PATAGONIA Tour on Motorcycle-03/04 February 2018 Days 13-14

SOUTH AMERICA / PATAGONIA TOUR with MOTORCYCLE
Riding to EL FIN DEL MUNDO between 21 January - 10 February 2018.

Day-13 (03 February 2018) :  El Calafate>>>Puerto Natales (220 km)

We departed from the Hotel after the breakfast around 08:50. The weather is nice and there is no rain. The road 11  took us to Route 40. It is about 30 km to the junction with Route 40.
The good quality asphalt road became steeper after the junction. We climbed nice and curving road up to Co Los Escarchados (818 m). The climbing road is something around 
10 km. After getting to the top, it is very smooth to ride on this flat part of the country. It took approx. 30 minutes and then we came to the junction El Cerrito. 
The temperature is 15 deg C. After having a short break at the junction we followed the gravel road in the south west sense. After the massive gravel road of 65 km we came to the fuel station at Tapi Aike. We filled up our tanks at this station.

The lodge at the side of  the fuel station at Tapi Aike.

We continued our ride up to the border city named Cancha Carrera. This one is the Argentinian town at the border. The adjacent town named Cerro Castillo is on the Chilean side. We left Argentina and crossed the border to Chile. The procedures at the border took another 1,5 hour.

Horses in Argentina before reaching to the Argentinian border with Chile

There is a better quality at the Chilean side. The people at the border processing the entrance works are looking also better. The road pavement is also better on the Chilean side. There was a restaurant/café right after the border building. We all sat there for lunch. 
After the lunch we departed from Cerro Castillo and together with Sadik we arrived at our Hotel in Puerto Natales. We parked our motorcycles in the back yard of the Hotel Cost Australis. It is right at the coast. 

There is a strong wind outside. After a short rest in the room which we shared with Sadik I came out and took some pictures in the small city Puerto Natales. Because of his neck   Sadik wanted to rest in the room . 

Looking to the west from our Hotel.

I walked to the downtown. There is a small but very nice coffee shop. I suggest !!! I tried No.18.

Available coffee types.

One of the shops in Puerto Natales.

Main square of the city.

At 19:30 our group met at the lobby of our Hotel and Christian took us to a restaurant. The restaurant is in walking distance. We walked in 10 minutes. We enjoyed our meal and wine. 
The ambiance was also very different. The restaurant was built out off marine transport containers. They had cut and welded number of containers each other.After the dinner we walked in the town and we ate ice cream together with our guys from UK. Then we returned to the Hotel. I drank two Mojitos in the lobby and then went up to the room in order to sleep.

Day-14 (04 February 2018) :  extra day in Puerto Natales - Torres del Paine (250 km)

Today, after the breakfast we left the Hotel in order to move to another Hotel in the same city. Edelweiss people have done a mistake and they have booked only for one night at the first Hotel. Therefore we will overnight in Altiplanico.

We gave all our luggage to Thomas' van and we departed with our bikes in the direction of the National Park Torres del Paine. Sadik is not riding together with us. He wanted to rest full day in the city. We took the road to Pt. Prat and then went further. Most of the road was unpaved and with dusty gravel. The wind was blowing advantageous during the ride in this direction. The dust was not causing big effect. When we came to the lake on our right hand side we stopped and took some pictures of the awesome view.

Lago del Toro

Lago del Toro

Lago del Toro

Our guides bought the entrance ticket to the National Park and our group entered the park.
Riding in the park is soft and comfortable. The gravel road are OK for riding. We arrived at a point at the north side of the Lake Grey where we parked our motorcycles. Then we walked about 300 meter in order to watch the water fall from the glaciers lake.

Our riding route in the National Park

 It was very windy on this road. Sometimes the was so strong that the people must stop and protect themselves by leaning their body down the ground.

Warning ! Area with strong winds !

There is a waterfall from the upper lake group to the lower one. The wind comes from the mountains in the north and blowing through aisles among the earth shape.

