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Published: February 4th 2008
Iquazu Falls
Argentinian sideOk, this is a novel, it may take a few sittings, keep going, skim read if you like, maybe I´ll help by highlighting points.......I'm also aware there´s a lot of photos of me, I´m sorry -it won´t happen again.
Oh lovely little Uruguay, why did we leave you?
We left our little hospedaje and got the ferry across to the high rise sophistication of BUENOS AIRES. From the port we walked the mile or so to the bus station a place so different, big and bustling from the sleepy haven we´d just come from. We had a rather gruelling waiting experience in the bus station before our bus to PUERTO IGUAZU, back up north near the Brazilian border. The bus was freezing cold, I´ve never known air con to be so powerful and the bus never stopped, bar once at around midnight where I stumbled off with two conflicting needs in search of a bathroom and a drink. A sucky 18 hours later we arrived. Within moments we´d made friends with Matt, a photographer originally from Australia, but has been travelling for the past 4 years. How sweet is that?! And so it was we were to become 3 amigos
Devil´s Throat
Iquazu Falls Brazilian side... for the next few days.
I´d arrived in desperate need of new flip fops, my only footwear being walking boots it was like 40 degrees and far too hot to imagine putting those on, I decided to barefoot it round town. Not only did it get enough strange looks, I found that pavements get really really hot and it´s amazing how even the thinnest flip flop can save your feet from melting into the tarmac. Unfortunately, we arrived slap bang at the start of siesta,1pm-4pm, so I had to run from shade to shade like some barefoot feral wild child with a manic look of pain on my face. Needless to say I donned the boots until the sun lost its heat.
Our reason for visiting was to go to Iguazu Falls which stretch across the Brazilian/ Argentinian border. Typically the very next morning it was pouring with rain, cold, wet and windy it was British holiday weather. Still, this made the waterfalls even more impressive. They are an extensive arc of cascading water, broken up by intermittent rocks and rivers. A steel canopy walkway crosses over them, caution, SLIPPERY WHEN WET! There were loads of toursits, all wearing their
Street entertainment
Matt as the volunteer in Puerto Iquazu for Sarah and Cooky ponchoesque rainmacs that divides the white Ku Klux Klan group from the blue smurfs. We were the 3 that fell into neither category. It was freezing, especially as we crossed over some wide exposed rivers to get to the Devil´s throat waterfall, which was so immense, high and voluminous? The spray and wind that engulfed us was indeed saturating. Still, watching the water gush down was so mesmerising it was awesome, by far the most impressive waterfalls I have ever seen in my life. There were supposed to be toucans around, but we never saw any, but a gorgeous butterfly with´88' on its wings, so beautiful.
Back at the hostel we got talking to a Sarah and Cooky, another couple from Oz who are so lovely and have their own business of teaching circus skills to local communities. Their tricks are wonderful and so entertaining, Sarah is a hula queen and Cooky can juggle and balance poles on his chin, it´s incredible. What a life eh? Getting paid to travel around Australila and play.
The next day we went back the same park as we still had the lower circuit to see. This time the weather was gorgeous, so different.
The Devil's Throat
Close up of Iguazu falls, Brazilian side. We got a little boat across to an island and it was like a mound of lush, being continually sprayed by the falls and bathed in sunshine, exploring it felt like a scene in Planet of the Apes or something. We took a walk in the jungle in hope of spotting the elusive Toucan. We were so quiet for about 2 hours, until the very end of the trail where we were chased by big horrible stingy flying bugs, so we pegged it until the path ran out, disturbing some parakeets or some tropical birds that flew off before we got there. No toucan though.
