Today's ride starts with a straight-up 1000m climb. I guess Villa Cerro Castillo is right at the bottom of a valley; there's about 500m of climbing just to get to the turnoff to Puerto Ingeniero Ibáñez. Yesterday when I came through I was tempted to go straight on to Coyhaique - the route to and from Villa Cerro Castillo adds a bit of distance and quite a bit of height, so skipping it is tempting. If I'd matched today's pace I would have got there about 9pm, which is a long day but not unreasonable.

Anyway. Today's climb is unusally long and high. But it's not especially difficult: it never gets too steep, so there's always lower gears to use if needed. There's a bit of traffic; some buses and trucks labouring up in a low gear so I give them space. There's plenty of steep cuttings with rockfalls in some places. Later on there's a bit of snow in sheltered places. The road doesn't get quite up to the snowline but it's close.

I suppose that means that the climb was a bit uneventful? There wasn't any wind worth mentioning, which is now genuinely good news to me. The views are worth mentioning - clear views over the valley behind, and I got progressively closer to the implausibly vertical rock columns on the mountaintop I saw yesterday. Eventually they fell out of sight behind another less wild mountain, and all I can see are more realistic mountaintops which is a bit disappointing.

Having reached the peak, the elevation profile says there's a bit of a dip, then a long downhill, and as far as I can see this will be a nice simple low-effort day.

I'm in the Andes now, surrounded by snowy mountains. I didn't go far after the ferry: 35km up the road, but it was enough to go from a flat lakeside countryside to the middle of a hard rock mountain moshpit, all unreasonably steep and high and close together. The peaks are rocky and implausibly un-eroded, there's near-vertical columns up there which doesn't seem right.

I'm not going anywhere near there though. The road winds carefully around the mountains but it's all steep uphill or downhill, so far it hasn't ever followed the contour and gone flat. There's a bit of a westerly but in comparison with the Patagonian gale this is a mere zephyr, a forgotten half-open window. I suppose this is a taste of how it's going to be for the rest of the Carretera Austral...

Not far to go today: just a jaunt over the border from Los Antiguos in Argentina to its neighbouring town Chile Chico in Chile. Since the two are so similar except for the country they're in, I'm going to extrapolate from every small mismatch, a deep and profound difference in the culture and economy of the two countries.

Fave features of Los Antiguos and Argentina: great wall art and having nice doggos everywhere.

This trip is so short and simple I didn't even bother to set up a route in Komoot. Say farewell to the hostel, sail off down a sidestreet, past the tourist trap place that wanted 10 euros for a milkshake (not kidding), and out towards the border.

The wind is westerly, and it's strong, but I'm only going a few kilometers so I don't care. It's been a calm few days, and I'd forgotten about the Patagonian wind - but the wind maps show winds on the route: there's probably going to be headwinds until I'm properly over the Andes. This one isn't too bad in comparison - I would like it if I can say that about the next few days.

The Argentinian half of the border crossing is pretty quick: hand over the passport, get a receipt, out in ten minutes.

The Chilean half of the border crossing is much more complicated.

Today's the trip to the Marble Cathedrals. 0730 pickup, an hour spent leaving Argentina and entering Chile, then a hundred kilometers of increasingly hairy gravel road.

In fact it's so hairy I should describe it. The route to the Catedrales de Mármol is in the gallery below, and the section between the lake and the mountains is the hairy part. The mountainside is steep and mostly rock so this road has to cut through it. Since it's solid rock the slopes aren't just steep, they're basically cliffs ... So the views are great! But the road is basically a single lane taking a creatively winding route up and down the mountainside, so it's complicated. And passing other cars can get interesting.

When planning my cycling route I looked at going this way; the map gave no indication that it would be this dramatic. I ended up choosing the Chile Chico ferry option, and I have no regrets; this route would have been quite hard work.

Bit of a short day today. You know what's better than a short day? An even shorter day! Originally I was planning to go to Chile Chico, to take the ferry north over the lake, but I'd heard recommendations about the Catedral de Marmol and wanted to visit, and the best plan was to go to Los Antiguos instead.

So the Catedral de Marmol (=Marble Chapel) is a limestone formation sculpted by the waves of the lake. There’s a kayak tour of them that is especially recommended and I’d really like to go on. Unfortunately they're a few hundred kilometers to the west of my route, it'd add a few days to detour there and I'd rather not do that.

There's a few bus tours going there; one passes through Chile Chico so I got in contact asking if I could be picked up from there. No, they only pickup in Los Antiguos (in Argentina), which is a few kilometers away on the other side of the border... so that's why I'm staying in Los Antiguos.

An actual rest day so I didn't go far and did actually rest. Still, there was some drama: for the first time, a place didn't take cards or contact payment. And since this is my second to last day in Argentina I've been trying to use up my cash. I was carrying my last $11000 cash (about 11 euros), but lunch was $14000 and there was a problem. I'd seen it coming; they had a sign saying cash or "transferencia", but I'd only seen it coming after I'd ordered - seriously, this has never been an issue so far so I've got acclimatized; you can say "complacent" if you prefer.

