Biking the Carretera Austral- Week 2

December 13-19 2025

Day 8 began at the bus stop while we sipped our morning coffee and ate our breakfast. The wind howled outside but we were safe and sound in the tranquility of our three-walled hut. We started biking a bit past ten and had a little bit of sun and strong winds blowing against us.

Suddenly, a powerful but quick storm overtook us, pounding us with more wind and rain. It went as quickly as it came, and we continued through fields of wild flowers, turquoise lakes and stunning mountains towering over us. All the mountains had fresh coats of snow near the top.

We had some shorter climbs followed by one long one. We stopped at the top to eat lunch and soak up the sight of the enormous Lake Chalenko, which we had been riding along all morning. After lunch, we coasted down into Rio Tranquillo, where we camped at a hostel and bought some food for the following days.

In the morning of day 9 began Nick’s honorary birthday. On his actual birthday, which was the following day, we’d have to do some biking, so we decided to celebrate it this day. We started the day with a boat tour of the marble caves. It was amazing to go under the rock formations that had been carved out by the water and see all the different striations on the rocks.

After the tour, we went back and packed up. We bought a bunch of food, wine, cheese and desserts to have at the fancy lakeside hotel we booked for the night. We packed up all the extra weight of goodies and biked 10/15 km to a really cool place called Chalenko Lodge. We passed the rest of the evening soaking in the hot tub, playing cards and cooking a delicious birthday dinner!

Day 10 kicked off with a deliciously slow and relaxed morning at the lodge. I cooked an amazing birthday breakfast for Nick, and we slowly packed our bicycles and left for the day a bit after 12. We traced the rest of Lake Chalenko before moving beyond that to fields and fields of these purple wild flowers as more glacier-capped mountains emerged.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and it would be the first one that we didn’t receive a single drop of rain! Mother Nature’s birthday present to Nick! There was unfortunately a lot of car traffic, and each passing car would kick up a lot of dust, essentially blinding us momentarily. It felt so good to ride through the sun; it finally felt like summer here.

We had a nice lunch next to the river and fields of flowers. We continued past snow-covered peaks up a long, long stretch of steep uphill. It was a slow afternoon until we began to go downhill. We passed a couple of boys from Poland, one who had begun all the way in Alaska! We biked a bit more before finding a spot to camp in the forest.

On day 11, we broke our morning record, leaving slightly before 10 am. It was a calm morning while we finished out the downhill. We rode alongside the river and passed through some construction. The Chilean government is on a mission to pave the Carretera Austral, one section at a time. 

We rode past more waterfalls and cliffs and had a steep but smaller climb. We were riding on one of the last main sections of gravel and were looking forward to smoother roads and less dust.

After that steady gravel climb, we had a really fun, smooth downhill section past the Cerro Castillo Mountain range. We stopped at the top and snapped some photos while the wind pushed us and our bikes sideways. We continued down a very smooth and very fun downhill after that. Coasting past beautiful mountains coated in snow. The wind was so strong it nearly knocked me off my bike on one of the turns. 

We rolled into the town of Cerro Castillo and bought some extra snacks and had lunch in an old bus. After lunch, we began a very long and very slow uphill battle. I chugged slowly and steadily up the big, steady incline with lots of extra time to appreciate the beautiful canyon I was climbing. I arrived at the top hours later, Nick had been up there 20 or so minutes before I arrived and was starting to worry/annoyed at waiting at the top of the climb in the cold and wind. 

Going down was as fun as ever, and we rode through Cerro Castillo National Park with big rock cliffs on either side of the road. I thought we had another climb, but was pleasantly surprised when we kept going downhill. I ate a lot of sour gummies to get me through this day. 

The last few kilometers of the day were brutal. The headwind pushed against us, forcing us to stand up on our bikes and put our whole bodyweight into each pedal just to not get blown backwards. We would have stopped for the day if there was anywhere slightly out of the wind to set up our tent. However our wonky choice was to push through to the town of El Blanco. After a painful and arduous hour, we biked the 5 km and sought refuge in a pine forest in town. The pines didn’t keep all the wind out but it was better than nothing. 

Day 12 we packed up our tent in the already strong winds and went to grab an empanada or two in town. It was a beautiful crisp, sunny day, and we braced ourselves for a challenging ride into the halfway point, of Coyhaique.

