FIN DEL MUNDO as we know it

Ushuaia - End of the World 9 - 14 February

Having had enough of the bus we treated ourselves to a flight to Ushuaia, the end of the world.

We experienced our first night of `real` backpacking in a 6 bedded room with a sweet pasty English dude called Will and 3 old French men, one of whom snored with noises comparable to that of a sea lion. Thank goodness for earplugs - any backpackers number 1 vital possession. Lindsey and Chantal found themselves in an even worse situation and quickly moved over to our hostel to avoid contracting Hepatitis B from just looking at the bathroom.

Top 10 Things to do in Ushuaia:
1) Have passport stamped with 4 official stamps of the end of the world
2) Have a photo taken with a giant Penguin and Beaver on the main road
3) Hire a car to drive to Cablo San Pablo and be unnecessarily anal about insurance and piss off the rent a car dude
4) Skinny dip alongside a shipwreck at the End of the World
5) Beagle Channel boat tour while the other team player (Gayle) spends 2.5 hours in an internet cafe setting up the 4 o`clock slideshow (see link on the side)
6) Get sponsored 2 hours of horseriding by the headmaster, well worth a visit to see spectacular views of the Beagle Channel and learn to gallop
7) Power walk in the Tierra del Fuego National Park and visit the Ushuaia Prison Museum all in one day
8) Experience "Extreme Makeovers" by Nicky and Gayle - for success stories contact Lindsey and Ash
9) Get up to date with your blog to achieve goal of being up to date when we leave a country
10) Plan your money so well that you leave the country with no Argentian pesos!

So now we`re up to date, keep "high fiving" ourselves. Off to Chile tomorrow, looking forward to a few hours sleep on the bus!

Ice, Ice baby

Calafate

7-9 February

Stayed at America del Sur Hostel, where we were greeted by Chantal who had sorted us out with an incredible four bedded room, a picnic lunch for the next day, and had investigated tour options.

We left early the next morning by taxi, to Perito Moreno Glacier, where we spent a few hours watching large chunks of ice breaking off, landing in the lake with a defening thunderous crash...

With anticipation of the soon-to-come reunion with her passport, Gayle worried for the first time about the consequences if her passport didn`t arrive. Fortunately, the reunion was a joyous occassion, with a step-by-step sequence of photos of its retrieval at the courier office. All valuables including not only Gayles passport, but her credit card and driving licence, were securely wrapped up in the Travellers Guru. Thnaks so much to Ron, Maarten and Mara for the safe return of these crucial items!

Gortex trekking haven

El Chalten

5-7 February

El Chalten, a very new town, established in 1986, is a rapidly expanding hikers paradise with beautiful mountains and the ultimate in rock climbing conquests - the Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. Never before have we seen so much gortex, waterproofs, fleece and stinky hiking boots which lined the hostel passages.

Spent Monday with Lindsey and Chantal, trekking up to Cerro Torre mirador and had lunch at an awesome waterfall, Salta Chorilla.

Tuesday - Supertrek started
We did an overnight supertrek with Lindsey (a very cool American we met at school). This involved a 20km hike over two days, walking to the base of Fitz Roy, through valleys, up mountains and camping at the base of Cerro Torre.

Before starting the hike we met our fellow group members, were given instructions and packed lunches for the two days. As our back packs were already absolutely jam-packed, we had to gorge ourselves with Day 1`s lunch pack at 11am. We also had to fill in an idemnity form and questionnaire, with the classic question "Are you on a diet? Do you need to go on one?"

Group members included:
Purple Pants - a kiwi in his mid 60`s who hiked in fleece tracksuit who we were concerned was going to have a heart attack after being out of breath merely walking on the flat to the start of the trek.

Mr and Mrs Useless - an Argentinian couple who carried a humungous backpack while everyone else had a small overnight day pack. We´re not really sure what they had there, but to give them credit, they let us try some of their mate (Argentinian tea) as well as Jack Daniels on ice when we were on the glacier. They also took photo`s of each other in every possible pose, in all different places. Mrs was definitely out of her comfort zone.

Scruffy Creepy German man - with a long lense on his camera who we were convinced was taking photos of us.

Jolly Belguim Lady - who we think was with Scruffy Creepy German man

Mr and Mr Holland - Dutch ?gay ?couple (Mark and Patrick)

Day 2 of the trek, we crossed Fitz Roy River suspended on a harness attached to a wire (according to Lindsey, the experienced mountaineer out of us, it`s called a Tyrolean-transverse) We then hiked to Cerro Torre Glacier, where we strapped on our crampons and went stomping across the glacier for a few hours. Incredible blue and white hues of the ice, and some pretty hair-raising moments as we walked along narrow ridges, with deep crevasses on either side (we had to learn to trust our crampons). This was followed by ice climbing with ice picks up a cliff face of the glacier, before heading back to camp for tea and then home to El Chalten.

