Santiago>Ushiaia via Rt7 & Back via Rt40 in 27 days?
 

Hello! I’m flying into Santiago next Friday the 20th. I plan to immediately apply for a RUT in order to purchase a dual-sport or midweight ADV. Hopefully that only takes a few days (I paid a Chilean resident who’s helped other foreigners get their RUT to help with the process).

Once I have the bike, I plan to ride to Ushuaia via Rt 5 and the Carretera Austral. From there I plan to ride back up to Santiago via Rt 40, stopping by some of the typical sites and side roads as you would in Patagonia. Can one do this trip semi-comfortably do this in 25-27 days (provided neither I nor the bike break along the way)?

I’m currently going through my waypoints and working out mileage estimates, but I figured I’d ask on here anyway.

A little about my riding experience: In 2017 I spent 24 days riding with a friend through Andalucia. This is the route that I laid out:
Attachment 28989

In 2019 I spent 24 days riding around Turkey. I laid this route out with the help of an older traveler’s itinerary that I found:
Attachment 28987

I’ve also done a couple trips into Canada, and the Mid-Atlantic BDR on a Moto Guzzi sidecar, so I’m not to totally new to these types of trips that last a few weeks. I’d say 80% pavement, 20% off-pavement. I *think* I can get it done, but I have a few folks who, I don’t know on other forums telling me I’m going to be really pushing it. Besides, I did make a bit of a leap in daily mileage from the Spain trip to the Turkey trip, and there were a couple days in Turkey where I wish I had a hair more downtime.

I really should’ve posted here sooner, but the other folks I had attempted to reach out to never responded, so I got stubborn and focused on just planning forward…but I figured I might as well ask now than never!

Cheers,
Dirk

First time poster, by the way, so Hi!

Attachment 28988
Pic of me standing on top of Nemrut Daği, watching that beautiful sunset, having no idea that 4 hours later I’d be hiding in the back storage room for a good 30 minutes while the Kurdish worker at the dilapidated visitor’s center made sure the lights coming up the mountain weren’t police…apparently despite his assurance that we could camp there out on the porch, legally that was a nope. And he’s a Kurd, so every light coming up the hill is probably Turkish police to that fella. Anyway.

Welcome to the HUBB!

No doubt you're already aware that all reliable answers start with "it depends," right? Because....it depends. Between Mendoza--a day's ride from Santiago--and Ushuaia took me about a week, but of course I was pushing it to some extent and ignoring many of the sights. You could do it a bit quicker, but you could also go a LOT more slowly. Returning northward after an Antarctic trip, I cut across to the Caraterra Austral, Torres del Paine, El Chaltén and all the usual attractions, and spent about a month or so before making it back to B.A., which is roughly equivalent to Santiago.

Heading south I did little aside from ride (and curse the wind), and returning north I left the bike behind for day hikes, overnights, and a variety of other distractions. You're aiming somewhere between those parameters, but 25 days is not much time unless you're seriously opposed to exploring off the bike from time to time. Note that I'm not even allowing for breakdowns or maintenance, but you probably know how that goes. Nor did you say what you're planning to do with the bike afterward, but if that needs to be factored in you're short on time again no matter what.


I'd think about skipping Ushuaia, since the payback for the substantial added mileage is a bit scant at times. That would leave you a reasonable amount of time, but still far from excessive.


Hope that's helpful.

Mark

As Markharf says - it really depends. You could ride from Santiago to Puerto Montt in 1 day, then 2-3 days on the Careterra Austral, cross over to Argentina and ride to Ushuaia in another 2-3 long days. So its doable. But you havent factored in those many things that can take time. Chilean bureaucrasy for example - I had my share of that and my experience with that was so that its painstakingly slow. And youre going there at christmas/new year - so it could be even slower! Getting RUT, getting a bike in your name, inspections, insurance etc etc.
Then you could have bad weather that can delay your travels with days, you could get sick easily because there are other types of germs where youre going than where you usually stays.

And then there is the things you want to see along your way, sightseing, hiking, laundry days, bad stomach days etc.

All my travel experience and all that I have heard from others tells me that most people overestimates what is possible to do on a given time schedule and thus underestimates the time used on bureucrasy, getting «normal» stuff done such as laundry, buying certain stuff - beacuse your in a different place than usual, there is a language barrier, cultural differencess and youre not familiar with how things work or not work at your travel destination.

But yes its doable if everything goes reasonably well - but enjoyable? Not sure about that…

Thanks for the quick responses, markharf and Snakeboy. The buffer for the bureaucratic system, mechanical issues (the bike OR me), and weather are all indeed on my mind, hence the mild anxiety I’ve been feeling for the past couple weeks. I’m only now getting to estimating my miles.

Anyway, I was recently already thinking along markharf’s line of cutting out Ushuaia if I’m too tight on time, but still planning to at least get down to Perito Moreno before jumping back north—after all, I did have the Atacama listed as an desirability if I had been able to get back north in time. So…maybe I just plan on skipping Ushuaia off the bat.

Here’s a pic I took on my 2017 Spain trip of the magnificent bridge in Ronda (one of the scenic ‘pueblos Blanca’s’) connect the old town with the new:

Attachment 28998

Cheers

My view
 

I would skip Ushuaia.

Use Carretera Austral to Villa O'Higgins.
Spend 2 weeks on Carretera Austral including some detours.
From end of Carretera Austral, you can ride to the Argentinian border.
But not longer. Turn back and ride north on Carretera Austral until first road over to argentina (Chile Chico).
And ride Argentina North.
That will easy fill you 25 days.

But that is my view. And I do not claim that it is anything more than my personal view.

Carretera Austral is wonderful. Compared to large parts of RN 40.
Picture nr 4 is from RN40
But the part "Siete Lagos" of RN 40 is very nice.