Aconcagua & South America 2004

Nothing much to report I am afraid, Steak & wine tea again last night Total cost 10Quid & then a beer in the Irish bar.
Went for a walk this morning in the vain hope of seeing a beagle.....no joy.
Weather overcast & breezy, probably about 50 degrees,
Discovered to my horror that the hotel cost 24 british pounds, & the breakfast was inadaquate, watery coffee & 2 silly wee croussionts* What is the attraction of these most useless of things. are they supposed to be a sort of a designer roll? If you tried to put a slice of lorne in it more than half would stick out the side, & your fried egg would slide out & end up in your lap. Another useless french invention, they should stick to designing frocks & perfume for the effeminate.
I had to take a plane from Ushuaia back to Puntas Arenas as the buses only run every couple of days & I have to catch a flight back to Santiago tomorrow, Flight was uneventfull & late.
Staying back in the hostal Fitzroy ( quiz question: who was he) which I wisely booked before I left Puntas.
I will watch whom I talk to tonight, just in case! Yours SS

Well Well I am not alone after all, many thanks for all your comments. IMD will be pleased to hear that something of mild interest occured on Wed night. In what seemed to me a perfectly respectable restaurant in Puntas Areanus High St. I was enjoying my comestibles when I was engaged in conversation by a couple of women at the next table, we chatted away, they in broken English & I in appallingly fractured Spanish, after a short time one made a quite improper suggestion, I dismissed it & carried on chatting, but they were not to be put off, as you might expect from a responsible correspondent, as they say I made my excuses & left! I went to another pub & watched a pink floyd tape of all things, still it was better than the truly awful trumpet music they enjoy here (plenty of work for Neil here if he is still resting).
Next morning whilst having breakfast I overheard that one of the other guests at the Fitzroy hostal had just finished a 1100k trek across antartica, the first Malasian woman (mmmm) to do so, I was very interested to hear about this but as usuall I was late for my bus & had to dash.
The bus left at 9am for Ushuaia (pronounced oosh- y-a) at 11am we reached the Straits of Magellan & it was blowing a howler, hoped to see some sea life on the half hour crossing but disappointed only to see some seaweed. Set foot on Terra Del Fuego & found it a bleak flat barren place, with no fire & lots of wind, The bus took us south to Rio Grande where we changed buses to an old jalopy of a bus, this means a murram road I thought.... correct.
The north of Terra del Fuego is flat barren and with no houses or villages but in the south there are forests & mountains, & a sort of ski resort.
Arrived in Ushuaia at 9pm, so I have reached the top & now I have reached the bottom, so another aim achieved.
Still light of course as this is as far south as Glasgow is north , 54 deg S approx.
Ushuaia was very busy & I had to try quite a few places before finding a bed. 20 quid too!
Very good steak & wine tea. Vino de Casa only 1.60 so that cheered me up. tired so early to bed.

Ushuaia is Fin de la Monde or so they claim, he worlds most southern city pop 30k is that big enough to qualify as a city ? its a very low rise place anyway the same type of architecture as the last few places one & two storey buildings with painted corrigated iron roofs.

Went for a walk this morning & looked out over the Beagle channel, I looked up & down & across,
I looked for quite a while..........................................................................................No Beagles!!

Weather today overcast with light winds, you need a pullover on. Took a look round the museum
housed in an old prison, it was not cushy in the jail in the old days, proper striped suits & hard labour. Served them all right!

Walked down by the docks where many day trips are offered, thought about going on one to see some penguins, fortunatly the notion wore off, if I really feel like looking at penguins I will just have to go to Edinburgh zoo ( is there not some joke about a bloke finding a penguin, take him to the zoo a friend suggests......)

This is the main port of departure for Antartica, so the port is busy with supply vessels & cruise ships, I am not sure if a 2 wk cruise to Antartica appeals to me much as it costs $3000. I can resist it for the time being. Bought some tee shirts this afternoon ( an a salt dish for ma mammy)
By for now SS.

