TravelStream™ news feed for member bocalee on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/bocalee en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:49:21 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1236777840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1236777840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1236777840/tpod.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:49:21 -0400 New York to Tierra del Fuego: The Long Summer

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Aaah, Buenos Aires. City of steak and ice cream, red wine and strong coffee, beautiful women and the tango. Feels more like Italy than South America, and the lovely lilting accent of the locals adds to the illusion. Throw in historic neighborhoods, a modern infrastructure, an night life that won't quit, and what more could you want? Good question....

BsAs is a truly charming city, and a great place to end my trip. And as it happens, I wouldn't be alone, as my parents had decided to take a trip down and meet me here for a few days, and then continue on to the beaches in Uruguay. We had a nice time, seeing the sights and eating out, etc. But I was left to my own devices for several days as well.

I stayed in a hostel in Palermo Viejo, a trendy 'hood, instead of San Telmo, the historic district which is the usual backpacker destination. But if I were here longer I'd have moved to San Telmo. I met a new kind of traveler her, the young fabulous set, international club and disco travelers, slinky evening wear at night and sleeping in bunk beds during the day. The contrast from backpackers couldn't be more striking, and personally I prefer the latter. But it's hard to complain about 19 year old 6 foot tall Swedish models prancing around - and I'm completely serious.

I definitely want to come back here as the starting point for another trip, maybe much shorter, maybe in a car, who knows, but this city deserves a longer stay - and better Spanish. It's not much cheaper than the US though, except for housing. Renting an apt for a month is quite easy. I'd also like to see Uruguay, Florianopolis and Rio in Brazil, and Iguazu Falls and Mendoza and Cafayate in Argentina - but not just now.

Now, a final visit to the why we travel theme. Meeting Ken and Carol, longtime motorbike travelers, suggested another couple of stones I'd like to chuck into the pool. First, what if you travel so long that that is actually the only thing you're good at? You lose currency or interest in other things, and become ill-equipped to stop. Traveling becomes not (or not just) a constant draw to the horizon, it becomes a necessity. You have moved into another niche in the human ecology, and perhaps you couldn't stop if you tried. I don't know if this happens often, but shades of it do. Couples who meet on the road can disintegrate when they stop. Long term travelers do feel out of place and ill-equipped when they stop - though they may suffer though this instead of motoring off again. But it DOES happen, you get better at it, and worse at everything else.

My final thought on the subject is this: maybe it's the wrong question. What if you asked, why settle down? What if we tried to list the advantages and disadvantages to NOT moving along - would they be compelling if you itemized them? The point is not pitting one lifestyle against another, the point is that any lifestyle choice can be questioned and analyzed by those who do not participate in it, and to those who do, the exercise would seem more than a bit absurd. We understand our own stories, at least in retrospect. But to examine another person's path, lists and bullet points won't be you there. You have to understand whole trip, the whole story. And when you start to do this the questions fade, and a deeper, more universal, more humane curiosity develops. In the end whether we walk or ride, move in straight lines or circles, or go alone or with our families, we are all travelers.

That's my trip, my friends. I hope you've enjoyed it, I certainly have. And all the best to you on yours.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1237044420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1237044420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1237044420/tpod.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 11:48:31 -0400 New York to Tierra del Fuego: The Long Summer

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

New York City, New York, United States

So here I am back in NY, uploading some final pictures at incredible speeds and thinking about how strange it is to be back. Nothing here has changed... how long has it been? Was I really gone at all?

So 2 things have struck me already. First, Americans want things just the way they want them. The details and complexity associated with consumption here are staggering. It seems the goal is to perfect your environment and your possessions, and from this carefully constructed cocoon, happiness can't help but emerge. Second, a lot of people here speak Spanish! Like, every person who works in McDonald's, and the speak it to each other, and none of their customers know what they're saying. And that's in Connecticut! Times are changing my friends, and you might consider taking some Spanish classes yourselves.

