A small taste of home in Gaiman.

A picture of Rhuthun up in the living room of the Hostel!

An evening with the Hughes´s

Firstly, I´ve added more photos to the Torres del Paine post. Hope you enjoy them!

Well the last few days in Gaiman have been a real treat for me especially. All the way back in 1865 a group of Welsh families decided to come over to Patagonia and establish a new Welsh settlement out here. I don´t really know the reason, I probably should, but just under 150years later their descendents are still here and still speaking the language. I´d heard from people who have been here previously not to expect everyone here to be speaking Welsh, and that is still the case, but it was still very nice and very strange to step off the bus and immediately spot a small tea shop called Cymru Fach (Little Wales) on the street opposite.

We´d booked to stay at a place called Plas Y Coed and I´d already been in contact with Ana from here through email to arrange everything in Welsh so it was very nice to finally meet her and get to speak some of the lingo face to face with someone. I´d been a bit worried on the way of it all turning into a bit of a mess with me not understanding the accent (I have enough trouble understanding the accent from South Wales sometimes never mind here) but all turned out to be well and we had a nice chat about our trip and our plans while Kat stood there, roles reversed for once, not understanding a word.

As part of the hotel/hostel they also run a tea shop downstairs so of course after lunch we had to try some Welsh high tea and cakes. Wonderful they were too, nearly as good as Nain´s cakes at home! The interior of the tea shop was full of Welsh memorabilia, from tea towels to love spoons to stiching. Great!

As we´d been on a 30hour bus ride before arriving we didn´t feel like doing much. Strange I know but somehow sitting down for that period of time is very tiring. So we had a bit of a wander around, had a beer with a nice couple from the Wirral we met (the wife was learning Welsh) and then had a great dinner at the restaraunt across the road. Of course the menu was also in Welsh.

I´d been given some contacts from my Mum (diolch Mam!) of a Welsh speaking family out here which I was keen to get in touch with so after a quick phone call the man of the house Billy Hughes came out to Plas Y Coed to meet us and to arrange something for the following evening. What happened when we met I still now find completely strange yet very funny and something I just wasn´t expecting as it was completely new to me.

We waited outside and he arrived in his 4x4. We shook hands and of course as I knew who he was started chatting in Welsh, he sounded just like a local from home in Rhuthun! He explained that he doesn´t speak a word of English to which I replied no problem Kat speaks fluent Spanish. Now this is the funny bit for me. He would understand exactly what me and Kat were saying to him seperately but I wouldn´t understand what Kat was saying to him and she wouldn´t understand what I was saying to him. So this meant that we had to clarify what we were both saying to him in English, of which he wouldn´t understand a word! Fantastic!

Billy´s lack of English came as a complete shock to me. I´ve never met anyone before who speaks Welsh yet doesn´t speak English but of course here in a Spanish speaking country it´s completely normal. What I found strange was that he would switch between perfect Welsh and perfect Spanish, something I´d never heard before.

So, in the end he invited us round to his house for a Asado (Argentinian bbq) and to meet the rest of the family. We had a great night and really enjoyed meeting the kids and also the Grandmother who sounded just like any Welsh speaking Grandmother but of course speaking to Kat in Spanish. I just can´t get over it! I realised also how littered with English words my Welsh can be when I´m speaking with friends and family at home. The problem was here that I had to think more about the proper Welsh words as of course they wouldn´t understand the English words.

We had a great piece of lamb cooked by Billy and enjoyed hearing their stories and sharing various experiences and differences in culture. The whole family is coming to Wales in July so we really hope that we can meet them again. Diolch yn fawr!

Tonight we take another bus ride northwards to a place called Bariloche. A night´s stay there and then we should be back in Santiago on Thursday. We´ve heard that Barilocke is a bit of a tourist trap of a town so we shall see what we find. We were talking today that we still haven´t done any ´proper´tourist stuff like tours and boat rides and like so this may be a good chance.

