Hello all,
just a quickie to say that the comments seem to be drying up!
and if you've never commented - try it, you might like it!
Wednesday 28 March 2007
Wednesday 21 March 2007
El Calafate & the Perito Moreno Glacier
18 hours down the road we made it to Rio Gallegos, which is a fucking hole.
20 minutes later we were on a bus towards El Calafate, a small town on the edge of a large glacier-filled national park in the very south of Patagonia in Argentina.
Bizarrely, as you get further away from the wealthy, classy, cosmopolitan north of Argentina things get more and more expensive (much the same in the UK) and so, rather than face the prospect of paying 140 argentine pesos (about triple what we´d be paying thus far), we decided to have our first experience of dorm living at the more reasonable price of 20 pesos per person. The only gamble is what kind of weirdos you end up with as room-mates.
First night we had a perfectly nice and normal woman of vague hispanic origin (ie i forgot where she´s actually from) but she was leaving the next day and was up at the same time as us when we left on our trip to see the Perito Moreno Glacier, in the nearby national park. Which, i will let flo describe below:
That is from the boat trip which made up the first section of our day and the rest of the day was basically an opportunity to see the glacier from a number of different angles and lead to the excessive number of glacier photos that are now on my flickr account! and yes, it was fucking cold, hence the clothes-almost everything i own!
Back at the hostel we thought we were going to be gold when we saw that no one had moved into our room, so we cooked ourselves some dinner (feeling frugal due to the crazy ski resort-level prices) and after chatting to a few people we'd met we made our way to bed at about 11 feeling smug that we´d have the room to ourselves.
Pride, fall and all that, we were beaten to our room by a guy carrying his massive bag ready to move in. This guy resisted all attempts at conversation and we were left to determine that he was Israeli by his hebrew lonely planet. All further attempts at communication were further stifled by his insistence on trying to insert as much of his body as possible into the storage lockers provided for rucksacks. He was gone by morning. No one knows where. (probably just down the corridor)
I cant really remember what we did the following day. not much i think. We did however return to find some new room mates - a very nice and talkative couple of Germans, Daniel and Danielle, very sweet matching names.
so we spent the evening chatting with them and a few more of our new friends about places that they'd been and watching daniel, not the biggest guy in the world, take a comment from his girlfriend that he was drinking a lot as a challenge to drink even more and see off the best part of 3 bottles of wine in a couple of hours.
the next day we left for our first new country - chile!
20 minutes later we were on a bus towards El Calafate, a small town on the edge of a large glacier-filled national park in the very south of Patagonia in Argentina.
Bizarrely, as you get further away from the wealthy, classy, cosmopolitan north of Argentina things get more and more expensive (much the same in the UK) and so, rather than face the prospect of paying 140 argentine pesos (about triple what we´d be paying thus far), we decided to have our first experience of dorm living at the more reasonable price of 20 pesos per person. The only gamble is what kind of weirdos you end up with as room-mates.
First night we had a perfectly nice and normal woman of vague hispanic origin (ie i forgot where she´s actually from) but she was leaving the next day and was up at the same time as us when we left on our trip to see the Perito Moreno Glacier, in the nearby national park. Which, i will let flo describe below:
That is from the boat trip which made up the first section of our day and the rest of the day was basically an opportunity to see the glacier from a number of different angles and lead to the excessive number of glacier photos that are now on my flickr account! and yes, it was fucking cold, hence the clothes-almost everything i own!
Back at the hostel we thought we were going to be gold when we saw that no one had moved into our room, so we cooked ourselves some dinner (feeling frugal due to the crazy ski resort-level prices) and after chatting to a few people we'd met we made our way to bed at about 11 feeling smug that we´d have the room to ourselves.Pride, fall and all that, we were beaten to our room by a guy carrying his massive bag ready to move in. This guy resisted all attempts at conversation and we were left to determine that he was Israeli by his hebrew lonely planet. All further attempts at communication were further stifled by his insistence on trying to insert as much of his body as possible into the storage lockers provided for rucksacks. He was gone by morning. No one knows where. (probably just down the corridor)
I cant really remember what we did the following day. not much i think. We did however return to find some new room mates - a very nice and talkative couple of Germans, Daniel and Danielle, very sweet matching names.
so we spent the evening chatting with them and a few more of our new friends about places that they'd been and watching daniel, not the biggest guy in the world, take a comment from his girlfriend that he was drinking a lot as a challenge to drink even more and see off the best part of 3 bottles of wine in a couple of hours.
the next day we left for our first new country - chile!
