South America

“Never again, I’ll never do this again!” Those were my words after crossing Paso San Francisco last week. And yet, here we are. Cycling the Puno and crossing into Argentina over het high Andes.

A little more than 450 kilometer lies between us and the next village when we cycle out of Fiambalá .And various high altitude passes are in between, with Paso San Francisco being the highest with 4774 meter. Breathtaking.

Cycling along vulcanoes in Chiles Lake District and crossing impressive Paso Pichachen. See our latest video!

An easy warm-up; only 2062 meter high, so easy! We leave Los Angeles and the MacDonalds behind and soon we are back to nomansland. Just a little before Antuco asphalt dissapears and we are cycling on black lava sand. Vulcano Laja with a snow capped peak is watching over us, while traffic slows down and we are on our own again! Alone with history: the Antuco tragedy.

It’s time to leave our bicycles behind for a day to climb an active vulcano near Pucon: Vulcan Villarrica. In a minivan we drive to the base of the vulcano where we can see the sunrise. Clouds are hanging in the valley like a thick blanket and slowly the group is walking up through deep, black sand.

Dusty Carretera Austral, the cycling is steep, rocky and hilly. Watch our movie about the Carretera Austral!

The sun is shining, the ripio road is dusty and rocky, in the distance glaciers, waterfalls along the road and turquios colored lakes. Yes, we are cycling the Carretera Austral!

110 kilometers of pine trees, rocky mountains and lakes: we are cycling the Ruta de 7 Lagos in Argentina. I feel like we are in Canada and the smell of pine trees.., that’s the best! My thoughts are wandering away…

It’s a tough one! Don’t get the wrong idea when we write about tough routes, we kind of actually like it! It’s our fetishism apparently… 😉 So, crossing from El Chalten to Villa o’Higgins is more of a pushing adventure than a bicycle one, but a must!