I left the end of the earth Ushuaia and flew to El Calafate with another super cheap flight I’d managed to find. All though it did take several hours longer then anticipated as we had to disembark the plane for a few hours at another stop, it was still quicker than twenty hours in a bus! I’d been recommended by several people a hostel in the town of El Calafate, “Amercian del sur”; I was not disappointed, the staff were so friendly and helpful and had booked several buses, and a trip and I was able to pay for everything on my credit card in a lump sum. It may not sound like a big deal, but in Argentina they hardly take credit card anywhere, and you can only take a thousand pesos, (£140), out of the cash machine at a time so your constantly having to go to the machine and carry around way more cash then I normally would back home. I had a couple of hours free that afternoon so I met up with an Amercian guy who’d been on my flight and we had a walk round a bird sanctuary next to Lago Argentina. I know I’m sounding older and older! But they did have flamingoes which was pretty cool!

Following morning was a very early start for three hour bus journey to the glacier Perito Moreno. This was something I’d been very much looking forward to seeing and I was not disappointed! It is huge, and advancing moving between half a metre an metre every day. I’d gone for a slightly pricy tour which included a boat trip over to the glacier, and ninety minute trek on the ice with crampons, a glass of whiskey with ice from the glacier, return boat trip going closer go the glacier and then up the viewing balconies opposites the other face of the glacier were you can wait and watch big chunks of ice fall into the lake. We were really lucky with the weather as it was sunny, but with clouds as well which visually gives the ice the blue hues. When it’s completely sunny everything just seems very white and is quite blinding. Hopefully my photos will go someway to show how incredible it is….it’s been one of the major highlights of my trip so far!

Bit of Wikipedia plagiarism for some more facts: “The 250 km2 (97 sq mi) ice formation, and 30 km (19 mi) in length, is one of 48 glaciers fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field located in the Andes system shared with Chile. This icefield is the world’s third largest reserve of fresh water. The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of only three Patagonian glaciers that is growing. The reason remains debated by glaciologists. Perito Moreno Glacier is 5 kilometres (3 mi) wide, with an average height of 74 m (240 ft) above the surface of the water of Lake Argentino, in Argentina. It has a total ice depth of 170 metres (558 ft).”

On arriving back in town I the took the evening bus to El Chalten, which is a another major hiking destinations with the infamous Cerro Fitz Roy. I arrived at my hostel “El Rancho Grande” at ten pm, paid and checked in, looked at my room, went to the bathroom, asked to change rooms, they couldn’t accommodate me, walked up the street and after three more hostels found another hostel. Returned to original hostel to tell them I was leaving at which point they said they could move me, but I was decided. This has been the first hostel I’ve just not wanted to stay a single night in, it was full of huge groups, crowded, noisy, I could hardly get to my bed for others people’s stuff all over the place, and the bathrooms were rubbish. If I’d only been staying for one night and not really doing anything the next day I would have stuck it, but as the reason I was there was to do some hiking etc I wanted some decent sleep. Anyway the place I found was way nicer and quiet, (yes sounding even older!). There was also a French girl from my hostel in Bariolche staying there, so we hiked the following day together. She didn’t speak much English, but good Spanish so another day for me to practice the lingo. We hiked up to a lake with a glacier, but after the previous day’s Glacier it was pretty underwhelming! It also rained most of the way, and all the mountains were behind the clouds. But it was still a pretty trek with changing scenery and some moderately challenging ups and downs.

My second day in Chalten I bumped into the British couple I’d travelled a bit with again! I popped into their hostel for a chat and bumped into a German girl who’d been in my hostel in Ushuaia. We did a shorter walk together that afternoon as I was leaving back to Calafate that afternoon. Again the weather was overcast and I didn’t get to see Fitz Roy!

I arrived back to the same hostel in El Calafate looking forward to a hot shower only to discover the whole town was out of water! After a days hiking I was not looking so good, so kept my baseball cap on had a quick beer and bed for another early start south!

I’d originally planned not to fly anywhere in South America until February when I’ll need to take a flight to the Galapagos islands, but the size of Argentina and Patagonia has somewhat defeated me and a deadline I have to make in Santiago just before Christmas. So I have had to book a few flights to link up my last few weeks down south. Flights on the whole are not cheap at all, but I lucked out with a very small cheap airline and I made a four hour flight to Ushuaia for the same price as a bus, (the bus would have been 28 hours!). The flight was fine, and I saw some beautiful landscapes flying. I arrived in Ushuaia to biting cold wind and I was very glad to have bought some warmer clobber in Bariolche!

Ushuaia is the most southern city in the world and was originally founded as a penal colony so that Argentina was able to lay claim over the land from Chile. It’s now the main port for expeditions to and tours to Antarctica. And as such it’s a pretty affluent small town and caters to the tourist with some cash. Hostels and everything in Patagonia are much more expensive then further north. And in my case my hostel in Ushuaia was not any better despite the high price! Really cramped dorms, only one person could move around the room at a time and no room for bags at all! I’m fast compiling my list of things I need/want in a hostel: Decent showers, strong wifi, lockers, comfortable bed, and an ok breakfast.

