The most part of the landscape in Tierra del Fuego is like the Patagonia, flat almost no trees and a lot of wind... a bit boring driving. Roads, however, have been better than I expected, there are even parts with really good pavement. Reaching Ushuaia was a big excitement for Kelly and me. The city is sourrounded by mountains with snowed topped peaks, and the Antartic sea. It's really beautiful, no picture could capture the magnificense of it - so we selected other pictures for your enjoyment.
From Ushuaia we had to drive up all the Argentine Patagonia and part of The Pampa, south of Buenos Aires, these is really boring, especially when we were driving with strong lateral winds and were doing about 700 Km per day (about 450 Mi)..
Buenos Aires has been really wet since our arrival. The good thing is that we are not driving. I'm rushing to go and pick up the motorcycle from the mechanic. The front fork was leaking a bit of oil due to the heavy road conditions going south. We needed new tires, rear breakes and an oil change... and the local BMW dealership offered himself to do it for the outragious cost of $700!!!
Enric
March 18 was Enric's bday. The night before, we treated ourselves to a night of camping - to both celebrate that it was warm enough to do so (so quickly the temperature changes with increased Latitude!), and as well to save the precious Pesos that Argentina so quickly takes from us. On the 18th, we woke up to whipping winds, and risked converting our tent into a parachute as we rolled it up. We had spent the night in Puerto Madryn, a beach side town popular with tourists, except that now, it is not tourist season!
So to celebrate Enric's birthday to its fullest, we decide to drive another 700 km, but not before sitting in a beachside cafe with a well made cortado (espresso) and drew analogies between this and life in San Diego. We becoming local (Latin American) celebrities. While enjoying our coffee, a German couple approaches us. "Hey, how is your trip? Are you traveling all of Latin America? We saw your motorcycle in Ushuaia (3000 km earlier)!" "wow," we reply "How come we have not seen you on the road? " Oh we are going by plane."
Well, we made it to the BA - the Big Apple - Buenos Aires. Where dollars are the equivalent of pesos, and are spent as fast as if we were in the Big Apple. And salaries are nowhere near US levels unemployment is high, and just like the French, everyone is complaining about it. Except for one local we met walking down the street. "Hmmmf. everyone commplains here. You want to break up a crowd in Buenos Aires? You set up a table in the middle of a manifestation and announce that there are jobs available."
Still, BA is pretty, a lot like Europe, and as we enter the next phase of the trip we realize that things are going to become a lot more wild now.
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