After 18 months and 4 days we finally rolled our pedal bike up to what would be our final stop of our bike trip across the Americas. I said “rolled” and not “pedaled” on purpose, because our wheels had finally said “no more” as we slowly worked our way down the last hill into town. The spokes were popping and snapping, the brakes would no longer clear the wobbly rims, and things were generally on a precipitous decline. We stopped at a random street corner, shared a hug and a smile and pushed our tandem around town to find a place to call home for our 3 days in Ushuaia. It was a good time for the bike to break.
Sitting now in a cafe in Madison after 2 weeks back in the northern hemisphere, I already look back at the final days of pedaling with an obvious nostalgia and the kind of vague remembrances that typically come only after years of separation from an event. Indeed, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego seem a long way off.
The highlights of the far south for were many. To start, we got to see penguins for the first time in the wild around Punta Arenas. They are quite endearing and remarkably odd creatures, seeming to be an unlikely mix of seal and bird. Their awkwardness on land is amusing, something like a fat man in a business suit with no knees hurrying across town to his next meeting. But once they dive into the water, they are like torpedoes. But playful ones.
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We also got to meet some really great people. Because our bike wheels were so weak we had to try and hitch across a gravel section after crossing to the island of Tierra del Fuego. As is so often the case when you put yourself out looking for the help of others, we connected with some wonderful souls who were willing to go out of their way to give us a hand. Max and Helen and their children and parents took us into their RV and fed us lunch and made us feel like family as we slowly meandered across the bleak, windy, and rough stretch from Porvenir to the border with Argentina. This is despite the fact that there really isn’t room for more than 6 people in their little RV, and their parents were only with them for a short time. They are travelers, and instantly set to work on finding a space for us and our bike before they even knew our names. If there is any justice in the word, they have some serious road Karma coming.
No sooner than we separated ways with Max and Helen and found our way to the nautical club in Rio Grande, we were showered with more hospitality. Normally the club offers camping outside, but there was no one around to run the camp. So, they invited us in to stay inside and use their kitchen and even eat a delicious feast of lamb in white wine and a few bottles of wine. The atmosphere was celebratory, as we were two of five travelers who were staying there that night. There was also a German woman who is paddling her kayak around South America (here’s her website) and a couple of Argentinians who were doing a three trip around the southern tip of the continent (cape horn). Again, we were treated like family, talking and laughing long into the night.
The next morning we were reminded once again of the intensity of the wind in the far south of South America. The first 4 miles took us nearly an hour and almost knocked us over multiple times, and then we turned a corner to head southeast, and we did the next 40 miles in an hour. Apparently, the gusts were over 70 mph. The non-gusts were pretty insane, too. Luckily, we mostly had it with us.
As the day wore on, the sun came out and we climbed a steppe and into rolling terrain with trees. It was absolutely perfect biking, and beautiful with the afternoon light and mountains all around us. Just for a moment on a downhill I began to lose it thinking about the wonderfully simple lifestyle that we had been enjoying and how amazing it is to travel by bicycle. I just cried by myself as we coasted down to a river crossing, only reaching back to grab Erin’s hand for a moment not wanting to distract her from her singing along to Bjork on our headphones. It was our second to last day, and right at that moment I said my goodbyes to our trip and our reality.
But the show wasn’t quite over, so we pedaled the final few kilometers to “La Union,” the most famous bakery in all of the Americas (at least for bike tourists). Why is it so famous? Well, first off, it’s huge. the selection is amazing. And, the owner is a long time cyclist and has a room where bike tourists can stay on their way through. For many cyclists, this is their last stop before Ushuaia, and the end of the road. We received a warm welcome and some free pastries which we gobbled up directly. It was a great place to feel good about being a bicycle tourist as we read through the guestbook of all the other cyclists that had passed through in the previous year. We even took other cyclists’ lead (and cavemen before them) the time to do some personalized graffitti on the wall (see pics).
With our bellies and hearts full, we rolled out for our last day at the crack of 10:30. As it turns out, we weren’t quite done biking, and there are a couple of mountain passes to take care of before dropping back to the ocean and Ushuaia. Perhaps because of that, but also because we couldn’t imagine being done just yet, we decided to postpone the finish and camp for a final night along a river about 10 miles before Ushuaia. It was one of those brilliant strokes of improvisation that not having a schedule allows us to make. We spent the evening watching the river flow by, catching and releasing a bunch of brown trout, and cooking up some lentils as the sun set. It was truly the perfect last night.
The final stretch into Ushuaia was unbearably short, and fairly unemotional. It almost felt like a morning commute. Just as we saw the city for the first time, we heard a pop. There goes a spoke on the rear wheel. A couple of kms later, another one goes and the rim begins rubbing incessantly on the brakes. By the time we finally get into town, the tire is rubbing on the frame and we can feel the whole bicycle pulse with every rotation of the rear wheel. The tandem, it seems, was ready to lie down and get some much needed medical attention. Fortunately, we could accommodate that need.
I fully expected that we would feel the gravity of the situation come down on us and have a little breakdown or something, but we really didn’t. After a few laughs over the pathetic state of our bicycle and a quick hug, we found a place to stay and went on about our business of enjoying Ushuaia and letting people back home know that we were all done pedaling. We got some great eating and some good hiking in during our stay. We even hiked up to a glacier and got to slide down on our backsides (see video). Overall, Ushuaia is a pretty cool place. Just bring lots of money.
We also were lucky enough to spend a couple of days in Buenos Aires before leaving Argentina. It was a really great time, as we stayed with a couple of Americans that we had met back in Mendoza, Argentina (Abby and Will – thanks heaps!). They were leaving on the same day as us, so the whole affair was quite celebratory. We went to an awesome cowboy market where we saw live tango dancing and ate some sausage, walked around the streets downtown, went to some great places to eat, and saw a really opulent cemetery, among other things. It was a great way to ease into the holidays and the trip back.
And how does it feel to be back home? Well, so far it has been quite easy. We got back to Madison, and it felt like we were just gone for a long weekend. The same goes for seeing family – it felt pretty much like a normal holiday get together. It feels natural to be back here, and all of the possibilities of starting fresh are really exciting.
Since it will probably be interesting to reflect on the trip after a bit of time goes by, we plan on writing up one more entry in a month or so to let everyone know how the reintegration process is going. During that time, we’ll also update our gear and stats pages to their final state.
Thank you all so much for being a part of this journey. It absolutely helped to know that there have been folks out there watching and wishing us well along the way.