Pedal and Paddle

Wel­come to Patagonia!

Your Guides will meet you at 4pm at the San Car­los de Bar­iloche Air­port (BRC) or 5pm at Las Mar­i­anas Hotel.

After pick-up, we’ll hop in the vehi­cles and start our 120km dri­ve to the Inn, check­ing out some jaw-drop­ping scenery in Nahuel Huapi Nation­al Park and the Rio Azul pro­tect­ed Wilder­ness Area along the way.

The spec­tac­u­lar Inn is tucked away in the Patag­on­ian Andes. 

Upon arrival, our chef will greet us with a home­made “pic­a­da” (snacks!) to help recov­er from your travels.

After set­tling in, we’ll tour the facil­i­ties and build our bikes. If you’re keen, you can take your bike out for a sweet warm up ride around the Inn property.

This evening, we’ll feast over a deli­cious din­ner, get to know each oth­er a lit­tle and talk about the epic rides that lay ahead!

Total km of rid­ing: Up to you!

If you need a lit­tle R&R after your long jour­ney, you can book mas­sages upon arrival which can be offered from DAY 1 — DAY 4.  Please note:  Mas­sages are cash only and a 1‑hr mas­sage ranges from $30 ‑50 USD. 

After a hearty home­made break­fast , we’ll set out on a rel­a­tive­ly chal­leng­ing 30 km ride of rolling hills, semi-arid ter­rain and beau­ti­ful vis­tas of the entire valley.

This ride takes us through typ­i­cal Argen­tine estancias (ranch­es) pop­u­lat­ed by hors­es, cows and sheep. Lunch is on the trail and the ride ends with a spir­it­ed descent down to where our ride awaits to take us back to the Inn. 

Once back at the accom­mo­da­tions you can take some time for a cold bev­er­age while relax­ing your sore mus­cles in the spa.

After anoth­er hearty home­made break­fast, we’ll hop on our bikes and roll out direct­ly from the Inn to explore the Azul Riv­er val­ley in the 55,000-hectare Pro­tect­ed Nat­ur­al Area.

This is a chal­leng­ing day as we’ll be faced with long climbs and some steep, loose grav­el down­hills.  The option to hike is also avail­able today.

Our reward will be our final des­ti­na­tion: The Cajon del Azul (The Azul Riv­er Gorge).

This geo­log­ic mar­vel, carved by the Azul Riv­er over eons, is a smooth-walled gran­ite canyon some 30m deep, yet nar­row enough at the top to allow one to stand with a foot on each side and the riv­er roar­ing through below!

After lots of pic­tures, we’ll place our orders for a home­style lunch along with a moun­tain-brewed beer at the near­by moun­tain refuge. We’ll enjoy a lit­tle R&R river­side, before rid­ing or hik­ing back to the our accommodations.

Once back at the Inn you’ll have the option to read a book, take a nap or relax at the spa.

Want more adven­ture? Join your guides down at the riv­er to try your hand at riv­er canyon­ing. This is a com­bi­na­tion of walk­ing, hik­ing, slid­ing down rapids, and swim­ming in crys­tal clear nat­ur­al water pools.

This evening, we’ll enjoy anoth­er gourmet din­ner, fol­lowed by a soak in the pool with wine glass in hand!

After a hearty break­fast, we’ll head out to one of our newest trail sys­tems, “Cabeza del Indio” (Indi­an Head). Cabeza del Indio trail boasts a mix of fire road and sin­gle­track through mean­der­ing for­est with a high ele­va­tion view look­ing down into the canyon of the Raquel and Azul rivers.

We’ll ride down into the val­ley to the river’s edge of the Rio Azul. Here, we’ll have a pic­nic lunch and dip our feet in the refresh­ing aqua waters.

After lunch, we’ll swap our bikes for white­wa­ter rafts and head down the gor­geous Rio Azul (class II) before head­ing back to the Inn for din­ner and drinks.

PLEASE NOTE:  If water lev­els do not per­mit, we will switch to anoth­er activ­i­ty such as horse­back rid­ing or ziplining. 

After break­fast, we’ll hop in the shut­tle and dri­ve 45 min­utes to arrive at Mount Per­i­to Moreno.

