| Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 | |
Chile - Carretera AustralInterest forums / On Your Bike | ||
Hello, Thank you, | ||
Yes to all of those. But Nov and early Dec is early season, and you will meet fewer people then, maybe barely anyone in early Nov. Come January there will be lots.
If? You will do this by necessity I suggest. In fact lodgings at convenient intervals have increasingly popped up in recent times, so you do hardly need to camp on the main central section these days. But in the far south, this is not true. It will cost you similar if you were doing the same thing in another typical developed country like France or Italy.
Look at some travelogues at crazyguyonabike to get a variety of experiences. Be aware that if you are looking at older travelogues, more of it has been paved in recent times. You talk about "The" carreterra Austral but are you including the northern and southern extensions, adn there are some options here and there - I'd particularly recommend to go via P Ibanez, ferry to Chile Chico, and then along the lake, which is amazingly scenic, but also hard. So what you want to do?
You need to find someone who rode it yesterday to know that, since they might have might have done some maintenance last week, you never can tell. But you know extended sections are paved now, especially the central section which is all, or nearly all, paved, all the way to VCC and P Ibanez. Some of the far northern sections north of Chaiten can be very rough, but maybe someone has done something about that. But from Villa Cerro Castillo southwards it is typically very rough.
You can now get high quality touring equipment in Santiago - not widely, only at one or two specialists - including the high quality steel luggage racks and panniers that are necessary if you do the really rough sections down in the far south. But it would probably be cheaper/easier/more choice to buy them somewhere else. But don't think you can get something suitable in P Montt. | 1 | |
Iviehoff, thank you for this extremely useful information, especially on the best time to go and run into people. I've heard that they are always paving more of the road which, or course, if both bad and good. What year did you do this trip? Thanks also for the tips on where to detour. If you have more please share! Gracias, | 2 | |
You need to be in touch with un_australian but I think she has not been on line much lately (on LP). look for her on athousandturns.net or wishfish.org. | 3 | |
Hi there | 4 | |
Toeclip, Bingo! This is exactly what I wanted to hear. Now I'm super excited!! I have a couple more questions. Do you remember how much the boat cost and how long it took from P. Natales back to P. Montt? Also, camping and cooking your own food do you remember more or less how much you spent each day? I know this will vary but just trying to get a ball park estimate. Do you have any idea about the conditions of biking from Conception to Osorno? I have about 3 months. One more question...any bike tips after your long haul on "ripio?" So great that you did this! I'm inspired!! | 5 | |
Hello again lafountaine! | 6 | |
Go to http://www.mapasdechile.cl/ and they have some map pages which should indicate which roads are paved (though of course such maps always prove to be not quite right, you may get an alternative opinion on copec.cl), which is important to know as despite all the recent paving there is still a huge amount of ripio, and Chilean ripio is worth avoiding unless there is a substantial scenic benefit you are gaining at the same time. In general the main densely inhabited portions of Chile have had their natural vegetation almost entirely removed, so what you see is a lot of agriculture and in some areas some really really tedious enormous monocultural forestry plantations. There are plainly some worthwhile exceptions as you get towards the Andes, and also a few little "islands" further west like Nahuelbuta, which is a national park. And coastal roads can be very nice too, though the road doesn't often go exactly along the coast. Even the E of R5, there is often is pretty tedious agriculture until you actually get into the mountains, even many of the famous lakes of the lake district have their western parts stuck out into tedious farmland. I did enjoy cycling northwards from Concepcion, which presents a much more Mediterranean landscape of pines and vineyards, though hardly special enough you'd want to fly half way around the world for - but I was cycling for a year and it made a change. Concepcion wasn't a nice place to stay when I visited it, and since then it has been badly rearranged by a major earthquake. Consider starting somewhere else and heading E of the R5, and cross into the Argentinean lake district for a while also - a lot of the best roads are border crossings - if you want to see landscapes more distinctive than what you can see in Europe. | 7 | |