Puerte Natales in Chile
Hello!
After a great time in South Argentina, and after chatting to quite a few people we decided to head to Chile for a short while and then hop back and forth between both Argentina and Chile. When we arrived in Puerte Natales in a lovely hostel run by a Swiss-German woman and her sister in law (great toddler, cat, and home made bread seem to come as part of the deal, and the most amazing comfy beds) it soon became apparent when I said "so what tours can you offer from this hostel into the national park" that the only reason people come to this place is to take part in SERIOUS trekking either a 4-6 day trek (the W) or a 9-12 day trek (the circuit). Nick had realised this on the journey to the small town and had been keeping it very quiet, scared I think of my response, but having never camped in my life and only treked a bit I was actaully stupidly excited! We began to buy camping food and rent loads of equipment ready for the trip, we even attended a talk done by a freakish american (who became known as the guru, he looks like his bones are about to pop out through his skin, brags he ran the circuit in 18 hours (my arse), and had perfectly hairless legs) whereby he told us what to expect and what to do etc, and before we knew it we were about to leave. We bumped into a lovely girl called Dana from Canada who we had met in the last town in argentina, and went out for some amazing veggie food the night before the big trek (at a place which makes really english food for the home sick traveller like cottage pie, lasagne, cheese cake, hot chocolate, it even has the guardian!) we ate a stupid amount between us and after 3 puddings felt brilliant.
We arrived at the park at mid day and took a boat over to where Nick and I had agreed to begin the trip, (there are two ways to do "the W" west to east, or east to west, but we decided on the former).
On the first day we walked up to the glacier which was beautiful, the trek was cool and the good weather and reasonable ground kept us optimistic and nick put up with me talking inane bullshit for a long time. I hope the photos do it justice because it really was amazing. Our first night was brilliant and I actually freakishly enjoyed our tepid pasta, peeeing outdoors, and freezng tent (this novelty soon wore off)
The next day we went back on ourselves and then headed for our second camp site, the weather was grim this day and when we set up tent I doubt either of us were optimistic of how long it would stay upright. We woke up to torrential rain and began our trek up to the middle of the "W" the path was impossible to find, the rain was coming down heavily, and the wind was knocking us over, so basically we pussied it and went back to the camp site, packed up the tent which was so covered in mud that I got a histerical fit of the giggles that didnt really help much, we then headed onto the next camp site and sat there chatting to other trekkers (not sure if that is how you spell those who walk or whether this is referring to those who love Picard, sorry if the latter)and catching our breath and waiting for the rain to subside... it did not!
Only some of the campsites were free in the park and being stubborn and tight we decided to do a 4 hour uphill hike to the following camp site to get it out the way. The walk nearly killed me, I made some amazing tennis player style noises along the way and felt really really grim but with hindsight it was a good idea. The wind was so strong it lifted me clean off the ground on several occasons, and considering I was wearing my backpack
the whole time this was a feat! We had to walk through rivers and streams and climb over rocks that health and safety in the UK would have gone crazy over, but it was kinda fun and after a while we just waded through rivers rather than trying to find a dry alternative because it was time saving and pretty funny.
Nick and I arrived at the campsite we would be spending our third night at, soaked to the skin and feeling pretty sorry for ourselves, the excitement of the first day had pretty much fucked right out the window. Luckily this campsite had a shower which was an amazing treat, and whats more we got chatting to a group of Brits, Danes, and frenchies who made a great open fire which nick and I dried ourselves over (and Nick managed to burn a hole in his shoe by getting too close). Oh one more thing our 2 person tent was the smallest thing in the world, we could just about both fit into it but our bags could not, and both of us had to scrunch up our feet to fit in it, also as you know I am a big claustrophobic mess and this tent did not help! also our burner broke so we had to beg matches of people to get the fire going in order to eat the packet crap we brought with, which actually tasted pretty good.
The next day I dont think either Nick or i made a big secret of the fact that we were desperate to go and see the main attraction of the park(the torres, or towers, three huge impressive rocks whick stand above a great lake and you have to rock climb to get to) and then go home pretty sharpish. Thanks to our 4 hour uphill mission the day before we had time to take it easy this day and we made our way up to the torres, and admittedly they were pretty spectacular, although Nick looked less than impressed when we got to the top after and hour of almost vertical climbing he said "how long do you want to stay here im ready to go NOW!"
