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Published: April 4th 2007
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Paul is out climbing a volcano, so I have the day to myself and can catch up with mail, blogs etc. We've done heaps since the last up date, so here is the last couple of weeks.
We came south for some cold weather and never got it until our last day is Ushuia, it snowed overnight and got quite cold. We thought we had carried our cold weather clothes all this way and wouldn't need to use them. After shaking off the mothballs into the warm clothes, we again had to pack. We are much better at it now, we can usually get it done in less than 1/2 an hour. Paul is most impressed with our Kathmandu packs. He said there is tremendous strain on all the stitching and clips and that they have held up really well. Lets hope they keep that up.
We got collected from our hostel by the bus driver and then had an interesting look around Ushuia collecting passengers from their homes. What good service, and then he let us sit in the front seats with him and have a really good view. We picked up and dropped off people all over
the place and then got delivered right to the door of our next accommodation house in Rio Grande.
This is an interesting place. I wanted to go there to look at the tide going 5 km out to sea. It didn't happen while we were there. The wind was so strong it kept it in. The lady at the hostel said the wind blows for 5 months of the year and usually about 80km per hour. There is no way in the world that Wellington is the windiest city. There are no trees, because there is no way they could ever get established. Cold. Man it was cold. You had to hold your hat on, all the time.
We had a walk around the town and visited the Malvaneas Soldiers' photos. It really was a place for returned servicemen to meet and have a get together. They had really good photos of the war, poor kids, they were only teenagers and not well equipped at all. They didn´t even know they were going until it happened. None of the soldiers were volunteers, they were just boys doing their compulsory military service. Like in New Zealand the younger people
are very interested in commemorating the returned soldiers and they have put up a very nice memorial and they are getting ready for a big occasion this year because it is 25 years.
Rio Grande has a most excellent museum. None of the signs were in English so the Curator walked around and explained everything to Paul. The indigenous people had a different lifestyle to what we know. They spent most of their lives in canoes, with the women doing the underwater sea food gathering and the men staying in the boat to keep the fire tended. They had lots of really old maps and excellent natural history of the local wildlife. The army tried to get Reindeer established (not sure why) but they did not take to the environment.
Rio Grande is a city that town planners should visit becasue they have a very good roading system. There isn´t very much else that we could find other that that mentioned above.
We did a bit of back tracking and returned to Rio Gallgegos (via 4 boarder controls) to catch a bus the next day to Punta Arenas. Because we stayed overnight we had a bit of
time and visited the main part of town. We could hear drums and loud speakers and thought another carnival so stopped and watched. We came across a demonstration - democracy in action. It was the biggest lot of people we've seen on the streets. 9 000 people with placards, drums and loud speakers. We were told it was teachers and nurses protesting for higher wages. It seems they are seriously underpaid.
Then off to Chile for our 3rd time, but the first to stay. We stayed in Punto Arenas. We were advised by a local to go to the seafood restaurant, a really cheap place with good food. We like cheap. We think Chilean people must earn too much because it turned out that the meal was more than our daily budget!! I had King Crab again and Paul another realy good steak.
We visited the Braun-Menendez Museum. This is a house that was built in the 1900 by a very wealthy businessman for his family. The front of the house was kept exactly how it was in the old days with plush, amazing furniture and the back was another museum of history of the town and environs.
I would have liked to see where the laundry and kitchen were, but they were below stairs and out of bounds.
Puerto Natales, our next stop was an interesting little town We stayed here a week while awaiting our ferry trip. While here we found $2 us meals - 'Menu do Hoy'- 3 course meals that change every day. I also found Pisco Sour - a very healthy drink because it has egg white in it.
We did a Day trip to Torres Del Payne. This is a park with really huge towering mountains and glaciers. We saw grey fox, skunk, condors, glaciers, ice bergs in lakes, a really great trip. It enthused Paul so much he went again the next day and did a day trip to the Towers. He really did enjoy it.
While Paul did mountain climbing I made a local dish with the help of the Hostel owner. Sea weed soup. I always make too much and had to feed everyone to use it up. I will make it again at home.
The Navigman Ferry was due to sail on Thursday but bad weather prevented it from coming in until the next
day. I pity those who had to stay on board in the rough weather. Unfortunately our weather was foggy and we couldn't see much for the first 2 days. We have never eaten so much as on that ship. It was a really good trip and we could check the charts to ensure we were going in the right direction. Everyone on the bridge had everything well under control and didn't need Paul or myself to change course. We had 12 hours of open sea that was a bit unpleasant but everyone was told to take their seasick tablets at 2.30 pm It put me to sleep for most of the rest of the day.
We decided to bus onto Pucon after getting off the ship and here we are. Paul is climbing the Volcano and I am catching up of stuff. Catch you later.
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Lisa
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What day is the seaweed soup?
Hmm guys just let me know the day Jose is cooking seaweed soup and i'll come the next day..a bit much for me I feel...