South American tour

[ErikGustav2]

La Trochita
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Trochita

750 mm railway. Operated by locomotives from 1922 (German and USA)

Trotchita 11.jpg (133.97 KiB) Viewed 693 times

Machine meets machine

Trotchita 12.jpg (133.87 KiB) Viewed 693 times

Heating up. Steam engines with water heated by gas.

Trotchita 13.jpg (103.74 KiB) Viewed 693 times

[ErikGustav2]

Hard to sit on. And very little leg room
This is second class.

First class has seats covered with leather.

Trotchita 21.jpg (82.72 KiB) Viewed 692 times

On the way

Trotchita 22.jpg (113.43 KiB) Viewed 692 times

View of Esquel. Well hidden in the valley. The really use the nature to the best

Trotchita 23.jpg (119.55 KiB) Viewed 692 times

This concluded the exploring of this areas.
Time to hit the road and do some miles/km

[ErikGustav2]

From Esquel I continued to RIo Mayo.
Over windy and empty flat land.

Rio Mayo 01.jpg (110.13 KiB) Viewed 585 times

Rio Mayo 02.jpg (148.56 KiB) Viewed 585 times

There I made a plan for reaching Calafate i three days.
To see the famous Perito Moreno Glaciar.
One guy on the camping was from Calafate.
Inside information. RIde to xx. There is small town with less than 10 houses.
There is a gas station. They sell easy food. Sandwiches. And rent out rooms. First stop....
That is how it is in this area. You can hardly reach between gas stations and places to sleep.
Then started the doubts.

To spend 6 days seeing only this:

Rio Mayo 03.jpg (103.11 KiB) Viewed 585 times

Nothing else.
And constant strong wind. Is it worth it? Do I want to sit and count kms in 6 days ?
And maybe it rains when I come to Perito Moreno.
After a night of sleep, the answer was no. I skip the glacier. And ride over to Chile and the Carretera Austral.

The town Perito Moreno is on the way south. (Perito Moreno Glacier, town, national park...) There is a much used road via Chile Chico to Chile.
Bit a bit more to the north is a small road with border crossing via Huemules and Balmaceda ??
Gravel back road on the Argentina side. Paved on the Chile side.

Which to use ?

[Godspeed]

Flick a coin and see which it lands on.
If you’re unhappy with the result then take the other one
Wherever you go, it’s going to be fun

[gbags]

What a great trip. Good writing and good pictures. What a lovely trip.
Thanks

[ErikGustav2]

The coin selected the small road. Via Huemules and Balmaceda.
Or maybe because it was the closest one.

The road on the Argentina side was gravel. Cars/trucks had made 3 lines in the gravel. That were rather empty on loose gravel. With some walls between. Just to stay in the line. Even when the wind was pushing and when meeting cars,,,,

The border crossing was very efficient. Chile and Argentina in the same building. 6 counters with numbers. And a paper with 6 boxes. Just to take on desk at a time in number order. And the paperwork was done. But then they required to search my luggage, All dry bags through X-ray. And searching in the panniers.

On the Chile side, the spectacular views started, Green, mountains, water...

And I was soon on Carretera Austral.
Great feeling

[mark vb]

Just caught up with this thread - great stuff, keep it coming - you're doing a number of the routes & places we did a few years ago and I'd love to be back there!

[ErikGustav2]

I reached Carretera Austral.
My plan is now to ride north. And to don´t do the VIlla O´Higgins round trip.
But I have read about wonderful views around a village, short way to the south.
Villa Cerro Castello.
I decided to take that small detour. It was a good choice.
The entrance to the town, from the mountains was spectacular.
With really good photo options.

One view of the valley were the town is:

Villa Cerro Castill 01.jpg (100.01 KiB) Viewed 515 times

The road going down to the valley/town.
(My Himalayan is very solid in these bends. Even with gravel tires. I do not ride fast, but I like the bike on these type of roads)

Villa Cerro Castill 02.jpg (153.41 KiB) Viewed 515 times

And just at the border of village, there was a camping with spectacular views.

Villa Cerro Castill 03.jpg (163.94 KiB) Viewed 515 times

This is what I really like, Happy day today.

This will be the most southern point of this trip.
Almost 10 000 km in 6 weeks.
The way north will be longer and take much more time. Carretera Austral and 2/3 of Ruta 40. Bolivia.
With a lot to see and small roads. Compared to highway through Chile and the empty south part of Ruta 40.
A lot will depend on the weather and.... Flexibility. But the main direction is there.
North on Carretera Austral. To Argentina at Osorno. And Ruta 40 north.

[ErikGustav2]

I was going north on Carretera Austral from Villa Cerro Castello to Villa Manihuales.

After passing Coyhaique (these names. to spell and pronounce. too hard for me) there is a fork in the road.
The original CA that is gravel. Or a detour that is paved.
I used the original one.
But... When I reached Mainuales and WiFi I started to look for possibilities to fill up with cash.
And there were nothing north. So I had to ride back next day to Coyhaique. It was raining during the way down. But OK during the return.
This time I took the paved version. I have now done both versions. And the new route was much more scenic. With photo stops. I publish those photos.
Along the gravel road, there were not much to see.

On the way to Coyhaique:

CA 01.jpg (144.97 KiB) Viewed 511 times

From the paved section
(Do you remember "Cascada" ?

CA 03.jpg (160.44 KiB) Viewed 511 times

CA 04.jpg (146.89 KiB) Viewed 511 times

[ErikGustav2]

Some more pictures from the paved road:

CA 02.jpg (157.57 KiB) Viewed 507 times

CA 05.jpg (156.54 KiB) Viewed 507 times

All edited in this very nice cabin :
On a day that was too rainy to ride.
(I would like to get more riding done. But I have to accept things that I can't change)
At least the thread is up to date.

CA 06.jpg (152.6 KiB) Viewed 507 times