Rio Grande is a hard place to leave

Not because it´s fun or anything, just because there´s a 70kph gale that keeps blowing you back. We left Rio Grande last Tuesday and battled for two hours against the wind.  Let´s just say that after two hours of fighting our progress was laughable. The road from Rio Grande to the Chilean border at San Sebastian runs directly alongside the Atlantic and is completely unsheltered so it´s hardly suprising that it´s a pretty blustery stretch.  It´s also a partly gravel road so we felt like we were being repeatedly whipped in the face with tiny pieces of glass.  It was becoming fairly obvious that there was no way we´d make it to San Sebastian in a day so it was with heavy hearts that we decided to retreat back to the nuclear bunker that is Rio Grande and assess our options.  Most depressingly of all, what had taken us two hours to cycle that morning, took 20 minutes in the opposite direction!  We were feeling slightly defeated to be heading back to our hostel and seriously disgruntled at being forced to spend another night in Rio Grande.  There is literally nothing to do in Rio Grande unless you´re a keen gambler - there are 3 casinos and not much else.  The one highlight of our stay was watching Rio Grande vs Ushuaia which given that there are a total of 3 towns in Tierra del Fuego is pretty much like watching Arsenal vs. Tottenham in terms of rivalry.  The only notable difference was that the pitch would have been more suited to either mud wrestling or swimming.
Luckily for us there was a bus first thing on Wednesday morning and we found ourselves crossing the Chilean border and the Magellan Straits by mid afternoon. We made it to our next big stop, the Chilean town of Punta Arenas, late on Wednesday evening.