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Day 90

Day 90

47,502 – 48,036    534  Miles (25,336 Miles Overall)

Cordoba, Argentina – Resistencia, Argentina

Back on the road in the heat I was really missing the days of climbing over huge mountains dealing with some snow and cold weather. The weather was so hot here I wasn’t sure if I should ride with my shield open or closed because it was so damn hot. I had a long long day of riding and I was glad to finally get to Resistencia where I could relax. I was getting closer to Brazil and couldn’t wait for it. This was some of the most boring and lame riding I have ever done in my life. I’m pretty much making a 2500 mile detour to see a god damn waterfall. This thing better be worth it.

I pulled into the city and got a hotel room. I unpacked and went up on the roof to lay down by the pool and cool off as I was sweating profusely doing 90 mph the whole way here all day long.

I went for a walk but there was nothing open because it was a Sunday. I barely had any options to find food for myself and just walking in the sun was burning my skin. I met up with Fabio and his son who was back home from Tampa for a few weeks for Christmas break. They took me out to a nice little dinner and I met Fabio’s wife as well. She didn’t speak much English and neither did Fabio but I understood what they were saying a little bit. HIs son did all the translating, which was nice.

It was cool to hang out with a young person who is going to college in Tampa. It was refreshing. I called it a night pretty early and was planning to hit the road super early to get to Brazil at a decent time tomorrow.

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Day 89

Day 89

47,069 – 47,502  433  Miles (24,802 Miles Overall)

Mendoza, Argentina – Cordoba, Argentina

After a few days of lounging at the pool as usual like a lizard my motorcycle was ready to go. They ended up swapping the throttle body and doing the valve adjustment so the bike is ready for another 30K miles of riding with no maintenance inside the engine, or so we hope.

Next on the road was Cordoba. I heard it was a nice city quite far from Mendoza. Nice things to see, good food and some night life. The ride there was quite boring unfortunately. I miss the wild views on Ruta 40 with all the mountains. I got to Cordoba and immediately hated the traffic. The streets were narrow with a lot of traffic so I couldn’t cut through anywhere. I met up with a friend I made in Mendoza at his hostel and got a room there. I went out for a walk for a few hours to check out whatever i can but there wasn’t too much to see there! I ended up going out for dinner and we got some delicious cheap steaks along with some cheap house wine and that was my night for me. Cordoba was just a stopping point at this point for my way over to Brazil. I called it a night pretty late and packed everything up to hit the road in the morning. I was excited to see Fabio tomorrow and meet his family!

 

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Day 83

Day 83

45,715 – 47,069  1354  Miles (24,369 Miles Overall)

Tres Cerros, Argentina – Mendoza, Argentina

With all the anxiety I had all night I didn’t really sleep at all. I finally broke my normal habit of not looking at my phone if I can’t sleep and it was 4:30am. I said fuck it lets go ride. I took a quick shower to wake me up and loaded the bike up as fast as possible. I filled up with fuel and was on the road by 4:50AM.

The sun was 40 minutes from rising and the horizon was just starting to turn orange. It was going to be a beautiful day.  I rode a few miles away from the hotel to take a video and there was nothing in either direction. It’s a bit weird being out this far in the middle of nowhere so early in the dark with no one around. I love it. I pulled over about 1.5 hours later when I saw the ocean pop up next to me. The water was so flat since there was no wind yet this early in the morning. It was picture perfect!

I stopped to take a quick picture on the side of the road next to the ocean and saw something moving near the shore line right as I pulled over. I jumped over the guardrail and I couldn’t believe it. There were about 100-150 or so seals just hanging out on the beach. SHIT! What a score this was. I hung out by the road and just watched them do their thing which was hop around and make a lot of noise. There were also a bunch in the water doing their thing. They were everywhere. After a few minutes of sea watching I got back on and kept riding. I stopped for fuel at about 8am and grabbed a croissant and a coffee in a rush and got back on the bike asap. I was trying to cover a lot of ground today. The roads I was riding were in the desert and it was absolutely deserted most of the time. Nothing to see and barely any towns every 100-150 miles if that even. By about 12:30 I realized I was about 530 miles deep into the ride. That’s a huge day for just after noon. I kept on riding and riding and riding. I was doing about 90 pushing the bike hard. It was hot as hell out now at about 90 degrees. The bike was running a bit hot but we were moving.

