Puerto San Julian to Rio Gallegos, 235 miles

Strong howling wind, wicked churning skies and icy cold air. That is exactly what we woke up to outside this morning. My neck and back were aching for more time in the bed, especially after being in such a comfortable hotel, but I knew that the longer I procrastinated, the more gusto the wind would have. Today was the day we were to ride through the so called ‘windiest’ portion of our entire trip, and that it was.

The skies looked as if they were going to drop a bunch of rain, or possibly shower us with lightening, although with the speed of the wind, you never knew what was going to happen as it was changing so quickly. We geared up with all our layers, including our newly purchased ‘penguin’ gloves. We call them our penguin gloves because they are some sort of mitten with a giant elongated thumb holder used I’m guessing for skiing, but for us, they solved our problem of having no weather-proof gloves. I have my electric vest, fleece and jacket; I was ready to go. I felt like a marshmallow, literally, all bundled up, being pushed with such force with wind, but not feeling the slightest bit of chill coming through any cracks; I love my gear.

The morning wind felt like it was strong, until we hit the last 60 miles of the day, that is when we re-defined the meaning of strong wind. Wholy moly, it was gusting through so strong, you could literally almost lean your entire body weight backwards while standing and have the wind support you. The one saving grace while on the bike was that the wind was fairly consistent, so you could just keep in a ‘fairly’ straight line at a 30 degree angle (felt more like 45 from the back of the bike, but I’m trying to be realistic).

Mike must have felt much better from his cold and wrist today as he began to do cartwheels, ‘worms’ and attempted a couple handstands on one of our breaks; great news. Soon after he also lost balance of the bike in a huge gust, fortunetly for us while we were sitting still, and has yet again strained his wrist…I guess that will mean only more delay on his beast skills.

The ride although windy, was beautiful. A lot of wildlife today, pink flamencos, alpacas, and these funny little ostrich looking birds.

We made it to Rio Gallegos and fortunately found a ‘decent’ hotel fairly quick which had an available room. We’ve found the sooner we roll into town during this tourist season, the better chances of finding a hotel for the night; everywhere books up quick. The wind is howling through this town like nobody’s business, yet all the locals seem so oblivious to it. There might as well be cats and dogs flying through the air. I guess for them, it’s just a nice summer day…

Probably my favorite road sign ever

A herd of blood thirsty alpacas
There actually really cute and harmless of course
Or are they! Look out!!
We had to really struggle to stand
Amie just leaned into it and relaxed

I got a kick out of fighting it

Until it kicked my @$$

I'm ok! Lucky I was wearing my helmet!
Wassup playa'

Never fear fans... my wrist is healing (slowly)