We hope it serves you well. The Beginning
It started in 2016... Feeling daunted by the imminent uprising of artificial intelligence and apathetic toward the ever-encroaching rat race, we quit our desk jobs to travel the world. To stretch our budget, we opted to travel by bicycle. At the time, we didn't know anything about bicycle touring; in fact, we didn't even own bicycles. Piecing together info
rmation on bike touring from across the internet with long searches — what is bike touring? how high should set my bike seat? what gear do you need to bike tour? — we scanned hundreds of personal blogs for information. Slowly, we weeded through the personal anecdotes and accumulated knowledge to make gear and equipment purchases and begin our journey. South America was calling, so we packed our new bikes into boxes and flew to Montevideo, Uruguay without much of a plan. The first time either of us rode our fully-packed bicycles was on November 4, 2016, when we pedaled out of Montevideo and set off north, toward Brazil and away from Patagonia. The coastal ride from balneario to balneario eventually brought us to the quaint seaside town of La Paloma. There, after a few liters of cerveza, we both felt a strong desire to turn around and head south. A quick Google search told us there was a famous route called the Carretera Austral; it looked promising. We figured that if we left ASAP, we could pedal to Ushuaia before the harsh Patagonian winter kicked in. Vamos a Patagonia
We circled back to Montevideo, crossed into Argentina and cycled our way south – through the pampas to Viedma, the capital city of Río Negro. With luck (and love from a stranger named Kevin), we boarded a train that crossed the continent and dropped us off in Bariloche. Thus began our Patagonian adventure. The more we pedaled, the more we fell in love with traveling by bicycle: the pace, the scenery and the feeling of accomplishment at the end of each day. The more people we met along the way, the more we felt inspired by the human spirit. The and ridiculously beautiful scenery we observed, the more . We loved Patagonia. But it wasn't all sunshine and roses. Our interspersed internet research — where is the bad ripio? where is the next ATM? is there an alternate route? — led to what was ultimately good adventures, but initially, frustrating non-conclusions forcing us to wing it. Creating Bicycle Patagonia
At the end of our journey, with a few days to spare until our flight finishing the last of our dulce de leche in Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, we came up with a goal: create a free, no-nonsense guide to traveling Patagonia by bicycle with the novice cyclist in mind. And Bicycle Patagonia was born. We hope you find the site useful in planning your bike tour or travel through the increasingly popular region of Patagonia.