I'd done a bit of Googling over lunch but that word is a derivative of "transfer" which makes Google a little bit unhelpful. Maybe it means a QR code and everything will magically work? No: they have no payment gadgetry (or maybe my Spanish failed) and I guess I actually have to find some cash.

Today was a weird trip. Ate croissants at the breakfast buffet, got on the road before 9. But my seat was comfortable. The sun was bright but I couldn't feel it. The plants were blown by the wind, but it didn't touch me. I was passing things from yesterday: the weird junction with restrictive lanes. The truck stop. But yesterday's S-bend downhill was now an uphill. I cruise up it effortlessly ... and there is no wind noise. Instead a long and very sincere lecture in Spanish.

Have I started retelling dreams? Did I inadvertently have some maté with interesting active ingredients? Did this actually happen?

Well: not yet, not yet, and yes: this is a fully honest retelling because I'm taking the tourist bus to go visit the Cueva de las Manos. It is a thoroughly disorienting experience to recognize things that yesterday were milestones on a day-long struggle, but now are scenery unworthy of notice. Then, the direction of a curve will take you into or away from the wind and it's very important; now, it's hard to even tell if there is any wind.

If you're going through Patagonia take a car, it's is definitely better than a bike.

It's a 130km stretch from Baja Caracoles, going due north. The wind forecast showed a quiet, near-windless morning and then at 12 all the wind lines started going due south. So a northerly in the afternoon, and it got stronger towards the evening. (I'd have been fine with the usual westerly! But I don't get included in wind planning.)

So I wanted to get going early; it's so much easier to go places if there's no headwinds or sidewinds. Things got off to an inauspicious start when I couldn't unlock my door at 0730. After I got that figured out, I found the door to the cafeteria was still locked: I wish I'd asked about breakfast times last night, instead of assuming that it'd be OK! Maybe they'll open up at 0800? I packed up my bike and got everything ready in the meantime, 0800 rolled around, nope.

Plan B: make a breakfast out of the provisions I've got and get started ASAP. This included a very good green apple (from Gobernador Gregores) and a mediocre red apple (from Las Horquetas) and some average museli bars (varying but unknown provenance, they all look the same, maybe Ushuaia for all I know).

I really wanted buy some things from the cafeteria - lunch and some replacement provisions. But it's 0830 and it's time to get moving. So I finished packing up the bike, working through the usual list and I'm doing the last thing, which is to send a text to say I'm leaving, when the cafeteria opens! I zip in and pick up a sandwich and the rest, then get on the road.

Another horrible headwind. Komoot estimated today's ride to take 6.5 hours, I took 10, and it's all because of the wind.

Worst moment was about midway, when I saw clouds of earth being blown across the road. The wind here is continuously strong, so if anything's loose it gets blown away. So a cloud of dust means the wind is unusually strong! Why don't the forecasts say this? They're filled with "breezy" and "shifting conditions" and not "STAY HOME IT'S GONE UP A LEVEL".

After that dust storm the road went up a hill that wasn't especially steep, but the wind was blowing straight down with so much force I got off and pushed. The wind is pulling at my shirt and feels like it's going to dislodge my helmet and it's so loud in my ears I can't hear anything. At the top I tried riding, but had to use the lowest gear and could barely go walking speed. At this rate it'll be tomorrow before I get there, and I'm not kidding. It was not a good moment. It was so bad I was starting to plan how to flag down a 4x4 and ask for a lift...

Today's route was mostly northwest which is an invitation for the Patagonian wind to cause trouble, because it usually blows from that direction. I made an early start to try to get as far as possible before the wind appeared. Got some breakfast and a sandwich from the bakery and was on the road around 8, but there was some headwind even on the way out of Gobernador Gregores.

Today was just hard work. Find a good gear for the headwind, make progress. The route turned away from the wind but it was the start of the climb, up and over the pass. That wasn't bad though, no headwind! So I cruised up the mountain, enjoyed a bit of downhill, had the sandwich, the road got back down to the valley floor and turned back to the northwest...

This was about the halfway point: the entire second half of the day is northwest, with a difficult headwind. I was doing about 10km/h and with 60km left that means another six hours. Not good.

Woke up and got on the road early. Campsite breakfast was a bit small, so I was pretty keen to get to Gobernador Gregores for lunch.

The first 20km were gravel and there was a lot of uphill work but the surface wasn't too bad. The regular westerly started up, but I'm not going to complain ... because most of the route is to the east, so it should mean a good tailwind. And (if we skip over two hours of mediocre but not difficult gravel) the road promptly turned into asphalt, veered east and the day is looking great.

Two days in a row with enough tailwind to use the highest gear! I'm getting used to it, but it's probably the last time this'll happen - the next few days are northwest or north, then over to the Chile and the Carretera Austral where the wind should be much, much milder. Also more mountainous, but that's OK: the winds haven't been forecast reliably, but the hills definitely will be.

Last night's hostel was really good. (By hostel standards!) Tres Lagos is a tiny village, so having a nice big well-run hostel is unexpected. The only slight complaint is that the breakfast was one small croissant and a bite-sized muffin, which disappeared before you can say "morning". It's probably enough if you aren't cycling a hundred kilometers a day. So I also had a few snacks.

