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Category: Argentina

Coming Home From Ushuaia

We arrived in Ushuaia a week before our plane to Holland departs. So one week to spend in and around Ushuaia. We tried to organise a Warmshowers host to stay with for this last week but unfortunately non of the eight addresses we wrote too in Ushuaia did respond on our request or did host other cyclists already. But this is no wonder since Ushuaia is a popular city to start or end a long distance cycling trip.



We organise a cosy AirBnB address to stay with.

The week flies by fast. We take a lot of rest, we organise bike boxes to transport the bicycles in the airplane and we discover Ushuaia. Kim also updated her portfolio since she has to find a new job back home.


Around town there are some pretty spots to discover but we don’t visit the National Parks or Glaciers around Ushuaia. I think we have seen enough of Patagonia and besides, the place is also very touristic and therefore expensive. Why pay a lot of money for something we have seen already many times for free?

The flight back to Holland did start full of stress because Arjan had to cut off a pedal from his bicycle at the airport. The rest of the trip home goes smooth.

Some statistics from the last 1,5 year:
– In total we cycled 22.323 km.
– Our trip was 566 days of which we have cycled 337 days.
– We did spend 1.438 hours in the saddle.
– Our average speed was 15,52 km p/hour.
– Our average day distance was 66,24 km p/day
– Elevation gain 147.278 meters. (We cycled 16,64 times up the Mount Everest)
– Elevation loss 150.148 meters. (We downhilled 16,97 times Mount Everest)
– With the two of us we just had 29 flat tires.

Collecting boxes all through Ushuaia

Maybe going by car is a good idea, maybe not?

Street art in downtown Ushuaia.

An Irish pubs in South America usually doesn’t serve Irish beers like Guinness but this one in Ushuaia does serve pretty good Irish dishes. (But no Irish beers)

It’s a touristic town.

Preparing to go back to Holland.

View from out of our bed.

Just some pictures from around town.

The harbour from where you can cruise to Antartica.

Bad Ass backpacker car.

On our way to the airport.

Getting off one of the paddles was a big problem at the airport. Arjan ended up shewing it off to fit the bike in the box.

Bye bye Ushuaia 🙁 Maybe see you next time…

Patagonian mountains underneath us.

Flying above the Atlantic Ocean. The sun goes down, time for a nap.

Can’t sleep at night.

Next morning. Sunrise above Italy.

@ Rome Airport.

Being a celebrity for 2 seconds 😀

Taking off again.

Rome – Amsterdam | We are nearly back in our home country we left for more then 1,5 year ago.

Swiss Alps.

??HOLLAND!!!??

After traveling for more then 26 hours we finally arrive at Schiphol Airport.

Missed my love. Reunited again?

Flowers, tears and happy smiles. “Welcome back”

Finally good coffee again.

Even 92 year old grandma was there to pick us up.

Our steel horses do need some build up again.

Tada, we are specialised in building up bikes after 1,5 year on the road.

But this paddle does need some more time to fix.

After two days in an empty apartment back home we bring back in a lot of our stuff. Moving boxes everywhere.

“What did you miss?” is a question we hear a lot. Patatje Waterfiets is one of the answers.

Discovering Almelo again. Our home town.

A quote from our local comedian Herman Finkers about cycling is new in town we discover. A good quote to move on from the point we are in our lives at this moment. Tnx Herman.

By bike

Sometimes,
When I’m on the bicycle
cycling,
then I sometimes think
nothing is wrong with me.

But when I think
Then I think:

Don’t think too much if you can
because you have to go even further.

Herman Finkers

Cycling Tierra del Fuego

After we finished the Carretera Austral in Chile we took a ferry to Puerto Natales. (Still in Chile) In the Puerto Natales area we did the Torres del Paine hike. Stories and pictures can be found in a previous blog.
From Puerto Natales we are going to cycle the last part of our trip. Tierra del Fuego, Land of fire. It's a very empty part of the world, a bit like Alaska where we started this trip but also a lot different at many points.

