Today’s post brings us to our first mountain bike adventure in Chilean Patagonia. The grasslands of southern South America are mostly owned by ranching families, and the land is referred to as estancia. This is ranching land, and there is an abundance of sheep and guanacos, as well as the pumas that hunt them. So the singletrack created by the locals is schizophrenic at best.

I have never been anywhere with so many skeletons and bones lying around. At one point I was threading the impossibly narrow and twisty sheep singletrack when I ran directly over a sheep skull. Jayme saw the spinal column whiplash and disconnect. Gnarly.

Our group stops to admire the view, and watch some grazing horses in the field. These horses are owned by the estancia, unlike the wild horses that we saw earlier in the day at Lago Toro. The wild horses bolted as soon as we were detected, but these horses allowed us to get within a hundred yards.

I knew that I wanted a shot of Jayme mountain biking with the horses in the background. As she rode towards the group they naturally galloped off. There was one horse that was isolated from the group, and he came flying by at the last minute, providing for a memorable image, to say the least.

Thanks for reading about our warmup Patagonian mountain bike adventure. Tune in tomorrow for incredible images of Andean Condors in flight.