Overlander Christmas in Ushuaia

What a marvellous Christmas! I've only got one complaint: it's super cold but it didn't snow enough to give me a white Christmas. Of course, all the motorcycle and bicycle overlanders, camped in their tents, are happy that it didn't snow. 

Last night, Christmas eve, the overlanders all gathered in the communal building here at the 'La Pista del Andino' campsite. Everyone brought their own food and the owner/manager here had a fire in the parrilla and kindly appointed himself as chef of everyone's BBQ food. (And we passed around a hat for tips to thank him). 

There's probably about 25 overlanding mobile homes here, about 20 motorcycles and I've absolutely no idea about how many bicycles are here (not so many, I just didn't go looking for them). I know that there are others at the municiple campsite (but no common building to keep warm and dry), probably some motorhomes on the waterfront, and possibly some at the other campsite. 

The majority of overlanders are from Germany, next is France, and we also have overlanders from Holland, Denmark,  Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Great Britian, Poland, and even Australia and New Zealand!! H is the only Belgian, but I'm not the only Aussie. 

It was an inspiring evening of meeting all these adventurers, well worth being here for. 

The end of the world: Ushuaia!

We did it! We made it to Ushuaia.

This city has successfully marketed itself as 'fin del mundo', which means 'end of the world'. Of course, we know that the world doesn't have an end (unless you belong to the flat earth society), and you could make attempts to go further (Chile has land across the Beagle Channel and a town there), but this is where the road ends:- for us and countless other overlanders. 

This is the place to be for Christmas if you are an overlander, lots of us are here and it makes for a kind of reunion of travellers met along the way. There seems to be a group forming at one of the campgrounds, but we don't want to be there until Christmas. At any rate there are other places near here to visit. 

Between now and Christmas there is plenty of time and we are camped in the garden of some locals we met at Peninsula Valdes. The vehicle needs some work and so H has disassembled the front of the vehicle to remove some patches of rust. Mobile homes need maintenance and it is wonderful to have friends here with space and some tools. 

Once the vehicle work is done we will do some travelling in the region: there's plenty to see. A popular excursion from here is a cruise to Antarctica and there are last minute deals, but it's not something that H or I are too concerned with doing. Instead we want to go to the National Park, and visit an estancia (ranch). 

H having a coffee and admiring his work. 

Eating Argentine style: meat, meat, with more meat

Tourists to Argentina know that Argentines are famous for their consumption of quality meat, cooked in a kind of barbecue which they call 'parrilla'. Tourists may usually participate in this by going to a restaurant or out to a farm for a gaucho experience. 

But hangout at an Argentine campsite on a Saturday or Sunday and you'll get to see Argentine families and friend groups in action. (We've happened to be at campsites for this a few times.) It seems that commercial campsites in Argentina are more used for the business of renting out the parrilla (BBQ) than hosting campers. 

The cost will be about 50c-$1 per person and you bring your own wood/coals and everything else (meat, plates, knives, bread, friends etc). Argentines calculate the meat required at 500g per person, not including the sausages. The meat will usually be various cuts of beef, and a whole chicken will probably be BBQ'd as well (I think this might also be additional to the 500g per person). 

But there is another type of BBQ that the Argentines, especially around Patagonia, love. It's where they spread out a whole sheep (lamb) on a metal frame above flames. 

I've been wanting to try this for a while. I've even hung out at campsites taking photos of people's 'asador' and asking dumb questions in the hope of getting an invite. It didn't work, but H and I did get to participate in one last weekend!

It was through the brilliance of couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.org). Our host, on discovering our curiosity, decided to host one and invite all his friends. It was great, he has plenty of garden, so we stayed there (didn't go to a campsite), and experienced the whole thing from start to finish. 

It was very interesting, and very delicious. 

For approximately 14 people there was: 1 young sheep of 9.5kgs, 1 large chicken, approx 2kg piece of beef, and approx 2kg sausages. Plus breads and a little salad. (Note that the neighbours dog stole a whole leg of lamb while no-one was watching, but there was still plenty to eat.) Wine was on offer, but people mostly drank coke. 

This was a wonderful experience that we really enjoyed. 

Perpetual travel: how did I make enough money to travel like this?

I've written a post about this a few years ago, but still it's the question everybody asks: what did I do before to be able to have this lifestyle. 

The question bothers me a bit. I don't think people are asking smokers how they afford to spend so much on cigarettes (and in Australia this can easily be $5000 per year), drinkers how they can indulge in a hundred dollars of booze on each weekend, shopaholics how they buy all that stuff that they don't really need, or parents how they can afford to raise a kid (and that's 20 odd years of big expense). But still, it's a question so many people ask, so I'll offer some insight. 

Firstly, I am stingy. That is, I don't spend much money on anything other than travel. I never smoked, I hardly drink, I rarely buy things I don't need: not fashion clothes, not makeup or styling, not household decorations, not books or movies or cds; not even when I'm living in Australia. I go out plenty when I'm home, but mostly with the free events offered by the city council or community groups. I've never been interested in having kids. 

Secondly, travel is cheap. Travel can be expensive of course, but not when you do it this way. H and I live in a motorhome. We mostly camp for free. Our biggest expense is fuel, and we travel, on average, 100-150 kilometres per day. Our next expense is food, and we prepare our own meals almost everyday (we've eaten out twice in 2 months, and never had takeout). We'd have a food expense no matter where we were in the world, but we eat out less than we would in either of our own countries... It happens when you bush camp as much as we do. 

My money came from working, strict saving (as above, not spending) and investing the hard-earned-well-saved cash. My plan was always to travel long term (when my piers were planning their future careers, I had the idea that I'd simply like to be a traveller), and I knew I'd need money.

Never have I earnt a big paycheque, I finished high school and started working. I did recieve excellent guidance in life from both my parents (they encouraged me to invest).

I hope that sets things straight. 

The overlanding overlander community

At the moment we are travelling South to Ushuaia for Christmas. Lots of overlanders put this into their plan, it's the better time of the year to be going so far South, and it provides a chance to reunite with many of the other overlanders met on the journey. 

So, who do we meet? 

We don't meet a lot of other travellers, in fact aside from our week on Peninsula Valdes, we haven't met hardly any at all. 

Although families do travel in this style, I haven't met any yet. Mostly, the overlanders have been couples, and they've been French, German, Dutch, or Austrian. I haven't met anybody from Australia or NZ yet, nor from the USA; English has always been everybody else's second or third language. 

Mostly H and I are younger than the other overlanders, and many are travelling with big trucks (and big fuel bills). 

Many have shipped directly to Uruguay. 

I will attempt to make a list in order of meeting them:

C=couple; S=single. 

4=4wd, like landcruiser, patrol, defender, hilux, etc. 

6=larger vehicle, truck: MAN, Isuzu, Volvo, Mercedes lorry. 

P=travelled North and South America, Otherwise they've shipped into Uruguay. 

Rough age guesses given too. 

In Mallague:

C4, Dutch/French. 60's. 

C4, German. 30's. P

On road, Angostura:

C6, German. 30's. P

Peninsula Valdes:

C6, German. 50's. P

C6, Dutch. 50's. 

C6, Dutch. 60's. 

C4, Austrian. 50's/60's. P

S4, Austrian. 60's. P

C+1, 4, Dutch. Late 20's/early 30's

C6, German. 70's. 

Gaiman:

C4, French, 60's. 

Note there were more large vehicles on Peninsula Valdes, I think this is because you can sit and see plenty without driving... The smaller vehicles keep moving more readily.