Blogs from Aisén, Chile, South America - page 14

After 4 lift offs and 4 landings my bike and me are in the region of aysen chili. A quick transfer from Balmaceda to Coihaigue with the bike well secured on the roof and I can make my first km. The weather is still cloudy but dry. According to the locals of Puerto Montt december was only rain. Maybe thats good fortune, what already did come down is rain gone bye. I met Cesar in the airplane and it was very nice also to try to talk some Spanish. According to the weather forecast Summer starts at the 1th of January. That was also the end of the financial crisis according to some Dutch planning. I am curious. ... read more

Este es un blog en español e inglés. / This is a blog in Spanish and English (the English version is at the bottom). Al día siguiente nos despedimos de Aisén por unas semanas y temprano en la mañana tomamos un bus de la empresa "Suray" hasta Coyhaique (que queda como a 1 hora y quarto) para arrendar una camioneta 4x4 para hacer el recorrido sur de la Carretera Austral. En la estación de buses nos estaba esperando Ignacio Báez, amigo de Poli, quien nos iba a arrendar la camioneta. Ignacio trabajaba para Ruth, una chilena-israelita, fotógrafa profesional y viuda del alpinista que creó la empresa (ahora era la dueña) "Patagonia House", que ofrecía tours, arriendo de vehículos 4x4 y que contaba con un excelente lodge. Nosotros arrendamos una Toyota Hilux, por la cual obtuvimos un ... read more

Este es un blog en español e inglés. / This is a blog in Spanish and English (the English version is at the bottom). A mediados del año 2009, un campañero de curso, Francisco M., me propuso recorrer la Carretera Austral en bicicleta. Ninguno de los dos tenía experiencia previa en un viaje así y no conocíamos la zona, por lo cual la idea era bastante ambiciosa. A fin de año, Francisco "se bajó", pero se sumaron otros dos amigos: Víctor P. y Paola A. (Poli), con quienes formamos un excelente grupo. Antes de partir relatando el viaje, hay que tener presente que los 3 somos profesionales, por lo cual pudimos darnos ciertos gustos durante el recorrido de la Carretera Austral, aprovechando de incluir actividades extras, como distintos tours, un día en termas, etc. No fue ... read more

We are now in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina. We have had a very eventful past few days and our first taste of inclement weather, even some rain!! The roads have just been incredible, with windy metal roads following the shoreline of the many lakes, with snow capped mountains in every direction. Zane had a momentary laps of concentration and narrowly missing a deep concrete culvert, the Transalp now with a modified front section and no screen, Zane with a bit of damaged pride and some zip ties continued on his adventure. We now have David V's 1200 GS on the back of the truck, as it now only has one functioning cylinder. The other one has been damaged beyond our supply of 'Mend it' after his altercation with a ute, incidentally, the same one we ... read more

This week marks our class' trip to the south of Chile, where we toured Puerto Montt and San Rafael Lake. It was a heck of a time. This is our 2nd and final trip where all 20 of us will be together. Tue, Oct 27 2 more days until our trip to the south! In class we talked about our weekends, as well as what we should to to prepare for our upcoming trip. We were going to take a bus to Puerto Montt, stay there for a day, and then the next day get on our cruise. That made a lot of sense, because after a long bus ride to Puerto Montt, we are going to need to take a rest. There was an option to go in a really comfortable bus for about $4 ... read more