You know you've been in Ushuaia too long when...

... you get annoyed when the local supermarket changes its layout for Christmas and things aren't in their usual places. Still, only two more days to go and we head for Buenos Aires.

We're still managing to fill our time at the "end of the world". We went to Estancia Harberton (named after a Devonshire village!) where we took a boat trip across to Martillo Island, or as we like to call it, Penguin Island. The attraction there is hundreds of Magellenic and Gentoo Penguins. Yes, we know we've already done penguins, but here we could get really close to them. If you stand still, they become quite inquisitive and slowly "waddle" up to you - that is until the toddler (that someone thought was a good idea to bring) runs towards them screaming, at which point they all dive into the water. Still, we had lots of penguins come within a few feet of us which was fantastic. It's penguin hatching time at the moment so we saw lots of nests (underground burrows suprisingly). The baby penguins were too small to leave the nest so we didn't see any, although we did hear them.

We've also been to a couple of museums, including one about the indiginous Yamana people and another really cool one about marine biology. They had huge whale skeletons with life size paintings behind them. It was staffed by university students who were really helpful and informative - we're now experts on whales (just don't ask us any questions)!

Next update from Buenos Aires when Sharon finally stops walking down the street singing songs from Evita - "¿What's new, Buenos Aires?"

The hand of god

We've managed to fill our first four days at the end of the world and still some things left to see - just!

Yesterday, we went to the Maradona exhibition that is currently touring the country. We saw the "hand of god" shirt (and lots of replays of the event) along with lots of other Maradona memorablia. They also had Gary Lineker's shirt from that (in)famous match with his name written in biro on the washing label - I wonder if his mum wrote it!

We've also been to several museums, one of which was in a former prison. Everything had perfect English translations except for the bit about the Falklands War - funny that! We've seen several statues down here to the "Heroes of the Islas Malvinas" (aka Falkland Islands) with the islands painted in Argentine colours...

Today, we took a trip on the train at the end of the world. It's an old steam train which was once used to ferry prisoners to and from "work" every day. The train ends in the big national park here, Tierra del Fuego, although it does take over an hour to go just 4 miles! Not content with our recent treks, we spent the day on a 6 hour route march through the Lenga Forests of the park, however, we will be spending tomorrow recovering in cafes with mugs of tea and pieces of gateau!

Stranded at the end of the world!

We're stranded in Ushuaia ("the end of the world"), the southernmost city on the planet, and we can't get out!

It's a nice enough place, but we have 9 days to kill before the first available flight (and this place is so remote it would take us longer than that by bus). Oh well, it's not the end of the world...

We've had a good time over the last few days. We have camped in Torres del Paine, where we did a bit of trekking, including a gruelling 8 hour trek to the Towers of Paine that give the park its name. We were literally crawling up the (almost vertical) rocks for the last hour, and poor Sharon almost collapsed when we finally got to the top - most of the rocks she had to climb up were taller than her legs! We also visited Lago Grey, with its beautiful blue icebergs.

Yesterday we went to Seno Otway to see the colony of Magellanic Penguins. We're sure that we saw the Madagascar "commando" penguins on their latest escape mission running through the tall grass...

We've crossed the Straits of Magellan, and sailed on the Beagle channel, now we just need to work out what to do with the next 9 days before we can get out of here!

Big and Blue

Hello again, this time from back in Chile! We´ve just crossed the border on our way to Torres del Paine, where we are going to spend a couple of days trekking around the national park.

Highlight of the last couple of days has definitely been visiting the Moreno Glacier in Argentina. It´s huge, and impressively blue looking. As normal, the photos don´t do it justice. We spent a few hours walking around the north face, watching huge chunks of ice falling off the front of it, before taking a boat trip (which Craig just loved- he spent it huddled up inside trying not to be sick). Sharon got some great photos though.

Sharon has been really enjoying looking out for the wildlife, especially the birds. We´ve spotted quite a few condors now, mostly around the Moreno Glacier. Sharon now has about 400 photos of microscopic dots in the sky... We´ve also seen plenty of Caracaras bumbling around, plus rheas, guanacos and meadow larks (Sharon´s particular favourite).

P.S. Steve and Sue, hope you have a great time in Florida, and that it´s not as cold as it is here!
Paul, how´s the not smoking going???

Trekking in Fitzroy

After 4 days of travelling, we finally made it back into Argentina to El Chalten. We´ve spent hours on overnight ferries and buses through sunshine, torrential rain and snow. Some of the drive was particularly picturesque with snow capped mountains and bright blue lakes, whilst other parts were dull, grey and dreary.

We spent 7 hours today on a 20Km hike in the Fitzroy mountain range which was very beautiful. The weather took a turn near the end though and we had a bit of a "white out" meaning we had to turn back early. We did get to see the glacier though and some lovely mountain scenery.

Tomorrow, we travel on to El Calafate, our base for visiting the Moreno Glacier - a massive glacier on one of the most active ice fields on the planet. We can hike around it and take a boat trip to see it up close.

