- Published:
Here’s our report on the 4,500-mile ride from Chile to the end of the road in South America – Ushuaia, Argentina. This isn’t a full feature story, but a quick summary of what we got up to riding through Patagonia.
This travel blog recounts our motorcycle adventure through Patagonia in 2025 as part of our round the world trip. To read more stories from our travels check out Our Adventures
Motorcycle Travel Report: Patagonia, Chile and Argentina
By Andy Davidson
Mad or Nomad: Round the World Motorcycle Traveller
Into the frying pan
We left the vast expanse of the Bolivian Altiplano and the legendary Ruta de las Lagunas and descended down into the fiery inferno of the Atacama Desert.
After weeks of riding through some of the most remote, desolate and empty landscapes we’ve ever experienced in our lives, it was weird to be in the bustle of San Pedro town. Tourists, chai lattes, avocado on toast, shorts and vests… and us on our bikes caked in dust, dirt, with sweaty bulky gear and looking dog tired.
We took three days out to wash our gear, sort our bikes, prepare for the next section of the ride and rest. And then we took an extra day to wait for the lightning storms to pass.
Rested and ready, we set off to ride the final stretch of South America—a long road south, 4,500 miles to Ushuaia. Patagonia lay ahead, and so did the legendary Ruta 7.
A hot start
Santiago, Chile’s capital is our target. There’s not much on the road ahead, just long stretches of heat, desert and silence. So, we plotted a route to visit an abandoned train station, scooted along the rugged coast and flew down the empty desert roads without wasting time. The heat and long lonely roads pushed us on faster to Santiago.
We also stopped to check out the impressive Hand of the Desert statue. Standing 11 metres tall and alone in the Atacama Desert, it’s believed to reflect vulnerability, isolation and the helplessness of humans in such harsh environments.
Santiago
Harm got in touch to invite us to stay with him and his wife Lilly in Santiago and we gladly accepted.
We had (one too many) pisco sours with their family, a delicious Chilean/German BBQ and they took us on a tour of the city and introduced us to the Earthquake drink. They’ve travelled throughout South America on Royal Enfields, know Chile like the back of their hands, and loaded us up with routes heading south.
They have a motorcycle rental and tour company – Wild Tracks Moto – offering awesome rides in Chile on Royal Enfield Classics. We had the best time with these incredibly wonderful people. Meeting people like them is what travel is all about.
Oh, brother
My brother, Rob, flew out to Chile and rented a car to drive along with us for a couple of weeks through Patagonia. Since we first left home back in 2018, he’s flown out and driven with us through Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Japan and the USA. It’s a shame he doesn’t like motorbikes, but it does mean we can put some gear in his boot.
We crossed the border to Argentina (country 49 on this trip) and headed for Bariloche for a few days off as we were tired from the race down south to meet Rob in time.
Ruta 7
We couldn’t get tickets for the ferry in Chile, so we looped around it by riding south through Argentina and then crossing back to Chile. Once back in, we beelined for the Ruta 7 – the legendary Carretera Austral (Route 7) is Chile’s famous 1,240km southern highway. It was built in the ’70s under Pinochet to connect Chile’s south and allow easier to access to Patagonia. It’s the main route overland motorcycle travellers talk about when riding Patagonia (that and Argentina’s Ruta 40).
Marble Cathedral
Chile’s Marble Cathedral is a natural wonder on General Carrera Lake. These rock formations have been carved by thousands of years of glacial waves lapping and eroding them into incredible shapes. The solid marble you see in our photos has been there for around 300 million years. The last ice age was around 12,000 years ago, at which point there was no lake here – only glaciers.
Fast forward to 6,000 years ago and those glaciers had melted forming this lake. So, it’s taken since then to erode and shape these rocks.
Paso Raballos
The Ruta 7 was not what we expected. We had heard amazing things about this ride and how beautiful and special it was. Sure, it’s pretty, but nothing compared to riding the Peruvian Andes for example.
As we neared the end of the route, we heard about a remote border crossing that’d take us back to Argentina. We hooked a left and headed for the Paso Roballos border – hoping it’d add a little more excitement to the end of our ride on Route 7. It was a pretty ride and probably the most scenic of the entire Ruta 7, but it’d be a normal Tuesday afternoon’s ride in Peru.
Los Malditos 73 (The Damned 73)
Ruta 40 is one of Argentina’s (and Patagonia’s) most famous roads. It’s a highway stretching over 5,000kms, nearly running the entire length of the country. Most of the highway has been paved, but there are still plenty of gravel (ripio) sections throughout, especially in the far north and in the southern Patagonian region.
The worst and most infamous section of the entire highway is the Los Malditos 73 (the Damned 73). It’s a notorious 73km stretch filled with deep rutted gravel, egg shaped stones and nasty sidewinds.
If you’ve ever researched riding in Patagonia, you’ll know the winds are no joke. Patagonia is well-known for its brutal sidewinds making it a tough place to ride for motorcycle travellers. And the worst winds of all are found on this stretch.
We started this section early in the morning, our Windy app advised the wind would pick up much later in the day, so we were set to clear it with hours to spare.
