I love Amazon. Their model is the future of retail.
And Amazon almost always works. It’s amazing.
But when I recently bought a hiking guidebook it wouldn’t download to my Kindle Paperwhite. Weird.
Quite quickly Amazon responded. Confirming that they suck. ☹️
During my two months in Patagonia 2018 I did a fair bit of research on a future cycle hiking trip.
I’d camp and hike en route.
The Carretera is far more popular now than when I did it in 2004 by bus / hitchhiking.
The Carretera Austral runs about 1,240 kilometers (770 mi) from Puerto Montt to Villa O’Higgins through (sparsely populated) rural Patagonia. …
This area is characterized by thick forests, fjords, glaciers, canals and steep mountains. …
Among the world’s finest road trips, the Carretera Austral – or “Southern Highway” – is a 1240km route through Chile that’s mostly unpaved. Winding through millennia-old forests, it visits dusty Andean hamlets and turquoise rivers spawned from landlocked glaciers. …
Cyclists should have the skills and materials to repair their own gear, and should plan on taking a solid month for the entire endeavor. According to Italian cyclist Tomas Balzk, the hardest part was not pedaling the terrain, but ingesting enough calories. …
Last couple of days I spent on the coast in Vina del Mar / Valparaiso. Tourists love this colourful town.
I’d love to get to Easter Island one day.
And I’m already planning a future trip. Bike touring north to south on the Carretera Austral.
It’s worth traveling to the end of the world to enjoy Palafito Cucao Hostel.
An architectural dream, this hostel is 300m away from the Parque Nacional Chiloé entrance. I enjoyed the hiking there.
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When you hear Argentinians speak, it sounds like Italian.
Immigrants from Italy have had a big influence on the culture.
In the outdoor sports mecca of Bariloche you are just as likely to hear ciao as adios, for example.
Some final photos.
Pretty much everyone likes this little mountain town. I spent a week in and around.
It’s not hard to see why the hippies started flocking to El Bolsón back in the ’70s. It’s a mellow little village for most of the year, nestled in between two mountain ranges. When summer comes, it packs out with Argentine tourists who drop big wads of cash and disappear quietly to whence they came. …What’s indisputable is that just out of town are some excellent, easily accessible hikes and mountain-bike rides that take in some of the country’s most gorgeous landscapes.The town welcomes backpackers, who find themselves stuffing their bellies with natural and vegetarian foods, as well the excellent beer, sweets, jams and honey made from the local harvest.
There are plenty of important things El Bolsón should be working towards … but instead they have been banning nuclear weapons and building a pretty bridge to nowhere.
I spent a week hiking out of one of the best hostels in the country – La Casona de Odile.
Tranquil and green.
This is as far south as I’ll get on this trip. The summit of Piltriquitrón.
I did the 1800m ascent over 2 days.
This is the 42nd parallel. About as far south as the Oregon / California border is north.
Still. It’s March. You can feel summer ending in the Patagonian lake district.
Staying at La Casona de Odile Hostel, one of the best in the nation.
El Bolsón is where people flee when tired of crowded Bariloche. In fact, Bolsón is a miniature version with a Hippie vibe. I like it much better.
I arrived on one of their colourful market days.
I can walk from my hostel to some of the best hiking.
Rather than fly I opted for the scenic 8 hour bus ride . Booking through BusBud.com I was able to reserve one of the top front seats.
Bus service in Chile and Argentina is fantastic.
Unfortunately I fell asleep during some sections of the journey.
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From Mendoza I did the second half two more times as my local bus to Aconcagua took the same highway. Well worth doing if you get the chance.
By luck I had cloudless skies and the French Base Camp (4200m) to myself.
Aconcagua has a notoriously unfriendly micro climate.
On my return to Mendoza I met a guy from South Africa who was forced off the other side of the mountain at 6600m by weather. The climbers had been slogging through a metre of snow and it finally got too dangerous to continue.
To celebrate I had a big chunk of Argentinian barbecue beef. And fresh baguette.
Rick McCharles 