First Class Travel: Cycle touring through Chile and Argentina

We had a rare opportunity to take 4 months off between jobs. Chile and Argentina were the countries of our choice (this time). Chile is a huge country (distance wise). It spans over 4,300 km so we realized that we only had time to focus on one or maybe a couple of main parts. The plan was to cycle through the southern part of Chile and cross into Argentina when the road required us to. We had heard that this part of the world is meant to be stunning, especially on a bike. Charlie had dreamt about going to Patagonia ever since he became an outdoor gear snob. The time had finally come.

As a large part of the Chilean country just south of Santiago is pretty boring and forces you to take the busy high way, we took a super comfy night bus 10 hrs down south to Victoria. This was a perfect starting point for accessing some of the interesting national parks (Conguillio NP and Villa Rica NP) in the Los Lagos region before linking in with the famous (amongst cycle tourers at least) Carretera Austral.

Further down south we crossed into Argentina to enjoy some of the infamous (also with cyclists) Ruta 40. A Gail force wind is almost always blowing across the pampas which can make it very hard or very easy for a cyclist. The legendary Ruta 40 was necessary to take us to the world renowned national park, Torres del Paine, and down to Tierra del Fuego at the southern end of Patagonia.

Some geeky trip stats:

• We covered a total of 3,500 km

• We gained 44,000 m elevation

• An average of 60 km per day of cycling

• Charlie: 5 punctures and wore out 3 tyres

• Veronica: 2 punctures and didn’t wear out any tyres.

The touring bikes:

About 2-3 months before the trip, the bike preparations started. Charlie spent numerous late nights researching what touring equipment should work, ordering the gear, calling the distributors in the UK when they never sent the stuff, calling them again, finally receiving the stuff and putting the bikes together. After lots of waiting I finally got my Surly Karate Monkey with big wheels, fat and skinny tyres and with front suspension! An excellent machine for enjoying bumpy gravel roads. Charlie took his old commuting bike and of course his Brooks saddle. There was no other choice for him. We knew that we were in for several thousand kilometers of roads with less than good conditions.

We had a couple of dummy runs in Christchurch before we left. I must admit that I was terrified going down a gravel road on Banks Peninsula with all our gear loaded on the bikes. Luckily, I got used to the bike and all the weight very quickly.

 The picture on the left is from Santiago airport where we assembled the bikes upon arrival. I think we were quite brave (maybe just naive) to bike the 10 km ride into the city center. It involved going on the highway for some sections. Any leftover sleepiness from the journey was washed away by the survival instinct.

No honestly, Santiago roads weren't as bad as I thought they would be. Christchurch is probably worse.
 What else do you pack for a 3 months trip?
Of course we tried to keep our clothes and gear selection as minimal as possible. For me it meant bringing my big Wearonearth puffer jacket. For Charlie it meant bringing his stove top coffee maker:

We bought a few new toys for the trip, for example an Ortlieb water storage bladder with an optional shower head and solar charger that could charge all the electronic gizmos (kindle, Charlie's Galaxy cell phone, camera and our head torches).

The most useful things we brought might have been: a washing line for drying clothes, a wooden spoon for cooking, a large MSR light weight cutting knife and a reusable shopping bag in fabric. Who would have thought?

The not-so-useful stuff were: Charlie's thermarest seat, which he used three times, yes...I think that's it. Not bad eh?

The road:
During our first two weeks on the road, we covered some of the most tricky roads, which helped us to toughen up for the rest of the journey. Conguilllo National Park had massive lahar fields when my tyres got stuck in deep pebble-sized rocks. We also did a section through Villa Rica NP on a disused four-wheel drive track. It was stupidly hard going uphill and I cried in anger at one point (yes I was throwing out my toys...), but it was stupidly fun to go downhill on the other side. When we later joined the Carretera Austral, which all cycle tourers feared for its often corrugated “ripio” (gravel road), I thought it was smooth as. It was certainly good to start with the hardest parts.

In general we probably did 75% of the distance on gravel roads. We learned to love them in the end. I usually got a stiff back from biking on a sealed road as a result of being more static on the bike. Gravel roads kept you more entertained and alert.