We were doing well until the winds started two hours earlier than the Windy app said they would. And it got worse – fast. Huge gusts kept hitting us hard until we ended up riding in 60kph cross winds.
We saw abandoned bikes and passed a group of riders who could barely move an inch without constantly dropping and crashing their bikes. The CRFs did well (especially considering they’ve got nearly 17,000kms on the Continental TKC80s) and we had them riding sideways at one point. It’s tricky to see from the clip – I’m trying hard to stay in the far right track, but the wind keeps pushing me all the way over to the left.
Not too long after these clips it gets much worse and nearly runs us off the road. A few weeks later we learned that four motorcyclists had lost their lives on this stretch in the last five months. If you’re heading that way, start as early in the day as you can.
El Chalten
We arrived in El Chalten freezing cold, tired and battered after all the windy riding days getting there.
But luckily for us, the next day was bright blue and warm so we went for a hike to see this glacier and the mighty Mount Fitz Roy. Chalten’s a cool (albeit expensive) little mountain town and we had a good few days’ rest there. But, it’s getting colder again… and our apps are showing the winds are picking up, so we made our move.
Perito Moreno Glacier
The Perito Moreno Glacier in El Calafate is one of the few advancing glaciers in the world. Most glaciers are retreating, but this bad boy is moving forward at an average rate of two metres per day. It’s the closest thing we’ve got to White Walkers on Earth (Game of Thrones reference just in case). Massive chunks of ice collapsed into the lake as we watched and the whole thing is ginormous. It’s over 70 metres high and bigger than Buenos Aires. Winter is coming.
This was our last stint with Rob. He left us from here to drive back along the Ruta 40 to Chile to return his car and fly home.
Torres de Paine National Park
We dipped back into Chile to visit the Torres de Paine National Park. The park is named after its three main peaks, which rise around 2,500m and are the park’s centre piece. While we love riding these routes, the prices in Patagonia are silly. For example, we had to pay £50 to get into this park.
We appreciate it’s important for the upkeep of walking trails etc. and it’s great you get three days on the ticket, so the fee makes sense and is worth it if you’re here to hike for that time. But just to ride through?
Argentina is just the same – if not worse – you have to pay to see anything there, and they take the biscuit when you turn up to see a glacier for example (another £50) and they rush out to pull you into their ticket office where they have money counting machines on full whack flicking through hundreds of notes as a queue of tourists stand outside.
Punta Arenas
We made it to Punta Arenas – and the last tyre shop in Chile. Impressively, our Continental TKC80s had covered 17,000kms from Colombia to the bottom of South America. We decided to only swap the fronts on both bikes for cheap old part-worn tyres.
We decided to leave the rear TKC80s on to squeeze a little more out of them. We’re using part-worns because we only need to get these bikes down to Ushuaia and then up to Buenos Aires.
From there, we’ll be shipping the bikes off the continent to start our next leg of the trip – and we’ll change the tyres on arrival for a fresh set of TKs.
Once we got our part worns fitted, we shot to the ferry terminal to get our tickets for tomorrow morning to Tierra del Fuego. Then rode to our Airbnb for the night, where I saw two sets of part worn tyres – in our size – in the host’s front drive. “Who’s are those?” I asked. “Oh! Some travellers left them here a few weeks ago. You can have them if you want them”…
Tiera del Fuego
Tierra del Fuego (Land of fire) is the archipelago at the southernmost tip of South America. We’re closing in on Ushuaia. But before we headed for the end of the road, we made a detour to see some penguins.
A colony of King Penguins lives in Bahía Inútil, Tierra del Fuego. It’s the only known colony on the South American mainland as they usually only live in the sub-Antarctica range.
They arrived in 2010, and conservation efforts have helped them stay. King Penguins are the second-largest penguin species. Emperor penguins are the largest, and around 15cm taller than the Kings and twice as heavy.
The King Penguins can be seen year-round at the Reserva Natural Pingüino Rey due to their breeding cycle. It’s impressive seeing so many of these incredible birds and a must if you’re close by.
Ushuaia and the end of the road
We made it to the end of the road – Ushuaia. It’s taken 20 months and 45,000kms to get here from Canada. It’s been one wild ride and we’ve absolutely loved it.
Travelling for us isn’t about ticking places off a list. There’s just a rough squiggle on a map. For us it’s about being free and going wherever we go that day.
So, we weren’t fussed about Ushuaia. A week ago we were even planning on hooking a left and cutting across to the east coast and missing it out completely. Why do we need to go down there when it’s so cold and windy?
But, plans and minds changed and we decided to ride down. And we’re so glad we did. As soon as we saw this sign it put huge smiles on our faces. It felt like an accomplishment – a feeling we weren’t expecting. And to top it off, it was a beautiful ride.
Keep going…
Someone recently said to us, that’s the end of the road, no choice now but to turn back and head north again…. Well, not quite.
Antarctica has been a dream for a really long time, and it’s been very touch and go for the last few months trying to find a deal, but we’ve finally got two very last-minute tickets to Antarctica on an expedition vessel. We’re going to class this as our honeymoon. We’re mega excited as we’ve both wanted to visit the 7th Continent since we were kids.
