Iguazu Falls to the final stop :(

South America
November 29th 2009

Published: December 18th 2009

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Em and Chris

Heartwarming

Em at Buenos Aires Airport waiting for our flight to Patagonia

Hola,

Us again....thought we'd try to get you all up to date as we have access to a pretty fast computer here in sunny Uruguay!

From Iguazu Falls we headed south on a nightmare bus journey to Buenos Aires. It took us almost 24 hours due to faulty air conditioning meaning several frustrating hours waiting in a bus station in the middle of the night. Not worth boring you with the details as there's so much good stuff to tell you about. We spent a night in Buenos Aires before catching a flight down to Patagonia. From the first moment we talked about going on a year long trip, Patagonia was the place top of Em's list so we were very excited. We landed in freezing cold conditions surrounded by beautiful snow capped mountains.....and this is Spring. We had to wait until now to come here or the weather would have been too bad to do any of the boat trips or National Park walks (pretty much the reason you come here).

Ushuaia is know as the end of the world and is officially the world's most southern city. What a beautiful place. Snow everywhere, topped up by

Tierra Del Fuego

The mighty mountains of Tierra del Feugo towering over Ushuaia

regular snow storms just added to the magic. We spent a couple of days taking in the sights and trying to stay warm. At one point we were forced into a bar for hot chocolate due to the freezing conditions, honestly some of the things we've had to do have been just awful....ha ha. After the obligatory photo with the sign proving we were indeed at the end of the world, we took an hour long boat taxi ride over to Puerto Williams in Chile. Having the complete monopoly on getting to the world's southern most town we paid an extortionate amount of money for such a short hop but didn't really have much choice. Still, with what was to come next we are more than happy with out decision to just do it anyway. The whole purpose of our visit to Patagonia centered around taking a boat for a couple of days through the fjords. Puerto Williams was the starting point for the boat that we had booked and is a strange little place primarily populated with Chilean Sailors. These people are 36 hours away (by boat) from their nearest large town in Chile!! The evening that we arrived

World's coolest bar?

Maybe!....in Ushuaia.

we were supposed to go down to where our ferry was docked to pay the captain for our upcoming journey. Looking back now it was a hilarious moment but at the time we were looking at each other very uncertain of what we were getting ourselves into. The ferry literally looked like a car park floating on the sea, we couldn't even work out where we would be sitting or sleeping. After a nervous night's sleep we made our way to the dock at 7am ready to board the beast. As it turned out we had a fantastic couple of days. Our 'cabin' just about squeezed in a set of bunk beds, although there wasn't enough room to actually sit upright, but we absolutely loved it. We had our own little heater and were able to relax in relative comfort whenever it was too cold to stay out on deck. For two days we shared our time between the stunning views from the top deck and huddling up together on our top bunk. Having said that we did also spend an incredible amount of time eating! Each day we were summoned at 7am for breakfast, 11.30am for a 3 course

Fin del Mundo!!

At the end of the world. The world's most southern city. Ushuaia

lunch, 2.30pm for afternoon tea (including a ham and cheese sandwich) and 6pm for a 3 course dinner!! Yes, we were stuffed. Loved it!! There were only 4 of us who had cabins at all, the rest of those aboard had to endure what looked like a normal seat from a coach. Seeing some of them leave the boat at the end of the trip, they looked like they had struggled to get much sleep or any kind of rest at all. What an amazing trip though, seeing such scenery from a boat with the light forever changing and the reflections of the snow capped mountains in the water was an unforgettable experience.

Eventually we arrived in Punta Arenas where we just spent one night in a strange hostel before heading to our next destination. It was quite amusing when I told Em that bizarrely I kept wanting to call the lady running the hostel Gladys even though her name was Christina. Not funny in itself, but made me chuckle when Em got a bit confused upon thanking Christina for her hospitality by saying "Muchas Gladyas!!!" ha ha.

Puerto Natales was our next stop, the jumping off point

Long way from home

for a fabulous tour of the world famous Torres Del Paine National Park. The town itself is quite pretty but nothing compared to the day trip we took. I know we're starting to sound like a scratched record but the views of the wonderfully formed snow capped mountains and the bright blue or green colour of the lakes we saw were just jaw droppingly beautiful. We shared this experience with a lovely young english guy called Adam who just had everything going wrong for him. He'd not seemed to have met many people on his 5 month long trip, his camera had broken and he wanted to go home early coz he was so home sick. Bless him, we did manage to keep him looking happy most of the day and have taken some pictures for him and sent them to him so he'll at least have something to look back at. Also on our trip was a fluent spanish speaker with the broadest Sheffield accent you could imagine . All courtesy of a Peruvian mother and English dad. Very funny contrast though. The highlight of the national park was our final stop where we walked for 45 minutes in

Goodbye Ushuaia

Leaving Ushuaia and Argentina to hit Chile once again

the freezing cold temperature but finally made it to the shoreline of a beautiful lake filled with the most amazing icebergs. Having never seen an iceberg before it was just surreal. It's incredible how blue they look close up, they are just beautiful.

