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!
