a self-supported bicycle tour through South America

So, idea was to rest for a couple of days in El Chalten and then push on south to El Calafate where we would spend Christmas and see the Perito Moreno Glacier. Unfortunately, the stress and physical exertion getting to El Chalten from Chile seemed to take its toll on me and triggered all the symptoms of Guardia, a nasty bacteria I contracted, we guess back in Peru/Bolivia. This made it very difficult and unpleasant to cycle, but forced us to take our few days off early in Calafate and get there fast!

With the scenery changing from mountainous terrain to open flat pampas grass and then desert again (like north Peru), the road proved to be paved pretty much all the way to Calafate apart from a small section midway. With a strong wind behind us for the first day we managed to clock up 111km in half a day, which was just amazing seeing as we hadn’t managed to do much more than 60km on the Careterra in a whole day for a good few weeks.

The ride to Calafate was pretty uneventful apart from a couple of spokes breaking, although Lago Argentina was just stunning, so blue, and looked like someone had just painted the water with a turquoise colour of a kids painting set.

Once in Calafate, I did some Internet research and found the name of the antibiotic I needed for the Guardia, popped down the pharmacy and got the drugs. These soon started to work and I began to feel a little better and we decided to hire a car and drive to the Perito Moreno Glacier which was about 80km to the west. This was just an awesome site and something we’ve never seem before in our lives.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is the single and only tourist attraction that everyone comes to visit in Calafate and is the sole reason for its existence. I don’t think either of us were prepared for what we saw, the shear size of the glacier is breathtaking. The glacier, which is constantly moving creeks, cracks and groans as it slowly advances forwards, although we weren’t lucky enough to see a huge chunk of ice fall, as sometimes happens, but we did get treated to some smaller lumps.

All rested and feeling a little more solid, so to speak, we set off for the national park "Torres del Paine" in Chile. However, not long down the road another 2 spokes decided to break and this got me really concerned as we were unable to source any new ones in Calafate and there are only 2 replacements left with no prospect of getting any in South America in time! I traded Jen’s rear wheel for mine (because she’s lighter)and we continued. When we arrived at the junction to take us towards Chile and to the Torres del Pain national park on the unpaved Ruta 40 (into wind), we chose to continue southeast with the wind and paved roads to Rio Gallegos.

 This road was kind to the wheels and meant that we could cycle the 310km in two days and be in a sizeable town, albeit very bland and boring, for Christmas and a couple of rest days which were well deserved!

So here we are, another year nearly over, another Christmas spent in another country (last year was Seattle, USA) and we only have about another week until we get to the finish, Ushuaia in Argentina. But first we have to cross back into Chile for a short period before we get there.

So we hope you all had a great Christmas and we wish you a blinding new year. We’re not sure where we’ll be, but I’m guessing that there won’t be much happening for us, seeing as we going to be in the arse end of nowhere again. However you never know, we may get treated to some home-brew from a bunch of locals tending their flocks somewhere, although we aren’t going to participate in any of the Welsh or Kiwi action (for the antipodean’s) .

Sorry it’s short and boring, but due to the low energy levels following a very unsatisfactory Christmas dinner of Tuna fish sandwiches and hot-dogs, my fingers and mind are very weak and failing to engage at the moment. [Simon]