When we got back to El Chalten, and were boarding the bus to Calafate, we discovered that the tour operator had not booked us on. This was a problem as all hostels in El Chalten were fully booked, however our gorgeous guide, Paulo, kindly offered to put us up at his house. Fortunately (or unfortunately) there was space on the bus, so we bought tickets and went down to Calafate.

As we left El Chalten, the clouds cleared exposing the spires of Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre for the first time in 3 days...

"The Real Patagonia"

Ruta 40, 3-4 February

On a long and dusty road in the middle of nowhere, we were rudely awoken from our comatose state by the bus guides shouting, "Nicky? Nicky?" In a dazed and blurry eyed state, our first sight was of a large Argentinian man tapping his temple with his index finger and his mouth making incomprehendable words which Lindsey translated as, "YOU FORGOT YOUR PASSPORT!" Nicky was handed the phone, to hear Ron´s hungover, groggy voice on the other end. After exchanging pleasantries, Ron nonchalantly muttered, "So you´ve left your passport, I´ll send it to your hostel in Calafate." Nicky, knowing she had her passport, played along with the "joke", said, "ja ja, thanks, that´ll be cool, here`s Gayle. Gayle chats to Ron, back to Nicky, laugh laugh, ha ha...speak later

We laugh about the joke and how he´s already having withdrawal from the Awesome Foursome. An hour later, the penny drops, as Gayle realises she has actually left her passport behind!! A few calls to Ron and Maarten, who say they´ll sort it out, not to worry...so we didn´t.

The Travellers Guru describes the Ruta 40 as "the real Patagonia" so we felt we had to experience it. In our opinion it was a lonely, desolate, monotonous lanscape that lasted 32 hours, so naturally we used the time to catch up on a few hours sleep. The 4 o´clock photos on the 3rd and 4th Feb represent nearly the entire bus route.

Highlights included:
- Ash`s headbanging sleeping style
- Toss the Orange and getting the whole back of the bus involved
- Observing the poor German, who got left behind after a pit stop, break the landspeed record in an attempt to catch the bus, thereby avoiding 2 lonely days waiting for another Chalten Travel Bus to pass.
- A crazy bus driver who broke the boredom of the trip by "putting foot" through every muddy puddle, thereby spraying the bus windows with a thick layer of mud - not that there was anything else to see!
- Cuevo de los manos, creepy bushmen-like paintings where ancient civilizations spat paint made of coloured mud onto their hands pressed against the wall, so creating a negative of their hand. All which took place over a period of 8000 years. To us it looked more there were people trapped inside the rock, desperately trying to get out

All in all an expensive trip, with Chalten Travel having a monopoly of the Ruta 40. The air conditioner didn`t work which had us all in a sweat for 2 days (not good for backpackers with limited acccess to clean clothes), they even had signs asking us to keep our shoes on! Basically if locals needed to travel this road frequently they wouldn´t stand for it.

We need more education, we need more self control..

Bariloche, Argentina week 2 - 29 Jan-3 Feb

Activities:
Cycled the circuito chico, a 25 km cycle ride. Planned to catch a bus to Colonia Suiza, however we missed the bus, and Ron once again saved the day by hooking us up with a friends car (his ford still residing at the local garage) to transport us to the start of the circuit.
The Circuito Chico, is 25 km of spectacular views, sharp but short hills and exhilarating downhills. The awesome foursome had a new addition, our new housemate, Ale (aka "Speedy Gonsales") who had no comprehension of bike gears so cycled the whole way in Granny gear, and he was left in our dust on the downhills (he "liked to enjoy the views" so he said - but we saw the smoke coming off his tyres!)

Had awesome sundowners (yet another concept the South Africans had to educate the ignorant about) at Ron´s incredible penthouse overlooking the lake. Sundowners was followed by `moonrisers` as a full moon rose from behind the mountains which was reflected exquisitely on the lake.

The masses turned up for the Thursday´s Caminata (trek) with Evo, (see last week´s post) to Lake Guiterra and a beautiful waterfall. On returning we treated ourselves to Helados (ice cream) our traditional reward after a hike, and then met up with Ron, Maarten and Ale for a drink at Pilgrims.

Friday 2 Feb - Graduation Day and Maarten´s Birthday
We `surprised` our favourite housemate, Maarten-the-pancake with presies in bed, wrapped in the good ol Traveller´s Guru Newspaper. We sang "Happy Birthday" in every language we knew including the Spur Restaurant Birthday chant. At school, we had an incredible cake made by Lindsey(which she did on the stove!) with a Dulce de Leche filling (this is a local Argentinian type of spread which is a mix between caramel treat and condensed milk). We all sang "Happy Birthday" in Spanish.

We graduated from school and received certificates - to commemorate this momentous occasion we demanded a prize giving where the headmaster himself had to present us with our certificates.

We had a brilliant two weeks at La Montaña. The teachers were very professional and their enthusiasm in the classroom was contagious. The school offered brilliant free afternoon activities which created a good balance between learning Argentinian customs (eg salsa and the truco card game) and experiencing the beautiful surroundings which Bariloche has to offer. No job was too big for them, and they went out of their way, and beyond our expectations to help us with any questions, concerns and recommendations to make the most of our stay.

