Blogs from Chubut, Argentina, South America - page 39

Early start to catch the plane (yes, I know, the 4th in almost as many days, but I didn´t fly anywhere yesterday), and the sun has come out to say farewell. Stunning blue sky, with just a few clouds clinging onto the mountains. No first class ticket this time, just regular economy - never be the same again. Fortunately it´s only a 30 min flight, to Rio Gallago, home to the current Argentinian president. This is where we enter into Patagonia proper. Vast open spaces, with absolutely nothing as far as the eye can see. The Andes way over in the West remove any moisture from the air, and only break the wind for a short time, so the wind blows across the empty space, drying the land, no trees able to grow and provide shelter. ... read more

Hallo ihr Lieben in der grossen weiten Welt, Nach 5 Tagen im Los Alerces Nationalpark sind wir wieder zurueck in Esquel. Im Park hatten wir zwei sehr, sehr, sehr anstrengende und drei sehr schoene Tage. Angefangen hat alles mit einer 1,5 stuendigen Busfahrt und der Anmeldung im Buero der Nationalparkverwaltung. Als wir uns dort meldeten bekamen wir kurz eine Karte des Weges gezeigt und eine offizielle Erlaubnis an einer kleinen Bucht auf halbem Weg zum Lago Kruegger zu zelten. Mit der Erlaubnis und der Wegbeschreibung aus einem Reisefuehrer (der wie wir feststellen mussten nicht mehr ganz aktuell ist) machten wir uns um 11:10 Uhr auf den Weg. Zuerst ging es eine Schotterpiste entlang auf der uns ab und zu eine Auto entgegenkam und uns in eine Staubwolke huellte. Deshab waren wir ganz froh nach einiger Zeit ... read more

Hi there to all at home and on the road. Since the last entry Diana and I spent New Year on a small island south of Rio called Isle Grande. Were only going to spend a week there but it was so lovely that ended up 18 night there and then discovered our 60 day visas were due to expire so we hot footed it to Sao Paulo via a quaint seaside town called Parati were there was great music and the best Thai resturant ever. Spent 4 days in Sao Paulo ( the third largest city in the world, 26mill people).then a 6hr bus ride to Curatiba where we had a 4hr train ride thru native Atlantic forest. The last of the kind left in Brasil or Sth America for that matter. The Falls at ... read more

Have now got 7 days of riding under my belt and am now sitting in a funky internet cafe in the town of Rio Gallegos in Argentina. Rode through Tierra del Fuego listening to Eddie Izzard and Johnny Cash. Not an obvious pairing but they make interesting earfellows. I have been impressed by how extremely friendly and helpful everyone is despite the fact that my Spanish is really pretty abysmal. My approach to communication is to smile a lot, point, eat anything and say ok. It seems to work reasonably well. I don´t think I have massively offended anyone or done anything illegal yet. The highlight so far has been staying a night on a sheep farm in the Chilean part of Tierra del Fuego. I had hoped to camp in a place called Cullen. However ... read more

Even though it was a last minute decision and I knew nothing of the trekking involved, the tour I embarqued on went very well with the 32 truck passangers all getting along. We left the Tierra del Fuego on the 16th of January making our 1st leg of our 16 days trip together accross Patagonia. We left behind the ghosts of the Selk'nam, who, can't you believe it, in their days, had a vocabulary larger then our English (!!!). Isn't complex language a sign an advanced civilization? Did the natives of the mountains of Torres del Paine go 'Waow' like me everytime they looked up? Did they camp where our tour truck took us, and washed in its cold blue lake? (We had welcomed hot showers at our already set campsite). They must have fished trouts ... read more