I suddenly got the idea to hit 1000 miles today. I’ve never hit these numbers but this was a perfect shot. Europe was rough for it but I got close there. Too many toll booths and too much traffic to hit it on the highways there. I figured if I pushed hard enough I’d hit 1000 miles at 7pm. As the time got closer I realized I might even be able to do this whole ride in one day. Of course I’m doing this to myself, I said. I can’t just have three hard days. I’m going to give myself two really really hard days.

The roads turned even more deserted. I was riding on straight roads and I couldn’t even see where they turned or ended in the horizon. I was literally riding straight for hours and hours and hours on end. I kept pulling over for fuel every 100-140 miles because I was scared to go any farther in case there was no fuel station for the next 100 miles. I needed to play it safe but I was burning up a lot of time stopping for fuel so much.

I blasted past a cop at 140kmh and he ran to his car with the radar gun in his hand. There was a girl in a white Renault following and passing me on and off the last two hours and we gave each other a funny look whenever we passed each other. It was funny. She slowed down quite a bit before the cop because maybe she knows about this speed trap. Lets just say the last time I saw that cop was with him scrambling to his car! I pinned it and up ahead was a gas station but I couldn’t stop with what I just got myself into. I eventually turned off the road and had a long straight away for about 30-35 miles and every turn to the right was a dirt road. I was getting scared that my turn up ahead will be a long dirt road and now im absolutely fucked if I don’t have a gas station coming up. I actually got really nervous about this for some reason. I was getting low on fuel and I was completely in the middle of nowhere. I haven’t seen a car in a while back here. I’m literally talking the last few hours have been desert roads without turns for an hour at a time it’s pretty insane. I eventually turned down the road and when I saw it was  paved I actually did cry a little bit from so much relief. I didn’t have it in me to get into an adventure back here right now with this heat and with how tired I was.

I pulled into a small town which google maps said it had fuel and there was no fuel station. Ok now a week cutting it close. Onto the next town I went 40 miles away. I eventually got there taking it easy with the fuel but thank fucking god when I pulled in there was a gas station. I pulled in and filled up and got right back on the road doing 90mph. My engine was screaming the whole time. I had 360 miles left for Mendoza and it was 7:30PM. This is pure fucking insanity what im trying to do here. I booked it for about 3 hours and shaved off that 180 miles with a fuel stop in the middle. The woman is trying to be cute with me but I’m in a god damn rush.

I saw one of the nicest views of sunset. Off to the left the sun was setting behind a mountain range. The sky was pure orange and brighter than you could ever imagine. The sky was so clear with no clouds and everything was just orange. This right here was more beautiful than Patagonia to me. This long hard day and im gifted with this insane view and the colors were out of this world. I almost veered off the road a few times doing 90 looking at this view. I cried.

At the end of the first 180 miles I stopped for fuel in a city called General Alvear I think it was called. I was doing 90 on the streets into the city and blew every red light at a slower speed. I stopped for fuel and typed in Gorilla Hostel on Google Maps and I had 186 miles to go. I look over at the clock and it’s 9:36PM. I can’t fucking believe im about to ride 186 miles starting at 9:30PM after already riding about 1200 miles.

Now I was getting into some dangerous territory. I’m riding the same 2 lane desert road with no street lamps. Oncoming traffic and everyone is fighting with their brights with each other. I settled into my bike and had to keep my visor open the whole time because all the dead bugs from the last two days covered my shield. My eyes were burning from the wind hitting them all day long and I was ready to fall asleep. I hit Limp Bizkit on Spotify and jammed out to some old music. It kept me away.

