The eleventh day was a special day cause we were supposed to reach our destination, a city called Ushuaia which is the capital of the territory called Tierra del Fuego which in English means "Land of Fire". (From Wikipedia: The territory was first seen by Europeans in 1520 during Ferdinand Magellan's expedition. He named the area Land of Smokes (later changed to Land of Fire), as he saw what were probably the fires produced by the local Amerindian peoples for heat.)
This was a semi long driving day, about 450km.
We woke up quite early cause we had to catch the 9am ferry from Punta Arenas to Porvenir. We made a delicious scrambled eggs for breakfast at our cottage, or 'cabanas' as the locals call them. Mika is already pro in this. Actually the best breakfasts at the trip have been the ones we have made ourselves. Usually hotel/hosteria breakfasts include white bread with jam and with that you dont survive long on the motorcycle saddle.
After the breakfast we mounted two gopro's in time-laps mode to film our packing and morning routines to be added to our trip movie. May not sound interesting but I can assure that there happenes a lot of stuff in a brief moment.
An old torpedo boat at the Punta Arena harbour (we didnt travel with that, unfortunately)
The harbour was near, about five minute drive away and we bought the tickets straight from the counter cause they didnt have online reservation system. Tickets for one bike+rider were about 15000 Chilean pesos (about 23 USD)
The ferry trip took 2,5 hours so some of us got to continue the night sleep and charge the batterys for the long day.
After we got to Porvenir, we refilled the bikes and already then noticed that its going to be a windy ride. It was blowing hard at the coast.
The first 150km was gravel road, accompanied with strong side wind. The scenery was cruel looking desert without nothing interesting to see. The only joy was to ride on the gravel.
Just before the Chilean border, in the middle of nowhere, we found a little hosteria where we ate local tuna burgers. The owner seemed to be an old pilot keeping the restaurant with his wife.
Quite popular seating place was next to the gas heater cause the wind had already went deep to the bones.
There we also glued one MotoAventura sticker to the front door.
From the border we rode to Rio Grande and before that we saw the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, so now we had seen both the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans.
We also noticed some oil pumps on the fields. That area in Tierra del Fuego is rich in oil.
From Rio Grande we found a nice and cousy cafe and warmed up a while there and Mikko reserved a hotel in Ushuaia.
We started the last leg towards Ushuaia, about 200km. When we left Rio Grande, we saw on the side of the road a warning sign which indicated the risk of forest fires. So the air and land were very dry at the moment.
In the middle of the leg we stopped for refueling and then, we faced the first technical challenge with the bikes: Juhas rear absorber blew the oils out at the gas station parking lot.
So there was only suspension but not any shock absorbing. Driving without a proper absorbtion can be dangerous cause the wheel doesnt "follow" the road surface as it should and that decreases the fraction between the tire and the ground. We called to MotoAventura about the issue. Their mechanic first told that it could be fixed if we manage to ride to Ushuaia with the bike. But shortly after that we got an email from another MotoAventura person who told us to drive the bike back to Punta Arena! That would have ment to drive about 350km of which about 150km would have been gravel road, without functioning rear absorber. Of course talented driver would not care about this so much but nevertheless that was absolutely idiotic advice from the rental company personnel in general. Naturally that would have been the cheapest solution for them but that would have ment that the driver would risk the bike and more importantly, own and maybe also some other drivers health.
We poundered the options and since we had already paid hotel room in Ushuaia and the road there would be good quality pavement, we decided to continue the drive and make further decissions there. Anyway the rental company had given us a permission to drive with the bike and Juha trusted his capability to handle the bike.
The rear of the bike was bouncing up and down quite a bit in deeper bumps but it was driveable when Juha stayed focused in the sharp corners.
Great thing was that the rest of the trip was very good weather and beautiful scenery in the middle of high mountains and deep gorges at a beautiful sunset.
At the mountains just before Ushuaia, the tempereture decreased to six celsius which felt freezing despite that we had good gears and grip heaters. We had to drive rather slow and carefully when coming down from the mountains cause the road was quite bumpy.
But kilometer by kilometer we got closer to the goal and finally we passed the large Ushuaia signs at about 8pm (great thing in driving in these latitudes is that the day light stays till 10-11pm at this time of year).
Ushuaia seemed to be much larger city than we predicted. We even passed a downhill skiing center before reaching the city. Ushuaia is the biggest hub for example to Antarctica and has quite a big harbour. From here its also possible to make trips to Antarctica but unfortunately our time table was not that flexible. But maybe next time..
Mikko had booked a nice three bedroom hotel room where we warmed us up a bit with some Chilean rom which we had bought from a restaurant in Puerto Natales. We also had got an address to a motorcycle repair company from MotoAventura so we decided to check that out next day.
We took a taxi to a very nice restaurant called El Turco where we celebrated the successfull adventure. We still had two full driving days left, but since at those we had planned to ride back to Punta Arenas, our main mission felt to be accomplished.
El Turco himself. And then there is also the waiter.
Feeling good and happy with a great driving company!!!
Weather: Mostly cloudy, strong wind
Temperature: 6-16 celsius
Distance traveled: 445km
Total distance traveled: 3967
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