skysworldadventures

Back in to civilization after unimaginally good weather in Torres del Paine.   It's late and i'm tired but happy.  Here are a couple amazing pictires.  I'll get to stories tomorrow. These pictures totally make younwant to hear the full stories, right?  These aren't even the best photos...  I'm saving them.  It was great.  Now sleep....

We are leaving civilization shortly, to hike in the Torres Del Paine wilderness area. There will be no internet access, so no blog for 6 days.  It should be amazing!  :-)

We left Pucon this morning.  Our fabulous driver Orlando took us on one last trip to the bus station.  Six hours on the bus later we were in Porto Montt.  We then walked a pretty good distance with all out luggage (and we have a lot of luggage, between the cycling gear and hiking in cold weather gear and having a couple things for warm weather wine drinking, its a lot!) to find a good spot for lunch.  We had good food and then took a cab to the airport.   We flew to Punta Arenas.  From there took another bus 2.5 hours to Porto Notallis.  Took a cab from the bus station to the hotel.   We left one hotel at 7:40 in the morning and got in tonight a 11:30.  There are still some resturants open but it took too much effort to find them.  We ate a couple protein bars and are getting ready for sleep. Highlights of the day...  Saw the Straight of Magellon.  If you don't remember what this is, go review your history.  Saw a beautifu...

We enjoyed another great day today on the bikes.  You guessed it, more volcanos!  There is a reason why they call this the volcano region.   The ride today started on the Pucon Ironman 70.3 course.  We started a little out side of town to avoid the traffic and the contined past the turnaround fot the bike leg.   The route was beautiful!   Lunch was at the end of a big climb next to a creek. The water was crystal clear and we could see the fish swimming in it.   Enjoying a little chill time before lunch.  I waded in to the water knee deep, it was cold but felt good. I want to take a minute to say how excellent our experience was with Echo Tours so far.  Earnesto, our guide and Orlando, our driver were fantastic!  Earnesto is a world class cyclist and was ranked 3rd in the world in 2010 (i cant remember the distance) but holy crap can that guy ride!   Jeff and I would be slowly weezing our way up hills and he would blow past us like w...

Today was beautiful!!! The day started with a ride up to a high mountain lake. Jeff at the boat ramp for the lake. We then went back the way we came for a couple of clicks and started up a road to the hot springs.  This road was amazing!!!  The whole way up we were riding past bright green fields and forrested areas with mountains looming above us. Mountains and fields. Me and forrested area. At the top was a hotspring caused by the volcanic activity in the area.  It was made in to three pools one cold, one hot and one in the middle.  There was a river running right behind the springs for people who really wanted to plunge in to the cold! After enjoying a cervasa with lunch and the water, we got back on the bikes.  Almost the whole way down the hill the volcano was dominating the view.  It was awesome!  I couldn't help thinking "what can get better than bombing down a hill with a view of a glacial topped active volcano!" Odd fact about Chile.  The...

Has some internet problems last night so this is a morning blog.  Yesterday was another great day of riding.  There were lots of rolling hills with a net downhill for the day.  52 miles and 1500 ft of climbing.   The whole day was volcano sightings.  We saw at least 8. Its a little hard to see in this photo but there are 4 volcanos if you look closely. Volcano in the distance. The day was beautiful and sunny.  It truely felt like summer.  No need for windbreakers or knee warmers.  The only downside is yesterday revieled that the need for sunblock is very high in Chile due to the thin spot in the ozone layer over the country.  The previous day I somehow forgot sunblock and now my arms and legs look like a lobster.  Lesson learned.  A short time outside here NEEDS UV protection. We chanced towns and are now in Pucon which is a very popular turist destination for Chileans.  It is located between a volcano and a lake.  Here ar...

Today we rode 50 milese to the Argentina border.  It was absolutly beautiful! Highlights included going through a 4K tunnel under the Sierra Nevada mountains. Tunnel entrance. Glacial topped Sierra Nevada Mointain range. We then road through rolling hills and farmlands to the base of the Andies. The climb was grueling but fun.  The views were spectacular.  We assended almost 5500 feet over 13 miles. Clinbing but still smiling! The view about half way up. Argentina!  The border between Chile and Argentina is the highest point in the Andies for the entire legnth of the country. The wind at the top was about 50 MPH which made decending risky and took the advice of the locals and took a van down.   We finished with a fantastic lunch! I had a locally brewed cervasa while writing this, time for diner.  What a great day!!!