Day 117: The End of the World

One thing is certain about us, we always change our plans. Most adventure riders want to make it to Ushuaia, the southernmost town in the world. Argentinians call it the "end of the world". It’s in Argentina Patagonia on the island of Tierra Del Fuego.

We had originally decided that Ushuaia wasn’t a goal for us. We read and had been told that the riding there was boring, excessively windy and possibly tough ripio (thick gravel) roads. …….But we couldn’t resist. We decided to make a dash for it. So after hooking up with our Chilean friend, Rolando, we finished up our riding on Ruta 7 in Chile and exited by taking a ferry across Lake General Carrera. While we waited for the ferry though, the one and only shop in the ferry town sold sheep skins! Bruce now has another skin that he is carrying on his bike with the hope of having it fitted to his moto seat.

We bolted over to the Atlantic coast of Argentina and rode long windy hours for two days to get to Tierra del Fuego. This route included another border crossing back into Chile and a short ferry ride where we were required to stand with our bikes to keep them from falling over in the rough waters. The ferry didn’t have any tiedowns. Argentina has really dramatic road signs.

Man, are we glad we went to Tierra del Fuego! We thoroughly enjoyed the island. The ride to Ushuia (which included another border crossing back into Argentina) wound up and down through craggy mountains and ended up at the “end of the world” as they call it….on the ocean. That would have been reward enough but we got an added bonus the next day. We decided to find a different way back off the island of Tierra del Fuego by riding a side road across the island to a small port town called Porvenir. (This required another border crossing from Argentina back into Chile.) We didn’t know anything about the road before we started on it, but it turned out to be a jem! An isolated dirt road that followed next to the ocean. We didn’t see anything but a few fishing shacks and one ranch for 2 ½ hours and only about 30 cars. We rode alongside a pod of dolphins at one point. What’s funny is that this little port town, Porvenir, is the capital of this island, Tierra del Fuego. The ride was beautiful with the late day, low sunlight on the ocean and the yellow grasses.

As a side note of importance, our personal hygiene has gone down the drain! In one of our first chapters, we showed a picture of our laundry hanging in our hotel room to dry. We did laundry every night and wore a fresh outfit to ride every day. WELL…..that isn’t the case anymore! After over 100 days on the road, we are now wearing the same clothes for days and days (For the record, MB does change her underwear every day though).

Next plan after Tierra Del Fuego was to reach Torres Del Paine National Park. This was our original southern turn-around point goal. The day we arrived in the area (the port town of Puerto Natales) it was raining. We tried riding up to the park in the rain and gusting wind, but MB finally suggested we save the park for the next day and high-tail it back to our lovely cabin with fireplace that we were renting. Luckily the next day dawned beautiful blue skies and we had a great ride through the park. It was stunning! Our mascot, Stuffy, who looking a little dirty these days, enjoyed the scenery too.

We see lots of guanacos alongside the roads in Argentina. Guanacos are similar to the domestic llama but they are wild.

Finally, our only real goal of this trip is in sight!......El Calafate where we had a date with Marissa, our granddaughter (and Mom and Dad of course). Our anticipation level was off the charts! How exciting to approach the end our trip by celebrating with Cory, Jen and Rissa! However, El Calafate didn’t give itself up easily to us….probably because we wanted it so bad.

The day getting there was a series of challenges. We woke up to hard rain. We delayed leaving our rental cabin as long as possible to let the rain die down…which thankfully it did by 11 am. The drive required another border crossing from Chile back to Argentina. As we drove up to the Chile border exit, we see that the road is shut with chain and lock and no official was standing there to unlock and let cars through. Was the road closed for some reason? If so, we would have to backtrack for over an hour. Thankfully, everything was fine and after we got our exit stamp an official unlocked the gate and let us through.

Next challenge was potentially a deal killer. We are riding on beautiful pavement in the no-man’s land between the Chile and Argentina border offices. It was probably about four miles. We were cruising along pretty fast because of the great road and we came up over a hill and around a blind corner and ………SCREETCH!.....throw on the brakes!........with no warning whatsoever, the road changes to ripio (remember from last chapter?.....MB’s favorite gravel road conditions?). Bruce almost went off the road trying to slow down so quickly on a sharp corner and MB almost ran into the back of Bruce. We maintained though and kept the bikes upright. It was a heart stopper. We look up at that point and there is a huge sign saying “Bienvenidos a Argentina” (Welcome to Argentina).

Finally, we arrive in the town of El Calafate and we are following our GPS route to the hotel which Cory had arranged for us. For some reason, GPS has routed us onto a narrow, ripio road and as we come down a hill and see pavement ahead, a policewoman standing at the edge of the pavement starts wildly waving to us to go back! Now what?!!!! After some discussion, we figure out that the paved road to the hotel which we can see two blocks away, is closed for a footrace. So we wait.

We are finally waved on and arrive at the hotel ……only to find there is no room at the inn! They have no reservation for us and they have no rooms available. As Bruce stands outside the hotel (the only place we can find any functioning wifi) to try to find another room in town, MB contacts Cory who doesn’t arrive for another two days (Cory and Jen had made the reservation for us). Bruce gets yelled at by the hotel shuttle bus driver to move our motos. Cory finally gets it all worked out after numerous phone calls and all of a sudden , there is a room for us after all. One more yelling interaction between both of us and the shuttle bus driver who pretends he is going to ram our bikes by pulling up within a fraction of an inch with his van, and we are safely arrived in our hotel room. We get to stay here in one spot for six entire nights!!

Our granddaughter, Marissa, (and Mom and Dad) finally arrive and we spend three wonderful days together in Patagonia. Following are some photos of our fun including touring the Perito Moreno Glacier.

After a sad goodbye to Cory, Jen and Rissa, we resume the last few weeks of our moto journey. We have some more sights in Argentina that we want to enjoy. Looks like we will be flying home in the first half of March.