January 12, 2024 – High Tea
Today we explored the Welsh town of Gaiman. This town
doesn’t have a lot going on so we did the highlights. We walked to the mirador
near the tourist information centre in the sweltering heat then tried to find shade
within the Gaiman train tunnel.
Our last “must do” item in Gaiman was go for Welsh Tea. We enjoyed our tea time, even though the tea
was not the best we have had. It tasted
like Red Rose tea, but at least the squares and baked goods made up for the
lack luster tea.
January 13, 2024- Cleaning Up
January 14- “Who needs a field of dreams when you can have a
field of penguins?” Quote from Paul Gauthier
Next we drove closer towards the sea where we would see the
penguins. The penguins burrow and create a small cave for them and their
partner and their babies. These burrows were everywhere, and most were near a
bush to provide some additional wind protection. With every step forward we would see more and
more penguins. We really lucked out since January is when the babies begin to
leave their burrows and some begin molting. It was extremely hard to look
around and not see a penguin.
The penguins were everywhere and there are signs reminding all the people in the area to give the penguins 2 metres of space and give them the right of way on the path, but sometimes they were right beside us or on the path, it was hard to give them distance. We thought our experience in Peninsula Valdes with penguins could not be topped, but this trip today takes the cake! Being surrounded by thousands of penguins, travelling across our path to go from their house to the ocean for food is an experience we will not soon forget.
We spent the next few hours of our drive towards Comodoro
Rivadavia reminiscing about the penguins we had seen today. Comodoro Rivadavia
is an oil and gas town and it is proud of it’s major industry. There were oil
jacks everywhere and statues of oil derricks too. We had been told by a few
Argentinians that this town is expensive and not worth stopping in since it
just an industry town, so we drove through and found a nice beachside camp spot
on the other side.
January 15- Moments like this
We woke up this morning and drank our coffee while looking
out at the Atlantic ocean. It is moments like this that we feel like we will
need to hold on to and remember once we return to Canada and get back into our
own routine. Will we remember this spot and just sitting and drinking coffee?
Maybe not, but this trip has allowed us to learn to enjoy these moments.
Today was another long day of driving. We passed many farmers fields and pump jacks and guanacos on the drive to Puerto Deseado. It felt like we were back home in the prairies. Puerto Deseado is almost 1.5 hours off the main highway and was a place recommended to us early on in this trip. The reason we know it was early on is because Paul put a pin on Google Maps but didn’t include a description, something Kendra now requires with any pin placed. The reason we are taking this detour is to see more penguins. We were feeling a little “penguined out” after Punta Tombo, but the penguins we can see in Puerto Deseado are different, they are rockhopper penguins.
After what felt like a long and boring drive we arrived into
town, dropped off our laundry and paid for our tour tomorrow. It is a bit
colder here than the coast further north and extremely windy. Luckily the
campsite has warm shoers and a few trees to break the wind coming from the
ocean.
January 16- Is this one of the best days on this trip?
We woke up to our alarms since we needed to be at the tour
office for 7:45 am. After a quick breakfast we hustled to the tour office to
catch our boat. Luckily we weren’t the only English speakers on our tour and
our guide spoke English as well.
We met Adrian and his wife Kirsty and their two girls from Manchester who are on an around the world journey. So for those of you with kids thinking you could never do this…you can! We had a short 30 minute ride out to Isla de Penguino and we were greeted by the sight and stench of Sea Lions. There were hundreds on the beach. If you haven’t seen a sea lion colony before, they smell is…unique to say the least. We were also warned to watch where we walk because there are some dead sealions and dead penguins on the trail due to influenza.
We walked along the beach and up a trail to a lighthouse and
to the other side of the island. During
this walk we learned that the magallanic penguins have 1-2 chicks but sometimes
only one chick survives because the first born is most often the strongest and
will be the first to be fed by the parents.
The parents are usually monogamous, but sometimes they have bene known
to switch partners for a season and return back to their old partner for the
next season.
Next we found ourselves in amongst the penguins where we sat
down and they walked in front of us and behind us. It is surreal to be sitting on a rock,
looking out to the Atlantic Ocean and having penguins walking all around you.
After our tour we invited Adrian and Kirsty and their girls to our campsite for a BBQ. They brought the meat and some veggies since their apartment did not have an oven to cook on, and we got the BBQ and some wine ready. It was so nice talking with other people about our trips and where to go to next. They were coming north from Ushuaia so told us their favourtie spots, and we may have convinced them to go to the Galapagos (they were planning to go but with the recent unrest in Ecuador they were hesitant). It is amazing how much you miss interacting with other people in your native language on this road trip. While we enjoy our time together, spending 24/7 with each other gets a bit boring after a while.
