FIN DEL MUNDO (end of the world)

Hello readers, Sorry about the delay in posting, access to reliable internet has been a problem. A quick summary so far. I arrived in Buenos Aries a bit of a jet lagged wreck, compounded by a reaction to my yellow fever shots. I had a bit of a look round town, & while it is a lot like Europe in the visual sense, there is also some in your face third world evident-people fossicking thru garbage, slums, lack of footpaths, general grot etc. However, the food is amazing. These people eat like there is no tomorrow. Red meat is the go, & the portion size is about half a cow. Here are 2 photos of crowd control South American style. This lot complete with water cannon & baseball bats were waiting in a city square for a bunch of protesters.

Anyway, after a night out to meet the rest of the group on the tour, we flew down to Ushuaia, where it was cold, windy & raining. We went out for a quick ride, to get used to the bikes, & each other. There are 5 Aussies, an American & a Brit in the riding group, & 3 Compass guys to show us the way. We headed for the end of the Pan Amarican Highway, literally the end of the road at the bottom of Tierra Del Fuego.


This is one of the ultimate goals, the holy grail, for serious motorcycle travellers, so it feels weird starting from here, but thats what we did. We have been doing some long days, 3-400 km, over a mix of road types. Sofar the dirt has been mostly ok, but the big problem is the wind. It is absolutely unbelievable. It can literally blow you right off the road. I have never, ever ridden in conditions like this, cranked over about 20 degrees just to go in a straight line! Its tough & its uncomfortable, & its also cold. There is a lot of snow around in parts. We are all wearing every bit of clothing we own. Enough complaining. There are vast open spaces down here, & in that sense, its a lot like Australia, altho the vegetatiuon & wildlife are very different. We crossed into Chile, then took a ferry across the Straights of Magellan. The Torres del Paine national park in Chile was very, very spectacular.

We crossed back into Argentina, & moved on to a place called El Calafate. From there we went 80km up to the Perito Moreno glacier. This thing is absolutely gigantic, about 5 km wide & 60 m high. You dont need to wait long for a chunk to break off, its very fast for a glacier, and you can hear it creaking & cracking continously. We saw a lump the size of a block of flats break off & hit the water at the front like a bomb! This photo only shows a small part of the front edge of the glacier.

We are about to head into a remote region of Patagonia, for what we think will be 4 days of hard going over the worst roads we are likely to meet. Gotta go, more later.