Happy Holidays on Tierra del Fuego

Statue of Bernardo O'Higgins - he's the reason why so many Chilean places oddly bear Irish monikers.
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Punta Arenas & Biking on Tierra del Fuego

After Torres del Paine, we said goodbye to Paul and headed to Punta Arenas by bus.  We wanted to get to Ushuaia by the end of the year, both so that we wouldn't spend Christmas AND New Year's camping on farms, and so that we might be in time to get discounted last-minute tickets on a cruise to Antarctica.

Christmas Dinner ... using disgusting sheep-poop water

Streets of Punta Arenas, Chile near midnight! It never gets entirely dark here in the summer.
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Punta Arenas is decidedly a port city, and didn't feel terribly touristy despite many tourists.  The highlights were: (1) seeing all the locals line up to get whole lamb carcasses for their Christmas dinners (see the pictures, but maybe don't if you think it might gross you out); and (2) Isla Magdalena, home to no one but 80,000 loving and faithful penguin couples.  Because I was not feeling well (the Torres del Paine curse lived on!), Tole ended up going alone and I missed the penguins.  He did take a lot of amazing pictures, as well as hilarious videos that capture the sound of tens of thousands of squawking penguins.  He said the penguins came pretty close to the people and seemed quite curious.  So I got Glacier Grey but Tole got the fantabulous island of fat, furry penguins.

They just pile them on up and hand them out to the many folks waiting in line for one!
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From Punta Arenas we had to cross the Strait of Magellan.  As you may remember from history class, the strait is named for Hernando de Magellanes, who arrived here 1519 seeking a way through to the East Indies.  He found it in the strait now named after him.  The ferry across the Strait brought us to Tierra del Fuego, which is actually a very large island very close to the mainland of South America.  Chile and Argentina share the island, but we started our bike ride in the Chilean portion, in Porvenir.  It was Christmas Eve when we arrived, and we found that every hotel was closed for the holiday.  Yikes!  Luckily, at the Croatia Club restaurant they were able to find us an unmarked hospedaje (basically a B & B in someone's home).  We were skeptical but happy not to have to camp as we had no provisions for it.  Oh, and why would there be a Croatia Club in Tierra del Fuego?  Well, apparently many Croatians migrated there in the 1880's in the hope of finding gold, in the Tierra del Fuego version of the Gold Rush.

Handing out lamb carcasses for Christmas dinner, December 23 in Punta Arenas.
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Our hospedaje turned out to be fantastic.  Viviana was the friendliest host we've encountered in our travels.  That night when we went out to the store, she and her family insisted that we have some of their Christmas dinner.  We sat down with Viviana, Luis, their children and the abuelos (grandparents) and had delicious turkey and wine, and a nice chat with everyone.  It was very cool to get to see the family joking with each other and being together for the holiday, and it was touching that they so kindly (and firmly!) insisted we share their dinner.

Not a common sight in U.S. grocery stores.
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On Christmas Day we began the six-day ride to Ushuaia.  We rode along the Bahia Inutil and saw many dolphins playing in the water, and stopped for a long snack and nap on the very chilly beach.  Christmas Dinner was (yet more!) camp stove pasta, this time using disgusting sheep-poop water from the ditch on the estancia where we camped.  That had to be the grossest water we used on the trip.  Luckily, vigorous boiling will kill anything!  Our second day brought us to the Atlantic Ocean for the first time, and to Argentina again.  With the memory of sheep-poop pasta still fresh in our minds, we promptly ordered ourselves big fat steaks and french fries.

Approaching Isla de Magdalena - all those peppery specks are a mass of 160,000 penguins (80,000 faithful penguin couples)! They're the island's only residents.
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On the way Into Rio Grande, along the coast, two more spokes broke on Tole's back wheel, for a grand total of four broken spokes at the same time.  We pondered how much it would suck to have to roll into Ushuaia on a bus - not quite the same symbolic feeling as peddling our way there.  We had no more spare spokes, and as this was about the 10th spoke he'd broken in the last month, it seemed there was a serious problem with his wheel.  Luckily we encountered some local cyclists on the way into town, and they were kind enough to lead us to a bike shop that repaired Tole's bike.  We ended up having drinks and dinner with Jonathan and Laura, who were so sweet that they actually brought us a gift-wrapped souvenir to dinner.  Brace yourself for another travel cliche, but it's just so true:  meeting people along the way is absolutely one of the best parts of traveling.

Penguins on Isla de Magdalena.
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Along the Atlantic coast, we rode on a paved road with the wind nearly always at our back.  We were already farther south than it's possible to get on any other continent but South America, save Antarctica.  Between Rio Grande and Tolhuin we logged a 115 kilometer day, including some climbing, and stayed that night in a basic hut at the very cool Camping Hain on Lago Fagnano.  The following day we made our way up to the mountains of southern Tierra del Fuego, and battled fierce headwind and ridiculous cold all along the way.  All the warm clothing we had couldn't keep us warm on our bikes.  We asked directions at a rural police station and the policemen invited us in, offered us hot drinks and chatted with us for a little while about the area.  More nice folks on Tierra del Fuego!

A fat, happy little penguin.
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On December 30th,we finally made our grand entrance into Ushuaia.  We rolled down from the mountains into a beautiful little city on the Beagle Channel.  Ushuaia.  Ushuaia calls itself "El Fin del Mundo" ("The End of the World") because it is the southernmost city in the world.  (Another point of contention with Chile:  Puerto Williams, Chile is farther south, but is apparently only a "town" according to Argentina.)  Ushuaia is nestled against the water and between snowy, rocky mountains, including those across the channel on Isla Navarino, and is an entirely lovely spot to spend some time relaxing.  And that's just what we've been doing ever since.

A loving couple in their home.
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Antarctica, which seemed a long shot, actually worked out in the end.  We were able to get last-minute tickets, and we're off soon for an eleven-day trip to a big block of ice, essentially.  We hope to see many, many penguins, seals, sea lions, whales, and other animals, as well as some reputedly spectacular scenery along the way.