Blogs from Puerto Varas, Los Lagos, Chile, South America - page 5

Here we are in Frutillar, we have had two days here for a bit of bike and body maintenance. Below are blogs from Mike V , Bones and Gerardo. Cheers, Rosco Hola aquí estoy otra vez Puerto Guadal to Coyhaique Leaving Puerto Guadal we were immediately into a bumpy dirt road which turned out to be a short cut onto Ruta 7 (Carretera Austral*)- which was actually not that much less bumpy. This was the route we needed to stay on to Coyhaique our next destination. Our plan was to stop at the Cueva de Marmol (caves of marble) sounds ho - hum but was actually very fascinating. However before we left Puerto Guadal we had a bit of typical adventure riders confusion where a couple of riders and both utes realised David had headed into ... read more

We are in Pt. Varas, Chile right now. Just visited the most beautiful river-waterfalls I have ever seen. Saltos de Petrohue...jet boat was closed because it has been raining, A LOT, and the river was raging. That means snow up high and so we are heading to Santiago on the night bus (11 hrs) to try and catch the storm in Valle de Nevado. There is so much in Chile that we haven´t been able to see. That means that I will have to return, eh? Yesterday we took the boat across Lago Todos los Santos to a home where we were told serves lunch. A cute old lady rambling on in Spanish invited us into her house where she cooked us fresh Steelhead and let us dry out by the fire. One of the best ... read more

I think a great way to sum up where we are is that I can not compare it to anything I have ever seen before. It's not really that different its just a conglomeration of other things, like what I would imagine big Southern Plantations looking like if they were located in Northern Oregon near the coast that produced immensely dense Sub-Tropic rain forest or something. I mean really it is crazy stuff. We are on a bus from Orsono to Puerto Varas and I can't even explain the terrain. Its like swamp land mixed with forest, next to rolling hills of perfect green grass (so perfect it looks like it isn't even grass at all but some weird sort of moss). It is so weird yet so beautiful. We were told by everyone that getting ... read more

From Bariloche, we crossed the Andes and the border into the final country of my trip, CHILE. The Andes are beautiful and snow capped and apparently Chile is the Volcano capital of the world. Volcanos are everywhere, including two near Puerto Varas, our next stop on the journey. Puerto Varas is about six hours by bus from Bariloche. On rgw map, it looks like a straight line, but the roads obviously don´t go straight between the two. We did get to experience the PanAmerican Highway in Chile, the first real highway of the trip. I can see that Chile is the most wealthy of all the places I have been and seems to have its act together. Puerto Varas is a small tourist town on a lake just outside Puerto Montt, which is one of the ... read more

On sat I´ll be flying to PUNTA ARENAS and I´m so excited because it means that i'll finally be in SOUTHERN PATAGONIA...my dream place of all times. Eventhough i'm going in the wrong season, it certainly means hardly any tourists : ) Maybe I can have the mountains all to myself. But I guess that means having to hike alone. I hope not. Claudia and maps don't mix too well, so I guess I ll have to figure something out? At the moment, I´m tired. We hiked 15 km today and it was beautiful. First we went to the Encenada ^waterfalls^ (cascadas), which are NOT waterfalls...its emerald blue waters through flowing through boulders at super FAST Speeds. AMAZING! Even better bc they were FREE, the conaf people were on STRIKE and they permitted everyone to ... read more