Sore Feet and Nice Ice - Torres Del Paine and Perito Moreno Glacier

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Dont´know where to start this one as its been a busy time since the last post. Fist some good news, we got the jobs in Malawi so should be starting in May working for the University of Malawi at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre. Here in South America took another long long bus journey from Ushuaia back across the Megellan straights (where we were accompanied for part of the journey by two Commerson's dolphins) to Punta Arenas in Chile and then further North to Puerto Natales. We stayed in a residencial (Gabriella) in Puerto Natales with the friendliest owner ever, an elderly lady who talked and talked and talked, all in Spanish so we did a fair bit of nodding and smiling but did usually manage to pick up the gist of it. I´m sure if we´d been able to stay a couple of weeks we´d have been fluent in spanish by the end. We spent the next six days in the Torres Del Paine national park trekking which was absolutely fantastic - breathtaking and varied scenery (massive glaciers, bright blue lakes, icy mountains, rocky towers), great wildlife (including seeing Condors from as close as 20 feet, Black woodpeckers, Ibis and hundreds of Guanacos) and refugios with wine to make sleeping in a tent a little easier. We met a few interesting people on route including an increadably nice Australian who was spending two years in South America who was keeping warm at night by keeping his stove lit in his tent! Chances of his tent (and him?) surviving the two years may be slim. After being waved off at the door for the second time from the residencia we travelled (yet again by bus) to El Calafate, back in Argentina. This is a small town in the middle of no where but near the Perito Moreno Glacier, hence its full of tourists but its still very pleasant and a good place to relax in the sunshine. We hired a car in El Calafate and visited the glacier (quite cool watching huge chunks of ice fall into a lake from it) and then did a spot of bird watching (Ben and Subhani have got us converted). We're in El Calafate for one more night then off to Fitzroy for some more trekking.

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Photos

Waiting for the Sunrise that Never Came
Ben got me up at 5am to trek up to the Torres to see the sunrise. Result - sitting around for hours in the cold and no decent sunrise as too cloudy

Refreshments at the John Gardner Pass
Emily eating the last of the tablet (a scottish sweet made by my Mum, about 200% sugar)

One More View of Glacier Grey
Perhaps 3 pictures is overdoing it but it was a fantastic sight

Ruta 11
Horizon is not quite straight as one hand on the steering wheel!

Ibis
This was just outside a large refuge hence the manicured grass

Comments

[walter]

bridsmaid
can i be page boy please ? i'll be much better than fred !

[mabel]

weddings
if i can i will be the best bridesmaid ever !