We meet the notorious extreme hard winds, empty pampas and extraordinary wildlife. We try to camp as far as the wind or shelters make it possible.
At the Chile-Argentina border they discover incorrect stamps in our passports but they also give us food for on the road.
In the last kilometers of our trip we eat loads of empenadas, we ignore fences and we skinny dip in one of the most southern lakes of the world. Brrrrr.....

Have fun reading.

Together with Jacinta and Frank from @Spinningsouth we are leaving the ferry, coming from the Carretera Austral at the town of Tortel.

We stay in a hostel with camp opportunities in Puerto Natales. A bit crowded but ok.

Our Japanese friend Yasuhiro. He started his cycling trip in Canada, cycled to Ushuaia and from here he will fly to Spain, cycle through Europe followed by Africa. From there he will cycle back to Japan in the coming years.

Also some Belgian overlanders in the hostel. Traveling by 4x4 from Suriname to Ushuaia and back to Suriname.

Doing some last groceries before leaving town again and head for Tierra del Fuego.

Fortunate we are in good hands 🙂

By bear.

A last glance at Puerto Natales.

Ruta del Fin del Mundo | The road to the end of the world.

Empty.

Camp along the empty road at night.

We have heavy tail winds and fly to Ushuaia. (but for how long?)

Small huts along the road to wait for busses. We use them for having lunch, away from the harsh winds.

Flamingos, just along the highway. We stop to take some pictures.

!!.Danger Minefields.!! The sheep are still alive so maybe we can camp in the same fields as well? Nobody will disturb us I guess 😀

No, just kidding. We didn't camp in the minefields.

We camp at a small hut. We didn't sleep in it but it was good for cooking away from the wind.

Nice spot.

The next day some ostrich run with us.

They are faster then we are.

Puento what?

In Punta Arenas we have to take a ferry to Porvenir. We have to wait till the next day because there is just one ferry a day going. We camp straight behind the ferry office and catch the ferry the next morning early.

Ferry is there.

Porvenir

The do some last groceries in Porvenir and leave it behind us. The next five days there will be no town or shops at all so we had to buckle up enough food.

Tierra del Fuego is really empty.

But also beautiful.

It was hard to find a camp spot away from the hard wind. This is the second place where we tried to put up our tent. At the first spot the wind was still too hard to put up our tent. One of the tent poles is still bend from this try 🙁

One of the reasons we took this remote and empty road is because we wanted to visit a national park with King Penguins. Now just 50km ahead.

Yeah we made it to the penguins.

The King Penguins: Adults are 1,2m high, babies 95cm. This colony counts 300 till 400 penguins. The day we where here they counted 60 of them.

Check the big babies on the right side 🙂

No head?

From a safe distance we could observe them from inside a shelter.

The observing shelter.

Close to the national park filled with penguins there is a free brand new shelter specially for tourists to sleep in, away from the wind and bad weather.

Small but very ok.

Eat down, sleep in the top where is enough space for two mattresses.

We leave again the next morning.

With, again, a lot of animals along the way.

Wild horses. The look fenced but they do jump over it easily.

Red eyed birds.

We keep following the coastline.

It doesn't look like it but very though wind here. A distance from about 30km did took us 4 hours.

At night we camp in a (too) small shelter. But we had too. The wind was to strong to camp outside the shelter.

Hard wind is freezing cold.

At this part we have tail wind. So hard we were cycling 35km an hour on these gravel roads easily. That's the fun part about a hard wind.

But soon it started snowing.

Trange weather. 10 min after the snow the sun comes out again. They often say. 'In Tierra del Fuego you can have four seasons in one day.'

At an old church we have lunch.

The last few kilometers before the border to Argentina at Paso Bella Vista.

Border is coming up. It still seems very empty.

Haha, this is all. Just a few cabins for the guys in in the office. The last cabin in the row is the office where we had to get our passports stamped.

We are through. It took a while. When we entered Chile they did give us the wrong entry stamps. We also missed an important paper which we didn't get when we entered Chile. After a discussion with the nice officer he corrected it all and stamped us out of Chile.

