Day 4 started out poorly. I slept badly for the second night (Third if you count the plane) in a row, I think if I had looked over at the clock consistently I would have seen all the hours multiple times.
Picked up the bikes from Ride-Chile, which took about two hours so we were on the road by 11. Our destination was at KM marker 494, a guest house recommended by Tomas at Ride-Chile.
Riding out of the city was fairly easy, at the last minute I chose to rent a GPS, which for the 310 USD seemed to be a good idea. This was confirmed less than an hour later as it guided us through a complicated series of exits to go south on the Route 5. We rode straight for 160 km, as I was leading and despite the spedometers being in miles, I didn't clue in that the odometer would also be in miles. We stopped for gas and I realized that we were making better distance than I thought. Gas is about 820 CHP per liter, or about $1.85/L.
The drivers in Chile are fantastic, there is no other way to put it. They are courteous, know their vehicles, and respect the others on the road that may not be doing the same speed. With respect to speed, the limit on the #5 is 120 km/h, but not everyone does that, (Busses are limited to 100, Semi trucks to 90), but even normal cars will putt along at 80 or 90 in the right lane. Everyone drives in the right lane, only pulling out into the left lane to pass.
We arrived at mile marker 494 and took the exit and down a gravel and sandy road got to a little guesthouse called El Rincon. It is a small patch of paradise. The beds were comfortable, the hosts (A German/British couple) were impecabble and the price was reasonable. They helped us out with maps and suggestions, and we booked a hotel for Osorno (About 400 km south) for the next night.
Unfortunately, Friday night wasn't much better in the sleep department for me, I think I got about 4 hours. At breakfast I still wasn't feeling well, the host Wendy made me a cup of a local tea which helped and I lay down for an hour which meant that we didn't get riding until about 1030.
We arrived in Osorno, and once at the hotel, my father and I were chatting about how much fun we were having. Which is to say, not much. For seasoned riders 400 km in a day isn't much, and while we can do it, it simply isn't very much enjoyment in it. We did 507 km the first day, and 438 the second. To shorten a longer discussion, we decided to ride to San Carlos de Bariloche (~240 km) the next day and make a final decision about if it was worth the discomfort to go all the way to Ushuaia (rain, wind, many long days back to back). Finally that night with the help of earplugs and exhaustion, I finally got about 6 straight solid hours of sleep in addition to a couple more on either side.
I'll spoil that next part and say we have changed the plan and have decided that touring southern Chile with shorter days but being free to stop and see things is more to our liking. On that note, about 20 km towards Bariloche, I saw an Auto Museum and decided to pull over. This turned out to be a fabulous decision. It is the first car musem to open in Chile back in late 1995, and is run by Bernando Eggers who loves cars for their beauty and memories. We got a personal tour from him, who had quite good English (despite his protestations). We heard his story about his love of cars as child, the loss of the passion when his parents were killed in a car accident, then he left them further behind when he got married. Then his wife urging him to return to them back in the early 1990s. His collection is primarily Studebakers, with other brands mixed in, as well as vintage cameras, and a few other things that "Interested him when he saw them". The museum came out of the fact that he had acquired 15 or so cars and his daughters and wife thought it would be nice to show them off. In fact, they agree so much that they agree that the cars will not be sold, they are for the museum so people can see them.
Bernando is the kind of man that I love to see collecting cars, it is for the simple love of them, not as investments or trailer queens, a good number of them are still road worthy (Others were in far too poor shape mechanically to be worth fully restoring), and he still drives them.
A very worthwhile stop, and a wonderful experience. We kept on, and the road began to be a little twisty, and into the mountains. Then we passed through the Chilean border (Permisson for you, then permission for your bike/car to leave Chile), with a little help from Mattias from Moto-Aventura (Who explained a few quick process questions and ended up doing a quick translation and chat with a guy at Argentinian customs, a big shout out of thanks to him!
Unlike Canadian/US customs, there is a bit of a gap between leaving Chile (Officially) and entering Argentina. In this case it is a mountain pass with switchbacks, hairpins, volcanic ash and stunning scenery. We crusied along at 60-70 km/h, enjoying the ride, the scenery, and the pace, as we knew that we only had 240 km that needed to be done for the day. For the non-bikers out there, we tend to meet each other, and we chatted with a gentleman and his wife from Argentina who were headed home, who has a friend taking two years to ride up to Alaska. I gave him my card and mentioned that I might know people who might be interested in meeting up with him (Ahem, Travis, Kyle, Trevor), as he arrives in Canada in 18 ish months.
We both left, he got out ahead of us and rode off. We caught up to him after more stunning scenery in what seems to be the Banff of western Aregentina, and I caught him just leaving a gas station (If you find gas in Argentina, you fill up. Period.) I asked if this station took visa, and he kindly asked the attendant who said no, and he told us to follow him to another gas station down the road that did. After waiting in line for some time to get gas (A novel experience for me) we headed out for the last 90 km to Bariloche. After about 50 km of riding along a lake, we opened up into what I believe is the Argentinian altaplano. Wow. You go from forested lake area to open desert in about 5 km. The pictures I doubt will do it justice.
The wind has a long lake to build up speed, and it buffets quite a bit as you turn to head south to Bariloche, and once we arrived at the hotel and parked our bikes (which was an ordeal in itself), we talked about dealing with that for days, and decided that a change of plans would be far more fun. So, we found a different hotel for the second night in Bariloche.
So all of today we spent being tourists in Bariloche, found new sunglasses for dad (his broke when they fell off the bike), exploring a church that was initially built in 1944 in Gothic style and is still under construction today. We tried to go to the Patagonia museum, but it turns out that it is closed on Mondays. Dang.
Tomorrow we head back towards Osorno for a couple days, then down to Puerte Montt.
My Father, Bernando And I Next To His Prized Avanti
Cathedral In Bariloche
Lake with Lenticular clouds
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