On our last night we actaully had the best night in my mind, we got chatting to a Brit, some New Yorkers and a couple of Isrealis in a hovel like shelter which I have taken a photo of, it was freezing so we nearly sat on top of one another to keep warm, and had a real laugh, and one of the guys gave me some of his Snickers bar, so I was the happiest bu
nny ever!
The next day we set our alarms for about 6 and nearly trampled over each other to get out of the place. We got back to the hostel yesterday and had huge piece of beef last night to make ourselves feel better. Lomo....is there anything it cant do?
Summery:
Big bits of ice are cooler than big bits of rock. Nature is all well and good but only when it is sunny. People who just go round hiking for fun all year round are weird! Camping is fun for a night at a time when it is sunny!!!, I dont like tents, and nick should not go near fires. Chocolate should be carried at all times. I love the lomo!
After a great time in South Argentina, and after chatting to quite a few people we decided to head to Chile for a short while and then hop back and forth between both Argentina and Chile. When we arrived in Puerte Natales in a lovely hostel run by a Swiss-German woman and her sister in law (great toddler, cat, and home made bread seem to come as part of the deal, and the most amazing comfy beds) it soon became apparent when I said "so what tours can you offer from this hostel into the national park" that the only reason people come to this place is to take part in SERIOUS trekking either a 4-6 day trek (the W) or a 9-12 day trek (the circuit). Nick had realised this on the journey to the small town and had been keeping it very quiet, scared I think of my response, but having never camped in my life and only treked a bit I was actaully stupidly excited! We began to buy camping food and rent loads of equipment ready for the trip, we even attended a talk done by a freakish american (who became known as the guru, he looks like his bones are about to pop out through his skin, brags he ran the circuit in 18 hours (my arse), and had perfectly hairless legs) whereby he told us what to expect and what to do etc, and before we knew it we were about to leave. We bumped into a lovely girl called Dana from Canada who we had met in the last town in argentina, and went out for some amazing veggie food the night before the big trek (at a place which makes really english food for the home sick traveller like cottage pie, lasagne, cheese cake, hot chocolate, it even has the guardian!) we ate a stupid amount between us and after 3 puddings felt brilliant.
We arrived at the park at mid day and took a boat over to where Nick and I had agreed to begin the trip, (there are two ways to do "the W" west to east, or east to west, but we decided on the former).
On the first day we walked up to the glacier which was beautiful, the trek was cool and the good weather and reasonable ground kept us optimistic and nick put up with me talking inane bullshit for a long time. I hope the photos do it justice because it really was amazing. Our first night was brilliant and I actually freakishly enjoyed our tepid pasta, peeeing outdoors, and freezng tent (this novelty soon wore off)
The next day we went back on ourselves and then headed for our second camp site, the weather was grim this day and when we set up tent I doubt either of us were optimistic of how long it would stay upright. We woke up to torrential rain and began our trek up to the middle of the "W" the path was impossible to find, the rain was coming down heavily, and the wind was knocking us over, so basically we pussied it and went back to the camp site, packed up the tent which was so covered in mud that I got a histerical fit of the giggles that didnt really help much, we then headed onto the next camp site and sat there chatting to other trekkers (not sure if that is how you spell those who walk or whether this is referring to those who love Picard, sorry if the latter)and catching our breath and waiting for the rain to subside... it did not!
Only some of the campsites were free in the park and being stubborn and tight we decided to do a 4 hour uphill hike to the following camp site to get it out the way. The walk nearly killed me, I made some amazing tennis player style noises along the way and felt really really grim but with hindsight it was a good idea. The wind was so strong it lifted me clean off the ground on several occasons, and considering I was wearing my backpack
the whole time this was a feat! We had to walk through rivers and streams and climb over rocks that health and safety in the UK would have gone crazy over, but it was kinda fun and after a while we just waded through rivers rather than trying to find a dry alternative because it was time saving and pretty funny.Nick and I arrived at the campsite we would be spending our third night at, soaked to the skin and feeling pretty sorry for ourselves, the excitement of the first day had pretty much fucked right out the window. Luckily this campsite had a shower which was an amazing treat, and whats more we got chatting to a group of Brits, Danes, and frenchies who made a great open fire which nick and I dried ourselves over (and Nick managed to burn a hole in his shoe by getting too close). Oh one more thing our 2 person tent was the smallest thing in the world, we could just about both fit into it but our bags could not, and both of us had to scrunch up our feet to fit in it, also as you know I am a big claustrophobic mess and this tent did not help! also our burner broke so we had to beg matches of people to get the fire going in order to eat the packet crap we brought with, which actually tasted pretty good.
