Martial Glacier And Penal Prisons

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The Martial Glacier was our destination today so another packed lunch was made this morning. Breakfast is now becoming boring with the usual bread, butter and crappy coffee being wheeled out every morning. We have decided to maybe start buying our own so tomorrow we are going to have boiled eggs. Now although they wont be the eggs you get out at the Creaven household, they will definitely be the highlight of our morning! We had to book a taxi to the glacier because no buses ran our direction to the start of the trek. It was 20 pesos about €5 and not bad value for the distance he brought us. Entrance to the glacier was 35 pesos each (€8) and we got a map and advice as to which way to go up. We had decided on using the chair lift before we got there and walk back down. The information we were given wasn’t exactly right and when we arrived we were told there was an hour and a half trek after the chair lift! This wasn’t really a problem as we new we should have walked anyway. The chair lift takes about 10 minutes to the start of the trek. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was cold but fresh. The start was gradual and easy enough. I took of my jacket as the thermal vest Dad had got me for Christmas was earning its crust. We had to cross little streams frequently and the walk was nice as there were only about a handful of people around. The fun was soon over and the assent had begun. It was quite tough and at about a 40 degree angle. We soldiered on taking breaks every now and again. All treks are deceiving and you always think you are nearly there, except to find there’s more to go. We eventually made it to the top, quicker than the map had said it would take, but tired and glad we had made it. The weather up there was perfect and we messed about taking different photo’s and then had our lunch. After that I ran around up and down different rocks like a child. Drinking glacier water from a small waterfall and trying to climb some left over ice from the retreating glacier. As you can see from the photo’s I didn’t make it to far up the ice but I certainly had fun coming back down it. We met an Australian couple up there and they took our photo for us and we talked for a little while. They were in their late 40’s and travelling Argentina for a month. They were nice people and gave us some advice on Australia. They said as well that meeting people is half the fun of travelling. We hung around up there taking it all in for about an hour before making our way back down. That brought back memories of coming down Croagh Patrick with Mam and it taking a little bit longer than it should have. I wont go into any more detail as one day I have to return home!! On our way down we devised the Darren & Michelle Ph test to trekking. After climbing Croagh Patrick Four Paddies and Croagh Patrick we decided that we would base that climb on every other climb we do in the future with Croagh Patrick being Zero or Neutral. On our scale -7 would be the easiest and +7 the hardest. This climb was a -3. Although tough, it wasn’t as long as Croagh Patrick and the last 45 minute assent to the top of CP was a lot steeper. If you can picture this for one minute. As we walked down the mountain we looked like Peter Kay from the video to his song ‘Is this the way to Amarillo’. We were have walking and half running and singing the song at the same time. If there was anyone around they would have thought we were mad. We did meet some and just like Croagh Patrick, we lied about how hard it was to get to the top. ‘Ah.. Its easy, you’ll have no problem at all’. no one want s to hear ‘it’s a bitch, very hard’ just before they start out. Just a little white lie! We got another taxi into town and set out in search or the museums. They were all together in one building so it made it quite easy.

The building is an old penal colony prison. It was built so that they could send the convicts of to foreign lands and start a civilisation there. Men and women were picked according to there trades and abilities and exported to Ushuaia, The end of the world. The prison has many stories and weird characters that spent a lot of time if not their lives there. Of course there was something Irish in there. A poster of Kilmainham Gaol and a description of the prison and a brief synopsis of its penal histroy. One guy was a mass murderer and completely mental. It was unsafe to keep him in a mental institute so he was kept in prison. He killed a lot of children before been caught and sent to Ushuaia prison. What was funny about his story was that he had big ears. Now, what’s funny about that other than the way he looked. Well, they thought his madness was related to the distance his ears was from his brain and preformed surgery on him to make them smaller. Legend has it that they grew even bigger after that and he became even madder! A funny story but very strange to be standing in this psycho’s prison cell. There were other things there to see like art galleries and model boat’s. We left there as we were getting hungry an found a nice small wall along the harbour to have our lunch. It was cold and we ate it zipped up and ready for any weather condition. This evening we made dinner again for ourselves and sat around watching TV. Tomorrow we head to the national park and at least 15km’s walking. Please feel sorry for us!

In a bit. DH

Song of the blog: Well it has to be……… Peter Kay - Is this the way to Amarillo

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