After a kilometer we ride into the Argentina border office. Also there a funny story; You are not allowed to bring in fresh foods as meat, cheese and vegetables. But at this crossing they didn't check out our bags at all. The opposite happened, they had just prepared fresh meat and bread for themselves and asked us if we wanted some of it as well? "Welcome in Argentina" they said "When you cycle you have to eat a lot"

Hi Argentina. First time Ushuaia is at the signpost. Ushuaia, the very end of our trip. We are discussing this town for more than 1,5 year already. "What if we reach Ushuaia?"

The empty pampas of Tierra del Fuego.

Through the iOverlander app we find this red sheep shelter for the night.

We put our tent underneath it and it starts snowing straight away.

Away from the wind and snow.

The next morning, sun again.

More pampas road to the town of Rio Grande.

After leaving Rio Grande (sorry no pictures) At some point the road stops. We had to drag our stuff over a fence and cycle over private grounds but no one did care. At a certain moment even a guy was pointing us the correct directions.

And more fences to go over. In a distance a police post but they didn't see us or maybe they didn't wanted to see us.

The sign says 'Closed for all traffic' From here on we are fine again. Highway 3 leads all the way to Ushuaia.

We start counting down. Ushuaia 198km.

181km

160km.

We expected a busy road but it was not.

Heavy rain at the horizon. We hope it stays there.

151km.

For the night we find a nice spot between old with moss overgrown trees.

Ushuaia 141km.

Panaderia (Bakery) La Union. One of the most famous Casa de Ciclistas in South America. They should also have the best empanadas of South America we have been told.

131km.

Still counting down. 121km.

111km.

In a far distance we see snowy mountains again. This stretch from Rio Grande to Tolhuin where the Casa de Ciclista is is just a very boring road. We hope around Ushuaia it will be better otherwise it will be an anticlimax after seen so much awesome landscapes.

La Union bakery & casa de ciclista.

Young dog around.

Ordering more empanadas before we take off after two nights staying here.

Bye bye La Union and many thanks!!!!!

Just 104km to Ushuaia.

Yes, more mountains in the distance.

95km.

Lunch along a big lake.

87km.

Woooh... nearly there.

82km.

78km. Check the burned forrest.

72km. How many signs can you put along a road without side roads?

66km.

62km. A sign every 4km?

We leave the big lake behind us and start cycling along a smaller mountain lake.

Tierra del Fuego Ruta 3.

Along this smaller lake there are should be some abandoned cabins we had heard. Most of them fall apart but one of them should still be okay to spend the night in.

Found it.

Inside the cabin we find Jo from England. She started her cycling trip going north this morning.

Apart from the decayed cabins this place is really awesome so we decide to stay two nights straight away. We have a lot of time left before we have to catch our plane back home so why not staying in a nice place instead of staying in 'just another' city?

We exchanged a lot of tips and tricks for cycling South America in the night and we all did sleep well. Jo at her first night in the wild, we at one of our last ones. Jo packs up again and leaves for many more adventures. We wish her loads of fun and many tailwind.

It turns out a sunny day. We discover the area.

A lot of broken down cabins. The hard wind blows them apart.

There is also an old hostel/hotel. Also abandoned and falling apart.

Once this was a very nice place.

Back in our cabin we do tea and lunch.

Arjan still in his sleeping pants 😀

Drying our tent.

Not to bad at all this place.

Skinny dipping in one of the most southern lakes in the world.

Freezing cold. 10'C brrrrr....

Leaving a personal sign at one of the walls.

"Where are you to go cycle next?"

Chilling and reading a good book.

The next morning we take of for the very last day to Ushuaia. It's just 51km with one last mountain pass the go over.

We take an off road shortcut to the mountain pass.

Pretty steep. Pushing up.

But the views are worth it.

Still some snow close to the top.

Kims bike.

The winding road we came up. In the deep the lake we camped along the last two nights.

At the look out point a touristic viewing point is build.

