Chile Chico

We had to ditch even more stuff yesterday, big clean up, now down to only three t-shirts, Vero and I are cycling even lighter.

We just cycled from Puerto Bertrand to Chile Chico, the road was absolutely amazing. Switch backs from hell, gravel, lakes, views, sun, and loads and loads of wind. We did part of it in a pick up, by fear of being blown off the road.

The last couple of weeks were tough. Rain, cold, bad roads and wind… a cyclist’s true nightmare. Camping wild in this weather, not fun. We did the crossing from El Chaten to Villa O’Higgins, took the horses, pushed the tandem in the mud, took the ferry in the storm across to Villa, that was fun, wild and exciting, mostly because we could get warm at night. When we left from Villa O’Higgins, we were wet, cold, hungry and tired, pushing about 60kg each on out bike, that was just too much for me. I was ready to leave the bike, get in a bus and go to Brazil. I figured I could pay for the plastic surgery that would make my legs looks like they had four months of cycling and then just hang out on the playa, dance samba and overall just descansar… but it wasn’t to be, we kept going.

We finally got to the Puerto Yungay, hitched a ride with the military up to Puerto Bertand (near Cochrane) and then kept on cycling. We chose the next part of the road wisely… it was sunny, superb, with gorgeous views at every turn.

On the side of the mind and the overall feeling of pedaling. More than getting rid of my stuff to pedal light, I’ve also given up trying to plan my whole entire future, stopped worrying about whatever I always worry about and startted instead thinking about what food I will eat, where I will sleep, how beautiful the road is, how much I love my family and friends. I think I might be on to something… the important stuff.

Off to Puerto Ibanez tomorrow morning, miracle, the road is paved (with asphalt!) for the next 120km! Got food for three days, and the four chocolat bars! Ready!

 

dulce leche and mini owls

We just spent the last two nights camping in the “Los Glacieres” park. We’ve not only been able to sleep within earshot of the glacier, which pops, cracks, explodes and moves 2 meters a day, we’ve also thoroughly introduced a 5 year old to illegal camping! … oups. Gabriel did however enjoy hiding in the bushes from the non-existent warden patrol while eating dulce leche! oooh, oh yes, I saw my first miniature owl! (well, not sure what the real name is… but it was tiny and soooo lovely!)

Tomorrow we’re off to El Chaten to cross over to Villa O’Higgins. We will be using mules for our stuff and Gabriel, pushing our bikes along a dirt track for 7km and then crossing a lake with a boat. This will be the start of our journey in the Caraterra Australe, leading up to Puerto Monte.

It’s going to be the most remote part of the trip, I can’t wait for the disconnect.

Pedal per pedal

The wind was just too much, on our way to Rio Grande, it took Veronique and I 2 hours to do 7km… and when the wind knocked her down risking to hurt Gabriel in  the process, we thought: “This is a bloody holiday! Let´s go somewhere else!” So we hitched a ride to Rio Grande and the next day, we took a bus to El Calafate, the center of tourism for Patagonia, where everyone comes to see glaciers and things like this.

Meanwhile, since we´ve left Ushuaia, we cycled most of the Island of Tierra del Fuego, sleeping by beautiful lakes in abandoned houses, by dirt roads and in derelic houses of Estancias.

I´m getting used to the idea that I´m just going to pedal for the next few months… It´s strange, at the beginning of the trip, I thought I would also study, write this blog, take loads of photos, plan my life, but it turns out that by the time we´ve packed our bags in the morning, eaten, got Gabriel ready, cycled about 50km (which takes us most of the day frankly), eaten lunch and then dinner, well, it´s time to sleep again!

I´m learning that just cycling up the length of a continent might be enough of a challenge that I don´t also need to achieve a million other things in the process… oh yes, I´ve also already learned not to look at the map too much, I get scared about the number of kilometers we need to cycle! One day at a time… difficult for a future minded person like me.. Here´s the other lesson I guess.