We made it safely back to Puerto Natales and the following day we took a bus to El Calafate where we would be reunited with Dan and Valentina, some friends from way back on the Bolivia Saltflats Tour. After a fortunate mix up we were upgraded from sharing a dorm room to having two double rooms (which should have cost more than double). This set a trend of a few fortunate moments to happen over the following few days. There was a moment of panic as we tried to reach dad on his 60th birthday and the phone wouldn't work. Thankfully we managed it eventually. It was pretty emotional for us as we had really wanted to be there but we were so glad to get to speak to him on his special day and we did raise a glass of sparkling wine to him. Happy Birthday again Dad.

The visit to El Calafate was

Most expensive taxi in the world

The cute little boat cost so much it should have been diamond encrusted.

for it's proximity to the Perito Moreno Glacier, one of the only advancing glaciers in the world......and the only one that can be reached by road!! You imagine a glacier in your mind and it's beautiful and enormous and obviously cold but in reality just quadruple all of those things. We'd have to say that this makes it to the top 5 places we've ever been (a list that changes daily I must confess). We took an hour long boat ride right up close to the glacier and then took a walk along the boardwalks to stand and await the gunshotlike sounds of enormous chunks of ice breaking off and crashing into the water below. What a unique experience, truly unforgettable. We heard lots of ice cracking and were lucky enough so see three house sized pieces of ice dive into the lake. All of this on top of having a wicked laugh with Dan and Valentina. Every evening Em would cook up a storm and then we would all play cards and tell each other funny stories (we all know it was Chris telling most of the stories!!!!) We did eventually have to say goodbye to them in El

Hello again Chile

Arriving in Puerto Williams. The world's southern most town and boarding point for our luxury cruise!!

Chalten, a tiny little town a few hours away. Before going our separate ways we did embark on a 4 hour hike to see some beautiful mountain peaks. El Chalten is listed in the Lonely Planet as having some of the best views in the world and it didn't disappoint. We loved it and the walks were out of this world.

So after a sad farewell to Dan and Valentina we headed back to El Calafate for our flight back to Buenos Aires. After a couple of days of sorting out how to get to Uruguay we finally found ourselves on a lovely calm ferry on our way to Colonia Del Sacrememto. We thought we'd like Uruguay but we were still very pleasantly surprised by the beauty of this little town. Colonia has some gorgeous old plazas, picturesque jetty's for romantic sunsets with ice cream and a fairy princess style drawbridge leading to a very very old, cobble-stoned city. Two days weren't enough for us and we actually came back to Colonia for an extra night at the end of the Uruguayan leg of our trip. One of the highlights was our first meal out in quite a while,

Puerto Williams

Beautifully moody mountains.

where we treated ourselves to a meal each!!!.... and even had a glass of wine each due to it being cheaper than water!!!!! Both a little tipsy after refraining from drinking too much recently we had a lovely romantic walk along the seafront back to our hotel.

Next we hit Punta Del Este, Uruguay's premier beach resort, where we enjoyed 4 days of brilliant sunshine. We managed to spend some time just relaxing on the beach, taking long walks along the promenade and marvelling at the strange sculpture of a giant hand coming out of the sand!!! It's a lovely place to relax if a little expensive but we had a great time and were really sad to leave. After Punta del Este, that just left the capital Montevideo to explore. We managed this is a couple of days and particularly enjoyed the old town and the harbour.

So now we are back in Buenos Aires for the 4th time!!! This time we've had a few days to explore the city more and we absolutely loved it. We spent 7 hours wandering around the market in San Telmo last Sunday. We ate our lunch on a balcony overlooking

Ah..there it is

First glimpse of our boat for the trip through the fjords of Patagonia.

the square. What a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon, just taking in the sunshine, watching the hundreds of market stall holders selling their goods to the hundreds of tourists and locals, but mainly watching spontaneous outbreaks of Tango Dancing in the streets. Very passionate lot the Argentinians! We enjoyed this so much that we actually went out for our 1st anniversary celebration meal to a place that included a free, and I must say fantastic, Tango Show, where they danced between the tables.

Anyway, that's you lot up to date...... oh.... and one more thing........ we're coming home for Christmas!!!!

Love to you all

Chris and Em xx

PS...Don't forget to look at the bottom of the page coz there's 45 pictures!!!

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