Stepping off the plane, you could smell the difference. The air just smelled fresher. It smelled like forests and crisp mornings. It smelled refreshing and exciting.
I was here! I had completed the 27 hour trip to arrive in Puerto Varas.
…where?
Puerto Varas. A tiny city located in southern Chile, a territory of northern Patagonia in the Los Lagos Region. It is located on the shore of the Llanquihue Lake, one of the largest natural lakes in South America. There are only around 30,000 people in this town. Seriously.
As if that were too populated, I met the guides of the mountain bike tour (Jason and Ernesto of Secret Patagonia), the other cyclist on the tour (Faris) and we took off Wednesday morning (the 26th) to drive around 3 hours southeast to Llanada Grande. From there we took a ferry to take us over Lake Tagua Tagua, and from there we were blissfully isolated. Hardly a person or car in sight!
(me on the ferry crossing Lake Tagua Tagua)
Our first day, once we crossed over on the ferry, we popped onto our bikes and rode for about three hours (around 25 km) along Valle Rio Puelo. At night, we stayed at a local’s house, where they accommodated guests. It was called Hospedaje El Centro, and the owners were friendly and genuine.
Day 2 was much more relaxed biking (sad for me) but the scenery was incredible. The mountains and vast farmland as a backdrop soothed my soul and inspired gratitude for this experience and gratitude that this vision of this adventure had finally become a reality! This was mountain biking in southern Chile.
It was just us, our bikes, the nature, and the animals!
Sheep, WOODPECKERS, horses, pot-bellied pigs, cows, chickens, etc etc….It was amazing. We literally were going across trails that had no name. We got permission to cross someone’s farm and ended up at a gorgeous waterfall. We kept biking across this beautiful terrain (dirt, rocks, grass, etc) until we arrived at Rio Alerce.
I crossed the river in my shoes and socks and they got a wikkle bit wet and muddy.
Jason had carried lunch in his bag for us, and he had me wash the tomato in the fresh river water and I sliced it on a flat rock that was there. Jason busted out the bread and condiments and all the stuff and we had a great lunch listening to the sound of the bustling waters.
From there, we headed back the way we came. Altogether, it was about 20 km.
Day 3, we had to change plans because the ferry had stopped running across the whole lake due to low water levels of the lake, so we needed to take the bus to a small boat, then take the small boat to the ferry, then the ferry to Llanada Grande, then catch a ride from there to Puerto Varas. And this would all take a lot of time. So only time for 35 min of bike riding in the morning from Lago Blanco to Puerto Urrutia (Rio Puelo) (around 7 km).
Altogether, the trip was fantastic but I have mixed feelings.
Pros: I can sense a connection with southern Chile and South America in general, as well as a connection with having an adventure in nature! There is just something so amazing and natural and re-calibrating that occurs when we step away from the screens and the texting and the commercialism and take some deep breaths and spend hours in the sun and admiring the systems in nature…so in that sense, I loved it. There is a charm in southern Chile that makes me want to come back and opt for a 7 day mountain bike trip, or a 14 day! Or spend a month travelling in South America 😉 maybe one day…
And also, I really enjoyed the tour guides. Being more of a traveler on a budget, and DIY traveler, this is the first time I have ever hired a tour company and didn’t know how it would be. Awkward? But instead, they had a wonderful manner and had genuine, awesome spirits and I felt completely safe at all times. They were very responsible. And felt more like friends/travel companions than anything else, so that was rad!
Cons: Where I felt disappointed, however, was in the mountain biking itself. I had planned this trip for months to be an opportunity for me to learn more about mountain biking, and challenge my limits and comfort zones (e.g. I actually do not like biking! And I am a beginner, so I wanted to learn more technical skills as well as challenge myself physically). So, I was expecting to ride at the least 5-6 hours a day, and experience single track mountain biking, and learn more about steering, balance, and so forth. Instead, it was only 3 hours the first day, several hours the next day but it was very, very slow, and just flat; and then just 35 minutes the last day. So, it that sense, my expectations were not met.
However, altogether I had a great time, and really liked Ernesto and Jason, and would still recommend Secret Patagonia for anyone looking to have active adventures in Chile or Argentina.
APR