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!