South America 1

So...we`ve been in Aouth America for a good couple of weeks now. Its gone really fast. We started off with a great couple of days in a very hot very humid Buenos Aires where we were extremely well looked after by Steve`s gran. We ate lots; parillas, meat, more meat and cake mostly and tried to acclimatize to the 30 plus sunshine. There was lots to see in San Telmo, Purerto Madero, Palermo and we checked out the modern art museum, a random Manga event at the Japanese garden and managed to get some trekking essentials at the shopping centres.

After re-packing we were back on a plane again. We worked out we`d taken off and landed 9 times in the past 3 weeks so were glad when we stepped off the plane in Ushuaia and only had bus rides for the next few weeks. The first hostel we stayed in was ok apart from the excessive cleaning that went on around you in the kitchen whenever you were trying to cook, the cats that slept on the beds and the obligatory snorer in the room each night. Ok so it was the worst hostel so far.

Ushuaia itself was a bit strange, loads of shops and a bit of a tourist trap. The Tierra del Fuego national park was really nice and you could explore the hill behind up to the glacier. We spent the first night getting hammered with a Dutch guy in a bar that had the awesome local brew "Beagle" and made really good apple martinis. The next day we got some trekking practice in, it did take us an hour to get out of town as I got my east and wests confused and sent us half an hour the wrong way, I blame the hangover (SD: yeah right). Unfortunately I managed to pick-up some bug so following a 10 mile trek the day after I was a bit sick. Another day recovering and then we headed out of Ushuaia on a bus to Punta Arenas in Chile. The bus journey was long and over unpaved roads which is pretty tiring. I hadnt believed Steve when he said there was a lot of nothing in Argentina and Patagonia, I do now. So much of it is barren desolate wasteland as far as the eye can see. The bus journey included a brief ferry ride across the straights where the boat was followed by a couple of cool cow print mini dolphins.

The next hostel was awesome, super attentive really nice couple running it, great breakfast and our own room. We spent a while working out what we need to do the trek we wanted to do in Torres Del Paine national park and managed to get hold of a cheap tent and some roll mats in the duty free area. In the afternoon we went to see some magellanic penguins which we well amusing. There were quite a few of them coming in from fishing, catching some sun and waddling between the sand dunes and we got some good video footage. After another great meal with good wine. Our first impressions of Chile were all good. The town was more established than Ushuaia, less tacky and had more of an old school colonial feel, only problem was the Chileans speak Spanish super fast so I can`t understand anything.

We moved on to Puerto Natales after a couple of days, our final stop to get all our food etc sorted for the trek in Torres Del Paine.