Toeclip, Thanks a million for this valuable information! I've been absorbing it over the past couple days. Ordered the book and visited Tom's website. So much to read and learn! I'm definitely doing this! Cheers amigo, Denise | 8 | |
Thank you for the breakdown of the geography of the region. This helps in determining my starting point. I'm thinking I may start in Valdivia ride down to Ushuia then take the boat back to Puerto Montt from there cross over into Argentina and ride north to Mendoza on Ruta 40 (from there either back to Santiago or perhaps even Buenos Aires). Do you know anything about Ruta 40? Does this sound like a wise plan to you? Gracias! | 9 | |
R40 is bleak and windy in the southern half of Argentina. I think that central section you refer to is paved, or nearly all paved, by now, last time I checked there was an unpaved gap somewhere around Malargue, but Argentinean ripio is most rather better than Chilean. But you may well prefer cycling through that wilderness, slow changing as the view might be, than through Chile's boring agriculture. Crossing the mountains from Mendoza to Santiago is a great ride. Argentina east of the Andes starts to get much more interesting from Mendoza northwards - so long as you keep W and avoid the main road where you can - so head N from Uspallata keeping as close as possible to the Andes, all the way to Bolivia, its a great ride, if you have time for it. Be aware that on these desert rides water can be infrequent and you may have to be ready to carry a lot, sometimes even to camp overnight without a water source. There are also bits like that south of P. Natales. | 10 | |
Hi, Yes, you meet people every day. A lot actually... It's a pretty route, just enjoy! | 11 | |
Actually you need to be careful about this, he says, having made a mistake once and suffered for it. You need to be sure that there is not agriculture upstream from where you are. Watercourses in flat land are best avoided, as there is probably agriculture upstream in such cases. Also hantavirus can get into the water from wild animal droppings, and to kill this off the water needs to have been bubbling downhill in the sunshine for 20 minutes. So streams coming down through shady wooded hillsides are more of a risk than streams with sun exposure. Also don't drink lake-water, it can have giardia. | 12 | |
I agree! We usually filter our water, but on the CA we took some right out of the streams. Maybe we have been lucky. ;) | 13 | |
Thank you for the information and thanks for the link to your blog! Great encouragement! | 14 | |
Thanks for the clarification! I'll probably filter in general. I've been unlucky with drinking unfiltered water and don't want to repeat that nasty experience any time soon! | 15 | |
| 16 | |
Boiling is a much more reliable method, and in practice many people find it more convenient. There are excellent filters these days, that aren't too much labour to use, but you often see cyclists with a small pump filter, which is exceedingly boring and time-consuming to use: I had one and soon couldn't be bothered. You can boil up a few litres at night while you read a book or write your diary, and leave it to cool for tomorrow. You'll need to have the ability to carry several litres of water in any case for when you are riding through more arid areas, if you are doing longer versions of the ride - a few drink bottles you saved on the way do the trick, though you might like, as I do, an Ortlieb water bag as they are light and pack up small. Iodine tablets, for occasional use, are also convenient, and if you put a small amount of fruit juice/cordial in your water after you've let the iodine do its work, it takes the iodine taste away.
I also frequently drank water from streams without purifying, I just needed a bit more discrimination over it. In more northerly areas, there can be agriculture, in the sense of stock-keeping, quite high in the mountains, so you need to be fairly careful about what might be upstream from where you are - I've seen cows at 1000m in the Lake District, so that far north you need to be very careful. My mistake occurred much further to the south, when I was camping at a farm, on the shores of Lago Carrera, and it was evident that the farm's water supply was straight from the stream, and they drank it untreated - as is common for example in the Scottish highlands, so it didn't worry me. But I made the mistake of taking water at a location where stock access to it. I should have walked upstream to get uncontaminated water. Giardia can occur as far south as Torres del Paine at least. So lake water should always be treated. | 17 | |
Has anyone ridden their bike from the very northern boarder of Chile (Arica) down to P.Montt? What are the roads like in the very north. Are there any small towns or places to sleep/eat along the way and most importantly, is there water at regular intervals? What's the best time to do this ride? Thank you very much! Denise | 18 | |
