Week 2 - Magallanes

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After getting the ferry across to the mainland from Porvenir we stayed the night in Punta Arenas. This was the first decent town we´d been to since Ushuaia so was really nice to have a good meal. The next section was a 250km ride (we´ve gone metric with our distances now) to Puerto Natales which took us 3 days, or 2 and a half as we arrived about 1pm on the third day. Luckily we only had a headwind on the second day so made some decent progress for once! Managed just over 100km the first day, 90km the second into a headwind and 60km the next morning. We saw quite a bit of wildlife, some of which a bit random, including Flamingos, Ostrichs, Alpacas, lots of birds and a few million sheep.

When we arrived in Puerto Natales we left our bikes in our hostel in Puerto Natales and got the bus to do some hiking in the Torres del Paine national park. We spent 4 days doing the "W" trek, which is the most popular among tourists as it takes in all the best parts of the park in a fairly short amount of time. It was some of the most spectacular trekking i´ve ever done with some amazing mountains, glaciers and lakes. Some of the paths are quite busy but some of them you don´t see other people for a long time so it´s quite nice. We had one day of rain (where we decided to take a half day rest in the lodge) but other than that the weather was really good. Would definately recommend the park to anyone that likes that sort of thing. We camped each night and cooked our own food but there´s the option of staying in one of their lodges if you don´t fancy roughing it. We met a Japanese couple while we were there who had been travelling for over 2 years on their bikes and had done the length of Africa before coming here. They recommended the Carrera Austral route (or route 7 on the map) through Chile as they said it´s the most spectacular route they´ve ever cycled. We decided to take their advice after their 2 years of experience!

After getting the bus back to Puerto Natales we spent last night sorting out supplies for the next leg. The plan is to head to El Calafate to see the Morreno glacier and should take us about 3 days to get there (between 260-300km away). We´ll then head to El Chaltene and try to get across to the Carrera Austral route in Chile.

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Photos

Torres del Paine
View from Lago Pehoe