110km of Paine

Just to get in my two cents worth about our grand expedition...The walk was pretty cool, and although we had to walk through some of the slightly crappier conditions at times (snow, hail, bogs, rain, thunder and glacial rivers to wade through), we also had enough sunshine and clear sky to make it worth trekking all that way to see this beautiful park. We even saw alpacas, which I found exciting, but I am told it won't be the last time! We also met a load of nice people on the way round, with whom we spent many wet evenings dreaming up new ways to cook pasta with tomato sauce. Special mention goes to Rod and Emma who gave us an enormous bag of biscuits! That was definately one of the best days! Anyway we're all packed up again now, ready for the next stop...

Torres Del Paine

We´re back!

We got back yesterday evening from the national park - it was our 10th day there. The walk was really really good and we both really enjoyed it, we took it fairly slowly most of the time not doing too much in a day, although one day of 30km was pretty long! I was fine all the way really, didn´t get any aches or pains and Becky was fine most of the time but last few days got a few foot pains. Pretty good for 9 days of trekking with big packs!

The sights were amazing, especially the glacier as it seemed to go back forever and was huge! The Valle de Frances was also v cool with big mountain covered in little glaciers on the left and the massive rock towers on the right.



The weather was very very varied (as i think is normal in patagonia). We only had one day where we had to sit out bad weather in the tent which isn´t too bad although we did walk through a lot of rain (and snow). The wind was also pretty insane, especially in the nights and we were very glad Becky´s tent is so good, we saw quite a few tents snap or get torn apart and blow away but we were always fine.

All in all a pretty good adventure - especially the well earned pizza in town at the end!

The Q

In Puerto Natales now, is quite a nice town tho very touristy - it only really exists because it is the gateway to the torres del paine national park. We are heading there in the morning and will be doing a 8-9 day trek known as the Q (cuz its kinda circular ´cept for the walk in and out so looks like a Q). We´ve just been to a free talk about it which was really cool and helpful and are about to start trying to buy 9 days worth of food - which really seems to be a lot of food!

Anyway hoping to get a lot of awesome photos and have a good time, we should get really good views of the Hielo Sur ice cap (one of the biggest ice fields in the world) and the Paine towers although the wind from the ice cap is supposed to be pretty cold. Anyway next blog post should be good!

Luck/Planning

Yesterday was interesting for a travelling day. We decided we wanted to go up to Puerto Natales in Chile on Sunday but found out that everywhere we could book a ticket was closed and buses only went on mondays, wednesdays and saturdays. We decided we´d just get to the bus station on monday and try to get on one of the two buses that went north. Unfortunately the buses leave very early (5 and 7) and after managing to get to the station for 4 30 we found out the 5 o´clock bus was full meaning we had to wait for 2 hrs on our own in the dark.

Luckily we got the last 2 places on the 7 o´clock bus so all was well until 5 in the evening when the helpful bus driver (who didn´t speak any english) told us to get off and stand by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Luckily there was another german guy with us who spoke a little english, he said we were waiting to catch another bus to save us time. Anyway 40 minutes later another bus came and picked us up and we hoped it was going to Puerto Natales. Eventually we got there but then we didn´t have any Chiliean pesos to pay with but eventually they decided to take our Argentian money. The actual journey was pretty good tho, saw lots of animals - nandos (emu type birds), llamas, flamingos, lots of other posh birds, and we saw lots of dolphins pretty close up when crossing the Magellan Straight between Tierra del Fuego and Chile.

We now have a nice little hostel to stay in and are going to find out a little more about this 10 day trek we´re gunna start in a few days!

The End of the World

We left BA and travelled all the way down to the southernmost city in the world - Ushuaia. There are lots of cool things about this: firstly we met up with our Uni friend Stew, secondly the Fuegan Andes down here are beautiful, and thirdly there is a wicked island that we went to where you can walk with some very cute penguins!! On the other hand, Ushuaia is where good weather goes to die. Stew got rained out of his tent yesterday night, and we have been totally vindicated in our decision to bring our four season tent and waterproofs!
It did ease off a bit yesterday however, and we hiked up into the Andes to the foot of Glaciar Martial, where we also got a really good view of the Beagle Channel.
Probably going to head up to Puerto Natales pretty soon, where we hope the weather will be nice to us, as we are planning a 10 day hike...

Buenos Aires

So after a 10.5 hour flight we made it to Buenos Aires! A LOT warmer here than New York, so I no longer have to wear every item of clothing in my bag.Spent the last few days looking around, and making friends with the people in our hostel. Have also been to a Tango show, which was cool, although when they say this city never sleeps, they aren´t kidding because the shows don´t even start til 2am.Is generally a really nice city, although for future reference stay clear of the area near La Boca cos Pete nearly got his bag stolen when we were walking down the street. Other than that everyone is really nice and friendly! Particularly taxi drivers who see perfectly happy chatting to me in my own special mix of Spanglish.Got a few more days here before we get a Plane down south to Ushuaia where, sadly, it promises to be cold again!!

Snow in New York

So we made it to New York! Mostly beat the jet lag by staying awake though the flight which was impressive as we had to watch Beverly Hills Chiuaua.

We've made it round most of the sights now but it was nice to see some of the more normal areas like Brooklyn and the West Village. Becky
particularly likes the village as you can get cakes from the shop in Sex and the City.

It's been really really cold and snowy here so we played in the snow in central park which was fun, but we had to warm up in a coffee shop fairly often. It's not been above zero since we got here and the max temp yesterday was -5 so we're looking forward to being a bit warmer in buenos aires!