jd's blogspot

Get up about 1pm, have breakie and head down town. end up going on a bit of a splurge and buy 5 tops and some other bits. Montt isnt a great twon to look at, but has some great shops. It must be suffering as a result of all teh Navimag cancellations. go for food haed back to teh house. they are very nice, but its clearly someones house and they are just trying to make some extra cash. there is granny, her daughter and son-in-law and their son and theguy who works there.

18th February 2007

Another late morning!! thankfully. spend most of the day in an internet cafe downloading photos and attempting to update the blog. computers are surprisingly fast and am done in about 2.5hrs, before the computer crashes!! go for dinner and spend the night in front of the tele - wonderful!!

19th February 2007

Another late morning. Head down to internet cafe again. spend another 2hrs downloading the rest of my photos. go to supermarket and get a few bots for dinner. head back to house and sort backpack out - need to chage teh cold weather clothes for the warm weather ones - yipee! heading back into hot territory again! Flip flops, its been a while!  watch tele and go to bed.

Bus to punta Arenas leaves at 7am. sleep all the way. its only about 3hrs. arrive and go for breakfast and go to the supermarket to get a few bits for teh next journey. Bus from Arenas takes 32/34hrs to get to Montt - excellent! But we are going first class - not doing that journey in semi-cama. I think the extra GBP12 was worth it for the upgrade! get moving just after 12 noon. we have to go up through Argentina as the roads are non existant in that section of Chile. So after a few hours we get to border control (Again!!) Im not joking, they have actually stopped stamping our passports!! We currently have 12 Argentina stamps, so clearly we are creating too much paperwork for them!! so they dont bother to stamp it this time. Get to the Chilian border inspection. I have managed to loose my entry card - oops!!! Immigration guy wants it but when i say that I dont have it he just stamps the papers and lets me through.  Its actually in my big rucksack in teh boot, but am not going to disturb everything to try and get it.  it doesnt creat too much of an issue, so why bother.  continue up through Argentina and as per teh usual longhaul bus journeys, just watch films, eat and sleep. Dinner is cold, so only manage to pick at teh edible bits!! Yum! Take a sleeping tablet and am out for the night.

16th February 2007

Wake up, have dont about 24hrs so far. stop along teh way and get coffee. the last place didnt accept chilian pesos, but this one does.  Back in Bariloche!!  About 8/9hrs left so listen to music, watch films and sleep so more. back to border control again, to get back in to Chile. this time the Chilian side xray everything - all rucksacks coming back into the country. border control takes a while. back on the bus and finally get to Puerto Montt about 7.30pm. am nicely rested - its surprising how quickly you automatically fall asleep when on a moving bus. have accommodation booked, but decide to see if we can get something cheaper. go to teh hostel office thing at the bus station. Anyway, end up going with an old woman to her house. she basically rents out rooms in her house. it was fine - clean but very old fashioned. its cheaper and i bargain her down a bit further, so we decide to stay. have cable tv & hot water all day so its a good choice. go for dinner and do nothing for the rest of teh evening.

Up early and head down to the dock for 7.30am. Getting the boat for 3.5hrs in to the Bernardo O´Higgins National Park. the views are spectacular. Mett a very nice Aussie couple who have just come back from Antartica. we are in a seperate section from most of teh passengers, along with about 12 Isrealies. Our ticket includes free coffee, so I go down to get three cups for us. and the guy trys to charge me P$5,000 (US$10) a cup!! I just standing there going no way - 1) it should be free and 2) US$10 for 1 cup of coffee, Im a gringo, Im not stupid! So after I object, he gives them to me for free.  scenery is absolutely incredible. really cold and fresh out here. after about 3.5hrs we dock and can trek up to a glacier. it takes about 30 mins and is fantastic. it sounds stupid, but it looks like its just been lodged in between the mountains.  trek back to the boats and its all a bit disorganised. go to the loo, and realise that I should be back on the dock in order to get onto the zodiac boats - hurry back out and its all fine!  get all kitted out in a lifejacket and off we go. the boats are like RNLI search and rescue boats.  Very hot Chilian guy on the boat as well. we are the only two under 50 on it!! only go about 5 mins and dock again to where we are having lunch. have lunch with the 2 aussies, the hot chilian and his mother. food is good.  time to go on the zoadiac .so get all gearde up in a massive orange  padded coat that goes all the way down past my knees and a lifejacket.  everyone looks ridiculous!another high fashion moment!!  but definately need them as we speed off up the Rio Serrano. Zodiac ride is about 1.5hrs, was expecting it to be a little faster, but really enjoyed it.  scenery is amazing, really is out of this world - lakes, snow capped mountains, waterfalls - beautiful.  have to swap boats at one stage, so get in with the chilians. aussies have to wait for another baot, as these ones are smaller.  get to other side and have to register and pay US$30 park entrance fee. then have to wait for my transfer to the other boat. so get in with the two chilians and one other. am a bit annoyed, cos teh guy in natales made me pay for two people (min, and I am the only one) - so want to see what teh story is with that!  But after a few mins all the others get out. so Im left with the driver and one of teh othre park employees. they dont have a word of english, so I get to practice my pigeon spangish on them - lucky them!! they drop me off a tthe catamaran for the next part of teh trip. have to get across Lake Pehoe in order to get to my campsite for teh night.  the boat only takes about 30 mins. get to the other side and it suddenly hits me, what am I going to do if I have to put up a tent??? Will just have to grab teh nearest man and get help!  thankfully am saved, the tent is already up.  check in and the guy asks me for my passport as a deposit for the equipment. i say no. so he asks for my credit card , again say no. finally agree on a cash deposit and head off to my tent. am very impressed. its a two man tent all to myself, so i have loads of space. its the firt private room to myself in 4 months!  go for dinner in the refugio, have a shower and hit the sack. get the guy at reception to call the people at Grey about the ice treeking and they say all is well.