The next day I dont think either Nick or i made a big secret of the fact that we were desperate to go and see the main attraction of the park(the torres, or towers, three huge impressive rocks whick stand above a great lake and you have to rock climb to get to) and then go home pretty sharpish. Thanks to our 4 hour uphill mission the day before we had time to take it easy this day and we made our way up to the torres, and admittedly they were pretty spectacular, although Nick looked less than impressed when we got to the top after and hour of almost vertical climbing he said "how long do you want to stay here im ready to go NOW!"
On our last night we actaully had the best night in my mind, we got chatting to a Brit, some New Yorkers and a couple of Isrealis in a hovel like shelter which I have taken a photo of, it was freezing so we nearly sat on top of one another to keep warm, and had a real laugh, and one of the guys gave me some of his Snickers bar, so I was the happiest bu
nny ever!The next day we set our alarms for about 6 and nearly trampled over each other to get out of the place. We got back to the hostel yesterday and had huge piece of beef last night to make ourselves feel better. Lomo....is there anything it cant do?
Summery:
Big bits of ice are cooler than big bits of rock. Nature is all well and good but only when it is sunny. People who just go round hiking for fun all year round are weird! Camping is fun for a night at a time when it is sunny!!!, I dont like tents, and nick should not go near fires. Chocolate should be carried at all times. I love the lomo!
Puerto Madryn
ok, so it was a while ago now but i'll try to remember what we actually got up to in puerto madryn! we were staying in this in a small hostel that kinda felt more like a hotel than a hostel but hey, at least we got a tv!
basically, our only reason for visiting this town was its proximity to the Peninsula Valdes wildlife
reserve, so we booked ourselves onto one of the tours so that flo could get herself all excited about penguins and shit.
The next day we got ourselves up nice and early so that we could have our breakfast (the classic shitty coffee and stale bread) and be ready for our bus which was due to leave at 7:30. So we waited. and waited. (you can see where this is going) anyway, bus arrived at about 8:30, so either the guy who told me the time wasnt all that shit hot with his english or just thought that he was fucking hilarious!
anyway, ended up on the bus and quickly got chatting with a good group of people - 2 South Africans, an aussie and a kiwi, and spent the day cruising around the peninsula checking out the wildlife, a good collection of wildlife including Guanacos (a type of llama), Penguins, armadillos, foxes and a number of types of seal. which was nice.
towards the end of the day it started to piss it down which made the loose stone roads a bit dicey, well apparently it did, i managed to sleep through most of the time including a couple of occasions when we almost lost the bus off the side of the road!
The evening after the trip we arrange to meet up with the guys we'd met at a local bar and got a bit too pissed whilst being 'entertained' by a male stripper. thankfully we'd missed all bar the last of his performances so didnt have to put up with too much pain. ladies night apparently!
so another sore head for flo in the morning!
basically, our only reason for visiting this town was its proximity to the Peninsula Valdes wildlife
reserve, so we booked ourselves onto one of the tours so that flo could get herself all excited about penguins and shit.The next day we got ourselves up nice and early so that we could have our breakfast (the classic shitty coffee and stale bread) and be ready for our bus which was due to leave at 7:30. So we waited. and waited. (you can see where this is going) anyway, bus arrived at about 8:30, so either the guy who told me the time wasnt all that shit hot with his english or just thought that he was fucking hilarious!
anyway, ended up on the bus and quickly got chatting with a good group of people - 2 South Africans, an aussie and a kiwi, and spent the day cruising around the peninsula checking out the wildlife, a good collection of wildlife including Guanacos (a type of llama), Penguins, armadillos, foxes and a number of types of seal. which was nice.
towards the end of the day it started to piss it down which made the loose stone roads a bit dicey, well apparently it did, i managed to sleep through most of the time including a couple of occasions when we almost lost the bus off the side of the road!
The evening after the trip we arrange to meet up with the guys we'd met at a local bar and got a bit too pissed whilst being 'entertained' by a male stripper. thankfully we'd missed all bar the last of his performances so didnt have to put up with too much pain. ladies night apparently!
so another sore head for flo in the morning!
Friday 16 March 2007
Incommunicado
Sorry for the silence but its going to get even worse for 5 days whilst we go trekking!
Flos first ever camping trip will be in freezing cold patagonia - good idea, no?
anyway, no word from us for 5 days but enjoy the new photos on flickr and we will have a blogfest when we get back!
happy birthday dad for the 20th!
