Planning The Route - Argentina

Argentina is going to be tough. I plan to start cycling through the town of Ingeniero Palavecini right next to General Carrera lake. From there, there is to head east to reach the Golfo San Jorge. 404 kilometres till the Atlantic to have a rest for a couple of days. I estimate around a week in this first part.

The route in Argentina

I think it's gonna be a drastic change from the Austral Road to the Argentinian Patagonia, once side all green and rainy, and the other dry as a desert.

Carretera Austral, Chile

Towards the Atlantic, Patagonia Argentina

Once I reach the Atlantic I plan on taking the "Ruta Nacional 3" towards Buenos Aires. But first
there is to cross the road between Comodoro Rivadavia and Trelew. 375 kilometers of more Patagonia and no towns in the middle but "estancias".

Then I should reach Golfo Nuevo where I should be able to watch some whales because this place is supposed to be a major nursery and calving ground for southern right whales. (Source).

From the Golfo of the whales I continue up north to reach the Pampa, and finally Buenos Aires with its cattle industry. All this distance from the border in Ingeniero Palavecini till Buenos Aires capital city is 2319.6 kilometers. Cycling around 80 kilometers per day it should take me 30 to 35 days to reach the capital city. Maybe a bit more.

It's a good thing I can stay in Argentina for 90 days without paying a visa and I don't need any special vaccine or permission.

From Buenos Aires I will head north up to cross the Paraná river and enter Uruguay crossing the river of the same name.

From Buenos Aires to the border with Uruguay

Finally from the capital to the border there are 274 kilometres. Around 5 days to reach the border.

In total Argentina will be around 2594 kilometres of cycling from the patagonia to the Uruguay river and the beginning of the jungle heat. Cycling around 80 kms per day in 33 days I should go from border to border. This is not considering the stops I'm going to make in between for resting, getting supplies and getting to know around. In total I think a good number of days to estimate are 60 to 65, so then I can take my time in nice places.

As long as I don't spend more than 90 days in Argentina all will be fine.

The next post will be Uruguay.

Another perspective of the route for Argentina.

In green the longest distance between cities. Comodoro Rivadavia towards Trelew.

Planning The Route - Chile

I plan to start my journey next January (2014), hopefully during the firsts days of the year. I will start bicycling from Santiago de Chile all the way down to Puerto Montt in a first stage with stops in between for saying good bye to family and friends before entering Carretera Austral.

In between I will stop several times both for visiting friends and for getting supplies. Mainly food and water that I will certainly need while on the road because it's going to be summer, and probably a harsh one.

The distance I plan for this first part of Chile will be around the 1120 kms more or less. I will try to avoid the "5 sur" highway as much as possible taking alternative roads which have less traffic and  less trucks that may be a bit dangerous for a cyclist. In some areas I will be forced to take the 5 sur highway. Anyways it will be funny to cross the regional borders and the toll offices with my loaded bike and visit the towns I've been visiting since I was a kid but with my bicycle.

I may stop for several days in a town and for less than a day in others. Mainly depends on how I feel and what things of interest I find on the road, also if I'm able to find accommodation. It is also  important who I have to visit in every particular place, because yes, I plan to visit most of my friends and family to say good bye.

I'm mainly tracing the route for having a estimate of how long it's going to take me in every country, and have a rough estimate of how long the trip is going to be.

For the first part, from Santiago to Puerto Montt, if I bike 65 kms every day it would take me around 17.2 days to reach Puerto Montt. I think it's going to take me a month at least, but you know what? I don't really care! I will be free to do as I please :).

For this first part I think I will spend several days in Talca and Puerto Montt. Once in Puerto Montt I may even cross to the Chiloé Island to then go back to Puerto Montt and continue my journey, plainly I have no idea, depends, all depends on what happens while on the road.


Once I enter the Carretera Austral I'll be on my own (no more friends or family). From Puerto Montt I plan to reach Río Ibañez which is like 110 kms south from Coyhaique. The total distance for this second part of the Chilean road will  be around 746 kms. This doesn't include the ferry I have to take in Hornopiren to be able to reach Caleta Gonzalo. So, if I ride 65 kms everyday this second part should take me around 11.5 days plus the time I'll spend on the ferry. But once again, some days I may ride more, some days I may not ride at all, some days I will ride around a town, and some days maybe I will just spend time in nature enjoying being free. I've never been to carretera austral so this is where I leave my comfort zone and start going wild. "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.".

I will cross the border towards Argentina through the pass near Río Ibañez which is 20 kms east of this town in the Carretera Austral. From there I'll make my way towards Buenos Aires through the "pampa".

Briefly, if I pedal 65 kms everyday from Santiago to the point I plan to cross to Argentina, it should take me around 29 days to complete the route. Less than a month, but I think I will be 2 months on the Chilean roads before I cross the border.

Rough estimates, I know, but I think it's good to be aware of the distances, possible routes and times, so I can plan ahead and consider possibilities for different scenarios and check if I will need visa for certain countries.

Damn, everyday I get more excited about this.

A close up of the route!:

Dynamo Hub!

I'm going to be carrying some camera equipment, a nexus 7 and my cellphone. Probably the tablet is the one that is going to use a lot of power and I'm going to need to charge its battery a lot. Therefore I must rely in some energy sources I can generate on my own.

One of the things I'm carrying with me to charge the batteries of my devices is a dynamo hub.

Thanks to Tío Tom I got this hub for a really cheap price. Second hand but it will certainly do the job. It outputs 6V, 2.4 W. Enough for my needs considering I will be pedaling the whole day I think I will need some sort of storing energy device but with the help of the solar module and rechargeable batteries I think all will be alright and I won't need to carry something extra.