12th February 2007

up about 7am, as need to be at grey to go ice trekking and its an 11km hike to get there. apparently it takes 3.5hrs. want to have time to relax, so head off early. sort out the tnt and head off. the wind is in full gale and its treatning to rain. am trekking along hoping the rain holds off. I can see others in front of me, so am glad Im not the only one going this way.  concentrating on my feet a lot, so miss some of the scenery. when i do stop to take it all in, it really is fantastic. am so gald I came.  its supposed to be a medium difficulty trek, but so far am finding it quite easy. then again, I am fully aware that i have a very small pack on my back in comparision to most people up here.  trekking at se level is so much easier than at altitude. Am very proud of myself, pass the people in front of me. get chatting to another Irish girl along the way. she is with a group of 5 friends.  but head on as they are at a slower pace. the winds are really strong and in some parts the path is so narrow you are afraid you are going to get blown off teh edge. thankfully, the rain holds off.  along the way. i stop at a viewpoint where ther are hugh chunks of ice floating in teh lake, which have fallen off teh glacier. its incredible. again, its very hard to describe - the photos just dont do it justice. Get to the refugio in 3hrs, so am very happy with myself. the wind up here is even stronger - am so glad I dont have to camp at this site!  go inside and they are still cleaning up after this mornings check out. so I have to wait outside in teh gales for a few mins.  check in and decide to see about the ice trekking for teh afternoon. go over to their office and the guy says that i cant go out there this afternoon .there are no guides available. so I say, well I was told that it was all sorted and that I only came up to do that so what am I going to do?? there are no available guides, so there is no way i am going today. they said they were never told that someone was on their way up. they suggest I go on the all day trek tom instead. thats not an option, as I dont think i have enough money to stay another night up here and also, how am I going to let Emer know that I wont be back for another 24 hrs?? so they guys are very nice and say that they can give me a sleepign bag etc for free. so I go away to think about it and see if i have the money to spend another night out here.  go back to the refugio and Clodagh and her crew have arrived. so get chatting and decide to go trekking with them for the afternoon, so that takes my days total up to 15km - not bad. 

anyway, have just enough money to stay one more night. and there is room in teh refugio, so thats all good. so go back to the guys and say can they radio back to Natales to get a message to Emer that I will ba back on Wed instead of Tue. so they sort al of that out.  so trek up the trail and catch up on Clodagh and the others. pitstop at teh view points for the glacier and its just mind blowing. really is something special.  throughly enjoyed it and have a great time with the girls and Edwardo.  get back to the refugio and shower - feet are already begining to blister! have dinner and a great evening with the guys. head to bed as am knackered after the days activities.

13th February 2007

Get up about 7am, so I can have breakfast with teh girls. they head off about 8ish. so i go to sort my stuff out fort eh ice trekking & climbing.   hang around for a bit downstairs and have some coffee while im waiting to go. dont have to be at teh ice office until 9.15.  There are 7 of us in the group and , for th efirst time, I am the only non south american in the group - so am the only non spanish speaker.  the two guides speak english, and are also very cute, which helps!! Get our little daypacks with our harnesses and crampons. so we all head out and get a little boat out to the glacier. we have to trak on the far side of teh galcier, as its somewhat smoother and safer. meet teh aussie couple on board the boat!!  teh boat gets really close to the glacier and one of the crew "catches" a big chunk of ice and brings it on board?? a few mins later they appear with pisco with bits of glacier in it as ice!  teh weather is really crap this morning.  rain is begining to pour and the wind is in full force.  get off onto a small boat, as the big one cant get near teh rocks.  have to do a bit of rock climbing in order to get onto the glacier. make a pitstop to put on our gear and also, as we are not allowed to pee on the ice, if you need to go to the loo you have to go now!!!  teh crampons feel wierd on your feet - they have 10 metal spikes on each foot. get onto the ice - and its so windy they show us how to avoid being blown off by using your crampons and ice axe as a grip.  they show us how to walk up and down and sideways using the crampons. its absolutely fantastic up here - except for the weather.  its absolutely freezing. I have some many layers of clothes I look about 1 stone heavier than I actaully am! Not a good look, i can assure you!  trek for about 2hrs on the glacier. on certain sections you have to go down one by one, tied onto the guide. its excellent.  see some great waterfalls and caves. guides explain that they can see the changes and the ice melting every day - its happening that fast.  ptistop fo rlunch. thankfully the rain has stopped and the wind has died down a bit. while we are trekking we stop for a look at a small hole developing and melting the ice. teh guide is walking over it, adn the ice gives way under him. he falls in, up as far as his shoulders. its really funny and the other guide just laughs at him. he is fine, but it is unbelievably cold.    move on and get to a cave.  it is so cool. literally!! you can go inside it. its fantastic, im actually IN a glacier. everything is a really mad blue colour -its mental.   start to head back, but we stop to go ice climbing on the way. stop at a really steep crevice. its about a 30 metre drop. teh guys rig up all the ropes and clasps etc.  so we all trek down to the bottom of  and they show us how to do it. its a 5 step motion for each move upward. you have two ice axes and just use teh front 4 spikes on your crampons to move. its so much fun.  and then you sort of walk backwards down it, as the guide controls your ropes. you dont have to climb over the top - thankfully. if you dont make it to the top you have to kiss both the guides. Sso my turn comes and i dont have hiking boots, so its a bit more difficult. my ankles finally give way under my about 20m up, so have to come back down. so, as I didnt make it to the top i have to kiss both the guides. alright by me, they are both pretty hot!! one of the others in the group gets halfway up and his crampons break -oops!! so he struugles back down with one!  absolutely fantastic day. highly recommend it.  get boat back to the site and get teh sleeping bag from them for the night.

