Amazing Final Day of Riding (Friday, December 28 - Puerto Bertrand to Coyhaique)
It is hard to believe, but today was our last day of riding. It was a wonderful (and long) day of riding, a great way to close out the trip. We left Puerto Bertrand at 9:00am and arrived at our hotel about 10:00pm.
The majority of our day was spent on or around Lago General Carrera - this is the 2nd largest lake in South America. The water color is very beautiful because the lake is fed entirely by glacial water. We started by touring marble caves near Puerto Tranquilo. This was a one hour small boat tour where we got to go into caves created by water and wind eroding the marble. The formations that remain, the texture of the marble, and the color variations in the marble all go together to make this a amazing site. I think I took more pictures here than anywhere else on the trip. Good thing I have high speed internet now so I can add more photos and videos!
After leaving the marble caves, we backtracked along the shoreline and continued further along the shoreline on the other side of the lake. Then we took Highway 265 to the town of Chile Chico. From my perspective, this was the best road during the trip. The highway follows much of the shoreline of Lago General Carrera and provides many great views and is a very fun road to ride. I suggested to Wilfredo that he make this a mandatory road for all tours in the area! We rode at a brisk pace on Highway 265 because we had a ferry to catch. The decision to take a ferry across the lake was made the previous evening, and so there were only a few spots left on the ferry when the tickets were purchased. Wilfredo had a spot on a ferry that left at 5:00pm; Pradeep and I had spots on a ferry that left at 5:15pm.
The ferry took us from Chili Chico across the lake to Puerto Ibáñez which took about 2.5 hours. Once we unloaded from the ferry, we had about 116 km (72 miles) of riding to get to our final destination of Coyhaique. It was during this final stretch that we encountered our first rain while riding. Fortunately it wasn't heavy rain and it wasn't everywhere but it was enough to make the roads wet and slow our pace slightly. At least it was all paved roads so we took our time and arrived at our hotel shortly before 10:00pm.
I will provide summary information and thoughts about the entire adventure in another post. According to my odometer,we rode 3,174 km or 2,307 miles during our trip!
Saturday will be spent getting packed for our return trip home and saying our final goodbyes. Our flight is scheduled to depart at 5:30pm.
The majority of our day was spent on or around Lago General Carrera - this is the 2nd largest lake in South America. The water color is very beautiful because the lake is fed entirely by glacial water. We started by touring marble caves near Puerto Tranquilo. This was a one hour small boat tour where we got to go into caves created by water and wind eroding the marble. The formations that remain, the texture of the marble, and the color variations in the marble all go together to make this a amazing site. I think I took more pictures here than anywhere else on the trip. Good thing I have high speed internet now so I can add more photos and videos!
After leaving the marble caves, we backtracked along the shoreline and continued further along the shoreline on the other side of the lake. Then we took Highway 265 to the town of Chile Chico. From my perspective, this was the best road during the trip. The highway follows much of the shoreline of Lago General Carrera and provides many great views and is a very fun road to ride. I suggested to Wilfredo that he make this a mandatory road for all tours in the area! We rode at a brisk pace on Highway 265 because we had a ferry to catch. The decision to take a ferry across the lake was made the previous evening, and so there were only a few spots left on the ferry when the tickets were purchased. Wilfredo had a spot on a ferry that left at 5:00pm; Pradeep and I had spots on a ferry that left at 5:15pm.
The ferry took us from Chili Chico across the lake to Puerto Ibáñez which took about 2.5 hours. Once we unloaded from the ferry, we had about 116 km (72 miles) of riding to get to our final destination of Coyhaique. It was during this final stretch that we encountered our first rain while riding. Fortunately it wasn't heavy rain and it wasn't everywhere but it was enough to make the roads wet and slow our pace slightly. At least it was all paved roads so we took our time and arrived at our hotel shortly before 10:00pm.
I will provide summary information and thoughts about the entire adventure in another post. According to my odometer,we rode 3,174 km or 2,307 miles during our trip!
Saturday will be spent getting packed for our return trip home and saying our final goodbyes. Our flight is scheduled to depart at 5:30pm.
Marble cave videos are incredible! The water is so clear on the video, cannot imagine how clear it is in person. Thank you for going back and adding photos; they are all amazing. Wonderful trip!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this comprehensive Blog. Looks like a great trip.
ReplyDelete