tales from the end of the world.

it´s been a while hasn´t it? and of course, there is so much to tell and where to begin and what to include as part of the telling is always difficult.

the raw facts first. tonight we find ourselves in punta arenas, chile. if you drag out your map you will see it´s just before crossing over into the island of tierra del fuego (land of fire) though we would kindly like to rename it and thus call it ¨land of wind, rain and cloudy skies¨but that is just our humble opinion.

punta arenas itself was a pleasant surprise if for no other reason than it is an actual town and not a tourist hot spot. meaning, the town´s population isn´t 800 and the tourist population 45,000. it´s refreshing for all the senses to see an actual functioning city. fathers walking with kids, people hanging out around the television watching the soccer match, people sweeping in front of their homes...etc. etc. not that we haven´t been in ¨real towns¨ but this one is exceptionally large and we haven´t been in such a populated place in some time. we could conceiveably get lost in this city if we weren´t surrounded by such orientating features such as the strait of magellan. and, there are actual stoplights, people who stare at us as we move about the street in our little parade of bikes, buildings that look as though they have their own stories to tell, murals, statues, parks!!!! i love this town.

this evening we treated ourselves to some delicious beers and some well deserved burgers (yes dad, i had a hamburger with mayo). after today, i´d eat anything. traditionally the wind is supposed to blow from the northwest. it´s convenient for us because we are heading southeast. and i say traditionally the wind behaves this way because there are trees that look as though the wind is perpetually blowing them in the direction of southeast. so you can imagine our joy when we thought this was the case. friends, let me be the first to tell you this is not always the case.

and here begins the telling of the last few days.

yes we left el calafate. well there´s a funny story here. we were in el calafate, argentina and i asked for directions to take this very secret route that would take us by the perito moreno glacier and then into torres del paine national park crossing back into chile. it turns out that the route is very secret and even though the people at the ranch at the end of the road were willing to give us the information, we still needed an exit stamp from argentina. the good news is the road we had to back track on was absolutely stunning. we may not have woken up to the sight of the mountains and the glaciers had we not chosen that path. the juxtapostion of the yellow velvet looking pampas (desert ranch land) against the grey blue mountain giants was enough to make us take a deep breath and savor the moments on that road...afterall, we are in PATAGONIA!!!! so, tired, rumpled, and inspired we entered el calafate again and decided since we had ¨lost¨a few days we would just take a bus to rio turbio and resume our trip there. and that´s exactly what we did.

so, here we get off the bus in rio turbio. it´s a lovely enough town. we put our bikes together and start the long climb out of town. ok, so in compared to what we´ve climbed before this is really just a little ant hill. but here is our new challenge...or an old challenge revisited: the wind. yes we have graduated from being sun burned to a new element called wind burn. and wait, there´s more. we spend the greater part of this day heading into the wind or at best with a severe cross wind. the wind being so strong that we spend most of our energy trying to keep our bikes straight. going downhill takes great effort. not getting blown off the road or into a car takes great effort. i didn´t know wind so strong existed! at the same time it is frustrating, it´s exhilerating! and in my mind the only mantra i´m repeating is "i am a hot knife and this is like butter"...and then, there is the turn in the road and then, absolute silence. i can hear myself breathing, i can hear my tires on the road...what happened? it´s what we call a TAIL WIND!!!!! so, the next fifty kilometers just flew. sometimes we didn´t have to pedal uphill (ok maybe that´s a bit of an exaggeration). that night as we slept in ditch next to the road we could hear the wind howling over the pampas. sometimes it whistled, sometimes it screamed but i have never heard such vivid peeps from the wind. in those moments of riding, with the wind rushing at me so quickly, i felt refreshed and cleansed...it´s hard to believe but as i´ve always said, when the wind is blowing hard, switch gears.

so, that day of wind we crossed back into chile. even in chile the wind was blowing! we had a nice tail wind for the next day and we were enjoying it until we stopped for lunch and met the glances of three cyclists headed up from ushuaia, argentina. they looked tired, weary, but still with smiles. we met remy first. remy is from france and has been traveling for several months. he made his way down the west coast of africa and then came to ushuaia. from ushuaia he will go up to boliva. we have met several cyclists on our journey. i wish i had the time to mention each of them and give you a full synopsis of their journey...it´s just not possible for me to do that--to recall all of these details as i sit down to write. but remy, he´s someone that stands out in my mind. he´s a lumbering giant, quiet and contemplative. he stumbles with his english but i am so appreciative he can even speak english. he also speaks german and we patch a conversation together in german, english and a little spanish. i mention remy because when i asked him what he thought about on his bike he thought for a moment and then responded. he talked about how much beauty he saw but if your heart wasn´t in that moment the beauty couldn´t mean anything. the three of us nodded in complete understanding...how many times have we been on the bank of a river standing there as the water lapped over our feet looking into the face of the mountains and couldn´t feel the exhalting words were dutifully saying from our mouths. but, remy went on to say that to have that feeling of beauty was a choice. everyday we have that choice. then two other cyclists appeared and we had a little gathering...we asked about our friends who were further up on the road and the usual questions about the conditions that would unfold before us in the following days. we said our good-byes and promised to share part of the headwind so that they could have a tailwind (we didn´t think it would actually happen but today, i hope those cyclists enjoyed their ride because we "took one for the team").