The evening was really fun, as our whole hostel went out, including another English couple, a Belgian and a lady from France. Sarah and Cooky who always take their toys with them, put on a show involving double cartwheels, hula hoops and sticking chopsticks up nostrils (do not try this at home) it was brilliant. Lady France then tried to follow suit, failing in my estimation, but in her attempts to entice Belgium she produced a very lame toucan impression, whereby she just shouted "TU...CAAAANNNNN" a few times. Then, perhaps playing her winning card to
seduce Belgium further, she started belly dancing with an Asian twist, freakishly widening her very large eyes, sticking her neck out as far as it would go, wobbling her head from side to side and looking as far East and West as her eyes would permit, so that she reminded me of a bug eyed puppet from The Sound of Music, the ones that the Von Trapp family all yoddle along with? "High on a hill, was a lonely goat.....?" ( I know what I mean)
Anyway, returning from the bar, we went in seach of a rumoured fiesta, led by a little old guy from our hostel, dragging some other members of the hostel out of bed, but unfortunately we´d just missed it.
Our final day was spent looking at Falls from the Brazilian side. I know, quite a thorough visitation on our behalf, but worth it. It was a mother of a journey, having to chop and change and wait for buses, go through immigration to get out of Argentina and into Brazil...bah! Eventually we made it, much to many of Matt´s swearing and annoyance, but as I said, so worth it, especially for Matt as he was
Same same but different..
Argentinian side,offered so many views... able to take some stunning photos. We felt like part of his crew as we were helping carry and hold various lenses, tripods and equipment. The view from this side is so different, you get a real panoramic perspective insted of being up close. At the Devil´s Thraot we were right on top of the Falls, with spray and sunlight creating rainbows, sparkling jets of water and white fluffly flumes that send goosebumps to the skin. There was randomly an aligator caught in between the rocks in a pool of water near the waterfall. I´ve no idea how he came to be there, or how he would escape. Poor thing.
We left Matt waiting for the sunset and to play with another photographer´s camera that had more gadgets. It took an age for the bus again and we were left at the border to be stamped out of Brazil. We decided to walk across the border to Argentina as buses were so infrequent. This was some distance, about 4km, within which we had to pass a Security patrol guard place that insisted on seeing our passports and thoroughly compared our photos. A few minutes on from leaving them, one of
the officers roared up on his Quad bike, with his hat placed on the front, offering a lift to the immigration post. So on we jumped, either side of this man in uniform, like 2 trophies, with our hair blowing in the wind...it was hilarious. As we pulled up there was a cheer from surrounding men randomly grouped around and off the guard whizzed with such a smug look on his face. Love it! Sometime it pays to be a girl.
The next day we sadly left Matt, who was off to Rio and Sarah and Cooky had left the day before. We were going back to Buenos Aires for CHRISTMAS. Another long-hual journey, but better in the fact we were prepared for it and we already had accommodation booked for us- the nicest present from home (Thank you so much Mum and Dad, Janette and Bryan). We would never had stayed in a place as easily comfortable as that. Breakfast was served by a real life Julie Walters character - she´d have served up "two soups" just as horrendously. She was so sweet, but had no idea what day of the week it was and took forever to
Christmas Day
That's tinsel in my hair... serve coffee, slightly bent over and shuffling back and forth, carrying one thing at a time, the lady was not an energy saver and most guide dogs can multi task better.
We had a couple of days before the Merry event, enough to time to search for Sarah´s missing parcel at the post offices and to buy some little gifts for her myself. Unfortunately, Sarah´s parcel was nowhere to be found, which was more the pity as mine had arrived safely at our hostel.
CHRISTMAS EVE, we decided to celebrate with one of our many bottles of bubbles that we´d invested in. On loosening the plastic cork (shows it´s expensive eh?!) we then decided to take it out to the terrace, timing it perfectly so that the cork exploded and rocketed right up my nose. I have never been more shocked and pained by anything in my life. It was hilarious. My nose instantly felt like it had swollen to ten times it´s normal size, but I couldn´t feel it after the initial pain as it went numb. No blood was shed amazingly, but my eyes watered and my nose was so hot and red. I´m just glad I
Milk Maids
Christmas day randomness... managed to block the cork from hitting the chandelier. I was doused with ice, which proceeded to melt quickly from the heat, but managed to finally get my nerves tingling back a few hours later. It was classic and wish I´d had it on camera.