This 100% was the most dangerous ride I’ve ever done in my life. 90mph for 180 miles in the middle of nowhere with no lights anywhere but my headlights and oncoming traffic blinding me with their brights. I was shitting my pants because if an animal jumped out I would be dead. A few times the road turned and it wasn’t showing me a slight turn on the maps so when I blasted on my brakes the headlight dropped so low I couldn’t see more than 30-50′ ahead of me. I got the bike going 90 again and climbed over the front end lifting the headlight up with my hands so the brights were pointing up quite a bit and now I’m really blinding people. I hit the brakes hard a few times to test out the new position and I was happy with it. It saved my ass the next few times the road turned on me without warning. Not big sharp turns but enough in the pitch black to scare the shit out of me.

I was looking for eyeballs shining in the bushes for most of the ride. I said to myself that if I see one pair of eyeballs shining in the bushes im done and ill bring the speed down to 75 and slow down. This isn’t worth my life. But I didn’t see a single set. I even joked with myself that if an animal comes out on the Roa dim just closing my eyes and letting whatever happens happen for 2-3 seconds and then I’ll open them again if I don’t blast this animal at 90. Thankfully it never happened.

Eventually I made it onto Route 7 and it had some street lamps and I was doing 90 with a white car into the city. I pulled into my hostel at 11:55PM. I walked in and I couldn’t believe I was here. I was so happy.

1354 miles in 19 hours exactly today.

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Day 82

Day 82

45,048 – 45,715  667  Miles (23,015 Miles Overall)

Ushuaia, Argentina – Tres Cerros, Argentina

Well I got up today knowing I had a long day ahead of me and shit was I right. I was on the road and moving by 7am. It was a brisk 41 degrees and hailing at my hostel. I hit the road watching a late sunrise over the mountains and boy was it beautiful. I headed out to the mountains and the closer I got the hail turned into snow. My rear tire is as bald as can be and sliding on every piece of patching I hit on the road along with painted surfaces on the road. It was getting pretty sketchy. I knew I had to be real careful because if I crashed here no one would be surprised. Thankfully my heated gloves were keeping my hands nice and toasty and for the first time I wore my balaclava because of how cold it was.

I covered some ground real hard and as I got closer to the first border crossing I was certain I could make the 11:30 ferry. The winds were blowing hard as hell but I was sure it wouldn’t be as bad as yesterday which means the ferry wouldn’t be shutting down. I hoped

I got to the first border crossing and there was no one at the Argentinian side. It was quick and I got through in maybe 5 minutes. I flipped up a water bottle with fuel right before the crossing in case I ran out of fuel or got low on it. I was doing a consistent 90 and burning fuel real quick. I got to the Chilean side a few minutes later and it was a shitshow. There were about 25-35 people on line and it wasn’t moving that fast. It took me about 30 minutes and I saw some friends I made from Brazil when I was in Ushuaia. I got on the bike and boogied. I was burning time off the ferry arrival time and I ended up taking a long detour around a city so I wouldn’t have to ride on a dirt road for 5 miles. I didn’t want to get my bike dirty after paying $10 to get it washed! I ended up getting to the ferry at about 11:05 and there was a line of cars maybe 3/4 of a mile long. I skipped everyone and got right to the front where I met Nick from Texas on an Africa Twin. We got on the first ferry that came to us and we were lucky. The line last night for the ferry was 2.5 miles long and some of these people slept in their cars to wait for this morning’s ferry to arrive.

Nick and I chatted on the ferry and we decided to ride like wild men to the border crossing because we both heard the lines there were brutal. He was on an Africa Twin which is much faster but he wasn’t getting in front of me. I almost got blown off the road one time and he saw it. It was bad. I learned to ride in the oncoming traffic lane on the windy days to give me some more room for big wind gusts like that. We assume that one that hit us both was probably 60mph. I got to the border crossing about 30 minutes off the ferry and jumped off my bike and ran online. Nick showed up not 2 minutes later and there were about 50 people behind me. He’s lucky I got there when I did or our day would have been fucked.