Many people have done that. There is of course a main paved road all the way from Arica to Puerto Montt, the problem is that it is often too busy for pleasant cycling. In some cases there is a quieter alternative, like for example from Iquique southwards along the coast. In other cases there are very adventurous alternatives, like riding along bad dirt roads at 4000m in the Andes - plenty of people have done that too, but requires a considerable degree more self-reliance and physical self-will. There are not towns and water-sources at sufficient intervals that you can have a bed and water every night. You have to wild camp and carry water, even on the main road, but considerably more on the wilder alternatives. Decent maps of Chile are available for download online. I gave a link to someone a few months ago, either here or on the CTC forum, I haven't time to search it down again. If the map doesn't show anything, you can be sure nothing is there. More worrying is that sometimes it shows something, and it is no more than an isolated abandoned building. But you can buy the 3 volume detailed road guide by Codelco which gives you a very detailed description of what you will encounter along the roads, though clearly in Spanish. Apart from the very high Andean ways, which are special, on the whole I think it is more scenic to cycle mainly in Argentina between Arica and the Lake District. Many of the most scenic cycling roads in Chile are border crossings. Most of Chile's great wonders are of more interest to walkers, until to get S of P Montt. | 19 | |
Iviehoff, You rock! Thank you for all this great information. I will look into getting a map. Is this a physical map or a virtual map that you're talking about. I'm old school and have never used a downloaded map. Is this what everyone is doing these days? And, what is the CTC forum? Also, I think you're saying that R40 in Argentina from the boarder to the lake district is nice and the preferred route for many...is that right? Gracias amigo! | 20 | |
There's a virtual map you can locate and download. No, the R40 from Mendoza to the Lake District cannot be described as "nice", but many cyclists think it is preferable to what lies on the other side. It's bleak with only occasional settlement, but at least it is a reasonably natural wilderness. Chile from about 100km N of Santiago to about 600km south is the main inhabited part of Chile, and is no paradise for the cyclist. The natural environment has been almost completely razed, so you travel through extensive farmlands and logging plantations of no great distinction. There are some nice coastal roads, here and there but they are fairly brief and mostly you have to travel some way inland of the coast for lack of a coastal road. Or in some cases there is a coastal road, but it is a terrible gravel road. In sum, it isn't really a landscape you travelled half way around the world to travel in. Chile's wonderful bits, at these latitudes, are mostly localities up dead end roads, thus somewhat inconvenient to cyclists. | 21 | |
Iviehoff, thanks again for sharing your wealth of knowledge. The more I research the longer this trip becomes! Oh well, you only live once and I'm already poor so what the hell! So, another question...did you bike through Bolivia? Now, I'm sort of thinking of starting in Potosi and riding to Salar de Uyuni and from there south to Villazon to start the ride south along R40 in Argentina down to Bariloche and then over into Chile and eventually Ushuaia. I really want to see Salar de Uyuni. I've been to Bolivia many years ago but missed the salt flats. Maybe I don't ride in this area at all? Maybe I just bus it? Any advice on road safety in Bolivia and quality of roads and infrastructure along the way? Thanks for your words of wisdom in advance! | 22 | |
I loved cycling in Bolivia. I cycled from Villazon to Potosi via Tupiza which was very nice, but I ate something bad in Potosi and was in bed 10 days. I then took the bus to Uyuni and back for a tour in a jeep to recuperate, and bus back to Potosi, before cycling on north to Sucre, Cochabamba, Uyuni and La Paz, with a few detours on the way. There's a lot more I'd love to do one day, as there is a lot more tarmac on those roads now, and it is the quite back roads that are so lovely. I took the very tough old backroad between Tupiza and Santiago Cotagaita to see the Tupiza pillar, but you encounter that also on the Uyuni-Tupiza segment. I think the main road from Potosi to Villazon via Tupiza is all paved now, it was nearly all unpaved when I did it. Potosi to Uyuni is a lovely ride with places to stay at convenient intervals on the way, but it is very high, you need time to acclimatise before setting out. I think it is now paved. Uyuni to Tupiza I haven't done, but there's plenty of accounts of it, google some for description and where you can stay, I think it may require a camp. I believe it is still unpaved, and horribly sandy for extensive sections, and much less interesting ride overall than Potosi-Uyuni or Potosi Tupiza (though you do get the Tupiza pillar). So actually, probably better to start at Uyuni and go, somewhat