| Our way in Patagonia: |  |
A penguin we saw on the penguin colony near Punta Arenas.
Yves and me cycling the endless roads in Patagonia. This shot was taken between Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales. We have had luck on this trip, because the sun was shining. (I do not complain about the wind anymore, because it's useless - you have to make your peace with the wind -YES WE LOVE YOU - WIND!!!!)
Camping in Villa Techuelches. Two days later, this will be the place where 10.000 people are expected for a big regional festival. People were really friendly to us. The mayor personally showed us the way to the place.
As said above, Klaus loved the wind. He also loved the wideness of the country.
"Jungle" in Patagonia. In Tiera del Fuego, we often saw this kind of vegetation, too.
Un buscón (postbox) near the road. They are often the only sign of an estancia, as they tend to be far away from the road. When searching for water, this could mean a lot of extra kilometers for finding an inhabited estancia.
The big Bar-B-Q in Hosteria Magalania in Puerto Natales. You see one of our friendly host, making very good sausages.
Should we camp here? Seen on the way to the Argentinian border .
Landscape ...
We made it to the Border (so we're back in Argentinia).
We are cooking in the wilderness. Better: I was cooking, while Yves was reading poetry (is he from Vogon? - No, I am still alive) ;-)
In Tapi Aike, we met the famous Ruta 40. This is a real bad road! Watch the next pictures.
Not really paved...
...and this is the result: The mounting of my front rack broke. So much about the people from the cycling shop in Frankfurt, who sold me the bike and told me especially about this part: "No, this will not break, you absolutely do not have to worry!" ($%&!!). The last picture was made in El Chalten, after the repair in the local Gomeria.
After a quick repair and disembarking all luggage from the left front bag, I hit the road again.
Shortly before Rio Bote, we traveled kilometer 1000! We built a litte advertising for this web-page from stones. By the way: We went downhill this mountain (from 850 m down to 250 m in about 8 km) the wind was so strong, we had to pedal all the time. Once, when my speedo showed 7% descending, I gave it a try: I did not pedal -> The wind blew me back -up- the hill!
We finally made it to Rio Bote and stayed the night in the small Hosteria. It is a family-managed house and the people were so friendly, they invited us to their garden grill party. Thank you again, Lia Lopez!
The next day, on our trip to El Calafate, we got up at 5:15, got breakfast at 6 and hit the road at 7am. By doing so, we avoided the strong headwind and drove the 42 km in 2 hours.
The welcome in El Calafate. This city has more police and military personell than normal inhabitants.
On the way from El Calafate to the big glacier, we visit an old Estancia and admired the 100 year old sheep-shearing machines.
The huge Perito Moreno Glacier.We were lucky and saw a big chunk of ice coming down the glacier, making a lot of noise. Unfortunately my camera was not ready at this moment. But I snaphot it into my mind :-)
The next stop was El Chalten, where we visited the mountains: The elegant Cerro Torre and the impressive high Fitz Roy. (After my bike had been welded)
The hiking led to some tiredness.
The first Lama we saw, after a lot of guanacos.
El Chalten is a very young village, which is just existing because of the tourism. I had a nice talk with these building workers.
Chile, like California, does not allow any agricultural goods to pass the border. At the border from San Antigua (Argentina) to Cile Chico, you were asked to eliminate all these stuff. So we had a second breakfast with lot of butter and honey.
Torres del Paine