Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires frst thing in the morning and after scrabbling around for some change for the bus (there are hardly any coins in Argentina, and they´re running out of notes!), we took the bus through town to our hostel. It was actually a fairly run down hotel, but it was in San Telmo, the home of tango, and surrounded by cobbled streets and leafy squares that reminded us a bit of France.



We went to a really nice old ´Allo Allo´-style cafe, complete with bow-tied and moustached waiter, and had some breakfast before getting into our room. We spent a lot of the afternoon asleep as it was so hot, but went out later and sat in the Plaza Dorrego and watched people tangoing over a beer and a steak (for clarification, we were the ones with the beer and steak).

The next day being Sunday, we were lucky enough to be around for the San Telmo antiques market, which is famously big, and attended by street artists and tango dancers.











Still not done with the tangoing, we went into the centre of the city to find a show. We ended up at the 36 Billiares, which is an old billiards bar with a bar area and stage that looked about 100 years old. We thought we were there to watch the dancing, but ended up watching what appeared to be the Argentine equivalent of Tom Jones, or maybe Tony Bennett. He kept jumping down and coming into the audience, so we sat stock- still in our seats so as not to attract his attention.



About an hour after Tom Jones departed, the tango show began, which was really excellent and involved a little crowd participation. I thought the piano player looked a little like Jean-Claude Van Damme, but Rich wasn´t convinced. Will definitely be signing up for lessons when we get back!











Spent quite a lot of time the next day arranging onward travel, which turned out to be quite annoying, especially in the heat, but we finished up with a drink in old Palermo. We had managed to avoid the hard core-nightlife (that starts about 2am) and had so much more to see. Would seriously love to go back if anyone is interested?!

El Calafate and the Perito Moreno

We arrived in El Calafate by plane after our escape from Ushuaia. We were in town purely to see the Perito Moreno glacier, one of the last advancing glaciers in the world.



We set up camp in a site just on the edge of town, although we prayed that there wouldn´t be a storm, since the tent pegs went into the rocky ground no more than an inch. Not much to say about El Calafate, a bit touristy, but a nice place to wander around for half a day.

We took a bus to the glacier, which was about an hour away and the weather began to close in as we did so, so that by the time we unloaded from the bus, the rain was coming down quite strongly. Still, we made our way down the walkways across the peninsula that looked out across the glacier, and stood waiting for some action.





Every few minutes the glacier creaks and groans and a huge chunk falls of and crashed into the water. It´s quite a show, but although we had read that people are mesmerised by it, and can stand and watch for hours, we were soaked so we went to the visitor centre for a cup of tea.











Once the rain left off, we went out for an hour and since the crowds had also dried up it was much quieter and we witnessed the birth of some huge icebergs.





We went back by bus that evening, and the next day set off by bus to Rio Gallegos and then by plane to Buenos Aires to catch up on some time.

More pictures of Torres Del Paine (We had a bit of time when we were stuck in Ushuaia)

Punta Arenas and Ushuaia, again

We arrived in Punta Arenas on Saturday 8th Jan in the rain and booked our onward bus ticket before going to find our hostel. Although the man in charge, Claudio, was very friendly and helpful, it wasn´t really the clean and comfortable place we hoped for. The best thing to say, is that there was a kettle in the main lounge, and a big TV. Still, it was exciting to be in a new place, and we went for a wander round, after saying hello to a couple of people from Puerto Natales.







The next day, we went to the main museum (mainly because these things are free on Sundays, and it was pretty cold, although I wasn´t complaining!). It´s an old mansion, from the times when Punta Arenas was the centre of the world´s wool trade, before the Panama canal ruined everything. It was interesting, especially the rooms that were restored, and we spent a lot of time imagining we lived there, and had a snooker room and a ballroom!

We also went to what seemed like a fun outdoor concert on the seafront, next to the Magellan Straights, although everyone was carried black flags and bin bags taped to sticks. Still, one of the singers performed ´Hopelessy Devoted´from Grease, which I sung along loudly to, and we got involved in some chanting against President Piñera, just for fun. Little did we know how this would come back to haunt us...



Since we couldn´t get a bus to Ushuaia until Tuesday, we had another day to kill so on Monday we walked to the cemetery, which was really interesting as it´s full of huge family tombs, built like houses, from the city´s heyday. It was also full of topiary trees, making it look like something out of ´Alice in Wonderland´.



However, it was so windy, that you couldn´t walk far without getting blown into the road. Quite dangerous.



We braved the wind just long enough to kiss the Indian´s foot on the statue of Magellan in the main square. Apparently, this means that you´ll come back to Punta Arenas one day. I thought it meant ´good luck´or I might not have bothered!

The next day we took a 12 hour bus ride to Ushuaia, saying goodbye to Chile and enjoying our first full day in Argentina. As most of the landscape on the journey had been flat and featureless, we weren´t prepared for how beautiful the bus journey through the Garibaldi Pass and into Ushuaia would be. We wound up through snow-covered mountained and up around a beautiful lake, and dropped into the city on the edge of the Beagle Channel, where there are many ships preparing to go to Antarctica. Although we were tired, everyone at our hostel was really friendly, so we ended up having a barbecue and a few beers with some of the other inmates!

Since we wouldn´t be able to leave until Friday, the next day being Wednesday, we had a good look around the city and the port before getting our passports stamped with ´Ushuaia - most southerly city in the world´ stamps and went to some more museums, one in the former prison (the city was formerly a penal colony). This is the province of Argentina that includes the Islas Malvinas (the Falklands) and there are signs around the town declaring that the Islands should be Argentinian, and even an exhibit about it in the prison museum.

On Friday, we got our bus at 5am for Rio Gallegos, to finally begin heading north again up through Argentina. We had been told that the ferry across the Magellan Straight (that is the only way out of Tierra Del Fuego and back to the mainland) was blockaded by Chileans, protesting about a 20% rise in gas prices being forced upon them. This had been the subject of the protest that we´d joined with such gusto in Puntas. I think things turned nasty there after we left though. We thought we would have to wait around 3 hours at the port, but as the day wore on, the bus company decided to turn us around back into Argentina, to try again another day. We stayed overnight in Rio Grande to save 3 hours further travelling to Ushuaia, but upon arriving this morning (Saturday) we found that they weren´t even going to attempt the journey.

So now we´re back in Ushuaia, camping for a couple of nights in a lovely place with a great view of the port and the Beagle Channel, and will just have to wait and see when we can get out. We´re trapped until further notice!




P.S: We are still in good spirits and were cheered up by some toilet roll from home!!