The border crossing took us about an hour which sucked. I got right on the bike to save us another spot to enter back into Argentina. That was even worse. The line was a few hundred feet long and we got there just when the workers were having lunch. While we were waiting on line some man came up to me and said my name “Marko”. I was confiused and so was nick. This man saw my bike in Baroliche and we chatted on facebook messenger for a bit. Small world. He was stuck at the ferry last night with the high winds he was telling us. Hes heading north too. Some old man cut us in line when we got to the booths and I lost my shit on him. We ended up taking his wife’s spot on the Aduana side and I told them all to fuck right of if they have a problem with it. I said bye to Nick since he had to stay there to send some pictures to the shipping company they needed ASAP!

On the road I was hauling ass doing 90 all day long. I was making a lot of ground and figured I had three long 12 hour days ahead of me. I stopped for fuel around 7pm and walking about the bike as I always do I noticed a piece of my tire fell off the tire and the white threading was exposed. Fuck. This is not good. I was scared of having a blowout. The next town was 4 hours ahead and it was too late to go for it. I checked Ioverlander and I saw there was a gas station hotel about 75 minutes ahead. I started hauling ass there worried about having a blowout which would end my trip. I learned quickly that I can lean the bike over to the left while I hang my body to the right to get the middle of the tire off the road and let the bike ride a little bit offset. I arrived at the gas station at 8:15pm I think and luckily they had a room open for me. I dropped my stuff inside and started ripping the bike apart. If I had an issue here it would really suck. I got the rim off the bike and started to pull the tire off the rim when a man showed up to help. In my broken Spanish I learned he was a mechanic and was a great helping hand. We got the tire off in no time and put the new one on. I removed the tube and decided to run tubeless again so I can fix a flat in a minute if needed. I would keep the rear tube as another spare as I already had one. Now I have 2. Can never have too many spares down here.

We had a problem setting the bead on the rim because my compressor didn’t have enough pressure. 2 girls came over with their car and gave me their compressor but it was the same problem. People are so sweet here it’s insane. The first man that was helping me ran over to a truck because they all have compressors on them. He rigged up a little system and between the three of us we got enough pressure in the valve to seal the tire onto the rim. I slapped my rim back on my bike and cleaned up all my tools. I gave the mechanic a hug along with everyone else that was trying to help and I filled up my tire to the proper pressure, adjusted my chain and brought all my stuff inside.

I got myself a little shitty weird dinner in the restaurant there and cleaned up all my tools and parts in the hotel room. I crashed at about 10:30pm or so but didn’t actually fall asleep until 12:30-1am. I was very anxious for some reason with how tight everything is running time wise. I am very happy and relieved today went as well as it did in the last part with the tire swap because who knows what could have gone wrong or not worked. I set my alarm clock for 6am and eventually fell asleep.

 

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Day 81

Day 81

44,877 – 45,048    171  Miles (22,348 Miles Overall)

Ushuaia, Argentina – Estancia Moat, Argentina

THE REAL END OF THE WORLD

So late last night Lorin broke the news to me that where I went for the famous photo wasn’t quite the end of the road or the most south you can go here in Ushuaia. He found out there’s a more southern part. Well fuck me.

I woke up this morning and got some breakfast and met up with Lorin and his wife. We chatted for about an hour and then  on my way back to the hostel to relax i said fuck it im gonna go for this ride to the real southern most part. It was a 3 hour ride one way so I was in for a long day. Lorin said I could shave some off the ride since I was going solo with no luggage. I went home and made up my mind. I was hoping to leave tomorrow to head north so I wouldn’t have any more time to do it. I threw on all my heavy winter gear with my jacket and heated gloves and made a run for it. GPS said 3 hours and the roads were paved for 25 or so miles until I hit dirt. The dirt was quite nice. I was keeping it up at about 65-70mph most of the ride until the road got a bit worse and i was keeping it at about 50mph. My bike was taking a beating and my tire was bald as fuck but i didnt care. I was flying!

I hit a few turns and didn’t know how sharp the turn was and the back end started to go out on me between locking it up and taking my foot off the brake. I got real close to the edge of the road a few times. The road I was riding was along the Strait of Magellan. It was cold as hell and windy along the ocean here. I kept ripping along thinking about what to do for the rest of my trip. The hostel owner told me no one wanted my bike. Big surprise.

