Riding day 12: Ushuaia sightseeing, bike repair, Ushuaia - Rio Grande

We eat breakfast just before 10. It's Sunny and windy outside. At the yard we see 4 guys on bikes from Brazil. We saw the same guys in a Restaurant in Puerto Natales. We're not in a hurry. We take our time packing the bikes and head to explore Ushuaia. You learn to pack on a trip like this since you pack and unload the bike every day. First we take a small serpentine road up the mountain hill (Luis Fernando Martial) to see the view of the city.

 There are a few hotells on this road and a nice looking restaurant which was full. There was a big closed mountain hotell on the hillside which reminded us of the Over Watch hotell from the movie The Shining.

After this we go see the mechanic who's adress we got the day before to see if he can fix Juha's bike's rear shock absorber. We find the place but the mechanic, Pablo is absent and we find his wife to tell us that. We decide to come back later.

We head downtown for lunch. We find this cozy restaurant/ bar "Fast lunch" and eat there. The walls are covered in stickers and flags and writings and things that people have put there. The place is nice and the food is good. We put a Moto Aventura sticker on their wall with our names on it. 

After lunch we shop for souveniers and have coffee.  

We go to Pablo's place again and now he's there. Pablo doesn't speak a word english but his wife and son translate for us. Pablo says that fixing the rear suspension is no problem. We just have to call Moto Aventura to make sure fixing it is ok with them. Mika calls them, speaks with the mechanic, the mechanic speaks with Pablo. We wait for a confirmation call from the boss from Moto Aventura and in a while he calls back, talks to Pablo and confirms fixing the absorber is a go. We make a deal to get the fixed bike back the same night. Think of the speed of motorcycle service in the southest city in the world! Juha leaves his bike there and we head for "the culture splash" of this trip with 3 bikes Juha travelling on Manu's rear seat. Pablo's workshop shelves are full of trophys and walls are full of pictures of Pablo riding motorcycles. Pablo and his son are and have been succesfull in motocross.

We enter "Museo Del Fin Del Mundo" It's a small and interesting museum telling about the history and nature of Tierra Del Fuego and Ushuaia. 12000 years ago tierra Del Fuego was Part of South American continent. First proof of man was found 6700 years ago. The native tierra Del Fuego residents were guanaco hunters. There were selk'nam living in the center part of the island and Housh in the east. Both were hunter gatherers mainly hunting for guanaco. In lesser extent birds, rodents, sealions, fish, mollusks and beached whales.

The first seamen that arrived to tierra del fuego were European at 16th century. 1520 Ferdinand Magellan discoverd the strait which was first called the strait of all saints, the Only passage between Atlantic and Pacific ocean before the Panama canal was opened in 1914. Dutch expedition led by Willem C. Shoute and Jacob le Maire went around cape horn to access the pacific.

After signing the limit treaty with chile 1881 land expeditions to Tierra del Fuego started. Explorations were aiming at finding resources to encourage permanent settlements. There were Both friendly and hostile encounters with the natives. Mapping was made, places were named, weather conditions were recorded. Ushuaia has also had a penitentiary where Argentina sent the most dangerous convicts. An extremely remote location like Ushuaia is actually a good location for a penitentiary. If you manage to escape the prison, you will either freeze or starve to death on mountains surrounding Ushuaia or desert surrounding the mountains. So this makes it a very hard place to escape. 

After culture Mikko and Mika start for Rio Grande to find a hotell for the next night. Juha and Manu will follow when Juha gets his bike fixed. We were told that the bike would be ready at 21. As me and Mika head out of Ushuaia the weather is cloudy and there are a few drops rain. Temperature is 5,5 celcius, the coldest we 've had this far. As we climb up the mountain road the Temperature drops to 4,5. Single layer leather gloves are too thin for this weather although the gripwarmers are at full power. 

As we climb down the mountain range sky clears up. Sun helps a bit with freezing hands. Next comes low tree forests and following that deserted flat grasslands as we approach rio grande. The wind is very strong and we ride maybe at 20 degree angle leaning toward the wind! This strong wind takes joy out of riding and adds danger to it actually. As we ride through a canyon, suddenly the direction of the wind changes to opposite and then it turns back again. On moments like this you better have both hands on the handel bars and eyes on the road.

