WE MADE IT - USHUAIA IS OURS
Trip Start
Jan 10, 2008
1
13
22
Trip End
Jul 30, 2008
Ushuaia,
Patagonia,
Argentina
Sunday, April 27, 2008
It was some of the best Indian food we've ever had. We walked around the Plaza des Armas - which for the US would be 4th of July Square - named for the men who fought valiantly against the Spanish for independence. Every town we have visited in Chile has a street named for Bernando O'Higgins, son of Irish immigrants, freedom fighter and first president of Chile, and one named for San Martin, a descendent of Spanish settlers who fought on the side of independence. The next day we did the historical tour around the Plaza des Armas, which took us into the museum of the history of Chile, starting with pre-Colombian times 3-4000 BC and working up into modern times, up to television and the Kennedy administration's role in Chile in the 1960's. The cathedral on the other side of the Plaza was immense, but not the original colonial one, which had stood some blocks off the square. Then we went to the best pre-Colombian museum in Latin America. It stands a block off the Plaza des Armas and houses incredible and innumerable displays of pre-Colombian art. This was not just gold trinkets we had seen in other museums, however admirable
Another view
. It showed every culture from Mexico to the tip of South America and had pottery and artifacts from each of them. And each piece was more beautifully executed and proportioned than the last, which descriptions of the cultures and the role of the pieces in them. We spent three hours studying every display we could see and came away knowing that our view of what is humanity and what is culture had been changed forever. After that experience, we staggered back to our hotel to rest and absorb what we had seen, then took ourselves off to a lovely little, totally French restaurant called The Assassins (no, we don't know why), which had very good French cuisine and excellent crepes suzettes.Thursday the 17th , we fled the big city and headed for the coastal town of Valparaiso, so John could see the funiculars. They were wonderful: the town is made up of several steep hills around an extremely busy and large port, and people who came into town from their homes took the cable cars up and down as part of their ordinary life. It was like San Francisco, but more a normal part of life. The town itself is a large naval base as well, so we saw some incredible ships, including the first 4-masted sailing ship we've ever seen. It was inside a naval base, so we couldn't really get a tour of it, but immense and impressive. It must have been something in naval battle days to see one of those hove out of a fog bank.
Our curiosity satisfied and our tank full of Shell gasoline, we headed southwest into wine country
Approaching Ushuaia
. We had reserved a tour in English of the Undurraga winery, founded in 1885, to learn about wine-making in historical Chile. The hacienda was white stucco and Spanish colonial style. That is, there was a central courtyard - in this case at least 2 acres large - around which the original buildings stood. There were, of course, several other courtyards as well. We had an excellent English-speaking tour guide, who really knew her stuff, and took us through every detail of the process of wine-making, which we saw going on around us as we worked our way through the stages of crushing, ageing, bottling and ageing again. The original cellars were brick, cool and vaulted, and the modern stainless steel tanks were spotless. Much of the wine is still aged in the old way, in oak barrels - which are used for a few years only before they absorb too much wine to give an oak flavor and then have to be replaced. Having seen vineyards in Napa and in France, we were very impressed with the level of technology and with the quality of the wine. Undurraga has also started a bio/ecological line of wines that are produced without additives of any kind from grapes that are grown naturally, without chemicals. It was fascinating to see the level of care and knowledge that was being devoted to producing an ecologically sound line of wine. The next day we started on down the road - the PanAmerican Highway # 5 - towards the south of Chile. It's like getting on InterState 80 only more so
Bariloche
. It runs from the north of Chile down to the southern most lake district, where the highways run out altogether. Chile is a very long, narrow country, and the Pan Am connects it north to south. We feel like Jack Nicholson setting out in Easy Rider. Our first stop, however, took us back into history. It took some time and dirt roads off the PanAm, but we found the hacienda built in 1765 that was the home of one of the most famous families in Chilean history, including at least one president of the republic. The estate is now owned by the Chilean army - there's a story in there somewhere - and is in perfect preservation. We could imagine the slow tempo of the lives lived there, in the bedrooms that all connected and in the private chapel, large as some European cathedrals, in the stately dining room that seated thirty. And we saw a very small part of the actual estate. So we didn't press the issue of the army' involvement; we climbed back into our Jeep and over the dirt roads leading back to the highway and the 20th century.Naturally, then, we had to look for vineyards and followed a sign at random that pointed to the left off the paved road. Several kilometers later, the road turned from merely dirt to seriously rutted, dusty and hilly, and we were wondering where we had lost our senses. Climbing up and curving down between acres of grapevines, we were wondering how to turn around, when we finally came upon the vineyard nestled in the curve of a hillside and pulled around the back to find the tasting room
Carol and Carriages
. We'd come all that way, so we were at least going to taste their wine, whatever it was. It turned out to be a major ecological establishment, dedicated to making wine without any additives or preservatives and in a way that brought together all the natural elements around it. We had an excellent lesson in natural wine-making and tasted four excellent wines that seemed smoother than other wines, but perhaps it was the beautiful scenery and the sunny day. The entire staff of the winery came by to see us out of curiosity at seeing our Jeep with US license plates, so we made friends and bought wine, toasted our health and set off back down the dirt road to the paved road that lead to the Pan Am. We stopped on the way in a provincial town and sat on benches in the central park, watching the high school students smoking after class and the young mothers wheeling their babies.