after dinner, just sit around the lounge with my book when all the guides come in. so have a few drinsk and laugh with them.  at 11pm, we have to clear out of the lounge so go back to the ice office with the guys and have some burgers and a few more drinks. they have no electricity, so head lamos are all out!!!  have a brilliant night and head back to bed after a while.

14th February 2007

up at 7am  - Again!! have breakfast and check out. need to be back at Pehoe by 12.30 to get teh boat back across the lake.  suspect that the 11km trek will take a bit longer from this side, so head off early to give myself time.  trek back is very pleasant - weather is great, not too hot and not too cold. scenery is fantastic. meet teh aussie couple again. am very proud of myself, did the trek back in 3 hrs again. so have plenty of time to get a coffe and eat something before th boat leaves. check out teh state of my feet - there are blisters but the worst bit is where the skin has split under my baby toe and is being pulled ever time i move it. lovely!! do a bit of first aid on them and hope for th ebest.  get the boat back at 12.30. it only takes 30mins. tehn hop on the bus from there to get back to Puerto natales.  meet one of the guys form teh refugio on the bus, so have a good laugh with him on the way back.  get back to the hostel. pat and ciara left yesterday, so missed them. go for dinner with Emer and catch up on the last few days.  have a 35 hour bus journey tom, so off to bed.

Up early, have to check out of teh amry! Play on the internet for a while and then head for the airport. have to pay US$20 departure tax. Its the shortest flight i have ever been on. take off and get a drink and a packet of nuts. I havent even finished the nuts when they announce, please take your seat, we are about to descend! the entire flight was about 35 mins! Get accommodation from the info desk at teh airport. its actually really nice. not to many people there, so we essentially end up with a private room.  go to the supermarket to get something for dinner. so back at teh hostel, i discover that the kitchen doesnt have a cooker - excellent!! so with the aid of a microwave and a camping gas ring, I knock up a very nice stirfry.  Wath tele for the evening and hit the sack.

8th February 2007

Mett a very funny australian guy at breakfast and end up chatting for ages. both head up town to sort out a few bits.  Nice town, lovely main square and quite a few decent shops. another duty free zone.  head fo rthe supermarket and stock up on food and beer. head back to the hostel and basically the three of us eat a load of rubbish and drink lots in front of teh tele - great day. so about midnight, we decide it would be a brilliant idea to go out, even though we have to be up at 7 for a bus! go to a place next door and its really quiet so leave there pretty sharpish, end up in a nightclub a few doors down the sreet until about 4ish . great night out but will pay for it tom!!

9th February 2007

alarm goes off at 7am - feel like death. Dont even bother to have a shower. have breakfast and haed for the bus station. sleep most of teh wya. hostel in Natales isnt great, but grows on you very quickly when you just want to go to sleep!!  Puerto Natales is a bit of a prefabricated town, but it has a nice feel to it.

10th February 2007

wander around town and check out some of the tour agencies about going ice trekking on the glacier. Pat and Ciara have arrive, a day late - they missed their bus the day before. the ice trekking is proving to be a bit more difficult than I had thought - you have to stay in the park to do it.  its also working out quite expensive, but really want to go.  eventually go back to the office and decide to go. Neither Emere or Ciara are too interested, so book it to go alone for the few days.  so want to go on a boat trip and then get a zodiac boat into the park, then get a transfer to Paduta to get the ferry to the campsite for the first night and then trek up to the glacier to go ice trekking. so go to agency to book it all. but you cant do it all in one agency. so start in one and then move nextdoor to book the accommodation. Dear lord - waht an ordeal, talk about inefficient!!  there is a big queue and eventually its my turn. so this guy is going through it all with me and hten he just disappears - seriously, he just gets up and goes away and leaves me there!!  after about 90 mins Im really begining to loose my patience. the others behind me, who are being served, are even saying that they should serve me first .finally, one guy comes over and all they had to do was write out two vouchers confirming everything.  so back to the other agency to book the rest, and the guy says did you get your boat ticket next door?? Im not in a good mood after the idiots nextdoor, so just tell him that he never said that I needed to get it there and that I was not going back in there again as they were a waste of space. so I made him go nextdoor to get it for me.  so, finally after about 3.5hrs, everything is booked. to go camping, and hire all the equipment, is actually more expensive than staying in one of the refugios!! makes no sense! go to supermarket to get food for next few days.  go for dinner with Emer and Ciara, who are just on their way out to lok for me, it has taken that long to book it! pack my stuff and go to sleep.  

