1/31-On a Mission…For Bike Boxes

On our first full day in Ushuaia, we spent a chunk of it looking for bike boxes. We were able to score one box when I noticed bicycles in a shop window. None of the actual bike shops have any bike boxes. I think I’ll be fashioning a box out of pieces of cardboard and a whole lotta tape. But, I have some time…maybe I’ll get lucky. 

On our way back from our first foray to a close bike shop and a different mercado, we came back to this bird guarding our bicycles. 

It looks very serious don’t you think?

We also experienced the bus today. It costs 70 pesos (about 10 cents) to ride the bus. The owner of our apartment gave us a bus card that had 250 pesos on it. It was enough for the three of us to take it into town. Alex recharged the card with 5000 pesos. Not sure why so much as that is enough for 23 bus rides each! 

On the bus. 

After getting the one box, Alex and Markus took the bus back with the box to the apartment. Since we were meeting Mathias and Carmilla in town for dinner, I just stayed in town. I wanted to buy some shoes. My Berkies are great for camp shoes and short walks, but not so great for longer walks. I got some Hokas. Now, maybe I’ll even go for a power walk if it’s not raining in the mornings…

I also checked out the hostel I will be moving to on the 8th. It’s right in the center of town which will be great. The young guy at the desk, Andrew, is very nice. He speaks English better than Spanish. 

I killed more time before dinner by going to the “Ushuaia” sign. 

When I walked up, a small group of Korean tourists asked me to take their photo. I did, then they asked me if I wanted them to take my photo. I said, “Sure.”

There are lots of monuments along the shore. 

I think this is for the lives lost in the Falklands war with Great Britain. 

In the plaza looking up into the town. 

More history stuff. 

Old ship and cruise ships. The big one left sometime after I took this photo. The water is the Beagle Channel. 

I met Alex and Markus in front of the restaurant. Mathias and Carmilla joined us a little later. It was good to see them again. They were planning to take the bus up north to Mendoza, but the bus won’t take their bikes. Now they are flying to Buenos Aires on Monday. We’ll meet them once more on Sunday. 

We took a taxi back to the apartment. Don’t know what is on the agenda for tomorrow. We’ll see what the weather looks like. 

1/30-Fin Del Mundo!

The end of the world is hilly and crowded! But before we got to Ushuaia, we had to do a little bike ride. 

I woke up to this view from my tent this morning. 

Not a bad way to start the last day. Actually, when I got up at 5:30 to pee, there was a fox rummaging around in the fire pit not far from my tent. We have seen several foxes, even seeing one run across the road today. 

First we had to get back to Ruta 3. Then we had to climb Paso Garibaldi. Even though it looked quite epic, it was actually not bad. The steepest grade I saw was 5%. The views, however, were spectacular!

It looks worse than it was. 

Mountains and the lake. 

Lago Escondido in the foreground, and Lago Fagnano in the distance. 

And Billy, of course. 

The top of the Pass is near! In total, it was about an 8 km climb. See the gravel road to the right? That was an alternative route. I’m glad we didn’t do that one!

There was an equally long descent on the other side. Just after starting down, I saw a cyclist coming up. We both stopped. He was Rory from England, and it was his first day! He was basically doing the same thing as us, except in the reverse. He looked fresh! 

Down at the bottom, there was a moto/cafe/museum/adventure place. We stopped for a cafe break, but the cafe part was closed. We walked around. Alex asked a guy if there was coffee. He took us into one of the…I don’t know exactly what it was…maybe a meeting room? There were tables, and they had thermoses of coffee AND hot chocolate! The guy poured cups for us. It was free!

There were a bunch of different buildings and cabins. 

We continued. We passed by numerous ski areas, and even a dog sled area. As you can imagine, winter is a pretty big thing here. There are numerous mountains at the end of the world. 

As you can see, the weather was pretty cloudy. It was about 14 degrees Celsius. Coming down was rather chilly. I managed to stay warm enough because of the uphills. 

Finally, we were at the entrance of Ushuaia!

Does it look like what you imagined the end of the world looks like? I’m not sure. 

There were two main ways to get to the port. We took the way along the water. 

In the distance you can see the cruise ships. That’s the area we were heading for. There was a crap ton of traffic, and the wind was blowing clouds of dust. The traffic just got more as we got closer. Our goal was the “Fin Del Mundo” sign. We knew where it was supposed to be, we just had to find it. There were so many tourist kiosks for various tours that we couldn’t see the sign. Finally we found it. 

A nice lady took the photo for us. 

By the way, notice that the DaBrim is back on my helmet. It’s been off for all the days across the Pampas. I wanted to put it back on for the last day. 

After taking the photos, and fist bumps all around, we sought out some food (of course). Now, Ushuaia is basically surrounded by mountains and the water. From the water, the town is built on the hillside. To get to most of the town, you have to go up. It’s like most cities that are on the water (Seattle…Tacoma come to mind). Lots of very steep hills. We rode up one block, then found a restaurant. I think it was really more of a bar with snack food. Still, I had a filling “gas station” style pizza. Alex and Markus went for the pea soup. They were not thrilled. Really, it just looked like green water. 

Back to the bikes, we were now heading to our accommodation. We went up, then over, then up, then over some more. Finally we went up a really really steep block, and we still had to go up another one. I gave up and pushed. We finally found the place. It’s a great place, and due to its lofty elevation, the view is pretty good. 

We are on the top floor too. Markus hauled the bikes up. 

Kitchen

My room. 

