This post is all about the penguins! Fellow cycling tourist Vincent and I went on a bus/boat ride to see a colony of penguins not far from Ushuaia at a place called Estancia Harberton, the oldest estancia (farm) in the Argentine sector of Tierra del Fuego.

The penguins were so cool. The tour lasted about an hour and we were pretty free to do our own thing provided that we stay somewhat close to the group and at least 2 meters away from the penguins (of course there are stupid people that don’t listen). There are 2 different kinds of penguins living there in addition to the one King penguin that is apparently lost.

Back at my home for the last week I’ve been busy arranging to have some Tubus, Big Agnes and Ortlieb gear replaced. Garmin passed on giving me a free GPS but I had to try. I’ll keep my prone to shutting off on rough roads, 5 year old 60csx that I think is still the best one they make for bicycle touring (and many other things). I was digging the worldwide basemap with shaded relief that comes with the 62st but it’s too expensive for just an “its cool so why not” purchase.

Ortieb, also the US distributor for Tubus, is providing the same outstanding customer service that they always do. My front panniers are very worn out so they worked out a good deal for me to replace them. The Tubus rear carrier (rack) I’m using has some threads stripped on one of the support bars. After getting this response from Tubus I forwarded my request to Ortlieb who’ll likely ship the part with the panniers:

Tubus: “Why do you destroy our good products ”

Tubus is so awesome. They were such a huge help when I broke my first rack in Guatemala (my fault). Can’t recommend their stuff enough.

Big Agnes, the makers of my Copper Spur UL2 tent, are sending some more tent pegs since I seem to have lost a few along the way. The tent, by the way, has proven to be a perfect bicycle touring tent. I love the space for storing gear in the huge vestibules and living in it for a week, even in the rain, has been great since there’s more than enough room for me (at 6′ 3″) and a whole bunch of junk next to me.

Today I’m going to the bike shop to have my frame cut in half. It sucks and yes, I think the frame design could be improved (and is) to fix the eyelets where the racks mount, but I would still recommend Koga for anyone considering an extended, fully supported tour through developing countries (bad roads). I don’t think I’d be comfortable bouncing down a mountain road with 35kg of gear on anything else and their service is outstanding.

Other cyclists are camping here so I’ve had lot’s of company, others have come and gone. I’ve made lot’s of new friends that I hope to see again when I’m in their country. It’s not just cyclists staying here which begs the question of why people insist on putting their tent in the spot next to mine. There are so many other open places. One old guy snored from 10pm until 5am for the 2 nights he was here and I didn’t even have pine cones to throw at his tent. I had rocks but they are 10lbs each.

A bunch of us met up for dinner a couple nights ago and there ended up being 19 of us having drinks and doing all the normal travel talk. Of course the subject of who has the best beer came up and an Italian guy who works for the UN said English which of course turned into WWIII as the Belgians and Germans told him he was crazy and laughed at him. It was all in good fun though. I have learned so much about Europe, especially in the last few months as more and more cyclists come together on the few roads that go back up north. I will certainly never say to another a guy from Barcelona, “Oh, you are from Spain.”

The weather has been fantastic. It’s generally nice during the day with lot’s of clouds but a surprise rain shower can jump up over the mountains and be gone again in a few minutes. It drops down close to freezing at night.

My flight is still on for Saturday and 21 hours later I’ll be in Miami. Looking forward to the 13 hours of layover. That’s what I get for being a cheap ass though (the ticket was still $1200 so I was doing everything possible to find a cheaper price). There’s also nothing like telling relatives you are staying with them for “just a couple weeks” when you have a one-way ticket and no schedule.

No more South America. Time for some adventures up in the northern hemisphere where I’ll be cruising around Europe checking out the beer situation. South America was an amazing place to tour and I’ll never forget the time I spent hanging out in Ecuador, roaming around the mountains of Peru or sleeping out on the Salar where the night sky is just incredible.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been going through old posts and putting together some highlights like I did for the last couple legs. Here’s the latest addition:

Florida to Alaska (6,900 miles)

Alaska to Panama (8,614 miles)

NEW! Panama to Argentina (10,154 miles)

Coming soon! Western Europe…

02/10 With my front pannier full of fresh bread and a big box of chocolate I set off from Tolhuin on my last stretch of South American roadway. The weather was cloudy but the sun broke through in the afternoon and warmed things back up again. A couple nights ago there was fresh snow on the mountains–even though this is the middle of summer it can get pretty cold at night. Lot’s of trees and mountains to look at all day (when they weren’t covered in clouds).

Some last minute bikecapades kept me busy the night before leaving. The front tire has had a slow leak for over a month now but it only leaks out 5 psi every few days. It takes 2 minutes to get it back up to 65 psi so the incentive to fix the leak is small. Well I went to check it last night and saw that the back tire was completely flat. I pulled the wheel off, patched the leak, put the tire back on and noticed that one of the spokes was broken. So I took the tire back off, installed a Kevlar emergency spoke and put the tire back on (I was too lazy to put a real spoke on since I’d have to remove the cassette). While I was inflating the tire the valve stem broke and I had to take the tire back off again to replace the tube. That’s just how things go sometimes.