But now it's off to find work and housing in the big city, and explaining to potential landlords why a single, unemployed mid-40's bike bum is somebody they really need to have in their building. Oh, I forgot, I'm a Fortune 500 management consultant with 15 years of experience.... I'm waiting for someone to ask me, "What are the three most amazing things that happened to you on your trip?" but I don't know if the whole thing is quite ready to be reduced to a Power point deck yet. But wait -

Mission & Goals
Resources & Time frame
The Trip: Highlights by Country
Recap: Key Themes
Implications and Next Steps

Aaah yess, I remember now, pick a good font, some relevant quotes, it's all so easy, so ready to be packaged, and I'm just the guy to do it, give me a mission statement and a data set and set me loose. A traveler's competency model!

Watch out, baby, I'm back!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1235683800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1235683800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1235683800/tpod.html Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:22:22 -0400 New York to Tierra del Fuego: The Long Summer

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Azul, Patagonia, Argentina

So that's 2 beach stops, time for a change. Again I took another rider's suggestion and headed inland. BTW, the rider is Nuno Leotte, the Ayres Motorcycle Adventures guide I met in Punta Arenas - Thanks Nuno! Goal was a small town on the way to BsAs called Azul. The ride from Las Grutas was uneventful, but after about 200 miles (BTW I translate all these distances from kms and have gotten pretty good at it) the landscape changes for the first time in about 800 miles. It goes from Patagonian steppe to farmland and pasture. Things get greener, the weather gets milder, and there are tractors, combines and other farm equipment in the road. Hell, there's even trees!

Azul is a farming town, really nothing noteworthy about it. Except there's this guy there named Jorge 'Pollo' Cuatrochio who has been hosting global motorcycle travelers for over 15 years. On his property he has a kind of clubhouse called La Posta del Viajero en Moto. It's not exactly deluxe, but has more character than you can shake a stick at. It's basically a big garage, with an adjoining room that has a sink, ancient fridge and tabletop gas range on one wall and some low shelves on the others with pots and plates, etc. Adjoining it is a ratty (sorry Pollo) little bathroom with a shower head sticking out of one wall and a drain in the floor (not that uncommon actually). And in the back are some tables and trees that shade some nice campsites.

But what makes this place is the graffiti. On every wall there are inscriptions from global travelers from every imaginable country, an all kinds of bikes, and on all kinds of trips. But a lot of these guys and girls are hardcore, not like me: traveling for a year, 2, 3 or more. And all, as their artifacts attest, having a hell of a good time.

I was lucky enough to stay there with 3 great people. First, Carol and Ken Duval from Brisbane Australia, who have been traveling for more than 2 years on their 1982 BMW R80GS - this time out, and it ain't their first. They are thick in the network of global riders and had met or put up, in Australia, some of the legends of our little hobby, including Ted Simon and Dr. Gregory Frazier, both career travelers and authors. They are both incredibly nice and had plenty of stories to share. The other was Leo Schultze, a young, cheerful and very charismatic German guy who has been kicking around South America for almost 2 years. It was very pleasant company, and as you can tell I was pretty outranked in terms of traveling.

On Friday night, Pollo had a traditional Argentinian 'asada' which was manned by Leo. An asada is like a cookout on steroids. Huge slabs of beef covered with rock salt are grilled over fresh wood coals. We also had some veggies, which is not essential. Oh, and plenty of malbec, the local wine. To be nice, malbec is a hearty wine that goes well with huge slabs of beef, but I've come around to Ken's assessment of it a bit, which is that basically it's pretty rough stuff. Asadas usually start around 10, people eat around midnight, and can go on until 4 in the morning - typical Argentinian time, really.

It was really nice meeting these guys, especially Ken and Carol. Seeing real global riders in action filled in a lot for me and gave me a lot to think about. Don't worry, I ain't heading off again just yet, but I'm talking about the old 'why we travel' topic.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234746420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234746420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234746420/tpod.html Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:20:36 -0400 New York to Tierra del Fuego: The Long Summer

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Rio Gallegos, Patagonia, Argentina

So on the morning of the 14th, I hit the road out of Ushuaia. The skies are cloudy with intermittent sun, but not as cold as it had been. I hit serious fog riding through the mountains that line the southern coast, and then back onto the Patagonian steppe. Then it got me, at last - the wind. It started out as a brisk crosswind out of the west (of course). Then it got briskier. Soon it was the briskest freaking wind I can ever remember.

