On course for the end of the world!

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Hola todos!
So its been an eventful week´. Sorry this keyboard is a shocker!
Wednesday 9th April

We were up at 5.45 and an hour later were sat on the Ruta 40 bus. Ruta 40 is the road that runs down into deepest darkest Patagonia and very little of it is paved, so bring on 2 days of arse pain! Fernando, our´"guide" our should I say babysitter, a nice lad, proceeded to tell us all the info we didn{t want to hear. The guy who sold us the tour, a bearded speccy little Steve Buscemi computer says no type had been wrong on a number of issues. Apparently we had only paid to El Chalten and had to cough up another $20 each to reach El Calafate (Prick!). Also what he had told us $12 entry for the Cave of Hands (9000 years old) was in fact $30.

Somehow I didnt swear as Fernando told us and he even managed to flog us $85 glaciar hike. Oh yeah it also included no food, others got double rooms for the same price and we got dorms. Anyway we were on the road again and covered 1300km in 2 days. Today ended at 9pm in the one horse town of Perito Moreno (where we got cash as no ATM in El Chalten!) and my body was craving veggies (dry crackers and ham and cheese sarnies all the way - yuk!) so i ordered a Jamon crudo Russian salad and almost cried when the salad turned out to be potato salad!! Anyway it made for lunch the next day so I got chicken and chips instead. The scenery today got more and more barren, like another planet the further soiuth you go. No real wildlife, shrubs and a few passing cars!

Thurs 10th: Slept badly in a dorm room and left at 10 am (as we no afford the caves). Think its gonna be an expensive time down here too by the taste of last night. We finally arrived to the oasis like lights of a small town, El Chalten, through the wasteland tundra at 11pm after 13 hours on a toiletless bus. They were still serving food and had real salad, so after another ham and cheese day (luckily i checked mine as it was just two slices of bread, which made the proprietor laugh for 2 minutes straight!) and starchy snacks that go straight to your arse, i nailed a big salad and a veggie soup. Nice! This again was a one horse town, but the hostel was clean, the food good, and the town another glimpse of suisse influenced dwellings selling French Bread, chocolates, a Artesanal brewery etc, in a quaint three street town surrounded by amazing mountain peaks, notably Cerro Torre and Cerro Fitzroy.

Friday 11th: We did our Glaciar trek from 8am to 4pm (including 3 hours on a bus and boat) on Viedma, which was 45 kmlong from the two mountain sources. ace. It was two degrees and I had very little protected clothing, which made the sound of Torres Del Paine trek even more expensive. We walked on rock for 30 minutes, and then Augustin (who looked like my dad in the 70{s) tied cramp-ons to my feet and we started climbing the ice. Only one hairy bit on a thin precipice when the wind picked up and I stumbled once, but by the time we returned from this 960 sq km beauty, that glowed blue in the light, we had scraped ice into glasses and necked some Bailey{s, and then happily coiffed a coffee to get warm back on the boat. We got back at 4pm, grabbed our bags and transfered to a double room with a very nice comfy bed and Laura was away. i finished Enduring Love (also The Commitments and Atonement on the bus to kill time) and then went for a walk before dinner. We decided to say fuck it and nailed a $13 steak but boy was it good! Only my second so far, but bring on Buenos Aires i say! Laura was in gastro heaven too and to top it off a few games of 31 (cards) with these two yanks Elizabeth and Caroline in the local brewhouse made for a great evening.

Sat 12th - QPR lost a lead to draw in injury time for the umpteenth time this season, but I was in the middle of a 6 hor trek to Laguna Torre, where us four (us two and the yanks) saw a classic view of Torre. Well worth the cold feet and the snow. We got back at 5pm, made tea and sandwiches for the bus and jumped on at 6pm. Just before it left, Laura asked me where my passport was and I jumped up out my seat. I had left it in the safe of the hostel. In my rush to get to the desk I slipped down the bus stairs and strained my foot (how ironic after a day{s hike), which defintely put the idea of Paine trek to bed. Also alot of refuges are closing down at the end of low season (ready for a harsh winter) and I don{t fancy hiring all the Chilean expensive equipment and camping. Laura said she didn{t want to go (which i knew for about two weeks if I am honest) so we decided to do a day trip from El Calafate, if we ever got there.

Arrived at 9.30pm and walked fifteen minutes to the hostel we had pre-booked. Well we got a couple of Austrian girls who turned the lights on at 1am when the came in drunk and 6am when they got up to go hiking. Laura and I were on top bunks and the naked flourescent bulb was evil! On top of this my bunk had bed bugs and I had to go check them out (and itch the hell out of them at 4am). Must have 20 in total and they still itch a few days later. I complained upon checkourt after a chitty nights sleep but he didn{t give two fucks so I wrote a letter to the lonely planet.

Sun 13th - after check out, we strolled around for a while until we found a nice HI hostel on the other side of town. It was $40 for a double but I needed some sleep and Laura as always was not wanting to save money and get a dorm so we plummped for it. Thankfully it is cklean, the bathroom is nice and its one of the best places we{ve stayed. We chilled until 3pm when we caught a 7 hour Glaciar tour to Perito Moreno ($30, 4 hours travelling). It is moving and we saw it shed some ice after a little thunder like noise, but in truth it was an hour too long and our stomachs were eating their own lining by 10pm when we hit the Library Bar for a Hamburger and beer with the yanks. Great craic although I kept pissing Laura off by interrupting her by accident and she pulled a moody on me.

Mon 14th - We slept 4 hours and got up at 5am. By 6 we were whisked off to Torres Del paine, Chile for an amazing day walking threw the windswept wild and taking photos of Guanacos and condors and trying not to freeze to death. Glad we not hiking now and my foot was killing me! Some serious views although again at the border we got screwed at the money exchange - goddamn Chile man! A 600ml bottle of water cost me $2.60, which would buy you over 5 Litres in Bolivia!! Got back to the hostel at 10pm and made an amazing veggie stir fry and crashed into bed.

Tues 15th - Slept the sleep of Kings until 10am when I got a burst of energy to go book flights to Ushaia, the southern most town in the world, and go do some food shopping, but with town siestas, cooking, and laundry and internet it all took a little longer than planned and it was past 5pm when I returned home, having called home on a dodgy skype connection ($1 for 15 mins), and Laura and I crashed in front of the TV with Ham and egg rolls and beer, watching the most random film about this alien whose penis hummed and he fell in love with Annette Benning. Weird! Then did this and wrote some postcards and made a sausage pasta dinner, ready for our 10am taxi tomorrow, to fly to the end of the world, so its been nice. until next time, Adios! x Tom

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