If anyone has had the opportunity to take Marisa by the hand and guide her through a park full of pigeons, raise your hand. Can you still feel that hand you raised? Because I can't. Marisa is a strong woman. And strong women tend to hold on for dear life when they feel their life is in imminent danger. For Marisa, birds evoke the most primal of fears.
Let me follow that thought with this one, "Marisa loves penguins!"
If anyone has had the opportunity to take Marisa by the hand and guide her through a park full of penguins, just try to wipe that smile off your face. Because I can't. The joy is infectious.
Shhh... I don't think she realizes that penguins are birds! (Marisa here to offer my rebuttal. Birds are scary because they aimlessly duck and weave wherever they please and they are ugly. Penguins do not fly, therefore do not frighten in that regard and they are adorable. Hence, penguins are amazing and birds are still scary.)So, as we traveled south from Puerto Natales on the road trip of a lifetime, we stopped in the town of Punta Arenas specifically to visit a colony of these flightless birds. Not to mention, one can only drive so far in a day, and the Straight of Magellan provides quite the obstacle. Thus, flightless birds proved to be the perfect excuse to spend a day not driving down gravel roads for hours on end.
Marisa even tried to put a penguin in her pocket.
I tried my best to hold her back. Although, I too would love a pet penguin.Punta Arenas is a town that not many people visit and even fewer return for a second visit. In the main square there is a statue of Magellan (I think...), as well as a native man with a bow and arrow and a sweet bowl cut. Rumor has it that if you touch the big toe of the man with the bow and arrow and sweet bowl cut, you will one day return to Punta Arenas. I made Marisa touch it... This may have been an error in judgment.
A brief anecdote, if you will. While wandering the streets earlier that day, I met a man who arrived on a cruise ship from Antarctica. At first I was jealous that he had visited Antarctica and I hadn't. After a brief conversation at the ATM, he was jealous that I could make the ATM give me money and he couldn't. I guess the grass is always a little greener on the other side.Although hesitant to ever return to Punta Arenas, I too touched the toe...
From Punta Arenas, we put ourselves and our trusty car on a ferry across the straight of Magellan en route to the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia.
That's us on a boat crossing the strait of Magellan. Below you will find Marisa directing traffic on a boat... or anticipating an enormous bear hug.
After crossing the border back into Argentina, we drove a couple of hours on unpaved road, followed by another couple of hours on paved road, and finally arrived at the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia! Initially, we intended to drive all the way down Route 3 until the road ended and the car fell into the ocean. There is actually a wooden sign informing you that you have driven to the end of the world. Pretty cool, no? Unfortunately, the last 20 kilometers of Route 3, as well as the sign that informs you of your awesome location, reside in a national park with a hefty $15 US dollar per person entrance fee. So, instead of shelling out $75 US dollars, we took a picture at the southernmost point of Route 3 that doesn't cost money...
Sidenote: While Argentina claims that Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world, Chile claims that Puerto Williams is actually the southernmost city in the world because it lies across the Beagle Channel (to the south...) from Ushuaia. In Chilean territory of course. I will officially settle this argument by saying that Ushuaia is, in fact, the southernmost city (key word "city"), while Puerto Williams is more like the southernmost military outpost/town in the world, with a couple hundred people who happen to live there year round.Throughout our time in Ushuaia, we had phenomenal weather. This is apparently not the norm. On our first day of miraculous weather, we visited a glacier just north of the city. The lady working at our hostel told us that we could take a chair lift all the way up the mountain to see the glacier and get some great views of Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel from the top. We were misled... and slightly bamboozled. The lady at our hostel was correct about two things. 1. We did witness some great views of Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel from the top. 2. We could ride a chairlift. However, she failed to mention that the chairlift was A) expensive, B) only carried you 1/10 of the way up the mountain, and C) moved so slowly that the smart people who didn't take the chairlift beat us to the top. That said, we have now ridden the southernmost chairlift in the world!
And the view from the top was amazing. Once you manage to pry your eyes from our phenomenal pose, you will see Ushuaia behind us, the Beagle Channel behind that, Chilean territory beyond that, and Antarctica behind that! Well, aside from the Antarctica part, all of the other stuff is true.
Can you name the movie that inspired the sweet pose pictured below?
After visiting the Perito Moreno glacier outside of El Calafate, we were pretty disappointed with this one. In the background, above Marisa's head in the picture below, is the glacier. When we looked at it we were all like, "Umm... isn't that just snow that hasn't melted yet?" 