The trek to the Towers of Pain.

The boat trip on the way over. I told you the water was blue!

More sights from the boat across the lake. Pretty amazing eh?

My first glimpse of the glacier. There was also the strongest wind I´ve ever experienced on this ridge.

Kat enjoying the view.

The bluest blue!

Guess what my favourite colour is.

Kat really enjoying the walk.

One of the few moments it wasn´t raining on the third day.

We did it!

The walk back to the bus.

As much as I was expecting to do a bit of walking during our time in the Torres del Paine National Park, I never imagined that our 3 days would turn into one of the hardest, wettest, sometimes scariest yet also the most amazing period of walking I´ve ever done. We left the hostel bright and early on the Monday morning with our back packs brimming with food, tents and sleeping bags eagerly looking forward to what to me was going to be a pleasent stroll around some nice looking scenery in the sunshine. I was very wrong about the weather but very right about the scenery and what we saw. Maybe better if I go through it briefly day by day.

Monday (Day 1) - Take the 3 hour bus to the entrance to the park, sign in and collect our maps then take a 30min boat ride across a lake to the first ´Refugio´or camping spot from where we´d start our walk. Already on the ferry ride I knew that we were in for something special. The lake was the bluest blue. A very ´mineral´blue which makes sense as it is apparently the minerals in the water that causes it. The colour of the lake against the backdrop of huge white mountains was breathtaking. Already though the wind was a hootin. Very windy indeed.

We met a nice Belgian couple on the ferry who were going to do the same trek as us up to the glacier the first day so we tagged along and it was nice to have some company for the first day. They happened to have both been sent to Santiago for work reasons and so decided not to waste the opportunity to come and visit the park. We chatted while we walked, saw an owl on the way and before we knew it (actually 3hours walking later) we came over a ridge and spotted our first ice berg. It was so exciting for some reason! The colour of the ice was incredible, the bluest bluest blue. Yes! Even more blue than the lake we´d just been over!

As we carried on our walk we finally made it to the end of the glacier. Again we came over a ridge and there it was. A huge flowing river of ice coming down the valley and just ending suddenly in the lake. It was a fantastic sight. Look at the photo.

After a nice dinner of some sort of rice soup thing we´d found in the supermarket and a few beers we collapsed into our tent excited about tomorrow would bring.

Tuesday (Day 2) - Our plan had originally been to trek the short 3 hours down to the first Refugio (where we were dropped off by the ferry) , have lunch and then a short 2.5hour trek over to the next refugio, pitch the tent and go have a look up the valley at the mountains. The first part went swimmingly, we must have bolted it down as we arrived early for lunch but just as we were arriving the heavens opened, and they did not close for a long time. We donned our waterproof trousers and jackets (lucky I actually packed them!) and headed off to the next campsite. 2.5hours later we arrived and it was still pouring and the clouds were low. There was no way we were going to see anything up there. We thought ´no point in going up the valley, what shall we do?´. What do you do after treking for 5.5hours with 2.5 in the rain? You trek another 2.5 hours to the next campsite of course! That´s what we decided to do as it would save us time the next morning. At the time it sounded like a reasonable thing to do but I think in hindsight we´ve come to realise that it was absolute madness. Still it was pouring, still we walked. The photo of Kat by the lake is an absolute classic and captures the feeling at that time, still with about an hour to go.

Finally we arrived at the campsite, pitched up, took our sodden clothes off and headed into the warmth of the refugio cafe. I´m not sure we said a word to anyone or each other for a good half hour. Just sat, staring into space and thinking ´what have we just done?´. We saw on the map that we´d walked 23km. Maybe doesn´t sound like much on a road, but with a heavy bag, horrible rainy weather and hard terrain it felt like 123km!!

