• Jan 27, 2004. After a few hours of flying we are back in sunny Santiago, where we have been greeted by yet more of the family. We are busy repacking our gear for the longer flight to Montreal: On the flight from Punta Arenas, LAN Chile was so disorganized that we were allowed unlimited luggage and didn't even have to pack our bikes, but we are not expecting such generous treatement from Delta. In any case, we should be back in Montreal by midday tommorow and we'll be recounting our tales of adventure at Wednesday's MOC meeting, for those of you who can make it.
• Jan 25, 2004. Punta Arenas, to borrow one of Ben's expressions, is a gong show. The city is totally geared towards backpackers and tourists. We were swamped by representatives from the various hostals the moment we got off the bus from RG. We had to reassemble and load our bikes while surrounded by people trying out their English to sell their various services. One lady even started swearing at me when I told her we would not go to her hostel simply because she was over selling it! It any case, we eventually found a nice place with loads of Europeans there. The weather here reminds me of the north-west: cloudy, rainy and cool. We're already looking forward to getting back to sunny Santiago. As an interesting foonote, the road from RG to PA was pretty crummy (read completely unpaved), especially on the Argentine side. The weather was windy, cold and wet along the way, so we're glad we didn't spend three miserable days on those roads.
• Jan 24, 2004. We've made it to Rio Gallegos! The last few days are quite a blurr: The winds were strong, we went slowly and had to carry enourmous amounts of water with us due to the lack of anything down here. We take a bus to Punta Arenas in a couple hours. Glad to be done and to get out of the sun and into rainy lattitudes for a couple days.
• Jan 19, 2004. The winds in Patagonia are living up to their reputation. Although we had them blowing at our back this morning as we rode into Puerto San Julian, they have been cross and head winds for the last number of days. The desolation and emptiness of the land has reached an unprecedented level. We have not seen running water in days and it has become simply impossible to find any shade. We have given up finding quaint places to pitch our tent and now simply throw our sleeping bags in the ditch and lay down to sleep after an exhausting day. We wake up with the rising sun, often with a thin layer of sand covering our gear. On the upside, we have been seeing lots of wildlife of late, including flamingos, guanacos (like llamas) , and rheas (like ostriches). We've also figured out that we can carry a combined 21 liters of water, which comes in handy when the "towns" on the map turn out to not even have a gas station :-) Oh yeah, and we've started drinking yerba mate (like sipping green tea out of a straw for those of you who are unfamiliar), which makes us feel more at home in this empty land. We are 360 km from Rio Gallegos, which is the end of the paved road and the end of the cycling for us. From there we will bus it to Punta Arenas to catch our return flight to Santiago. Although the winds are at times demoralizing, the encouraging honks of passing cars and trucks -not to mention the blown kiss of one female driver- are all the motivation we need!
• Jan 16, 2004. Taking a break in the surprisingly large town Caleta Olivia. From Sarmiento we've descended to the Atlantic coast and oil country. There's alot more wealth around here but the landscape is still dry and desolate. We got a taste of the roaring forties this morning. the wind was unerving as we could hardly stay on our bikes let alone make any progres upwind. Fortunately the wind seems to vary in intensity and direction throughout the day. We hope to take advantage of this fact to speed our progress south.
• Jan 14, 2004. We're now in the sleepy Patagonian town or Sarmiento, on the beautiful Lago Musters. The infrastructure here is not quite good enough to be able to upload digital photographs so those will have to wait until Punta Arenas or Santiago. Anyways, since the last update we've left the Lakes Region, pedaled through the foothills of the Andes and through a couple days of desert. Some random interesting things that have happened in the last few days: getting kicked off a field by a gun-toting Gaucho, first flat tire of the trip, hitchiking in dump-truck, new speed record (see stats), sleeping under the patagonian skies, first imperial century (see stats), very distant "towns", lots of road kill, towns with no gas station, towns which are a gas station, towns which consist of a sign post with the name of the town...
• Jan 8, 2004. We're taking a day off in El Bolson to let our sunburns and knees heal. We like this town much more than Bariloche, which everyone had hyped-up way too much. Looking at a map, it appears that we have crossed the continental divide yet again (oops!). So we're in Argentina but the water here runs into the Pacific. In the next couple days we will be crossing the 'divide' thrice more which makes for lots of climbs and glorious descents. Yesterday we bought a map which shows distances between towns and it appears that we're still on track to get to the Atlantic, though we may need to bus it part way to Punta Arenas to make it in time for our return flight.
• Jan 6, 2004. We have made it to La Angostura a wee bit north of Bariloche. After a very enjoyable bus ride down to Osorno, we assembled our bikes under the watchful eye of a local homeless man. We then hit the remarkably well-paved road into the Andes. The Chilean drivers were incredibly curteous and encouraging! After some gentle uphills we called it a day in the shadow of Puyehue Volcano. On the following day we went for a 30km hike to the top of said volcano (2250 m), which offered spectacular views of the surrounding hills. The crater itself was also pretty damn impressive. Our second day of cycling took us over the continental divide and into Argentina. The climbs were numerous, long and hot, and the flies drove us insane, though Ben managed to kill 30+ of them as a birthday gift to himself! By evening we were well in the Lake District of Argentina, where we ate out and camped for the night. This place reminds me an aweful lot of Whistler, what with the mountains, hippies and pot...
• Jan 2, 2003. Since the last update we have gotten the royal tour of Santiago, including our first taste of authentic empanadas (yummy!). On New Years Day we went for a hike in Yerba Loca park, where we were rewarded with spectacular views of big peaks and glaciers. Alison arrived in the evening and is doing her best getting over the 14 hrs of jet-lag between Australia and Chile. Ben and Andrew have gone to pick up bike boxes with Julio. We hope to reserve some plane tickets from Punta Arenas to Santiago for January 26. Then it'll be a race to get down there in time for our flight!
• Dec 30, 2003. We arrived safely in Santiago and were picked up by Julio as planned. Andrew and I were happy to find out that we did not need visas to get into Chile so we were not deported as we had feared. We assembled our bikes and went for a spin with Julio up a nearby hill (San Cristobal or something to that effect). I got sunburnt and fell off my bike because I forgot about my clipless pedals while negociating a sketchy construction zone. Ben nearly killed himself in the Santiago traffic, but we all made it back ok. We are deep in logistics now, finding out how to get around the country with our cromoly steeds... buses are looking like a good option. We've met all the family here and Ali will be arriving on New Years day. we'll be taking a night bus to Osorno on the evening of the 2nd. From there it'll be lot's of cycling with a few days of hiking for the remainder of the month! Happy New Year everyone!