counter-intuitively, via Potosi to Tupiza. Tupiza pillar is only 20km out of Tupiza so you can do it as a side dayride, and it is worth staying a few days in Tupiza anyway as there is lots of stuff to see/do there. Tupiza to Villazon is 100km and in the other direction I did it in a day but I was horribly fit then, realistically probably needs an overnight in a tent for most people going the other way, or maybe if you ask in some of the vilalges there could be a room to rent, but would be wise to take food. It's a really special area and you'll love it, but cycling at 4000m is no walk in the park, and exercise brings out ones lack of acclimatisation, probably makes sense to do the jeep tour out of Uyuni first as acclimatisation assistance. Btw that Chilean map link is http://www.mapasdechile.cl/ I spotted it again a few minutes ago. | 23 | |
HI Iviehoff, Thanks for all the awesome Bolivian info. It takes me a minute to absorb all the information. Still trying to figure this all out. So, if i flew into Potosi and acclimatized for a couple weeks (taking a Spanish course) then it might be feasible to ride from Potosi to Uyuni, right? Also, I hear you saying that Uyuni to Villazon isn't the best because the road is crappy. Do you know anything about the road from Uyuni west over the boarder into Chile and then San Pedro Atacambe? I'm having a hard time finding detailed info on the web, especially since you do such a great job! Also, what year did you go to Bolivia? I went many years ago overland by bus and got typhoid fever in Potosi. I spent a month in a hospital in Argentina. Missed some areas of Bolivia that I'd now like to go back to see. | 24 | |
That's a serious expedition, long gaps between food and water, and roads that are just jeep tracks worn into the land. There are several routes and they aren't well mapped, but people find their way by one route or another, there aren't many choices to be made, and the standard routes are fairly well worn by the jeep tours. You need to carry about 10-12 days food because there isn't much even in odd village you do encounter. Water management is also hard work, in general you'll get water every second day, but of course need to have some conservatism in case you get delayed by weather, weariness or whatever. Though there will be regular jeep tours going by for assistance if you get into trouble, and sometimes you can beg water off them. Some general comments here I made on the basis of going on a landrover tour in the area. There's a lot of material on remote routes in SW Bolivia and other parts of the Andes here which must surely cover it Here's another description among several "off the map" routes in the Andes There are plenty more accounts to be found, I'm sure. This guy (sporadically) keeps a catalogue of them http://www.transamazon.de/links/ though a lot of the older links are dead now. The key decision is whether you cross the Salar or take the shorter route via Villa Alota to the south of the Salar. Crossing the salar is much the more scenic route, not just for the salar itself but for other lovely sights in the western borderlands before you get to Laguna Colorado where the routes join. But it includes some nasty soft ground and very indistinct tracks, and you can end up dragging your bike across soft ground for a few tens of km here and there. You pass the Chiguana military post and in the past cyclists found it important to beg water off them, but I have heard it might have been closed. Sol de Manana is an optional detour between the S end of L Colorada and the next lake south, for all they say about it, it's actually only about 4900m, but it is still a big steep climb from L Colorada, especially at that altitude. Laguna Verde is of course the single most famous sight - you'll be lucky to see it in the snow as I did, as evidenced by the photo at the top of the page. But you can shorten the journey by omitting Laguna Verde and cross to Chile further north, there are 2 or 3 options, and going via El Tatio. In general you need to check in Uyuni where active border posts are, and get stamped out in Uyuni if you are using a border without an active post. | 25 | |
It's a tough road mostly due to bad road conditions, altitude, temperature and wind. We found there were enough places to stock up on water, since the jeep tours travel more or less the same route and there are quite a few refugios on the way. A GPS is very handy though, since tracks lead everywhere and it might confuse you. It was one of the highlights of our ride across the Americas, so if you do have time and energy you should ride this section in Bolivia. Here's our story of the Laguna Route And our short movie Pikes on Bikes is a very useful resource, you should really check out their website for some more fantastic rides in this part of the world. Route info and map - very handy! Enjoy! I wish I could ride it again! | 26 | |