after lunch that day we were tired. the sky was grey and it was cold. it´s at this point that we came to a fork in the road and again our little group of three chose the road less traveled. also, it was a gravel road though quite pleasant. we have never been more thankful for having chosen this route. it was a quiet, winding road. we came across some birds called nandu (small ostrich looking birds). we´ve come across them before but this time they were in the road ahead of us running and running. their run is enough to make us stop and laugh. they look like burlesque dancers of yesteryear in an old western. they also do a fabulous job of blending in with their surroundings. their dead giveaway, as i´ve mentioned, is when they run. that evening we hopped over a barbed wire fence and found a camping spot under some trees. cari created a new flat bread recipe which involved polenta and we ate another satisfying meal as we watched another satisfying sunset.

then came the next day. we woke up and tended to our morning routine. leah woke up first, followed by cari and margo and i woke up last. i like to wake up when i hear the coffee water boiling. in the start of this trip we hated oatmeal and then we met matt and cindy and they introduced us to the joy and wonder of powdered milk. we now look forward to a bowl of "cindymeal" every morning. post that experience we "saddle up" and continue our trek along rio verde (green river). on this particular day were are most exquisitely surprised by salt water bays, little otters, rain, and penguins! it´s true. but before you get all excited let me explain the context. the rain, ocean bays, big lumbering grey clouds, grazing cows, and otters are all in the context you are, i´m sure, imagining them (i believe you think we´ve ridden our bikes into a 1000 piece puzzle?!). it´s all true. the penguins...well let me explain.

we had been wanting to see penguins. and the impetus for taking this gravel road was the possibility of seeing penguins. and they do exist. in the morning we verified their existence when we stopped to buy the most heavenly loaf of bread from the only ranch we saw enroute (which also served as a very remote shi shi working ranch hotel). when we arrived the ranchers were busy separating the sheep in the most curious fashion with their dogs and all...what a sight!! well, these sheep herders, as i´ve already mentioned, said there were in fact penguins. so, off we went with our lovely loaf of bread to find these penguins. now, on this particular day it should be mentioned that i dressed like a penguin donning all my black and grey clothing...but this is just a side note.

so the day rolled on and no penguins. we were sad. it rained. and we grew sadder. then, we spot a sign for a nandu park (nandu being those ostrichey birds) and a little sign eluding to the existence of penguins. ok we said, finally we are here. we pay the obligatory fee and ask for the route down to the bay to see the penguins. the man looks very confused. and it only takes a moment for us to realize why. as it was, this man had built a swimming pool in his backyard and put a whole bunch of penguins in it. he also had pens for the ostrich, emu, llama, alpaca, ducks and ironically not for the nandu that the park was named after. we have never laughed so hard in our lives though we did stand eye to eye with a male and female ostrich and let me tell you, it is not as romantic as it might sound...they eye of an ostrich is almost as big as its head!!! we camped in this park for the night laughing at our funny circumstance and in the morning saddled up after a warm cup of coffee and cindymeal.

so, here we are today. we traveled through a mighty cold headwind to be here. it´s hard to decifer whether i am sunburned or windburned. though the former would imply that the sun is actually visible which i am afraid to report we are under a thick blanket of clouds.

thus far we have re written the words to many songs or have sung at the top of our lungs the words to the songs we know (usually just the refrains) and we have come up with our own medleys as well. i can´t wait to hear how that weezer song ¨going surfing¨actually sounds. but today the words to "red red wine" were transposed in my mind and they became "big big drops" referring, of course, to the rain. but all is well. the road has flattened out and we can once again seeing for kilometer after kilometer.

in fact, these past few days have been a road cyclists dream. the road gently rising and falling. sometimes i ride as though i´m not carrying a trailer behind me. some people say the pampas are ugly and should be skipped...but i feel it´s different. the pampas require a different sort of spirit and offer a different sort of scenery. the foothills are covered in a blanket of grasses and when the sun, if the sun should decide to appear, it lights the hillsides up and that blanket of grass seems to look like yellow velvet. it´s beautiful in particular when it´s juxtaposed against the diffused light of a dark blue clouds.

i cannot help but overuse the word "beautiful" though it often seems inadequate. i have found beauty to exist in all sorts of forms. beauty that is felt, beauty that is seen, beauty that is heard in the howling of the wind. beyond what words may be able to express, i am so completely grateful to have this experience. i absolutely love riding my bicycle...