Bike or other gear failures?
Bike failures? The answer is NO. Many smaller ones, but it helps to have a McGayver as a travel companion. Charlie fixed both our rear racks that broke in the same place by applying cut-up beer cans, wooden splinters and cable ties. The corrugated ripio (gravel road) was just a bit too much for this particular aluminium rack design. Charlie swore that he would never travel with aluminium racks again. Every man and his dog can weld together steel but very few can handle aluminium. Take note if you are planning to try out Carretera Austral by bike.

Other gear failures? Yes, quite a few. Mainly relating to the electronic gizmos. My kindle didn’t like the knobbly back panel of the pannier bag and got a split in the screen. Our solar charger gave up and our only way of charging the cell phone (via USB connection at hostels) was totally spastic. We had our moments. In the grand scheme of things, these are small things.

The Language:
Prior to the trip, my Spanish was near non-existent (even after 10 classes five years ago…no kidding) and Charlie’s as well. I felt terrified about communicating with the locals. Therefore I signed us up to a three day intensive language course in Valparaiso.

Firstly, it was a challenge to get there by bus (since we had communication difficulties) and secondly, it was even more impossible to find our accommodation once we got to the UNESCO certified city. The streets are extremely winding with lots of little alley-ways with inconsistent street numbering.

We tried to ask people if they knew “Casa de Victoria” (the accommodation organized by the language school), thinking that it is an official backpackers or something similar. It turned out to be a room in a house owned by a woman named Victoria (hence Casa de Victoria). Of course it had no special signs and it only had a very tiny weeny sign showing the door number (refer to picture on right). After this I felt: We have to learn to speak properly!

Chilean Spanish is not exactly what they teach you in Europe. Chileans are notorious mumblers who also shorten words, for example Buenas Dias (Good day) turns into 'Buen di(a)'. Even Carlos, a Spaniard we met, had problems to understand the Chilean customs when he first arrived.

Thanks to Julia, our very charming and spontaneous teacher, we learned at least the bare essentials of the language. Three days may not sound like much, even though they were private lessons, but it gave us so much more confidence. I believe that we would never have enjoyed the trip as much as we did if it wasn’t for that course. English was almost non-existent in the parts we visited. Our grammar was of course shocking but we could at least get across our key messages. We even few great chats to the locals..maybe not about world politics, but I don’t think Chileans are interested in that anyway.

Meeting the locals:
Your typical Chilean rides a horse around town with a beret (Svenska: baskermössa), is slightly over-weight but not fat, does very little exercise, always has a roaring fire in one part of the room and a huge television on the other, lights a fire for a BBQ as soon as there is an opportunity, has dinner at eleven at night with the whole family and gives you a friendly wave when he drives past your bike in his old rusty

vehicle.

We also meet Argentinians on our trip of course, although we spent the majority of the trip in Chile. The Argis were a bit louder compared to the Chileans. They also drove much more aggressively, maybe completely drugged up on their signature drink, Maté which is very caffeine rich. Everyone was carrying around a thermos with boiling water to be able to replenish the drink when it was running low.
On our trip we saw horses everywhere. The picture to the left shows a whole bunch of them squeezed onto the back of this lorry. Pretty standard view.

And here a top quality Chilean TV. After a whole day of soap operas, this type of show was on between 5pm and 6 pm. We called it Booby Hour!!! It usually featured lightly-clad, big-busted woman dancing to crap music. A must-see for all

Chileans.

I suspect in all South America (especially where we went), there are dogs everywhere. The locals simply don’t seem to notice them. Two parallel worlds were existing: the human world and the dog world. They live a life of their own without rules or telling off from humans. At night the dogs had a huge barking contest, as they do. Noone yelled at them or shot them. We probably would have if we had a gun. I have put together a little collage of all the nice dogs (and pigs) we met.

In general the dogs were nothing to worry about. Once in a while we had some dogs trying to attack us. I had paid lots of money in NZ to get rabies shots prior to the trip. Charlie refused as he is more scared of needles. The key was to scream at the attacker from the top of your lungs and take them by surprise. Charlie had a bit more effect than my soprano voice. Some dog reactions gave me a good laugh.

More posts to follow..about the types of travellers we met, some of the real gems we visited, my life in sickness and health with Charlie, food, and other rubbish.