Tomorrow, headed for Perito Moreno glacier, it will take us two days to get there, one day to visit and one day to get back to El Calafate… as supposed to a day trip by bus. Pedal per pedal…

Oh yes, small daily success, I fixed my own derailler today! YES! Mechanic in the making!

Giving up on sex

It all started at tango Wednesday.

Vero Gab and I met up in Buenos Aires and Sole took us all out for some tango lessons… I couldn´treally think of a better way to start the trip.  I think I might have accidentaly fallen in love with the whole entire live band that was playing that evening… and made a vow to enroll in a Tango class the minute I land in Montreal in July.

Then we flew to Ushuaia, at the very southern tip of the american continent, where we are officially starting our trip tomorrow. Test run today, we think we´re good to go. Lots of fiddling around with the bikes, and lots of repacking… Which bring me to the title of this post… I had to get rid of absolutely everything that makes me look like a girl…!! Not fair!

I must admit, I´ve working hard these last few years on trying to bring out my feminin side… Well, all that nonsense is over now. I have 4 tshirts, 2 pairs of trousers and forget about bringing a rasor… My legs are going to war with the world… and I´ve just realised that I probably won´t be picking up anyone in my soon to be very rugged state… Had I realised, I might have picked a different location… like cycling/island hopping in the Bahamas!

Caja dance, 2, 3, 1, 1, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1,

Got my stuff today….I had shipped a big box with the stove, tent and all the rest of the things I didn’t need while in Colombia. Thanks to Mom, Christine, Annie and Bianca it got here in perfect condition. But goodness me, getting the damn thing out was something else! Here is the aduana (customs) dance for the ones of you who would like to know the steps.

Luky me, Sole, a good friend from Argentina luckily had done this before held my hand through the following:

Get to airport

Get into parking with some funny ticket system

Get into “private shipment” office

Get redirected to the other side of the airport

Fnd the Air Canada office

Pay and get paper work

Go back to the other side of the aiport

Wait in the hall

Get a coffee

Enter office 2 – Get a signature from sweet old lady with lucky frog on her desk, copy passport

Wait

Enter office 3 – Get a signature

Enter office 1 – Get another signature

Go back to office 1 – Get another signature

Wait

Go to office 2 – Flirt with the nice old man that’s going to check the content of your shipment for illicit goods

Wait

Go to depot

Check the shipment with the old guy

Wait

Get signature

Go to office 1, get told to speak to the guy in the next chair – Pay

Go to office 3 – Get some more signature  (three at a time here! Miracle!)

Go to office 2 – Last signature from the old lady with the frog

Got to office 1 – Get the papers for the car

Leave, get the car

Get the box! Drive back! Yeah!

I’m in love with Nemo

Meet the boyfriend, Nemo, the Heritage Condor Cycle…

http://www.condorcycles.com/

Pictures of nemo coming soon!

Where in the world is Isabelle…

I just spent one month hiding out in Cartagena, Colombia. After wrapping up work and taking Spanish class, I’m ready now… for the big trip.

Leaving today for Lima to leave my normal clothing behind… which also means, leaving anything that makes me feel sexy of pretty for about four months. That’s because I won’t be needing sun dresses in Patagonia or the Uyuni Salt flats…

In two days time, I’ll be in Lima to meet up with Gabriel and Véro, my cycling partners. We’re going to be taking two large chunks of Latin America on with our rubber tyres, Patagonia (Ushuaia to Puerto Montt) and the Altiplano  (North Argentina, through Bolivia and Southern Peru.)  We start March 3 From Ushuaia and will finish in Cusco on 17 June where we meet mom and dad to go to Machu Picchu.

Véro and Gab are on a tandem (Gabriel being five years old, we thought it would be best not to let him pedal up to 4000 meters on his own) that’s called Batman and I’m with my boyfriend Nemo, a superb Condor bicycle from heaven that I love love love. He’s staring at me now from his beautiful 46cm frame… hmmm, can’t wait to start pedaling!!

You can follow us in these following ways:

- This blog!

- Vero’s blog: http://tandemlatina.blogspot.com/

- Our GPS updates:

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