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The Nitty Gritty

By Mike Beris - 2008-12-15

This week, we left the haven of a tourist town, Ushuaia, and began our bicycle journey North. It was a bittersweet departure because we knew where everything was and had all our needs filled. With loaded water bottles and food supplies, we exited the town on Wednesday the 10th and slept near a river a few miles outside of town. Morning came, and with it, a visitor from across the river. His name was Fabriccio, and he wanted to show us a nearby waterfall. We were wary, and didn’t know if he wanted us to pay him, or if he just wanted to lure us away from our gear. It turned out that he just wanted some company. He runs a campground (that happened to be a few hundred yards from our "free" campsite) and didn’t have many guests at the time. http://www.kawiyoppen.com.ar/ is his website!

At one point during the day, while we took a break on the side of the road, two figures approached from the distance. We all tried to guess who would be walking on this lonely road, and better yet, why they’d be doing so. It turned out to be a French couple, Jose and Natalie, who are walking to Peru!

Jose has this neat trailer that hooks around his hips. They’re excited about "experiencing life together at 4 kilometres per hour."

We rode away from Ushuaia and encountered some of the massive snow-capped mountains we had seen from the plane. The Route 3 crossed the mountains at Garibaldi Pass, which I was quite happy to finally reach.

On the other side was a spectacular six-mile descent. We camped out behind some trees on the side of the road after having a 35-mile day.

The next day was a beautiful day to ride. The sun was out, the air was warm, the road was paved. Unfortunately, the spokes were also broken on Dan’s back wheel. He showed a lot of patience in learning how to fix this all-too-common problem. We finished riding a bit early to work on some videos. 45 miles this day. We slept that night on the tarps instead of in the tents, and woke up to raindrops. My spirits were low, but Daniel reminded me of some of the complaints I used to come home from work with. At least now I was able to be outside! It cleared up for a while when we reached the small town of Tolhuin. Here, we had our first empanadas: like big stuffed perogies. Oh man, we had 6 each!

After a nap in a park, we were about to leave town, when a horse came barreling down Route 3! He must have escaped from his corral. It was funny to see a horse pass through the gas station!

Saturday was another looong day of riding. The mountainous passes had been replaced by huge hills and fields with cows and horses in them.

We finally arrived in Rio Grande after covering 60 miles. Someone pointed us in the direction of this boathouse/campground, and this is where we’ve been for the past two nights. They have hot showers and a few other travelers to talk to, so we’re resting up for the next few days. This guy has the right idea.

Mike