A nice piece of equipment that will complement the other sources of energy I'm going to have with me during the trip.

Trailer vs Panniers

Since I started talking to some people about my project, somebody mentioned it would be much better to take a trailer with me rather than panniers. Since then I started asking some others over the Internet and people that I have met about how good/bad is to ride with a trailer compared to panniers. So far, panniers are winning by a huge distance!

So far, what I have discover about this:

The trailer:

The initial suggestion about a trailer was given based on the geography of the places I will bicycle through, I'm not going to bicycle only through the Austral Road, but also I will cross The Andes and will start bicycling north towards Brazil. I will get into the Brazilian jungle and then reach the Atlantic to continue north and get into more jungle and mountain areas. The people that suggested the use of the trailer said it would be much easier to carry all the weight in a trailer like the bobyak in the picture plus if I want to take a bike ride without load it would be much easier to just leave the trailer somewhere safe and bike without load.

I think what they say about the weight and the commodities of having a trailer like this one is pretty accurate. You can load around 40 kilos in the trailer with no problems and your bike would only carry the weight of your own body.

From http://blog.adventurecycling.org

Another reason they suggested the trailer was the amount of load you can carry on them and the damage the spokes of the bike receive. To be honest, this wouldn't work with me, I would damage the spokes of my bike anyways, and the more load I can put somewhere the more I would carry at the end. I have to say though, it looks really comfy to have all the load in the back of the bike.


I don't own a trailer and I think I will give it a try anyways. Tom, a friend of mine who own a brick bicycles shop near my place has one of this and he said they were really good in the city when carrying heavy load from place to place so I may loan his and use it with some load to check mobility and the feeling of having a trailer behind my bike.

What I've been reading so far though don't seem to be the best reviews. Among the things I've read about these trailers are the speed limit you have (around 40 kms/h) and how uncomfortable they are when you pass the speed limit. Me, liking the speed you get while going down a hill, I would push the bike for more speed, which would increase the possibility of an accident!.

Another con I read is how you have to organize everything in one single place. What if you need a tool that is under all the stuff you have already packed?. You end up unpacking and packing everything just for that tool you need.

Another big disadvantage and I think the most important from my point of view is the extra wheel you are carrying around. If for some reason I have to use another mean of transport, like for example, somebody offers me a ride to a really awesome island which only way of getting there is by a Cessna plane (Isla Mocha for example). In this situation the extra wheel would certainly count. Or if for some reason I have to take a train or bus somewhere, then the extra wheel would also count.

Panniers:

Ortlieb Panniers

On the other hand we have panniers, I have experience with them and I've reading about some good ones to bicycle tour with. The ortlieb ones seem the way to go and the most used one. Mainly for endurance and because they are water proof.

You can pack things in a different order and unpack only the pannier you specifically need. I thought for example having a pannier with my electronic devices and clothes, another one with camping gear, another with food and so on.

Most of bicycle tourers choose panniers for some reason. Initially I thought about the price, yeah, a trailer must be way expensive than buying panniers, but to my surprise, the price of 4 panniers both front and rear equal the price of a one wheel trailer. Or at least they equal the price I would have to pay here in Chile for the local made trailer.

From my experiences the weight of the panniers help the balance in the bike, when you balance the load to each side equally you don't even feel you are carrying panniers. From what I experienced they also help you control better the bike while going down a hill.

From: http://www.angusadventures.com/

I once rode up in the mountains from an altitude of 800 meters over sea level to 2500 meters over sea level. A gravel road up into the Andes mountains that was around 150 kms long. It took me 2 days to reach my destination mainly for the difference in altitude. The panniers did help with stability and although I was pedaling slow as hell it didn't feel that uncomfortable. On the way back, they helped with stabilization and I could reach 50 kms/h with no problems at all.

They are not that hard to dismantle from the bike and I could easily get into a bus, train or plane with no much effort.

Panniers or Trailer?

So far I haven't decided yet, but my thoughts are going to the ortlieb panniers that I could get for the same price of the trailer. Mainly based on what people have told me, comments I've read on the Internet and my personal experiences with panniers. I still feel like I have to give it a try to the trailer Tío Tom has at his workshop. Probably I'll do it during a day tour to the mountains or maybe during a weekend to the beach. I'll finally decide what to buy after the trailer experience.

In the meantime, I'm checking prices for those ortlieb panniers that are looking at me from the distance.

First Post!

Finally I'm starting to write in the blog, I will transcribe most of the things I already have in a plain text file in my dropbox folder and will start writing regulary in the blog.

Initially I thought about writing the blog in spanish, being a native spanish speaker, it sounded like the right way to go, but then I thought about my friends who barely know how to say "hola, quiero una cerveza por favor", and thought, well yeah, for them it will be much easier to read me in english rather than in spanish. Then I thought about writing both in english and spanish, but that will require a lot of effort, effort that I could use in my planning and talking to people. Also most of my native speakers friends can handle pretty well english if not completely so they will be fine reading in english. :D

I have been gathering information and talking to people from some months already, I will post here what I gather and what I finally buy and take in my trip, because I think it's important for those who read me that want to do it but don't know where to start.

I plan to post about some people too, some of them are helping me with the planning and the gear, others are giving me advice, others complain about my crazy ideas, others push me forward and support me, all of them contribute in some way to this, so whenever I can I will post about them.


And if you want to know more about me, visit the "Who am I?" page.

Cheers!

O'car