I only spent a few days in Ushuaia, standing around in the cold around a campfire with a beer is fun for a while, but it only goes so far. I wanted to head back north where it is warm, and take a different route, to see what I missed on the Argentina side when I took the Caraterra south through Chile. Proving that the world really is a small place, I ran into Grant and Julie, a couple from Australia that Don McCann and I camped next to at a Horizons Unlimited meet in Mexico a couple years ago, in Ushuaia. I also met up with Fausto, the Ecuadoran I met in Nicaragua, here in El Bolson, and he and I are staying at a hostel here. I figured out a route that is all paved this time, north along the eastern coast of Argentina, then northwest when I got to Comodoro Rivadavia, hooking back up with my old friend Ruta 40, but north of the gravel sections. The wind was just as bad, but at least I was on asphalt this time. I am currently in El Bolson, spent New Year´s eve here, and hoped to find a sports bar with American football on New Year´s day, but no luck. I will leave here tomorrow, the 2nd, and go to Bariloche, maybe spend a day there, then head for Buenos Aires.

This family was in Ushuaia from Germany. I am terrible at remembering names, but the couple on the left are the parents of the girl on the right, and the other guy is her husband. Sounds like a nice family outing to me.

The guy on the left built his own side car rig on an old BMW, and his wife rides in the sidecar, while the daughter and her husband ride their own bikes. The sidecar was really trick, with disengagable drive to the sidecar wheel, and lots of hand machined parts all over the bike.

Methinks there are Ozzies about. Vegemite is to an Australian what peanut butter is to Americans.

I´m sure I am spelling the name wrong, but this is Heideki, from Japan. He has been on the road four years, and has 180,000 kms on his Honda XR400.

Some cold, wet motorcycle rider by the Perito Moreno glacier, near El Calafate, Argentina.