We made friends with a lovely girl from London, called Rebecca, who we went in search of the firework display with. We wandered the strangely quiet streets of Buenos Aires, but could see nor hear any sign of anything, only the random firecrackers that kids were letting off on the pavement. We returned safely back to our hostel, just as an almighty eruption of fireworks sounded in the sky. Damn it!!! That´s just typical. Nevermind, so we heard the fantastic display instead. I personally was still seeing stars from earlier.
CHRISTMAS DAY!!!! By 9am, we´d popped another lot of bubbles (never too early), expertly opened by one of the staff as I was prohibited to ever open another again. As we sipped our morning tipple, I opened my box from home. What a bizarre and wonderful collection of goodies...a novelty sparkler, tinsel, santa/snowmen chocolates, scoubie strings, a glo-stick and a huge bright pink inflatable
Salut!
Christmas dinner with Rebecca microphone to mention a few!!! Thanks Mum and Dad!!! Just what I've always wanted!!!
Donning tinsel in our hair and our best clothes we were set to go to CHURCH!! We invited Rebecca along and so off we went hoping for a good carol sing song. An hour later of latin and spanish sermon we were ready to fall saleep. Not so light hearted as we´d hoped, but we felt good.
We spent the afternoon around a graveyard...mmm...festive...no, it was a special one in the Recolletta area where the rich and famous are buried, such as Evita. Not so much a graveyard but more a mini town of marble buildings. I´ve never seen anything so expensive, each shrine to the family looked like the enterance to a swanky wine bar or bank. It was interesting though. Early evening saw a few more bottles of bubbles on the terrace and we went out for dinner...a pizza! I know, not at all traditional, just how it should be.
A few days in Beunos Aires and we were ready to leave on Sarah´s birthday, for our NEW YEAR in VILLA GESSELL. This is a nice little town on the coast, quite touristy,
Cool Cat
Sarah´s mask sunnies I bought her for Christmas...she´s not worn them yet...why? but laid back, with a very holiday feel about it. We found a cute little room, in a lady´s house. Simple but ideal. We were here for a week.
We spent much of time upon the beach, though it´s like being a sitting duck for the leaflet and flyer droppers, advertising various nights out, most starting around 2 or 3am. Having embraced the South American bikini, not my usual choice, I refused to make eye contact with anyone as my pants were just soooo small. This was even more embarrassing as one guy came over for a sneaky phone photo of him grinding away right beside me. What is up with these people? Is there no law to protect you from personal space invasion, or public right against taking photos??!! New Year´s came and went with a bang-literally. After discovering we´d lost an hour the day before, due to daylight saving (a very confusing hour as we thought we´d entered some strange time continuum) we went to the beach for midnight where there was to be a firework display down by the port. We thought we´d get a good view, but it turns out it was an up close free
for all display. I couldn´t believe it. There were children as young as 7 just shoving giant rockets into the sand a metre or so away and lighting them like they were going out of fashion. It became a scene from a war, with explosives surrounding us. We pegged it across the beach, only to then be stranded as we couldn´t make it back without GI Jane manoevres and dodging rockets, sparklers and huge vats of gunpowder. I have never seen so many, HUGE FIREWORKS going off all at once and so very near. I´m afraid Dad, even your last performance has been out done. You would´ve loved it though. New years Day I had to go in the sea and in the evening we went to the cinema with proper popcorn. It was really just a huge tv with 2 amps at the front. I think cinema may be over doing it a bit.
January 2nd and we´re heading for PUERTO MADRYN, on a very tight time schedule to make connections with the buses. It was a race against time and the elements seemed to be against us as our first bus was late, then the rain slowed
Scuba Crew
Me, Sarah, Sarah and Cooky us down, red lights everywhere....but we made it.
Puerto Madryn has a few Welsh influences, mainly seen in the nic-nacs of woolly sheep and woolly garments, wood carvings and sea side paraphenalia. It was nice. We ended up at the one hostel we said we´d never stay at, as the description of "rather gloomy, dull rooms with sagging beds" was darn right. Still, beggers can´t be choosers. The temperature was so different, icy winds coming from the sea. We bumped into Sarah and Cooky, our circus friends and cajolled them into staying at our hostel. We spent a rather messy evening with them and some locals. We´d planned to go diving the next day and I´m rather glad to say it was cancelled, as I was still feeling a bit fragile to be honest. The wind conditions have to be pretty much perfect. So we spent the afternoon being taught more Poi moves for our eventual fire dancing extravaganza!!! Got ourselves quite a little audience, though I think mainly for Sarah and Cooky´s amazing skills rather than mine and Sarah´s!