One problem though is that by the time we get back to Ushuaia it’ll be April, which will be freezing. But it’s now or never! And that’ll just have to be an April problem.
So, the only issue we’ve got now is seasickness. We both suffer from it really badly. We ransacked every pharmacy in town, bought loads of wine, sweets and supplies and stored our Hondas for a couple of weeks. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for a calm crossing across Drake’s Passage. Wish us luck!
With thanks to…
Harm and Lilly
We mentioned our stay with the awesome Harm and Lilly in Santiago above, but wanted to add an extra piece here too. They reached out to us (complete strangers to them) and invited us to their home and really looked after us for a week. There are some very special people in this world!
If you’re thinking of joining a bike tour in Chile, get in touch with Harm – Web: Wild Tracks Moto
Johnny Motos
The Canadians
We had been cooking our own food and eating packed lunches because Chile is so expensive. But the three of us (reluctantly) decided to go to a nice restaurant to treat ourselves after a long day on the bikes.
I noticed two Husqvarna 901s parked outside with Canadian plates and luggage. So, I had to go over and say hi to their owners who were dining at the same restaurant.
We chatted about their trip and travels, swapped a few stories and I wished them well on their ride and returned to my seat (not wanting to intrude for too long).
Half an hour later, they left and said a very quick passing goodbye as they walked out. But when it came time for us to pay for our meals – the waiter said the guys had already paid for everything. They didn’t mention it or say anything, they just got on their bikes and rode off. Motorcycle travellers are the best.
Read more on motorcycle travel in Patagonia, Argentina and Chile
Thanks for checking out our Motorcycle Travel Blog Patagonia. We hope you enjoyed it! Here’s a few more related articles on riding in South America that we recommend you read next.
Try these next…
If you enjoyed this Patagonia motorcycle travel blog or have any questions, please post your comments below. We’d love to hear from you.
Great information guys. I’m heading from the UK to Argentia in a few weeks and will be riding my RE 411, heading south through Chile.. Like you I’m not really fused too ride all the way, but I would like to. My only real concern are the high winds on the gravel road that you wrote about, the 70 km section. That wind App, is it updated all the time, so when the wind is about to hit you, you could stop and let it pass? For how long? And how come you kept going and the other riders couldn’t. I’m assuming you were never blown over. Why? What kind of speed were you riding at? Sorry for all the questions.
Hi John, thanks for your comment and that’s fantastic to hear you’re heading to Argentina!
No don’t worry about asking a lot of questions – especially if it’s a concern for you. I’ll provide as much info as I can for you to help…
So, the Windy App is a free app. It updates in real-time, but of course you will need data to access it as it’s not an offline app.
I wouldn’t ride it and then if you hit wind just wait, it will blow you and your bike over as you’re standing there waiting and you could be waiting for hours.
As for how come I kept going, perhaps due to the lighter bike, good off-road tyres (TKC80s) and maybe experience. The bike was literally sideways at one point so was having to go very slow. But I did manage to get the speed up to about 60kph, but that was genuinely dicey.
To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend it, I think looking back we were just unlucky we got caught out, and lucky we made it through.
But, don’t worry about it and don’t let the wind concern you. We made this mistakes so you don’t have to! I’ve updated the Motorcycle Travel Guide Argentina for you with a more detailed section on the Los 73, that shows where to stay the night before and how to ride it safely.
So, you can stay the place i’ve pinned on the map, keep an eye on the windy app the night before and then blast it bright and early in the morning before the wind picks up.
Note that it was our plan to miss the wind but it came in hours earlier than the app said it would, so just give yourself extra time and you’ll be fine.
I hope all of this helps, please feel free to message back anytime if there’s anything else.
Cheers,
Andy
Thanks Andy, good information and a confidence builder. 11 years ago I was in South America, rode from BA, to Chile (Argentina was chilly it being July), Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Columbia and then out of Bogota. On a Tiger 800, bit of a handful, but absolutely no mechanical problems in 10,000 miles. Stayed away from the Pam Am as best I could.Lots of dirt and gravel roads, and mud in the Amazonia regions. But I was fairly fit then, and 11 years younger. I’ll be 74 this time. Going to the gym most days to get my lungs working a bit better (got COPD) and legs a bit stronger to pick up the 411. I’ll see how I feel about the 70 km section when I get there, but great info about the hostel and transport over that section. Thank you. Best Regards, John
Hi John,
Great to hear about your previous travels – sounds like you’ve travelled a lot already!
And that’s mega impressive to hear you’re 74 and going for it. I know people half your age who wouldn’t dare. So, hats off to you!
I was actually just chatting to some friends last week who rode the section about a month before we did. They timed the crossing perfectly and felt pretty much no wind at all. It’s all about timing and experiences differ greatly. As long as you wait for the right moment and leave really early in the morning, you’ve got a good chance of beating the weather.
Please do report back on here, regardless of if you ride it or get transport, we’d love to hear how you get on.
Best of luck and please keep in touch,
Andy