Big round-up

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So, how are we all. I´ve been told it´s been aaaaages since I did this, so it could be a long one. So before I begin, go grap yourself a cup of tea, get your thermos for your mate, or a pint of vodka, whatever you think you´ll need......

Right, are we all sitting comfortably? No, me either, but we´ll begin anyhow.

Oh, and first let me say that this may not make a lot of sense, I´ll ramble a bit, probably forget loads and come back and add more later, and as ever it seems, there´ll be no piccies....

When I left you I think I was still in Uruguay, is that right?! Well, after some entertaining nights in Punta del Este, I went to Colonia. Pretty old town that you can see in a few hours, and not a whole lot more, I´m afraid. Then I got the boat back to BA. I genuinely can´t remember how long for now, but probably just a couple of days to catch up with a couple of people.

From Buenos Aires I went to Puerto Madryn. A pleasant enough beachside town, it´s a base for exploring nearby Peninsula Valdes. Which I did. I saw lots and lots of sealions and some Penguins. The day before, however, I saw a lot more penguins and a few sealions at Punta Tombo, or something like that, as well as visiting the old welsh colony at Gaiman where I paid a probably excessive amount of money for tea and cake. But the cakes WERE very nice, and there was real fresh milk for the tea, too.

I then took a bus down to Rio Gallegos, where I´d hoped to just wait a night or two before getting a bus to Ushuaia, the most southerly city in the world. But, when I arrived I discovered I´d have to wait 5 days. So I hopped on a bus to El Calafate.

Named after a thorny berry bush native to the area, El Calafate pretty much only exists for tourism, but is in a nice location on a lake, the main attraction being the glaciars on nearby Lago Argentino. So, first I did a tour to see Perito Moreno glaciar, which was, I have to say, stunning. And a few times I was able to see huge chunks of ice rupturing from the face and crashing into the water. Fantastic. I´ve seen a few glaciars in the past, but this was on a whole new level.

So, to take it a step further, the next day I took a boat tour which visited a few other glaciars, the highlight being Upsala, a huge glaciar at the deepest part of the lake. Now being the deepest part, it´s also the coldest part, as a result of which the ice that falls from the face of this particular glaciar doesn´t melt. Which means?! Sailing past huge, beautiful, deep blue coloured icebergs. Absolutely amazing, and something I´ll not easily forget, particularly as we got a perfect blue sunny day, the surrounding mountains clearly visible and stunningly beautiful.

From there I went to El Chaltén, a dusty little place that´s only existed since 1986, and is obviously gearing up for tourism too. The point of this place is hiking, with treks to see numerous lakes, glaciers and mountains available including Mount Fitzroy and Cerro Torre... Well, I did one all day trek to Lugan Torre, but unfortunately cloud shrouded the highest peaks (as it usually does, Chaltén being Mapuche for smoking mountain, or volcano - the natives thought the almost constant shroud of cloud was infact volcanic expulsions....). It was still spectacular, in a beautiful, untouched, wonderful part of the world.

From El Chaltén I headed north to Perito Moreno (the town, not the glaciar). The idea here was to stop and visit the Cuevo de las manos, a cave supposedly in an incredible location full of prehistoric cave paintings. I figured that most of the tour buses just stopped the night, hten carried on, and that not many people actually stayed long enough to doe a tour to the caves. I figured wrong, all the tours were booked up. And Perito Moreno is not a place you want to hang about waiting, there really is nothing there. At all.

So my next plan was to head over to Sarmiento, where I could visit a petrified forrest. As in old fossilized trees, not ones that have seen a scary film. But, yet again I was foiled. The buses taking the simple route were all full, and I didn´t have time to do the convoluted route. So I decided to continue north.

