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