I was running a bit slow this morning and didn't get on the road until 10. I did a quick trip around the village to see if I could pick up some extra provisions - there were three small shops (mercardos) but all were closed, the sign suggested they don't open until 11 on Saturday. The provisions I’ve got will have to stretch.

On to Ruta 40. The turnoff is a bit out of town, heading northwest and it was 100% headwind. The Komoot forecast for today suggested 30km/h northwesterlies, and added "Be ready for gusty and tricky conditions". I've now learned that any threatening words in the Komoot forecast basically mean "you're better off staying in bed".

I've planned out two routes for today, because the wind forecasts have been so unreliable. First is 100km to La Leona, where there's a campsite. If I've had enough headwind I'll stop there, but I have time and energy it's another 50km to Tres Lagos which is a village with some hostels. Also the temperature is predicted to drop to 2 degrees overnight, which makes the tent option much less exciting.

The weather forecast says "light and shifting conditions" which I'm going to take as a good omen; anything is better than "severe" and "challenging".

Today was an expedition to the Perito Moreno Glacier. It's the big tourist attraction in the area, and with reason: it's spectacular, it's so big it's the third biggest reserve of fresh water in the world behind Antarctica and Greenland.

I was on a tour which included the bus trip out there, walkways to see the glacier from a distance, a boat trip to see it from not too far away, and then a hike to see it up close. Including an ice cave.

Not much to do today: it's a good opportunity to do some laundry, no bike or route things to do. Taking it easy to recover from yesterday's ride is probably the main job!

I'm trying to do some more tourist things and the big attraction here is the glacier, so I've booked a trip to see it. It's not cheap. In fact the whole town is not cheap. I had some lunch at a cosy but not classy cafe while I was out doing the chores, and it cost about the same as it would in Amsterdam.

Today's ride is going to be long. I've searched the route and there's nothing along the way, it's a straight-up 160km marathon. That's 8 hours if there's no headwind or hills and the roads are good, which isn't realistic around here. Komoot estimates 9.5 hours and I've been 20% over recently, which means my best guess is 11.5 hours.

I'd like to start as soon as possible: it gets dark from 2030 and I'd rather be off the road by then. I've got lights and a high vis vest with LEDs but nevertheless, as a cyclist I treat all drivers like murderous psychopaths, so I'm really not keen to be outnumbered in the dark. I've passed a lot of roadkill along the way: can I really be sure they're all rabbits? Or other small mammals? I can not.

Just a short ride today, 70km to La Esperenza. There's not a lot of accommodation options on the way to El Calafate: La Esperanza and Hostería las Horquetas are the only two places I could find, and it's not a very even split.

But unlike the European Divide I have a bit of spare time, so a short day won't cause problems.

Today's photos are starting to get a bit stale. A long straight road, a selfie with a long straight road; is there nothing else besides me and straight roads? To be honest: not really. There's patches of garbage beside the road, occasional roadkill, and other cars. So I ended up taking photos of roadsigns to try to add some variety.

Back on the road. It's a Sunday and the bakeries are closed when I leave town so I surreptitiously arranged some lunch from the breakfast buffet. That meant a dolce-de-leche sandwich and a banana, normally not a good choice but for cycling it's just right.

I'm heading to Hostería Las Horquetas today, it's a 6.5 hour ride and the route is pretty indirect and is on gravel roads for about 40km. There is a more direct road but it's a dual-lane highway which is not a place for bikes: Komoot won't plan bike routes on it, but interestingly Google will.

The gravel road goes through some extra run-down parts of Rio Gallegos, and then out into the countryside. Where there was a thin layer of trash - it looked like people had dumped rubbish out here, and the light stuff had blown away but the heavy stuff was still around. Not nice.

Got chased by dogs a few times. Best was when an old guy crossed the road, followed by about six dogs; they looked like they were his. I sailed past, gave a cheery wave and he went instantly from quiet old man to 100% enraged shouting at the top of his lungs ... because all the dogs decided to run barking after me. They did not listen to him. I had thoughts about taking a picture of the dog horde but if I dropped the phone or even a glove things would get interesting - stop to retrieve it and risk getting bitten? Wait until they go and risk someone grabbing it? So no photo, unfortunately.

Second and last day off; it's windy today and the forecast for tomorrow is mild so this was the right number of rest days.

Two rest days in a row is sheer indulgence, I finished up all the chores yesterday and have some spare time today. So I went out for some touristing. And cake. Because I need those calories.

First of two rest days while I wait for the severe winds to stop. I have a few things to get done.

Laundry. Everything needs to be washed. Back to the usual problem: what to wear while waiting? Ended up wearing my hot-weather shirt which is completely unused and my cycling overshorts, which are very thin and are next to the undershorts not my legs - I'll handwash them.

Bike repairs. There's a few bike shops in town and a high-rated one is nearby - "Bicicleteria Ago-Bikes". Lots of very nice five star reviews, a couple of whiny one-star ones so it looks good. My Spanish lessons have not equipped me to say "I think my rear derailleur is misaligned" and Google Translate knows "derailleur" is French so I can't be sure it's doing the right thing.