Patagonia - Chile & Argentina Motorcycle Tour

The start of your motorcycle trip leads us over the Andes mountains and over a beautiful, partly unpaved route as we leave Chile for the first time to make our way into Argentina. First we follow the ancient way of the Melipueco River and come across some picturesque little villages. The Andes Mountain range basically forms a natural border between Chile and Argentina. Throughout the history of the shaping of earth, this has resulted in enormous stretches of no man’s land. We continue our ride on a magnificent historic pass high through the Andes. This mountain pass played a key role in human and animal migration throughout history and takes us to the Argentinian part of the border. The area around the border is characterized by the many indigenous monkey puzzle trees which can grow up to 40 meters high. In Argentina we follow the scenic road that runs parallel to the Rio Malleo river. We get our first taste of Patagonia. We ride on to Junin de los Andes to spend the night there.

On world famous Ruta 40 (5224 km long!) we follow the Andes southwards. We feast our eyes and senses on the purity and fantastic views of these majestic, huge mountains. Our guided motorcycletrip then takes us through the tourist village of Villa La Angostura. Dutch Queen Maxima owns two parcels of land in this gorgeous area. Her brother has a restaurant here. We then reach our destination San Carlos, about 60 km further down south. This city on the shores of Lake Nahue Huapi, lies in the heart of the Nahuel Huapi National Park. Picturesque San Carlos de Bariloche is often referred to as the little Switzerland of Argentina because of its dramatic backdrop.

Today, the morning route of our motorcycle vacation in Patagonia will almost continuously have one or more Argentinian lakes to view for us. We follow Route 258, and after about 130 km of unspoilt, natural scenery, El Boston is the first location we come to. This town is well-known for its regularly reported UFO sightings. People here are very environmentally conscious and you find many vegetarian and organic eateries here. This place with a Bohemian feel is our lunch stop today. Later on we leave the main road behind us and ride our bikes over an unpaved road into the huge Los Alerces National Park. It feels as if we ride from one postcard into another, as there are many stunning lakes here, in contrast with the green larch forest and high mountain peaks towering overus. The last 30 km of today we ride to Esquel on paved roads.

Today we get up early and make our way to the Chilean border. On our way we pass through the town of Trevelin (population +- 8000), established in 1885 by a Welsh community. Everywhere you look, you see the red dragon as well as the green-white colours of the Welsh flag. From here on, we will ride less travelled unpaved roads and that will remain so for a while. Via another beautiful route we reach the border post of Chile. This border post consists of one small house and a caravan. A bit further on, the Chilean border post is a lot bigger. We will take a break in Futaleufu to prepare ourselves for the amazing ride coming afternoon. Because the rest of the day, we will ride the Carretera Austral and the breathtaking, beautiful natural scenery is stunning. Around every bend in the road the landscape offers amazing views of lakes, streams, a waterfall or river. On top of all this,the continuous vistas of the white mountain tops on our left. You may be overcome with the feeling you never want to leave this area. The only fellow travelers on this part of the motorcycle holiday in Patagonia you may come across here are shepherds on horseback, followed by giant herds of cows or sheep. After this amazing afternoon we spend the night in Puyuhuapi. Many Germans settled in this area in the past. We spend the night in this settlement in German atmosphere.

Today’s scenery may possibly outshine our impressions of yesterday. This is the second part of the impressive Carretera Austral road. We fill our lungs with fresh, clean oxygen as we pass through beautiful dark green rainforest with numerous lakes and rocky rivers. This is stunning northern Patagonia on a motorcycle at its best. We make our way through 2 national parks: Queulat National Park and Lago Las Torres. Because of the many scenic photo opportunities today, we take it a bit easier and slow down, not to miss anything about this beautiful environment and enjoy our Patagonia group motorbike trip to the fullest.

We carry on our way southwards riding the unpaved Highway 7 to arrive in the isolated province of Carrera. This is an empty, desolate province of magical wasteland that only has one road. Aside from the unpaved road, the landscape here hasn’t changed for thousands of years. We may feel as if we are the only people on earth! We ride past the shores of the breathtaking azure blue lake Lagos Buenos Aires. Half of this lake belongs to Argentina. From the southernmost point of this lake it is a short ride to the tiny village (population about 500) Puerto Guadal in Chile, where we will spend the night.

Today you can relax in preparation for a long ride tomorrow. Get your rest and get to know the inhabitants of Puerto Guadal, who live mainly from agriculture and tourism income. There are several attractions in the vicinity of the village, which are easily accessible due to its location on the Carretera Austral. Interesting sites include an abandoned copper mine, a waterfall and marble caves.We stay in a nice hotel by the lake.

