Sideway trees, bog juice, and the last ship to Antarctica...

A more appropriate update is forthcoming, but I guess I'll just have to tell this part of my tale Pulp Fiction style, which is to say not quite in chronological order...

Today I did ride to Laptaia Bay, which is where you would end up if you drove a car from anywhere on mainland South America and started going south until you could drive no further. Sure, Chile claims Puerto Williams which is a bit further south, but we'll let Argentina keep their claim to the ¨end of the world¨. To the south, Antarctica. To the far north, Alaska, 17,848km away from Lapataia Bay. Oh yeah!

I must admit, leaving Patagonia proper or what seems like the end of Patagonia, I didn't have much hope for the Tierra del Fuego. The last real view of the mountains I had was the incredible hike around the Torres del Paine National Park, near Puerto Natales, Chile. Heading southeast, it was nothing but laaa laaa paaampa. Translation: flat, windy, desert-like grass plains for grazing cows, running ñandus (aka lesser rheas, aka small ostriches), pink flamingos (I'm not even kidding, and this is SOUTH of penguin colonies), and the guanacos, a cameloid species that really looks like a cross between a camel and a deer. They aren't a very timid species, sure they keep their distance, but guanacos are quite curious creatures sometimes running up onto the top of a ridge or hill and just watching us. I recall one lunch by the side of the road during which we were being watched/stalked by a voyeur guanaco; we could only see his head over the hill!

I digress, the pampa is not very visually stimulating. The only saving grace for me, mentally that is, was the presence of a strong western wind. Crossing the beginning of the Tierra del Fuego (the island at southern tip of South America shared by Chile and Argentina), for example, was one of my favorite riding days. Why?

Well, we started the day by leaving Porvenir and the Straight of Magellan. As we cycle a bit south, we saw one of the bays attached to the Straights which connects the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. Joe got an earlier start, so Markus and I rode until we saw a real beach. I must admit, I do miss the beach and sea/ocean, though this really counts as neither. Anyway, we spent a good amount of time there because of three words - holy shit, look! In the water were dolphins breaching the surface, probably hunting for lesser fish. Well of course they stopped when we rode to a better viewpoint down the beach, figures. Then we road along the edge of the bay more or less heading south along rolling hills and tailwinds alongside guanacos, ñandus, and some fishing boats every once in a while. At one little fishing shack village, we saw the dolphins again breaching the water just behind one of the fishing boats. THIS time, Markus DID manage to get a picture of one in the air, to be posted sometime soon of course. I forgot to mention, I busted my camera's LCD in Torres del Paine, so I can neither preview pictures I want to take nor review them after the fact. It makes taking anything at zoom difficult. Anyway, it was a pleasant day and primarily because the tailwinds just never stopped. When we left the bay and started heading west toward Argentina, 160km or so from Porvenir earlier that morning, the winds not only followed our direction of travel, but also got stronger. There's something to be said about riding along on a dirt road at 42kmph and watching little cotton-like seeds fly past me as they are carried along with the wind. At one point I yelled for Markus to STOOOOOOOP because he past one of those Patagonia trees growing with the wind. Imagine a vertical tree trunk with branches perfectly and uniformly growing sideways. It's as if you would prop your elbow up on a table, point toward the sky, and then bend your wrist 90 degrees. That's what this tree looked like, can't pass up that picture. So when Markus, aka 'the tank', turned around to come back to where I braked, he had to dismount and push the bike, hahahahaha. We grabbed our pictures and kept riding. On a flat if I pushed, I could approach 50kmph, but usually stuck in the low 40s range when I got lost in thought and just sort of rode with the wind. Ahhh, yes, I wish all cycling days were like this. When we finally met up with Joe, we were 150km away from Porvenir at the border crossing on the Chilean side. It was a long and rewarding day, but I wasn't thrilled about San Sebastian (could count the number of buildings on two hands) nor about the 50 pesos fee for a bed that night. Luckily, the owners of a restaurant next door to the hostería let us sleep inside their heated building on the floor for free. Out of the cold, showers, no need to pitch a tent in the wind, what more could I want? How about not getting ripped off for the dinner, but I guess it sort of made up for the free space to sleep...

The next few days into Ushuaia were very similar, filled with strong tailwinds and nothing beside the road. Hell, even the guanacos went away for a while for some reason. The day into Ushuaia, however, was filled with mountains not unlike those on the Carretera Austral. I think it was quite an appropriate and surprising end to this leg of the journey; I say surprising because I expected much less from Ushuaia based on reports from people going north and the terrain of northern Tierra del Fuego. There, I would find new friends among the impressive travelers' community spread among the local hostals, and a fun little multi-day hike laden with bog juice.

That I'll get to later because right now I need to find a bed. Hasta pronto!