Riding day 14: Penguins and returning the bikes

Our last day in Patagonia started slow. After all, we are on holiday. Our hotel, the Yellow Submarine, turned out to be a disappointment. WiFi worked only occasionally and breakfast was the usual what you get in cheapest hotels; instant coffee and white bread with some jam. No meat, no eggs, no fresh juices, no cheese. This obviously is not a problem for us but the price... The price was maybe the highest we had seen during the entire trip. So for this reason we packed our stuff and moved for few blocks to another hotel. 

After moving our stuff we already went to have some lunch. We were not going anywhere anymore so we didn't need to rush. We had lunch next to our new hotel and started the bikes again at around 2pm. The task for our last day was to find penguines. After some google investigations we decided to go to Otway Sounds (Seno Otway) Magellan penguin colony. The reason for this choice was simple, it was near and no boat needed. So we left the city and drove about 20km north and then after the airport we turned west to the gravel roads. Patagonian winds were quite frighting again... At some point the wind coming from the side just pushed us sideways. No matter the speed, loose gravel under the tires acts like a ball bearings. So when wind is pushing from right, left we go and vice versa. After this incredible figth of around 25kms we finally arrive to the site. There is two separate charges to pay; one for the usage of private road (1500 pesos) to get there and another the see the penquins (7000 pesos). Alltough we are going to see wild animals in their natural environment we realize that this place is just another trap for the tourists. 

We park the bikes and head for the walk towards the sea shore.

After few hunded meters of walk we arrive to first watch point and also find some penguines. We learn that these lovely creatures go out to sea for the day and then arrive back to shore at late afternoon. We see in total of around 25 penguines but all the time some came up from the water. In Otway Sounds lives hundreds of these funny walking birds but we have no time to wait for all of them to arrive.

When we had seen enough of these creatures we walk another way back to parking lot and see also some flamingos in a distance. We have actually seen beautiful pink flamingos several times during our trip but they have always been too far for a qood picture with a phone. As they were this time also.

We have tailwind when we drive the gravel road back towards east and it goes smoothly. But when we turn south to Ruta 9 towards Punta Arenas we face the strongest winds we have experienced during the entire trip. These gusps are so strong they can move a bike 2m to the side in a second. Extremely exhausting 20km or so but we make it. Fueled the bikes in the gas station for the last time and headed to the dropping point. We took all our own gear out of the bikes and handed them over to Moto Aventura's local contact. He examined bikes briefly and that was it. Our motorbike journey had officially ended. Mixed feelings because we gave away the trusty companions which took us up to a volcano, over the deserts and mountains, cross the borders so many times and through Tierra del Fuego all the way to World's end. But at the same time it is a relief. Everything went well and we didn't have a single accident. Now we are just regular travelers with couple bags of materia with us. Not easy to get around but easy to handle.

Dinner and a short sleep. Very early at the morning we head up to Punta Arenas airport and from there to Santiago de Chile. Slowly heading towards home which is more than 15.000km away. Actually our journey homebound started already at Ushuaia, it was the furthest point in this magnificent adventure.

Distance: 120km

Total distance: 4750km

Weather: sunny, +13C, windy as hell!

Riding day 11: Punta Arenas - Ushuaia

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

Riding day 10: Puerto Natales - Punta Arenas

10th day on the road was planned to be short and easy so we started late again. Packing and servicing the bikes took a while. We also had some confusion about the room prices in Hotel Glaciares when we were checking out. Originally when we arrived we had asked a price for four people. Instead, what we only now learned, we were given a price of a single room for two persons. So the hotel turned out to be twice as expensive than what we thought. Lost in translation some might say...

The route from Puerto Natales to Punta Arenas is just easy going paved road with little to mention about. Day turned out to be heavily windy again so the ride wasn't that nice. 

We stopped at the only little village on the way, Villa Tehuelches, and managed to buy some sandwiches from the other local kiosk and coffee from the other.

After the stop we decided to have a bit more scenic and adventorous route for a while. So we turned to gravel again and drove to the Pacific Coast through the village of Rio Verde. We saw the ferries to Isla Riesco and continued our journey while the relentles wind was beating the joy of driving out of us.

After about 50km on the gravel route we reached the Ruta 9 again and turned south for the remaining kilometers. Just when we started to see the Straight of Magalhaes we hit our first rain on the whole trip. Already during the day we had got a few drops on our visors but this time we had to drive about 15mins in a rain. It turned out to be a good test for the driving gear. Luckily the rain changed to sun and blue skies just when we arrived to Punta Arenas. With the help of Here-navigation we easily found our 'cabana' from the city which is probably the biggest we have seen on the trip. Punta Arenas actually has buildings with more than 3 floors. Something we haven't seen since Santiago Airport.

We will eventually end our journey with bikes here in Punta Arenas. But we still have 4 days until then. Plan is obviusly to go to Tierra del Fuego and now it is only a ferry ride away. But as we have already seen the weather conditions are difficult to predict and we wouldn't want to drive hundreds of kilometres in a pouring rain. We have multiple options what to do and where to go. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Distance: 261km

Total distance: 3518km

Weather: 13-15 degrees Celcius, sunny with occasional clouds and rains