Wednesday (Day 3) - After the heroics of the day before, this day turned out to be a lot easier and shorter than we firstly anticipated. Again the rain was pouring so within 15mins of leaving the camp at 10am, after waiting a good hour to see if it would calm, by feet were sodden with 6 hours of walking to go. We got a bit lost leaving the campsite, ending up on a horse trail until we finally found it again crossing a bridge over a river to see a tent wallowing around in the white water. Someone had a very unlucky night!

We battled on, being joined by Kath a fellow Brit we´d met in the refugio the night before, crossing huge overflowing rivers ´stepping stone´style (very scary) and doing our best to get through bogs with our feet reasonably dry (not so scary). A couple of hours up the trail we caught up with what at first looked like an absoulte mad man of a camper, dragging black plastic bin bags full of pots and pans and with more bags stacked high on his backpack. Turned out that this ´madman´was a local Chilean and some kind of a Sherpa fellow who was transporting the gear of 7, yes 7 Italians from one Refugio to another. The more impressive thing was this guy was going at a fair lick, not stopping for any river or big puddle. Straight through thank you very much. This is how we trek in Chile. We lost him just as we were heading up the final big climb of the day to the campsite.

The purpose of the final trek was to see the famous ´Torres´up high in the park. 3 granite pillars carved out of the surrounding mountain by a descending glacier. As the weather up to now had been so dreadful we´d all but given up hope of seeing anything but as we arrived in the campsite the weather finally began to clear and you could just about see the tips over the surrounding mountains. However, after the hard day before and another hard day today in the rain we had absolutely no more energy to get up there. We decided to risk it and hope that the weather stayed half descent for tomorrow morning, our last chance.

Thursday (Day 4) - After a good nights sleep we woke up to see that finally, our luck with the weather had broken. Clear blue skies!! So at 8am, still half asleep we sped up the mountain as fast as we could, drinking water from the streams Ray Mears style as we´d forgotten our water bottle. We felt so close to nature, we had become one. Up, up and up the trail went and the closer and closer we got although it did feel at a few points that we would never make it. It was one of those classic ´Just over that hill´moments, where over that hill lay another hill obscuring the view.

Í cant do anymore Rhys´ Kat said.

Ýes you can´I replied. ´This is what we did it for, this is what we live for!!!´ ´FFREEEDOOOOM¨!

Finally, after the 500th hill we made it to see the most amazing sight. 3 huge pillars of granite standing proud over a glacier lake. We thought that after what we´d battled through the previous days we thoroughly deserved it. It was a fantastic ending to the trek.

So, after a quick descend back to the camping we made it back to the bus stop with half an hour to spare. Walking back in blazing blue skies and knowing how lucky we´d been to see those pillars, our legs didn´t hurt anymore (mine didn´t, kat´s did) and our bags felt lighter. Although our bags were actually a lot lighter. Less food you see.

We had a great huge pizza with lots of beers in the evening to say farewell to Kath before collapsing on our hostel beds ready for the bus the next morning. 30hours of busing later and we´ve made it to the small Welsh colony town of Gaiman (no funny jokes please). Strange to see Welsh written around the place and even stranger to be speaking Welsh with the hostel/hotel owner. I´ll write more of our experiences here at a later date. I think the words and photos of Torres del Paine will suffice for now!

Late edit : Sorry but the computer here doesn´t seem to want to upload anymore photos. I promise that I´ll get them up as soon as I can so you can see the bluest blue and also the bluest bluest blue!

We're back, we did it, it was absolutely amazing, we're totally shattered.

What an amazing 4 days. Everything we wanted and more.

Too tired to post anything else at the moment, we walked 70km
in every weather imaginable, so photos and the rest will follow shortly. For now it's a very well earned sleep in a proper bed before catching a 7am bus to El Calafate, Argentina tomorrow morning.

Next post soon.


-- Posted from my iPhone

Let's trek!

After a short 3 hour journey in the bus we've made it to the 'base camp' town of Puerto Natales. On the way we passed some amazing scenery that really reminds me of the north of Scotland around the Thurso area. Big open plains with the wind buffeting around, the skies also are constanly changing and just look huge.