But don't you worry folks, I single handedly made that glacier a few degrees cooler. By posing in front of it...
Sliding down it on my ass... 
Then flying over it like superman...
That night, we threw a couple bottles of wine in my backpack and hopped aboard a boat for a nice sunset cruise through the Beagle Channel. 
Along the way, we stopped at a couple islands to get learned about the various flora and fauna that manage to thrive in this region, as well as soak up a history lesson regarding the indigenous communities that used to thrive in this region before Europeans came along and did what Europeans typically do when they come ashore...
At first, Marisa thought the birds covering the island behind her were penguins. She started giggling and rolling on the floor. It turned out they were not flightless birds after all. She was disappointed to say the least.
After watching the sun set with a glass of wine in hand, we didn't think life could get much better...
Until we were walking home and came across a Flintstone mobile!! We have no idea who put it there or why, but we were tempted to ditch the station wagon and hit the streets in style. 
On our second day of miraculous weather, we visited the oldest farm in patagonia, Estancia Harberton. It was one of the first permanent settlements in the area and is still run by the great great grandson of the original owner. We took a tour of the grounds and snapped this pic from the top of the hill.
After the photo opp, I asked our tour guide how many sunny days she had witnessed since she began giving tours at Estancia Harberton. Her answer: 5 days in the past 5 months...
From Ushuaia, we drove north for two straight days until we reached the town of Puerto Madryn. The only break we took was to take a picture of a life size representation of Magellan's ship that looked like something straight out of Disneyland.
And that, my friends, is the last known photo of my Patagonian mountain man beard. When we arrived in Puerto Madryn, Marisa kindly requested that I shave. I kindly replied with this...
Yes, we did go out in public with that killer mustachio sitting on my face!
Puerto Madryn is primarily known on the tourist trail for its proximity to the Peninsula Valdez, a national park dedicated to the preservation of natural habitats for penguins, sea lions, elephant seals, various bird species, and even armadillos!
Until our visit to Peninsula Valdez, I had never seen an armadillo before. We got a couple pretty good videos of these goofy creatures tooling around the parking lot chasing tourists and looking for food. Actually, as I was about to pull out of the parking lot, I realized that there were like 20 people taking pictures of us in our car. I rolled down the window expecting to sign a few autographs before we hit the road. However, much to my chagrin, it turned out that people were not taking pictures of me with my newly shaved face, but rather the armadillo hanging out right in front of our tires. I now understand why armadillos frequently turn into speed bumps.
From Puerto Madryn, we had two days to kill before our car was due back in Bariloche. Knowing that we may hit some trouble along the way, we intentionally scheduled an extra day at the end of the trip... just in case. Well, fortunately we did schedule that extra day... just in case we needed to do some wine tasting in the Patagonian wine country! Thus, we spent our last day with the Chevrolet Corsa station wagon cruising through the city of Neuquen and visiting 3 of the southernmost vineyards in the world.Bodega Schroeder: Our favorite of the 3 we visited. When they broke ground for the construction of their main building on the vineyard, they found an enormous dinosaur fossil. Due to the discovery, they now market their wine under the label "Saurus." Their pinot noir rocks. We took one for the road.
Bodega NQN: This place was ultra modern with a nice restaurant overlooking the vineyards. The wine wasn't half bad either. Neither was my sweet jumping photo at the front gate...
And last but not least, Bodega Fin del Mundo: I love the name of this vineyard. The wine is good but the whole setup is super corporate. I think they are the biggest exporter of Patagonian wine. All that aside, it was the perfect last stop on our 5 week marathon road trip to the end of the world and back.
After 5 weeks and 7,413 kilometers, we returned to Bariloche absolutely astonished at how well everything worked out throughout the entire road trip. Dude, we didn't even blow up the car! In fact, when the owner of our favorite Chevrolet Corsa station wagon came to collect his long lost vehicle, he was astounded to find that the car had no dents, dings or scratches. Furthermore, he actually laughed out loud when he looked in the trunk to find that we didn't have to use the spare tire. Apparently, the odds of not getting one flat tire along unpaved Route 40 are about the same as winning the lottery.On our last night in Bariloche, we all went out to dinner to celebrate a successful road trip and a certain bloggers 28th birthday. From here, we will say goodbye to our road tripping compadres and continue traveling north in search of new adventures to write home about.
Until next time...
Mikey&Marisa
I wish I could fly like Superman Mikey
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