Scott and Pam on the Road

Made it!!

Hi all from Ushuaia!

After I sent the last email, we went and picked up my repaired visor- great success and only 30 pesos (CAN$12). With 2 bolts on each side holding the old hinges to the new piece of polycarbonate, I call it the frankenvisor. It´ll work until we get home...

From Rio Gallegos (Santa Cruz province, Argentina) to Rio Grande (Tierra del Fuego province, Argentina), there are 4 border crossings and a ferry boat ride, because a chunk of the southern tip of the continent is Chile, like a big bite out of Argentina. We topped up the bikes and spare tank in Rio Gallegos and boycotted the Chilean gas (which is 2x as expensive) but had to have a meal at the ferry terminal. It is kind of crazy how much more expensive things are in Chile than Argentina, now that we are used to the Argentine prices. So for a days travel, we had an out of Argentine border crossing, then into Chile crossing (they aren´t simultaneous, or even in the same building for that matter), getting people and bike paperwork done at each stop, then a 30 minute ride on pavement, a 30 minute ferry ride, followed by 150 km dirt ride and then an out of Chile crossing and into Argentina crossing again. Lots of paperwork for a 4 hour passage through Chile. We´ll have to repeat again to get back as you cannot go overland to or from Tierra del Fuego without entering Chile. The ferry ride was very rough, but apparently this was a mild day with only 50 km/hr winds. The ferry sails in up to 90 km/hr winds. Glad we missed a rough day.... we wanted to stay on the deck to make sure the bikes didn´t fall over but had to get above the deck for some fresh air so we didn´t turn green. Saw these crazy little black and white dolphins- Commersons dolphins, I think they are called- swimming alongside the boat. We should see more on the east coast on our way North again.

The ride to Ushusia was great, but pretty chilly. A week ago, the temps here were in the 20s but a cold front came in and it was 3 degrees here when we arrived , but it warmed up to, and has stayed at, around 10-15 degrees since then. The mountain pass coming into town was beautiful- the mountains are so close and the air is so clear. Saw some unique Lenga forests that are covered by "old mans beard" moss. Ushuaia itself is kind of a wierd town. It is a large-ish city with a small touristy area downtown and milling about is a mix of a few locals and lots of tourists. There are 2 goups of tourists, devided roughly into those who have arrived overland (backpackers and, well, motorcyclists) and the cruise ship softies-the white puffy jackets give them away. The overlanders are dirtier, I mean, more rugged-looking in comparison. Prices here are very expensive for the cruise ship set, and also probably due to the remoteness of the place. The national park is filled with very easy walks off the main road, so that the tour buses can drop off the cruisers for a 200 meter hike to a viewpoint, but the park really can´t hold a candle to some of the other stuff (less accessible) that we´ve seen in Patagonia. Don´t get me wrong, the town is very pretty- mountains surround the town, which surrounds the harbour, but the best places we´ve seen in Patagonia are no where near as accessible as most of the sights we´ve seen in Ushuaia. This trip has befinitely been about the journey but still, the fact that it is the end of the road, after 10,000km and 2 months from Lima, makes it is a very special place for us. We made it!

We rested our first day here, toured the Park and surrounding area the next day and did bike maintenance and laundry and some travel planning today. The travel north through Patagonia should be faster as we are taking the paved road up the east coast.

Gotta pack up and get to bed for our big travel day tomorrow, so we´ll sign off.

Cheers all,
Scott and Pam

Posted by scottandpam at January 27, 2005 06:33 PM