When we leave Puerto Natales, facing our last bit of cycling through the South American continent, we are heading out into a beautiful day. Within the last months the every-day tasks, like sitting the whole day in the saddle, pitching the tent in the evenings and falling exhausted but happy into the soft downs, had a lot of training. But now, just an eye blink away from Punta Arenas the road seems to be endless...

It doesn´t get better when the rear rim of Moniques bike shows a big crack, right 60km before we reach the town. It´s a windy day and the rolling hills give us bit of a hard time. The bike is still rideable - just slow. We do want to reach the 10.000km and 100.000 altitude metre mark of our trip and refuse even a lift, offered by a pick up on the way. Later that day you can witness two cyclist, in the middle of nowhere, dancing and waving on the empty highway and being proud of there achievements. It´s still 40km to go...

It´s 23rd of Jan when we finally reach Punta Arenas. There´s too much traffic to show any emotions about the end of our trip through SA. The city is too face-less to be really happy to arrive here. Exhausted we sit in the sun of the main plaza, talking to two police man about our 10 month trip from Quito to Punta Arenas and realizing only by then that we finally made it!

Monique