Ciao... we go downhill from here.

The views are getting even better. No anticlimax 😀

Ushuaia 30km.

Tom from London. He on his first day cycling to Deadhorse, Alaska, we on our last day coming from that same Deadhorse. We overload him with tips and tricks as well we did with Jo in the cabin along the lake. We are kind of jealous about him. Not because we want to cycle back to Alaska now but because we know the great feeling of having 1,5 year of open road in advance, filled up with adventure.

YES, we made it!!!. We survived!!! Last but not least Ushuaia.

Celebration with cake and a good local APA beer called Cape Horn. How appropriate.

An old boat rusting away. Just there for a nice Kodak moment.

Finally "Fin del Mundo" End of the World.

End of the World but not the very last end of our trip. We are not back home yet. At the moment we are discovering Ushuaia, we have to organize bicycle boxes and we will count out some statistics about kilometers, flat tires and that kind of things.

So we can say "Stay tuned, this story will continue!"

Thanks for reading and bye for now. Kim & Arjan.

Einde Van De Wereld?

Ik zit hier voor onze tent zoals Kim er zit op de foto hierboven. Voor dezelfde tent, op dezelfde plek ergens op Tiera del Fuego, Vuurland.
Een idyllisch plekje te midden van oude dode bomen overgroeid met een lichte laag mos.

Toen we hier aankwamen zagen we een wegwijzer met daarop Ushuaia 151km. Het einde van de wereld noemen ze het hier. Is dan, met andere woorden, over 151km het einde van de wereld?
Geografisch gezien dan. Het zal niet zo zijn dat over 151km de wereld zal vergaan.
Maar dan nog, ook geografisch gezien is het een rare uitdrukking. Zullen de mensen hier nog geloven dat de wereld plat is? Lijkt me niet.

En als er een einde van de wereld is, is er dan ook een begin van de wereld? Zo ja, waar ligt dat begin dan?
Wij begonnen onze fietsreis in het uiterste noorden van Alaska. Maar ook in Alaska noemden ze dat ‘Het einde van de wereld.’
We mogen dus aannemen dat we van het ene einde van de wereld naar het andere einde van de wereld zijn gefietst en dat er geen begin van de wereld is. Althans, die zijn wij onderweg niet tegengekomen.

Toen we in Equador op de evenaar stonden, er een eitje op een spijker konden zetten en het water in twee verschillende richtingen in een afvoerputje zagen verdwijnen, toen noemden ze dat ‘Het middelpunt van de wereld.’ Maar dus niet het begin van de wereld. Waar ligt dat begin dan? Misschien voor ons in Nederland omdat we daar geboren zijn? Joost mag het weten. Sorry Joost!

Nu we hier zo ons blijkbaar tweede einde van de wereld naderen denken we regelmatig na over hoe het zal zijn om weer terug naar het begin van onze wereld te gaan, naar Nederland.
Kunnen we er weer aan wennen om permanent tussen stille muren van beton te slapen in plaats van in een dun gehorig tentje waar je alles van buiten meemaakt behalve de nattigheid, en dat van je buren als je op een camping staat?
Waar je geen vreemde dierengeluiden meer midden in de donkere nacht hoort en waar je niet een duizelende sterrenhemel ziet als je even de behoefte hebt om een boom water te geven.
Maar ook, waar je naakt in bed kunt liggen in plaats van met een dikke jas aan en muts op, zonder dat je het gevoel hebt de volgende ochtend niet levend te halen vanwege een stevige onderkoeling.
Kunnen we er weer aan wennen dat het leven in Nederland tien keer zo snel gaat? De drukte van te volle agenda’s, het georganiseerde en dat overal regeltjes voor zijn?
Gestrest zullen we waarschijnlijk niet snel worden maar kunnen we de relaxte instelling van ‘wat vandaag niet komt, komt morgen wel’ weer deels opgeven?
En het feit dat we ons eigenlijk alleen maar druk hoefden te maken over ‘Hebben we eten en drinken genoeg om de fietsafstand naar de volgende stad of winkel te kunnen overbruggen’?
Het was een erg simpel en overzichtelijk leventje.