I came up on a turn and realized i might have fucked up real bad on this one. The road had a sharp curve to the right with a 2 foot berm on the edge and on the other side was a 15-20′ drop into a river. I locked up the back wheel and tried to get the bike to turn to the right but it kept sliding. I cant believe im about to eat shit and crash again. i start to realize i can’t lock up the back wheel and get my leg out this time because my braking foot is going to be hitting the ground unlike last time. I look to the right more and theres a large bridge coming up and if i dont straighten this thing out soon im gonna possibly kill myself on the bridge beam. I keep ending on the brake and kicking the back end out trying to lean the bike over more and more and im literally riding on thin ice for this whole part. The 22k miles I rode on my trip might have gotten me ready for this moment.

Between locking up my wheel and letting it ease up 6-7 times I eventually got the bike around the corner just inches from the edge. I didn’t crash! FUCK

I did this about 5 more times the rest of the ride. Really riding on the edge here on my last ride and my last time heading south on this trip. I told myself to calm down about 50 times but I didn’t listen obviously. I was having too much fun clearing my head. I got to the end of. the road at the lighthouse and took a few pics and turned around. There was a big storm coming and I was wondering what Lorin was thinking about me right now because it’s definitely raining back in town. I did the 3 hour ride in about 1:40. I was hauling ass!

I stopped for a bunch of pics here and there. The trees here are wild because they literally grow sideways with how strong the winds are all the time. The winds on the ride back were probably gusting to 60 which was scary. I got pushed off the road once and almost went down. A car swerved at one point when he saw me while he was on my side of the road and he spun out and hit the wall of dirt. I kept riding. Not my fault and I don’t need to be here when cops show up since I didn’t get insurance yet.

The temps were pretty cold with the wind it was about 41 degrees. I was happy to get back into town around 4:45pm. I got my bike washed at a shop which I needed badly. I don’t see myself riding too much dirt from here on out since the way up is all paved i think on route 3. I dropped off some money I owed Lorin and a bottle of wine as a thank you for grabbing my tire a few days ago from the post office. I got a shitty little dinner in town and caught up on a few things. I packed all my stuff up so I can head out early tomorrow morning. I have a 5.5 hour ride to the ferry with a border crossing and I heard they closed the ferry today for a few hours because the winds were so bad. There’s probably a line of cars with people sleeping at the ferry station because of how backed up it is with the end of the holidays.

I’ll try to get up at 6am tomorrow to get on the road to beat the high winds and hopefully before the ferry shuts down tomorrow for the afternoon.

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Day 80

Day 80

44,444 – 44,877   433 Miles (22,177 Miles Overall)

Punta Arenas – Ushuaia, Argentina

THE END OF THE WORLD

I got up today and was sad to have Sameera go but it was time to get my ass down to Ushuaia and finish this trip so I can get home. We said our goodbyes and I loaded up the bike. I booked a ferry out of Punta Arenas two days ago but after thinking about it I decided to bail on it and head north for a longer loop around. The ferry was only once a day and leaving at 4pm and I wasn’t about to get to Ushuaia on Christmas Day at midnight since I had about 8 hours of travel excluding the ferry ride or border crossing I had to do. I got on the road at about 7:45 and hit the road. Windy as always. What’s new

I got to the ferry which leaves every hour and I literally just missed it by 1 minute. I waited around and some other guys pulled up on bikes. We chatted. I worked on my bike a bit. I put my original NYS license plate on since the other laminated one was falling apart. One of the Argentinians asked if we wanted to ride together and I said sure just keep up because I don’t have time to ride slow and stop for pics because todays the only sunny day in Ushuaia in the forecast for the next week

We got on the ferry and the crossing took about 20 minutes. When we pulled off the ferry my man stopped for a picture no less than 100 meters off the boat so off I went. I made the 2 hour ride to the border crossing which was a piece of cake thank god. I was getting very antsy as I was getting closer to Ushuaia. I just wanted to get there and relax for the day. As I got closer and closer mountains started to come up in front of me. I couldn’t believe there were mountains down here and at 1000 meters they were quite large. I made the crossing over them with so many lovely blue lakes and rivers clear as day flowing in the middle of all the valleys. The temps were at a warm 65F and the winds were still blowing pretty hard.

