• Andean Geotrail Blog (In English)
  
• Fat Cyclist
  
• Our Long Haul Honeymoon
  
• The Andean Geotrail
  
• The Andean Geotrail Blog (In French)
  
• Up In Alaska
  
• Walking the Andes (In French)
  
• Ze Movers (In French)
  

People People Everywhere

By Dan Wallace - 2008-12-25

We travel around the world on bicycles. We have all the things we need to survive on the bikes, so they are very heavy (muy pesado). We are slow (lento), very slow (muy lento); and we get tired (cansado), very tired (muy cansado). However, this is not such a bad thing because we get to experience South America unlike other travelers that get around via motorcycles, vans, or busses. Our slow pace allows us to spend time getting to know the land, the interesting flora and fauna and all the wonderful people we meet along the way!

Setting out from Ushuaia we figured we would meet a lot of people during our travels and we were not disappointed. At the start of our first official day we were met by a young man named Fabriccio. Fabriccio and his uncle owned and operated a small campground called Kawi Yoppen (Place of Friends) that we camped near the night before. He communicated that he wanted to take us to see a waterfall. We were leery at first because the idea of leaving our gear in his campground after just meeting the guy seemed like a scam. But, we decided to trust him and his sincerity. After putting the bikes on the side of small building Fabriccio led us up a mountain side for about fifteen minutes until we got to a very beautiful waterfall, just like he said. He was very happy that we decided to go with him and was very proud to show us the waterfall that we concluded was part of his property. We hiked back down after some photos and then exchanged contact information. Goodbyes and good lucks were given and as we left Fabriccio went back to working on a second floor room of the main building. The guided hike was totally free and we made a good friend by taking a bit of a chance.

As we pushed on to Rio Grande we ran into a few other adventures traveling on the same road. We met a French couple who were walking north to Peru! We also met a woman named Ruth who had been cycling for six years! Ruth had biked most of South America already so she had lots of good advice for us. She warned us about the "super-nightmare winds" we would encounter heading west across Tierra del Fuego to Porvenir (we were all so excited to hear this info). Later we met a whole group of adventure cyclists some 18+ people strong. We first met their support caravan of two trucks and about 5 people which travels out in front of the pack of riders. They were setting up for lunch and as we chatted with one of the guys in charge we watched the riders roll down a long hill in the distance and trickle into camp one or two at a time. We all envied their light, gearless bikes but I think we were all glad that we weren’t traveling in such a large group. Too many people to worry about.

When we arrived in Rio Grande it was getting late and we had no place to stay in town yet. We asked around and some of the locals pointed us to where we could find a few churches (iglesias). I suppose our aim was to ask if we could crash at a pastor’s house or even in a church if one was offered. We found the Baptist church in town and Daniel and I went in and began the awkward conversations in our broken Spanish that are becoming all to familiar. It turns out that we arrived about 30 minutes before a youth group meeting. The pastor was not around and the youth that we were talking to did not have his home phone number. They tried very hard to accommodate us and one young man named Ivan even walked us about 4 blocks to a municipal building where he thought we might find some better information about camping in-town.

We had no luck with the youth group but we told Ivan that we would see him the next morning at church. Later that night while we rode around town a gentleman told us about a yacht club that allowed people to sleep in tents. We made our way there and discovered that Club Nautico was basically a small building that stored lots of kayaks and had about 5 small camp sites for 10 pesos/person/night – perfect. We ended up staying at this place for 3 days and made great friends there.

The owners of the place, Carlos and his wife Aderia were very friendly and cooked us a huge meal on the grill one night. We became very good friends with an Italian couple who were riding a tandem bicycle down from Peru and were heading to Ushuaia and then on to Buenos Ares. A tandem bicycle is basically a bike that two people ride: two seats, two sets of handlebars, two cranks and one long chain.

There names were Angelo and Valerie and they were very interested in the "how’s" and "why’s" of our trip. Angelo is a bicycle professional who owns his own bike shop in Italy, BiciSpazio (Bicycle Space), and was kind enough to help us tune our bikes and give us lots of tips on how to properly upkeep our bicycles. It turns out he builds custom bicycle frames, and had made his tandem bicycle himself!

We all had a great time a Club Nautico, playing games all day inside in front of warm stove fires, a great little dog named Dina and under a great big building sheltering us from the wind!

We were sad to leave Rio Grande and the comforts and familiarities of everyone at Club Nautico, but we had to push on to San Sebastian and the boarder crossing into Chile. But of course, we weren’t lonely for long because at the boarder crossing we met a young Israeli couple who were backpacking around South America. Matanya Meyraz and his girlfriend Natal were on there way to Punta Arenas to meet up with friends. We chatted with them about traveling and the countries of South America and although we were half dead from the long, cold night ride we just came off of, they we glad to entertain us with some hot tea and apples.

After Matanya and Natal departed we slept all day and the woke up for another night of riding. We traversed a very dark 14 Km of "no-man’s land" after leaving San Sebastian Argentina around 12a.m. and then made our first international crossing into Chile. We had three days to get to Porvenir and needed them all . Horrible headwinds (the "super-nightmare winds" Ruth warned us about), bad weather, broken bike parts and massive "up n downers" (hills) along the coast kicked our butts all three days; but we made it.

We arrived in Porvenir on Sunday and on Sundays everything in South America is closed (so we are learning). Everything except for Club Croatia! Club Croatia is similar to any nice country club you’d find in the U.S., and it is also the most expensive restaurant in town. The club was recommended to us by some Aussies we met on the road about 10Km outside of town. We ate a king’s feast of steaks, chicken and potatoes at Club Croatia and ended up mingling with the locals until 2a.m.! Throughout the night Carlos, who was our waiter earlier while we ate but now a good friend, helped us confirm that we were providing pretty good entertainment for the locals at the club. When we were ready to leave the manager, Alder, led us out back to a large building about 20 ft from the main club house. The building was an auxiliary club house where members hold barbeques, and other events. Alder led us inside, flipped on the lights and told us that we could sleep there if we wanted. We had told them earlier that the some of our previous nights had been spent in small abandoned fishing shacks on the shore line so the club members were more than happy to give us a nice place to stay. We gave Carlos and Alder a thousand thanks and then we all went back inside for more mingling.

The trend so far has been: 1.arrive at a new place 2. look tired 3.share food and drink with locals 4.accept top notch hospitality. Its always sad to leave each new spot but we are beginning to realize that the next loving group of people are probably waiting for us just up the road, over the next mountain, or around the next bend.