Tierra del Fuego National Park, Ushuaia

I finally made it into this absolutely stunning National Park which I had viewed yesterday from the fearful heights of Monte Susana. It wouldn't have been scary except for the fact that for some reason I had become all too happy with my advances in equestrian acquaintance and rode up the cliff side on Emperador. So terrifying was the experience I do not have any photos and I definitely screamed at one point. However the view was probably the most beautiful I've ever seen. Suzy managed to be less scared - in fact - she enjoyed it - and took photos so I'll post some of hers soon. In the meantime here is a close up of what I could see from up there.

We did about a 10 mile walk around the park today. At one point we even saw and heard a woodpecker. If I'm honest I only knew what it was because of the sound. It was beautiful and as soon as I saw it I was in awe. It was a beautiful walk and I've had a lovely day. Here are some photos from inside the National Park at the end of the world, including the most southernly post office.

Trelew + Gaiman

On Tuesday I took the bus to Trelew and went to an interesting Palentology museum there. I then boarded a bus to Gaiman, a Welsh colony but forgot to get off as I was so engrossed in my book. It's not so much as forgot as wasn't told we were about to turn around as we were at the end of the line. It was pouring with rain in true Welsh style and I couldn't see out of the bus anyway. So back at Trelew I decided to go back again. It gave me enough time to go to the "oldest Welsh teahouse in Argentina". A claim to fame if ever I heard one and wander in the wrong direction over a creepy bridge before I decided it was best to get out of the Weird rather than wonderful Welshness and back to Trelew to meet a new friend from Slovakia for a beer. And enjoyable if wet day spent mainly on buses when my plan had been mainly to avoid them as the following day was my 30 hour bus journey. You win some, you lose some.

Puerto Madryn

I arrived over night from Buenos aires and met a nice German girl Janina at check in. We decided to go out on bikes up the coast. It was actually quite a hard cycle up "ripio" = gravel road (yes I learnt a new word in Spanish) and I even fell off at one point. Unscathed, but a little embarrassed we made it to some beautiful sights and a very interesting museum.

Peninsula Valdes

Is just east of Puerto Madryn. I took an organised day trip there with Fugu Tours (would recommend them). It's really beautiful. I saw an armadillo eating a sausage (sure that's not really right, but wasnt about to risk finger being bitten off by taking it away from him). The coastline is really stunning too. We saw lots of sea lions. And I learnt the difference between sea lions and seals. Made me think of a certain dictionary that was once published that clearly didn't know that there was a difference betweent he two

Journey to Ushuaia + Ushuaia town

Wish I could edit this properly. The boat that says PILOT is the view from boat crossing not sure if it was in Chile or Argentina to be honest.

I was glad we could get off that bus when crossing - although I'm sure if we'd sunk we would have died from the cold anyway. It wasn't so far to swim otherwise!

I left the hostel in Puerto Madryn at just before 1pm on Wednesday and arrived in my hostel in Ushuaia at 10pm on Thursday. It actually wasn't as bad as many of the hideous bus rides I took in Bolivia and it went a hell of a lot further. 1800km. About 1200miles. Good roads. The only pain

were

the border crossings. Arriving in Chile I had to throw away some food as you're not allowed to take it in. In fact this is so boring I can't believe I'm even blogging it.

One interesting thing was a large statue which proudly proclaimed "Las Islas Malvinas son Argentinas" I looked down sheepishly and kept stchum for the rest of the journey.

Anyway I'm here and I LOVE Ushuaia. I love the mountains and I love the sea and they are everywhere!!!

Buenos Aires

This is the finca

Suzy and I took the long night bus from Mendoza to Buenos Aires and I went to stay with Annette (Irish), Marcelo (Argentinian) and Liam (Spanish, Irish and Argentinian, 5 years old). They're friends from Madrid and it has truely been lovely staying with them. I did not want to leave. They are the most relaxed hospitable people I know and Liam is the most delightful little boy I've ever met.

The day we arrived I went with them to have asado at their finca in the Buenos Aires countryside and we just lazed by the pool and ate steak. I've seen all the typical Buenos Aires sights, caught up with more friends from Madrid, made new friends, went to peoples asados, went to cinema, manicure, wax, ate cake, drank coffee, sure there was more wine involved somewhere. Went to Recoleta cemetary (where Eva Peron is buried, but it was too hot to find her!) - Liam asked firstly what a cemetary was and then why I wanted to go and see dead people I didn't know. Good point. I was there only 15 minutes!

Cordoba and Mendoza

Ok, so my Argentina blog is a little delayed and out of chronological order. After Salta, Gideon Jessica and I travelled to Cafayate (on previous post) and then onto Cordoba. On the way we drove through clouds. It must have been quite unusual as the bus driver stopped for us to take photos.

Cordoba is quite a nice modern city and we went to a nice museum and just hung out. A memorable moment has to be when Jessica and I had a beer and she was shat on by a pidgeon and then was so disgusted by it she vomited all over my feet. We were both laughing at the ridiculousness of it. We then finished our beers and went and got a hot dog. It was revolting but one of the funniest memories I shall hold with me for life!

Mendoza is the city with the most trees per capita in either Argentina or the whole of South America. It is a beautiful shady place, but as a consequence of the greenery with equal possibility of bird shit!

It's the main wine region so we spent a lot of time drinking wine in the bodegas. Suzy joined me there and we drank more wine, went to more bodegas, went for a couple of runs and drank more wine, ate more steak and drank more wine. What else would you do in Mendoza?

Punta Tombo

This is at Puerto Tombo. A large Penguin colony just south of Puerto Madryn near Trelew. It was a really fun day out. We also went Dolphin (Tonina) watching just before that. We saw loads and loads of dolphins and they were playing around jumping for us. It was brilliant. I was hungover and incredibly sea-sick hence no photos of that!

Salta + Cafayate, Argentina

Salta was our first stop in Argentina. Having met some fun English guys on the bus we headed to what we thought was going to be the party hostel although it was actually really nice and really quiet! Salta is a pretty city with some gaudy buildings - which is why I took this church in b+w!

There is amazing scenery on the road from Salta to Cafayate and around Cafayate there was a lovely walk (more like hike and climb!) through canyons to get to lovely waterfalls and natural swimming pools. Cafayate is also home to Argentina's second most important wine growing. Unfortunately Gideon and Jessica don't really like wine so I wasn't in the best company for drinking it! Had a lovely time just chilling out in Cafayate's main square and just generally being back in a more developped country.