Yipee - its my birthday. 21 again!! Have breakfast in the army barracks and head into town to meet the others. go to a travel agency to see if we can bring our new zealand flight forward a few days. they cant help us, we have to call the airline direct. so off to a phone booth. Call LAN and after 90mins on hold and being transfered to various different departments, it is confirmed that we dont have seats on teh flight that we are supposedto be on - brilliant!!  Explain to the woman that we did miss one flight, but we went to LAN in Peru and sorted it all out and should have seats for the 25 feb to go to NZ. Have a written record of the changes we made in peru in my hand. But the idiot woman in Cusco never fully confirmed the seats, so they are gone. Decide to go for lunch and to try again later, as are just being left on hold forever.  Emer gets through later on and LAn have come up with a wonderful solution - we can fly on hte 28th March!!! Nothing available until then. Eventually get through to a woman who admits that the woman in Cusco didnt fully confirm on the system the flights for the 25 Feb, but can see that we have the written confirmation. So at least LAN have admitted they have cocked it up. so need to get our seats back - dont care how, am very open to flying first class!!  Basically spend about 4.5hrs with the two of us running between phone booths to see what can be done about it. so your woman says she needs to talk to them in peru, so it will be tom before she can confirm anything but that there is a very strong possibility that we will get our seats back, as it was their fault. So to call back in the morning.

head back to the hostel for a quick shower and head back down town to go for birthday dinner wiht the others. Seven of us head out together. go to a very nice fish restaurant. its very nice and all of a sudden the music changes and the staff start singing happy birthday - how embarrassing. I get a free dessert and we all get a free glass of champaigne. It was all lelias doing!  Leave about 12ish and head to a bar called Dreamaland. Joe (welsh girl in our room) is there as well. We get chatting to an english guy who gets all wound up about travelling in China. He gets so angry that joe and I both say that he seems to have a slightly blinkered view about China as he obviously had a bad experience. well, he let fly. he went off on a rant about how we said he was xenaphobic etc. we tried to say that we just said he was blinkered, but he was having none of it. so he left all hacked off with us!!  we eventuall yleft about 4am.

6th february 2007

get to bed about 5am and within 10 mins my head is exploding. My nose gets all stuffed up, my ears pop (have to take my ear plugs out), get a massive headache and my asthma has kicked in. i have no idea whats happened all of a sudden. end up spending most of the night awake and struggle to catch my breath. eventually fall asleeep for a while. wake up and my eyes feel really heavy. Emer took one look at me and just said, I think you might want to look in a mirror! so trek outside to the loo and my face is all puffed up. my eyes are so swollen, i cant open them properly. i look like a dadgy panda.  anyway, after a dose of antibiotics and some Zirtek and some rest, i begin to feel somewhat normal. and my face is very slowly begining to return to its normal shape.   anyway, need to call LAN again to see if we have flights, so have to leave the amry for a while.  have to wait til later to get confirmation, but by all accoutns they are going to get us back on that flight - thank god.  go shopping and end up going on a complete splurge. go into a leather shop and find a knee length black leahter coat. it fits like a glove - really like it. decide to blow my birthday money and buy it. i manage to bargain the guy down by 80 Pesos. so am really chuffed with myself. it will probably cost me more to ship it home that it did to buy it!!  meet teh others for dinner. will see them again in Puerto Natales in a few days. Say goodby to Lelia and head back to hostel.

Actually dont wake up until 1pm, thats how knackered i was. Decide to go down to the tour agency and see if we can go another day. No, cant change it and cant get any money back - "Company Policy!!". dont really care, as wasnt physically able for it. it would have been good- it was a 4WD off road trip through the national park. Ushuaia is a nice town, but gets extremely cold when the wind picks up. Who knew that the end of the world would be so cold!!!! And its summer here, I dont want to imagine how cold it gets in winter!  there are loads of shops, as its a duty free zone - always good!  Place gets very busy when the cruise ships come in. its the starting point for going to Antartica. Unfortunately, you are looking at a minimum cost of USD3,000, so its just a little out of my budget this time!! Chill out for the evening in the hostel, as am still recovering from basically spending a week on a bus!! the two Argi guys we shared a room with in Calafate are here as well. Later on, as Im heading for bed, i think I recognise the girl at teh end of the stairs - its Lelia, one fo the girls from the inca trail .So have a bit of a catch up and arrange to meet tom, as really cant stay awake much longer.

