Ushuaia, "Fin del Mundo"

Day 14 (220 km)

    The reason we bought the bikes more as 2 years ago was to reach Ushuaia and today we did it!

We made a few trial trips, one in Honduras for 10 days, one to Panama for 2 weeks, one to Mexico and this is the third trip in South America, The way we did it was after each period of 6 weeks of  travelling, we parked the bike in South America where ever we ended up and bought a round trip ticket back to Honduras for a few months and then continued again further south. It worked well so far and now we have to go north to Lima Peru, where our planes leaves on the 22nd of December back to Honduras, so we still have 5 weeks to get there one way or the other to catch that flight and leave the bikes somewhere in Peru in a parking lot!

    So today we left Rio Grande kind of late to make the last 200 km to Ushuaia and the first one hundred went well and from one mile to the next trees reappear and in the distance the first snow capped mountains were visible.

    Soon we rode a very interesting road through the hills and saw the big blue lagoons all over on the side of the road. It took 3000 km to see this and now we were in the middle of it.

    Reached Ushuaia around 4 pm and took the mandatory photo of the entrance of the last city south in the world! "Fin del Mundo", planning to stay for 2 nights and ended up in a very comfortable hotel in the centre, close to the dock.

Chile, from The North to the South in one day!

Day 12,13 (365 km)

    We spend 2 nights in Rio Gallegos and Friday became our rest day and visit the Malvinas (Falkland) war museum, where they try to convince you, that the Malvinas belongs to Argentina and remembering the war of 1982. After an hour or so, we decided to have a beer session and got after 10 pm home and tried to get some sleep, because we wanted to leave early to make the almost 400 km to Rio Grande, To get there we had to enter Chile, do the paperwork for the bikes, catch a ferry to cross the narrow ends of the street of Magellan, and then enter Argentina again.

     The first border after leaving Gallegos was about an hour away and lost at least 2 hours on the Chilean side to do our paperwork, but finally we were on our way to the ferry what was another hour away, We just reached on time to catch it and surprisingly nobody charged us or the bikes and the crossing took less as 20 minutes. On the other side is where the big island "Tierra del Fuego starts and has to be shared between Argentina and Chile. To get to Ushuaia, you have to drive through Chile for about a 170 km and the last 100 km is ripio,

     I am still not an hero on ripio, although the ripio was very well graded and there was hardly any thick gravel patches.  So I was doing bout 50 km average, but knew we could have went at least 80 or 90 km, but like I said, I am not an hero anymore and can not afford to fall ( it hurts) 

   Anyway we dodged all the rain today, besides a few sprinkles and were lucky again,even all we saw was black clouds today, To stay warm today, I put on my ski clothes from years ago and had 4 or 5 layer of sweaters and pants, because anyway you take this wind by 5 Celcius, it is cold, it supposed to snow in Ushuaia tomorrow and is only 3 hours away!

The hotel we found in Rio Grande was small and the heater was turned up to at least 40 C and had a good hot shower, Rio Grande became from a village 20 years ago to a boom town, because of oil and gas discovery the last few years and was a buzzing city with all the amenities and shops you can think about.

Rio Gallegos. almost in Chile "Tierra de Fuego"

Day 11 ( 373 km)

   Woke up early to do the final leg in Patagonia, what was almost 400 km away on a isolated, very windy road. First we had an amazing breakfast and of course no charge for that as well!, then took some pictures of the memorial sight of the loss of  life during the Falkland war in 1982, which is still a big thing over here and  Puerto San Julian had a military base during that time.

    Left around nine and 20 minutes later we realized that we forgot to top off our fuel tanks and had to go back to do so and must have last an hour in the process. The road was crowded with Guanaco's, hundreds of them and sometimes 50 in a herd, but they are shy  bunch of animals.

    After struggling the wind for 5 hours, we finally reached Rio Gallegos and filled up and had a good dinner @ 3 pm, looked for a hotel, with WiFi , laundry and parking and found one near the centre under $ 25.00, but it was a dumb in the room, but had very good hot showers. 

Brought our laundry away and walked in centre were there was noting to see and it was cold and very windy and after a few beers, we carried pizza to the room, there were no restaurants open!

Tomorrow is our rest day and to do odd and ends to the bikes and prepare for the final 2 days to reach Ushuaia and the weather forecast mention rain! That is the last thing I want to go through, wind and cold is bad enough.

   

  

Puerto San Julian, cold windy place at the sea

Day 10 (437 km)

   Had only 6 hour sleep, due to the late arrival yesterday and the late dinner ( Early for Argentinians), but we had to take the bikes out of parking before 8 about 2 blocks away from the hotel. The good thing all was still packed so easy for us to take off after breakfast around 10 am.

    The wind must have disappeared today and were making good time on a beautiful new paved highway and were cruising 110 km p/h to get to Puerto San Julian, what was the only small town about halfway between Comodoro Rodavia and Rio Gallegos 800 km more south.

   The terrain became a little bit more curvy and we went through some low hills, but besides that the road is straight and it look like a gravel pit on both side of the road with no trees and hardly any bushes, looks like a lunar landscape. The temperature is in the low teens Celcius and driving this speed becomes chilly, especially if it is cloudy and soon had to take my ski clothes and ski gloves out of the bags to stay warmer.

     3 hours later I felt the chain or sprocket was slipping and noticed that there was a lot of slack, but did not really want to play with it, afraid of getting worse, so glad we made it in San Julian and after a spin in town, checked out an hotel on the sea. On the outside it looks like it was out of our budget, but the manager came outside and a little bit later we were sold to the $ 27.00 room and this room 5 stars, was the nicest room we ever stayed in and had all the amenities you could think about, from spacious room, covered parking, bar, restaurant and WiFi.

    Fixed the chain a little later, greased it with oil and hopefully that will do the job and we will find out tomorrow.

Trelew, a Welch settlement and further South again.

Day 9 (553 km)

    Woke up sore from the day before and started to fix the bikes by fastening up bolts and attaching the blinking lights and use silicone to stop it from rattling. After breakfast, we made our way back out of the peninsula and an hour later hit Route 3 again to go further south. The wind was hauling sideways with more as 85 km p/h and had an hard time staying on the road and were leaning into the wind. Had to slow to under 60 km  and an hour later past Puerto Mandryl and fueled up

    Had lunch in an old Welsh settlement “Trelew”, what was another hour more south.

     After lunch we had to go another 400km to Comodoro Rivadara and there was nothing in between except heavy breeze and there supposed to be a gas station halfway! After struggling for more as 6 hours, we finally reached this place and were cold and cramped up from the enduring of the weather elements, checked into an hotel in this big city and left the bikes packed in the parking lot, got some food  and beer and called it the night at 10 pm tired.