En hoe zal het zijn om de indrukwekkende landschappen waar we bijna continue doorheen reisden op te moeten geven? Landschappen die voor ons al bijna als vanzelfsprekend ervaren worden. Nederland heeft ook zeer zeker zijn charmes en mooie plekken, maar we zien toch wel duidelijke verschillen hoor.
Waar we zeker wel aan kunnen wennen is dat we iedereen weer gewoon kunnen verstaan, en wij ook weer worden verstaan. Eerlijk is eerlijk, met de Spaanse taal zijn we wel een beetje klaar. Na meer dan een jaar in Spaanstalige gebieden te hebben rondgereisd verheugen we ons weer op het Nederlands.
Een tweede ding wat we ook zeker weer gaan waarderen is dat we iedereen die we hebben moeten missen weer om ons heen zullen hebben. We hebben jullie gemist!
Daarover, we zijn wel erg benieuwd of we nog steeds op dezelfde golflengte zitten met iedereen thuis.
Zullen ze thuis onze verhalen en enthousiasme snel zat zijn omdat toch alles al op onze website en Instagram te zien was? Valt het überhaupt wel te bevatten hoe verschrikkelijk veel we mee hebben gemaakt in een zo’n relatief korte tijd als je er zelf niet bij was?
En hoe zullen wij zelf tegen Nederland aankijken? Misschien klinken de dingen waar iedereen zich daar ‘in begin van de wereld’ druk om maakt ons, hier zo aan het ‘einde van de wereld’,wel erg vreemd in de oren.
We hebben 1,5 jaar erg minimalistisch geleefd. Zullen we ons nog druk kunnen maken over de kleine dingetjes? De laatste mode, een puike huisinrichting, een mooie auto/motor, het weer of het hectische leven in het algemeen?

We gaan het allemaal meemaken. Wij stappen zo weer op de fietst en trappen relax de laatste paar kilometers erop.
Op naar het einde van de wereld!!!

Voor iedereen thuis, tot snel!!! We houden van jullie ?

Cycling Ruta 40 – Argentina ??

Mendoza, Argentina into Chile.

After we had some resting days in Mendoza we continued further south via the Ruta 40. It took nearly a day of cycling before we got rid of the city and cycled into the country side again.

On our open street maps a large part of the Ruta 40, a bit after Mendoza seemed to be pampas (gravel) but it was actually pretty good brand new asphalt. Much more south our map promised asphalt but we ended up on an 250 km bad ass pampas road. Every day gives surprises, even in Argentina.

In the end, the road was not the problem but the strong head winds. At some days so strong we had to walk and push our bicycles. We did camp underneath bridges and slept in water wash-outs underneath the road.

Our goal of this all was the touristic town of San Martin de los Andes and the stunning Seven Lake Road into Chile.

Have fun reading 😉

Packing up again after a few nights in Mendoza.

Leaving this nice place again 🙁

Cycling out of Mendoza, a lot of fascinating graffiti.

Picking up Ruta 40 again. Narrow bridge over a dry river.

It's a long way out of Mendoza before we're in the country side again. By the end of the day we find a camp spot close to the road. A former picknick spot.

Watch out for the dog. R.I.P.

Some green in the dry yellow landscape.

New friends (again).

Hi doggie.

Trying to hide from the strong wind.

Long long roads.

The first mountains coming up again.

Volcano coming up.

Coming closer.

Checking out the top of the volcano.

Impressive clouds in the west, hope they stay there.

3066 km to the end of the world.

Leaving the volcano behind us.

The sky gets darker and darker.

But.... no rain for us 😀

Watching the moon and the stars in the cold night.

Wild horses along the Ruta 40.

Like a rolling stone.

Campsite with place for many tents. We where out of season and just one tent more

White mountains in the distance.

The lonely cyclist.

Climbing to another mountain pass.

Up!

Camping in a dry river bed.