Thanks, once again, for the wealth of information in this region of Bolivia! I'm still taking it all in. I really want to cross the Salar to San Pedro but not on my own. Hopefully, if I hang out in Uyuni (mid October) for a few days I'll run into a few intrepid bikers who are planning to do the same ride. Btw, I've now extended my ride. I now plan to start in LaPaz (acclimatize for a while) then ride via Oruro to Uyuni and either the flats option or, if no company, down to Tapiza and villazon boarder. Does that sound like a good plan? Help. it's hard to make decisions on my own (both the joy and bane of traveling alone). | 27 | |
Make the decision when you are actually there. It will make more sense, trust me. | 28 | |
There's a lot to be said for taking the bus from La Paz to Oruro. It isn't very interesting scenically - well actually on first arriving in the place it probably is somewhat interesting but by wider Bolivian standards it isn't - and it is distinctly tedious traffic wise. Lots of trucks, on a road without a shoulder, and there is an unfortunate minority of drivers who don't give you the respect you require. I felt like that 15 years ago, and the level of traffic has grown considerably, I understand. | 29 | |
Brilliant advice! Thanks. | 30 | |
That makes sense. I was thinking that section between LaPaz and Oruro would be pretty nasty. Any advice on rabie shots? I wasn't planning on getting this shot but maybe I should? What about wheel size in SA. I keep reading that you should have 26 inch wheels because that's what they can fix down there. Do you think that's true? If so, does that mean they don't have tubes for other size of tires? OMg...so much to think about. At some point I'll just throw my hand up and leave it all to the will of "Pachamama" or some other entity. Gracias otra vez. | 31 | |
When I went there, you had to be very self-sufficient. Things have changed a bit. There is now a reasonable bike shop in La Paz, I understand, but elsewhere then things may well be much more basic and you will still have to be reasonably self-sufficient, as likely you will only get basic Chinese standard spare parts. Perhaps someone who has been there more recently can say whether 28" hybrids have become common, but when I was there it was all 26" apart from racing bikes in 700C, and the latter are little use to you. But I travelled there with a 700C tourer, had quite a lot of mechanicals to deal with, and made it through, though I was somewhat prepared. If you are literally talking about fixing spoke breakages, then they can fix any size of wheel, but you need to supply the right-sized spokes you brought with you (I keep them with my tent poles), and you supply the block/cassette removal tool you carry with you so that they can take the block off for a block-side repair, which it so often seems to be. If you need a new wheel or other serious spare parts, then unless you happen to be within reach of one of the handful of major cities in Chile with good modern bikeshops, or if you are lucky La Paz, then are probably talking about couriering it anyway. A good idea to have a couple of those emergency spokes for block-side repairs when you can't get to a bike-shop, but they need to be adjusted to size before you set off, as that requires tools you won't carry. Travelling in such remote places, you will of course carry a spare tyre and several spare inner tubes you brought with you. You will also carry brake blocks, if you have that kind of brake, brake and gear wires, puncture repair kit with a lot of patches - though those are easy to source locally - chain extractor tool, cone spanners, narrow nose pliers, a little bearing grease, as well as the usual good quality allen keys and the like that you require for basic bike maintenance. Maybe you can't do all the maintenance tasks that these tools imply, but it is useful to give them to your mechanic so that he has the proper tools to fix your bike rather than trying to do it with a hammer and chisel. If you do need serious spare parts, then unless some really major city is at hand it's probably as convenient as anything to phone a good bike part supplier in the USA and have them couriered. I did have a lot of mechanicals, and got very inventive about it. I was even searching rubbish dumps at times to find usefully shaped pieces of metal to substitute for tools I didn't have and was unable to borrow. | 32 | |
Wow! I have my work cut out for me. I'll have to figure the tire situation out fast. My longest ride so far has been a couple weeks in fairly easy terrain. I'm excited about this challenge but also naïve. Thanks for the reality check! | 33 | |
