I arrived in Santiago de Chile in the middle of the night, after a multi-hop flight from Panama via Bogota and Lima. The bike arrived too, although a few bits were protruding from the box. All things considered, it survived the journey well. Two wonderfully helpful Colombian ladies helped me to organise a taxi to my accommodation, and it all went very smoothly.
During my 3 day stay in Santiago, I got organised for the trip south. That included making a rough plan of the route. In order to have a chance of getting down to Ushuaia before the end of March (when it would already be too cold) I plan to take a bus south to Villarica and ride from there. I will to ride to Pucon, then cross a small pass to reach Junin de los Andes in Argentina. From there I'll follow Ruta 40 south to San Carlos de Bariloche via the "Siete Lagos" route. I will return to Chile by taking boats across 3 different lakes with cycling in between. First Lago Huapi Nahuel, then Lago Frias and finally Lago Todos los Santos in Chile. From Petrohue at the end of Lago Todos los Santos, I'll take the Caretera Austral south.
With my foot that I hurt in Costa Rica returning to normal and a bit of basic Spanish under my belt, I'm ready to go.