The broken spoke sucks but it helped make up my mind about bringing the wheels with me or not. The rear rim has about 8400 miles on it and the front one has 11,000 miles on it. I’m just going to leave both rims here. Since there’s obviously something wrong with the rear wheel now one I’ll just get 2 high quality rims in the Netherlands along with some DT SWISS double-butted spokes, brass nipples and some washers. I’m keeping the front hub because the Phil Wood Touring hub on there now has 25,568 miles on it and I think it’ll last forever. The rear hub, a Shimano Deore, only has 8,400 miles on it.

The front tire I’m dumping for sure. It’s one of the Schwalbe Marathon Plus 348 tires I’ve been using almost exclusively. The blue guard underneath is showing through so it’s done anyway. It did OK with 8,400 miles on it (many of those miles were on brutal roads). The rear wheel is a Maxxis Ranchero that I just got. I’m not going to need a 2″ knobby tire in Europe so I’ll bring it but find a home for it in Florida. I’ll also be leaving the cassette, chain and chain rings (small/middle–the large one is OK after 3 years) since they are at their EOL anyway. So besides the hubs the only other things coming with me will be the Brooks B17 saddle, seatpost, handlebar, front/rear derailleurs, front/rear racks and brakes. I’ll leave all the brake/gear cables since they are pretty old.

Day one out of Tolhuin got me over Paso Garibaldi (1400 feet) and 44.5 miles down the road. 2501 feet climbing. There’s a campground where I handed over 15 pesos (US $3.50) and called it a day. The conversation I had on arrival was classic:

Me [in Spanish]: How much is it to camp here?

Guy [in English]: Can you speak in Spanish?

Me [slower this time in Spanish]: How much is it to camp here?

Guy [in English]: 10 pesos

The weather broke for the short ride into Ushuaia and it was sunny with hardly any wind. The scenery was the best since the Carretera Austral in Chile. The campground I’m staying at until the 18th is La Pista del Andino. It functions as a ski resort during the winter so there’s a lift a stone’s throw from my tent. There are 5 other cyclists that I know staying here so I’ll have some company until I leave and I know more that are coming.

Pulling into the city was quite a moment but it didn’t really hit until I got to the campground and started taking apart my bike. Chatting with the other cyclists and drinking a huge beer helped with the funky mood I was in.

GPX track

Q: What do you get when you let a bicycle touring rider stay in the back of your bakery that also has free wifi and hot showers?

A: A tenant.

When I can roll out of bed and into a bakery life is pretty good. There are still a bunch of us staying here but we try to make ourselves useful in different ways. Some help cook, some help neighborhood kids fix their bikes and I help keep the inventory down in the bakery and get the owner set up with a new Skype account on his Blackberry Playbook (which I’d never seen before, had to do in Spanish, with no native support on the device for for Skype and make sure he can get back to it after I leave).

Last night a bunch of us hung out at the house of one of the bakery chefs. Lot’s of wine/beer drinking and empanadas. It’ll be a hard place to leave but the plan is to hit the road in the morning.

02/06 I got my first taste of the Patagonia headwinds leaving Rio Grande this morning. It went fairly well but I’m sure glad I’m not riding into it all day like the crazy people heading north.

I ended up staying 3 nights in Rio Grande so I could watch the Super Bowl Sunday night. That worked out quite nicely. Way to go Giants.

One of the highlights of my entire trip is going to be where I’m staying tonight–the famous Panaderia La Union here in Tolhuin. The owner, Emillo, is incredibly friendly and very generous. He let’s cyclists stay in an extra room with 4 beds for free. If the room is full, which it was when I got here, he’ll let you camp out on the floor of his (heated) gym. There’s a hot shower to use, a full kitchen available and free wifi. There are 7 of us here and a couple have been here for 4 days now.

The problem for me is that he’s too nice. When I got here I ordered a couple cappuccinos. They were on the house. Then I got a bunch of other stuff and they charged me way less than what they normally sold for. I couldn’t even pay for a big bottle of soda. I have a hard time when people give me things so now I feel guilty because I’m already staying here for free–I don’t want a bunch of other free stuff too. I’ll find a way to leave some cash behind.

BTW, the bakery is huge and it’s the best one by far in all of South America. I wish this place was in the southernmost city in the world because it would have been a great place to end my trip in SA. I still have 2 days of riding to Ushuaia but my flight doesn’t leave until the 18th. I have a lot of food and time so I might camp for a few nights at a place I heard about just before the city that’s supposed to be pretty impressive (and free).

The difference between the northern part of Tierra del Fuego and the southern part is incredible. There are forests here! And mountains and rivers! I ran into a couple French cyclists heading north. I love to scare them with tales of the O’Higgins crossing. I only did it because one of them asked how much my bike weighed. I’m so mean.

The GPS still has 2 bars left. Since enabling the battery saver mode it’s lasted 5 days on one set of AA (Eneloop) batteries. I might get a week out of it.

I also don’t care about my stupid upcoming birthday because everyone who guesses my age thinks I’m 30. Lot’s of chocolate and beer–that’s the trick.

GPX track