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 lodge, check­ing out some jaw-drop­ping scenery in Nahuel Huapi Nation­al Park and the Rio Azul pro­tect­ed Wilder­ness Area along the way.

The spec­tac­u­lar lodge 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 lodge 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 dri­ve south to explore the region of Cho­lila which means “the beau­ti­ful val­ley” in the Mapuche lan­guage. This sparse­ly pop­u­lat­ed region was col­o­nized in the late 19th cen­tu­ry by Euro­pean and Syr­i­an immi­grants who focused on live­stock pro­duc­tion. The town of Cho­lila has two claims to fame — one being the provin­cial bar­be­cue fes­ti­val which includes horse races, arti­san mar­kets and serves up an aver­age of 300 lambs and 10,000kg of meat over 3 days!  Cholila’s sec­ond rea­son for noto­ri­ety is because it was once the home of the famous Amer­i­can out­law Butch Cas­sidy. Over a hun­dred years ago Butch and some of his gang bought 5000 hectares in the region and lived as ranch­ers while still run­ning from the law.

This ride takes us past these his­tor­i­cal land­marks and con­tin­ues past the town of Cho­lila along sec­ondary roads that skirt the Alerces Nation­al Park and the Car­rileu­fu riv­er.  After approx­i­mate­ly 20km we reach Lake Cho­lila and con­tin­ue our ride along its pris­tine shores pass­ing through a mix of vir­gin for­est and a for­est that is still recov­er­ing from wild­fire. After about 7km the trail starts to veer away from the lake and we begin to climb. This long uphill sec­tion opens up to beau­ti­ful views of the val­ley and the lake. From there we descend back down to the lake where we rest and wait for our local “lan­cha” (boat) to whisk us across the lake with our bikes and all, back to our wait­ing vehicle.

*Please note the boat ride is depen­dent on the lake con­di­tions, oth­er­wise we will return by vehicle.

After anoth­er hearty home­made break­fast, we’ll hop on our bikes and roll out direct­ly from the lodge 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 hot tub with wine glass in hand!

After break­fast, we’ll hop in the shut­tle and dri­ve 40 min­utes to the start of our ride.  We ride for 20km on a sec­ondary road through the rur­al area of “Mallin Ahoga­do” pass­ing a mix of small farms and a unique for­est of “ñire achap­ar­ra­do” which is a kind of stunt­ed tree native to Patag­o­nia.  This road leads us to the land of Tito and Julia’s where we are invit­ed to share a meal on their home­stead.  After lunch we take an aban­doned log­ging road for a 3km ride that 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 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 pack up the shut­tle for our overnight trip to the stun­ning Rio Man­so valley.

We’ll start by a long dri­ve to the small vil­lage of Foyel, where we will begin our descent into the Man­so Riv­er val­ley.  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 pad­dle 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 back to our river­side cab­in for 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.)

This morn­ing we will dri­ve north to ride in the patag­on­ian “steppe” in the “Valle Encan­ta­da” (enchant­ed val­ley).  This is a spec­tac­u­lar ride with rolling hills and some fast descents bor­der­ing and cross­ing the 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.

After the ride we’ll head to Las Mar­i­anas hotel in where we’ll spend our final two nights 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.  Today we are hunt­ing for the best vistas!

Today we will dri­ve 15min to the base of the Cer­ro Otto hill where we will push our­selves on a 742m ascent by road to reach the start of our trail.  At the top we con­nect to a dirt trail that deliv­ers us to the “Hab­s­burg Rock” and the most spec­tac­u­lar views of Cat­e­dral moun­tain as well as the Gutier­rez and Nahuel Huapi lakes.

After get­ting our fill of the views we have two options to descend. The first is to return via the orig­i­nal trail and the sec­ond option is a super fun but intense enduro descent of approx­i­mate­ly 3km. What­ev­er you choose, the group will reunite at the bot­tom and from there con­tin­ue to our grand finale.  Once all rid­ers have joined up, we need to ride the shoul­der of the main road to take us towards the famous Cat­e­dral ski hill.  At the point where the road begins to climb, again rid­ers have the option to hop in the sup­port vehi­cle or push through anoth­er big climb.  The reward at the top is the “Paco Echegaray” super flowy, 7km sin­gle track enduro trail that will have you hoot­ing and hol­ler­ing all the way home.

After this amaz­ing day, we 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.)

*Please note the km and ele­va­tion on this day will vary great­ly depend­ing on rid­er choices!

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.