I finally arrived around the last corner and saw the Ushuaia sign. I pulled over and had some tears come down my cheeks. I’m finally here. After everything I’m finally here. But the trips not over yet. I still want to ride up to Brazil and I’m working on selling the bike in Ushuaia for the next few days before I head up north.

I continued my ride to the end of the dirt road another 45 minutes past the city center. A bunch of guys had their bike there taking photos. I got my tripod and took some pictures. I headed back into town and found a nice cheap hostel and booked two nights. I went out into town and had a shitty dinner and then went back to the hostel. The hostel owner called a few friends telling them I wanted to sell my bike and I’m hoping I get a hit.

I’m writing this up the next morning and I’m not going into detail about how lovely my trip was because I’m waiting for my throttle body to get delivered to Mendoza so I can ride back up to have the mechanic install it. But DHL is now telling me that I have to hire a customs broker for a lot of money to get the part out because I’m not a local. Im so fucking sick and tired of having to get anything done down here in South America. I spent $90 to get the part shipped here and no one told my friend Pierre about this at DHL in Peru. Now the part will sit there in customs for a few days and then get thrown out. Or some asshat will open the package and sell it and pocket the money. One thing I really appreciate after all of these trips how fucking good we have it in the USA and all the people that bitch about how rough it is there you guys have absolutely no clue to how good we have it. As someone in Mexico told me about young people in America. We have it so good there we look for problems to create.

The postal service doesn’t even work here. You mail something and it sits in the country for weeks before they release it. Like my oil seal. I had it shipped 12 days ago and it’s still not at Punta Arenas. $120 for rush shipping for a $20 part. I’m pretty beat down today and can’t quite enjoy my day in Ushuaia because of all this news. Super bummed. I guess it’s all part of the experience huh? Hoping I can sell my bike down here in the next few days and fly home and then hopefully come back next year with another bike that won’t be breaking down on me so often.

Merry Christmas!

 

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Day 77, 78, 79

Day 77, 78, 79

44,285 – 44,444  159 Miles  (21,744 Miles Overall)

Puerto Natales – Punta Arenas

Day 77

We literally sat around and slept most of the day in Puerto Natales. Thats all. We were exhausted from all the moving around a hiking. It was nice to have a rest day.

Day 78

We packed up and decided to head out on Friday the 23rd and head down to Punta Arenas since we were getting bored of Natales. I got on the bike and rode over to the town while Sameera took a bus. The city was even more boring then Natales was so we kinda fucked up. There was not a single thing to do here.

Day 79

Nothing to do here.

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Day 73, 74, 75, 76

Day 73, 74, 75,76

43,959 – 44,285   326 Miles  (21,585 Miles Overall)

El Calafate, Argentina – Puerto Natales

We got up today and were super pumped up to watch the final game of the World Cup with Argentina vs France. We packed up the bike and rolled a few blocks away into town to get fuel before we went to get seats for the game. As we were riding to the gas station I see a KTM 1290 with Mosko bags. After I got fuel I made a loop around the block and looked at the KTM and as I was riding by I see the couple who owned the bike through the glass windows in the bar. They waved us in. We pulled over and parked and went in to meet them. I ended up speaking to them for the last few weeks in this huge group chat a bunch of us are in. They had room for us so we sat with them for the game. They are such a sweet couple and have such good energy. Im glad I made a loop around their bike and met them.

We all watched the game together and fuck was I pretty much crying the whole game because I wanted Argentina to win so bad. The whole country needs it so bad and it was Messis dream and final season playing so they really needed to win. The game was wild and when they finally won the town went absolutely wild. It was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life watching the last 4-5 games while being in Argentina. I was so happy Sameera got to witness this whole thing too. I wish we were in a bigger city like Bariloche to see the after party but we got what we got. We hung out in town for about an hour and then hit the road to get to Puerto Natales at a decent hour. We took the shitty dirt road yet again and I was 99% sure we were going to camp at the border with no food or water because we were getting there quite late on a Sunday night.