We started off and the wind was unbearable. The road was crowded and the shoulder was narrow as cars headed towards the capital of Patagonia. The wind blew directly against us, making the uphill even harder than it would have been. We stood up on our bikes, pushing our all into every single pedal. The wind would sometimes quickly change direction and knock us off our trajectory. We made it to the top of the first hill and decided to call it quits. It felt too sketchy and impossible to ride. We decided we would go back to town and hitchhike from the bus stop there.

It took us 20 minutes to get up there and less than 5 to ride back into town. It felt so nice to have the wind at our backs for a moment. We stuck our thumbs up in defeat, and within ten minutes, a nice Chilean gentleman in his truck picked us up and brought us the 20 km into Coyhaique.

Once in town, we got our bikes tuned up, did laundry, showered, got more food, and just hung out for a while. We did some sitting in a coffee shop and later did a bit of shopping for Christmas gifts. Nick was sure to stock up on Christmas decorations for the bikes. We didn’t leave town until after 6 pm.

My bike was loaded with bulk food supplies, which in hindsight was silly. We had a bit of climbing to leave town, and it was getting late. Nearing the top of the climb we decided to hitch and we were quickly picked up by a local cowboy. To our dismay, we quickly started a 30-minute descent that would’ve been so much fun on the bicycle. We whisked by amazing avatar like scenery and one of the coolest waterfalls. Hitchhiking here was the biggest regret of the bike trip and possibly our lives. Goes to show taking shortcuts don’t always pay off!

We got dropped off at a split in the road, there was nowhere good to sleep near by and it was starting to sprinkle. We biked about 10 km until we found a field to sleep in. It was clearly an old cow grazing field but we didn’t see any cows or private property signs so we figured it would do for the night. We set up our bikes in a defensive position around the tent just in case any cows came in the night.

On day 13 we woke up at 8 in an attempt to leave before being noticed but still didn’t leave camp until about 10 am. We took our time eating breakfast and decorating the bikes. We had some steady ups and downs riding through a green tunnel next to a river until it opened up into a beautiful valley. Yellow flowers lined the road with enormous mountains in the background.

The decorations on the bicycles put us in the Christmas spirit as we rode along. It was a cloudy day but the rain never came. We made it into town for lunch and got some coffee, empanadas and fruit. We then rode 40 km with the wind in our face past some large rock formations. We made it to our goal of Laguna de Los Torres, but were disappointed at how trashed it was. We didn’t want to go any further so we just found a spot a bit outside of all the trash.

Day 14 began with some coffee alongside the lake. We had a short ride into town, where we took some Christmas photos and bought a little bit more food. Nick and I played a game to see who could last the longest on their bicycle without putting a foot down. It seemed silly and easy at first but as the day went on it became more challenging.

Three bicyclists passed us and stopped to chat so we rode in circles on the road while talking to them. I wanted a snack so I found a bridge rail and leaned up against that while I reached into my back panniers for something to eat. Later, at lunch, Nick stopped at a food truck and managed to order and pay for a hot dog without touching the ground, even picking up the change he dropped while staying on his bike. I managed to prop my bike up on a bus stop and chat with a girl there biking from Alaska to Argentina. She told me all about her travels as I balanced on my bicycle and somehow managed to make my sausage and cheese tortilla wraps. At one point, Nick even managed to take a pee without touching the ground (using a high-risk maneuver of transferring to a bridge while his bike balanced along the side) .

We began a very large and steady climb after that. It was cloudy and a bit rainy as we made our way up. The mountains peaking through were massive and it was so cool to be riding through them. I never wanted to play the game but Nick said he didn’t think I could make it up the mountain without taking a break, so I was determined to win. I knew I wouldn’t be able to pee on my bike though so my clock was ticking, but I wouldn’t make it easy for him.

We eventually made it to the top and after 4-5 hours of being on our bikes, Nick surrendered to get his raincoat and gloves for the descent. I emerged the victor!! The road turned to gravel on the descent and was riddled with pot holes. We put on our raincoats and gloves and had a very cold, windy and bumpy ride down. At one point we got stuck behind a semi that had to go so slow because of all the switchbacks.

After the descent, we continued on looking for some hot springs that only appear at low tide. We found them but unfortunately low tide was on its way out, so the hot springs were flooded with cold water. Back on the road, we ran into a French couple we had been seeing the last two days. The rain was starting to come down and it was forecasted to rain pretty hard that night. We rode a few more kilometers along the coastline and ended up paying to camp at the same campground as them. It was nice to have a covered camping area, a kitchen area, bathrooms and showers. It was totally worth the 8,000 Chilean Pesos (approx 9USD).