day 10 (24.11.2023) Near Cobquecura – Coelemu
80% on loose gravel road was todays adventure. You even move slower than under strong head wind conditions. The toughest parts however were the steep inclines, where the back wheel kept on spinning out until you had to step down and push the bike or the declines where you had to be extremely careful not to wipe out. All in all it was a great bike and gear test and bajance exercise for the upcoming carreterra Austral in Patagonia 🙂
Day 11 (25.11.2023) Coelemu – Concepción
Before we even started the tour my bike had the first flat tire. I must have caught a splint or thorn into the front tire on the previous night when I pushed the bike to the camp ground. Actually the perfect time for a flat tire, since non of the bags were loaded on the bike yet. Besides the tire I had to fix the rear rack, that got loosen up and so we left later as on the previous days.
The headwind was much weeker than on the day before and so we could advance a bit faster. The first 50% of the roads were going up and down and so I had the idea to made a little HIIT. I didn’t know by that time than later on we would have difficult loose gravel roads with steep inclines. However, besides the sometimes a bit unpleasant road we had a brilliant ride do the coastal town Concepción. The highlight was definitely the encounter of a huge Chilean Rose Tarantula that was crossing the gravel road. After a long deep descent to Concepción we went straight to the hostal to check in before going to a nice Cevicheria to eat fresh sea food.
Day 12 (26.11.2023) Concepción, resting day
For today, we took a day off from oir bike riding. It was time to recover, do the laundry and celebrate Leo’s 26th Birthday. First thing however was to checkout by 11am, since the hostal was fully booked the next night. Luckily they offered us a room around 500m down the street, where they had a couple small apartments that were equipped withva small kitchen. The new place had to get ready first and so I stayed in the lobby a couple hours to work while Leo went to the hospital. He needed the third vaccination against rabies. Two weeks ago he was bitten by a dog while cycling and got the two first shots in the first few days. After moving to the new place I went to the park next door to work out a bit. Since you don’t really workout your upper body and the arms while cycling, I think it’s important to do every once in a while a proper upper body workout. I started on a childrens playground with push-ups, pull-ups and a couple core exercises, until I found out that they have a nice street workout place a couple blocks further down the park. After the workout, Leo joined me for a walk to the Jumbo supermarket. Then we brought all our dirty clothes to the hostal where they offered us a laundry service for 10’000 Pesos. In the mean time we went to “La cocina” for dinner to celebrate Leo’s B-Day. That was probably the place to be and dine out while staying in Concepción. The place was quite packed and the food was delicious. For the dessert the staff came along to sing for the B-Day boy 🙂
Day 13 (27.11.2023) Concepción – Curanilahue
In a long time today, it was the first day easy riding. Asphalt, bit of tail wind and not too many vertical meters. To be honest, we were riding most the time on the Freeway :-p. The other option would have been another dusty, steep gravel road. Since the weather wasn’t too nice and the the landscape didn’t promise too much we decided to take the fast way for today. However from time to time it got a bit scary, especially when the big trucks or busses passed. All we had was a narrow path on the hard shoulder of roughly one meter right next to the 2 lanes from the Freeway going south. Many times our path was covered with sand or trash and so we had to wipe out on the car lane. Around 50k away from the city Concepción we came to a toll gate. No other street was really going south and so we pushed our bikes underneath the barrier of the gate on the far right and continued our ride. Not knowing if that was legal or not, we kept our way until the bect big stop near Curanilahue, where we left the Freeway and rode a small street to a neat, even place in the forest to camp out. The whole day the weather was cloudy with slight misty showers every once in a while. However the forecast didn’t look too bad for the night. After putting our tents we made as usual a nice camp fire and Leo cooked with cheese filled Tortelloni on a Tuna and Mussel sauce. Close to midnight Leo found a small Scorpion in the woods.