Flos first ever camping trip will be in freezing cold patagonia - good idea, no?
anyway, no word from us for 5 days but enjoy the new photos on flickr and we will have a blogfest when we get back!
happy birthday dad for the 20th!
Sunday 4 March 2007
Return to Buenos Aires, Sam and Anne, and Heading South
On our last night in Rosario Nick and I decided to play a bit of poker outside our room (thanks Liz and Vicki!) when we noticed that a couple about our age were in the room opposite, Sam (22 from southampton on his 5th gap year!) and Anne ( from Denmark who works in a "fun school", you pronounce her name like the capital letter N, and Nick understandably fancied quite a lot) had met in Bolivia and had got together soon afterwards. We had a fair amount to drink and then went out for some food followed by more drinks at the riverfront heading back at about 4 having to be up at 7 in order to catch a bus to BA.
The next day we headed back to Buenos Aires and headed to our third hostel in the city which turned out to be the best one yet in my opinion, lovely people, really nice staff, lovely room, a terrace, you get the point, (tango backpackers in Palermo) unfortunately it rained a lot on our second day, I mean a lot! there was a huge thunder storm and I we got absolutely drenched getting to and from a small local post office trying to post my step mother´s birthday prezie, and our room was basically on the terrace so the noise was spectacular, anyway we sat inside drank a lot, went to the zoo, it was amazing!
We bumped into Sam and Anne in Buenos Aires on our first day back there, they had remembered what hostel we were staying at and they were desperately looking for a place to stay having just arrived and not having much luck. The next day nick and I were taking a walk along the streets of Palermo when Sam and Anne came bounding up to us saying they were about to leave a note with us at our hostel inviting us round to their appartment which they had just rented that evening, to cut a long story short we bought them an amazing house warming gift of a hanging basket and had a brilliant night ( I really have not learnt about drinking before traveling) but they were lovely and we were really chuffed to meet them, i will add photos when i can.
We are now in Mar del Plata ( we took the fat guys advice after all) it is freezing here but really really sunny and the locals are behaving like brits by stripping off down to next to nothing and lying out for hours when it is really quite cold! The hostel here is a bit odd, I can´t work out where any of the quests are from, it is really quiet, and there are a few old people here who are really pushing the concept of "youth hostel." We are having fun nevertheless and eating lots of ice cream and havannets (chocolate cones filled with toffee goo, I will bring some home for you dear brother)
I hope you are all happy bunnies,
p.s. I tried to adopt a stray cat but Nick wouldn´t let me boooooooooo! oh yes and in BA we walked past the Botanical Gardens which was filled with more than 300 well fed stray cats! there was a homeless man with one on his head, ingenious, he looked happy so it was ok.
take care
xxx
The next day we headed back to Buenos Aires and headed to our third hostel in the city which turned out to be the best one yet in my opinion, lovely people, really nice staff, lovely room, a terrace, you get the point, (tango backpackers in Palermo) unfortunately it rained a lot on our second day, I mean a lot! there was a huge thunder storm and I we got absolutely drenched getting to and from a small local post office trying to post my step mother´s birthday prezie, and our room was basically on the terrace so the noise was spectacular, anyway we sat inside drank a lot, went to the zoo, it was amazing!
We bumped into Sam and Anne in Buenos Aires on our first day back there, they had remembered what hostel we were staying at and they were desperately looking for a place to stay having just arrived and not having much luck. The next day nick and I were taking a walk along the streets of Palermo when Sam and Anne came bounding up to us saying they were about to leave a note with us at our hostel inviting us round to their appartment which they had just rented that evening, to cut a long story short we bought them an amazing house warming gift of a hanging basket and had a brilliant night ( I really have not learnt about drinking before traveling) but they were lovely and we were really chuffed to meet them, i will add photos when i can.
We are now in Mar del Plata ( we took the fat guys advice after all) it is freezing here but really really sunny and the locals are behaving like brits by stripping off down to next to nothing and lying out for hours when it is really quite cold! The hostel here is a bit odd, I can´t work out where any of the quests are from, it is really quiet, and there are a few old people here who are really pushing the concept of "youth hostel." We are having fun nevertheless and eating lots of ice cream and havannets (chocolate cones filled with toffee goo, I will bring some home for you dear brother)
I hope you are all happy bunnies,
p.s. I tried to adopt a stray cat but Nick wouldn´t let me boooooooooo! oh yes and in BA we walked past the Botanical Gardens which was filled with more than 300 well fed stray cats! there was a homeless man with one on his head, ingenious, he looked happy so it was ok.
take care
xxx
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