3rd February 2007

up early, as we are going trekking and kayaking in the national park for teh day. Get picked up and end up getting a bit of a tour of teh town, as we go around collecting the others. we are the youngest in the group. all teh others are 40+, but they are all good fun. Young at heart!!!! have a great laugh, especially with an english couple and a scottish guy. first part of the day is spent trekking for about 3.5hrs. we are trekking around teh Beagle Channel - fantastic. its so peaceful out here. the guide tells us about teh Ysmsn people (original native people) who lived here. they lived naked and ate sealions etc and once the food ran out they moved on to the next spot. Amazing how they adapted to the freezing climate without any clothes for protection. Fascinating. trek is easy enough, not hard and scenery is magnificant. once we are done, we head off for lunch. go to the nearest campsite - wow, lunch is delicious. we get cheese, salami and crisps to start, folowed by chorizo sausage and burgers and salad. there is unlimited coke, water and wine - excellent!Thankfully the rain goes away for the kayaking. everyone gets a pair of wellies and waterproof trousers, which are about 7 sizes to big and are quite thick. so I ended up walking like a penguin, and waddled my way down to teh lake! the english guy is just laughing his head off at us, as we are all padded out. your legs are totally puffed out - we look like umpalumpas!! High fashion, I tell you!!! its a different sort of kayak than what i was expecting. its a rubber dingy thing. its very narrow, so much so that you end up sitting with one cheek  on teh seat and the other cheek on the side of the kayak. And no, its not because my ass is that enormous, its a seriously small boat!! there are 4 of us plus the guide in our one. I get stuck on one side with a 50yr old french guy, who is clearly not the sharpest tool in the box! teh guide cant stter the kayak, so three of us end up trying to control it, and the usless french twit just wont row - he is on holiday!!! when he does row, he cant stay in sync with me and keeps getting his paddle stuck in mine - seriously, its not that difficult! Eventually get to the other side of the lake. it was good fun, but would have been much better if the french guy fell overboard!!

head back to the hostel, Emer goes to bed so I chill out with Lelia over a bottle of wine. The belgian guy in our room and the argi guys are around as well. we all decide that we should go out fro the night. head off to a pub that is at the far end of town. at about 2am, lelia and I both want to go somewhere a bit livlier. so we all head up to a "nightclub", which is actually a restaurant that after 3am, they remove all teh tables so it becomes a dancefloor! Seriously! there is live music for the first while - quite good for Latin music. Well, all I can say is that Latino men can dance. they have serious rhythm and can move their hips in ways white men cant even imagine. lelia and I end up dancing for about 3hrs straight. get dancing with teh cute argi guy - man, can he move his hips! It was a case of guide me and I will follow! they left about 5am, and we stayed on til about 6ish. it was so hot we went outside to watch the sun come up over the chanells. it is so beautiful, but absolutely freezing, so we decide its time to go to bed!

4th February 2007

get back to the hostel and decide that we need something to eat. so we convince the guy at reception to give us some of the breakfast bread. so there is the two if us, one of teh argi guys and teh guy from teh reception desk all have toast and coffee at 6.30. end up having a great laugh. we are trying to ask them have they ever eaten guinea pig, but they dont know what guinea pig is. so, shockingly enough, after lelia starts making hand + mouth movements like a rabbit and making pig noises, they still dont have a clue what we are on about !! so we goole it and save them a picture of guinea pigs as their screen saver! then we head off to bed, and Lelia says jokingly to one of them doe sht eother have a girlfriend?? well it turned into a massive laughing session, until one girl in our room came out to the hall to tell us to shut up. so the argi guy pushed us into teh mens loo - its was the nearest door!! end up chatting in the mens loo for about 10 mins before we finally got to bed. Brilliant night out.

get about 2hrs sleep, before i have to get up to check out. need to change hostels as this one is full.  pack up, but dont actually leave as the Ireland V Wales six nations game is on, and we can watch it on the tv here.  eventually get to the other hostel. well, its like we joined the army!! the first give away was the fact that there was a sign behind reception saying that teh complaints book was at your disposition!! big red flag!! then you get to the kitchen, and there are cats walking all over the surfaces and tables - wont be cooking in here!!  you have to go outside to get to the loo and showere. and the shower is a twin shower! not messing, there is nothing seperating your shower from the next. Seriously, I wouldnt take a shower with someone I have know for years, nevermind with a complete stranger that happens to be in the bathroom at the same time!!  Go for diner with the other. go to a traditional Argentinian meat place. yummy, its an all you can eat place and teh meat is just delicious. the patagonia lamb literally melts in your mouth.

Up early (AGAIN - am supposed to be on holidays!). going on tour to see the Puerto Moreno glacier today. the cute arge boy in our room is aso on the tour! takes about 1.5hrs to get in to the national park. go for a hike for about 1.5hrs first. hike around one of the lakes and over rocks etc. the views are beautiful. its so fresh out here. eventually get good sight of the glacier - oh my god, its just mesmorising. its absolutley enormous and the different blue colours through it are fantastic to see. the blue colours depend on the light and on how the minerals in the ice are compressed. it is just mind blowing. the sheer size of it. just cant describe how fantastic it is to see. after the hike, we head for the balcony area where you can get really close to the glacier. there is an optional boat trip, but as the balcony is closer than the boats to the glacier, we decide not to bother. the actual ice field is incredibly active and you can witness massive chunks of ice falling off the glacier and splashing in to the water. the effects of global warming! there is a time dealy of about 2 seconds from when you can hear teh it crasing and when you can see it happening. its really weird. the sound is so loud. its a hugh thunderous cracking noise - its incredible. absolutley fantastic sight.

head back to the hostel about 5 ish. go to supermarket and then cook dinner. having another dodgy tummy moment and cant eat dinner. so go to bed for a while, as we are to meet Medina later. after about 30mins in bed, my stomach and bottom conspire against me and there is an emergency run to the loo!! no details needed here!!! End up being in the loo for about 90mins - excellent!! Emer brings me my book, so I have something to read in there! Eventually, its safe to leave teh loo and go back to bed. get chatting to teh two arge boys. feel slightly better but am in serious need of some sleep, as we have to be up at 5.30 tom.