Tolhuin is the first town you hit going north, after about 60 miles. Here the wind was already pretty unpleasant. Crosswinds on motorcycles are pretty scary. In fact they get scary before they get dangerous. because for some reason when a crosswind hits a bike, it automatically leans over INTO the wind, thereby counteracting it to some extent. I have a good idea why this happens, but even this action, though beneficial, is disconcerting.

I pulled in to a gas station here to have a cup of coffee and warm up a bit, but there's no way I was going to stop in some crap town after riding 60 miles! I'd seen crosswinds before, like I said they're often more scary than dangerous. I repeated this to myself several times, and got back on the bike. Then it got worse. Now it was taking my full attention to keep the bike going straight in my lane. I slowed down to 45 and downshifted to 2nd to maintain hight revs, which gives greater control. For once I was thankful that my bike was an iron beast, in a lighter bike I would have had to stop. Next town, another 60 miles, Rio Gallegos. Again pulled into a gas station, warmed up. Only anther 70 miles to the border where the dirt road begins, there's a hotel there, that would be a decent day's ride and a good place to stop, I told myself. This town sucks. Less than 2 hours, finite misery. Plus, I actually hadn't gotten that close to actually going off the road, just pushed around my lane, hadn't actually feared for my life. It's all just scary, not that dangerous really, c'mon, let's go, let's do it!

Riding out of Rio Gallegos, if you can call it that, my helmet was squishing the side of my head, pushing my glasses up on my nose. Every flag in sight was taut and straining in the crosswind. Most disconcerting was when some trash or scrub shot across the highway at what looked like 60 miles an hour. Now it was getting really hairy. I gripped the handlebar tighter and tighter, regularly wrenching it back into the center of the lane. Now I was screwed, but there's nothing I could do. Trying to stop would be dangerous because you lose the gyroscopic power of your wheels, and getting going again could be just as hard, and holding your bike up against the wind on the side of the road was no less stressful than just riding on. So on I went. The wind was bordering on the ridiculous. I couldn't help but crack a smile, but it didn't last for long.

Then I saw it. An incline in the road but no hill - a freaking bridge! An elevated bridge over a navigable river, with no shoulders The river ran down from a gorge, and I knew the wind would be worse on the bridge. I braced myself as best I could - and made it over.

When I finally got to the border at San Sebastian I was wiped. That evening I shared a room with a stranded bicyclist from Brazil named Thiago. Later a couple who had been riding on a motorcycle came in. The wind had wiped them out, but they were okay. Outside, the wind was so strong it was difficult to walk in it. I found out that it was in fact 60 to 70 mph. All I can say is, thank God I hadn't been on a dirt road.

The next day I got up early, hopefully to get over the last 10 miles of gravel road before the wind picked up again. The wind never came, just grey skies and a cold but light rain. I made the 2 border crossings and 1 ferry ride that it takes to get from Argentinian Tierra del Fuego through Chilean Tierra del Fuego and off the island and then back into Argentina, and decided to call it a day at 2 in Rio Gallegos instead of ride in the crappy rain. On the ferry I met a man that said that the winds were in fact 70 mph the day before, and that the ferry had been shut down at 2PM.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234485180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234485180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234485180/tpod.html Sun, 08 Mar 2009 09:52:26 -0400 New York to Tierra del Fuego: The Long Summer

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Ushuaia, Patagonia, Argentina

Next day I took the 3PM ferry over to Tierra del Fuego, and spent the night at the town on the other side, I forget the name. Met a German couple and we had dinner, it was nice. The following day my goal was the final southern destination, Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. It rained all day, and as I rode further south the wind kicked up, and it go colder. Basically it was a miserable ride, but there was a town every 60 miles fr the last 200, and that part was on pavement, so I made it okay. My hands were freezing despite my heated handgrips because my gloves were not waterproof, so I took to Ziploc bags out of my luggage and put one over each hand. Not elegant, but hey, it worked!

