…there were a still a few remaining adventures to be eked out before I ran out of land….not since the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica had I ridden my bicycle along an actual beach. With not a soul in sight, it’s hard to exaggerate the sense of peace I felt riding through this special place.
“Even in March, people were arriving from Ushuaia telling us how we’re ‘gonna die down there’. But it turns out it’s all hype. It was colder in Bariloche than it was in Ushuaia! It’ll be fine. I mean, really, I’m not sure what the big deal is.”  The words of travellers in Villa Cerro Castillo. A few days later we were camping in -11C and 3 foot of snow.
…Heading into Patagonian Winter and all the inevitable suffering it would entail, I started to question whether it was all worth it. Then the temperatures started to plummet and the landscapes turned white and my unhelpful attitude started to changed.  I came to realise this would be a whole new experience for me and the excitement I once knew and associated with this trip began to return.  A whole new set of logistics and challenges would be surfacing and I felt that I would be growing once more.
Rain and cold are my least favourite climatic conditions on a bicycle tour so, going forward, I made the choice to wait that combination out. Although in a rush to get south as I enter the bowels of Patagonian winter why suffer through its worst aspect when that is the very thing I’m trying to avoid by rushing south?