Hearty Biffers

Hello and greetings from Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia - the southernmost city in the world as they go on and on and on about. It's very cold and windy but more of that later. We'll try and keep it roughly chronological shall we? Um.

So, we left you in Puerto Varas, Chile, which was nice enough - we did absolutely nothing of interest there beyond the usual eating and mooching. We had kuchen which is the German-style tea involving mountains of toast, tea and cakes and other good stuff, that was pretty exciting. We couldn't get the boat to Puerto Natales as intended so we flew there instead. The town itself is a bit nondescript but it is the gateway to Torres del Paine national park and we duly trotted off there for 3 days and 2 nights. It is a very beautiful place. On the first day we struggled uphill for about 4 hours to go and see the Torres themselves, which were pretty spectacular (photos being uploaded as we speak), and then struggled downhill for another 3 and a half to our refugio where we shared a dorm with a middle aged Scottish couple who looked like beavers. A condor whooshed past us as we were climbing which was pretty exciting. On the next day we got a bus and boat to Lago Pehoe and marched off for another 4 hours or so in battering wind and rain to the Grey Glaciar. Which was amazing. Very big and icy, you know, not uncommon among glaciars so I'm told. And many-hued which I was rather surprised about as a glaciar novice. We stayed in another refugio this time sharing a dorm with an American chap who wouldn't shut up and a mysterious Frenchman in sunglasses and a beard. Very nice though, lying in a sleeping bag listening to the wind thundering about and the glacier creaking and cracking. The next day we trotted back and to the lake and got the bus back to the town. So, after a total of about 15 hours trudging we can claim to be the aforementioned hearty biffers. At least we have done enough exercise to justify our enormous appetites. All in all, a brilliant experience. When I return to Patagonia (one day) I will do the full 8 day circuit I think.

So, then we jumped on another aeroplane to Ushuaia. We spent a very blissful first evening in a bar outside town (took about 30 mins to get there but we were impelled by the promise of their microbrewed beer), having a few drinks, eating steak, gazing upon the Beagle Channel and being crooned at by a young Argentinian bloke with a guitar. The town itself isn't super exciting - it almost seems a bit like an English market town because of the large number of elderly couples - hard-haired ladies towing along their vacant husbands - pottering about and having tea, presumably dropped of by a cruise ship for the afternoon. Anyway, yesterday we went on a catamaran along the channel to see cormorants (medium rapture), sea lions (seen better) and Magellanic Penguins (hooray! hooray! they were great). We had to return by bus though because the winds were too strong. Then we had centolla pasta - that's king crab, their big seafood here. Um, that's probably about it. It's very cold here. We're off to El Calafate tomorrow to see the Moreno Glaciar.

So, there you are. Trust you are all well. We're having a blast. There will be more photos very shortly (see usual link http://www.flickr.com/photos/36031590@N00/).