Ushuaia an interesting town. It feels like a destination, a crossroads. People on all kinds of modes of transportation end their journeys here. Rich Argentinians and other tourists fly in. Serious adventurers, like Antarctic sailors and explorers, start their journeys here. Then there are the package cruise ships, many continuing on to Antarctica (10 days and $4,000), and of course the backpackers. The town is decent, but the setting is stunning. It has a great park, and many day hikes and boat cruises around the Beagle Channel. It also has a fascinating history. The channel was discovered by the same boat and captain that would return several years later with Darwin on board. The town was the home to a penal colony for many years, and the old prison has been converted to a first rate museum. The local indigenous tribes were also amazing. Along the shore were the Yamana, canoe fishermen. They had huge arms and short legs, and generally ran around naked and swam freely in the frigid waters. They seemed to have a layer of fat under their skins that made this possible, and they also made prodigious use of fire, always keeping one going, even carrying burning coals on a clay try in their canoes. It is from Magellan´s seeing the shore lit of with their bonfires that Tierra del Fuego, Land of Fire, got its name.

Further up-island were the Selk'Nam, people of statuesque build that hunted the guanaco. They dressed in furs that looked hardly tailored, more like blankets. Their initiation ceremony into manhood, called Hain, is a creepy, other worldly display like few I've seen. They paint their bodies with stripes or spots, and place huge cones over their heads that are painted as well, to give the image of a grotesque quasi-human creature. Ah well, they're all dead now, have been for 100 years, killed off by smallpox and Croatian sheep farmers, etc.

Here I met Jeff again, my former riding partner. Jeff had met an Australian couple that runs sailing tours out of Antarctica, and had been diving in the harbor in a dry suit for several days, trying to find a lost mooring. Meanwhile I spent a day around town, then took a boat ride down the channel, then unceremoniously hit the road back north, pining for warmer weather. I didn't even get a T-shirt! Damn....
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234989360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234989360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234989360/tpod.html Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:49:51 -0500 New York to Tierra del Fuego: The Long Summer

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Puerto Madryn, Patagonia, Argentina

Coming out of Rio Gallegos, I was definitely looking forward to some warmer weather. My destination was Puerto Madryn, but it was a 2 day ride to get there. The first day started calm but then got windier. By mid afternoon the wind was quite stiff and unsettling, when I pulled in to a tiny town named Fitz Roy, which was no more than a dozen blocks of crummy houses by the side of Ruta 3. This is a mild coincidence because I am reading a book about the voyages of the Beagle, the surveying vessel that took Darwin to the Galapagos and around the world, and also discovered the Beagle Channel, under the leadership of Captain Robert FitzRoy. Unfortunately the town had none of his charm. I looked at the rooms in a hostel and they were so dismal that I decided to keep going, something I don't usually do. the next 30 miles took me an hour, because of the wind. I made it to a slightly larger and less depressing town called Caleta Olivia and spent the night.

A little more about riding in the wind, eh? One of the most disconcerting things when you go through the wind shadow of a bus or truck. Since practically all highways are 2 lane roads, oncoming trucks go by pretty close. Basically, it feels like a snow plow just threw a huge pile of snow into your face. It hits you physically, your helmet tries to go sideways and the bike pulls back and forth, first hard away as the wake hits you, and then hard toward the truck as you hit the dead air and sucking vacuum behind the wake. But that's fun, compared to being passed by a truck. This feels like you're getting flushed down a toilet (I imagine). The same stuff happens, just slower and more thoroughly so you can really appreciate it. As the truck pulls up next to you, the wind wake tries to push you out of your lane towards the shoulder, and you really have to correct against it. Then the wake passes and suddenly you're in the vacuum behind it which totally reverses force and tries to pull you right into the side of the bus - the way you were TRYING to force the bike just a second ago - so you have to wrench the thing back over. It also pulls you onward behind it, and to get out of the wind wake you have to dial back the throttle, until you're dumped out the other end. back in the damn crosswind. Like getting a full body swirlie.

