so here we go with video blog numero dos. sorry for the bad lighting, but i think i look a tad bit better in this video compared to the last haha. let´s see, i guess that´s it. hope you enjoy the new blog entry, the photos, and this video! until next time, chao!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
puerto natales
Hello hello! We are once again in Puerto Natales! Just arrived yesterday. Took us 4 days to ride about 250 km. Not sure what that is in miles, but in total we´ve gone about 650 km. Let´s see. I think we left off in Punta Arenas. We were originally planning on heading out of Arenas on Saturday but we partied a little bit too hard friday night with our hostel friends from the UK and the US. We ended up relaxing all of saturday and had a great evening that night chatting and enjoying our time there. Sunday morning finally rolled around and we left the hostel at about 1130. We left Punta Arenas for good at 1230 and to our great surprise enjoyed virtually no wind. We pushed it hard that day and ended up riding about 70 km where we camped in the mountains near Monte Gallina. My left knee had started hurting, somewhere along the way I think I tweaked it. Thomas´ right knee has been killing him almost all of the trip, I think the cold weather doesn´t help much with that. Just as we got the tent up, the rain really started coming down.
The next morning was the same. Wet, soggy, and cold. We rolled for 15 km before meeting two cyclists on the road headed for Punta Arenas. The rain had let up but both of our knees were hurting. They told us there was a villa about 14 km down the road, so we decided to shoot for that, get some food and rest. While there we had some drinks and sandwiches and by chance another cyclist was just rolling in headed our direction. It was Jacob, a cyclist from Holland we met when he was headed south to Ushuaia and we were 3 days out heading north. As it turns out, he took a bus from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas and he had just left that day. It was exciting to see him again and also exciting to finally meet another cyclist headed our direction. He was planning on staying in Villa Tehuelches for the night while we decided to head out and ride while the wind was dying down. It was a nice ride as the day was ending, we squeezed in another 20 km.
The following morning we were packing our stuff when Jacob rolled by so we packed up quickly and headed out as a group of 3. That day the wind was bad and it was a major effort to keep pushing. You still have to pedal hard on downhill portions, otherwise the wind stops you. It´s really like riding uphill all day long. At that point, we had about 25 km until me arrived in Morro Chico. That was our first goal of the day. It took us about 2 hours but we finally got there and took some lunch at a local restaurant. After that Jacob headed out ahead us and we caught up later on while Jacob was chatting with a German cyclist heading south. He told us there was a nice hotel about 25 km from where we were and so that became our next goal. Again we rolled out in a 3 person group. The wind was atrocious but we formed a pace line and that was really exciting as all of us would take turns at the front We worked hard but it was not bad fighting the wind in this manner. Eventually we stopped to take photos and eat something. The winds gradually became less and less and the ride down to the hotel was quite enjoyable. I love riding at that time of the day. Early to late evening in the late day sun. We saw a sign that told us we were only 66 km from Puerto Natales! I couldn´t believe it. Once to the hotel we took a triple room, took showers, ate food, and drank beer. The owners were super nice and the same hotel had been handed down several generations since 1929.
The following morning we had breakfast, the owner took photos of us, and we headed out on the road for the final leg into Natales. The wind was not as bad as the previous day and for most of the day I felt pretty decent. It wasn´t until the afternoon that I started feeling tired. I think it was the previous days ride finally catching up with me. We stopped for a food break and sat down for a short time before making the final push into Natales. It was such a good feeling to have finally made it to town. The fatigue really almost disappears as soon as you see your destination. We arrived in town a little bit after 4 pm and by 5 pm we had a nice room and were up the street at our favorite pizzeria ( La Mesita Grande: http://www.mesitagrande.cl/ ) eating wood fired, brick oven pizzas and drinking local microbrew. Really, you cannot ask for anything better.
Today we´re here in the town, relaxing, checking emails, writing new entries in our blogs, and trying to upload photos and videos. Sometime within the next few days we´ll be heading out of Puerto Natales to head to Torres del Paine, an extremely beautiful Parque Nacional. Most people agree it takes a full week to explore and appreciate all it has to offer. That´s our next goal. Not sure when we´ll head out for that, but we´ll keep you posted. Hope this has been informative! That´s all I´ve got for now. I´ll try to upload some photos sometime today or maybe tomorrow as well as a few videos. Hope everyone is well, and thanks for reading the blog! Chao!
Zach
The next morning was the same. Wet, soggy, and cold. We rolled for 15 km before meeting two cyclists on the road headed for Punta Arenas. The rain had let up but both of our knees were hurting. They told us there was a villa about 14 km down the road, so we decided to shoot for that, get some food and rest. While there we had some drinks and sandwiches and by chance another cyclist was just rolling in headed our direction. It was Jacob, a cyclist from Holland we met when he was headed south to Ushuaia and we were 3 days out heading north. As it turns out, he took a bus from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas and he had just left that day. It was exciting to see him again and also exciting to finally meet another cyclist headed our direction. He was planning on staying in Villa Tehuelches for the night while we decided to head out and ride while the wind was dying down. It was a nice ride as the day was ending, we squeezed in another 20 km.