But before we talk about that, a little bit about bus rides in this part of the country. Patagonia is empty. I have never experienced such a spectacularly amazing amount of bugger all. It is awe-inspiringly beautiful in an empty, desolate way. I really can´t explain it. One guy on one bus claimed it made the Australian outback look like a city centre. I think he was exagerating. But not a lot. If you see a couple of Guanacos (like llamas) and a Rhea (big flightless bird like an ostrich or emu), you feel like you´ve had a day at the zoo. Apart form when you get right over west, then you get the various stunning landscapes provided by the start of the andes, with all the variations that occur as you head north and the climate gradually changes.

The section from El Chaltén to Perito Moreno is particularly desolate. I tried to get my head round it by relating it to home. There´s 600km between the two. 14 hours on gravel roads. Each has about 2000 people. In between, there is one little village, with (I´ve heard) 31 people.

So, let´s put that in a UK perspective. Imagine taking a 14 hour ride on gravel roads between London (which now only has 2000 people, not the millions that are there now), and Glasgow (again reduced to 2000 people), and all along the way, the only sign of life is the 31 people in Manchester. Absurd.

So, from PM I got the bus up to Esquel and accross to Trevelin. Another little welsh offshoot, I stayed in a lovely hostel with amazing views, visited another stunning, gorgeous national park, and watched a lunar eclipse. When it was time to leave, my bus to Esquel never arrived, and eventually some old lady with a cherry farm offered me a lift. I missed my bus by just 2 minutes. The only bus my whole time here that left on time. Gah.

But, there was another bus 2 hours later, and luckily there was still space, so off I went to Bariloche. Another beautifull set place, Bariloche is much much bigger than anywhere I´d been for a while, and it was the weekend. I´ll leave the rest to your imaginations. Needless to say, I met some great people, some who´d already done a certain tour that they hightly recommended, whilst being completely vague about why. Others were planning to do it whilst also having no real idea about what was involved, and ivited me along. I WAS planning to leave Bariloche and head to Neuquén, where I could take a tour to see fossilized dinosaur footprints by a lake. I considered what luck I´d had with all things prehistoric and opted to take the tour I knew nothing about.

So Sunday evening we got picked up and taken off to another stunning national park. The whole group (4 guys and 10 girls, shame) was an international mix (UK, Canada, Aus, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Japan....), and everyone was great fun. We set up camp, collected fireword, had a barbecue, got drunk and collapsed (some of us at least) in the open air.

Waking late, the first activity of the day changed slightly. Rather that hike to some lake, we had to run. In the heat of the day. With no water. Hmm. Then, when we got to the lake, we climbed a tree (not too difficult), jumped in, and swam to the other side. Luckily, the water was so pure you could drink it, though drink what you´re swimming in never feels quite right!

On the otherside, we got out to find we had the option of climbing another tree. This one was much taller, much steeper, and generally a bitch to climb. But John (the other brit) and I were determined we´d do it.

And I did. I ripped holes in my feet, my belly is all scraped up, I was exhausted and shaking, but there I was at the top. And my word it looked a long way down. As I jumped I slightly lost balance, and as I fell I slowly tipped backwards. It seemed to take ages to reach the water, all the time knowing that it was going to hurt like hell when I did. And boy did it!!! SLAP!!!!!!

Ah well. We got out of the water and had to run back to camp for lunch. Exhausted.

Then we did some kayaking, some snorkelling, and some even went on a bike ride too.

We finished quite late, and ended up staying an extra night, before coming back with just enough time to get my bus back to BA. This brings me to another point about Bariloche. It´s famous for chocolate. Something to do with Swiss immigrants.

Well, I had planned to buy some as gifts for one or two of those reading before heading back to BA, but this turn of events unfortunately made that impossible. Sorry.

Actually, now I´ve teased you with that, I´ve since found somewhere here in BA to buy the same choccies, so you still might get lucky. But don´t hold your breath, you´ve seen how things can get screwed up!!!

Right, I´ve got stuff to do, my bus to Mendoza is in a few hours. Mmmmm. Wine.

Chau chau

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Photos

Armadillo!!!
Crunchy on the outside...

Wales?!
Nope!

Some mug...
...and a glaciar

Ice fall
Splash!

More Glaciar
and Mountain