We've checked into our hostel and have got our equipment sorted. We're lucky in that the tent and camping mats we're hiring are on only their 3 trip so as new really. I seem to have been really lucky with equipment hire so far, new windsurf boards and sails arrived in Jeri a few days after me too.

So now we're just lounging around the hostel saving our energy for the trek. We're aiming for a 4 day trek lugging our tent and food etc. starting with another bus ride tomorrow at 7.30am to the entrance of the park. We've seen some of the mountains from afar and already they're amazing. I know that the sights inside the park, especially if we're lucky with the weather, will be something that will stay with me for ever.

That's about it for now then. We're going for a big meal tonight of patagonian lamb (a poor man's welsh lamb im sure) to stock up and then certainly for me a very long hot shower. I think it might be a while till my next one.

We'll see you on the other side!


-- Posted from my iPhone

Location:Puerto Natales, Chile

At the bottom of the world. Nearly.

We enjoyed our last few days in Santiago with a visit to a fruit market, the museums and a visit to a seaside resort of Valparaiso, which included my first view of the Pacific Ocean. It lived up to its name of being ´pacific´ but my word it was so cold! It really was a case of dipping the feet in before running back up the beach. There were a few brave souls swimming too, I must be a wimp aftr being spoilt in Jeri.

The town of Valparaiso itself was also a nice change to the developed and slightly european feel of Santiago. It had much more of a genuine Chilean feeling with bustling fruit markets and all sorts of people selling all sorts of things. We saw one man exclusively selling car aerials. I meant to mention before (after our visit to Fortaleza) that it´s a pity that the most interesting and different areas that we´ve visited are areas in which I unfortunately wouldn´t want to take out the camera for fear of it being swiped. The best bits of Valparaiso were the same too so my poor description will have to suffice sorry. There was however a nice arty hill area which was a bit touristy where we took a few photos.

Back in Santiago we sneaked in a visit to a museum, some nice statues there, and yet another fruit market (we never buy any fruits though!). I think we just like looking at how they´ve been laid out. There was another sleeping man in one stall. Maybe I´ll start a bit of a collection of sleeping Chileans (in photo form of course).

We met up with Kat´s old buddy Cristobal from her time here in the evening and enjoyed a nice tapas style meal in a Spanish restaraunt followed by drinks in a nearby bar. As it was 3 years since they´d last seen it each other the drinks flowed rather easily and it was 3am by the time we left the bar.

As we´d both had a few drinks we were both looking forward to a bit of a lie in the next day. Only, of course, the next morning had to be the day that the builders decided to start pummeling the wall outside our room with a pneumatic drill. So at 8am we were both woken up by the most savage, loud and grinding noise that you can imagine all with a bit of a headache already. We both thought that it would only last at most 15mins but at 10am it was still going strong so it wasn´t the nicest of lie ins to say the least. I don´t think either of us realised how close the drilling was to the bed either till we had a look after getting up. Kat´s expression in the photo says it all.

We had a relaxing last day in Santiago at the house before catching an flight at 2am this morning (Saturday) to Punta Arenas before crashing out in the hostel for a few hours till lunch time. I think we´d both like to say the Hubert and Agathe (Kat´s Uncle and Aunt) have been exceptionally kind and generous hosts for us in Santiago. We (and even more so for myself) felt really welcomed into their house and we´re already looking forward to seeing them again on our way back up north.

Back to Punta Arenas, it´s slightly unbelievable but even though Santiago is half way down Chile, the flight was another further 4 hours to get here. The same distance as from Manchester to Turkey flying maybe? Cape Horn is only 10s of miles away. It definitely feels like it´s the end of the world to me, there´s not much going on in the town, but Kat seems to like it. I can see why the British (or maybe just Maggie) was so keen on the Falklands too, the weather is very British. For the first time in more than 2 months this morning I had to think how to dress to stay warm rather than cool. Trousers, fleece, jacket, feels a bit weird.