January 17- A long day of driving
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| The deepest depression in South America |
We felt like trolls as we camped under a highway bridge. Luckily there were flamingoes and a lot of birds to look at, but the wind was wicked and cold.
January 18- It’s on the signs!!!
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| Ushuaia is on the sign! |
We couldn’t stay there forever as we had a meeting at 4pm
that required internet so we drove to the big city of Rio Gallegos and
somewhere along the way we started to see Ushuaia appear on the highway signs.
Our final destination, our goal! It is now so close it is written on the
highway signs. We picked up some groceries, but not too many since we will be
crossing into Chile soon and cannot bring anything fresh with us. We also got a
new health certificate for Rupert (which we now refer to as “doguments”) just
in case the border officials ask for it.
We had scoped out a few campspots for the night but Kendra decided the windy spot beside the ocean would be perfect. Other than the garbage, broken glass, intense winds and used condoms, it was a beautiful spot. We had a meeting with our financial advisor making sure we are still able to fund the remainder of our trip and if we would have enough money to make it back home, which we do, so that was a relief because all we see is our bank account number dropping steadily.
January 19- A double border day
Last time we did a double border day was when we crossed
from Bolivia, into Chile, and back into Bolivia. Today we do the same but travel from
Argentina, into Chile and back to Argentina, all within Tierra Del Fuego (the
Land of Fire). We woke up early-ish to make sure we wouldn’t be stuck behind big
tour groups at the border. On the way to the border we quickly stopped at a
volcano crater lake and had a quick breakfast to use up the rest of our
vegetables. Unfortunately we still had two jalapenos and a green pepper
remaining. We have joked with many people along this trip how easy it would be
for us to smuggle drugs across borders since there are so many hiding spots in
our van and none of the borders have checked our vehicle thoroughly, so today
was the day we would become official smugglers. Kendra hid the green pepper in
with our board games and put the jalapenos in with the ipad. We instructed
Rupert to look cute at the border so they would forget that they needed to
search for fresh produce, meat and dairy.
Obviously Rupert understood the assignment.
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| A volcanic lake just before Chile! |
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| Entering Chile |
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| The wind made us think we wouldn't be able to get on the ferry |
We left Argentina and drove a few kms to the Chilean border. We got ourselves, the vehicle, and the dog in. They asked about anything fresh and Paul opened the back for them to show our “kitchen” the fridge with only condiments and our milk crate pantry. Next they asked to see our suitcases so we showed our bag of clothes and where we keep out dirty laundry. Rupert made sure to look extra cute and once they saw hi the search was over. We had successfully smuggled fresh fruit across an international border.
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| Finally got on the ferry, crossing the Magellana Straight! |
Tierra del Fuego in Chile and Argentina feels like the
prairies in Canada. The only difference is that the wind gusts are intense. To
get through Chile we needed to take a ferry across the Magellana Strait. The
ferry is set to take 30 minutes to cross and should arrive every hour. After an hour and a half of waiting the ferry
finally arrived. The ferry can be shut
down due to strong winds and there were rumours in the line up that the ferry
may not run due to the intense winds. Luckily the ferry showed up and we got
on. With many people on the ferry planning to return to Argentina, it seemed
like a race on the road. Everyone
passing the slower vehicles trying to get in front of the tour buses so you
wouldn’t have to wait too long at the next border crossing. Luckily we made to the border in front of the
tour busses that were on our ferry and got checked out of Chile just as the
tour busses were unloading all of their passengers. While we were getting
checked out there was a news story on the TV that had everyone in line go
silent and turn towards the TV. There was one word Paul was unsure of on the
screen but it had something to do with the new president and an arrest. It
turns out someone tried to assassinate the newly elected president, but the
police were able to prevent it.
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| Back to Argentina |
Next we drove a little ways and go ourselves and Rupert back
into Argentina. Above the Aduana person’s desk was a sticker about the
Malvinas/Falkland Islands, and we were thankful to have Canadian and not
British Passports as there is still some ill feelings here about the outcome of
the Falkland war. This time they did not care about checking Rupert or the van
and we were done in less than 20 minutes. After some more driving we finally
arrived to the city of Rio Grande, the trout capital of Argentina. We picked up
some meat and more vegetables and found a beautiful beachside camping spot,
well it would have been beautiful if it weren’t for the wind sandblasting us
any time we left the van.
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| Our final mountain pass before our destination! |
January 20- 543…2…1! We made it!
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| The southern most city: Ushuaia |
We woke up this morning with a renewed sense of
purpose. We are only 300 or so kms from
Ushuaia, the southernmost inhabited city in South America.
543 days after reaching Tutkotoyaktuk, the northernmost city
you can drive to in Canada in the Arctic, we reached our goal.
2 continents, 2 people.