We got lucky. We pulled up and it was the quickest border crossing of my life. In and out of each one in under 2 minutes. We shot back into town and back to our old hotel we got a room for two nights.

Day 74

The next morning we made plans to meet with Lorin and his wife to ride the loop around Torres del Paine. We didnt have any contact with them since he didnt have any service riding over the dirt road section but we said we should try to meet up around 11. We got some food and rode over to the border crossing we did last night and with our luck there they were. They were almost done with the crossing and we were all on our way. We rode up around the northern part of Torre and the views were magnificent. Sameera was in heaven. There were so many glacial blue lakes along with huge rock formations that were in the park. It was heaven. We hung out for a few hours back there and rode like animals on the bikes on the dirt roads. I didnt have my luggage on for once but with Sameera it was almost the same. I still had a blast.

We rode back into town for lunch and while I went out to exchange money Sameera surprised me with a few micheladas at the lunch table. I was excited. We went over to the shop to book a campsite for tomorrow night into Torre and then the bus station for a ticket to the park at 7AM. We met up with Lorin and his wife for a few hours for a lovely dinner with some wine and then went to bed super early so we could get up at 5:45 for the long day we had ahead.

Day 75

We got up quite early and got a taxi over to the bus station. We ended up at Torre and took the Catamaran into the park for a pricey $30. This god damn country is too expensive and its by far the one I dislike the most. We got to the campsite by 11am and got our tent out and set everything up. We loaded up a few things in my backpack and went for a hike into the French Valley. The water around the campsite was so clear it was beautiful. The hike up to the French valley was also super nice going along some lakes in the park and around the park. My feet started to hurt pretty bad on the hike and we had to go back early. I think I have stress fractures on the tops of both my feet or some really bad ligament damage from hiking in Fitz Roy.

We got back to the campsite after a 12-13 mile hike and cooked some dinner on my camping stove along with a beer each and then went down to the beach to hang out and relax. We were too tired to stay up and watch the sunset as its near 10:05pm so we went back to the tent and just hung out in there. It started to rain later on in the night and it was lovely listening to the rain all night in the tent.

Day 76

We got up and it was still raining. We gave up on hiking over to the 3 towers because my feet were in such bad pain. We packed everything up and decided we would take the ferry back to the mainland and then see what happens with the weather when we get there. Luckily when we got there the weather cleared up so we decided to go for it. We got a small bus to take us into the campground for the base of Torre and we threw our bags in a storage place behind the counter. We had to make a run for the 3 towers because technically the trail closed at 11 and it was 11:45. The woman let us go though because she said she thinks we could get it done. Its normality a 5 hour hike and we had until 3pm to get past the step climb to the lake at the 3 towers. We put a few protein bars in our pockets and my water bottle I can refill from rivers along with our phones that were at 30% and started hustling. Next thing you know were at the lake under the 3 bases at 2:45pm which was some insane timing. We hung out there for 20 minutes and took a bunch of pictures which was beautiful. I really liked this place up here. It was hot as hell at the base and freezing cold up here. There was a glacier up here that was melting with 100 streams into the lake up there.

We started our descent with my feet killing me and we split up on the hike down. I ran down as much as I could because walking slow hurt more than running did. We made it down at about 6pm and were stuck there until 7pm where a bus could give us a ride out to the main road where we had to find tickets for a bus back into Puerto Natales.

While we were waiting out there on the main road pretty worried about a bus showing up with 2 empty seats I started throwing my thumb up at cars driving by and the third one said jump in! So we got a ride back from a few people heading into town as well and that worked out just perfect. We got some food and went to bed early as possible. We were smoked

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Day 72

Day 72

43,825 – 43,959  134 Miles today (21,259 Miles Overall)

El Chalten, Argentina – El Calafate, Argentina

We got up at 6:45 today to get our asses on the trail at 8am for the big hike to Fitz Roy. We had to load up our luggage and leave them at the front desk since we were gonna try to do the hike and get out early enough to make the ride to El Calfate so we can have an easy morning tomorrow. We stopped for a bit of coffee and some more snacks and we were on the trail exactly at 8am.

