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Published: March 26th 2009
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Yes I know, it has been a looong, looong time (in fact 44 days!), since I published my last blog-entry ... somehow there is happening so much and I just do not have the time to write the blogs ... no time? sounds strange for someone who has "all the time he wants" - but it´s the truth! :-) ;-)
I have to begin with an "anniversary": Today (05.02.09) is my 122nd day of the journey - this means, I´m already on my way for 1/3 of a year! Unbelieveable, how time is running! It feels like yesterday, when I left Austria!
Ushuaia - I´m comming! :-) Took the flight from Rio Gallegos to Ushuaia (as it was only 36 Pesos more expensive as the bus, but therefore 10 hours less travel-time :-). Surprisingly the whole fligth was very punctually! We startet at the sheduled time and although there was a stop over in Rio Grande, everything was just in time. Wow - my first experience like this in Argentina ;-) (but of course, there have been no safety-instructions at the flight - not necessary here ;-)
I took a taxi to my Couchsurfers home and it was
a real pleasure getting to know Veronica. Her family is even comming from Austria, so we where able to speak German and I could even speak some dialect, because she was able to understand it perfectly! This was really nice - for the first time within already 4 months of my journey, I met an "Austrian" and could speak some dialect - I really appreciated this. She shares a flat with a friend of her, Yanina, which is also a very nice and gentle person.
As I arrived in the early afternoon, I followed Veronicas advice :-) and went to the Glaciar Marcial near by. To the top it was about 3 hours of walk (from her flat). I decided not to take the chairlift and walked through a really nice forest. You wouldn´t believe, whom I met there! :-) Yes, I met Astrid (one of the swiss-girls) and a friend of her, returning from the glaciar. Can you believe this? If you make an appointment, it would for sure not work out, but here it just happend unplanned. So we agreed to meet up tomorrow and I continued my way. The way up to the glacier was very
nice, through an forest, but some parts have been very swampy and the final part was really steep. Also the signs have been written in spanish and english for the first time (sometimes a little bit funny - as you can tell by the pictures ;-). But the sight from above is really gorgeous (as you can see at the pictures ;-). In the evening it turned out, that parts of Veronicas family are from St. Valentin in Upper Austria - that´s just a few kilometers from Steyr, where I lived the last 15 years! The world is really small! :-)
The next day I went to see the "town" - there´s a big shopping street, where you just can buy everything you want (if you can afford it). And all the things are the most southern ones ... after some days you really get annoyed by this - yes I know, I´m at the end of the world, but it´s not necessary to remind me each and every 5 seconds of that ... it´s almost like when you are drinking a coffee they are telling you, remember, it´s the most southern coffee ... Well if we really reduce
it to this, than I have to mention "And what about Puerto Willimas?" (it´s even a bit more south - but it´s in Chile) ;-) But I did like the town and met Astrid & Helga and Francis (also from Switzerland :-) - we spent some time in the center, having a look at the museums, but they have been extraordenary expensive (for example 45,-- Pesos - for this price I can stay overnight including breakfast ...), so we decided not to visit them. We spent the afternoon making plans about hiking in Torres del Paine ;-) The following days, I just spent some lazy days - enjoying the landscape and talking with Veronica (she´s also a good cook too - I really enjoyed the meals ;-) I really did like her company, as I already told you earlier, because it also was possible to speak some dialect.
On Sunday the 8th of February, I went to the National Park. There have been lot´s of different "small buses" (like for 20 people) going to the Park and it´s quite expensive (50,-- Pesos). But the "strangest" thing was, that we have just been 3 people in the bus ... it
seems to me, that there are too many operators trying to get passengers and almost half of the buses where going there almost empty ... I´m questioning myself, if this is the right thing ... it´s necessary to offer transportation, but in my opinion, there should be some kind of regulation, because it´s also not good for the nature having all this buses going there empty and I also cant belive it´s possible for the operator to do this profitable ... so I think there is space for some improvement, so that everyone still get´s his share of the money, but it´s in an economic way ... The Park itself is beautiful (have a look at the pictures ;-) and I did some minor walks there and decided not to spent a second day, because the entry for one day is another 50,-- Pesos and there are not too many walks available, so that I had the feeling, I have seen and enjoyed "enough".
Monday and Tuesday I had some "smooth" days again :-) Met Veronica after work for a coffee in town and we met a friend of her, who has written a book about Fireland - this
was really interesting. The last evening some friends of Veronica and Yanina where comming over and we had great fun. One of them is also member of Couchsurfing and I even had sent him a mail for hosting too ;-) The world is small! :-) All in all, I really enjoyed my stay in Ushuaia and had some great relaxing days and some hiking and most of all I had great hospitality at the home of Veronica and Yanina - I really enjoyed that - thank you very much!
The next day I had to get up very early (5.45 - after about 4 hours of sleep ;-), to catch my bus at about 7 to Punta Arenas in Chile - but this is another story! ;-)
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paulina
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holaa
hola soy la chica del cafe en chalten... un gusto.... tus fotos estan muy lindas .... hermosas.. un beso desde chile. buena suerte en tu viaje y regreso..