Hiking and Striking

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So here we are, after two weeks blitzing Patagonia we are stuck in Chile in the middle of a strike. Can't complain too much we have had a great little time- seen massive glaciers and some great scenery. Done more hiking than we thought, the brochure said a little hiking here and there. We were a little confused when we were told our first hike would be 9-10 hours and 3 hours of that covered 800 meters. We made it though and then managed about another 60km over another 4 days. So suffice to say we were a little smug with ourselves. The glaciers are very cool (pardon the pun) and we saw some big break offs at the Moreno, but when they don't break some of the smaller ones can be a tad boring (we like the adrenaline!).

On one hike I got pushed over a boulder by the wind (lad) and bashed my arm, didn't realize I'd hurt myself until the next day when I saw I had a knee for an elbow and a popeye arm. Laura laughed. Standard. So we have seen pretty much every pharmacy through Patagonia, what with Laura's cough and cold and my elephantitis.

And that brings us to the strike in chile. We were 30 minutes from the Argentine border and our tour operator sent us further into chile to punta arenas. We are some of the lucky ones, staying at a nice hotel but we are getting cabin fever and there is no knowing when the strike will end. It's been quite hectic in the evening with a lot of burning stuff and car horn honking and all the roads in and out of the city are blocked. All the shops are closed too and we have been round the city more than enough to give a review. It isn't great. It looks like this may be the end of the trip, which is a little sad as we wanted to get down to the end of the earth. Fingers crossed the strike comes to an end and we can move on. Will keep you posted.

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