Day 14 (28.11.2023) Curanilahue – Lago Lleulleu
As we finished yesterday’s Freeway session, we continued today in the same manner for another roughly 40k until it ended shortly before Cañete, a nice historic town with about 33’000 inhabitants. There we visited the office of the Garabineros in order to get information about the current situation on the “Zona Rioja”. They told us that it’s calm for the moment and so we continued our journey after an obligatory stop in a Pasteleria/Panaderia. In a long time I had the first brewed Cappuccino, which was quite nice. The Empanadas however, were not as tasty as on the previous days. Now we were riding on a highway with an extremely nice scenery. Honestly, I felt like on a bicycle tour in the Swiss Emmental until a Cowboy on a horse tried to cross the street with a long leash and a cow tighten on it that preferred to go the other way:-o
We ended our ride next to an extremely nice fresh water lake, which locals told us is the cleanest of all South America. After a swim to wash the dust off and setting the tents we spent most of the evening barbecuing our 900g junk of ham on the fire that we cut in smaller pieces 🙂
Day 15 (29.11.2023) Lago Lleulleu – Puerto Saavedra
Today was an extremely picturous ride but also a very though one. I had heavy legs, almost from the beginning and the inclines were hard. And there were many today! At least the head wind wasn’t as strong and the street was mostly in a very good condition and totally empty. Every once in a while a car or truck passed but sometimes there wasn’t any for five pr more minutes. Around 6 pm we saw a bushfire next to the highway. Since no one was around we guessed it wasn’t on purpose and so we tried to stop s car and ask for help. The first car stopped but the people were tourists and didn’t know what to do. The second car didn’t stop at all and the third one was a mini bus and the driver told us that it was normal. Finally in Puerto Saavedra we decided to stay in a cabaña instead of the tent since it was already late.
Day 16 (30.11.2023) Puerto Saavedra – Rio Toltén
Today’s tour is going to be shorter and so I used the morning for some computer work and a stret workout. Around 1.30 pm we started right on a gravel road that took us along Lake Budi. The road was about 30 km long and in a generally acceptable condition. Unfortunately there was a lot of traffic and the cars always kicked up dust, which was a bit unpleasant. Lake Budi is a special lake, it was created by a tsunami about 70 years ago, because the region there is not very high above sea level. The lake contains therefore salt water and has no connection to a river. Furthermore, the lake is extremely branched. The people who live there are the Mapuches and in this region they are extremely poor. Nevertheless, very kind people who always say hello and smile in a friendly manner. According to Wikipedia, 40% of the population is under 18 years old. While crossing a branch of the lake I could observe a family of Black-necked Swans and later a group of feeding Black-faced Ibises. After the gravel road, the journey continued on an asphalt Road until we reached a nice spot on the Rio Toltén to set our tents.
Day 17 (01.12.2023) Rio Toltén – Mihuen
I spent a very adventurous night in the tent. Around 1 am the heavy rain that was anbonced began. I couldn’t sleep well anymore and at around 3 am I woke up again because of very strange noises right by the river bank. I thought of some wild animals, especially beavers, got up and went out of the tent with a headlamp and video camera. When I looked closer, I realized that they weren’t beavers, but otters. There were no signs of beaver feeding on the surrounding trees. I was able to watch the otters for a while as they kept diving up and down and in the end even observed them eating some fish in the trees that were standung in the water. To my surprise, the river had risen by about half a meter in just a very short time and the fireplace where we had been sitting the evening before was already under water. I was extremely happy that we didn’t set up our tents right next to the fire place, but a little above it and so weren’t washed away by the river.
Back in the tent, I consulted the literature and found out that it was the Southern River Otter (Lontra provocax), an endagered species. I was very pleased that I was able to observe and even film these individuals for a short time.
The rain stopped at around 11 am. We waited another two hours until the tents were dry, packed up our things and began our journey. But after only a short time the rain started again and we had to put on the rain coats and pants and protected our luggage with waterproof bags. Despite the rain, the bike tour was very nice and we were able to observe many bird species. There were Black Vulture Turkey Vulture and many other birds. I think this must be a very famous area for bird watching. In the end we only drove a little more than 40 km to Menuin, where we looked for an appartment to spent the night in a dry environment.
Day 18 (02.12.2023) Mihuen – Valdivia
Today was one of the easiest and fastest rides so far. After yesterday’s rain session, a real blessing. The moderate head wind didn’t even bother too much, since the asphalt was top quality and the road extremely flat. Actually it even became boring going just straight on the same altitude. So Leo came up withdrawals the brilliant idea to leave the principal highway to take a short cut during the woods. However he just checked that the road was pavement and forgot to look up the vertical meters…and so we ended up on an extreme incline. Now it was clear why the regular highway made a huge loop around this hill. Anyway, the deviation was definitely worth it because the woods we crossed were just amazing. Lot’s of different trees and many more flowers in blossom:-)
Once in Valdivia we found an extremely neat, center based apartment on the fourth floor, which is definitely worth the 45’000 Pesos the night (approx. 60 US Dollars).
