Patagonian Ponderings and Argentine fever!

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We set off on our 13 hr trip to Tierre del Fuego (Land of fire) after Alejandro made us our breakfast sporting some furry gorilla feet and a pink dressing gown! We arrived in Ushuaia, and it was just soooooooo cold I couldnt believe it, but then I sose you would expect the end of the world to be cold wouldnt you? On our first day the weater was a bit miserable, you couldnt see the mountains but we went on a trip out onto the beagle channel regardless where we saw lots of birds and very playful sea lions. Woke up very late on our second day, we just couldnt seem to adjust to the time difference - 16 hours of change is just too much! However, the weather was beautiful, snowing, but beautiful. We spent the day walking around looking at the mountains and the scenery and topped the day off with a glass of wine as big as my head. What more could you want?

The journey back the next day was interesting. We awoke at 5am to discover a torrent of snow outside. By the time we got to the bus stop we looked like polar bears and were told the bus couldnt make it up the hill because of the snow so we would have to meet it. Considering just how bad the weather was it was a miracle we only got stuck across the road once and were rescued by several large chains and a helpful lorry driver (well he couldnt actally get past unless he helped!).

From Punta Arenas we then made our way up to Porte Natales. After a LOT of soul searching nwe had to come to the diecision to cut our time in Chile down as we couldnt do lots of the things we had planned on, the weather was just so cold we couldnt hike or camp and mpst of the towns were pretty deserted waiting for the skiers to arrive. So, we spent a day in the Torre del Paine which was just spectacular. We took a couple of walks, one down to lago gre ywhich was so beautiful. Massive lumps of the glacier were floating on the glass-like lake , they looked like huge glass sculptures. Unfortunately the towers of pain were a bit stumpy because the clouds were lingering over the top by the time we got to that side of the park.

Back to Punta Arenas and then up to Santiago where we stayed in the most amazing hostel; Happy house! It was such a nice change to be warm and clean, and Santiago was warm, and sunny - hoorah at last we can take our thermals off! We spent a couple of days looking at the pre columbian museum and soaking up some rays before heading up to Valpariso. Once we arrived in Valpariso we got onto a local bus to try and get over the otherside of town to our hostel. This is all very well, but it gets increasingly difficult when you can´t speak spanish and you dont know where you are going! When we arrived Fran sprang up to pull the rope connected to the bell, well I htought thats was what she was doing, but she thought I had pointed at the giant red emergency handle and was just about to yank down on that until I yelled ´noooooooooo!´and grapped the bell pull. By this point the driver was looking particularly surlñey and when we had thrown our bags off and ased how much it was, he waved us off angrily in a ´just get off my blinking bus´kind of way! Well, at least we got a free bus ride...

Valpariso was an incredible jumble of life. Slanting streets, sloping houses, vivid murals lining the walls and a handful of stray dogs and kids make Valpariso unlike anywhere else in Chile. We were also really luky with the weather having a beautiful day to meander around the streets, visit Pablo Neruda´s house and explore the busy markets. We had some amazing fish in a stall above the market made more incredible that despite the waiters efforts to describe all the fish they had, all I managed to do was repeat ´Fish and potatoes please´ at him in Spanish until he relented and found us some!

From Valpariso we took a bus 9 hours over the border, through the Andes to Mendoza in Argentina. The weather was gorgeous and the town was lovely with wide streets and lots of green plazas dotted around. We decided to tae a bus out to the Chandon Winery on the recommendation of some other travellers we met. When we rang up to book onto the tour the lady told us it would take at least 40 mins on the bus so we left our hostel in plenty of time to get to the bus and over to the winery. Or so we thought. Te bus station was much further than we estimated so once we had arrived we only had 45 mins to go unti our tour was due, which, would have been ok but when we tried to board the no. 380 that arrived in the bus sation we were told we had to wait for the next one. When the next one arrived we tried to board but the driver told s he had to go and get something to eat! Fran decided to get on anyway, only she hadn´t figured on the doors slamming locked behind her! Eventually the driver returned thinking it quite funny he had traped an English girl on his bus! THe bus then took an hour and a half to whizz past the winery until we yelled áqui´and the bus screeched to a halt. After walking 500 metres back up the road we arrived at the entrance an hour late for our tour to be told, unsuprisingly, we had now missed the 2.30 tour but cold go in for a tasting and to shop. We thought we may as well go in and were greeted with a rather lovely gass of ´Fresco´. We decided we may as well stay for the 4 o´clock Spanish tour even though we werent going to understand a word of it! We were told because we hadnt booked a tasting we couldnt possibly to a further one today as the living room had to be reserved! Oh we dont care, how about the garden we proclaimed. I think the receptionist took pity on us at this point and had a word with her boss who said we could do one in the lobby. Sadly the three bottles werent all cold required for the cheapest fizzy wine tasting but they could substitute in a more expensive 3rd one. OK with us..... THe only draw back was that we had to do the tasting before the 4 o´clock tour. So for 4 pounds each we tucked into our glasses of wine and by 4 had finished off the entire bottle of expensive fizz at which point the other people arrived for the tour. By a stroke of fate it was a Spanish speaking American and her Argentinian friend fluent in English so they did the tour in English! We soon learnt it was the Argentinian girls birthday so we plyed her with some booze before the tour. After the tour (during which I managed to ask some very thoughtful questions ho hum) the receptionist gave us all another glass of Fresco , to toast the birthday., and one of the ohter bottles back from the tasting to finish off. Well that was me pretty finished off for the rest of the day! However after a little nap we all went out for dinner to celebrate the birthday. All in all it was a disaster turned good!

Our following day in Mendoza was spent feeling slightly queezy at another winery (!) but it wasnt half as nice! On our last day we went horse trekking up in the mountain range a couple of hours out of Mendoza which was incredible. I was the only one who had ridden a horse before so it was quite fun watching the others wandering off into the scrub and through bushes tryng desperately to work out how to steer! I have to say, however, Im not sure going on a horse for 3 hours over hilly terrain was a great idea before a 13hr overnight bus journey to Buenos Aires. Lets just say when we arrived ´rare rump ´wasn´t only available in the restaurants!

We are currently wandering the trendy streets of Buenos Aires and getting swept away by the current of totally mad footbal fans here. Don´t expect to be able to do anything or go anywhere when Argentina are playing that´s for sure!

Anyway lots of love

Sassy.

P.s It´s raining here - how rubbish is that!

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