It´s not the end of the world.....well not quite anyway

Hello! I hope everyone is well, not too sick of winter, only one month to go!

I haven’t written a blog for ages so I’ll try and keep this one short but I can’t guarantee it! Last time I wrote I had just left Uruguay and was heading for Argentina.....

After a short stop in the Buenos Aires bus station we decided to head straight up north to visit Iguaçu falls, it seemed like a good idea at the time but after a painful 8 hour wait in the bus station and then a 20 hour journey on the coldest bus in the world, sitting next to the resident load snorer, we weren’t so sure!! Our first task when we arrived was to find Emma some shoes (exciting stuff I know!) as she only had a pair of unbearably hot walking boots with her. Deciding that she couldn’t keep them on any longer she barefooted it into town, much to the amusement of the locals. It was soon proven to be a mistake however when the pavement temperature rose to a ridiculously high degree and Em had to hop skip and jump between tin patches of shady heaven (what me, no I didn’t chuckle at all!) only to find the shops closed when we got there - oops!

Anyway after a ropey start Iguaçu soon picked up, we headed to the falls the next day. Despite the rain the falls were really impressive, I was totally surprised by just how far the spanned. We wandered around the tops of them and then headed to Devils Throat, the biggest of all of the falls, by this stage the rain had started to get really heavy and the walk way was ridiculously slippy, so we were trying to walk very carefully, when all of a sudden three members of the Klu Klux Klan appeared in front of me, I only just managed to catch my balance as I realized the were wearing a set of rather fetching rain ponchos supplied by a tour group....seriously, white capes and pointy hats, no need! Anyway, the devils throat itself was incredible, the volume of the water was enough to drench you even without the rain, and the sound was deafening, I found it amazing that the rivers joining it look so calm until about 50 feet before the drop, which lead me to question, if you were kayaking and suddenly heard and saw this big drop, would you paddle like hell or bail out....? Good job I’m not a kayaker I think

.......ok this is getting ridiculous, this blog is about 3 months old and nowhere near to completion, in an attempt to get it out of my ´saved folder´ I’m going to give you lucky people a quick run down of what was one of my favourite countries, add the photos (I know that’s the only bit you guys look at anyway!) and be done with it!!

So.....after the awe-inspiring Iguaçu falls we headed to Buenos Aires for Christmas, staying in a lovely hostel courtesy of our parents, and where I’m ashamed to say we indulged in Pizza for Christmas dinner!!! Sorry mum! It’s a great city, very vibrant, lots of Tango in the street. We went to see Evita´s grave on Christmas day too, how festive - that was after in made Em sit through a ridiculously tedious Catholic service - I know, I’m not religious, never go to church, but I heard the organ playing the day before and it reminded me of Home Alone, so I decided we should go, sing Carols and feel festive. They only played one carol, chanted for the rest of the time and choked us with incense - how Christmassy!!

From BA we went to the closest beach of Villa Gesell, mainly because I stamped my feet and insisted that I was not travelling for more than 10 hours on my birthday! We stayed in a cute little cabaña where we practiced Poi, much to the amusement of the 2 year old child who also lived there, there’s not much funnier to kids than grown adults randomly smacking themselves in the face with multi coloured balls apparently!!! We spent New Year there where we were almost killed by stray fireworks! After learning there was going to be a display at the pier, and being lazy, we decided just to head to the beach to watch them, after we crossed the sand to the water we realized me had made a slight faux-pas, we were now stranded, with the sea on one side and a whole arsenal of fireworks on the other, being set of by small children - how they are supposed to aim a rocket that is bigger than them is beyond me - and apparently them too as they flew around at indiscriminate angles, causing me and Em to hide behind the biggest group of people possible!!! We then had to make a GI Jane inspired dash across the beach to relative safety during a lull - phew!

After a few days of doing little, we headed to Puerto Madryn, where we bumped into some friends we had met in Iguaçu. We decided to go diving together the next day to see the Sea Lion colonies. It was absolutely incredible, despite a rocky start with my buoyancy (too much good food and wine in Argentina I think!) the dive was amazing, we had about 6 sea lions playing with us, dancing in front of us, and generally mucking around, they come so close, they try and take off you hood and even gave me a kiss on the cheek - how cute!!

We also hired a car, with Cooky as our designated driver we raced to the penguin colony in the few hours available before our next bus. Pretty impressive sight, absolutely millions of penguins, which amazingly didn’t smell half as bad as I’d anticipated!

Anyway, from there we headed to the end of the world, Ushuaia. After a brief overnight stop in Rio Gallegos (one of many!), where me and Em managed to get lost for about 3 hours despite its small size! We arrived at the end of the world! Still traveling with Sarah and Cooky, and a new recruit, Andreas from Ecuador (that’s Ecuador Emma, not Uruguay!) we arrived at our new hostel - very noisy, but very friendly. In Ushuaia we walked, we sat, we drank some very good hot chocolate, and that was pretty much it!! The national park is beautiful and I hope to go back sometime with a tent so I can actually appreciate it a little better. Whilst there, I roped an English guy from our hostel into attempted to smuggle on board an Antarctic-bound cruise ship with me. Obviously, the best time do this seemed to be 4.30 in the morning (when else?!) so off we headed, not quite prepared for the security which surrounds these boats! The first check point was manned by just one guy, so when he asked for our passes, we pleaded ignorance, spoke slowly to him in English and generally played dumb (not so difficult I hear some of you say - cheeky!) Whilst he went to phone someone for authorisation, I decided to just walk up the pier (see mum, cocky, I blame you!) My friend wasn’t so sure and hung back to see what the guard would say, after blowing his whistle at me (the guard, not my friend) I reluctantly headed back, where the guard was bamboozled by ignorance, and let us continue on our way. The next check was manned by customs men, in uniforms, with guns. Possibly a little trickier but after playing the ignorance card again, and showing my passport every time they asked for my ships pass, we managed to bore them enough for them to let us through, fully aware I’m sure, that we shouldn’t be there! The last check proved too tough for me, they were asking for everyone’s card to enter the boat, however as I was procrastinating about just looking around (these ones spoke English, damn it!) Danny managed to slip past the security and race up to the top deck. He won the challenge but I still stand by the fact that he never would have made it without me!

After my botched Antarctic dash, we decided to leave and head back up north to see Perito Moreno, one of the few remaining glaciers which is actually renewing itself. Overall (it’s in a huge field of glaciers) the effect is a reduction, but this particular glacier is spectacular to watch. Huge chunks of ice are constantly falling off with deafening cracks, and plunging into the water - we were totally mesmerised. Though unfortunately my camera was not up to the job of capturing the falling ice.

From Calafate we moved further north to Bariloche, a beautiful Swiss inspired village, surrounded by lakes and mountains, and full of fantastic chocolate shops, heaven!! We met up with my Antarctic escapades partner in crime, and spent a nice day kayaking out on the lake, where the guides then invited us to join them at a beer festival. The festival itself was a little lame, being rained out only about 30 mins after we got there, but the guys from the kayaking offered to takes us around for the next few days, personal guides for the lakes and mountains, lovely!!! Thanks guys! (if you want to see some photos from the top of the mountain hike that Fede took Emma and a friend of ours on, look at http://www.flickr.com/photos/skyoctane under albums, Emma bariloche - Matt’s an awesome photographer and took some beautiful photos - that’s right Matt, just gave you a compliment, what was I thinking?!)

Anyway, that was about it for Argentina, we were headed for Chile!!!

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