1 dog on 1 big adventure in 1 small van.
This will sound extremely cheesy and cliché, but words
cannot fully express how and what we are feeling at this point in time. Something that felt like a crazy idea a few
years ago had now come to fruition. We reached our destination, even though it
felt so far away.
We have been talking about whether this is one of our
greatest accomplishments, and it probably is. Now don’t get us wrong, our
degrees and achievements in schooling were great accomplishments but we had
people beside us the whole way helping and guiding us. And while our wedding
was a great accomplishment we were able to have people help us the entire way
and pay experts to do the things we could not. Our family and friends were
close by, not on the other side of the continent or on a completely different continent.
We feel that this trip is completely different because we did not have the same
support system we had for our previous big life events. We have created our own
support system along the way, reached out to the overlanding community multiple
times, but no one is an expert on this trip so there is a lot of independent
learning. Everything we did was by our
own choices. We have had people help us along the way and we are grateful for
all the people who have become a part of this trip, but we have had many
moments where it is just the two of us and Rupert and we have had to learn to
work together to overcome challenges and figure things out.
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| Why not climb a mountain to celebrate reaching the end of the world |
So while graduating (whether it be the first, second or
third time), buying a house and getting married are all major life events and
accomplishments, this moment feels so much bigger than any other thing we have
experienced. We think it feels bigger since we can truly say we did it on our
own, and while we were not always alone we did it our own way and we are
extremely proud of ourselves for that. So we stopped at the Ushuaia sign for
the stereotypical photo and then drove around town. We had debated about going to the end of the
road today, but we are so ecstatic to be in Ushuaia we don’t want to rush to
the end of the road.
After collecting our thoughts, we decided the best way to
celebrate would be to hike up to the Martial Glacier, which is a 6km hike which
provided us amazing views of the community and the Beagle Channel. We brought
Rupert along and after seeing the glacier and sliding down old parts of the
glacier we headed to the parking lot, where a craft brewery was conveniently
located. Since we are allowed to sleep
in the parking lot we do not have to worry about overindulging, since we are in
a celebratory mood.
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| Celebratory Pints!! |
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| Enjoying a trip down a some snow |
January 21- Are we professional smugglers?
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| Checking out Ushuaia |
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| A city surrounded by mountains |
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| The end of the road!! |
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| Leaving our mark! |
Next we visited the “Post Office at the End of the World”
which was closed (the sign said it should be open but a tour guide told us the
man opens when he wants to but he has been taking Sunday’s off, so we figured
we would try early tomorrow morning, but the guide recommended around 11 to
guarantee the worker would be there) so we sat out looking across at the Beagle
Channel. We then went to Rio Pipo where
we relaxed for the afternoon with all the window covers up so Rupert could
freely roam around our van.
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| Camping at the end of the road! |
Around 9 pm it was all of our time to shine. We let Rupert
out of the van for a quick bathroom break, admired some foxes wandering around
the campsite, then we drove back to the end of the road sign. There were a few
other overlanders parked and a group of three people taking pictures, but other
than that, the coast was clear. We got
the tripod and the sparkling wine ready and then we released Rupert from the
van; well we carried him to make sure his paws did not “enter’ the national
park.
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| All of us, 2 people, 1 dog and 1 van at the end of the road! |
We did what we have done at the previous ends of the road. We popped the bottle and took a swig and celebrated; and then we put Rupert back into the van. We had officially done what we had done at the end of the road in Tuktoyaktuk 544 days ago. This time we celebrated with a delicious sparkling Pinot Noir, it ranks as our favourite sparkling wine we have popped on the side of a road. We then headed to the nearest campsite along the Rio Pipo and had a quiet night in the van.
January 22-Time to Relax
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| Our final "required" sticker is placed on our van |
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| Exploring the Ushuaia harbour |
We picked up a pizza (since we have access to an oven) and a
few other things to bake. It is amazing how much you miss having things like an
oven that can fit a pizza inside of it when living out of a minivan. Then it
was time for some celebratory drinks and snacks as we watched Last one Laughing
Canada. Who would have guessed two Canadians and their dog would drive down
from the Canadian Arctic to Ushuaia and find a Canadian show to veg out with
and laugh at?
January 23- Breathe
Believe it or not, living out of a Dodge Grand Caravan is not the most comfortable way to travel 70,000+kms. So we literally spent today lounging around the apartment we rented having a “no pants party” since our pants and other clothes were all being washed. It was the perfect way to spend our day. For us, the simple things like having access to a complete kitchen, washing machine, and private toilet has become somewhat of a novelty; so when we have it all we make sure to enjoy it.
