One Day More . . .

San Sebastián, Chile – Rio Grande, Argentina – Tolhuin, Argentina

After 48 days, we finally left Chile.

Didn’t realize we were there that long. I think that’s the most time we’ve spent in any single country – including the U.S. and Mexico – on this whole trip. 

Really, probably the most time either of us has spent in any single country outside of the U.S. in our lifetimes . . .

Loved it. 

Except for the Atacama. Didn’t love that.

Loved the cities. Arica, Iquique, and La Serena along the coast. Santiago – which seems to get a bad rap with all the Latin Americans but which we thought was really nice. Orsono and Puerto Montt – the Austral Duluth. 

Loved the lakes district – with the beautiful blue lagos surrounded by snow-capped peaks.

Loved the snow-capped peaks and the volcanoes generally.

Loved the Carretera Austral – with its rugged beauty and ripio and harsh wonder.

Loved the fjords and the glaciers and the crazy archipelago down here.

Even the food in Chile was pretty good. By the end, they even had decent bread.

And the people we met in Chile were pretty great. 

Oh, and Chile has seasons. I’ve decided that’s kind of a necessary feature of any decent country . . . 

The crossing into Argentina was pretty straightforward. 

Just two hiccups. 

First, kind of a strange border. The leaving Chile part is about nine miles from the entering Argentina part of the border. Sebastian – the young Chilean we met a few days ago – who is originally from Great Britain – explained that it was only like fifty years ago that they actually settled on a definite border. So maybe they placed their border stations far enough apart that they wouldn’t need to move them if the border moved one way or the other a bit . . .

Second, Argentina doesn’t stamp passports anymore. I guess they just enter your passport number into their system. That way when you leave they just look you up, see that you’re legit, and send you on your way. All good. Except it’s kind of a bummer not to get a stamp. Diana asked if they could just kind of stamp our passports anyway – but, no dice . . .

I wanted to take a moment to talk about the indigenous people who used to live here. I haven’t done all my homework yet, but from what I understand they were pretty much completely wiped out by the Spanish. 

Diana and I even watched a movie about this the other day: The Settlers. Great cinematography, and lots of scenery that was very familiar to us after biking through this part of the world. Also very informative – being a super-preachy movie. Sadly, they forgot to have any real plot, and the characters were not particularly sympathetic. The good news is that it did provide some pretty good insight into how horrible it all was.

Pretty much the same story that happened in North America. 

People suck. 

None of this is real surprising, I guess. 

But what I would like to see is at least some interpretative signage or museums or something. Some acknowledgement that these people existed and some information about their culture and history. Where did they live? What did they eat? How did they survive the harsh climate? 

Hopefully there will be some of that in Ushuaia. We’ll see . . .

Skipping around . . .

The riding. 

I think Diana and I thought that this whole part of the journey – basically from Puerto Natales to Ushuaia – was going to be kind of yucky biking. Cold. Windy. Barren. Boring. Just kind of a grey landscape that we would have to get through in order to reach the end of the world . . .

The reality has been much different. Much of it has been like the American West. Big Sky type country. Only with rheas and guanacos running around. So many guanacos. And, actually, so many different landscapes.

Grasslands with sheep and horses.

Gnarly trees with striking fall colors.

Pretty rivers and lakes.

The Magellan Channel and other bays and inlets of the sea – complete with dolphins and such. 

Yes, there is some occasional wind. But for the most part it has been with us. 

Now, don’t get me wrong. It has not been easy riding. Even if the wind is with you it is still draining. As is the cold. Pretty much every day starts in the 20s, with a high in the 40s. Spending all day out in the wind and the cold is tiring for sure. And there really is nothing out here in between the towns. So there’s no lunchtime break at the 7-11. It’s just us and the guanacos and the wind and the horizon.

It’s been good. But a week of this is enough. Which is good – because tomorrow – our seventh day riding from Puerto Natales – we hope to arrive in Ushuaia – the, I guess, official end of the world! 

A little bit on our first two days in Argentina . . .

Foxes. 

Yesterday was crazy. In one two-mile stretch we saw literally ten different Patagonian foxes. Cute little things. Big fluffy tail. That was fun.

