Tierra del Fuego - or how a windy piece of earth came to a smoking name
Ushuaia - Welcome to the end of the world! Welcome to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, South America! The first impressions of the second continent of our journey don’t want to fit to the pictures, which one as Central Europeans generally has of South America in mind: there are no street children, no miserable beggars, no robbery and murder stories or other references to bad guys, no warped collections of broken stalls - which the wind would sweep away immediately -, not even garbage is on the streets. Even the Patagonian Pampa, which is notorious among cyclists for its strong winds, has to be ridden from Ushuaia over several kilometres and metres in altitude. Rather, one is greeted by a clean, tourism-oriented city, whose main street resembles Austrian winter sports resorts. It is surrounded by snow-capped mountains and a picturesque bay. The surroundings invite you to go hiking and penguin watching in summer and skiing in winter. … And then there are the pictures in your head that prove to be true: the lively music, the hospitality of the Tierra del Fuego people and the love of the Argentinians for meat in general and for barbecuing in particular. Asado or Parillada is called this sociable form of the food preparation in Argentina and for this many possess either a brick fire-place or a so-called chulengo. (The young animal of the guanaco is also called chulengo). Consisting of a barrel-shaped middle part, which can be closed as wind and weather protection and for better preservation of the juiciness, four knuckles and a chimney pipe it should resemble the young animals of the Guanacos in the appearance. We were lucky to find a loving host in each of the two cities of Tierra del Fuego - Ushuaia and Rio Grande - so that we could get to know the cities with their respective character and surroundings over several days. They also introduced us to the art of Asado. Thank you Maria and Marcos! Ushuaia is strongly influenced by tourism. We watched cormorants, sea lions and penguins during a comfortable sailing turn, sank almost in the moor during the hike to the beautiful Laguna Esmeralda, cycled to the southernmost point of all Argentine roads and informed ourselves about the regional history in the local museum. Short black and white films show not only the original indigenous population and the first mountain explorations of the Jesuit Father Agostini, but also how the beaver was proudly brought in from Canada in the 50s. The hoped-for economic success through meat and fur production did not materialise, but today’s overpopulation has become a threat to the forest. In Rio Grande you don’t notice much of the tourism hype around the end of the world. The city thrives on industry - especially the assembly of technical equipment - and targeted settlement programs by the Argentine government in the second half of the last century. It is cosy and quiet, but unattractive in the tourist sense. The residents are therefore delighted by the few visitors who wander here. We happened to be here for the annual Fiesta del Robalo, for which a part of the city’s population meets for two days on the city beach. We were invited by hobby fisherman Jose to fresh, homemade Choripan (white bread with hot grill sausage prepared in a Chulengo) and by our host Marcos to the lamb grill. With him we also visited the museum in the former Jesuit mission about the history of the indigenous people and the missions on Tierra del Fuego. It is located just outside Rio Grande. In addition we spent together a sociable evening with billiard games and received an introduction into the Argentine music.
And how does it cycle on Tierra del Fuego:
- WEATHER: As cyclists on Tierra del Fuego we got to know a new dimension of weather dependency. Not only can the weather change quickly, it also has a big influence on the speed of travel. So we were spoiled on the first two days after our departure in Ushuaia. In the lunch breaks we could sunbathe and we made good progress in cycling. With our departure from Rio Grande it was completely different: We were warned by Jose of wind to 70 km/h. So the wind really slowed us down. We didn’t manage 30 kilometres in five hours. Sometimes the wind was so strong that we couldn’t communicate even though we were shouting. The headwind or side wind forced us to stop to pedal and push the bike. Also in the following days the wind slowed us down strongly. More than a maximum of 70 kilometres per day were not possible. Even on decents we could not pedal faster than 20 km/h. In the evening we were finished despite the few kilometres we accomplished. We felt as if we had kicked up an invisible mountain all day long - only the descent wasn’t there.
- ACCOMMODATION: The great distances between places - often several days of cycling - forced us to ask for shelter where possible. So we were allowed to sleep on an Estancia (farm) in a discarded bus, another time we slept with other cyclists in a bus hut, in the first night after Ushuaia we were allowed to pitch our tent behind the restaurant La Casonada at the Lago Escondido and in the Estancia Viamonte there is even a hut with a wood stove exclusively for cyclists, as well as there is a room to stay overnight for free at the Argentine border station in San Sebastian, which is meant for cyclists and backpackers. We are touched and grateful in view of so much hospitality and helpfulness. The harsh climate is compensated by the warmth of the people. They are justifiably proud of the good relations with each other and the resulting quality of life.
- GRAVEL ROADS: If you are travelling against the wind like we are - the other direction tends to be the better one, as you are usually carried by the tail wind - you need a lot of patience and endurance. It gets really exhausting when the headwind is accompanied by gravel, for example on the stretch between the border town of San Sebastian and the Chilean Porvenir. The first part in Chile we were allowed to drive on the not yet cleared, newly built concrete road, but afterwards 100km of gravel were announced. We had miscalculated with the amount of food, and so we accepted gratefully, when 55 kilometres before Porvenir a sheep transporter stopped and offered us a ride - Düsi on the loading area, we on the passenger seat.
- NATURE: The large, sparsely populated areas offer the cyclist plenty of space and time to observe. Between Ushuaia and Tolhuin there is still a lot of forest with beaver infestation and lichen growth as a problem. Sheep often graze on the fenced area next to the road. On a car park we met two foxes who were not shy. On the way to Povenir we witnessed a fox in a flock of sheep causing trouble. It was the only herd we experienced bleating.
- SKY: Almost more impressive than the hilly expanses are the unbelievable cloud formations you can observe in the sky.
- FOOD: As probably everywhere in Argentina, Tierra del Fuego is a paradise for meat lovers. On the menu are beef, sheep, lamb and hearty sausages. The offer for vegetarians, on the other hand, is poor. So it can happen that no potatoes are available in the whole of Ushuaia. The selection of vegetables and fruit is limited and should be checked for mould and black spots before buying. A little anecdote about this: When we wanted to buy some eggs from the cook at the Estancia Viamonte, we failed because there were simply none. But we got a whole pot of meat-lentil stew as a present.
And how did Tierra del Fuego get its name?
Neither the interesting museums nor our nice hosts enlightened us about how their patch of earth got its fiery name. Katharina found it for us in the Stefan Loose-Chile travel guide: “In the southern archipelago around Tierra del Fuego the water nomads Yaghan were once on the move, who lived from shellfish search and fishing. They are the actual godfathers of the island, because they always carried fire in their canoes. When Fernando de Magallanes, in search of a passage between the seas, diverted these islands in 1520, he saw the fires and named the island Tierra del Humo (‘Island of Smoke’). The Spanish king Philip II renamed it to Tierra del Fuego”.
