April 19th 2010, the day we reached the end of the world

Around noon, and after Chad had just finished cleaning the chains, we felt it was warm enough for us to start our ride towards one of the biggest milestone of our trip: Ushuaia, the end of the world. It was probably about 5C degrees (41F) and the sun was out. This was probably the best we would get today so let's go. We were so anxious and excited to ride these final miles on the Tierra del Fuego that even the cold should not bother us that much today. We lubricated the chains, jumped on the bikes and off we go on Ruta 3. We were quickly out of the city and saw our first highway sign: Ushuaia 203Kms.

A last significant obstacle to cross before reaching our goal
Looks like we were going to be lucky, making this ride the one we had hoped for. We certainly would have liked warmer weather but given how late we were in the season, sun and the absence of wind was the best we could hope for. We were both really excited, thinking about all the things we had seen and experienced in the trip. We had no communication system or music on, we both felt like we could use a quiet ride to reflect back on this adventure. We were not riding towards to end of our trip but it did feel a little like it. Both lost in our thoughts, we were also taking in the landscape here that was very different from Patagonia. There were many more trees here, even if they looked beaten down by the harsh weather. Most of them were already out of leaves, indicating that we were much later here in the season than in Paragonia. With the sun shining, the gray trees standing up proudly with the moss on their almost naked branches, the yellow grass in the field, it was simply beautiful. It definitively added up to the sense of peace and calm we felt inside. The crisp air, the landscape or just that we were in Tierra del Fuego made us feel so good inside.

Halfway, we stopped in Tolhuin to both warm up and eat lunch. As we parked the bikes in the gas station, we saw it in front of us: a big thick cloud that could be nothing else but snow. And we also saw the big black mountains ahead of us that we had not really expected. For some reason, we had thought that it was going to be all flat to Ushuaia but this was the end of the Andes and we had to go through the mountains. Only a few minutes after we had sat down in the warm cafe to enjoy one of the longest hot dog we had seen, it started to snow! The clouds were moving towards us and there was nothing we could do about it and hurrying would not help either. So we finished our lunch and as we stepped out, it was snowing much less. The guys working at the gas station told us that there should not be any problem since the asphalt was too warm for the snow to stick or ice to settle. We decided to believe them and continued our ride. At this point anyways, it would have taken a lot to stop us.

Back on the road, we crossed two motorcycle riders on their BMW a few miles down the road which gave us a huge confident boost. They really seemed frozen and barely waived back at us but they had made it from the south to here. A really good sign. We were still riding in the snow but it was not too bad: it was melting on our helmets and windshields, therefore not obstructing our vision, and there was not too much wind. And actually to our biggest surprise, it completely stopped snowing after 10 minutes and after 5 more minutes, we were riding in the sun without any type of precipitation to bother us. The weather here was full of surprises and really fast changing! So now we were riding again in great weather, both thinking that maybe this meant that we would enter Ushuaia in the sunshine.

These thoughts vanished as soon as we started to climb into the mountains. The snow had started again, the wind blowing it sideways and things were getting more nasty by the minute as we were gaining altitude. The sunny fields that we had seen only fifteen minutes ago were a far distant memory. To our amazement, the trees were now white with snow and the side of the road was white as well. We slowed down a lot and took the curves very carefully on the windy and narrow road, looking for signs of the road being slippery. It seemed to be alright so we continued, still very much focused on the road, wiping off the snow from our helmets regularly. We passed a lake between the tall mountains and were sure that with a normal visibility, the views from the road must be breathtaking. Finally, the road started winding down and there was less snow. Looked like we had gone through the worse and we continued to ride carefully. And then, we saw it: Ushuaia! Our hearts were pounding: we had made it despite the elements against us. To Chad's surprised, Caroline just passed the city welcome sign: she just wanted to do a victory lap around the big circle at the entrance of town. She came back to the city sign and we went to the police station, the only people that had to be out there and asked them to take pictures of us to commemorate the moment. You could not take away the big smiles we had on our faces, we were not only posing for the picture.

Time to celebrate the big achievement

We had bought a bottle of “Champagne” (read sparkling wine from Chile) for the occasion and while we had initially planned to pop it open right in front of the city sign, the cold had made us revise our plans. We would open it up as soon as we had reached our hotel. We found one we liked that had an incredible view of the ocean and the surrounding mountains. We were directly looking at the end of the world from our hotel perched on the hill. We popped the bottle of Champagne open together and as people around us started starring at us, we told them what we were celebrating. They were congratulating us left and right, sharing our happiness. We tried to offer them Champagne too but they insisted we had it all, as it was for our success. The two of us were really happy we had achieved together this journey and the only thing missing to make this the prefect moment was family and friends to celebrate with us. How come no one had made it to the end of the world party;)

While we were drinking, we stood there enjoying the panoramic view we had of Ushuaia: the ocean in the distance reflecting the houses, the snow covered roofs and in the background the moutains covered in snow. We had a hard time getting through the snow to get here but at the end of the day, it made for a beautiful snow covered setting around us. To continue along the celebration line, we went to a very nice restaurant in town and shared a dinner that made it to the top five of the dinners we had since we left. Brushetta of local smoked salmon for appetizer followed by lamb in Malbec sauce and a king crab and mussel cream casserole. Purely delicious, while we were overlooking the water. It had started snowing again, adding a romantic twist to the moment. We finished with a chocolate cake, filled with dulce de leche and a little bit of ice cream. During the dinner, we were talking about the strong moments of our journey, the amazing things we had seen and making jokes about the hard times we had. It was a lot, ten months of adventure... As we walked back to the hotel, we were again reflecting on our journey, but this time individually and in silence. There was just a lot going on in our heads, thinking about how strong and unique a moment we were just living.

We slept so well, recuperating from the tough ride and the celebration as well, knowing too that we would just rest the next day, and spend the day in Ushuaia, not going anywhere or touching our bikes. We were surprised to see how right our decision was the next morning as it had snowed most of the night and both our bikes were covered in snow. The road too was now a little bit covered, which it was not the day before in Ushuaia. We would just rest, enjoy our internet connection and admire the great view of the city under more snow. Just a regular day at the end of the world, not doing much.