Armadillos.

We saw our first armadillo since Mexico yesterday. Not sure where they’ve been hanging out since then. No armadillo roadkill, which is weird – since there seems to be armadillo roadkill everywhere in Arkansas and Texas – but then, there’s no roadkill of any kind around here . . . 

By the way, I’ve been reading Texas, by James Michener, and the book talks about how armadillos moved into Texas only about a hundred years ago. They came up from Mexico, I guess. Presumably they crossed the Panamanian land bridge from South America a while back. Hard to see how they wouldn’t have made it to Texas before a century ago – but they seem to love it now . . .

Guanacos.

Speaking of the land bridge – and the movement of animals generally. I’ve been thinking about the guanacos. I guess they’re cousins with the camels. Which begs the question – how did they get here? It’s like the monkeys. 

Did they sail over on a vegetative raft, like they say the monkeys did. I guess it’s possible. But it seems kind of unlikely . . .  Will have to look into this . . .

Skunks.

I kind of like the smell of skunks. I guess Diana’s Mom – Popo – was the same way. Or so says her only daughter . . . Anyway, I’ve been kind of sad because I haven’t smelled skunk since, I think, Mexico. But we’ve been smelling skunk the last few days. Like the armadillo, I’m not sure where they’ve been hiding out – but nice to have them back . . .

Beavers.

As we biked through the lakes district of Chile and down the Carretera Austral I had been thinking that beavers would love it around here. But I guess they missed the Panama Land Bridge Boat – probably because there’s too much arid-ness between Minnesota and Panama. 

Unless Mr. and Mrs. Beaver packed up and took a little covered wagon across the deserts it’s hard to see how they would land down here . . . 

Anyway, Diana read about how some genius decided to import a couple of dam builders to the Ushuaia area around 1940 or so. I guess I was right – they do love it. They’ve multiplied a ton, and now there are beaver everywhere around here. Sounds great – except that, of course, they have no natural predator and they have, I guess, kind of wrecked the water supply – when they make their dams the water becomes stagnant and then they poop in it. Not good. And I guess they’re not so good for the forests either . . .

We’re still 100 kilometers from Ushuaia – but we’ve already seen a few of their dams. 

I guess they’ve been busy . . .

Prices.

We had Chileans tell us that they used to go to Argentina to buy cheap stuff. No more. 

I don’t know exactly what happened, but I understand that they’ve had some kind of crazy government in Argentina. I know, I know – they’re not the only ones . . . But I mention it because, I guess, they’ve had real inflation around here. We’re not talking about a few expensive eggs. We’re talking about everything. I’m not sure how the Argentinians can afford it. I feel bad for them. 

Steak.

Of course, this is something that Argentina is uniquely known for. And we’ve been looking forward to good beef for a long time. Reader Mike T, who spent some time down here hiking with his wife sometime back, primed us on this . . .

So tonight – after we skipped out on a restaurant because everything just cost way too much (because of the inflation I guess?) – we decided to buy a steak and see for ourselves . . . 

We’re in the grocery store looking at the meat section. But we’re confused. We don’t understand the terminology – and we really don’t want another piece of shoe leather – like we ended up with in much of the rest of Latin America. 

We’re debating back and forth as to what to buy, when a young woman approaches us. 

“Do you need some help? Do you speak English?”

”Umm. Yes. We’re confused about the meat. And we do speak English.”

She introduces herself. Camilla. She’s an attorney. She has studied English since she was young. She tells us that they don’t have good meat at the grocery store. We need to go to the local butcher’s shop:

”Carniceria de Julio.”

We make our way there and end up with a good cut of meat. And we meet Julio – who is, himself, a biker – and reviews the whole weather forecast for our ride to Ushuaia tomorrow. Oh, and then they give us a bonus chorizo sausage; I guess just because they think it’s cool that we biked all this way. So tomorrow’s lunch will be yummy . . .

We are such strange creatures – us humans. On the one hand vicious and mean and horrible. And on the other, generous and kind and wonderful.

Tomorrow.

One last push . . . And, of course, we have 60+ miles, and two passes to go over to get there. 

Send us lots of good energy . . .