Posts for February, 2010

For the past 4 days I have been hiking with our friends Sam and Bernie on a trek called the W in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine. Nina (and Max a temporary traveling companion) drove with us to the park entrance about 90 kms from Puerto Natales on Sunday morning the 31st January and dropped us where a shuttle bus took us the last 7 kms to the start of the hike. Thereafter Nina and Max drove the Tiger back to Puerto Natales where they stayed while we were on the hike - unfortunately her foot is not up to hiking. Max is acting as guardian of Sam and Bernie's vehicle.

Cleaning up from the hike and preparing to move on.

It took a long time to say goodbye to everyone this morning. We had to chat with Bernie and Sam now that they are back from the hike, and say another set of goodbyes to Max the Aussie cyclist, and of course a last stop at the local internet cafe. But we were eventually on our way, heading to Punta Arenas one of the gateways to Tierra Del Fuego.

Overnight we decided that we would give the boat tour a miss and drive ourselves to the Seno Otway Pinguinera a rookery on an ocean inlet west and a little north of the town. The drive was via a reasonable quality dirt road through more flat wind swept steppe country.

If anything the wind was even stronger this morning; there were big white caps on the waters in the straights.

Today we rolled into Ushuaia, Argentina - the end of the road south. Deadhorse Alaska is 289 days and 28061 miles behind us.

We spent the morning and early afternoon trying to catch up with internet stuff using the campgrounds agonizingly slow wifi. Late in the afternoon we went looking for a metal fabrication shop to have some changes made to the carrier on the back of the Tiger. I decided today I would look for a wheel on which to mount the extra spare tire we have been carrying since Bariloche; thus giving us two complete spares. However that will mean more weight on the carrier, and will require some rearrangement so that we can still carry a local propane cylinder and a couple of fuel cans.

It rained all night and not far up the hills/mountains there was fresh snow.

At least that's what the sign at the Ushuaia Golf Club says.

It rained again last night and is cold again today - I know that's becoming a broken record, we are getting a little sick of it also - hence it will soon be time to start heading north in search of warmth and maybe beaches. Hence today we decided to make the obligatory trip out to the local national park; Parque Nacional Tierra Del Fuego. There is very little access to this park by road or by hiking trail. So we along with many individual tourists in local taxis and many many tourists from the steady stream of cruise ships that docked in Ushuaia headed out along the only road to get our photo taken at the end of highway 3 - the southern most highway in South America.

Well guess what - it rained again last night. The campground is again a muddy and puddled obstacle course.

We could not resist a stop at the panaderia in Tolhuin for a little indulgence on our way out of town this morning.

We spent time in Rio Gallegos this morning on business.

We spent some time in the national park this morning - Nina walked along one of the hiking trails to see some more penguins, braving the Puma's that the signs warned about - but she did not see any.

Before leaving this morning we needed fuel. We tried both the stations in the town only to discover that neither of them had gasoline or diesel, we were directed to the gas station 4 kms away on the highway. We noted though that both stations still had a full roster of tank-filler assistants!

We want to do a tour in Puerto Deseado so we spent the day trying to find the right tour company - eventually we gave up on the one we were looking for and booked with Darwin Expeditions.

That's why we were in Puerto Deseado, to see the Rock Hopperpenguins and their punk style hair-do's and yellow eye brows. And today was the day.

There is not much to say about today - north from Deseado along more flat grass lands with grey skies and patchy rain.

The rain has departed, blue sky is back.

Overnight we decided we wanted to get to Buenos Aires expeditiously as the whale watching tours do not commence for several more weeks.. Sam and Bernie made an early start. We were a bit slower as we have business to do in the nearby town of Puerto Madryn - bank, groceries, internet and exchange our small propane tank. As a result we got a late start to the days drive - 4:30.

We are now back above the 40th parallel and the weather is warmer - low 70°F's, the sun is shining and today the landscape changed. No longer flat wide lands with poor grass and prickly shrubs. It's now flattish (but with some rolling hills), and nice green grasses both in the farm fields and beside the road. This looks like the normal state of the ground not simply a reaction to recent rains. Buenos Aires is now only 700 kms away.

We spent the day and night in Bahai Blanca. It's not that it's such a nice town, in fact in most parts it's pretty dumpy - but we had business to do and the local ACA motel and gas station had good wifi.

We spent some time trying to find the Brazilian consulate in Bahai Blanca, we need a visa for Brazil, only to discover that they don't seem to open.

We spent a relaxing day, walking on the beach, getting sun burnt around the pool and just enjoying the warm weather.

Not much to say - walked on the beach, baked in the sun, visited the local town.

We spent the morning cleaning house, and doing some repairs. Some parts of the Tiger have not been tidied up for months and it was showing - time to get organized. Also some parts of the tiger have not appreciated all the rough roads, mostly the cupboards. They are showing various signs of coming apart at the seams - so I spent time with a screwdriver trying to put it all back together.