After a mere half day in the pampa winds I quickly decided to take my chances with the rain in chile than to keep going in the wind. Leaving Argentina for until the road ends in Chile. There was a great break with nice company at the argentinian border and onto Chile.

The Chilean entry was more organised and quick. Instead of solar and windpower there was a generator buzzing, computers and that was about it. One might forget and take for granted crossing a border but in many countries in South America its a breeze and really makes for a great trip where time constraints are almost nonexistent. Your 90 day visa is out? easy, leave the country and come back! This would also explain why I have been taking increasingly long to get to Ushuaia!

The Chilean roads are also smooth like butter compared to the Argentinian soft rocky tracks. The scenery was changing and I was happy to be closer to the mountains

Riding in wind like this is always somewhat unsettling and its always there. It normally brings out some sort of urgency to find a sheltered place to camp but also the moments that you turn your back to it with your hood on are the best. I hung around the horses for a bit and even got to look at the other critters living in these rough climates

eventually I found a relatively protected spot in some patch of planted trees giving a good balance of sun rays, a view and a quiet night.

It was few hours to get to the first Chilean town and while I often make fun of chilean food for being bad - one thing is clear that the baked goods like empanadas are very good in Chile. Even if there is simply nowhere to sit and I find little wind cover by a fence along the plaza.

While Tubeless has been absolutely amazing, I had gotten a little too bold few days ago and rode straight through many thorns, ending up puncturing the inside of the rim. Below the black liner, there is a layer of tyvek tape, plus one of duct tape. It keps leaking for few days even with duct tape or thermarest patch but I finally found some superglue and it seemed to work well under the duct tape.

It was fairly uneventful few hours to the next town

I made friends with a street cat at another break, the little stores in Chile seem to have everything.

Then onto the Carretera Austral

The clouds finally came down and it began raining and drizzling. I thought great, the wind will come down but that was certainly not the case!
(the sound is not that great!)

I found a road going off into a tree plantation and the overhanging branches were great cover from the rain

the site even included a morning alarm and a brief departure ceremony

and riding into Coyhaique on a bit of pavement was really nice. The man on that tractor is the king of the road! Casually riding at 10km/h with one dog on each side!

Coyhaique and the nice rock to the south of town

for the middle of nowhere, this is a well stocked town with supermarkets and restaurants and all that. I walked my bike into the big supermarket, asked the guard to keep an eye on my bike. Grabbed a basket and looked at the lines… and walked my bike out.
it was the beggining of the Chilean super long weekend and everything was crazy

There was cell phone signal everywhere and i was also able to find an alternate route

and this dog looked just like Shadow!

it was really nice riding through farms and fields but at some point i began wondering, why are there so many cars? where are they coming and where are they going? there was nothing at the end of the road.