Landing finally in Talca, on the PanAm, we used our Spanish guidebook to locate an excellent 3-star hotel in the center of town, just off the Plaza Mayor, with a lovely suite and secure parking for a modest price. And our US guidebook said the best restaurant in the Central Valley was just around the corner, so we managed to find the Ruben Tapio restaurant - after some confusion on my part with Ruben Dario, the poet laureate of Nicaraugua and now one of my favorite writers. We dined extremely well, managed to find our way back across the Plaza des Armas to our hotel, and so to bed.
January 19-26 The End of the Road!
Heading on down the PanAmerican Highway, we stopped to see the local market at a small town
Chicken Hawk?
. The usual 'guard' turned up as we parked and offered to watch the Jeep. We wandered the overstuffed stalls and displays of fruit, food, clothes, books and everything else a family would need, then headed for Los Angeles. Navigating by guidebook, we didn't realize that the PanAm had been re-routed around the town on the other side, but not changed on the page, so we had a few moments of wondering if we'd lost our sense of direction. Finally in the center, we headed for the local hotel, which turned out to have an interior garden restaurant, complete with rock-strewn waterfall and a fair amount of activity on a Saturday night. Sunday we headed for the Argentine border and found ourselves driving along the beginnings of the lake district, which begins in Chile and really gets going across the border in Argentina. The hotels along the lakeshore were either closed or way too fancy. So, in typical fashion, we took the Jeep down a dirt road with an hotel sign. The road just kept on going, getting rockier, but John never lost hope. We ended up in a brand-new, completely modern, 5 room hotel owned and run by a French couple, who had decided to leave France for Chile. The hotel style was modern Scandinavian, the views of the lakes on both sides from the hilltop were gorgeous, and the cuisine was excellent. If you go to the lake district on the Chilean border near San Carlos de Barriloche, be sure to stay at Taique Lodge. It's a little out of the way, but is definitely worth it
Different view
. Tell Audrey and Mickael hello for us!As we drove to the border, it seemed to be a forest out of the Brothers Grimm. Beautiful pine and other trees, draped with moss and scattered among them log cabins. The crossing was easy - by this time, we have learned the drill and the number of stamps required on each piece of paper. Our passports are beginning to fill up from Chilean border crossings, and we still have several to go to get to Ushuaia and back. Barriloche turned out to be an Alpine town, either Swiss or German, modern buildings made of honey-glazed logs and stone, blonde, ruddy-cheeked men speaking nothing but Spanish. We toured along the lake shore to the famous hotel Llao-Llao (pronounciation approximately 'yawo-yawo'), a fabulous resort on the shores of the largest lake, surrounded by enormous golf courses and forests. The hotel is usually open to visitors, but had an event going on, so we wandered down the side roads in our all-terrain Jeep and ended up having a drink at a tea house for golfers, overlooking the lake and surrounding hills and watching putters on the green. On the way back, we took a funicular ride to the top of the highest Cerro (hill) and found panoramic views of at least 7 huge lakes, stretched out in all directions around us. It gives new meaning to "lake district."
