Chile Chico.


The joys of the world wide web and it´s cafes. Out of the wind, comfortable seats and cheaper than a coffee house.


This is the end of Kirsty´s cycling road. A time of much content. It seems mildly appropriate to have ended up on the shore of South America´s second largest lake, in Argentina known as Lago Buenos Aires. An incredible wind sped us here yesterday, so strong we hardly pedalled the uphills.






Patagonia Sin Represas! Car stickers, coffee table books, posters and billboards all proclaim this message wherever we go. It encourages people to imagine the worst, environmentally, with a view to conserving their wild nature. Compared with a similar area in Europe, the Spanish Pyrenees for example, the places we have cycled through seem relatively untouched. We´ve seen three wind turbines, one mine, two radio masts and a healthy collection of National Parks in 500km.


200km of this arterial road we´re travelling is, however, in the process of being dynamited and widened, ready for it to ´fir up´with tar. I can´t imagine such improvements are to give a few dozen cyclists an easier ride. Such are the plethora of green energy resources down here (we didn´t need to pedal uphill!) that Patagonia is surely set to become another battleground between the conservers of habitat and the conservers of carbon.

My bike stays here. Our rather circuitous route is now by bus, plane, ship and foot to the glaciers and penguins of the far south before swinging back towards Buenos Aires. Will the wind have changed direction when I´m back in two weeks?

Degrees South: 46.5

Miles cycled: 344 miles