Even more challenge strong wind is on gravel roads. Sometimes you have just 1 meter wide space you drive in between piles of loose sand and you really have to pay attention to the wind so it doesn't push you on loose sand and trouble.

We get closer to the city and we get tailwind. This actually deletes the air resistance almost completely and suddenly you can hear the engine and radio and ride is a joy again as you don't have to lean anywhere riding straight. We arrive to Rio Grande and ride to a place that we've checked beforehand. It's somebody's house and They provide accommodation in one part of the house.

Manu and Juha will continue from here with the story of their ride back to Rio Grande...

Manu and Juha:

Mika and Mikko left to Rio Grande at around 6.30pm and Manu and Juha stayed in Ushuaia and continued to sivilize themselves in an other museum near by which had an exhibition about Ushuaias near history.

After that we went to nearby cafe to eat and spend time till Pablo should have been ready with Juha's bike. Through windows we saw some showers and wondered how wet would we be when we arrive to Rio Grande.

At about 8pm we left the cafe in a modest rain. Pablo's garage was now full of guys all repairing something. And talking about Pablo's garage something can be anything... The place was full of partial motorcycles, boat engines, ATVs, grass cutters, car engines etc. Basically it seemed that anything which has ever produced with an engine has been repaird here. We even saw those back-mounted engines for paragliding. And one of them seemed pretty old, can't even imagine a person crazy enough to hang it on their back and fire it up!

One of the workmen was finishing the repair for our bike's rear absorber. That was good news and about 9pm the bike was ready. 

Pablo took Juha's signature to the receipt. The repair cost 2000 Argentinan pesos (about 150 USD) which would be covered by MotoAventura. We were satisfied, thanked Pablo and his men, installed Juha's sidebags in place and hit the road about 9:05pm. There was little bit heavier rain and the air had cooled to +3 degrees. We were guessing that the air would be even more breeze up in the mountains where the road was taking us.

So we were heading up to the mountains when darkness fell together with heavy, low dragging rainclouds. Immediately when we rose higher to the mountains the temperature started to fall... +3,5C... +2,0C.... +1,0C... +0,5C!!! And the pouring rain started to change to snow! Dark clouds made the landscape look even more dangerous as we continued to climb. Local cars were parking to the side because they were afraid of slippery road. But we just pushed on knowing that either we go over the mountains quickly or we have to stay in Ushuaia. Coming from Finland we are not afraid of cold or snow or icy roads. But a facing them with fully loaded motorbike on a curvy mountain road is still something different. 

Due to the rain and moist air we had to drive with visors partly open. And in every few hunded metres we had to swipe the snow of the visors. We could see the road but the details on it were not visible anymore. Rough pavement constantly gave us surpises, luckily this time with fully functioning suspensions! We were all the time keeping on eye on the ground next to the road. As long as the falling snow melts immediately there is no danger of icy roads. Trusting on this we kept the fast pace, taking corners and overtaking other vehicles. 

But the feeling when we reached the other side of the mountains! We saw the lake Escondido which we remembered and then we knew that the worst was over. At the same time sky started to clear out and temperature started to rise again. From here on we would only have around 150km of normal regular roads. We took a short stop to warm up our wet and frozen hands and the pushed on.

We stopped at the familiar gas station at Tolhuin and have some updated information to Mika and Mikko. Hot tea and we were ready for the last challenge, the darkness. It was already almost 11pm and the mid summer night finally cought us. Luckily the horrifying wind had calmed down and the rest of the ride was just a battle against cold. Temperature stayed on a level of +5C but our Rukka driving jackets did the job! We arrived to our destination, cold but thrilled with excitement! This ride we will surely remember rest of our lives!

Ride for the day: 230km
Total kilometers: 4213
Weather: half cloudy, 4,5-11 celcius at daytimeat (Manus and Juhas drive 0,5-11 celcius)