Back to our friendly bed-and-breakfast, we found Andy our motorcycle rider from Central America standing on the doorstep. He and John had been exchanging co-ordinates for several days and figuring out that we could cross paths there
Five room hotel - very nice
. We heard his stories of Ushuaia, including the snowy mountain pass with scary trucks, and wished him well as he worked his way north. From the lake district, we headed south, through a little Swiss village up in the mountains, then descended into the Patagonian desert, ending up at another beautiful lake in Sarimento. It was quite dark, our destination B&B was at least 10 kilometers east on a winding road, and we didn't know for sure if it was open. We stopped at the local YPF gas station to fill up and ask directions. The three old guys inside gave us all sorts of advice about where to stay, and one of them just got up and drove us to the local hotel, then waved at us and drove off. Another example of how kind and helpful people have been to us all the way along our road. Pizza for dinner seemed the only option, complicated by Carol leaving her small purse on the back of a chair. But we called the next morning, and the owners promised to keep it for us until we got back from Ushuaia. No great loss, very little money and no documents, but a charming example of how helpful and kind people have been all along the way.Two full auxiliary gas cans the next morning as we headed further south into Patagonia and gas stations stretched out. The winds were high, lowering our mileage even more, and we were thankful for every sighting of fuel. We saw guanacos and rheas along the roadside. The rheas look like small ostriches, and the guanacos quickly became our favorite species
Great Wine
. They are russet-colored on their backs, with beige legs, and their faces are black. Their ears stick straight up, long and very close together, which gives them a permanently surprised expression as we drive by, lifting their heads up to stare at us, then going back to grazing. We saw one Patagonian fox, a rare sighting - it ran across the road ahead of us. From the desert along the PanAm Ruta 3, we turned off to the coast to find a place to stay and ended up in Puerto San Julian, where we had a lovely dinner in this port town.We had a long drive to Rio Grande on Tierro del Fuego the next day. We had planned to stop before the ferry crossing to the island, but as we neared the turn-off, John saw a steady stream of headlights and figured the ferry had just arrived. That meant we could cross quickly onto Tierra del Fuego and make more progress towards Ushuaia. Tierra del Fuego is divided in half between Chile and Argentina. We planned to stay on the Chilean side at the border crossing, but everything was closed up tight, and we ended up crossing the border after all. There was nothing on the other side, so we headed in the growing dark for Rio Grande, a much longer drive than planned. Approaching the town, we had no idea where to find anything and no service stations in sight. But the pharmacies are always open and well-lit, and in addition to medicine, they give travel information - at least, when crazy Americans walk in and ask for it. Directed to the nearby YPF and cash station, with further directions to the 3-star hotel in town, life was good again
Guanarco or Rhea's
. Thank you Argentinean pharmacists...The road to Ushuaia the next day was paved and ran between beautiful mountain chains (sierras) with snow-capped peaks and beautiful lakes. We were definitely in Darwin land, approaching the Beagle Canal, where Darwin learned about the local people and saw the bonfires lit on the hilltops signaling the approach of a strange ship. The English thought they were natural pheonomena, not man-made fires, so they called the island the Land of Fire (Tierra del Fuego). The road was good until we started over the pass, where we quickly drove into snow and ice. Naturally, we had to get out of the Jeep at the high point and take a picture of the lake and mountains behind it, ice-bound steps to the top of the look-out and a freezing wind. We passed many trucks coming the other way, mostly all using chains in order to hold to the road. By law, in fact, they have to have them. We did just fine with 4-wheel drive and Illinois snow-driving experience, cresting the pass and descending into Ushuaia. It's the southern-most town in the world you can drive to and a major port for the Antarctic cruise ships. So it's full of hotels and hostels, most of them closed, and lots of expensive stores selling leather goods, sweaters and chatchkies. We splurged on a hotel right on the port with gorgeous views of the sound and found an excellent restaurant 3 blocks away. We also found an interesting English couple, doing much the same as us, but not all by car. They had sold their house, car and most possessions, in-between one thing and another, and had been traveling around the southern hemisphere, Australia, New Zealand, South America for 6 months. So we're not the only ones.
Here at the bottom of the world, the sun comes up very late and sets early, and it's only getting more so. We're taking a couple of days to rest up and get organized, before heading back up that snowy mountain pass and northwards to Buenos Aires and Brazil. We've accomplished our goal and are pleased with ourselves - and surprised at how little trouble we've had at any point. If you're thinking of driving to the bottom of the world, don't hesitate - lots of people do it, many on a motorcycle, and it's well worth the effort.
Comments
Congratulations!
WOW! You guys are great! Glad to hear that you made it all the way to your goal with no major incidents. What an amazing adventure.
Thanks for sharing it with all of us. Enjoy the rest of the trip and keep up with the posts, we are following you all the way along.
Nancy & Dennis
!FELICITACIONES!!!!!!!!!
We are happy for you.
how are you goning back home??
chau
Claudio y Cecilia
Aix en Provence
Dear Carol and John
Congratulations a lot ! ! !
Many thanks for yr comments. We hope to visit this last country (bottom of the word) on February/March 2009
Best
Gaby and Loury