Time off in Villa Union Argentina
After cycling along the Cuesta de Miranda in Argentina, I decided to take a day off in Villa Union. Here's my travel blog post from the day.
I've made a decision to finish the trip early
Blog post written in February 2011
I used my time off here in Villa Union to rest my legs, and also to book a flight back to England. Does that sound a bit premature?
I had to come to a hard decision.... That decision being that I will not make it to Ushuai, the southernmost part of Argentina.
It was a hard one to make, but I do have my reasons, one of which is I've been offered a job in the UK that may not be there in a few months time when I had actually planned to finish cycling.
It's all about the money
So it comes down to the money situation. In all fairness, considering I ran out of savings in Mexico in 2010, I haven't done too badly! However, there is only so much more that I can beg or borrow for this trip.
In addition, although I can earn money through the freelance writing gigs, I need to remain in one place whilst doing it. This would mean that I would almost definitely miss this year's narrow window when the weather is most suitable to get to Ushuai.
It basically boiled down to three choices:
- Try to borrow some more money for the approximately remaining 2 months of cycling to get to Ushuai
- Continue picking up online writing jobs, but I'd end up bouncing around between Argentina and Bolivia because of visa issues
- Return back to the UK, pick up a well paid (by my standards) job straight away, but not reach my 'final goal'
On balance, option 3 made the most sense, but obviously, it goes without saying that I am a little bit irritated!
Just as I was starting to enjoy things as well...
However, that said, I have come to enjoy the lifestyle more and more, and the goal of a "final destination" has really become less important.
Basically, if I had the cash, I would just continue cycling year after year!
As it is, I will be at nineteen months on the road when I return home... Not bad for someone who has never really earned more than minimum wage during those times that I have actually been working!
So, I return to England during the third week of Feb. From here, I will cycle the three or four remaining days to Mendoza, have a McDonalds in celebration, and then look at buses to Buenos Aires.
Read more about cycling from Alaska to Argentina
Dave is a UK travel writer living in Athens since 2015. With 20 years of firsthand travel experience and over 80,000 km of bicycle touring across six continents, he's been blogging at Dave's Travel Pages since 2005. Every guide is based on places he's actually been.
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