CN - Wednesday/Thursday
We spent the day Wednesday exploring Ushuaia a bit but mostly it was just a lazy day lounging around the hostel. As we were gearing up to head to the Tierra del Fuego Nacional Parque, Ken noticed a link on his chain that had looked odd. Upon further inspection, the chain had a link that had broken in half and about 2 dozen other that were cracked. It's a miracle that the chain had not snapped off the previous day riding at high speed and RPM's. This was something that had to be address before riding on so he went to a nearby Suzuki shop and purchased a clip style chain. Unfortunately upon returning to the hosted he realized he had nothing to break the only chain that was not a clip style so we headed back to the shop to use their grinder to get the old chain off. Unfortunately it was just past 1:00pm - the time that in Chile everything shuts down until 3 or 4pm. Most every business that is not tourist related has these daily hours - open in the morning, shut down from 1-3 and then back open until 7 or 8pm. Not wanting to ride back up the hill to the hostel Ken was able to break the old chain by filing down one of the pins and the new chain was then popped on.
We rode to the National Park entrance but didn't end up going in due to the $35 each entrance fee. We just didn't feel it was worth it just to get a picture at the Tierra del Fuego sign that everyone snaps a photo in front of. We might have missed out on a nice Parque - but figured after Torres it would be a bit anti-climatic. Later that evening we returned to Dublin and had some more stout and dinner. We also ran into Sid there who we had last seen a week or so earlier at the gas stop that had no gas. It was funny that when we had parted ways he told us about the Dublin bar in Ushuaia that he had visited the year before and would see us there and buy us a beer. Crazy that he suddenly appears on our last night there and followed through on his promise - hence the funnel.
Thursday morning we headed out with minimal motivation to return to Punta Arenas. After reaching the goal it was more like work riding the 620k back. Again, the wind was relentless most of the way. At the border crossing a bike was on the ground from dropping over in the wind and Ken's bike got blown over at one of the gas station stops breaking off one of his mirrors. When we arrive at the same hostel we had stayed at on Monday night they had no room for us. Apparently with the language barrier the innkeeper had though I said we would return on Friday - not Thursday. It was getting dark and we didn't want to look for another overpriced hostel/hotel option so we rode back 12k to a free campground near the water. Turned out to be a great spot, except for the planes taking off and landing right overhead. The campground was right smack in the middle of the flight path. Still it was a picturesque spot and best of all free. We even got to see the remnants of the supermen as it rose in the east over the straight. It looked like a ball of fire as it rose - pretty darn cool.
Friday we had an appointment with Salva at the bike shop to sell off the bikes. Ken had a buyer from Israel lined up who was planning to ride it up to Canada and I was still hoping Salva would find a buyer for mine. Ken's buyer had responded to a Horizons post listing the bikes. I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would be able to sell mine as well.
We spent the day Wednesday exploring Ushuaia a bit but mostly it was just a lazy day lounging around the hostel. As we were gearing up to head to the Tierra del Fuego Nacional Parque, Ken noticed a link on his chain that had looked odd. Upon further inspection, the chain had a link that had broken in half and about 2 dozen other that were cracked. It's a miracle that the chain had not snapped off the previous day riding at high speed and RPM's. This was something that had to be address before riding on so he went to a nearby Suzuki shop and purchased a clip style chain. Unfortunately upon returning to the hosted he realized he had nothing to break the only chain that was not a clip style so we headed back to the shop to use their grinder to get the old chain off. Unfortunately it was just past 1:00pm - the time that in Chile everything shuts down until 3 or 4pm. Most every business that is not tourist related has these daily hours - open in the morning, shut down from 1-3 and then back open until 7 or 8pm. Not wanting to ride back up the hill to the hostel Ken was able to break the old chain by filing down one of the pins and the new chain was then popped on.
We rode to the National Park entrance but didn't end up going in due to the $35 each entrance fee. We just didn't feel it was worth it just to get a picture at the Tierra del Fuego sign that everyone snaps a photo in front of. We might have missed out on a nice Parque - but figured after Torres it would be a bit anti-climatic. Later that evening we returned to Dublin and had some more stout and dinner. We also ran into Sid there who we had last seen a week or so earlier at the gas stop that had no gas. It was funny that when we had parted ways he told us about the Dublin bar in Ushuaia that he had visited the year before and would see us there and buy us a beer. Crazy that he suddenly appears on our last night there and followed through on his promise - hence the funnel.
Thursday morning we headed out with minimal motivation to return to Punta Arenas. After reaching the goal it was more like work riding the 620k back. Again, the wind was relentless most of the way. At the border crossing a bike was on the ground from dropping over in the wind and Ken's bike got blown over at one of the gas station stops breaking off one of his mirrors. When we arrive at the same hostel we had stayed at on Monday night they had no room for us. Apparently with the language barrier the innkeeper had though I said we would return on Friday - not Thursday. It was getting dark and we didn't want to look for another overpriced hostel/hotel option so we rode back 12k to a free campground near the water. Turned out to be a great spot, except for the planes taking off and landing right overhead. The campground was right smack in the middle of the flight path. Still it was a picturesque spot and best of all free. We even got to see the remnants of the supermen as it rose in the east over the straight. It looked like a ball of fire as it rose - pretty darn cool.
Friday we had an appointment with Salva at the bike shop to sell off the bikes. Ken had a buyer from Israel lined up who was planning to ride it up to Canada and I was still hoping Salva would find a buyer for mine. Ken's buyer had responded to a Horizons post listing the bikes. I was keeping my fingers crossed that I would be able to sell mine as well.
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| Waiting for the ferry to unload so we could get on going the other way. |
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| Straight of Magellan. |
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| Campsite on Thursday night. |
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| Moon on fire - terrible pic with my iPhone but shows the crazy color. |
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