El fin del mundo(or so they say!)

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Well, we made it !

After a long journey south, zigzagging between Chile and Argentina, we finally arrived at the southern most city in the world - Ushuaia. Despite what this tourist-oriented town likes to claim, it's not really the end of the world. There's actually a small town a little further south in Chilean territory called Puerto Williams, but Ushuaia is the only town of a decent size that far down. We had hesitated before going there because we didn’t want to get caught up in the 'go to Ushuaia just to say we’ve been there' craze. However, in the end we were really glad we went because, although the town is nothing special, it is in a beautiful location nestled between the snow-capped mountains of Tierra del Fuego and the Beagle channel (named after Darwin's boat which sailed through there) and the journey to get there was pretty interesting!

It took us 7 days cycling on Tierra del Fuego to reach Ushuaia. We started in the north-east of the island after crossing the Magellan Strait on a small ferry. Tierra del Fuego is divided in two between Chile and Argentina and the town of Porvenir where we
Crossing the border !
arrived by ferry is the biggest town on the Chilean side of the island. The town is populated with the families of the men who work on the estancias on the island but it was very quiet when we arrived. I think everyone was hiding from the rain! To cross the island west-east to get to Rio Grande in Argentina, the only reasonable sized town on the way, we decided not to take the direct route but to take a more scenic dirt road that crossed right through the heart of the island. We were told that we would have to cross a river between the two customs posts in the middle of the island but nobody was actually able to tell us how high the river was at that time. Being hardened adventurers, we decided to take our chances anyway!

The first couple of days were not really very exciting. The scenery of rolling hills with little vegetation was quite repetitive and as the estancias were out of view, a long way from the road we only had a few passing cars and lots of sheep and guanacos to keep us company. We started playing alphabet name games
On the way to Ushuaia
to pass the time and ended up playing full-blown games of charades on the bikes. The best parts of the first two days were the evenings. The first evening, as we searched for some shelter and water to pitch the tent, we were treated to an incredible Patagonian sunset, with all different colours lighting up the sky. (We found an abandoned hut to camp behind just in the nick of time!). The second evening we arrived at a Chilean estancia and asked if they had anywhere where we could camp. Directed to the workers kitchen we were welcomed with coffee by 'Segundo' the cook. As it was cold and raining Segundo found us a room in one of the workers houses where we could light the fire and stay the night in the warm. It was perfect for us for one night but I was quite shocked by the life of the workers on the estancia. The rooms where they lived and where we stayed were really depressing, like prison cells with just the basics and no personal touches, there we no women and children on the estancia as they all lived in Porvenir and there seemed to be no
Lunch in the stables!
conviviality between the men. They all seemed tired, quiet and introverted. We only had a tiny glimpse into their life but what we saw seemed really sad. Later the estancias we passed by on the Argentine side seemed a little better especially as families lived together on the estancias. The Argentines themselves claim the conditions are worse in Chile but then they would say that as Argentines and Chileans are not the best of friends.

The following two days the scenery was much more interesting as we cycled through beech forests and past lakes and rivers (with beaver damns- an introduced pest on the island). It's the beginning autumn here now so the leaves were all turning red and orange, creating a beautiful picture. The only down-side was that it was raining again but we are quite used to that now! When we arrived at the Chilean border at the end of the afternoon, the place seemed deserted. Eventually by looking through the windows of the buildings around we found the customs officer asleep on his sofa and had to wake him up to get our stamps! It was quite funny crossing the actual border because we were the
Colours of Tierra del Fuego
only people around, the Chilean having gone back to sleep and the limit between the two countries was just a farm gate on the track that we opened and closed ourselves, I imagined what trouble we could cause if we left the gate open! Fortunately for us the river was not very high the day we arrived and we were able to wade across a couple of times carrying bags and panniers. My legs were very pink from the cold by the second crossing. The Argentines were much more awake on their side of the border and gave us a warm welcome, asking lots about the bikes and our trip and persuading us to stop there for the night in a shelter they had with a fire so we could dry off our clothes and have a relatively comfy, warm night.