So it was to be early next morning that we were diving....and the most exciting part is.....with SEA LIONS!!!
Our dive instructer - Patrick, was like a little exciteable school boy. He was tiny, but stocky and in his very thick wetsuit, he rather resembled the Penguin from Batman. The dive company were brilliant, Sarah and I had 2 rather attractive men help us into wetsuits, a combination of leggings and vest, with another body jacket on top, both being 7mm, with boots, gloves and hood, I could barely breath. But the water temperature is only 17 degrees, so it´s well needed, particularly with my goofy circulation. We got the dinkiest little boat that slapped and spanked us for 25 minutes to a peninsula, littered with the largest colony of sealions I´ve seen. As we dropped the anchor and went in, sealions were already curious to see us. It was so amazing. They are really inquisitive and followed us all the time. You can put your hand out like a fist and they may touch it with their mouths, or bite it, to feel what you are. I got bitten a couple of times and I´m pleased we had gloves, as they have those kinda puppy needle-like teeth. It didn´t hurt though. They also pull and tug at the
hoods, as Sarah experienced and bite at the tanks. I´m making them sound viscous and dangerous, but not at all, it´s all just curiousity. I got to shake one´s flipper!!! I wasn´t sure if I was going in for a hug, but I wasn´t sure about the etiquette when just meeting a sealion. It was over all too soon, but Sarah and I had to wait below, whilst Sarah and Cooky surfaced. In this time, we not only had the slinkiest, posing, tease of a sealion look at us with batting eyes, waving her body like a mermaid, but then a huge granddaddy sealion was within a metre of me, checking us out and I was scared in case he thought we were a threat and would attack...luckily not. My biggest scare came though, within moments as I saw a huge shadow looming out of the hazy darkness, coming straight towards us. It´s a bit of a running joke now, that I tend to see things that aren´t really there, my imagination combined with my poor eyesight, tends to get me in trouble, but I swear it was like a whale, or a shark..., or maybe a really big sealion....or...oh,
phew, it was actually Patrick..oops!! Loved it!
The next day we were getting a bus around 3pm, so we decided to pack into the day, a 2 hour drive to a PENGUIN COLONY. We hired a car, and had us a little road trip with Sarah and Cooky, who drove. It was a shame we couldn´t spend more time there, as it was great. We literally walked amongst the penguins. They have little nests under sorry looking bushes and fluffly smokey grey babies just lie there. A few penguins were off on a mission to the water and they hurry down in a little line as if their life depends on it. It´s tragic if they get thrown off course by and interfering human cutting across their path as they waddle back and seem to forget their purpose. Worth the effort of going there and back. I have a new appreciaitoin for penguins now.
We had a bit of an epic journey, but it was nice that Sarah and Cooky were also heading our way. We believe they became stalkers. We had a 20 hour ride to RIO GALLEGOS, a town only existing I feel for stopping over
to make other bus connections. We spent the afternoon, once there shopping for warmer clothes and I now don a pair of socks over my hands, cut off like fingerless mittens-not a good look, but my hands are warm. Unfortunately, time ran away with us and it late by the time we started back to our hostel. We then got lost. We had no idea where we were. Obscene language passed my lips as the coldness and tiredness accumulated into onw big ball, but once out, how the hysteria emerged and Sarah and I made it back, just before sunset!