The next day I made Puerto Madryn. This is a beach town, but one of its main attractions is the nearby Peninsula Valdes, which is host to several seal, sea lion, elephant seal and penguin colonies. These in turn draw orcas (killer whales), who are sometimes observed at high tide crashing out of the water and partially onto the beach, snatching up a seal, and then backing up into the water. It also has whale watching during whale season. I spent 2 nights there in a nice hostel with mostly French and Germans, and one American, which are few and far between down here, a 19 year old from Chicago named Connor, a cool kid.

But then I decided to take the advice of a guy I had met and head out to a really tiny town on the Peninsula Valdes itself called Puerto Pyramides. There I stayed in a kinda shabby and very bohemian hostel. Half the people there were living in the hostel while they worked jobs in town, all in their 20's I'd say, and several times a week they all ate dinner together, like an extended family. The whole town is a bit bohemian, at least in the people it attracts, though the stores and restaurants were pretty typical. It also has a trailer park filled with old, well worn but brightly painted campers and RV's, a whole neighborhood of them. In the evening the effect is akin to a very big gypsy colony. I also met an American woman and a German woman, both completely nuts in their own ways, but good dinner company for the 3 nights I was there. For lunch every day I had rabas (calamari), fresh and delicious and cheap, and a big beer. Life is good, once again.

The first day I toured the island's sites on the bike - scenic views of seals and penguins, blah blah blah.... The tires on my bike are pretty much done, but the gravel roads were decent so I took it easy and had no problems. The next day I spent some time on the beach, and some time starting to get ready to GO HOME... flights, bike shipping, employment, etc. Ironic that in the tiniest of beach getaways is where reality begins to take root again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1235424240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1235424240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1235424240/tpod.html Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:30:38 -0500 New York to Tierra del Fuego: The Long Summer

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Las Grutas, Patagonia, Argentina

The beach town of Las Grutas was the next stop. This is a very traditional family oriented beach town. The beach itself though is wonderful, and the water is warm and clean and the surf is great for swimming. The town is not in the Lonely Planet guide, and there were NO backpackers or foreign travelers that I could ascertain, which in itself made it an interesting stop... but not really.

That's it!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234137420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234137420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1234137420/tpod.html Sun, 15 Feb 2009 19:30:59 -0500 New York to Tierra del Fuego: The Long Summer

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Punta Arenas, Patagonia, Chile

I made it into town with no tire problems. Here I stayed in a pretty crappy hostel, but met 4 Israelis, a couple and 2 girls. They were very nice, and I spent the following day with them on a boat ride to see some penguins.

The penguins were cool, but overall the outing was a little disappointing. The island looked like a war zone. I was completely dirt with no vegetation, and covered with feathers, holes, and penguin crap. The feathers were due to the young penguins molting at 3 months, the holes were that burrows in which the penguins nested, and the crap was, well, crap. We walked a cordoned path around the little island and watched the penguins carry on, basically ignoring us. They are cute, but the scenery, which looked like the aftermath of a penguin-sized shock and awe campaign, detracted from the overall effect.

The next day, Monday, I visited my local bike shop (see a pattern here?), where the Rodrigo at MotoEscazu inserted a tube into my tubeless tire and filled it with Slime, and anti-leak substance, and also replaced my rear wheel bearings. That should keep my tire sound for the final gravel leg of my trip. The only thing is, I don't carry a tube patching kit, just plugs for tubeless tires, and anyway patching a tube on a motorcycle tire is a bitch, you have to take the wheel off, break the bead, etc... Ah well.