Our ride begins on a sec­ondary grav­el road that leads us to the base of the local ski hill where we con­nect with a tech­ni­cal sin­gle­track. This trail mean­ders through the for­est on rolling hills with the some steep ravine crossings.

Our after­noon ride takes us right back to our accom­mo­da­tion. After a quick show­er, it’s time for some local sight­see­ing in town where you have the option to vis­it the famous “Feria Arte­sanal” (local arti­san craft and food fair). Tourists from all over the coun­try flock to El Bol­són to enjoy the mar­ket with over 300 stalls to explore!   Artists sell every­thing from sculpt­ed wood­en cut­ting boards, and hand­made mate gourds to jew­el­ry, instru­ments and pottery.

This day gen­er­al­ly ends with a huge scoop of ice-cream at the famous “Jau­Ja” organ­ic ice-cream shop before head­ing back to the Inn for din­ner and a lit­tle R&R.

After break­fast, we’ll pack up the shut­tle for our overnight trip to the stun­ning Rio Man­so valley.

We’ll start by a long dri­ve to the Lago Stef­fen trail­head, where we’ll take the time to rel­ish the spec­tac­u­lar 3‑lake view.

We’ll hop on our bikes and enjoy a short, fun, 8 km for­est road ride to Lago Steffen.

We’ll stop for a gourmet lunch before hop­ping into white­wa­ter rafts for a beau­ti­ful pad­dle that leads us direct­ly to our cab­in on the riv­er, where we’ll spend the night.

Tonight, your guides also become your chefs where they’ll treat you to a very typ­i­cal Patag­on­ian meal. 

After din­ner, if you aren’t too tired, you can sit fire­side and sam­ple anoth­er tra­di­tion — “Fer­net & Coca” — a huge­ly pop­u­lar drink in Argenti­na (that might take some get­ting used to).

Rest up tonight, because tomor­row is a big day and often the high­light of the trip!

We’ll start the morn­ing with a hearty break­fast, then leave the cab­in by bike for a rolling 20 km ride through the nation­al park.

This is a true adven­ture ride — you’ll feel like Indi­ana Jones with all the stream cross­ings and sus­pen­sion bridges!

The ride ends at a pic­turesque river­side restau­rant where we stop for lunch. 

After lunch, we’ll start our white­wa­ter raft­ing trip down the famous “Fron­tera” sec­tion of the Man­so riv­er. The word “man­so” means calm in Span­ish, but these rapids are any­thing but! 

No expe­ri­ence is required for this spec­tac­u­lar ride through class III-IV rapids down a turquoise riv­er with our expe­ri­enced and pro­fes­sion­al riv­er guides.

The raft trip ends at the Chilean bor­der where our vehi­cles will meet us to trans­fer us to Bariloche.

We’ll spend our final two nights at Las Mar­i­anas hotel in Bariloche.

Tonight, we encour­age you to enjoy a group din­ner at one of the many amaz­ing restau­rants in Bar­iloche. (Din­ner not included). 

After a buf­fet break­fast includ­ing home­made breads and pre­serves made by “Mama Mar­i­ana”, we’ll grab a packed lunch and head out on our last ride of the week called the “Valle Encan­ta­da” (enchant­ed valley).

This is a spec­tac­u­lar ride with rolling hills and some fast descents bor­der­ing and cross­ing the “Arroyo” Cha­cay (Cha­cay stream) sev­er­al times.

We’ll ride through both aban­doned and work­ing set­tle­ments where only a few fam­i­lies live rais­ing hors­es and sheep. 

You may want to pack your swim­suit as we’ll have a rest stop on the shores of the gor­geous crys­tal clear Rio Limay where we can cool off and watch fly fish­er­men take their aim at rain­bow trout.

We’ll head back to Las Mar­i­anas hotel for a show­er before head­ing out on the town for our farewell din­ner to cel­e­brate our incred­i­ble week of adven­ture. Cheers!  (Din­ner not included).

After our final break­fast at the hotel, we’ll say our goodbyes.

We’ll be offer­ing one shut­tle ser­vice to the air­port, arriv­ing to the air­port no lat­er than 10:30 a.m.

For Rid­ers fly­ing out at anoth­er time or day, a taxi can be arranged inde­pen­dent­ly with the recep­tion at Las Mar­i­anas Hotel, at the Rid­ers expense at a rate of approx­i­mate­ly $25 USD.