So another epic bus journey greeted us early in the morning, made possibly vaguely exciting by crossing over the Chile border a couple of times, which meant that we had 4 immigration posts to be stamped in and out of...bah! So, we´d technically been to Chile twice, before even getting to our destination of USHUAIA, which is still in Argentina. Note to anyone travelling round here, carrying food across is a no-no and in the words of Usher, "you can eat it or throw it away", it´s so funny watching people with the "waste not, want not" attitude quaff down
bag fulls of supplies at random times of the morning...several buses later and a random stop at a station with Toucans to Ushuaia...the furthest city south..aka..The End of the World!!! (So gutted I didn´t get the stamp in my passport claiming this). En route we made friends with Andres, from Uruguay and so another tagger to our increasing group. We found a hostel run by a rather dippy drip of a guy, new, and friendly, we all managed to find a room. The walls were paper and the door didn´t shut properly let alone lock, besides which there was a gap from floor to ceiling for a small child to squidge through. I love Hostels....
So we dropped our stuff and headed out for a well earned drink. We did a small pub crawl and in one place a random guy took a blatant phot of me with his moblie phone-I´m beginning to get paranoid, believing a third eye may be forming somewhere perhaps??!!! I don´t get it, maybe a conspiracy and I´m being hunted down....anyway, embarassed at having been caught out by Sarah, he actually bought a round of drinks for everyone. So I suppose that´s something..our final pub,
was an Irish pub-The Dublin, that was to become our local. Here the world and his wife seemed to congregate, as well as a shipful of rowdy guys on their way from the Galapagos to the Antarctic..so jealous. Sarah and Cooky were leaving early to go camping, so we said our farewells.
The next day, we were rudely awoken by a screaming child banging on doors, so we braved the very cold and mizzly air. The view from the town is incredible, surrounded by mountains, snow-capped peaks in the distance and the National park. After the most scrumtiously warming coffee and free chunks of chocolate, we met Andres and his friend Sebastian to go round the Maritime Museum. It was actually very interesting, as it was formerly an old jail and each wing, was a themed gallery, or exhibition with each cell presenting information in it.
On returning to our hostel, I found a huge ginger tiger of a cat asleep on my bed, where it stayed until the very early hours of the next morning. We planned a nice quiet night, to catch up on sleep, but at 11pm the hostel was still buzzing, as most people are eating
Freaks of nature...
This this dynamic duo are Sarah and Cooky!!! But we looked much the same! then and two guys, Fock; an Israeli and yes, that´s a nick name and Dan, from Bath were going to ye old pub Dublin. So we went for just the one....a very amusing evening entailed, starting off now somewhat predictably, by an old man taking a photograph of me taking my jumper off. I ask you, how pervy can you get? Bah! It was the most cringeworthy moment ever. We met a random Canadian guy called Mike who was such a tall bulls*#-+er! He was very much a transient drifter, wanting to travel all the countries, but going wherever there was a party, especially if coke was supplied. Not the fizzy kind. Sarah became engrossed in a conversation in Spanish about psychology and the Oedipus complex with a dude called Fabien, whilst I chatted to an Alberto. Rather intense if you ask me, which became obvious as he said Sarah had the brains of the two of us. Good job I´m not easily offended, it would probably go straight over my head anyway..in one ear, out the other... and so our early night ended at 3am with an invitation to meet another night....for dancing.