31st January 2007

up at 5.30, as being collected at 6am to go on a tour to teh Torres del Paine in Chile. Feeling a bit better, but decide a couple of immodium is the way forward so as to avoid any embarrassing moments on the bus today!! get chatting to an american guy who is waiting to be collected for the same tour. bus arrives and  off we all go.  am absolutely shattered, am in serious need of a full nights sleep. we are driving for hours- it takes approx 5hrs to get to the national park. but first we have to go through border control, which takes a bit of time. then change into a small minivan for the Chilian side of things. have to change money as well, as the park wont accept Arg pesos. eventually get to the park, am braindead from lack of sleep. have a minihike up to a small waterfall. it is beautiful but very small in comparison to some of the others we have seen. wind is really strong and blows you along the trail. Doesnt do much for my hair though!!! back to minivan and drive further in to the park. it is stunning but am not really interested as am so tired and am fully aware that we have a 17hr bus journey ahead of us tonight - excellent!! pass some of the lakes along the way. the blue colours are spectacular. eat our packed lunch in the living room of the "restaurant" - basically someones house in the middle of nowhere, that has been converted to cater for feeding tourists!. just really want to fall asleep. but then have another ride around the park with a few stops for photos. finally set off for Calafate - need to back at teh Chilian border by 6-6.30ish. queue all over again for passport inspection. then swap over to the big bus again. get to argentinian border control and after a few mins waiting, the driver and an armed immigration guy appear with an american passport an dcall one of teh guys off the bus!!Dont know what he hasnt filled in, but it holds us up for another 20 mins. am really struggling to stay awake at this stage. bus journey back seems to never end. finally get back about 11.15pm. goes down as teh worst trip yet! more so because of the journey/travelling time involved. it should not be done as a day trip. for me a day trip does not involve 12 hrs on a bus!! am the tiredest I have been since leaving home. anyway, get back to hostel and we go for food with the american guy. get back and jump inot ethe shower and sort my stuff out as we have to be at the bus station at 2am.

1st February 2007

go to the bus station at 2am. bus isnt until 3am, but am in danger of falling asleep if stay in hostel much longer. get bus at 3am, bound for Rio Gallegos. have to change buses there for Ushuaia. fall asleep the mintue I sit down on the first bus. wake up 4hrs later when the bus arrives at Rio Gallegos. have to wait 1.5hrs for th next bus, so Emer goes to get breakfast and I go to get the tickets. they were seriously inefficient and you´d swear they had never had passengers before who had reserved in advance from another location - talk about confusion!!! eventually, they work it out and get the tickets. its not a first class bus, presumablt because most of teh way is gravel tracks (again!!) and not paved roads. anyway, its supposed to be approx 12hrs from here to Ushuaia. However, we are waiting at Argentinian border control for at least 1.5hrs (you have to cross in Chile briefly in order to get to the end of the world by road on the Argi side) Dont know what the hold up is, but the bus driver puts on 80¨s music vidoes to keep us entertained! the wind outside is ferocious. there is a massive staellite dish that nearly gets blown away. three guys come out to try and secure it. finally allowed through - another Argi stamp in the passport. all out of the bus as we get to the chilian border control. moves much faster and get going again. come to a stop in a massive line of traffic. so the bus driver comes back and in my pigion spanish understand that we could be waiting up to 5 hrs for the boat, so to check out the restaurant over there and sit tight. Excellent! We have arrived at teh Magellan Straits and the wind is so violent that the ferry cant sail, as the water is too rough. go outside for a few photos and the wind is actually strong enough to pick you up. retreat indoors after a few mins out in the wind! teh water is seriously rough - its going to be a long wait followed by a nasty crossing! after about 5hrs, soeone comes into the restaurant and says the boat is coming and Im not meesing, the place clears in seconds. Emer and I are looking out the window, both going, I cant see anything??? after 10 mins we still cant see anything, but eventually a very small ferry tug boat thing appears in the distance! so decide to go back to the bus. ferry is quite small and we are the last bus to get on board. loads of cars/buses/trucks get left behind, as there simply isnt room on the boat. Now I understand why everyone ran to their cars - to get on first!! get out of the bus and head up on to the upper deck until the waves start splashing up that high. some people get soaked. quite funny really!! its not as bad as I was expecting, but still is very rough. only takes about 45 mins. am thinking how glad I am that we have a flight from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas, so dont have to repeat this in a few days time!!  get moving and and there are at least 100 cars on the other side waiting to cross - some of them are going to be waiting a long time!!!  finally make it through all the border crossings on the other side to get back into Argentina. get shatting to an english couple behind us and relaise that we still have another 4hrs before we get to Ushuaia - fantastic!!  am severly tired after spending almost 1 week on a bus! finally get to Ushuaia at 2am - we have iterally been travelling 24hr for a journey that should have taken 17hrs!. get to hostel and the guy who checks us in says that we have a tour at 8am in the morning. ask can we change it to another day, so he said he will see what he can do. really dont think it is physically possible to get up in the morning due to a sever shortage of sleep in the last few days.  

