A Wedding at the End of the Earth

Boda al fin del Mundo

Hopefully this is old news to everyone by now, but Rose and I got married on April 21 in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina! Click on the picture above to have a look at some photos of the event. Also, click here for more wedding photos at our friend and cycling companion Eva´s website, which is unfortunately in Danish but the photos sure are nice (the wedding photos are at the bottom of the page).

Anyhow, we decided that Ushuaia, at the end of our long journey south, was the perfect time and place to formalize our committment to each other. Words in a blog entry can´t really do justice to how excited we are to be embarking on this new journey together. Thanks so much to everyone for your words of congratulations and support. And sorry that we have been slow at getting the word (and photos) out to everyone, but our access to communication technology has been limited. You, our friends and family, have been very much on our minds and we wish we could have shared the news with everyone personally.

So about that wedding:
Just wading through the Argentine bureaucracy to get our marriage paperwork in order was quite an adventure. I believe we set a new Argentine speed record by completing the entire process in a single day (Friday). At least three times on Friday, when we told them we were planning to get married on Monday, we had officials shake their head and say it could simply not be done . But thanks to some very helpful folks, particularly the ladies at the hospital who reopend the lab so we could have a blood test (for what we are not quite sure, but thankfully we don´t have it), we were able to get all the dozen forms and innumerable stamps and signatures collected.

The wedding itself was at the Registro Civil, in a sunny room with a big wooden desk, a few benches, and an Argentine flag. Eva was able to stay with us as we signed the documents and filled out the last few forms, and then we sadly had to say goodbye to her as she left to catch a plane to Buenos Aires and then back to Europe. We feel so fortunate to have gained such a wonderful friend and shared so many great times with Eva, a truly amazing and inspirational person. After warming up with her 11 month solo Andean cycling tour (Quito to Ushuaia), we are certain to hear more Danish woman firsts from her in the coming years - trans Greenland ski tour, unsupported polar expeditions, Everest summit, etc.

As we didn´t want to get married in bike shorts or fleece jackets (comfortable as they might be), we went on a shopping spree and bought some new wedding duds. Man you should have seen Rose. In spite of all the spectacular things I have seen recently, she was the most beautiful sight I have seen in South America.

Our witnesses for the ceremony were Alejandro and Francis, a wonderful Argentine couple (and the owners of the bed and breakfast we stayed at in Ushuaia) who also were married at the same Registro Civil and are about to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary! Alejandro and Francis took their job as witnesses very seriously, giving us some helpful tips for long-lasting marriages and even bringing rice to throw on us as we exited the building. The ceremony was in Spanish and culminated with us signing the official marriage book, that will be stored for all time in the Ushuaia archives. So if you make it down to Ushuaia some day and want to look it up, just remember: April 21, 2008.

After the ceremony, we returned to our apartment to find Eva had arranged for us a bottle of champagne on ice, with grapes and chocolates. This sidetracked our plans for a hike, but made for an absolutely lovely afternoon, followed by an equally lovely evening meal at the nicest restaraunt in Ushuaia with a table looking out over the moonlit harbor and the Beagle Channel beyond.

We departed Ushuaia early the next day and spent our honeymoon on a series of buses (35 hours to Bariloche, where we dicovered that one of our the backpacks we had stored there during our bike tour had been stolen) then 20 more hours to Buenos Aires. Mind you we are not complaining, as we have been for all practical purposes honeymooning for the last year solid. Anyhow, now we are in Buenos Aires, enjoying big city life and preparing for the next leg of the trip - Brazil! In fact, we finally got our visas today, and depart tomorrow by bus for southern Brazil, where we will start riding again (and hopefully surfing too if there is any swell). We were quick to adjust to the Buenos Aires schedule of staying up til 2 AM and sleeping til noon. Unfortunately, our bodies have not been quick to adjust to anything but cycling, so after every short run we take we are crippled for two days.

Anyhow, that is all for now.

Love,

Ty