#36 10,000 Kilometres - Charlotte

In homage to riding over 10,000 kilometres on the trip thus far Reece suggested we each draft a separate post. It could be about whatever we want, provided we didn't read each other's first. So apologies if they're repetitive. Here's mine....

This milestone also coincides (more or less) with three months spent away from home, about half the time we estimated we would spend travelling in South America. So it seems fitting to consider highlights, how expectations have differed to reality, what we may do different  in the next 3 months, and that sort of stuff. Having said that, it seems unlikely we will reach Mexico anytime soon so we will either be travelling longer than 6 months or reassessing our end destination. Our current aim is to reach Columbia and if money and time permits further travel then fantastic.

Anyway, my thoughts on the trip thus far.  I often try to think about what expectations I had before arriving in South America, and how the experience has differed. It's a difficult one, perhaps because I really didn't know what to expect. Argentina, Chile, and now Uruguay are definately more developed than I imagined, though like everyone says you can certainly see vast differences between rich and poor here. The people really aren't that different to back home, although perhaps they're a little friendlier. I think what you notice more is a difference between the lives of people living in the city versus the countryside and small towns.

I'm not on the bike here (Carratera Austral) because
when it's too muddy Reece makes me get off and push.
 I feel safer but a bit stupid passing construction
workers with my helmet and gear on.

Before the trip I thought the bike would be prohibitive to our experience in that because security would always be our number one concern we would have to forgo certain things. Fortunately I was completely wrong about this and in actual fact the bike has allowed us to do so much more than we would ever be able to were we confined to buses. So much so that I am worried that it will ruin any future travel we do because I will always be thinking how much better it would be if we had our own means of transport! We have stayed in remote national parks inaccessible by bus, are often the only tourists visiting an attraction, and were able to stop at numerous small towns along the Caraterra Austral (our trip highlight thus far) rather than simply spend the whole day in a bus. Plus, as a passenger I get to appreciate the many and varied sights on the road without having to worry about oncoming traffic, pot holes, sand etc. And the bum only really gets sore after a few hours without a break.

Taken in one of my favourite spots, Villa Cerro Castillo,
after riding through the snow storm.

One thing that I didn't appreciate is how fricking huge South America is! I knew it was large but I'm convinced it is not shown to scale on the world map. After reaching B.A. I took a look at map to check 'how far we had come' and it pales comparison to the size of the rest of the continent.

Here are some things I might do differently had we our time again:

• Be more careful with our belongings. I'm sure one of our biggest costs (in terms of time and money) on the road is replacing lost items. Off the top of my head I can think of the following items we have lost: bike chain (left at hostel in Futulefu, Chile), map of Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego, computer battery (retrieved from tourism office in Coyhaique, Chile), disc lock (fell out of our tool kit while riding around Peninsula Valdes), pocket knife (only after doing this trip do I see how valuable these are - can openers don't exist in a large part of S.A.), wallet (see blog #34), lid to our tool kit - a piece of old piping that fits between the pannier and the bike (fell off twice, once after Reece didn't screw it in properly, and once because of gravel. We retrieved it the second time fortunately because replacing it the first time was a mission!), numerous padlocks, and many others I can't quite remember right now. Hmmm bit of a theme here with security related items.

• Not spend money on maps in NZ. It's no use having a map of a country when you're trying to navigate back roads! Plus they were comparatively expensive and often plain wrong. Maybe even buy a GPS given the number of maps we will end up buying. That said, it is a lot of fun planning the trip out and I do enjoy following them when on the road. 

• While Patagonia was cold, I think 3 pairs of glove liners was a slight over kill. Perhaps instead I would buy pair of summer gloves, and a winter pair, instead of an in between. On the clothes related theme, in hindsight I would not have been too stubborn to purchase zip pants before leaving New Zealand as I'm now stuck with an unbranded, really ugly pair (my only pair of pants) because spending $100 while travelling seemed too much (yet I had no problem spending this on glove liners back home!) The stitching is now coming out and after a few separate washes Reece's shorts are a different colour to his pants.

• Learn more Spanish. Think I have said plenty about this before, but really, all the planning that went into what bike to buy, what clothes to take, the size of our panniers etc. would have been much better directed to simply learning a bit more of the language. While we can get by with what we know, it will be a long time before actual conversations take place.

That said, there are a number of things we have done right. Buying the bike in New Zealand and flying it to Santiago rather than shipping it was worth any additional money spent. The number of stories we have heard of people waiting for weeks, if not months, for bikes to turn up in B.A., and then having to pay additional taxes to get the bike off the port. Nor have we come  across anyone who successfully purchased a bike here. Buying aluminium panniers, even though they were super expensive and had to be sent from the US, was a much better idea than settling for soft or plastic panniers which would probably have broken by now. The alumnium means in any fall we have they take all the brunt, which can be seen from the damage caused by the accident to the left-hand side one. A little hammering (well ok a lot of hammering on Reece's part) and it's back working well.

So I think the next blog like this will be at 25,000 kilometres if we make it that far (finger's crossed). There's lots more to say, but I'll leave it for then. The plan for the next leg is Uruguay, then a bit of Brazil in order to reach Iguazu Falls, followed by some time in Paraguay, though we don't think will last long there as temperatures can get above 45ºC! Chow Chow.