We´re really enjoying Patagonia - it has some of the most beautiful scenery we´ve seen in the world.

Volcano climb - piece of cake!

OK, so it was actually quite tough but we made it. We set off at 8am armed with ice picks, crampons and a rucksack full of protective clothing. We arrived at the crater of the volcano about 1pm after Sharon´s brush with death as she almost fell off the side of the mountain. She was saved by plunging her ice pick into the snow and "hanging" from it.

Actually, in reality the snow was very soft and the only danger she was in was having to climb up the same part of the volcano twice. But given how shattered she was, she might not have made that!


At the top, the views were lovely and we got to see inside the crater as well - lots of bubbling magma and sulphurous gases - yuk, they made you choke. We just about had time to eat lunch before the descent back down. We´d been dreading this as most of the ledges we´d climbed up were pretty narrow and steep. But we didn´t climb down, we slid down which was great fun (but cold and wet). The only problem is using your heels as brakes does tend to spray cold snow into your face - not pleasant! But you can get quite a speed up sliding down for 1000 metres!

The photos don´t really do it justice as we spent most of the time desperately clinging on to ledges and ice picks so could only take photos on the flatter bits.

Next, we travel down to El Chalten, which will take us a couple of days including an over night ferry through the Chilean fjords (shame it´s at night). Then we might do some more climbing at Mount Fitzroy if our legs have recovered!

We survived the raging torrents...

This was one of the tamer bits before bodies started flying in all directions! We, however, managed to stay in the boat where we belonged - although at one point that was only because Sharon grabbed hold of Craig almost pulling him in with her. There were two rafts and just after this shot the other one flipped right over sending everyone head first into the freezing glacial waters. We had to pull a couple of survivors into our boat.

If you´re interested we are the two at the back on the right of the boat.

After the rafting we had a barbeque with yet more Argentine steak. We never thought we´d say this but we´re getting to the point where we can´t face eating any more red meat.

We also managed to fit a chair lift ride into our short time in Bariloche which gave us great views of the mountains and lakes. It was one of the more beautiful places we´ve been and there was still some snow left on some of the peaks. They even had gorgeous St Bernard dogs including puppies so Sharon managed to waste just as much money having our photo taken as Craig did on chocolates!




We´ve just spent the day driving back to Chile and we´re now in Pucon, a really nice mountain town just over the border. Tomorrow we are climbing the local active volcano - Villaricca - which as well as being covered in snow it continuously belches forth ash and smoke. Bye bye!! The ascent will take 6 hours, armed with crampons and ice picks - as long as we don´t have to turn back because of the weather.

We were in the desert!!

... but there were some volcanoes on the edge with beautiful lagoons like this one.

We´ve just spent 5 days in the Atacama Desert in Chile which was suprisingly pretty in a barren sort of way! We saw sand dunes, rugged cliffs and canyons, lagoons, flamingoes and volcanoes.

We also went to see the geysers which we had to get up at 3:30 in the morning for... Not fun but well worth it. They die down at about 6am so you have to be there early to see all the bubbling water (which we boiled eggs in) and huge clouds of steam rising out of the ground. Unfortunately, Sharon was rather unwell that day with a tummy bug and the geysers were at 4300m above sea level which just about finished her off! She had to spend half an hour on the bus with a rather unflattering oxygen mask over her mouth and nose. But she was fine in the end.

Now we´re in Patagonia on the Argentine side of the border. We´ve been here less that 24 hours but we´ve already managed to devour a huge piece of Argentine sirloin steak - yummy! This is not the place for vegetarians!


We´re in a town called Bariloche which is famous for it´s chocolates, so Craig spent the morning (and most of our budget) eating truffles and other assorted chocolates - if you´re ever in the area we can recommend certain places.

Tomorrow we´re off white water rafting (and it´s really cold here!) and then we carry on our journey through Patagonia down to "The End of the World" - otherwise known as Ushuaia. Hopefully we´ll get to do lots more exciting things on the way.

Janie - glad to hear your shoulder is better and Sharon´s tan is starting to fade now we´re in colder climes.

Paul - good luck with the not smoking! (Just think of all the extra money for models!)

Hola!

We´re currently in San Pedro de Atacama, a quaint little town in the middle of the Atacama desert in Northern Chile. It´s a nice little place full of white washed buildings, and is very geared up for tourists - every other shop runs tours somewhere. This evening we are off to the Valley of the Moon for sunset, which should be good.

On our last day in Santiago we visited the Concha y Toro vineyard, which we really enjoyed. As well as going around the vineyards, cellars etc, we also got to do lots of wine tasting, including some "posh" wines that we can´t afford back home! Look out for the Concha y Toro label back home in Tesco!

We´ve also been catching up on the practicalities of travelling - washing etc. Craig has discovered the joys of cutting his own hair with a small Swiss Army knife, while Sharon has discovered the joys of having a boyfriend who looks like he´s had an accident with a lawnmower...