"Cody and I had a great trip ! We talk about how amazing it was everyday! We wouldn't have changed anything!
The overnight bus you recommended to take to Villarica (pardon my spelling) was great, really comfortable and we slept great, although our Spanish is not the best, so we had a little trouble booking it , but it all worked out lol.
Ulli was waiting for us when we got off the bus and brought us out for coffee, which was awesome! Then Ulli brought us to his place and got us geared up and gave us a great rundown on the bikes. Ulli spent 20 minutes and went through the maps with us, and he fed us soo much good information in such a short time, it really made our trip down to Punta Arenas a breeze, everything Ulli told us was accurate and useful. Ulli was awesome ! thanks again Ulli.
Cody and I left in the rain for Barlioche, and after we were thoroughly soaked it cleared up nicely and we had an awesome first day, arriving in the city pretty late. We stayed in a hostel and went a bar and drank some local beer and had dinner. We enjoyed the ski towns around barlioche.
Next we were off to Futaluefu for some rafting! Another amazing riding day, we took our time and stopped in the National forest and went for a swim in the river.
Rafting was totally unreal, we had smiles ear to ear all day, especially when we flipped the raft backwards and another time we were all tossed from the boat. Our hostel in Futaluefu was really nice just outside of town, we meet some good people there, some of whom we saw later on in our trip.
The next couple of days of riding were amazing, the roads and views were awesome from start to finish! Too many scenic lookouts to stop at them all, but we took our time and stopped as much as possible. We packed light lunches and ate lunch mostly on the road, then a couple of beers and out for dinner (usually pizza...seems to be food of choice in patagonia) at night time. We stopped at the marble and caves and rodeo during these couple of days.
The ride down to El Calafate was super windy as predicted and a little hairy on the gravel (round stones) and in the wind. We made it to El Calafate and hiked the fitz the next day! Very nice hike!
After this we went to Perito Merino and saw the glacier, then headed for torres de paine.
We spent the day hiking the torres de paine as well! Another incredible hike and totally worth it!
So to recap we rode amazing roads pretty well from start to finish, amazing views everywhere! We stopped at scenic lookouts, rivers, waterfalls, beautiful forests, a rodeo, marble caves, hiked the fitz, hiked the torres de paine, saw the perito merino glacier, met some amazing people, and rode rode rode!
All the people we met, especially the chileans were incredibly nice, we ate a lot of pizza and a few completos! Tried a bunch of the local beers and saw a ton of chilean and Argentinean culture. We mostly stayed in hostels which we prebooked ahead of time, most of them really good, some pretty cool experiences.
The bikes were great and we had no issues, border crossings were easy, and the gear bags were set up perfectly! We had a great time and wouldn't change anything!"
