Hola Amigos!

Yesterday we arrived after 9 days Pampas in El Calafate. The last 9 days were full with basically nothing, but very tough. The famous?? Patagonian winds were strong, and,as expected, coming from the west, the direction we were going, mainly south-west. Roads were mainly unpaved. It was hard to bicycle on these roads, because the strong wind the bicycle was sliding to the left the whole time, only leaning against the wind made it possible to stay in the same lane. When I was cycling on the right lane, if you can speak of lanes, and there was a big gust of wind, suddenly I was on the left lane, or even worse in the gutter next to the road. The only thing that you can do then pick up the bicycle, walk to the right side, and start allover again. This made cycling very tough, and it took us pretty long before we reached the next bushcamp. In between the bushcamps there is nothing, there are only 2 small villages in the approximately 900 kilometers that we have been cycling for the last 9 days. One had 300 inhabitants and the other one 600 inhabitants, so small villages. We also stayed at Estantias, these are some kind of farms, or ranches, that have a kind of campsites. This was nice, because there was some shelter from the wind, and we could also eat inside, which was nice when the wind is strong and cold. So overall the last week was tough, cold, windy, boring, but also a big challenge, physically and mentally. The last day we started at 4 in the morning, try to beat the wind, and arrive in El Calafate a bit early, so we could goto the Perito Moreno glacier. This is a big glacier, about 250 square kilometers, and 30 kilometers long. We arrived in El Calafate at 8 in the morning, it was not windy at all, and the ride went smooth. We took the bus at 10 to the glacier, only 1 and a half hour away from the camping. It was a magnificent sight, a huge wall of ice, 74 meters high. Now we are having a rest-day. Yesterday we had a goodbye party for Henk and Aniki, Christian and Madeleine, the nice Frencies, and Paul, our old smuggler from Australia. It was a nice party, that went on in a local pub till very early in the morning ... so a rest-day is needed again for some of us ... Next stages will be shorter, only 3 days to the next restday, then again 3 days cycling, and then 5 days to Ushuaia where we hope to finish on December the 12^th .... Almost there .... But not yet ....

Adios