So from here we´re catching a bus to Puerto Natales tomorrow then after another night there we´ll begin our trek in the Torres del Paine national park. I´m sure I´ve mentioned it before but I just cannot wait to see the scenery there.

That´ll do for now I think. Not sure when the next update will be but hopefully soon.

Santiago.

Another shot of the Andes when we were coming over on the bus.

Kat really enjoying the Chilean fast food, completos. Basically a hot dog with mashed avocado, tomatoes and mayo as a topping.

Impressive synchronised sleeping by some local hobos.

The view of the city from the hill of St Cristobal, you can just make out the Andes in the background.

Kat glad to be back looking over her old stomping ground.

The view from one of the kid's room's balcony in the new house. Nice!

Now that we've settled in I've a bit more time on my hands so here's a bit more about Santiago and some more photos.

Compared to Buenos Aires we're finding Santiago to be very clean and less frantic, but the main difference is that here everything just works. The underground system for example is great and puts London's effort to shame too.

The city is surrounded by the Andes and you can see them wherever you are in the city, depending on how bad the smog is. Today as we were walking down the hill you could see a thick layer of smog sitting on top of the skyscrapers blocking any sight of the mountains beyond. I think that as the city is surrounded by the Andes there is nowhere for all the pollution created to disperse so it just sits there. I wonder if it's going to keep getting worse as more and more people buy cars, yes probably.

Since being here we've been wandering around Kat's old haunts from when she lived here. It's been really nice for me to be able to put a sight to a story and to see where she worked and lived. She's noticed a big change, much for the better, in the city over the 3 years that she's been away.

We've had a nice walk up (actually most of it was via funicular) to visit St Cristobal up on a hill overlooking the city, visits to some markets including a great antiques one and also an arts and crafts one today where I bought a nice leather satchel. Over the next few days we're planning on hitting the museums, visiting a seaside town of Valparaiso and maybe a little warm up trek in the surrounding mountains.

We're flying down to Punta Arenas early on Saturday morning to start our Patagonian adventure and so we had a bit of a shopping spree today for trekking equipment. Trousers, waterproof trousers and some water bottles. Im getting really excited about it now. We've heard from everyone how breathtaking the scenery is down there and there might be an opportunity to see some orcas too. The change in weather might be a bit of a shock though bit it'll be good to finally be able to use the fleeces, rain jackets and other warm clothes that up till now have been absolutely no use at all.

Don't cry for me (us) Argentina..............

Nearly a week has passed since the last post so this one's going to be a bit of a double whammy. A lot of things have happened so I'll do my best to fill you in.

The 'hidden gem' of a restaraunt at La Boca turned out to be a bit of a damp squib as it was closed on that evening. We couldn't get an answer on the phone atleast so assumed so. Instead we headed to a recommended Parillia from the guide book and I predictably opted for another massive big steak. Very nice it was too.

I'll give you a bit more on the cycling we did too before new year. The first hour or so was very pleasant as we cycled around the park to the north of the city with other cyclists and runners but it all turned into a bit of a nightmare as we returned to the city streets. The pollution in the roads from all the traffic was horrible and together with mad drivers and the very bad condition of the roads and pavements we decided to return the bikes pronto. This was not going to be fun 'seeing the sights'. We phoned the company and organised to drop the bikes off 2 hours early with both of us feeling filthy and sweaty. Nevertheless, we both had a good time.

Did we mention the sushi here? So good and so cheap. So for dinner that night we bought a huge takeaway sushi dish for the grand sum of around 10 pounds. See photo for evidence. Doesn't it look nice?The following day we turned out to be one of the most frustrating of the whole trip so far. As we'd both bought and recieved some very nice stuff over the trip so far we decided to send a package home, what we thought would be a simple and straighforward task. After being sent away from numerous post depots for wanting to send too large a package we finally arrived at the correct place only to be met with the most annoying, incompetent and rude person we've come across. This woman was unbelievable. We'll have to leave the full story for another day unfortunately or I'll never leave this computer.