Just a little comment. If I was to fly in an airplane to Bolivia and start riding, I'd fly to Santa Cruz, not La Paz. It is the wealthiest city of Bolivia and there are international flights there. To land in La Paz, the airport is over 4000m, and routes to leave La Paz mostly require climbing up there out of the city centre, which is at 3600m. It is a big shock in terms of altitude acclimatisation, and it is particularly when you take vigorous exercise that the effect of inadequate altitude acclimatisation becomes clearest. If you have done activities at altitude before, like Himalayan trekking or the like, you will know what your own body's response to these things is and how long you need at various altitudes to be reasonably comfortable with an active day. If you haven't, best to investigate it gradually. Santa Cruz is in the lowlands, but right on the edge of the mountains, and there's a nice route that gradually climbs into the mountains via Samaipata, which is an interesting place to visit anyway. Though the pass of around 3700m to Cochabamba will likely be a bit of struggle because of the altitude, because you won't have been on the road very long by then, if you continue to Cochabamba. But you come down to Cochabamba at 2400m for a rest, and that up and down is very good for acclimatisation. Then the climb up to the high altiplano. There is another road from SCruz to Cocha, the so-called more northerly jungle road, which goes flat through the jungle and then climbs very suddenly to about 3900m, so that isn't such a good idea. Though you don't have to go to Cochabamba. There are various routes through the eastern valleys to Sucre, which will give more gentle altitude acclimatisation - gentle in terms of the acclimatisation, not gentle in terms of the effort of the ride, the eastern valleys are tough riding. Another alternative which is a bit more gradual is to fly to Cusco in Peru and ride to La Paz - Cusco is 3200m so just a few days there will give you an acclimatisation start to riding towards La Paz, and it is a nice ride too, though the distances between guesthouses can be a bit challenging, I think you have to keep up 100km days, or slightly longer, and that part of Peru wild camping is best avoided. Also don't ride out of Cusco until there are people about - a few cyclists starting at the crack of dawn have met bandits on the peripheries of town. Also try to avoid staying in Juliaca, it has a reputation as an unfriendly place that is often a centre of political troublemaking. But very many other cyclists have been to Cusco there and done this ride without any problem. | 34 | |
I appreciate this advice! Would never have considered this option but it is very compelling. The scenery seems more interesting starting out in Santa Cruz. I was thinking of taking a two week language course in LaPaz before starting to ride to sharpen up my Spanish while acclimatizing. If acclimatizing weren't an issue, which route is less stressful in terms of traffic and road conditions? which route would you go? | 35 | |
The hill road out of Santa Cruz towards Cochabamba is reasonably quiet, at least once you are well clear of SC itself, because the better maintained jungle road is the main traffic route. Cochabamba has a lot of language schools. It's a very pleasant city with a very pleasant climate, though ultimately lacks the interest level of La Paz, Sucre or Potosí. It's also a notch more expensive because it has a stronger economy than the very high cities. And at 2500m or something, you'll still have some acclimatising to do. If I was going to hang around for a fortnight, then I'd rather go to La Paz, because it has the interest level to make being there a fortnight worthwhile, and it will acclimatise you better. You can also go on short trips up onto the altiplano, eg to Tiahuanaco and Copacabana, to further aid acclimatisation. There's also great trekking in the nearby mountains, if you have the time for it. I managed to find a home-stay when I stayed a couple of weeks or so in La Paz, which would be good for the language practice. Bolivian Spanish is probably the easiest variety of Spanish, they speak quite slowly and clearly. Chilean on the other hand is one of the hardest, they speak fast and indistinctly, and it gets worse as you go south. La Paz to Oruro is the only really busy road in Bolivia, aside from within and close to cities. Actually I haven't travelled the La Paz to Coroico road - the so called "road of death" - I think that may be fairly busy too because it is the road by which most of La Paz's food arrives, though you are committing yourself to a real tough adventure though the mountains on poorly documented roads if you leave La Paz in that direction. But you can easily take the bus to Oruro and start riding from there. Oruro is not a place tourists tend to linger, aside from the carnival in Feb, because it isn't a very nice place, though if you have to there are a few points of interest to be found. | 36 | |
Thanks for giving me the scoop. After further examination and per your comments, I think I will stick to the original La Paz-Oruro-Salar de Uyuni route. Santa C. and Cochabamba sound compelling, but I actually don't want to spend a ton of time in Bolivia. If I do end up riding the Salar route into S.Pedro de Atacambe, Chile (which I really want to do but only with someone else) then that will be my big adventure in Bolivia. Thanks Iviehoff | 37 | |
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