Up early to meet Andres and
Sebastian as we´d agreed to go walking to a glacier. It was mission just to find their camp site, by which time Sarah had hurt her foot and so returned back to the warm, cosy hostel....meanwhile I had a gruelling 2 and half hour climb through forest to be greeted by a blob of an glacier. Not so bad as the walk was nice itself. I revelled in true Argentinian spirit to have some mate at the top. To cut the downhill walk shorter, we excelled in landsliding freestyle. At one point I was clinging onto a tree trunk with one hand holding onto Sebastian with the other, as rocks gave way under foot and the slope was cut off by a cliff drop. Nice one boys, making the girl go first isn´t always so gentlemanly of you. I returned shattered, but with a hearty outdoor glow. All I want to do was relax, preferaby in bed, but apparently there was a fiesta going on tonight. Andres came by our hostel to say goodbye as he was heading off the next day, but he decided to join into the fiesta. We were to meet Dan and Fock at midnight, then
go to Dan´s friend´s house, who could get us free tickets to a club. At 2am, we were sitting in his friend´s house who were very sweet- Marina and her boyfriend, and then on we went to get these tickets. It was a trek to the other side of town and various port of calls were made, but eventually we were in, thanks to Rasta man and his freebies-the original funk soul brother with a pineapple protusion of dreds. The club was a very busy and sweaty affair, never before have I worn walking boots with thermals and combats, with sock mittens to a club...and never again... the usual collection of freaks were about and it seemed an evening of trying to avoid them all...the rowdy cruiseship crew, young hot-blooded male Argentinians, random travellers and Mike. This time, Mike was worse, I forgot to mention the furiousity that he bellows into my ear , whilst touching it. There is no personal space and I found myself fully leaning back by 90 degrees, whilst he bent over with his tonuge practically in my ear, offering I think the job of being his crack mule, all the while pressing me closer to
Andres and Sebastian
And the blob of white stuff to the left-that´s the glacier him with his wandering hands...enough, I find I still have nightmares....Sarah kindly protected me from the beast, but got herself into the same situation, this time having the offer of being smuggled aboard a cruise ship with him, in his sleeping bag..ugh. The funniest was when the strobe lighting came on (yeah, so retro, it was trance, dance and UV) and all of a sudden, Mike appeared from nowhere, with the strobes illuminating his scary presence and ever haunting face...I had "Carmina Burana" in my head (the devilish music I think from the Old Spice ads?) Carl Orff´s the composer anyway. Brilliant night, but poor Andres had had enough. He wobbled and weaved his way along, but already 5am and he still had the trek back to his campsite as he was doing a tour later that morning ! Bless him, he had no idea what was going on....we just hoped he made it back alright.
At last a lie in and we treated ourselves to the yummiest breakfast of coffee and pancakes made with real chocolate and Dulce de leche. So good. Sarah went back for a nap, whilst I had the idea of enjoying a rare bout
My mate, "mart-ay"
mmmm...yummy...not so much my cup of tea of warm sunshine and finding postcards. I was accosted by Alberto..the guy from the bar. I manged to escape fairly unscathed and with postcards, to find that Sarah and Cooky had returned a day early from their trek!!! It was so nice to see them again. We all went out to The Dublin, where we wittled away the hours til dawn, at which point Sarah and Dan had made a pact to try and become stowaways on one of the cruise ships and set off to embark upon getting through security. We also had an invite from Fabien for a BBQ at his house the following day.
With 4 hours sleep between us, Sarah and I were up the next day to squeeze in the National Park, being our last day it was our only chance. Dan had successfully completed the cruise ship challenge, but only through the accomplice of Sarah, had she not been there, he´d never have got on board..note, Sarah taught Dan everything to know about the art of cruise ship hopping...(if you ever read this Dan). So, absolutely exhausted, we enjoyed a 3 hour tramp through beautiful forest, alongside the Beagle Channel with views of the
Ladies night
I´d just licked Sarah´s face.....haha mountains beyond. With clearer heads we got the bus back at 3pm, but it took an hour and a half. unfortunately we were now very late for our BBQ invitation, knowing Dan would already be there at Fabien´s house. We ran back and phoned and his friend Santiago picked us up. The house was a wee basic wooden cottage in the forest. It was lovely. Sarah had to work her way through the remaining calf-load of meat they´d cooked, whilst I dined on a tomato roll, as they´d eaten the veggie dish he´d made!! It was really nice, although we thought it´d be a little awkward. There´s no way we´d ever accept such a nice genuine invite like that on our own, but having Dan with us, was ideal. It was a great way to try and learn Spanish too. We had to have a round of mate each, thanks to Dan who insisted we couldn´t share one between the two of us. Mate is like a bitter green tea. Not something I ever see myself getting into, no matter how often I try it. Luckily Fabien had 2 gorgeous dogs, a german shepherd and a rottweiler, which always helps
A clockwork orange
Sarah stole Cooky´s hat pass time...It was already 9pm and Dan had a dinner arrangement with his friend Marina, but we were all to meet at the Dublin later. By 12 midnight I was now mildly hysterical, having a build up of sleep deprivation and burning the candle at both ends for too long. Dan still hadn´t shown, but we decided to go to the pub with some other hostelers as it would´ve been rude to let Fabien down again. It was a really good night, as they always are. Dan showed up at 1am, and Fabien and Santigo half an hour later.