it Emer´s birthday - 21 again!! up early as we are getting the bus early. we are doing the infamous Route 40 down through Patagonia, on the Argentinian side. Get birthday breakfast in the petrol station and eat it on the side of the road. Noting but the best for us classy women!!! Bus eventually shows up. we meet a really cool english woman waiting for the bus aswell. so we all get on the bus, not a first class bus, but it has a toilet so not too bad, as todays journey is 12/13hrs. the scenery is absolutley amazing. its all dessert scrub, bushes and pure wilderness with mountians in teh distance. really is beautiful but when the scenery doesnt change for 13 hrs, it tends to get a bit boring after a while. we stop in Esquel, a small town about 2hrs from El Bolson and two australians get on. well, they caused utter chaos. usually on buses in south america you get assigned seating, like on an aeroplane. now, depending on who you booked your bus ticket with, you may or may not have gotten an assigned seat, so most people just sat down where there was a free seat. well, the stupid aussies made at least 20 people move seats so they could sit in their assigned seats. even the bus driver was saying, just sit down in any seat. so after moving loads of people around, they still werent even sitting beside each other!!! everyone was looking at them thinking, everyone was fine until ye got on!! so after the mayhem, one of them is sitting in front of us and my god can she talk! she talked constantly for hours. within 20 mins of us leaving Esquel, half the bus knew that she was on a round the world ticket, starting in south america then she was going to europe, but flying into moscow and getting teh trans siberian railway, then going to scandanavia etc. the bus was thinking, well id Daddy paying for all of this, cos if you are supposed to be backpacking like the rest of us your budget certainly doesnt reflect it!!! rich cow! next topic for her was her family. so we all knew how many siblings, nieces, nephews etc she had. god she was painful!!  but her best comment, and a highlight for me, was "oh my god, have you seen tehhorizontal rain".  people were just looking at her going its the wind!!! muppet! she wore the ear of the poor italian guy who was sitting opposite her. so much, that after we stopped for a break, he swapped seats with his friend!!   eventually, we get to Perito Moreno, a town in the middle of the dessert. everyone claps when we see it!! stay up for a bit and have a few drinks with two english woman and have a great laugh.

28th January 2007

up early, as we are supposed to be leaving at 10. we did have the option to go and see teh "cave of teh hands", but decided not to bother. as far sa i can see, its just a wall (NOT a cave) with loads of hands painted on to it!! dont know what the significance of it is but it doesnt look very interesting to me. end up hanging around until 11.30 before the bus arrives. we get a different bus, an older version with no toilet - so should be interesting on a 13hr journey across gravel tracks!! everyone on the bus is in great form, so should be a good day. stop for lunch and a loo stop. move on. after a few more hours the bus stops in the middle of nowhere and one of teh drivers announces "women left, men right" - toilet stop! by the looks of things, this is the usual loo stop as there are certain patches with trails of toilet paper!! so I add to the collection!   Ipod batteries are begining to run out, as wasnt able to charge them the night before. my adapter wouldnt fit into the socket - excellent!! contemplate playing eye-spy, but as there is nothing to spy, that idea goes straight out the window!!very long day and at one stage, we notice a paved road and have high hopes of a smmoth journey. but they are quickly dashed as we actually drive across it and then drive parallell to it on the gravel track!! yes, we are on a gravel track driving parallell to a paved road! we stop at a tiny restaurant in the middle of the dessert. perfect timing as its nearly 8pm and im starving. there are freshly baked pizzas, quiches and cakes - all delicious. get really big portions, so some people dont finish theirs. Medina, at our table, didnt want all of hers so she left it on the plate. there is a guy on the bus who is the spitting image of santa claus - seriously!! anyway, santa walked over to us and asked were we finished with the quiche, we said yes. and he actually picked it up in his hand and shovelled the whole thing into his mouth and walked off. Im not messing, a random strnager picked up someone elses leftovers and ate them of the plate!! we were sitting there gobsmacked. so santa was known as a food thief after that incident!  back onto the bus for naother 3hrs. there are 3 argentinians who have moved up to the front of the bus and start singin and clapping away to some tango music. this goes on for about 2hrs. its good fun, but none of them seem to be able to clap in time, so that was a tad painful! the bus drivers have joined in. its amazing what 13hrs of bored in the middle of a dessert can do to a person!!  about 11pm, we finally begin to see the lights of a town appearing before us. everyone gets excited and starts clapping! after a mix up at reception - no reservation for us again!! we get sorted and head for the bar. Medina and I stay chatting away to teh bus driver, Horje. have a few drinks and a good laugh. he is very funny and claims to have no english whatso ever, so my pigion spanish gets put to the test!! ends up being a very funny night.

