My mantra: "Ride the world"

As already mentioned the refuelling of my motorbike in El Chaten took quite a while. However, I did not want to risk running out of fuel on my way to Gobernador Gregores 🤪

After my stop in El Chaten, I had to pass the „73 Malditos de la Ruta 40“ These are know as the worst part of the route 40, where 73 kilometres of deep gravel combined with strong winds have challenged many motorbikers in the past. Luckily I passed this sector without any significant complications; maybe because I trained well on the shortcut from Puerto Natales to El Calafate, which is strongly not recommended for motorbikes because of deep gravel and strong sidewind – my motivation to definitely do it 😅

After one night in Gobernador Gregores, I continued my ride towards Santiago and passed by more gas stations that made me realising: I forgot to produce some stickers, which I should leave everywhere.

At one of my stops at gas stations, I met Ulrich again (we picked up our motorbikes in San Antonio at the same time). We hadn’t seen each other for weeks and thus stopped for a coffee and a short chat. His aim for the day was reaching Bariloche, where he wanted to join again with his colleagues that he only left because of the need of some service/repair on his motorbike. We decided to continue together and he offered me staying over night in the apartment they had rented.

The next day I continued my journey towards Santiago. Based on a recommendation I left the Ruta 40 and took Paso Icalma in order to get back to Chile. Today I know that this was not only the more picturesque decision, but also prevented me from flooding that had happened on the further part of the Ruta 40 in Argentina. The ride was beautiful:

Finally I arrived at Casa Matte in Santiago. This is a biker hostel that perfectly matched or even topped my expectations on such a destination. A very nice and cosy place for either starting or ending a motorbike tour in Chile. I booked five nights, because I thought that somehow „fading out“ this journey might be the better way rather than abruptly stopping my trip by dropping the bike in the harbour and flying back the same day. You’ll read more about my time in Santiago later.