Right in time for Christmas we arrive at the “end of the world” - Villa O’Higgins. Here ends the legendary Carretera Austral - after 1200km of hilly riding. The only way from here is by boat - crossing the deepest lake of America (the 800m deep Lago O’Higgins) and further on a walking path through wild nature to Argentina.

Chirstmas is equally silent: behind the warm wood fired oven in the kitchen the wind outside can roar as it wants. We are on Alicias campground and she talks about her life in the 300 people village at the end of civilisation: “Until 1999 there was no road leading to here. Everything was brought by horses and boat from Argentina. The food was so expensive! Today we have a primary school here. After that my daughter has to go all the way to Cochrane (which is more than 200km away and a very rough way with ferry crossings etc). Petrol is too expensive - we can’t visit her by car. And winter does get very cold - sometimes petrol freezes.” Laughing she puts more rolls in the oven - “We have no problems with that! We have so much firewood down here!”

Our real Christmas gift arrives by 26. December: a memorable day. One of the ones you’ll never forget! Already 5am Rene is chasing a big, red headed woodpecker with the camera. Later we heading out in a sunny day under blue skies with little winds (very rare here!) on a big boat - which carries only 8 people today. Some hours later arrive at the huge glacial face of the O’Higgins glacier. Big icebergs surround the boat and we can nearly touch the ice gaps and the surreal formations of turquoise, ancient ice...

The next days are sweaty and exhausting: first we need to push/ride the bikes up to the pass, where the geographical frontier to Argentina is. After that follows a 7km long hike over tree trunks, river crossings and muddy holes. This section takes us over 5hrs and there he is: the first view on the most impressive rock formation we have ever seen! The Fitz Roy massive is the one, which attracts a lot of world class climbers from all over the world every year. The sheer rock is that steep, that not even snow sticks to it. The rock needles sit over a blue lake - on it’s shore we find the Argentinean customs office. The elderly officer comes out in flip flops and training suit to stamp our passports and returns into his garden...

The Fitz Roy makes us stay nearly one week in the village of El Chalten. Staying on a peak, watching condors soaring through the air and glaciers, joining in an icy lagoon, all overlooked by rugged peaks of sheer black stone is breath-taking. Patagonia let our blood freeze and jaw dropping... On New Years morning we have our own, private fireworks with a sunrise painting the Fitz Roy blood red!

What follows is a contrast to the last weeks scenery: the pampa of Argentina has us back! Golden and flat it leads on and on till the horizon. But we spot a lot of animals: Andean foxes, guanacos, flamingos and condors roam around! The patagonian wind gives us a boost and pushes us a 113km a day to a new distance record! After three days we arrive in El Calafate, from where we are now heading for another glacier before making our way down to our final destination in South America - Punta Arenas!!!

Did you know that El Chalten is the youngest city in Argentina - founded in 1985?

Since the last report: 520km, 5510 altitude metres

Monique