Puerto Natales

Hi everyone,

We re still alive and have covered quiet some distance in the last 2 weeks.

We have arrived in Puerto Natales and you will now see pictures of the most famous highlights of our trip. Mount Fitz Roy, 2 Huge Glaciers and Torres del Paine National park.

The Carretera is still unknown territory for most tourists but the area where we are now has been covered by mass tourism for many years. This means more traffic, better roads, but also amazing supermarkets. Every time we arrive in a new city (El Chalten, El Calafate, P. Natales) we spend at least an hour in a supermarket staring at the wide range of products they have.

So in our last post we described how we reached Villa O Higgins. From there we took 2 ferries to Argentina and last week we crossed back in to Chile.

Tomorrow Joachim will meet his girlfriend Silvie again and I will cycle on to Ushuaia. For new years eve we all meet here in Puerto Natales again to take the ferry back to Puerto Montt.

We left Villa O Higgins just before Sunset to camp close to the ferry (and avoid paying an extra night at the campground)

With team Austria and team Switzerland. Christian (right) is carrying 100 kilos of luggage.

The expected 15 cyclists showed up for the ferry. 

In summer they have 3 or 4 loads of this every week.

Still on the ferry. The icebergs were getting bigger. 

And finally, after a few hours on the boat we reached the O Higgins Glacier. The dark spots are leftovers from Volcanoe eruptions in the past.

The crew gave us whisky with real icecubes.

The next night we camped in the forest and the next morning we crossed the border to Argentina.

We had to push our bikes most of the time. It took us about 7 hours to cross the 22 stretch of no mans land between the lakes.

We cycled only a few kilometers the next few days towards El Chalten and did a few hikes. 

Finally paved roads again!

We climbed a steep hill to see Fitz Roy just after Sunset. After 2 days of clouds we finally saw it naked.

Condor!

Lago Viedma and the vaste pampa stretching east towards the Atlantic Ocean. Thats where we were heading the next day.

More Condor!

The Next day we left El Chalten and cycled 90km in less than 3 hours. I never ever cycled with such a tailwind. We cycled 40  kmph without even pedalling.

Viedma Glacier. One of the biggest ones.

The road turned South against the wind so we had our portion of headwind too. We stayed in an awesome abandonned restaurant that night.

5-6th of December Apparently Saint Nicolas doesnt visit Patagonia. Our shoes were still empty the next morning.

More wind the next day. We ate lunch here and hitchhiked the last 35km to El Calafate. 

From there we visited the Perito Moreno Glacier.

The next day we left El Calafate with 2 new team members, Catriona from Scotland and Polly from England. http://pedalling-pair.blogspot.com/

Still on the Pampa, but the views were quiet spectacular sometimes.

Hannes and Mary bought cheap bikes in Puerto Montt and they started to have some problems. Here Marys tube exploded.

12 12 2012 at 12:12 Close to Torres del Paine National Park

But we had to cross the border back to Chile first.

We camped on the town Square of Villa Cerro Castillo that night.

The next morning we left at 6 to beat the wind. Well in the end there was no wind that day, pretty unusual for this area. One week ago a bus was blown over.

Plenty of wildlife here.

A herd of sheep

A herd of Guanacos

A herd of Nandu

And of course a herd of cyclists. (Dominant male taking the picture here)

The Guanacos were kind of crazy and chasing each other all the time.

O and we actually hadnt entered the park yet.

The next morning we hiked to the Torres (the three peaks in the background)

Joachim met his friend Harald.

But was killed after a fierce battle.

The next day we left the park.

But not before we climbed some more hills

And enjoyed the awesome scenery.

Dont think he killed the rabbit himself. This must have been a road kill. 

And Yesterday we reached Puerto Natales

We found some very unusual beer in the supermarket here.