---

Video from some heavy winds along the way. (Filmed with a wind and waterproof case around the GoPro)

---

The nice asphalt stops here. Gravel starts from here, also a lot of wind.

Pushing hard

The road is hard but the landscapes are wort it.

"Say cheese..."

What is more worse than a gravel road? A gravel washboard road!

Crossing Rio Grande.

Rio Grande.

Condor in the sky is watching us.

More washboard road.

Desert sand.

Hiding from the strong winds again. Camping under the bridge.

In the morning we found ice and some snow on our tent.

Welcome in Patagonia!!! The wind capital of the world.

Patagonia is the area below Rio Colorado and covers the south of Argentina and Chile. This part of the world is popular by outdoor enthusiasts because it's rough and beautiful nature and landscapes.

Cycling around this big snow peak did cost us three days.

Two flat tires at the same moment.

E-reading by a nice sunset.

Not to bad hey.. View from out of our tent.

Cold in the morning. Breakfast.

The town of Chos Malal is halfway Ruta 40.

The goats keep an eye on us.

The horses also.

And a bird.

An 20 meter antenna disc is looking in outer space.

More birds along the road but they are not bothered with us at all.

Mate tea

Mate, Wurst und Käse.

Pssssssssst......

Doesn't look yummy but it is yummy.

Open road.

Because there is so much wind we try to camp under the road in a water was out. Lucky us it's not raining 😉

Stampot!

Sleeping under Ruta 40.

Before sunrise we get up in hope to avoid some heavy winds.

As soon the sun rises the wind starts blowing. We walk and push our bikes.

A shelter to hide from the wind and eat lunch.

By the end of the day we're looking for another out of the wind spot to camp or sleep. We find this old gas station but it's to dirty to sleep in.

People use the place as a toilet 🙁

The sign says the place is for sale. So if you want to start your own smelly gas station call the number on the sign 😉

We push further up the road in hope to find a spot out of the wind.

Check... another under the road night is coming.

Not the best place to camp.

Horses on and along the road.

Making pictures.

Making pictures of making pictures.

Like Scandinavia.

It seems a car crashed here.

Ready to dive into this canyon. At the horizon we can see how high we have to go again after we past the bottom of the deep canyon.

At a lookout point.

Map of Patagonia. Also on the Chilean side it's also called Patagonia

Birdy, Birdy, Hola, Hola!

Approaching San Martin de los Andes.

Welcome in San Martin de los Andes.

Enjoying San Martin, the sun and a blond beer.

Leaving San Martin de Los Andes. One of our favoriete towns in Argentina for so far.

Bye bye lovely people from the Alhue hostel.

From San Martin we follow the famous and beautiful "Seven Lakes Route" to the Chile border. By the way, this Seven Lake Route is still part of Ruta 40.

Lake #1 is a good start.

Through the mountains up to the next lake.

At a valley we find a sign with all lakes called in one line.

At the next lake we meet some cyclists coming from the south.

Big waterfalls along the road.

Making waterfall pictures.

The road down to the next lake.

At this point the river splits in two. One side goes into the Pacific Ocean, the other side into the Atlantic Ocean. This means we are at a continental divide. 🙂

From the divide we cycle further towards the west, towards the Atlantic Ocean.

Long shadows means end of the day, we need to find a spot to camp.

Not to bad for camping.

View out of our front door.

Huh!?!

Magic skies when the sun is down.

The next morning. Ice.

Cold but sunny sunrise.

As soon the sun is there the temperature starts to rise fast.

Breakfast view.

Some sheep come along to say "Bla, Bla."

A bit further from out tent these birds walk around.

"Mirror mirror in the lake, whos is the....?"

A last view on the lake before we take of again.

Leaving camp.

"Run Forrest, Run!"

Snowtops and lakes means waterfalls in between. We like it!

At some mountain passes we still find snow. We've heard from other travellers this Seven Lake Route is just open since a week. Before that it was closed because of the winter.

Our next lake to camp on.