Waterfall from Lago Nordenskjöld to Lago Pehoe

Dead trees in the N.P.

Lago Pehoe

Since the wind became stronger, we cancelled the rest part of our tour. We would go further to Cerro Castillo and had finished our tour from North to Puerto Natales. We used the same route as we had taken this morning. We stopped at a place at the lake and passed the bridge by walking and reached to the restaurant there. I ordered a hamburger and drank a Coke.

After this lunch stop here we continued our ride. At the exit of the N.P. we took a right turn and had got very spectacular and awesome view over the valley and meandering river. I took some pictures of this fantastic view.

Then we departed and took the road back to Puerto Natales. The wind was stronger and it was also causing more dust on the road. Following and overtaking the cars was really difficult in such a dusty environment. But I managed to reach to the Hotel without any damage. But I was fully in dust.

We came to our new Hotel which is Altiplanico Puerto Natales. It is a concept design Hotel. Almost all the building is within the earth. Only the windows are visible from outside.

After a shower and refreshing I went to the lobby and ordered a cold beer to clean my throat. Then we sat to dinner. It was a tasty dinner and nice service. 

PATAGONIA Tour on Motorcycle-01/02 February 2018 Days 11-12

SOUTH AMERICA / PATAGONIA TOUR with MOTORCYCLE
Riding to EL FIN DEL MUNDO between 21 January - 10 February 2018.

Day-11 (01 February 2018) :  El Chalten>>>El Calafate (225 km)

The weather is very nice today. The wind has calmed down. It  happened a  strange thing last night. A wild rabbit came to the parking lot and died under my motorcycle. It was laying just under the engine of the bike.  After the breakfast, at 09:20 we departed from the Hotel .  

After a few kilometer we stopped at the fuel station at the exit of El Chalten and filled up our tanks. We departed again and we stopped after 2-3 kms at a place where we had got the view of El Chalten and the Fitz Roy mountains. 

Fitz Roy in the darkness

El Chalten and Fitz Roy

Sadik and I , Fitz Roy is behind us.

Fitz Roy and El Chalten in the backround.

We took  a group picture, too. Then we departed from the view point -Mirador- around 10:20. The Route 23 took us to the junction with Route 40. It is 94 km distance with a very good quality asphalt. I enjoyed the ride very much. 

At the junction point we waited for Philippe about 20 minutes. When he reached to us, he said that there was some nice birds of which he took pictures. We left the Lake Lago Viedma on our right hand side and we arrived at the Parador La Leona.

Parador La Leona is a coffee house and restaurant at the East side of the lake just after the bridge over the river La Leona. We sat there and I ate empanada and bought a coffee. After a quarter an hour the other part of the group arrived at the La Leona. There is also a corner in the restaurant where they have shown some old hand tools or pictures from the old times discoverers of the glaciers. After this break we continued our ride on the asphalt road.
Soon we arrived at the East coast of the lake Lago Argentino. We stopped there for a while and took some pictures.

We were on the East side of the lake but we had a view to the city El Calafate far away on the other side of the lake. We moved further and took the right turn in the direction to 
El Calafate. It is the Route 11 and was still nice to ride. We left the airport on our right hand side and arrived at the city. Since we were early for the Hotel we had been taken further to the Glaciers Museum (Glaciarium). The museum is located about 5-6 kms on the west of the city. There was a strong wind on the hill of the Glaciarium. I visited the Museum and then I sat for coffee. 

Glaciers Museum of El Calafate:- Glaciarium

Then we took the road to our Hotel which is located at the East entrance of the city. Meanwhile we bought fuel for our motorcycles. We checked in the Hotel Park Plaza Patagonia Kempinsky. We are sharing Room 3019 with Sadik. The Hotel is on a hill at the rim of the city. It is a big and modern hotel with a nice view over the lake and the city. 