Here I met Nuno, a motorcycle guide for Ayres Adventures, a high and motorcycle touring company, the same guys I saw at Torres del Paine. We talked as we waited for our bikes, and he told me about some of the crazy rides of bis youth. He got to the Salar de Uyuni when it was under 6 inches of water, just like he did - but he RODE ACROSS IT! This is completely insane, the salt water destroys things, and if you break down you are so screwed. Where we were in Uyuni, the morning we left the US expat that runs a local pizzeria (Minuteman, the best pizza in town) told us that that same morning, he had rescued a family from a broken down SUV on the Salar. The father tried to drive across and the car broke down in the middle, 50 miles of 6 inches of standing salt water in every direction. He walked 10 hours in the blinding sun until be got cellphone reception. When they found him he was severely burnt and when they found the car their 9 month old child(!) was in bad shape. But at least Nuno was riding with a friend. Nuno also traced the voyage of Che Guevara, with is very difficult, a lot of jungle and boats, and made a video in the process and sold it to Portuguese TV, which aired it! Great stories.

Another word about the weather. I've sen some crazy weather, but in Patagonia it's ridiculous. It can literally go from serious rain to clear blue skies, and back again, in 45 minutes, the clouds move so fast. An on, changing EVERY 20 minutes the whole day! Some days are definitely better than others, but predicting the weather for a day is like predicting it for 2 weeks in NY. It's just the wrong unit of analysis (pardon the psych speak).
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1233874380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1233874380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1233874380/tpod.html Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:47:04 -0500 New York to Tierra del Fuego: The Long Summer

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Puerto Natales, Patagonia, Chile

Next up on the Patagonia's Greatest Hits list is Torres del Paine, another mountainous state park near Puerto Natales, Chile. Here I found a nice, homey hostel/B&B called Dos Lagos. The owner, Alejandro, was really nice, and also spoke English. Unfortunately, my bike was not being quite as cooperative. The next morning I set out to gather some supplies for camping out in the park - I rented some boots and a camping stove and bought some food. Then I noticed that the radiator was leaking again, and worse. The guy in El Calafate had not fixed it right. Alejandro directed me to the local motorcycle mechanic, Herman, who was also exceedingly nice (Puerto Natales is a pretty small town, maybe 20,000 people). I removed the fairing, which I've gotten pretty good at, and we inspected the radiator repair. It had not been welded, it looked like some kind of epoxy, that had begun to leak (of course). The thing is, welding aluminum, which is what the radiator is made or, requires different equipment than welding steel, and my hunch is the last guy didn't realize it was aluminum until later, then did a half-assed job with glue. Herman didn't have aluminum welding stuff. We tried a different epoxy which didn't work, and then I went into my own toolkit and pulled out something that might: a stick of putty-looking stuff called JB Weld. I had this along for holes in the oil pan, but we gave it a try, and damn if it didn't hold.

Next morning: off to the park! 80 miles north of town, about 1/2 of it gravel. After getting through the gate I went across a parking lot to get past a tourist bus. There was a ditch between me and getting back on the road and I hit it at an angle, and didn't think too much of it - until somehow it wiped me out! In front of about 50 people, of course, nice move... Somebody helped be get my bike up, and I rode about 50 yards and pulled over to check for damage, and then saw that I had a flat. It was a puncture that I must have gotten a bit earlier, so no wonder I wiped out, I was riding on a flat (sometimes on gravel you can't tell immediately because the bike is sliding around anyway). I plugged it and rode on, but 20 km later it went flat again, and there was no sign of the plug. On a gravel road, a sharp rock can push the plug right up into the tire, and the hole is back... One more plug. But this time I was fortunate enough to break down on a sunny day, in view of the Torres, which are steep tower-looking mountains, the namesake of the park. After this I took it a little slow until I reached the campground.

Which was full. The young guy at the little store who ran it had a bit of 'maitre d' syndrome'. He says check-in ends at 6 and there's a waiting list of 5 people, and it was 4 now. I was discussing my options with him when he said dismissively, 'Why don't you just come back at 6?´ I thought to myself, 'Why don't YOU just kiss my ASS,' but instead, after a short appraising pause, I said, OK. I went for a nice hike, and when I got back at 5:30 he came out of the store when he saw me and told me he had a spot for me. Apparently my powers for sycophancy have not left me.

