Back on dry land...

Monday 25th February

Hello folks, am back on dry land after my 4 day ferry trip from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt. Landed this morning and got straight on a bus to the island of Chiloe where I am now enjoying a beer whilst overlooking the evening sun over the ocean, nice. Was chatting to a spanish guy here at the hostel who didnt realise I was english for at least 20 minutes... so I was pleased my spanish lasted that long! However, it seems 20 minutes of me talkingh spanish very slowly and badly is my limit, going to work on that one!

The Navimag ferry was fun, made a change and the scenery was beautiful. Although I was pleased to fet back on dry land and have more options than reading, sleeping, writing or playing cards! It got a little boring for me on the last of the 4 days, although we saw quite a few whales which was exciting. We mainly saw big puffs of water and shiny backs but I saw a full on tail come out of the water which was brill.

A few photos as ever to give you a taste of what it was like. The Ship photo is a sister ship to the one I was on (ours was a bit bigger with 220 passengers).

Am now in Ancud in Chiloe (Chile's second largest island). Which looks like this:

Love it, its really chilled and tonight there is a fiesta so I'm going to dig out my dancing flip flops and tootle into town for that. Tomorrow might go and see more penguins, who knows...

El fin del mundo (almost)

Thursday 21st February
Hello. Well I am back in Puerto Natales (Chile) having visited (and liked alot) the End of the World. Spent the last few days in Ushuaia (Argentina) Tierra del Fuego, right at the bottom of South America... just 1000km north of Antartica. I'd have quite liked a wee trip there actually but its unbelievably expensive (at least 2 thousand pounds), pah! But I had plenty to do; Walked to Galciar Martial, visited a couple of cool museums, took a boat trip on the Beagle channel, spent a day hiking in the Tierra del Fuego national park, ate yummy seafood, generally looked round the area loving the fact that almost everything was named after me (if you overlook the 'y' at the end of Beagley). I especially like Beagle beer, mmm.

I particularly liked learning about the Yamana indians... who lived along the Beagle channel 10000 years ago. They seem like a nice bunch of people, sharing everything and living equally amongst themselves and with nature etc. Sadly theres only 1 pure Yamana left now and she is in her 80's. Amazingly they lived completely naked except for a small seal skin cape to cover their shoulders against the wind. And they covered themselves in seal fat to keep warm and make themselves more waterproof. Considering how chilly it is down here I found that amazing.

I love the towns down here, all rickety, colourful, corrugated iron buildings that look tiny yet somehow open up into the most amazing and cosy homes or hostels or whatever. Quite fancy one myself actually.

Was supposed to board the Navimag ferry tonight but just got an email telling me its rescheduled for tomorrow (at least I think thats what it says after my translation skills). The ferry will (hopefully) take me up past glaciars in the fjords to Puerto Montt in Chile. My plan from there is to visit the island of Chiloe then head north to Pucon and Santiago and then on to Lima in Peru to meet Bert! Hurray.

Happy camper...

Friday 15th February

Hello everyone, today I am in Punta Arenas (Chile)... but just for one day as tomorrow I head down to Ushuaia.

Yesterday I finished a 6 day trek in the Torres del Paine National Park with Jo and Neil and the worst tent in the world. The park was great, the weather not quite so great but that didnt really matter (once we'd figured out how to stop the tent leaking). Would take forever to describe the whole thing but fear not for I have approximately 100 squillion photos that I can show you all when I get home, ha!

Unfortunately my blisters got so bad that I had to do the last 4 days in flip flops 2 sizes too small... but most of you know me and know that I kinda secretly enjoyed even that. I was thinking about uploading a photo of my horrible blistered yucky heels but thought you'd probably rather look at lovely scenery instead.


I will be spending a few days in and around Ushuaia before heading back north to Puerto Natales (where I took this photo) where I catch the Navimag ferry to Puerto Montt in Chile. Thats a 4 day trip so will give me a chance to relax a bit hopefully...

Heading South

Thursday 7th February

Hello everyone... I am here. Sorry for the long gap between updates but has been due to a mixture of adventuring (yey) and "satellite problems" (boo) meaning rubbish internet access. Until now...

Am now in Puerto Natales... hopped across the border into Chile. On Saturday I'm heading into Torres del Paine national park for some trekking and camping, 6 days of it. Should be good and I've hooked up with Jo and Neil who I met in Puerto Madryn so will have company too. Not that I'd struggle with that cos its high season here and everywhere is packed with trekkers and holiday makers!!!

So what have I been up to... well I left Bariloche on Saturday and flew South to El Calafate. From there I got a bus slightly North to El Chalten in the national park Los Glaciares, where I stayed for 2 nights. Did a fairly easy walk to Laguna Torres... which is at the foot of Cerro Torres - one of the big mountains which was cloaked in cloud. Didnt really have enough time in El Chalten as I would have liked to do more walks... loved the village though, it is really quirky. Full of multicoloured houses with corrugated pointy rooves (is that how you spell it, it looks strange!?). Unfortunately it was probably just as well that my time ran out as I have been having serious blister problems... grr. I have a good 2 inch-er on my right heel and 4 smaller ones on my left. Need to sort those out!

Got bus back to El Calafate to meet up with Jo, Neil and Martin who are all good fun. Bought some new insoles to hopefully sort the blister problem. Then on Wednesday (6th) I went ice trekking on the Perito Moreno glaciar, which was BRILLIANT. It was incredibly windy and cold and icy (surprise surprise) but great fun walking up down and around the glaciar looking into all the deep blue pools and cracks. The ice glows blue in places... really cool. Big chucks of ice fall off into the lake at the foot of te glaciar and we saw a few bits crash into the water... makes a heck of a noise!

Its getting colder and colder as I travel south... the neck warmer has been in action and is brilliant!

Today I got the bus with Jo to Puerto Natales, which is another cool little town. Staying in a really cosy new hostel so looking forward to a good nights sleep. Tomorrow we have an easy day getting all our camping stuff ready for Torres del Paine. Looking forward to that muchly.

Thanks for all your comments and messages... its nice to know that people are actually reading this! Hee hee...