Hermanos en bici: February 2014

On the 22th of February we finally had our flight scheduled to Ushuaia, where our big adventure is about to start... It meant getting up early in order to reach the airport with two taxis (as our bikes didn't fit in one) with enough time to get our bikes checked in. At the check-in, the guy was really friendly, however, he told us that it will be really expensive for us to travel with 80 kg luggage in total and that we would better have rented our bikes. Well, the term "expensive" definitely is relative, than the two bikes "only" cost us about CHF 60.- :-)

After a truly very expensive breakfast at the airport and an almost 4 hours flight we finally arrived in the southernmost city of the world and astonishingly all our luggage arrived as well! (As Ushuaia is a really, really small airport, they did not have an oversize-luggage delivery, so our bikes arrived through the normal luggage delivery...)

Our luggage, as it arrived in Ushuaia... :-)

Unfortunately, Stefan complained about difficulties swallowing and general discomfort, so I suggested taking a taxi to the booked hostel. But Stefan insisted in assembling our bikes at the airport and bike to the hostel... As soon as we unpacked our bikes, we had our first bike problems, as we figured that our 5 mm Allen key wasn't long enough to attach the switchgear to my bike... After a long time waiting for the maintenance guy of the airport and the wind forcing us to move inside (my bike already fell once before we had it assembled...), I asked the guy of the local Hertz car rental and surprisingly he had one in the correct size in his car :-) So once my bike was assembled we hoped to be ready to leave soon, but no, Stefan's rear tube already had a hole (and a bad one), so we had to use one of our reserve tubes before we biked a single meter... But finally, after about 4 hours at the airport, we managed to have our bikes ready to leave! Once we found our hostel, we deposited our stuff there, went for something to eat to the city center and then fell completely dead into our beds...

The next day we slept in in the hope of Stefan feeling better... But as he still didn't feel well, we decided to make an easy day and just went purchasing our food supply for the next days and re-packed all our bike bags in order to get them ready for our trip.

On the 24th we first went to the hospital to get checked what was happening with Stefan's throat, but luckily it wasn't anything serious, so we just got some Ibuprofen and the permission to leave Ushuaia whenever we want. Later we tried to find a longer 5 mm Allen key in case we need a long one once again and after a certain time we finally found one :-) In the afternoon we then hiked up to the Glaciar Martial, a glacier very close to the city. It's unbelievable, but in the middle of summer (yes, we're on the southern hemisphere, so it's summer here...) our first day trip leads us into snowed mountains! :-) Although the weather wasn't perfect, the sight was simply spectacular!

View from the Glaciar Martial towards the southernmost part of the Andes

View from the Glaciar Martial over the city of Ushuaia and the Beagle Canal

Back in Ushuaia we then went to see a mechanic in order to get an overall check of our bikes before we leave and to buy a new reserve tube. And then we biked to the gas station to fill up our fuel bottles, it was kind of funny to file in with all the waiting cars and then get gas for less than a dollar... ;-)

On the 25th of February we then finally used our bikes for the first time! For a start we left most of the luggage at the hostel and just took a day pack with us as we planned to visit the Tierra del Fuego National Park and then to return to Ushuaia for a last night in the hostel. This is probably the one and only time that our intended destination lies further south than our starting place! Just outside the city the pavement was replaced by the infamous "ripio", the unpaved gravel roads. We soon learned to appreciate the paved roads and although the ripio was still pretty good, we got a first idea of what we will encounter in the next few months... Although we got to feel the wind for a first time, but luckily it wasn't very strong and we didn't have planned to get very far, so that we had plenty of time to enjoy the marvelous scenery with many lagunas, snowed mountains and of course the sea! Soon we reached the Bahía Lapataia, the southernmost place you can reach by bike, as the famous Ruta 3 ends there. And it will hopefully be one of very few times that we ride the same route in both directions. In the evening we cooked a last time a really good meal with lots of vegetables before we'll have to eat a lot of canned and dehydrated stuff that we can carry along...