The evening was nice, I met some Brits on an overland bus tour. The next morning the weather looked like crap. I went in to the store to ask Mr Velvet Rope what the forecast was, and he smiled broadly at me and said, 'Rain'. I asked a little or a lot, and he looked at me like I was crazy. Justifiably so, predicting the weather in Patagonia is a fool's game at any level. I was still preoccupied with my tire and didn't want to hike around in the rain, so decided to head back to town midday. Also, my ankle had been a little dodgy since El Chalten, where I limped half the way down, so decided to play it safe. Of course, it cleared up.

At the entrance to the park I had another flat. At this point it was still raining a bit an pretty cold, but again it happened, or rather I pulled over to inspect it, in front of a restaurant, so not so bad. A short old German man from a tour bus came over to ask talk to me. His entire face, forehead and bald pate was red and peeling, and he sounded like he was drunk. I did not let on that I knew German. Then a group of motorcyclists pulled in on their new BMW's from a deluxe organized tour, and a guy from the tour in his 60's from Chicago, Don, came over and we chatted - great guy.

I prayed I could make it down the last 30 mi of gravel without another flat and I did. Back in town I returned all the equipment and headed out of town to Punta Arenas, where I would try to get my tire properly fixed. The radiator smelled a little, but the repair seemed to be holding up.

There's not much between these 2 towns - I think about 80 miles of nothing. But then, I've discovered that there are endless varieties of nothingness, from sand to rocks to scrub to grassland... this was flat terrain with close-cropped grass, which fed herds of sheep and the occasional guanaco (wild llama) herd, both of which for the most part were not to be seen. The day was clear and breezy, but again no sign of the wind that this area is notorious for. It gets so windy because besides this spit of land, there is nothing to impede its constant westerly swirl around the southern globe. But there were artifacts of the wind - vegetation growing at a severe angle, highway warning signs, and finally also a sculpture in its honor. Dodged the bullet again...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1233708000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1233708000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/bocalee/1/1233708000/tpod.html Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:07:45 -0500 New York to Tierra del Fuego: The Long Summer

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

El Calafate, Patagonia, Argentina

Next, to number 2 of the top 3 stops in western Patagonia, El Calafate, to see the Perito Moreno glacier up close and personal. The ride was on pavement and uneventful, until my radiator started putting out s bunch of steam. I had a leak. So when I pulled into town I dropped it off at a shop to be fixed, this little stuff doesn't even phase me any more. The next day I did a tour of the glacier that included tromping up onto it, which was pretty cool. But there was nobody that interesting on the tour, and I was a bit tired, so once again I go a little meditative about the experience.

Specifically, the whole glacier thing is very zen. It doesn't look like it, but of course it is constantly moving and changing, like everything of course, but her you can watch ice crash into the lake at the end of its 400 year journey from the top. Also in zen the specific and the universal are exactly the same thing - the world in a grain of sand if you will - and this again is seen here, as all the amazing cliffs and crevasses of the glacier, everything, is just water in one form or another. So its a big zen metaphor for the universe. Except here, they give you crampons to put on your shoes and a trail to follow, unlike real life, which seems to be more about slipping and sliding around.

The other thing I remember about the day is one other tourist, a man in his 50s perhaps who had thick facial features and a thin frame, dressed in black and red hiking gear, and has the complexion of a vampire, ghostly white, not red-pink like mine, but still clearly Teutonic. He was German, and he gave me the creeps immediately. He spoke English but no Spanish, and we spoke a bit, but I tries to steer a bit clear. He was in Chile on business, a was a reproductive biologist. We talked about where wed been, and when I mentioned Bariloche he said, oh yes, many Nazis supposedly settled there after the war. I made no comment, but the book the Boys of Brazil came to mind.
]]>