Spent Friday afternoon, tanning on the lawn in front of Ron´s apartment by the lake. Celebrated Maarten´s birthday dinner at a typical Argentinian parilla with amazing steaks. Afterwards we hit the bowling alley, which can only be described as a time warp, with young guys working at the end of the lanes, who manually put up the skittles at the end of every go! Beginners luck was not on Nicky´s side, but after a motivational coaching and tactical psyche up by Gayle she wowed the crowd with her one and only strike. Within two minutes, Gayle managed to crush her finger between two bowling balls which rapidly swelled and turned blue, (demanding lots of attention!) and resulting in her narrow defeat by Ash (by one point!) Ron on the other hand, a definite closet bowler, got the highest score of the night. We then went to Trapalanders for unbelievable raspberry daiquiri`s. We pulled an all nighter in anticipation for the Ruta 40 bus ride which left at 6:30am on Saturday morning.

We had mixed emotions leaving on Saturday morning, knowing that it meant separation of the "Awesome Foursome", yet at the same time we were excited to be exploring Patagonia and travelling with Lindsey, Ash and Chantal, who we´d met at school.

Ron and the 3 girls

Weekend away to the Seven lakes 27-28 Jan

Our road trip to the Seven Lakes was due to begin at 11am on Saturday morning, however due to corruption by the headmaster we only left Roxy`s at ?6am. This resulted in much difficulty in getting Gayle out of bed, and Nicky not giving Gayle the option to stay at home, packed her bag while Maarten entertained her with shaving noises on his cell phone.

We eventually got in the car at 1:45pm and headed off along Ruta de Los Siete Lagos (Seven Lakes Route). According to the Travellers Guru (a newspaper owned and written by the headmaster) this is "perhaps the most beautiful 100km stretch in the lake district", unfortunately we spent the first 50km in a comatose state before stopping for the hangover cure lunch at a cafe on the side of the road where Nicky couldn´t understand the menu so randomly pointed at an item on the menu, and Maarten ordered a salad!!

The silent journey continued until we resigned ourselves to a power nap at lake 5 (or maybe it was 6). Refreshed and revitalised we perked up and enthusiasm levels were raised, with the boys even randomly practising their cereal box game techniques (with no box present) much to the utter disbelief of fellow tourists sitting in their cars trying to enjoy the scenery.

After a short stop in San Martin, to organise campsite and food for our asado (aka braai) we awed the boys by volunteering to pitch the tents while they did the blue job of starting the fire. It was only at this point that we accepted the truth in Maarten´s statement: "My tent is only big enough for one".

We woke up on Sunday and "compared to yesterday we felt like god" (Maarten again!) and we spoke more in the first 15 minutes in the car than we did the entire day before!

On an isolated dirt road, Ron noticed a burning smell coming from his precious ford´s engine. Gayle´s quick thinking lead us to emptying all our drinking water into a very empty water tank. Nicky also pulled through with another pearler and using her bush skills, lead us to a fresh mountain stream where we topped up our water supplies. Back on the road again, the temperature gauge still would not go down and the girls once again saved the day by recommending Ron turned on the heater. The boys jaws dropped when this worked within 2 minutes and the temperature returned to normal.

Our temporary measures got us to a garage in civilastion where we were actually more concerned with filling our stomachs and quenching our thirst than checking the car. Surprise, surprise, when we got back into the car it would´n´t start. While waiting for the mechanic to attend to us, we entertained ourselves by throwing rocks into the river until Ron hit some poor innocent Argentinian family as well as learning Maarten´s own choreographed dance routine and the 20 questions/Who am I game.

Before the mechanic arrived, Gayle and Nicky´s spot diagnosis of the car was a likely overheated engine and a blown gasket, however the mechanic assumed an empty petrol tank or flat battery. So after filling the car with petrol and jump starting the car (which again, we had to show the useless Dutchmen not only how to attach the jumper leads but also to have both cars running!) Predictably, neither of these measures were successful in starting the car, leaving us with only one option - to hitch hike back to Bariloche.

Ambitiously, the four of us stood together on the road. The thought crossed our minds for Ron to hide in the bush and for Maarten to display only his long golden hair behind the backpacks. The boys, however, admitted to defeat and knew we´d be more successful on our own and walked back to the garage. Within 5 minutes of them leaving us, a car stopped for us. Not only had we pulled over a hot Sports instructor from Bariloche University, who specialises in Karate, but there was also room for all four of us.

On arrival in Bariloche, we went for a celebratory drink at Trentis, an awesome trendy bar on the lake shore.

Ron´s car made it back to Bariloche the next day on a tow truck. To this day it`s still in the garage, and we´re certain that if we could understand mechanic spanish lingo, he`d confirm our suspicions of a blown gasket.