We actually walked back down a couple of blocks to a panadería and then a small mercado. The walk back up was sloooow. 

We have until Feb 8th here in this apartment. Then I’ll move to the hostel when Alex and Markus leave. I’m not sure if I’ll do a post everyday. We do have some adventures we want to do while we are here, so I’ll do posts for those. 

We have done what we set out to do. Puerto Montt, Chile to Ushuaia, Argentina!

1/29-Our Last Night Camping!

The night before was my best night’s sleep in my tent. Last night was worst night’s sleep in my tent. There was a cacophony of dogs barking, people yelling, and cars going by all around us. In addition, my tent was on quite a slope, and it was not comfortable. Ah well…I should sleep good tonight. 

We started our day with breakfast at the panadería. 

I had a ham and cheese empanada, a pastry, some hot chocolate, and some juice. I also got an empanada to have for lunch. I forgot to mention that I swapped my Chilean pesos for Argentina pesos with Ben. I was telling him I needed to exchange my Chilean pesos in Ushuaia. He did he needed some (and had been wondering how he would get them). I had 77,000. He gave me 80,000 ARG (that is eighty 1000 bills…the Argentine govt is talking about making a 10,000 peso bill, but they haven’t yet. That’s also why you can’t get very much money from the ATMs…they can’t hold that many bills). Anyway, I can now pay in efectivo instead of using my card. 

We were all packed up before breakfast, so afterwards we just got on the road. It was about 8:15. We seem to get going earlier and earlier (even though we get up at the same time). 

Today we were guaranteed a headwind, but for a lot of the morning there was very little wind. That all changed just before lunch. 

We spent most of the day riding along Lago Fognano. It’s a big lake. 

With the lake and the mountains (and trees) we were thinking we were back in Chile again. 




The road was primarily up and down, but there were only three climbs that initiated the climb profile (the third one, we only did part of it…the rest will be first thing tomorrow, and it’s a long one).

We stopped for a break after about 17kms. 

The bikes by the road. 

Not a bad view. 

Later we came to this sign. 

You know what that means! We are almost to the end of the world!

Shortly after, we stopped for lunch at this shrine thing. 

We say on the side that blocked the wind. 

The trees had those parasite things. 

They look like Christmas balls. 

We got back on the road. A lot of the trucks today gave us no space. It got so we would get off onto the gravel shoulder. Fortunately, it wasn’t too loose. Then we would get back on the road until the next, “TRUCK!” would be yelled. 

We made one more stop at a cafe on Laguna Verde. 

From there it was an 8 kilometer ride into the wind to where we are spending our final night camping. We also got a view of the climb tomorrow. It will be epically beautiful. 

See the road in the distance?

It’s a nice wild camp spot for our last night in our tents. 

The lake is a bit too cold (and windy) for swimming, but my feet went in to get water to filter. 

We will enjoy our last night camping. Tomorrow…USHUAIA!!!

Buenas noches de Lago Escondido. 

1/28-Leaving the Pampa…Finally!

Even though we weren’t in a rush to get on the road this morning, we were still ready to go by 8:15. The wind wasn’t too bad either, so that was nice. Before long, we were really getting into more trees, and more hills. Whereas yesterday there were no climbs that initiated the climb profile, today there were three. 

The last of the Pampa. 

Break time. 

So much greenness!

And mountains…with snow!!! Are we back in Chile???

Water!

Since we only had 37 kms to Tolhuin, we arrived pretty early.  We stopped at this sculpture garden. 

Uh…it’s art. 

Condor

He’s got the whole world in his hand. 

Still lupine!

Alex having a seat. 

Another interesting thing. There are lots of things about this doctor. Don’t quite know why. 

We were planning to camp at a campground, but we wanted to check out La Union Casa de Ciclista and Panadería. I mean…a place for cyclists AND a panadería! We pulled up, and a young man named Franco came running out and immediately asked us if we wanted to stay. So the Casa de Ciclista part was down in the basement of the building where they did all the baking for the panadería. Alex and Markus went with Franco to check it out. It wasn’t great. Instead they asked if we could camp. Franco said we could camp in the yard of the house next door. There was a baño and a shower in the bakery building we could use. The actual panadería was across the street. 

The panadería is a very popular place. The choices were almost overwhelming. Since, by then, it was about 11:00, I opted for a pollo empanada and a churro (filled with dulce de leche…side note…everything is filled or has dulce de leche in Argentina). Both were good. We used the WiFi to book a place in Ushuaia for the three of us, and then I booked a hostel for the week I will be there by myself. 

We set up our tents in the backyard of the house. 

My tent is on a bit of a slope. 

The building on the left is where they do all the baking. 

We all took showers. It always feels good when you haven’t had a shower (even if only for one night). It’s going to be much different from last night. We are kind of right in the middle of town. Last night was so quiet. Tonight I don’t think so. 

We went to a small mercado. I needed some sort of protein to go with my dinner. I got a couple of eggs. I’ll fry them in my fry pan, and have them with some mashed potatoes. Gourmet…I know. 

Currently keeping them in my shoe for protection. 

We went back to the panadería. We met a British guy named Ben. He’s been cycling for at least a couple of years. Seems to have been everywhere. He’s traveling really light since someone stole his panniers. He did finally buy a new tent, but hasn’t really replaced anything else. He said the only thing he really misses is his solar panel. 

From Tolhuin, we have two more days until we get to Ushuaia. Seems strange that we are just a little over 100kms away. But, I’m glad to be done with the Pampa. I’m even glad to be climbing hills again!