We awoke to rain again the following day with 95km of up and down bumpy dirt roads to reach the luxury of the town and a hot shower. Because it was raining it was quite difficult to stop in the day and have break as we would get cold to quickly. So, as on the precedent days, we
Arrival at the 'end of the world'!
stopped at estancias on the way to ask them for a place where we could have some shelter for half an hour. Each time our contact with the locals was really interesting. In one estancia we had lunch in the stables watching two little boys on huge horses learning to be guachos, in another we met an fishing guide who was looking after some rich tourists who had come to fish the famous sea trout in the local rivers and at another we were welcomed into the house by the owner of the estancia whose parents were french and who practiced his french with us and was really hospitable and apparently would have invited us to stay had he not an appointment in the afternoon - damn! we missed out there!

At the end of the fourth day we arrived in Rio Grande, a large not especially attractive town, where we found a nice hostel for a days rest.

For the final two and a half days to Ushuaia we were on the main, asphalt road with mostly the wind behind and just a little but very strong against us (to remind us of the wind of Patagonia
Pick up a Penguin!
before we left!) so we progressed pretty quickly. The road started off quite flat with not many trees but we soon arrived in the scenic mountains of southern Tierra del Fuego with beech forests and lakes. We were really lucky and had perfect blue skies and warm weather (such a contrast to the cold and rain of recent days) and I actually got my shorts out for the first time in a couple of months! It was still very cold at night though and on the last morning before arriving in Ushuaia we woke up to find our tent had frozen. We are a little late in the season to be in southern Patagonia as most tourists come in January and February when it's a little warmer, however we didn't regret our timing at all as the explosion of autumn colours and fresh snow on the mountains was well worth the cold nights.

As we cycled the final 30km into Ushuaia the weather was still perfect but on arrival in the town the sky clouded over and we had two solid days of rain. We didn't really mind though as we were quite happy to stay inside our guest
Watch out for your lunch!
house resting and only venturing out from time to time for a look around the shops and walk along the port. In the evening we celebrated the end of our episode in Patagonia in style with a bottle of Argentine champers in a lively bar followed by dinner in a Parilla restaurant -all you can eat BBQ meat and salads for about 6 pounds! We finally managed to get out and around in Ushuia on our last day when the weather was beautiful again and we cycled and walked up to a viewpoint over the town and soaked up that end of the world feeling.

We had decided that, after arriving in Ushuaia we would have a couple of weeks rest from cycling and just use the bikes for little trips around town to give our legs a break. After 6200km, of which more than 4000km was since December, our legs were starting to get pretty tired. With this in mind we woke up early on the fourth morning to catch the bus to travel up the eastern coast of Argentina to Puerto Madryn and the hopefully sunshine! The buses in Argentina are really luxurious with two floors, large
Watching out for the Orcas
reclining seats, TVs, food etc, however they are a pain to put the bikes inside as the have really small luggage compartments. We wrapped the bikes nicely in boxes we found the day before and awaited the usual huffing and puffing of the driver. Surprise, surprise the guys in the first bus were really nice and everything went smoothly. However after 11 hours in that bus we arrived at the end of the line at 6pm and had to take another bus to go further north. This time we were made to wait until the last minute to see if we would be allowed on or if we would be left stranded in the unappealing town of Rio Gallegos. They did fit the bikes in the bus in the end but they charged us a hefty sum for the privilege! Still, we were in the bus and after another night and half a day we arrived at our destination: Puerto Madryn.

To our great pleasure, the weather was ideal in Puerto Madryn . The town, in the northern limit of Patagonia is popular beach resort and although we were out of season, the skies were blue and it was
In the park, Tucuman
about 25 degrees everyday. We rode along the sea front and soaked in the holiday atmosphere. The place wasn't deserted as we imagined because it was Easter week and so there we quite a few people on short breaks. We found a reasonable campsite just at of town and settled there for a few days.