I left Bariloche on the 2nd of Jan to fly to Calafate ( I do not know what it means ) by an airline called Southern Winds, I was anticipating a flight on a small aircraft, a prop driven thing or a biplane or something hair-raiseing.... disappointingly it was a modern Boeing. The aerodrome is so far from Calafate I expected to see Ryanair using it. Buenes Aires (calafate) .
The bus took me from the aerodome to the bus station whee I discovered a connection to Portes Natales at 4pm so booked on that.
I am a bit surprised that Calafate has an airport with a daily flight from Bariloche it is about the size of Callender, it does have the Moreno glacier however & this must be the great tourist draw a after a walk round town it does not have much going for it.
I found myself the only passenger on the bus when we left & the only passenge when it stopped i Rio Turbio. The road is murram* & a bit bumpy but devoid of traffic only a couple of cars passed the other way in 3 hrs. No wonder the driver had a big comunication radio. No doubt for talking to base in the event of a problem.
The terrian we pass through is undulating but desert like, only scrubby plants & stoney ground. After 3 hrs there is enough growth to support sheep. I am glad I did not spend 30hrs in a bus getting here.
Crossed the border & arrived in Portes Natales at 9pm. Offered a hastal & shared room for 4 quid, go to a hotel & pay 15quid a bit extravagant. Find there is a bus to Torres Del Paine park the next morning at 7.30. I am there in time but no bus! The next one is at 10.30 it turns up, arrive at the park at 12.30 & pay 10Quid to get in then take a minibus to the Hosteria del Paine.
Most people when they come here either have tents & all their food & equipment or they go through a travel co. who sort everything out for a fee of course, just turning up is probably not advisable. Asked about accomodation in the Hostelria, told.. $150US..WHIT? Find out that there is a refugio on the trail to the base of the Torres del Paine
, this seems much better, it is more interesting as well. Toodle of up the trail to the refugio Chileano, which takes a leisurely 2hrs.
Elect to have Dinner Bed(shared room) & breakfast for 31.50pounds.
The Refugio of which there are perhaps ten scattered about the park sleep about 60 in shared rooms there is also a camping option, the refugio providing toilet facilities and a modest restaurant. Eat my tea with A bunch of Italians so not much chat, although one of the spics has been to Scotland 4 times he tells me, for trekking, likes Glencoe & has climbed Ben Nevis.
Torres Del Paine or towers of paine are on more callanders than Ellan* Donnan* Castle, so I will go & have a closer look tomorrow.

Torres del Paine

Wake up in the middle of the night to find it is utterly, utterly pitch black I can see nothing at all, & wonder if i have gone blind in the middle of the night, fumble about & find my lighter & discover 2 things A : it is 3am B : I can still see! Rise early for breakfat & leave for the base of the towers at 9am, arrive there at 11am it is very misty so I do not get to see them up close, also the batteries in my camera are flat, brilliant!! Back down to the Refugio then walk to the Hosteria area. All of my readers must know of the Torres Del Paine mountains as they are world famous, they are truly fantastic (in the true sense of the word) range of mountains which look like they might adorn the sleeve of a Yes album, unfortunatly I do not have time to walk all the way round the park (as this takes a week) & see all the different views, so I will have to make do with some distance photos from the road. The trails here are to be strictly kept to so it is like an ant trail of people, one after another & just too busy. Decide to walk the 5mls to the park gates & enjoy that walk a lot more as only 2 cars pass me & no walkers.

Take the bus back to Portes Natales and when I arrive discover there is no bus the next day to Ushuaia, only on friday, the woman I asked before I left for Torres obviously was talking rubbish, spanish rubbish at that. Book for the 7am bus to Puntas Arenas instead & I will see what transport is availible from there. Go out for my tea & notice Conger eel on the menu so have to try that, not too bad, you would not know it was an eel ( it was not eel shaped on the plate) This is the same restaurant whre I had the King crab the other night, the meat from these crabs is mainly in the legs, ( unlike me ), ok but a bit chewy though.

Take the bus to Puntas Arenas & find there are no buses today (wed) so I will catch the bus tomorow at 9am for the 12hr bus run.

I am disappointed that my ever dwindling band of readers find this narrative dull, boring even but there is not much I can do about that, I have not been robbed or conned or attacked or propositioned or have lost my passport or money or tickets home or caught some tropical disease or been run over or been used as a drug mule or been in an air crash or a victim of a tusnami, I will try and be much more careless in future, perhaps that will help. More tedium tomorrow.