Another late one, barely worth getting into bed for an hour before getting up at stupid'O clock to get the bus in the morning.
We were on or way to EL CALAFATE, having to go all the way back through the rigormoral of border crossings and back to Rio Gallegos, change buses, another three towns and buses and a day later, we finally got to El Calafate. En route, we met 2 fellow English backpackers, Anthony and Chung, Anthony was an actor no less in his day, for the likes of Corrie, The Ward and period dramas. We arrived at
Don´t mess..
Cooky looks like the Devil from the flames....marvellous camera work, or dodgy lighting..... 1am and we were ushered at the bus station towards various hostels. We stuck together and ended up at a nice enough place. We were only planning on a 2 day stop and spent the first one negotiating our options of seeing the huge glacier of PERITO MORINO. One of the few exisiting glaciers to still be growing!! We organised a trip for the next day, all very coach tour, but worth it. The scenery was stunning, so much land it's incredible, the water was flat and so blue, the Andes followed us all the way to the National Park. Once there, we had a good 3 hours to mosey our way along balcony walkways that gave impressive views of the glacier. There are a lot of people just stopping and waiting as huge chunks of ice just drop off into the water below. There's creaking and groaning and we witnessed a few really big breaks. I tried to capture it on multi shot, but the ice was just too bright..sorry no slide show. The chunks that come off are the size of huge 60metre high rise buildings. You watch them fall into the water and sink, then 5minutes later,
The mission
The cruise ship that Dan managed to get on, in the harbour of Ushuaia. it'll bob back up to the surface again and cause huge waves. The peaks look like meringue and the chiselled sides are so old they've coloured to look like rock. We then took a boat ride up to the face of the glacier, not so near that it's dangerous, but unfortunately no huge drop offs occurred...shame! And may I tell you it was bitterly cold.
We then were to go to BARILOCHE and would you believe it, we had to go all the way back down to Rio Gallegos, to then go all the way back up and onwards, involving 4 buses, stupid hours, lack of sleep and long journeys. Still, it was worth it. Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina, a pretty town of thick wooden shops and twee houses, gathered in front of a huge lake, fringed by forest and hills. It really is chocolate box perfect with a very Swiss/Alpine feel.
We found the cutest little place, a cottage set in an old lady´s garden. She was such a dear, appearing so fragile all bent over and wobbly, shuffling her feet, but showed us around the cottage, navigating the tiniest, winding staircase with her walking
One of Sarah´s many talents..
a new version of spooning.... stick. I was so frightened she would fall, but she´s a sturdy capable thing. Very fiesty too, with her original Slovenian tone, but fluent in Spanish and English. She set us down for an hour´s spiel about what the town had to offer, everything from which supermarket she recommended to chocolates and hiking expertise. She was a gem and reminded me of my Nans. Hi Nans!
So our days were spent milling around the chocolate shops-going in each to get free samples. We also met up with Dan from Ushuaia, who was staying at a hostel and so had a couple of nights out with him, to the very famous Argentinian Steak house, where I must admit they do a very fine salad and generous portion of chips. We arranged to go kayaking with him and had the nicest tour group, another couple of guys, who arranged a picnic, predictably involving mate, which gets worse each time I try it. The day got better after a very windy start, we´d picked the roughest day to go on the lake. It was a major battle to steer the kayak, especially as I had to do it with my feet, using my
BBQ crew
At Fabien´s house: Dan,Sarah, Fabien, Santiago and me looking very simple.... foot like a hand, to turn a lever, not pedals...a bit bizarre. Still, no catastrophes. The evening offered a beer festival a bus ride away, which took some effort to get to, and lasted only an hour as it started to rain. It´s the first time it´s been done, so we´re pioneers of the festival. We then got a lift back wih the guides we´d met and went to a rumba night at a bar. The music was so excellent, the drummer especially. But there was a real loser of a guy, persistantly trying to get Sarah to dance with him, but I think the beery perspiration and slurring may have put her off. Instead we watched a very heavily pregnant lady swirl around with him....they start them young, dancing before they can walk.
