a self-supported bicycle tour through South America

Well anyway, first off, our apologies for the very belated blog. Yes, we’ve finished the cycling, all 5574km of it on the 2nd January! We’re now in Buenos Aires the capital of Argentina catching up with the journal having rested here (deservedly so) for almost two weeks now ,and my how time flies!

Our last entry saw us make Rio Gallegos having cycled  320km in two days from El Calafate in time for Christmas eve and a descent couple of nights sleep. Although the stop was short and sweet we were back on the road and heading south again towards the border with Chile. It’s a strange feeling we have when we think about Chile,  it’s just so archaic compared to Argentina, and we get really frustrated with how backward everything seems to be. So with a little cloud over us we made our way all on paved roads to a little café where we camped near Punta Delgada not far from the ferry to Tierra del Fuego.

The following day we crossed into Tierra del Fuego on the ferry, which to our surprise was free, and a good job too, we had virtually no Chilean currency left; but as we found out, most places accepted both Argentinean and Chilean pesos being on the main route through for traffic to the Argentinean part of Tierra del Fuego.

Having crossed the Magellan Straits into Tierra del Fuego the landscape started to display some relief and became just a little more interesting, although I couldn’t help but think about the Falklands conflict and imagine how bleak and depressing it must have been for those soldiers.

It was a hard ride down to San Sebastian again on unpaved roads (being in Chile of course), of which there are two, one in Chile and one in Argentina. Upon arrival we were pleased to see a small café advertising fast food, so planned to grab a light snack and cross into Argentina for which we could see the Chilean customs just a couple of hundred meters down the road. What we hadn’t planned for though was the queue of people! It was chaotic with a line of cars stretching way back up the road in both directions. Having cycled to the front of this queue to see what the holdup was, we realised that it was sheer weight of people crossing the border and knew this would ultimately turn into a bun fight as the patience grew thin with people anxious to get the their destinations. We could tell that it was going to take some hours to clear, and with that we returned to the café for some gratis camping in eye shot of the border crossing having decided to cross early the following morning.

It was a great decision to go the next morning, the winds were strong and right behind us, and the journey got easier with the road becoming paved again. It was a fast cruise all the way to Rio Grande the last sizeable place until the finish. Flat and pretty depressing, reminders of the Falkland conflict were all to apparent with the road in a couple of sections having been widened to act as a temporary runway.

It was along one of these stretches that Jen somehow managed to run into the back of my bike (Jen says I ran into the front of her bike??!) nearly knocking me off, but falling herself and injuring her elbow and thigh quite heavily. After a few tears and some minutes later,  the shock had dissipated and we were rolling once more; all this way and nearly at the finish, we counted ourselves  lucky that Jen was okay to continue! (Jen couldn’t help but comment on the injustice of it all - all this way and no real fall to speak of until the end.  No justice in that she says!)

Rio Grande served as a rest stop for us and little more, a mediocre two days rest (nursing Jen’s injuries) and a new years eve as we were shattered. The following morning we had an early start, but we celebrated on the road that night with a fantastic camping site popping up out of nowhere, perched on the edge of Lago Fagnano on a cliff top just off the road. We watched the sun go down over a bottle of Chandon (we just love the bubbles) and I sat pondering the whole journey with quite some sadness that it was all coming to an end. It was also kind of sad as we knew that this would be the last of the wild camping opportunities that we have come to love in Argentina, it has been so easy and is so universally accepted here.

So the final morning of the trip began, the usual muesli and ritual of packing everything away. The wind was calm and the skies blue, which made for an enjoyable ride across the final pass of the trip "Garibaldi". The terrain in the south of Tierra del Fuego is very reminiscent of southern Chile and the Caraterra Austral, we were even treated to a few snow flakes whilst lunching at this pass which has a great view back down the valley from where we had come. With some anticipation, we sped down hill for the final big descent towards Ushuaia, although the road seemed endless this  afternoon. That said, as we rounded a corner on the main road into Ushuaia, with the largest mountain peak surrounding it in the background, a modest sign "Welcome to Ushuaia the southern most city in the world" greeted us; we had made it!

Ushuaia was quite impressive to see compared to the remoteness of the past few weeks, sprawling along the waters edge and up the side a of a shallow sloping mountain, cruise ships and row upon row of buildings covered the land as far as we could see. With the Beagle Channel in the back ground it was quite impressive to think there are whales, penguins, Cape Horn and the Antarctic all nearby; you really feel like you’ve reached the end of the world.

When we arrived in the main part of town we felt a little out of place. There were lots of tourists and so much going on, it was really overwhelming; but for some reason we were a real hit. People kept asking us where we had come from and could they take a picture with us. One chap had told us he was going to be cycling north and was asking all kinds of stupid questions that made me wonder if he had spent too long in isolation somewhere with padded walls!

So with a few days seeing the sights, relaxing and letting the magnitude of the accomplishment start to settle in, we made arrangements to fly up to Buenos Aires before returning back to the UK.

We enjoyed the touristy hectic hustle and bustle that Ushuaia offers and had a meal on the last night with some friends we had met in Rio Grande before embarking on the return journey towards home, rather than the last 6 months heading away from home.

Surprisingly we encountered no hassles checking our two bikes and two massive duffle bags in with Aerolineas to Buenos Aires, even though we were 45kgs over weight! The flight itself was a tad weird for us in some ways, being able to spot from the air some of the roads we had traveled along with such pain; and here we were flying in a couple of hours what had taken us a couple of weeks almost!

  So here we are, in Buenos Aires lapping up the city life and enjoying the luxuries of a five star hotel in one of the most beautiful cities I have been to, where we can sunbathe and swim in the outdoor pool on the 23rd floor of the Panamericano Hotel, and what a panoramic view it is. But still, it all has to come to an end, and tomorrow we will be flying back to the UK to that great old British weather.

We will of course update you all with a huge come-down blog, highlighting the ups and downs, how it all feels, what we learnt and all that jazz. As it stands though, we’re still coming to terms with finally reaching the climax of the trip and can’t quite believe it’s all over.