The main reason we'd come to Puerto Madryn was that this town is the entry point to the Peninsula Valdez, a national park home to a whole variety of marine life. The Peninsula is a 400km round trip from the town and as it's forbidden to camp anywhere other than Puerto Pyramid, a little village on the Peninsula, also the roads are long, deserted and sandy with almost no water available so it's virtually impossible to visit the peninsula by bike. Rather than take a tour we splashed out and hired a car for the day to visit the peninsula in style!

The peninsula was amazing, we saw a huge colony of cute Magellanic Penguins, so close up that you could almost touch them, huge elephant seals (weighing up to 6000kg!) lounging on the sandbanks, lots of sea birds, and a very comical armadillo who tried to pinch our lunch! However this was all a bonus because what we’d really dreamed of seeing were the killer whales. Killer whales or Orcas live in small groups and are found in all the oceans. However there are only two places in the world where the orcas use a technique of beaching themselves to catch their prey. (I'm sure you've seen it on TV before). Apparently the ability to beach and then make it back into the sea is not a natural instinct for the whales but is a skill taught from mother to calf and only a few whales know how to do it. The two places in the world where they do this are in a part of Canada and on the Peninsula Valdez. February to April is when you have the most chance to see the attacks, as the seal pups take to the water.

We arrived early at Punta Norte to await the high tide when the whales may or may not arrive. (We'd been told they had been around the week before but not in the last few days). The location was beautiful in itself; from the viewpoint above we could watch three large groups of sea lions with their pups playing on the sand and in the water. I was watching with group with our recently acquired binoculars when, with a shiver, I saw in the water behind the group a huge, black fin. The Orcas had arrived. For a while we watched as they casually made their way around an outcrop of rocks to the area near to the sea lions. There were five of them, waiting for high tide when they could attack. Strangely enough the sea lions seemed completely unbothered by their presence and the pups continued to play at the waters edge. Then, as the tide rose, the Orcas started their attacks. They came right up to the beach, their huge bodies coming out of the water, we could see the colourings on their faces, as they tried to grab the tiny sea lions. Obviously from the distance we were at (about 250m) we couldn’t see the detail as well as you do with David Attenborough but to see it happening before us was incredible enough. The Orcas kept up their attacks randomly over a period of a couple of hours and at one point swam along the shore line chasing a group of adult sea lions right past where we were standing. It was a really memorable sight, we felt really privileged to have been there.

After another day in Puerto Madryn, reading on the beach and chatting with others in the campsite we had to repack the bikes for another epic bus ride, 29 hours to Tucuman in the Andean North west of Argentina. To our relief the guys in the bus were really cool again and we had no problems with the bikes. We arrived, 7pm on a Saturday, in the lively centre of town: people sat outside cafes, drinking beer or coffee, the pedestrian area full of shoppers, others sat in the central square eating ice cream. Loads of young people, young families with children, older people dressed up for Saturday night. The atmosphere was contagious and lthough we were really tired from the bus we had a quick shower in our quiet hostel and went out for dinner in the centre of town. It's great to be in a lively Argentine town again. Tucuman is the fourth largest town in Argentina but despite it's size, like Cordoba its still really pleasant with lots of wide open public places with trees and benches to sit and relax. On Sunday we went to the local park where we found what seemed like all the city outside playing games, fishing tiny fish from the artificial lake, racing mopeds on a racetrack, eating popcorn, chips, ice cream etc....As it was Easter Sunday there was a kind if mass in the park just by the lake so people could pedalo around the lake and fish while reciting mass! Later in the evening there was a concert in the main square with religious undertones but mainly lots of popular songs so families were out dancing and singing along with the songs- that's Argentina for you!!

After a few more days here in town we are going to set off to visit the area north of Tucuman. It promises to be quite spectacular but I’ll let you know more in the next blog because I have to go now!!

Hasta Luego!!

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Comments

[jimmycanda]

planning a visit
hi there- these are great blog journals - I was wondering if you would mind sharing how you planned your trip before heading out or was it mostly spur of the moment decisions. What about hostels and other accomodations - were these easy to find or require reservations. thanks