The following morning we were packing our stuff when Jacob rolled by so we packed up quickly and headed out as a group of 3. That day the wind was bad and it was a major effort to keep pushing. You still have to pedal hard on downhill portions, otherwise the wind stops you. It´s really like riding uphill all day long. At that point, we had about 25 km until me arrived in Morro Chico. That was our first goal of the day. It took us about 2 hours but we finally got there and took some lunch at a local restaurant. After that Jacob headed out ahead us and we caught up later on while Jacob was chatting with a German cyclist heading south. He told us there was a nice hotel about 25 km from where we were and so that became our next goal. Again we rolled out in a 3 person group. The wind was atrocious but we formed a pace line and that was really exciting as all of us would take turns at the front We worked hard but it was not bad fighting the wind in this manner. Eventually we stopped to take photos and eat something. The winds gradually became less and less and the ride down to the hotel was quite enjoyable. I love riding at that time of the day. Early to late evening in the late day sun. We saw a sign that told us we were only 66 km from Puerto Natales! I couldn´t believe it. Once to the hotel we took a triple room, took showers, ate food, and drank beer. The owners were super nice and the same hotel had been handed down several generations since 1929.
The following morning we had breakfast, the owner took photos of us, and we headed out on the road for the final leg into Natales. The wind was not as bad as the previous day and for most of the day I felt pretty decent. It wasn´t until the afternoon that I started feeling tired. I think it was the previous days ride finally catching up with me. We stopped for a food break and sat down for a short time before making the final push into Natales. It was such a good feeling to have finally made it to town. The fatigue really almost disappears as soon as you see your destination. We arrived in town a little bit after 4 pm and by 5 pm we had a nice room and were up the street at our favorite pizzeria ( La Mesita Grande: http://www.mesitagrande.cl/ ) eating wood fired, brick oven pizzas and drinking local microbrew. Really, you cannot ask for anything better.
Today we´re here in the town, relaxing, checking emails, writing new entries in our blogs, and trying to upload photos and videos. Sometime within the next few days we´ll be heading out of Puerto Natales to head to Torres del Paine, an extremely beautiful Parque Nacional. Most people agree it takes a full week to explore and appreciate all it has to offer. That´s our next goal. Not sure when we´ll head out for that, but we´ll keep you posted. Hope this has been informative! That´s all I´ve got for now. I´ll try to upload some photos sometime today or maybe tomorrow as well as a few videos. Hope everyone is well, and thanks for reading the blog! Chao!
Zach
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Ok so here´s a little video blog action for you all. Sorry for the way i look. I look horrible but it provides a little bit more insight on what we´ve been doing. I´ve got photos here and another video of porpoises we saw while crossing from Porvenir to Punta Arenas last night. I´ll see if i cant get that up as well. I´ve also got a ton of photos to sort through. I´ll post a few so hold up here and i´ll have it all set :]
Punta Arenas
hello! we´re here in Punta Arenas on Thursday, February 12th! We arrived yesterday evening at approx 8 pm from Porvenir. So let me back up and explain our situation after leaving Rio Grande. We headed out from Rio Grande last week sometime. We had a tough time the first day because of high winds but were able to make it 16 km from the Argentinian border. The following day we headed out to cross the border but were met with fierce headwinds once crossing the Argentinian portion. It was 15 km to the Chilean border crossing and that took us 3 hours due to extremely high winds and the lack of paved roads. We made it eventually, were able to take our food as well. We decided to wait it out there to see if the winds would die down. They did and we rolled out just before nightfall. That was such an amazing night. The sunset and golden hues cast upon the plains was breathtaking. Really excited we rolled about 20 more km that night then camped out and ate delicious grilled sausage and cheese sandwiches on Arab bread. The next few days would be a test. We awoke the next day to high winds. Our barometer told us we had gusts up to 70 km and probably much higher than that. We sat it out that day and decided to try for it at night again. We waited until just before nightfall and then rolled out and were making good time as the winds were lessened. It was good until we realized that the slight breeze had turned into a strong headwind and we made only 25 km that night before calling it a night and we put down camp just after 130 am. We awoke the next morning to strong winds and a view of the ocean. It was amazing yet disappointing at the same time. The winds were strong and due to our close proximity to the ocean knew that we would be dealing with them no matter what time of day it was. It was just 100 km to Porvenir. We decided to head out a little after midday and we began rolling. We soon realized that we would have to ride 33 km a day in order to reach Porvenir without running out of food, which is not much at all but when you´ve got 50 mph winds in your face, you exert a lot of effort only to ride a short distance. Sometimes it was like getting punched in the chest while riding. It would stop you dead in your tracks and progress was incredibly slow. We finally said to heck with it and decided to opt out for a ride into Porvenir. We lucked out and hitched a ride with a fisherman named Omar who had lived in Porvenir his entire life. We were in Porvenir in a little over an hour. I was ecstatic to be in Porvenir and out of the harsh winds. We stayed at a lovely hostel and slept in beds. Porvenir was pretty bland. Not much to see. A true fishing village. We stayed one night. Our situation was complicated by a lack of banks in Porvenir. The only bank in town accepted only mastercard. We both have visa so it was impossible to take money out. We had some issues buying tickets for the ferry ride but it worked out ok. And that takes us up until today. We arrived here in Punta Arenas last night, paid for a cheap but decent hostel, took showers, and ate at a fine dining restaurant last night named La Marmita. Today we´re working on doing some laundry, posting photos, new blogs, and emailing people. Tomorrow we´re gonna see about taking some photos around Punta Arenas, buying groceries, and visiting a brewery here! The next day we leave for Puerto Natales and we´re hoping for less wind? It is probably just wishful thinking. Anyways we´re both happy that SPOT has come through for us finally. Hopefully it will be working regularly now! So thats that for now. I´ll try posting a video and some photos up on here in just a bit so check back for that and if they don´t show up then hang tight and maybe within the next week I can get it working. Chao for now. Byebye...