We went out at 17:00 and walked down to the down town. There is a main street through the city and there are a lot of shops, Pubs, restaurants at both sides. We looked for a change office. After 18:00 all the change offices are closing. Luckily we found a Western Union office where I changed 200.-USD and bought 3,800.-A$. Then we sat at the Pub Wanaco and tried their IPA beer. 

Then we walked to the Restaurant La Tablita. This one is a nice and big restaurant adjacent to the fuel station. We had a reservation for 19:30. The whole group came together and ate there with fun. I ordered a portion of Patagonian lamb as I did last night in El Chalten. This is a special lamb grill at the open fire. The furnace was set in the middle of the entrance hall. It is tasty together with a red Malbec wine. The portions are big. I suggest to order one portion for two persons. 

After the dinner we walked back to our Hotel. After having a Scotch whiskey and a coffee I went to bed.

Day-12 (02 February 2018) :  Extra day in El Calafate (190 km)

Today is the second day for us in El Calafate. After the breakfast we departed altogether to the Glaciers Perito Moreno.It is located within the National Park about 70-75 km on the West of El Calafate. The roads are very nice. The sky is blue and the temperature is good for having a comfortable ride. After approx. one hour we reached to the entrance of te National Park Perito Moreno. One of our guides, Thomas bought the entrance ticket for the whole group and after half an hour waiting at the entry we continued our ride within the N.P. The roads are nicely curving and the view is beautiful everywhere. In some place there are parking/resting areas for visitors. Coming closer to the end point which means the glaciers watching area we stopped and we took a couple of pictures.

When we came to the end point we stopped our bikes in the big parking lot. I changed my motorcycle boots with the relaxed shoes and I put on my outdoor jacket which I had brought with me. There we had to walk on the steel/wooden staircases and platform in order to watch the glaciers. There are shuttles from the parking lot which transports the visitors free of charge to the glaciers' view point. There is a ten minute drive from the parking lot.
Together with Sadik we came to the glaciers' entry and we walked down on the wooden platforms in order to have a closer view.

Even the glaciers of the world are getting smaller and smaller because of the global warming, this one (Perito Moreno) is not loosing the size. The scientists should give a reasoning for this ? It is cold there but is very interesting and peculiar view. Ice is broken and some parts of the glacier are getting apart and falling into the water with noise.

After a couple of hours we climbed up to the area where there is the building for restaurant, souvenir shops and other facilities. This is also the place where the shuttles are picking the people downstairs to the parking lots. We went into the restaurant and bought something to eat. After that we looked for some souvenirs in the museum shop and then we took the shuttle to come down. 

We put on our motorcycle gear. At that minute I remarked that the lens cap of my camera is not in my pocket. While Sadik was waiting for me I looked around to the walking way to the shuttles station. I saw our shuttle and I went in in order to check my seat. Suddenly, the driver recognized me searching something in the midi-bus he gave the lens cap which he had found after our trip. Around 13:30 we departed with Sadik in the direction to the city.

When we came to the city we filled up our tanks and then went to the Hotel and had rest a little bit. We agreed with Sadik to meet in downtown at the corner-café which is called 
La Zorra. I walked down alone and I stopped in the beer garden just after the fuel station at the bridge. I took an Indian Pale Ale for 100.-A$. I looked around and bought some souvenirs for my son and friends. Then we met with Sadik at La Zorra. It is an attractive Pub just at the side of the main road in the city and has good view to the street. We sat a little bit and then we moved to the beer garden where I sat before. We sat there outside and shared a long table with two girls. 

These two girls were from UK and they were travelling together South America. We chat a lot and bought  beer and took some pictures. They were funny and very positive girls. Louisa C'Connell is also writing her travel experiences  on ecolouisa.wordpress.com

We ate at the same restaurant as we did last night. La Tablita is a very nice and fine restaurant. Then these two ladies took us to La Zorra and bought a wine for the friendship.