Hi Willis - Love your video and the itinerary of your tour. We hope to do something similar this fall - October - December. I'm curious about logistics - I see that you flew into Punta Arenas with your bikes boxed, did you take a bus to Torres del Paine and El Chalten - with your bikes still in boxes? I'm curious about transport with bikes - boxed and unboxed :-) - especially because we also want to do some hiking/backpacking in addition to cycling. Thanks again for putting the video together! Very inspiring and beautiful.
Hi Liz, sounds like you have a great trip planned! Yes, we flew to Punta Arenas with our bikes in a box and a cheap duffel bag for our gear that we could leave behind once we started the bike touring portion of our trip. Once we got to punta arenas we unboxed our bikes and used them to get around town and to the bus stations. We used buses to travel from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales, El Calafate, and finally El Chalten. Some people choose to bike tour all of it but the area between Punta Arenas and El Chalten is very windy and desolate, making bike touring this section difficult and not very enjoyable. The buses have room to fit bikes underneath in the luggage storage area if you remove the front wheel. The hostels typically have a safe locked storage area where you can store your bikes inside. For example, we stored our bikes at a hostel in Puerto Natales for 10 days while we backpacked Torres del Paine. Once you get to El Chaleten you can start bike touring up to Lago Desierto and Lago O'Higgins where ferries will take you across the lakes. After that you will arrive at Villa O'Higgins where the carretera austral starts/ends and you can head north. There are a lot of beautiful parks and opportunities to backpack along the way, so I definitely recommend brining a backpack and hiking shoes along for the side adventures.
@@lizhoenig4343 No problem! It doesn't look like I can send direct messages though TH-cam but if you reach out to me on instagram (@willis.adventures) we can exchange emails and I can forward you a more detailed written iteniary of what I did. I've had several friends ask over the years that were planning there own trips so I can share the same information with you as well.
Water is easy to come by. There are lots of rivers and streams in Patagonia. I used a bleach dropper to treat my water. You have to plan a bit for food using your map. I think at most we had to cary 5 days worth of food at once but for most of the trip we would pass a small store every 2-3 days. Make sure you have plenty of Chilean Pesos when you're in the Region de Aysen. Some stores didn't take credit cards and there was no way of getting cash from an atm.
About 80% of the roads were unpaved when I biked this route. The Chilean government is in the process of paving most of the carretera austral. All of the roads north of Cerro Castillo should be paved by now. I used 700X40 tires. Enjoy your time there!
good video. I bicycle toured in India. How much did you spend each day in US$$? I am from usa. I would like to ride there in North American winter--october to april if that is possible; I work seasonal in North America summer-winters off. Good idea? Is there many bike tourists? The more bike tourists, the better, as far as Im concerned. Im not really a loner anymore. I like to hang out with other tourists and travelers. I speak a fair bit of Spanish. TIA
That would be the ideal time to go. The weather is best in late December though late February, outside of that window you will see more rainy and cold days but still overall enjoyable weather for bike packing. We each probably spent around $6/day on food when we cooked our own meals. Food in grocery stores is a bit more expensive and very limited in variety in some of the more remote parts of Patagonia. You can always find a good deal on empanadas and freshly baked bread in almost any town for a good hot meal. You can camp for free along most of the carretera austral. There are plenty of nice camp grounds along the way as well that will cost you $8 - $15 a night. Some of the Ferry rides can be a bit expensive. Other than that it's a very affordable place to travel. There will be plenty of folks bike touring there that time of the year. The sport has grown in popularity over the last few years so I'm sure there will be even more than when I was there. Enjoy your adventure and take the time to soak in the wonders around you :)
thank you. Im trekking in Nepal right now. But you answered my question as to prices. I work summers in Alaska, travel winters. Reading some about the bike touring there in Patagonia, as well as looking at the photos, and pretty excited about it and the journey. I travel for 6 months every winter. sounds like a good trip for me to do next winter on my surly troll!
hows it going mate. Great video. So how did the logistics with the bikes work? Did you fly in with them or rent some along the way? Where did you leave them when you did multi-day treks, such as a 100km one mentioned in the vid? Cheers
Yep, I flew to Punta Arenas with my Bike in a cardboard box. During our treks we would leave our bikes at either hostels, locked to something in a campground, or at Chilean forest service field offices. Once we got into the Region de Aysen of Chile we felt safe leaving the bikes out with just a lock on them.
Hi Willis - Love your video and the itinerary of your tour. We hope to do something similar this fall - October - December. I'm curious about logistics - I see that you flew into Punta Arenas with your bikes boxed, did you take a bus to Torres del Paine and El Chalten - with your bikes still in boxes? I'm curious about transport with bikes - boxed and unboxed :-) - especially because we also want to do some hiking/backpacking in addition to cycling. Thanks again for putting the video together! Very inspiring and beautiful.