The guides we´d gone kayaking with had the next couple of days off between them and so very kindly offered to take the 3 of us out for a couple of days. We went with Martin, to the Bambi wood, a really pretty place that had trees with bark markings like Bambi. They looked so fake, like part of a set. Then onto a little beach
Crazy in Ushuaia
Like the set up for a live party where everyone pretends to be crazy....I think sleep deprivation had a large part to play in this.... set along the lakeside that we walked to. It was really nice of him. Later that day, Dan had left to go onto Bueons Aires, but we replaced him (sorry Dan) with another friend Aussie Matt, we´d met in Iguazu. It was great as it involved conveniently meeting up at yet another chocolate cafe and having another coffee with free chocolate. We´d arranged to go walking the next day with Fede, one of the kayak guides and invited Matt along. Unfortunately Sarah had caught my steaming cold and after attempting the bus ride there, decided to go back and sleep. No such luck for me, I had to take my snot rags with me. So off we went and gathered height pretty quickly to a base camp that offered stunning views across the lakes and mountains. I thought this would be it and so set up a picnic and relaxed, it was a sweaty 2 and half hours so far.....but apparently the peak was only another 1 and a half hours away. I looked up and could see no path, it was all rock face, dispersed my mini glaciers and snow build up. We decided to give it a try,
Ice Ice baby
Porito Moreno glacier but I knew within minutes this wasn´t for me. The old height factor came to mind and Thai rock climbing. This was hard core, never before have I rock climbed and scrambled up ledges without any ropes or saftey harnesses. My goodness was I sweating, even though I was surrounded by snow. We had to trek across areas of thick snow and ice melt. I swore I would refuse to go on, but just couldn´t say no, onwards and upwards and hating every second of it, so glad that Sarah was safely tucked up in bed (hopefully). We eventually reached the summit, known as Black rock (I think) and never befere has a view been literally breath taking. It was phenomenal. We had an uninterrupted vista of pure photogenic snow capped mountains, the biggest I´ve ever seen, stretching out into Chile, as the Andean border. Just when I didn´t think it could get better (or higher) we reached another peak (Mont Tourista) where there was a 360 degree panoramic viewpoint, making me feel literally on top of the world. Incongruously there was a seat here, where the classic photo opportunity is made. Matt, being a photographer, took some awesome shots
(hence the really good photos-cheers Matt!) and also why there´s a rare influx of ones of me...I was a model for a day! My only chance eh? Up a mountain looking sweaty and windswept, Miss Moss has nothing to fear. I was quite proud of myself actually, as the view and feeling of making it was so definitely worth it.
On the way back down, there was a pure snow slope, and so Matt took the initiation to ski it. This ultimtely turned into bum sledging, but looked fun all the same. I was last to go and flew down. my hands tried to grab onto the ice to slow down but ended up with majorly painful ice burn. I dug my heels in just in time before I was sliced by a rock. As I stood up I had a whole ice pack down my shorts-yes shorts and undies--yes undies. Both Matt and I had burning, tingly, numbbness in our bright red raw meat looking hands for 2 hours at least after that. It was fun though!
We didn´t get back til really late, as it had taken the whole day and then waiting for buses and it was
an hour back to town, so it was 10pm before I returned absolutely shattered to a rather concerned Sarah.
The next day we took it easy, meeting up with Matt and sorting buses out etc. En route, for laundry I bumped into Anthony and Chung, just back from camping! We arranged to meet up, but they ended up running out of time before their bus. We didn´t mind as we waited in the main square where there are humungous St Bernard dogs there for gimmicky photos. One guy befriended us and let us look after the most tiny, fluffy pup bundle. She was adorable. People thought we were part of the crew as we were there so long. Ah, Macy, don´t be jealous, you were cute once.
The next day all 3 of us were on a bus into Chile, we´d recruited Matt once again as our 3rd amigo........Argentina turned out to be brilliant, helped by the great friends we´d made, Chile has a lot to live up to, so fingers crossed....
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