Chilling

Wild camping is not allowed along the Seven Lake Route because it's all National Park. Instead of that, there are designated areas close to ranger stations where you can camp. At these spots campfires are allowed as well.

Kim builds one. Nice and warm in the cold night.

Because we like this camp spot very much, it's nice weather and we have enough food we decide to stay a second night along this lake. Time for swimming.

The water is just 13 'C. We don't swim for a long time hahaha.....

Nice hat bro 😀

Cooking dinner above the campfire.

At night another beautiful sunset.

After two night in paradise we continue our way to Chile.

But first more lakes to visit.

The customs near the Chilean border. From here to the real border is another 30km. This because the real border is at a mountain pass which is often covered in snow. The custom officers don't like snow we guess.

It's illegal to bring fresh fruits, vegetables and meat into Chile. Our bags were checked. We did eat our bananas and salami. They didn't discover the rest of the cheese, meat and fresh carrots. Luckily we can cook dinner tonight 😀

At customs we also met Mel and Juli from Melbourne, Australia. They did nearly the same route as we did, starting in Alaska and riding to Ushuaia but by BMW.

Chile here we come.

We climb higher and higher into the mountains. More snow is still here.

1,5m of snow along the road.

Check the halo around the sun, amazing to see.

Halo.

The real border. The altitude is just 1321 meter but loads of snow.

Bye bye Argentina, see you soon again. Hello Chile 🙂

Thanks for reading again 🙂

Our next blog will be about the Carretera Austral in Chile, together with Alaska one of the most beautiful parts in the world we ever cycled for so far.

Cheers,
Kim & Arjan

Cycling Northern Argentina

If you cut the map of the world at the equator and you put Argentina over Africa and Europe, you see that Argentina has the same length as from South Libya to Denmark.

So in the coming months we will actually be cycling from Libya to the Mediterranean Sea, crossing it to Greece, from where we will cycle through former Yugoslavia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany to finally arrive in Denmark. 😀

We created an upside down map to make this story clear, hopefully. If not… whatever, it’s a long way south 😉

We always thought that the south of Patagonia was very deep south, but it is actually just as far too the south as Denmark is to the north, seen from the equator.

Because it is quite a long piece, we will divide the blogs from Argentina and Chile into several stories. This blog is about Northern Argentina where we will pick up the famous Ruta 40 and tells till city of Mendoza.

Enjoy reading.

Up to country number 15 of this trip. Argentina 🙂

It was already getting dark when we entered the migration office. They where still open so we pushed all our stuff through an X-ray machine, got our passports stamped and here we are… Argentina.

Because it was already late we checked in at a nearby cheap hostel. The entrance was through a small shop. The room was freezing cold, the TV in the room only showed some grey contours from what a movie or show could be but the shower where hot.

Buckle up again to hit the first Argentinian highway.

Just out of town we start off at route 9. The year is 1970 and we are counting down in time.

It’s hard to find good wildcamp spots along Route 9 because it’s all fenced so we camp along it.

It’s the year 1886, time for a pee.

Empty roads but big smiles.

Still in the 19the century, we keep on moving in time.

The highest point of this part of the route, 3780 above sealevel. Can’t remember the exact year but is was definitely time for cookies.

Wierd mountains on the left side of the road.

When we checked our map before we started this road we saw also a traintrack. But this track had big gaps in it on certain places . Now we know why; the traintrack just stops so now and than.

Rail just hanging 10m above the ground

Extreme colours in the mountains.

Kim patching her sleeping mattrass. Dahm cacti 🙁

The whole railway bridge came down. The water washed the sidewalls of the river away.

Sergio, a trucker from Brazil. Drives between Southern Brazil and Northern Chile in a week time. He asked us if we needed fresh water from Brazil. How can we say no?

Small boys can also drive big toys.

The wide landscape changed to mountains with jungle forrest.

In the year 1650 we find a hidden campspot in the bushes.

Many sanctuaries to pray along the road.

The upper bird defends it’s nest against the attacker who didn’t give a s**t about the maneuvers.