Hi Liz, sounds like you have a great trip planned! Yes, we flew to Punta Arenas with our bikes in a box and a cheap duffel bag for our gear that we could leave behind once we started the bike touring portion of our trip. Once we got to punta arenas we unboxed our bikes and used them to get around town and to the bus stations. We used buses to travel from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales, El Calafate, and finally El Chalten. Some people choose to bike tour all of it but the area between Punta Arenas and El Chalten is very windy and desolate, making bike touring this section difficult and not very enjoyable. The buses have room to fit bikes underneath in the luggage storage area if you remove the front wheel.
The hostels typically have a safe locked storage area where you can store your bikes inside. For example, we stored our bikes at a hostel in Puerto Natales for 10 days while we backpacked Torres del Paine. Once you get to El Chaleten you can start bike touring up to Lago Desierto and Lago O'Higgins where ferries will take you across the lakes. After that you will arrive at Villa O'Higgins where the carretera austral starts/ends and you can head north.
There are a lot of beautiful parks and opportunities to backpack along the way, so I definitely recommend brining a backpack and hiking shoes along for the side adventures.
@@ncsaltfan Thank you!! We are so excited to do this trip - and appreciate everything you have shared. We're standing on your shoulders :-)
@@lizhoenig4343 No problem! It doesn't look like I can send direct messages though TH-cam but if you reach out to me on instagram (@willis.adventures) we can exchange emails and I can forward you a more detailed written iteniary of what I did. I've had several friends ask over the years that were planning there own trips so I can share the same information with you as well.
very beatiful.. i will be here now in december 2016 for motorcicle
Awesome! go slow and soak it in. It is a very special place :)
Did you have any difficulty with food and water? I’m going there in February with my bicycle.
Water is easy to come by. There are lots of rivers and streams in Patagonia. I used a bleach dropper to treat my water. You have to plan a bit for food using your map. I think at most we had to cary 5 days worth of food at once but for most of the trip we would pass a small store every 2-3 days. Make sure you have plenty of Chilean Pesos when you're in the Region de Aysen. Some stores didn't take credit cards and there was no way of getting cash from an atm.
Dude. Thanks for sharing my dream to bike there. Awesome 🙆
Really good video
did you have to cycle many unpaved roads? what width tyres did you use? thanks for sharing this experience, looks amazing.
About 80% of the roads were unpaved when I biked this route. The Chilean government is in the process of paving most of the carretera austral. All of the roads north of Cerro Castillo should be paved by now. I used 700X40 tires. Enjoy your time there!
thanks for the info! appreciate it :)
good video. I bicycle toured in India. How much did you spend each day in US$$? I am from usa. I would like to ride there in North American winter--october to april if that is possible; I work seasonal in North America summer-winters off. Good idea? Is there many bike tourists? The more bike tourists, the better, as far as Im concerned. Im not really a loner anymore. I like to hang out with other tourists and travelers. I speak a fair bit of Spanish. TIA
That would be the ideal time to go. The weather is best in late December though late February, outside of that window you will see more rainy and cold days but still overall enjoyable weather for bike packing. We each probably spent around $6/day on food when we cooked our own meals. Food in grocery stores is a bit more expensive and very limited in variety in some of the more remote parts of Patagonia. You can always find a good deal on empanadas and freshly baked bread in almost any town for a good hot meal. You can camp for free along most of the carretera austral. There are plenty of nice camp grounds along the way as well that will cost you $8 - $15 a night. Some of the Ferry rides can be a bit expensive. Other than that it's a very affordable place to travel. There will be plenty of folks bike touring there that time of the year. The sport has grown in popularity over the last few years so I'm sure there will be even more than when I was there. Enjoy your adventure and take the time to soak in the wonders around you :)
thank you. Im trekking in Nepal right now. But you answered my question as to prices. I work summers in Alaska, travel winters. Reading some about the bike touring there in Patagonia, as well as looking at the photos, and pretty excited about it and the journey. I travel for 6 months every winter. sounds like a good trip for me to do next winter on my surly troll!
hows it going mate. Great video. So how did the logistics with the bikes work? Did you fly in with them or rent some along the way? Where did you leave them when you did multi-day treks, such as a 100km one mentioned in the vid? Cheers
Yep, I flew to Punta Arenas with my Bike in a cardboard box. During our treks we would leave our bikes at either hostels, locked to something in a campground, or at Chilean forest service field offices. Once we got into the Region de Aysen of Chile we felt safe leaving the bikes out with just a lock on them.
Did you know the language very well?
Just a little. Everyone we met in Patagonia was very kind and happy to help us.