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Chao Chao Punta Arenas!

By Dan Wallace - 2009-01-11

So, we are finally making some headway! We’re all the way to Puerto Natales, Chile, now after a little over a month from landing in Ushuaia, Argentina. We’ve traveled through wind, rain, sun, hail, rainbows, and freezing cold nights to get to where we are and have had some pretty awesome experiences so far.

In the last week, we said goodbye to our good friends in Punta Arenas and began our assault on the wind-racked road that leads north to Torres del Paine.

I’m sure most of the guys will echo this, but having friends to be with during the holidays was so awesome for us. I think many people in the world take the friends and family they have for granted.

I know that in the past I didn’t think twice about traveling to my Nana and Pop-pop’s house on Christmas Eve, or to my Grammy and Grandad’s house a few days after Christmas to spend time with family. My old perspective was that these holiday visits were just part of the routine, and that was just what we did each year.

My new perspective is much different. After facing the possibility of not being anywhere near other people besides the other guys on the team for the holidays, I realized that having family and friends to be with during the holidays, or really any time throughout the year is so important. I felt really down about not being with my family for the holidays, but then the people of Punta Arenas came to my rescue!

I will never forget and always hold dear the time I shared with Pastor Irwin, his family and congregation this past Christmas and New Years. A very sincere thank you goes out from me to them for the gracious hospitality and unimpeded love that was shown to me and the rest of the team.

After waving goodbye to our new Chilean friends, we headed to the supermarket to buy some food. I’m sure we all struggled to switch our brains back into "survival mode". Mike and Chris headed into the Abu-Gosch and left Daniel and myself outside in the setting sun to protect the bikes and gear from packs of roaming street-bums, drunks, crazies and over-curious passerby’s. One pack of six drunks made contact with us and proceeded to slur through boisterous greetings, random questions, and other difficult to interpret bits of conversation. We did our best to be friendly to them and wish them happy holidays.

Some people in this world have very hard lives. As my mind matures, I am often reminded by how easy I have it. Meeting people who have been dealt hard hands in life also encourages me to not screw up what good things I’ve been given. For example: the wonderful loving friends and family I have, and the opportunities to better myself. There is nothing like traveling far from home to help you recognize and value what you have.

After getting some food for a few days we all rode out of the city into the night. We camped over the next few days in different places – a field on the coast of the Straight of Magellan, an abandoned stable, a rodeo stadium, by the side of the road, etc. Our trip from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales included a side trip to a penguin rookery (more on that in the next update, including a video and great pics!), interaction with some Chilean Carabineros (police)

, lots of stops at "refugios" which are little one room buildings where the busses stop, and some really good sandwiches in a small town called Villa Tehuelches half way through the ride.

We were slow during this ride due to the massive winds, the strongest yet, we ran into. It seemed like the closer we got to the wonderful wind protection the massive Andean mountains provide, the stronger the winds got. It was as if the winds wanted to break us and send us crying to the nearest bus stop. But, we endured.

We all endured through 25mph sustained winds and insane 50mph+ gusts that would blow us right off the road. One particularly strong gust knocked Mike clear off his bike! He blew off the road, and knew immediately that he had lost control. Facing a large 15 foot road gutter and not wanting to ride down into it he hit the eject button. Unfortunately, the gust just about lifted him up into the air and flung him down into the ditch anyway. It was nuts.

As if the wind itself was not insulting enough, the people of Chile decided to erect a wind monument which our road passed right under. We were dumbfounded.

I figured maybe they thought they could calm the wind’s unrelenting attitude by building a pretty thing for it. We pit-stopped at the monument and hung-out in an old Chevy Blue Bird bus.

The bus had a stove, coffee and such in it so we basically had "once" here. "Once" (pronounced on-say)¨is like a light second breakfast they have here. We played around the bus and got some shots of the monument.

Then we hit the road after Daniel fished his helmet out of a small river. "How did his helmet get into a small river" you ask?

Well, I guess the wind wasn’t happy with its monument, so it decided to blow Daniel’s helmet into a poopie river.

The second part of the ride from Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales seemed easier. We spent a night at the halfway point of Villa Tehuelches where the town folk told us to sleep in their rodeo stadium (cool), and then got on the road the next day with the wind quartered on our backs. Better than nothing.

The miles flew by as we hit speeds of 30mph+! Its amazing how fast you can go when the wind is helping you and not trying to separate your head from your body. We pulled into Puerto Natales under blue skies and the oh-so-comforting Andean mountain peaks.

I am glad to be out of the wind now, but I’m sure part of my next update will read something like this, "The Andean roads will be the death of us all!!!" Adios ´til then!