From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

We have spent a lot of time in the last couple of days in buses… 16 hours between Iguazu and Florianopolis; 22 hours between Florianopolis and Montevideo, including a little break in Porto Alegre; and another couple of hours of local transportation as well as getting back to Buenos Aires, where we are now for a few days. Phew!

In Florianopolis, Brazil, we stayed with warmshower members Ana and André. They were wonderfully welcoming and showed us all around their region. In order to be more efficient in our sightseeing we rented a scooter, which was a lot of fun! We were able to get easily from beach to beach (the water and the waves were perfect), and from sight to sight. We knew this wasn’t the most eco-friendly way to travel and we felt bad about that, so we compensated by learning how Ana and André make their own paper at home as well as all sorts of other useful things using recycled materials. From their website,(http://www.pedarilhos.com.br/) they design (Ana is a fashion designer), make and sell t-shirts using recycled plastic bottles. They invited their friend Duan over, and the three of them asked us all sorts of questions about our trip. They are planning their own trip through South America. We had a lot of fun with them – thanks!

We only spent 4 days in Uruguay. Susan, Doug and Jessie had already welcomed us into their home in Mexico, and then they moved to Uruguay where they once again invited us to stay with them in their new house. They even hosted a very convivial asado (a barbecue). From the little that we saw, Uruguay seems like a pleasant country, and we really enjoyed its relaxed attitude and quiet atmosphere. Might that be because of all the maté that the locals drink?

During the past two weeks, we might have taken it easy and just had a good time. We might have… but didn’t. Every day we spent many hours on the internet, trying to sort through our pictures of the last 21 months. And believe us, it isn’t easy to try and pick 30 or 40 of the best pictures out of more than 40,000! We are also working on the presentations that we have to give when we get back.

Only a couple more days now on the American continent. We are at once impatient to see our friends and family and nostalgic as we look through the pictures from our trip. We are excited to be biking back home and also sad to be leaving behind so many memories of a simpler life, so full of meaning…

PS: We know we are a little behind getting the most recent pictures up. Be patient, they will be posted soon!

Sébastien