May 8th, 2007
Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
UPS: to come

What a day.  Justin and I tried to sleep in this morning, only to be rousted out of bed by an eager-beaver Sean and Rob.  Who then proceeded to hike around Ushuaia, accomplishing precisely nothing.

We´d talked to Osvaldo the day before, and he assured us that we would be able to claim our motorcycles at approximately 11am this morning.  

Sean woke up early and hiked out to a gomeria (tire shop) to see about getting studs installed on our tires – we were very worried about the Garibaldi pass that we´d be riding over (if you´ll remember, we drove it in our rented car, and it was covered in ice and snow) but determined that it likely wouldn´t be worth it – we´d have to wory about the studs all the way until Cartagena, a much longer journey than our forty or so kilometres over ice and snow.

At 11:30am, after Osvaldo postponed until either 12:00pm, or 2:00pm (still unsure as to the translation), we hoofed it over to the pier and talked our way into the customs office.  Which was a big deal – we´d been unable to get onto the pier the other day that we´d tried.

There, eventually, we were met by Piedro, who told us that our bikes wouldn´t be available until 3:00pm.  After hysterics and gymnastics on the part of sean, he told us (with the unreliable help of a pocket translator), he arranged to have our crate pulled out of the stack and set of to the side, where Osvaldo had aranged to have a warehouse set aside for our use as we built the motorcycles.

All throughout the day, when we tried to get something done, or to get someone to contact Osvaldo, the response was always the spanish equivelant of ´wait for Mercedes´ (Mercedes being Osvaldo´s english-speaking daughter).  Indeed, once she and Osvaldo arrived, she proved to be invaluable, translating between us and pretty much the entire Puerto Ushuaia.  Thanks, Mercedes!

I´ll skip over the boring parts here, ´cause the keyboard i´m using (internet cafe, no wireless at our hotel) is lousy, just like at the last place, and can´t keep up with my typing.  It keeps dropping letters.  Irritating.

Anyways, this guy Piedro was apparently our customs agent.  He watched us build the motorcycles all day, and then when we´d finally gotten them all together, and all our stuff packed, only then did he make his way over to the customs office to start the paperwork.  We finished all our assembly at about 6pm, and didn´t make it out of Ushuaia until 7:15, ´cause he took so long.  

Then we had to get gas, ´cause our bikes were empty.  And the service station did not have a jerry can.  After discovering that the siphon pump that justin had brought did not work, Rob sacrificed his lungs and sucked enough gas out of Dad´s bike (his had been assembled and driven prior to being shipped) for us all to make it to the service station.

Osvaldo and Mercedes most generously offered to escort us to the crest of the pass we´d been worrying about so much over the past few days.  Keep in mind the sun sets here at about 6pm, so by the time we were finally driving out of Ushuaia and 7:15, it was pitch black.

The road of the pass was in much better condition than we´d feared, but it still kept our speed down to 15-25 km/h in some stretches.  This didn´t stop Ryan, fearless motohead that he is, from laying his bike down at about 15 km/h.  See, our motorcycles have ABS, and ABS is infallible, right?  Anyways, apparently, just like regular brakes, there are places it should be used, and places it shouldn´t, and I (ryan) was relying on it in exactly the wrong situation.

Anyways, I laid my bike down and slid about fifteen feet on the ice (and snow).  No serious damage, broke the signal lights down the right side of my motorcycle and scuffed up the engine guards.  Which is what they are for, no?

The rest of the trip was mostly uneventful, except for being all of a)icy b) snowy c) night d) rainy e) justin was leading.

He was great leading through the pass, but after Mercedes and Osvaldo said good bye to us and sent us on our way, and the road opened up, with most of the snow being on the shoulders instead of teh middle, he just took off.  After I stopped, refusing to follow him anymore (doing about 120 when i wanted to do 80),  he told me that it was actually me keeping the pace – he´d speed up when i caught up to him.  It was this hellish positive-feedback loop.  Anyways, dad took over, and now justin is a much better leader.

After that, the ride was pretty much uneventful.  We pulled into Rio Grande about 11:45, and hit up the first hotel we found.  

We parked on the corner of the hotel, and Rob and I walked into the lobby.  They didn´t have any free rooms, so we went back to the bikes.  Sometime between the curb and the lobby, Rob completely lost his motorcycle key.  We had flashlights out, we combed the ground and street and gutters.  Nowhere to be found.  At 12:20 (Justin would not quit looking for a key lost on the first frackin´ day of the ride), we finally gave up and Justin got Rob´s spare key out of his jacket (we split up our spare keys, just in case).  Well, he tried to.  We ended up breaking three pieces of the zipper off trying to get his pocket open.  We even used pliers.  Fortunately, just after we´d broken the third piece of Justin´s zipper, Rob took his jacket off and the key fell out.  It´d been lodged in his jacket the whole time.  Unfortunately, if Rob ever really does need his key, Justin will have to cut his jacket open to get it.

The second hotel we tried had no free rooms, either.  We convinced the clerk to start calling hotels in town to see if any had rooms free.  Fortunately, there was one – a tiny little hostel not far from where we were.

We got into the hostel, unloaded the bikes and changed into new clothes.  Everyone was hungry, except for me – i lose my appetite when i am tired and stressed – so they went out for dinner.  On motorcycles.  At 1:am.  Anyways, they took an hour and a half to get back, and I was so stressed about that I didn´t sleep.  Fortunately, they brought me dinner, because they are awesome.  Then we went to sleep.
Ryan Noble
May 9th, 2007
Rio Gallegos, Argentia
GPS: S51.235153, W068.616951