The other thing that was noticeably different was how long the daylight hours were, it got dark around 11.30 and was starting to get light about 4. My first day I took a catamaran tour up the Beagle Channel. The boat took us very near a few islands, with sea lions and cormorants. We then headed further out, passing the iconic lighthouse and to another island with a large penguin colony. We couldn’t get off the boat, but the catamaran could get so near to shore we were nearly as near them as if we had been on foot. They really are amusing creatures, and they weren’t shy at all. Guessing they are used to twenty odd boats rocking up to take photos everyday! Everyone else on my boat had huge cameras, and I was bit worried my photos from the point and shoot would not be great, but I’m pretty pleased!

The second day in the morning I wandered around, checked out the museum which is in the old prison. It’s actually about four museums in one, and aside from the flow not working very well on the audio guide it was interesting. It had sections on the cities history including the indigenous Yamana people, the prison, Antarctica, and the wildlife of the region. In the afternoon I took a late bus at three for a trek to a lake, I had thought I’d be on my own for this but a Dutch girl from my hostel was also doing the same trek. It was a really beautiful walk through some bogs, marshes, steep wood and up to a lake at the foot of some mountains. I felt like I was in the “Lord of the rings” with the marshes, woods and mountain. We’d deliberately done this trek late so that on our return we’d be walking past a beaver colony around six, which we had been told should give us a pretty decent chance of seeing them. When we got there we saw two straight away and then they disappeared. We sat patiently for twenty minutes and they returned and came really close to us even having a bit of play!

That night we went to a fish restaurant and tried the local king crab, no not a whole massive crab £££$$$$!!! It was a very good meal, and then we headed to the Dublin bar for a few drinks with some others from our hostel as it was Saturday night. I’m resigned to the fact that in these resort towns, the Irish bars are going to be my best night for some drinks and atmosphere. And in tourist destinations there is no getting away from tourists, so just accepting that off the bat and getting on with it is the best I can do.

Sunday I spent I the same way I would back home, recovering from a mild hangover and watched ten episodes of the American Office on Netflix. I do love my iPad!!!! I know it might seem a big wasteful to spend a day doing nothing but going and going all the time is really tiring, and you never really have unbroken sleep in hostels as someone is coming in later or getting up earlier. Also the amount of hiking I’ll be doing the next few weeks I needed it.

My final day I went to the national park. There is a small post office here which is the most southern post office in the world, and route 30 also ends in the park the most southern road. This was my first day when I did actually spend the whole day on my tod, and trekked for six hours. It’s was great! The first five miles are along the coast, and at times was pretty challenging, mainly due to the wet mud which made it pretty slippery, but it was also really steep in places. The trees in the park are being attacked by a bright orange fungus, and there were so many fallen trees everywhere. I saw a fox in my fist ten minutes which I was really chuffed with! And also quite a lot of birds. I know I sound like I’m getting very old and boring! At the furthest point south I could go I was on small cove on my own, just looking out knowing I’ll never be that far south again. My feet throbbed, but it was a really great day for me.

So I’m really glad I did make it all the way down to the land of fire at the end of the earth. Saw my first penguins, sea lions and beaver.

I’d delayed my trip to Bariolche by a couple of weeks and reshuffled my itinerary a bit as the weather had taken a bit of a dive. Unfortunately it had taken another dip by the time I arrived. Bariolche is Argentinas main ski resort, and the town definitely has that ski resort feel. Its known in the summer as the lake district, and the mountain and lakes in the area are very picturesque. Bariloche itself is on huge beautiful lake even if the town itself is nothing to write home about it. There’s a very definite German vibe to the place, and a huge number of Chocolate cafes. I indulged on my first afternoon there and real fresh raspberries covered in white and milk chocolate, just a bit naughty!

On my first full day there I went on a five hour trek in a national park to the foot of a glacier. It was a lovely trek, but due to the rain at times the path was more like a stream! I discovered that none of my gear is remotely waterproof, even my hellyhanson rainproof jacket! As we we neared the glacier we heard a massive clap of thunder, or that’s what I thought it was, it was actually a chunks of the glacier breaking off and crashing down. And as we left the glacier we heard more crashes, it would have been amazing to see it break and fall! I had dinner in a Mexican restaurant on my own, and ending up chatting with two Mexican tourists at another table. Very nice people, and went for a few drinks after and it was good to practice some Spanish again. Especially down in these resort tourist towns which attract huge numbers of tourists, I’m finding it harder to practice Spanish as everyone is European or from the states. And even the people that work in the hostels speak very good English, I am trying when I can to speak Spanish when possible!

My second day there I had some logistics and planning to sort, and also bought some warmer gear which I’ll need heading further south. My last full day I climbed Cerros Catedral with a few others I’d met on the bus from town. Most people take a chair lift, it’s only 1km high, and a quick fifteen minute scramble saw us to the top. The views were spectacular, but on a clear day would be even more so! Myself and German girl then managed to get lost on the way down, somehow we came away from the track and ended up pushing through bushes and trees and ended up at the bottom nearly a kilometre from where we should have been. No idea how we managed that! We then hired mountain bikes for a circuit named “circuito chico”. I don’t really know why it’s called that as its 25km of up and downs that in my book was quite tough going! It was good fun, and its good to be doing some exercise. The scenery of the lakes was lovely, and the sun even peaked out at one point, and it didn’t rain so we couldn’t grumble. And I promise I wore a helmet for most of it Mum and Dad. It felt good to stumble in to bed shattered that night.

It’s a bit of a pity that I couldn’t spend a few more days here, as there was so much hiking and places to see and the weather was due to warm up a few days after I left but I had a cheap flight south that only went once a week so I couldn’t stay longer!