After the check-in we walked to the river boulevard to have a cappuccino (Vid. 01). The boulevard which was quite crowded, due to the spectacle going on, the festival of folklore (Vid. 02). Later we went to the large Mall where our last stop was a giant supermarket. The X-Mas music also stimulated me to buy too much food. Well, at least I don’t need to go grocery shopping for the next couple days :-). Once outside we observed a woman braking the bicycle lock with an automatic side ctter (Vid. 03). Hopefully it was really her bike as she mentioned to which lock she lost the key 😮
A bit later, we saw the official lightening of the Christmas Decorations on the big city square, where thousands of people were gathering. A bit strange the feeeling to go through advent on the southern hemisphere.
Finally we ended up in a three storied restaurant called “Al Yugo” where a two men band played wonderful guitar music (Vid. 04).
Day 19 (03.12.2023) Valdivia, resting day
I spent today in Valdivia. In the morning I worked a bit and after lunch I went to a street workout place in a park nearby. From a couple that was also working out I got the information that the Botanical Garden may still be open even though in Google said closed. Furthermore they told me to visit Park Saval which is also very nice. So I rode my bike to the Botanical Garden where I studied part of the Chilean Flora. The park is maintained by the University Austral de Chile (UACH) and in a very good condition. Two hours later I went to Park Saval which was nearby. In a building that looked like a tent they had a market where artists sold their artwork. On the outside was a place with many different sculptures and a bit further a pond with thousands of water lilies.
Day 20 (04.12.2023) Valdivia – La Unión
Today I started extremely late, at 3.15 pm. Reason was that I needed to wait for my gravel bike to get fixed, which I brought to the repairing place as soon as they opened in the morning. Two days earlier I broke a spoke from the rear wheel and the wheel wasn’t going straight anymore. Definitely something I want to be fixed before entering to Patagonia. The guy from the bike repair shop was very competent and did a great job. And he charged me a total of 10’000, which is only about 10 Swiss Francs. Knowing my bike is all good now, I was also less scared to go fast on potential downhills today. However, there weren’t as many because half of the road was gravel that went through the forest. Was a bit sad to see how the wood industry cuts down so many trees. But on other patches you can see that they are planting young trees again. By the time I set my tent next to a blueberry field near La Unión it was already dark.
Day 21 (05.12.2023) La Unión – Ensenada
Queen’s stage and last day of first part of my “to Patagonia” travel (3 weeks / 1503 kilometers / 14’249 vertical meters)
Today I entered the northern part of Patagonia and therefore finished after exactly three weeks the first part of my travel. It was a though and long ride today. After the very late departure yesterday, today we took off very early. Our campsite wasn’t great at all and we didn’t know whether the farmer would be amused to see us in his fields. Furthermore it was very moist with slight showers. For the first part of the day, the weather didn’t seem to change and it was cloudy and a bit cold. After about 40k we met Fabian from Chile on the road, who was as well traveling by bike to Patagonia. He already left Santiago 3 months ago but travels much slower. But he also carried much more things, even more than myself:-)
He mentioned he’s looking for a job down in Patagonia and therefore brought all his belongings. So we were traveling around 20k together until at some point Fabian couldn’t catch up with our speed even though we were not going very fast. But fair enough I have to mention that he was on an old mountain bike on sandals with much more luggage. In the next town, Entre Lagos (means: Between Lakes), we went to an Empanada place and later saw Fabian again. So we could at least exchange phone numbers and might meet up later again in Patagonia. On a tree, next to the parking lot we could observe a pair of Black-faced Ibises feeding their chicks. Afterwards we continued our ride for about 85 kilometers. The clouds disappeared and soon we could see the first volcano of Northern Patagonia. It was the Volcano Calbuco (1974) which is still active and errupted a couple years ago. A bit later we could also see Vulcano Osorno (2652m) which was going straight up like a huge white pyramide and reached way above the clouds. This view was just astonishing and every kilometer that we got closer it looked even more impressive. More and more I’ve got the feeeling of having reached Patagonia. Even though it was the longest ride today, it was the most beautiful as well 🙂