29th January 2007

wake up ealry and check out. El Chalten isnt really a great place, very desserty and cold/windy. The wind is really strong and it gets very cold. Chill out in the hostel for most of teh day as the bus isnt until 6.30. some of th eothers go trekking for the day. there are some great views of teh mountians - great for all those serious hikers!! My stomach isnt in great shape today, struggle with eating dinner. get the bus teh Calefate at 6.30, its about 4hrs. its seriously cold when we arrive, so just get a taxi ot the hostel. nice hostel, all wooden beams. sharing the room with 2 nice argentinian guys from Buenos Aires. very glad I did Route 40, another thing checked off my list. Its long and a tad boring at times, but has to be done once in your life.  

Check out and head for bus station. bus is about 1hr late, but gives me time to call a few places in El Bolson to see about getting accommdation. I am very proud of myself, as I have the first call all in spanish - yipee. find somewhere and finally arrive there about 2hrs later. have to go to the tourist office to get a taxi as there doesnt seem to be any on the streets!! hostel is about 3kms out of town. its down at teh end of a gravel track and its pretty awful! its a real hippy place and the beds look a bit minging!! so we check in and head back into town and look for somewhere else to stay. decide to splurge and stay in nice place with a private room with ensuite!! so get a taxi back to the other place and aget it to wait and we literally grabbed our bags and left!  just told the guy that there had been a change in plans and needed to go!   so go for dinner and ice-cream. thursday is one of the days for the big hippy market in town. have a wander around the market but dont really find much there. think I am all marketed out!!.

26th january 2007

sllep in this morning. spend about 4.5hrs in an internet cafe updating blog and downloading photos to snapfish. Emer is downloading my pictures as well.  everytime i have tried so far, teh machines have crashed, so fingers crossed it will take most of them this time!!  afterwards, go for steak and ice-cream. the ice-cream parlours here are just delicious and have dozens of flavours. Brilliant!

Arrive in Bariloche about 11ish and pick up hasnt arrived, so i call the agency to let them know we have arrived, as the bus was a bit late. so the guy says that there is no reservations for us!!!  but he will down to collect us in 10 mins. really nice guy and he says that there have been no reservatiosn made for us, not for accommodation or tours !! As its high season, am a bit concerned that we have no accommodation and dont want to end up 20kms out of town! but after numerous phone calls, he finds us somewhere to stay in town. actually end up getting a private room and teh agency will be paying the difference. so now need to sort out our tour. the one that we had booked only goes on a thursday, and we are leaving on thursday, so bit of a problem!! so we agree to change it to another tour, which is similiar to the original one we thought we had booked. he was very nice and went out of his way to sort it all out. and he was cute too, which always helps! dont know if it was their fault or the woman in Buenos Aires, but he sorted it for us.  pottered around town for a bit and then met up with Pat, Ciara & Mike (friends from the Inca trail). check out the shops and there are pastry and chocolate places everywhere. mmmmmmm really delicious ones too! I can feel my waist expanding as i look at them!! I dont know how the locasl are so thin!! I have literally died and gone to chocolate heaven! Bariloche is a beautiful town - very Swiss ski resort looking. wooden houses everywhere. its a masive ski resort in winter. views are spectacular. town is nestled amongst lakes and mountains - really beautiful.  goo to the pub for food and a few drinks and a proper catch up with the crew.

24th January 2007

Up early, as have a trekking trip today. get collected and head out to the national park. scenery is absolutely stunning - so clean and pure. lakes are so clear and tranquil. the national park is absolutley enormous. queue for a bit to get our entrance tickets, then move further into the park. head down some gravel tracks, small and very narrow. views of snow capped mountains are fab. first minitrek is up to a waterfall. takes about 1hr to go up and down. get some nice photos. the group is good fun and almost everyone is in their 20/30´s. there is one american guy, who is definately the stupidest american on the planet!! the 3 guys sitting around him are clearly taking the p%$s out of him  and he doesnt even notice!! he claims to have studied spanish for 2 months in ecuador, but the best he can manage is " esta muy dificil my camera a chargo in my roomo" he was so dumb. my 10hrs of spanish made me look fluent!!  one of the girls in the front seat called back to her mother, who was sitting at teh back, by calling out "mama". then later on the american was passing Mate back to her and actually called her Mama and when everyone laughed at him, he actually said, "what, isnt htat her name" !!! Dont know how these people manage to stay alive, especially in another country!!  anyway move further in to the park. its fantastic. went to see another waterfall. its really cool. like something out of a Timotee ad!! there are insects everywhere, we are swatting them with branches. went to a campsite for lunch and got delicious chorizo sausage and fruit. afterwards, tek up to see a glacier path. its really cool, called a Moreno. head back down to the bus and have drinks and snacks. head back into town. dont get back until 8.30, but it was a great day. really worthwhile. meet Pat, Ciara and mike again for food and a few drinsk. they have had a really bad day. they couldnt get any tours or accomodation bookings and Mike lost all his photos from his memory card. thinks he has lost 2 months worth of pictures. so they spent most of the day in teh pub before they meet us!!