We have arrived on the other side of the Andes in the Argentine part of Patagonia. The effect of theAndes on the weather causes the west side to be much more arid than the Chilean side. Suddenly we find ourselves in a seemingly completely different world along the amazing General Carrera Lake. The first place we visit is Perito Moreno. Here, we fill up our gas tanks and buy some necessities as this is the last opportunity to stock up for a while... It’s a long day’s ride today, through a desolate remote area. This part of our Patagonia motorbike tour is the most isolated stretch of the Ruta 40. It is often seen as the Argentine version of Route 66 and runs all the way from the Bolivian border way upnorth, to Tierra del Fuego way down south. The vast majority of this 4600 km road is still unpaved. That is also the case for our 400 km long ride on the prairie today. The only signs of life in this vast stretch of wasteland is when we come across the rheas (a South American ostrich) and the guanaco(a feral type of llama). We are surrounded by immense fields of low growing dry yellow grasslands, which completes the ‘prairie feel’. We spend the night in Gobernador Gregores.

We pass through desolate stretches of seemingly never ending country roads. At first we follow the somewhat narrow Ruta 29 before re-joining the famous Ruta 40. This will take us through a possibly even more remote area of no man’s land than yesterday. We stop in the village Tres Lagos at the petrol station. This village was featured in BBC’s series Top Gear where the hosts search for boltcutters after finding a locked fence. Tres Lagos is also featured briefly in the British TVseries Long Way Up. We carry on down the Ruta 40. We follow the east side of Lago Viedma and pass the largest lake of Argentina: Lago Argentino. The last 30 km stretch of road on the way to the touristy town of El Calafate is a good quality road. Our Patagonia motorcycle tour ends in El Calafate today, where we have a wide choice of restaurants and souvenir shops. Tourists come here from allover the world to visit the glaciers.

The Perito Moreno glacier is one of the only two glaciers on earth that are actually ‘on the move’. The gigantic ice-mass is 30 km long, 170 meters deep and a couple kilometers wide. This ice masspushes itself 2 meters further into the ocean every day. And you will notice that this is an extreme and noisy event! Even when approaching from a distance we can hear the mighty crunch of millions of kilos of ice violently getting dumped into the ocean. The sound echoes and reverberates back from the mountains. You will be able to experience these gigantic glaciers and the forces of nature from nearby. Enormous chunks of ice weighing several hundreds of kilos crash into the water. Because of the immense forces at play here, chunks of ice shoot every which way. That is why we are only allowed to admire nature’s spectacle from the safe distance of at least one kilometer. This is anunforgettable experience.

Let’s go even further south to Tierra del Fuego! And be careful: It can be windy here. You will notice the landscape and the temperature are gradually changing. Slowly but surely, more and more groups of trees have formed between the yellow grass clumps. We have a windy ride over the paved Ruta 5 further to the southern most border post with Chile. We make it to the ferry crossing to get to the island of Tierra del Fuego. After that, we continue our trip on an unpaved road for another 40 kilometers to Cerro Sombrero, a tiny village located in the beautiful surroundings formed by the power of extreme natural conditions.

Interestingly, half of the island of Tierra del Fuego is actually Chilean, and that is where we are now. Since the southern part of Chile can only be reached via Argentinian roads, the Argentinian part ofTierra del Fuego can only be reached via Chilean roads. We are almost at our destination, the southernmost city on earth, the end of the world. But we still have about another four hundred kilometers to go. We pass the beautiful Lago Fagnano and we have to weather the ever-present winds this side of the island. Trees grow only to one side and the bare branches of each tree all pointin the same direction, forced by the wind. Ushuaia’s backdrop is dramatic and pristine, as it is beautifully situated between the snow-covered peaks of Tierra del Fuego. You have arrived in the only accessible by road southernmost city in the world, located at the 55th latitude! As the crow flies you have arrived at only 3800 kilometers away from Antarctica.

You can use today to relax and go on a tour of discovery round the charming village. Enough time to photograph the colourful houses and meet the friendly inhabitants. There’s also an option to take a boat to Puerto Williams in Chile. This village lies even further south than Ushuaia and there is no way to get any more south than Puerto Williams. On your way there you can see penguins and sea lions.

A long day of riding awaits us today. We leave on time to return along Lago Fagnano. Again we will experience strong winds. Today we cross the border back into Chile. Porvernir is the largest village on the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego. The landscape is rough and rugged with lakes, rivers, spectacular glaciers and white icy mountains. Here, the rivers are full of trout and salmon and maybe we’ll spot a beaver here and there. Penguins and sea lions can also be seen on the white rugged rocky cliffs.

We continue our way back up north today. After about 40 km riding on dirt roads we get to the ferry leaving Tierra del Fuego behind us, to conclude this section of our motorbike vacation in Patagonia. As soon as we cross, the rugged wet landscape changes once more. We mostly see bare trees with huge amounts of leafless branches changing into immense fields yellow dry grass stretching to the horizon.

Similar to Park Los Glaciers, National Park Torres del Paine truly shows the impressive greatness of nature. Early in the morning we ride to the national park and we have the option to take a short hike there. If you are interested, it is also possible to take a tour through the park. In any case, this is a wonderful conclusion to this impressive, magnificent journey through unforgettable and powerful nature.

You will receive a transfer to the airport of Puerto Natales for you flight back home.