Zach
Zach
Friday, February 6, 2009
rio grande
so this past monday we left on our bikes from ushuaia at 10 am. our first challenge would be crossing the Darwin Mountains. it was both beautiful and arduous but somehow we managed to get over them. it was a great moment when we reached the top and were able to cruise down the other side. we were on our bikes 6.5 hours that day and met another cyclist from san francisco. the second day we would be attempting to get to tolhuin which was about 35 km from where we were camping. due to rain and cold weather our day was cut short but made better by clear weather and a stop at a famous organic bakery in tolhuin named la union panaderia. we left the city and camped approx 8 km outside of it. 3rd day we rode about 49 km and encountered another cyclist, this time from holland. our time on our bikes was made more difficult by the presence of a head wind and it really slowed us down. we managed to make it to the ocean and we camped in view of the atlantic ocean. yesterday we had to make it 50 km to rio grande. we decided we would do it no matter how long it took. it was my best day by far. a little warmer but more enjoyable. we made it in 3 hours. our best time yet. we encountered two cyclists. one from venice, italy named fabio, and another from germany. now we´re here in rio grande. we spent last night and tonight will be our last. tomorrow we´ll try and make it as far north as we can andj hopefully arrive in san sebastian (the chilean border crossing) in two days. after that we´ll head west and attempt to make it to porvenir in 3 days, hop on the ferry and spend a day in punta arenas. we´ll see how this next leg goes. it´ll probably be close to a week before i can post again. hopefully this was informative.
a heads up on why people arent receiving spot messages: apparently the service is highly unreliable the further south we travel so hopefully as we move more north the spot messages we´re sending every night will finally be received. until next time. chao.
zach
a heads up on why people arent receiving spot messages: apparently the service is highly unreliable the further south we travel so hopefully as we move more north the spot messages we´re sending every night will finally be received. until next time. chao.
zach
Sunday, February 1, 2009
ushuaia
so we´re finally down here in ushuaia! couldnt believe it when we rolled into the town on the bus. took us 9 days to do it but we finally did it. the mountains and views from some parts of the town are absolutely breathtaking. they have 3 ski areas here and i was surprised to see that several of the mountain peaks surrounding the city had a light dusting of snow from last night, it is summer here after all. yesterday we opened our bike boxes. to be honest i was scared because we´ve carried them so far, on the plane from seattle to miami to bogota to santiago. on buses and taxis and in our arms through the streets, but everything turned out ok and we were both riding our bikes around town by the late evening. the town is a true alpine town. very reminscent of photos i´ve seen of swiss mountain villages. the architecture appears to be very similiar as well. the hostel we´re staying at is very rustic and homey. i like it. the argentinian exchange rate is not very good and most of the touristy towns tend to be much more expensive. but today we bought groceries and food enough for 4 days of riding without access to a town or restaurant. we´ll be bugging out of ushuaia tomorrow morning and heading over our first mountain pass right off the bat. i wonder how tomorrow will go since we havent been practicing and ive never been good at climbing hills on my bike. im excited to get out on the road. hanging out, waiting i think has been tougher. i wonder how it will be riding for 5 hours everyday. what will i think about? where will my mind be? will i be able to take time to look at everything around me? i guess we´ll have to wait and see. seems like we´ve been here longer than 11 days but thats it. its the first day of february so thats means we´ve got about 3.5 months to get to machu picchu. it will be exciting. we´re at the end of the world. unsure of when i´ll be able to post again. its about 240 km to rio grande from here and thats what we´re pushing for in about 4 days. hope everyone is doing well on the home front. guess i´ll talk later. take care.
zach
zach
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