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Posted on April 4, 2012 by jason
It turns out that Zilvinas (the cyclist) had actually passed us while we were camping at the last lake. He was already in Toluene when we showed up. Apparently, there is a well-known bakery there that provides free (!) food and lodging to cyclists… so, he was motivated to get there quickly and out of the cold wind.
Lago Fagnano is the huge lake below town, and Paul and Camille set out to find us all a cabana. One of the benefits of traveling in a group like this is bargaining power. They found a huge 4 bedroom cabana with a jacuzzi tub and deck with views over the lake for $100 USD. That works out to just 10 bucks each. Nice!
Posted on March 30, 2012 by jason
A few towns back, Paul and Camille had run into some cyclists they had originally met back in Panama. When we were in Punta Arenas, they sent him an urgent email requesting help and wanting to know if he was still traveling with the VW’s. Natch, we extended an offer to help out.
Thank you, Jason, for you email.
Trying to reply right away. The thing is, I don’t know if Paul told you, but I am 8 weeks pregnant and cycling does not seem to cooperate with me anymore. From this point we decided to split with Zilvinas till Ushuaia. Zilvinas wants to finish the trip cycling and i was going to take a bus to Ushuaia. And then i remembered your fun company, so I thought maybe you still have some room for me and my loaded bike? Please, let us know if you are on line, otherwise we will try to come tonight and talk to you at the port.
Diana
Zilvinas and Diana are a Lithuanian couple (via Chicago) who have been cycling for 18 months. They’re on an multi-part trip around the world, but for Diana, this part ends in Tierra del Fuego.
We met up for the first time the next morning on the ferry to Porvenir. Diana walked her bike off the ferry and we started loading up. Her bike went on top of Red Beard under some brand new bungee (pulpo!) and tarp, and the rest inside. Zilvinas and Diana hugged and said their goodbyes, and now we’re at 4.5 passengers for the bus ride to Ushuaia.
After a quick run around Porvenir for groceries, we took off to go look for more penguins. We drove a few hours and ended up camping on the ocean, near a sheep-herders refugio. It was windy and cold, but we had good company and the dirty shack kept us all warm.
Posted on March 30, 2012 by jason
All of those little day to day problems keep adding up. We will limp to the tip of the continent with duct tape and baling wire. At least we found tires and a car wash.
It might finally be time to fix that cracked windshield too… the trick will be to find one down here.
Posted on March 27, 2012 by jason
Many thanks to the folks who let us know. Sorry if it caused any problems for anyone. It looks like someone gained access to our admin panel, and made one small change to the index.php script in our theme. Apparently, it generated different types of pop-ups for different people. One of them re-directed people to a Brazilian-based penis enlargement site. Funny, but not exactly what we were going for.
Still not sure how it happened, but I’ve restored the original code, wiped out all the passwords, keys, etc and it should all be back to normal. Now, we can actually work on a new post…
Posted on March 24, 2012 by jason
Torres del Paine…. not over-rated.
Posted on March 16, 2012 by jason
Also, both the Brazilian bus (Chile plates) and the motorcycle (Idaho) are for sale. Start your South American adventure today!
Posted on March 15, 2012 by jason
Two VW buses and two motorcycles can make a heck of a lot of noise.
Roof riding Ruta 40? Nobody is going to tell you not to.
Finally, we had a blow out (thanks Bumblebus!). But, it was on an old & cheap (free) spare that came with the bus.
El Chalten is in a spectacular setting. We even had blue skies and no wind.
Traveling with friends means you cook less and the food is better (for us, anyway).
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