We guess we are on the right track down to Patagonia. Cheers…

In a ditch on the side of the road drinking wine and waiting for the sun going down so we can put up our tent in the dark, hidden for the traffic.

Next morning. We had a safe night, not seen by anybody. We think 😀

Rusty bridge to enter the next town. The town was just nothing, not even a store to buy some food.

Hard to see but these cows are climbing the rocks as they are mountain goats.

A closer look to the mountain cows. Wierd to see cows so high up in the steep mountains.

Here are the real mountain goats

Impressive landscape.

Anne and Sergio from Brazil with 3 year old Jamil in the trailer. They are cycling from Brazil to Mexico.

Cheese…!!

And we thought we have hard times sometimes. Pffff… this is really hardcore, deep respect on these steep mountain passes.

Bird eating the fox.

Horses and farmers at the river in a postcard landscape.

At the campground in downtown Cafayate.

When we leave Cafayate again the campsite owner gives us thumps up.

Cafayate is one of the epicenters for growing wine grapes in Argentina.

Wine, give me more wine!

The first kilometers on the famous Route 40. One of the longest roads in the world. We “just” have to cycle 4338km to hit the border of Tierra del Fuego from where it’s another 600km to Ushuaia.

Max speed on Route 40 is… 40 😀

Some upcoming cyclists from Germany and Brazil.

We love the warm weather again…..

…. Big smile and thumbs up.

How empty can a road be?

Kim looking for wildlife along the road.

Wildlife??? Jup, wild donkeys.

Nice huge campers everywhere in Argentina.

The road to nowhere.

40 40 at the 40.

No towns at all in the area, no light pollution so millions of stars at night. @ ISO3200 | 10mm | f/4.0 | 30sec

“E.T. Phone Home”

Looking south. @ ISO3200 | 10mm | f/4.0 | 30sec

Looking north. @ ISO3200 | 10mm | f/4.0 | 30sec

Looking straight up. @ ISO3200 | 10mm | f/4.0 | 30sec

Local cyclists did share some dates with us… Jummy!

Most funny guy we met on the road so far. We bumped into him at a gasstation and had a fascinating conversation about the Big Bang, The end of the universe and everything in between.

Sun and Wine…. Make my day 😀

Looking over the edge.

Looking into the deep valley where we are climbing out.

Big climb for breakfast.

At the top we met Veronica from Chile. Cycling just by her own around South America, making money by being a street artist.

Yes, we may go down again.

Wanna play Angry Birds?

Hummmm….. A good start for this beautiful day in paradise.

We were running out of food and the next town for buckle up food again was a few days cycling ahead of us. We were thinking what to eat at night, a car stopped, a guy jumped out and did give us two huge sandwiches with schnitzels and fresh veggies. Is that karma out what? ?

Jummy!!

Emptiness.

Wurst und Käse by night.

Ruta 40 @ Belen

Bad hairday?

🙁

This endless freedom makes me happy.

Hi Doggie

Campsite close to San Juan, along a lake. Looks very promising.

The campsite was at a lake but it was not no allowed to swim… bummer…

Update some stuff.

We couldn’t find petrol for our stove nearby so we tried it with alcohol but our MSR stove didn’t burn on it. So we build our own stove out of two Coca Cola cans. The cooking was much slower than usual but it worked 🙂

The lake we camped on.

Cycling gets even better with wine in our cycling bottles 😉

Okay, one more flat.

Leaving the campsite. Like the trees.

We asked for water at a small shop along the hot road. All they got was this.

Dry ground to camp on.

Ezequiel is cycling with his dog Mancha around South America.

Hi Mancha!!!

The last part into Mendoza.

Into the big city of Mendoza.

HEY, what are you looking at?

Our home for a few days. Break in Mendoza.

Mendoza: Hotdogs with beer.

After a few days Mendoza we cycled further to the south to cross the border into Chile, a bit south of San Martin de Los Andes. The next blog will show hard winds, long gravel roads and beautiful National Parks.

Stay Tuned.

Kim & Arjan

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