After finally sending the package on its way we thought that a visit to the Japanese gardens and lunch in the restaraunt would be nice. The Japanese gardens were very nice to see but the restaraunt was closed. No worries we thought, we'll head down to the museums and have lunch there. After 20 mins walk in the heat it aso turned out the be closed. Everything closed on a Tuesday!! So, we found some lunch eventually and had a nice walk around. There is a very impressive sculpture outside the Museum in the shape of a flower which was gleaming silver in the sunshine.

The frustating day continued when we went for a pre dinner drink (no beer at all in the bar!!) and also at the Almenian Restaraunt where we had dinner. We ordered our dinner and got our starters of humus, olives and the like straight away but our main course order was taking a strangely long time to surface. We asked the waiter where it was only to be answered with 'What did you order again?' Ahhhh!! He'd forgotten our order!! We couldn't have thought of a better way to finish the day. It was very fitting. Ah well, it all could have been much worse I'm sure so 'C'est la vie!'.

Jon and Tanya arrived the next day which we'd been very much looking forward too but we did get worried that they might not make it because of the weather in the UK. Turns out they only had a measly 4 hours delay and so arrived in Buenos Aires ready to rumble! We had the obligatory drinks to catch up and headed for another obligatory steak to welcome them and say farewell to us as we were leaving for Santiago the next day. I again came to realise how lucky it is to have Kat speaking fluent Spanish so all I can do is wish them the best of luck and for them to have a great time.

We headed to the bus station the next day after handing over the keys to the flat slightly worse for wear yet strangely looking forward to spending 20hours (turned out to be 22!) on a bus.

The seats were so comfortable! More like those business class seats on a plane that I always jealously walk past. We settled in for the journey, the whole bus joining into a game of bingo would you believe it. And then a hot dinner! What a strange experience. Sitting in a huge seat in a bus having a hot dinner of some kind of ham pie with mash potatoes with a plastic tumbler of red wine. And best of all the food wasn't bad at all!! Nothing much more to say of the journey itself, the hours past by and before we knew it we were staring at the start of the Andes. The first peak looked impressive but as they drew closer and closer and we went higher and higher ther grew and grew and grew. It was absolutely a fantastic sight. We passed over the top through the immagration at a dizzying height of 3000m or so. Double the height of some Alpine resorts!! The snow was still visible and the air felt thin. I now cannot wait to get my walking boots on and do a bit of trekking.

So now we're in Santiago. We were slightly sad to be leaving Buenos Aires. We'd had an absoultely fantastic time there yet we were ready for a new adventure. A new country and a new city and the differences between Chile and Argentina are already obvious.

We're staying at Kat's Aunt and Uncles amazing new house that is being built. When it's finished this place is going to be like something straight out of Grand Designs.

We've booked our flights down south and will post again of our happenings in Santiago before long. So long for now!!

Quads, mosquitoes and ice cream

After a day to recover from the New Year´s festivites we were lucky enough to be invited to Mercedes and co´s (the family of one of Kat´s ex pupils) little countryside retreat. After a 2 hour bus journey where we were dropped off on the side of a motorway, a little hitchhike in a 4x4 and then to be picked up by Merecedes´s friends we arrived at the Villa. I´d just started reading Jack Kerouac´s `On the road´ all about hitchhiking across the US so it felt really exciting to be doing a bit of our own hitchhikin from a deserted petrol station to the middle of town here. Just a pity that my Spanish doesn´t extend far enough to have a conversation with the drivers, luckily Kat´s does. Unfortunately they didn´t have much to say other than to warn us of the mosquitoes. We were dropped off in the a town called Las Palmas which was completely quiet and looked like a really great place, dogs sleeping and old cars everywhere. It was great to arrive at the villa and jump straight into the pool but we had a bit of a shock at how cold the water was. The last time we were swimming was in Brasil and even the sea there felt much warmer than the pool here. I suppose we´re a bit spoilt by now. As the villa was occupied by a big group of friendly families the pool was filled with kids. I therefore spent a good few hours throwing and pushing kids around the pool and getting a good few `bombs´ from the kids right next to me. It was good fun and we really enjoyed the Bbq and chatting with the oldies over dinner. As I´d been found out as a Welshman I had to give a song after dinner so I belted out the anthem as best I could.