January 24- A change of location, but not a change of plans
Since Ushuaia is a rather expensive city with limited dog
friendly accommodations we have been very selective of where to stay to keep
our budget reasonably intact. Unfortunately,
what we did find was only available for 2 nights and we realize we weren’t
ready to leave yet, so after a lot of searching we were able to find another
spot that was also only available for 2 nights. Luckily check out time at the
first place was 10 am and check in time at the new place was also 10 am, so we
did not have to kill time.
We packed up our things and poorly loaded up the van and
carried it into our new place in a different part of town. After picking up a
few more groceries Kendra decided it was time to see some of the Ushuaia
highlights, namely the Prison/Maritime Museum.
The old prison here was built due to its isolation and was known for its
harsh conditions. Rumour has it that
when prisoners would escape, no one would worry because they would return in a
few days since the bitter cold and harsh winds would be unbearable. The prison
had no fences for this very reason. The prison is also home to a maritime
museum full of maritime and fishing exhibits. It was interesting to look at and
read about the many ship wrecks in the area and along the coast. Next we tried
to get Ushuaia’s famous Antarctic King Crab “Centolla” for dinner but the
restaurant was closed today due to the general strike against the new
Presidents austerity measures.
As we have mentioned Argentina’s current economic situation
is not great, made worse with the devaluation of the Argentinian Peso and some
of the new policies of the new president.
However, he argues that his policies are needed for the long term financial
future of the country and he is an economist.
A lot of people gathered downtown Ushuaia for the protest of the new
policies with some fireworks (we still do not understand why people shoot these
off in the day) and a marching band. It was neat to drive by but we kept our
distance.
After the failed dinner plans we grabbed some sushi and
headed back to the apartment for another relaxing night.
January 25- Enjoying the View
So often we cheap out on accommodations because we are
frugal, but when cheap accommodations do not exist and it feels like a splurge,
we sometimes force ourselves to sit back and enjoy the view. With some coffee and some mate we had one
last relaxing day in the apartment enjoying the view of the ocean, the Martial
Glacier and the surrounding mountains. We made a quick trip to the grocery
store and baked some cookies and had one last day relaxing.
We went to get crab for lunch today, but the restaurant did
not have any crab and was unsure about whether they would have crab tonight, it
all depends on the fishermen; so we will try again another day.
January 26- Exploring Ushuaia
We checked out of our latest accommodations at 10 am and
ventured downtown Ushuaia. We got ourselves an End of The World/ Fin del Mundo
t-shirt and Kendra wanted a controversial sticker that we won’t put on the van
until it gets a good carwash that says the Malvinas Islands belong to
Argentina. For those who may not have previously read, the Falkland Islands
(British Territory off the coast of Argentina) are known as the Malvina Islands
in Argentina and Argentina still feels that these Islands belong to them. While
it would be nice to have this sticker on our van, Chile supported Britain in
the war, so we don’t want to get political when travelling in a foreign
country. Plus, Argentina technically failed to plan accordingly to defend the
Malvinas which allowed British forces to gain control. Further to that, the people who live on the
island have overwhelming voted to stay an British Overseas territory. It is
amazing the passion that Argentinians have towards the Malvinas.
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| Walking towards downtown |
We stopped in at the crab restaurant to see if they had any
crab available for lunch, but they did not.
The waitress assured us they would have them for dinner though, so our
dinner plans were set.
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| Off to Emerald Lake |
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| What a view! |
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| Now that is what we call dinner! |
We ended up lucking out and they had a crab that was the
perfect size for us. We feasted on the very spiky crab and savoured our
celebratory dinner. It was worth every penny and every peso!
Next we headed back out of town just up the road from where
we napped to a free riverside campsite. This place used to be a formal campsite
but no one mans it or maintains it, so it is free. It is also peaceful and
relaxing.
January 27- The End of the Road (Take 2)
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| Leaving our mark (again!) |
We did it (again)!
We made it to the furthest point you can drive yourself on
Tierra Del Fuego, in fact this place is supposedly further south than Puerto
Williams which is in Chile on the other side of the Beagle Channel along the
way. Being at the furthest point south we had to do what we have done at all
the previous “furthest points” we popped a bottle of sparkling wine and
celebrated. This time we had a Santa Julia Cuvee and it was probably the best
sparkling wine we have ever had, it beats any brut and the sparkling pinot
noir; that’s for sure.
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| What a place to enjoy a glass of wine |
After warming up with our soup and tea it was time to find a
less windy campsite. On the way we saw a
vehicle we had recognized from our time in Bolivia. Fellow overlanders that we had camped with
were making their way to the end of the road so we had a quick chat on the side
of the road and we let them celebrate their success on their own.
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| A view from the end of the world |
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| Chasing the horses to the end |
We settled into the van for a chilly night, it is probably
time to get out our long underwear again.