It was supposed to be a 6 mile hike in and 6 out. We had about 3500′ of climbing to do. The beginning of the hike was gorgeous. The trail carved around the mountains and after a few hours we saw the glorious Fitz Roy peaks and for the first time since we were in town they were not being covered up by clouds. The view was just beautiful. We moved along as fast as we could. We wanted to try to make it up in 3 hours since everyone said it takes 4 each way. I was sure we could crush this whole thing in 6 hours total so we could get back on the road asap to Calafate. We were smoking everyone on the trail. We ended up getting caught in a bit of rain and the peaks were gone. We were so bummed but decided to keep moving so we can have a nice long window to wait up there for it to clear.

Sameera was getting smoked on the hike because I was pushing her a bit too hard. For the last part of the climb I was behind her with my hand on her back giving her the slightest push up the whole climb we had to do. It helped her out quite a bit and she was chugging along nicely on the way up. We were making great time and I was super proud of her. We finally got to the top and I couldn’t believe how nice it was. There was a glacial lake up there with the peaks right behind it. The winds were blowing 30-45mph and it was cold as hell. My hands stopped working quite fast up there and all I was wearing was my down jacket with shorts. I didn’t have my gloves with me. We took a ton of pics up there in 15-20 minutes and got the hell off the summit because of how cold it was up there.

We rushed our asses down to the bottom of the mountain and made the hike in exactly 6 hours. My feet were hurting pretty bad for the first time in my life. I think I got myself some stress fractures from the walk down and maybe some of the way up. I haven’t done much in the last month other than ride and ride. I haven’t done anything else really so maybe my feet were not used to any of this anymore. We got down to the place we had lunch at the other day and shoved a bunch of food down our throats and got the bike loaded up. We hit the road to Calafate and got there at about 5pm. Way earlier than the 9pm we thought we would arrive that morning. We checked into the same hostel we had the other night and took a well deserved hot shower and skipped dinner. We were going to sleep in tomorrow and then watch the Argentina soccer game somewhere in town.

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Day 71

Day 71

43,665 – 43,825   160 Miles today (21,125 Miles Overall)

El Calafate, Argentina – El Chalten, Argentina

We got up quite early today and had some breakfast at the hostel. We loaded up the bike and hit the road to El Chalten. I wasn’t sure what kind of roads to expect today once we turned off the main road into El Chalten since the GPS said it would take much longer than expected. It was windy as hell on the ride over and pretty freaking cold. Sameera took it like a champ. We did the 3.5 hour drive in about 2:30. We saw some beautiful mountains that were snow capped riding into El Chalten. It was beautiful. So many glacial blue lakes on the ride over. She was loving every second of it but I was just used to it by now.

We pulled into town and stopped at a nice little restaurant for a big old steak which we have to stop eating because it’s really not sitting well with our stomachs. We talked to the waiter about the hike we wanted to do and decided we would just get a place to sleep here for the night and go smash out the hike in the morning. We found ourselves a nice little hotel for the night in town and then jumped on the bike and headed down a long dirt road to a dead end where there was a nice big lake to hang out at.

The road was pretty shitty and super bumpy so we decided to go halfway and hang out at another lake. I’m starting to get worried about my rear tire because it’s so low on tread I am at a huge risk of getting the tire slashed open by a sharp little rock and I’m not sure if my new one will arrive in Punta Arenas from the bike shop up north. We went back into town and decided to park the bike since it was still quite early and do a 12 mile hike up into the mountains to see another cool view. Halfway up we decided we should turn around because it looked like some afternoon storms were coming in. We scurried back into town and we were pretty exhausted. We took a shower and went back out into town for some dinner which was delicious. We made our way to a small supermarket to get some snacks for tomorrow’s long hike since it was going to be a long long day.