I forgot to mention the mosquitoes. They wer ethe biggest and meanest we´d ever seen! As soon as we hopped of the bus we were attacked by a gang and any time that you didn´t have any lotion on you you were done for. Poor little Bosco´s (Kat´s ex pupil) legs were in absoulte tatters by the time we left.

After a nice breakfast we headed back to Buenos Aires with Mercedes and the family. We had lunch of Sushi followed by a huge ice cream then headed back to the apartment for a quiet night of pizza and a film on our favourite channel, MGM.

Today we headed down to La Boca, the area that be honest I was the most apprehensive of going to in the city. It´s the area that all the guide books warn of being a bit `dodgy´ but as long as you stay in the allocated tourist area then all is well which is what we did. As the area is right next to the port all the buildings, in the tourist area of course, are painted with bright bold colours. The story goes that the area was so poor that the inhabitants could only afford to paint their houses with the left over paints from the ships. This tradition has died out a bit now I think but they still do their best to keep it going in the touristy area. Whether it´s `real´ or not it looks nice. We had lunch watching a tango show, in which the most impressive dancing was by two men together funnily enough, one immitating a woman. I think they might need to find better woman dancers.

We´re heading back to La Boca tonight for dinner in a restaraunt which is apparently favoured by the Hand of God aka Senor Diego Maradonna. As it´s not in the tourist area of La Boca it´s a taxi to the door job and the same on the return journey. Apparently it´s one of the hidden gems of the city, we´ll see..........

Happy New Year!

oooooooooooh I've got a headache!!

We had a brilliant new year that, in typical Argentinian fashion started super late and ended even later, I think we were having our main course at 1am on the 1st of January! We decided to cook at home rather than spend another small fortune eating out, so we headed to the supermarket and bought a small mountain of food and wine and beer and champagne for 1/6 of the cost of a restaurant dinner. We had been told that Buenos Aires doesn't celebrate New Year in an extravagant way, it's a family occasion, so we were a little surprised when the whole city exploded again at midnight, like on Christmas day except this time it lasted for almost an hour. They're crazy people, when we went into the street we saw it was all middle-aged adults letting the fireworks off, not even kids. So anyway, we had a huge and delicious dinner of steak and salad and more meat and ice-cream and at 2 we finally decided to head out and get a cab into Palermo, the 'hip' area of town. We found a bar with lots of people who all seemed to be waiting for drinks and started chatting to a big group of people who were all from the same hostel. So, when they left to find a club, we followed but as is the way with most big groups, the group got separated and we found ourselves wandering around with very few people in the streets. That is until we found a huge street party with a little DJ in the middle and stayed until the sun came up.

So now we're suffering a little and we're taking the day off, nothing's open today either. Tomorrow we're heading out of town to the pampas to have a swim in a pool and hopefully ride some horses. We rented bicycles here the other day but, while cycling around in the huge park of Buenos Aires with wildlife all around and no cars is very fun, cycling on broken streets with people driving like loons everywhere and pollution destroying our throats was a little less amusing. We've bought our tickets for Santiago, so we'll be there on the 9th after a 20hour bus journey but we got the bed option so we're actually quite excited about it.

Anywho, I leave you. I'm sorry there are no photos but the man behind the counter won't let us take any other USB plug out so it'll have to be another day. Let us know what you did and thank you to everyone who called/ sent texts etc. Lots and lots of love
xxx

Late Edit : In a new internet cafe now and put the photo of the sun coming up for dawn 2010 as we returned to the flat. Wa s a nice start to the year!