All the way south

After spending a week in Mendoza, it was time to start the breakneck pace of heading south to Ushuaia for Christmas.

This was the first sign I saw that was indicating Ushuaia!!!!  I was pretty excited=]

Theo is always commenting on German products around the world.

We’re finally starting to do some camping.  My plan was to start camping when things got more expensive such as in Chile and Argentina.  In the rest of the Americas, we were able to get a hotel room for < $15 for a double.  In Argentina, it was usually around $30-45 for a simple room in a good location.  We camped on the Valdes Peninsula.  We got there on a Sunday afternoon and it was packed.  We had to scrunch our tents and bikes in the bushes.

What really made this experience crappy was that someone stole a bag from Theo.  They cut off one of his softbags from his tank paniers.  Very crappy.  Atleast he didn’t have anything of value in it, just the bag itself.

I made cat friends at camp.

Some ozzies who were riding motos.

After leaving the campsite, we started heading south to Punta Tombo.  Here is where one of the largest colonies of Magellen penguins live.  There were penguins EVERYWHERE!

Zoom into this picture and start looking for penguins.

Lots of fluffy fat little penguin babies.

Everywhere!!!

This penguin was in a fight and covered in blood.

Theo’s making friends.  Unfortunately the penguins had enough friends and proceeded to bite Theo on the arm.

Penguins are really very awkward animals until you see them in the water.  It was amazing to watch them swim in and out of the ocean.

Theo gets bit by another penguin.

We continue to head south and I continue to make friends with all the gas station dogs.  I dont know if they know that I love dogs or it may also be the fact that I always give dogs potato chips or whatever I’m snacking on when I see them.  This guy was particularly fluffy!!

We did more camping.

I met a great family who was returning from Ushuaia.  We talked for a couple of hours (only in spanish!!) about the route and family life in Argentina.

Thats where we’re going!!!

There was TONS of oil everywhere.  There were wells for both oil and natural gas as we cruised down the road.

It was so cold that we had to wear everything we brought.  There was a crosswind of about 80 km/h trying to knock us down constantly.  Here’s Theo with a customs official who wanted to be in the picture at the Chile border.

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The ferry to the island of Tierra del Fuego.

Here’s the official start of Tierra del Fuego.  This was a great moment for me.  It was just so strange seeing all these road signs with these places I had only read about.