I am an island

I like Chile. I like Chile more than I like Argentina. It´s true the people speak much faster but when you indicate that you don´t understand, they slow down and repeat themselves clearly. They are punctual, cheerful and polite. I like Chile.

I´m actually on the Island of Chiloe, in it´s capital Castro (don´t know if that´s anything to do with Fidel or not). When I think of capital cities, I think big, noisy, busy, impersonal. Not Castro. I doubt it´s much bigger than Ramsgate but it is much more chaotic. I went shopping for supplies because everything is shut tomorrow (New Year´s Day and all that) and manouvering around the supermarket was 'interesting' - more of an obstacle course than a pleasant hours shopping but I got everything I needed (and some chocolatey treats). I haven´t bought any alcohol as I don´t have anyone to drink with and I couldn´t work out whether it is sadder to be on my own and alcohol-free on New Year´s Eve or drinking alone. I think probably the second.

I´m staying at the hostel recommended by Jayne. I´ve wished the owner Martha Feliz Nuevo Año and she remembers Robyn. It´s nice and quiet, something I need as I´m still recovering from this cold and I´m looking forward to a day of doing nothing tomorrow followed by a couple of days church-viewing. Watch out for more photos soon.

Sailing

Yesterday I went on a trip down the Beagle Channel, one of three ways to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific (or vice versa) in this part of the world. It was a lovely calm day and we stopped off to look at the sealions and penguins. In fact we saw two types of penguins, the Magellans and the other type (is it obvious that I can´t remember the name?) the ones who were in an animated film, yellow feet and beak with a fairly long grey tail, yes them.

To be honest the best part was the actual sailing. I was on a catamaran along with about 50 other people but I spent a good deal of the time on deck just staring at the scenery. I was filled with an incredible sense of peace and I have some understanding of why people enjoy sailing.

Today I´m flying to Puerto Montt in Chile and from there I´m going onto Chiloe for New Year. An odd thing has happened, Argentina has put its clocks forward an hour so it´s now 11:30 here. I´m totally confused about how this relates to the UK but I´ll sort it out in Chile.

The ups and downs of travelling

Today I went on a 4x4 ´trek´. I like these kind of treks as they involve absolutely no walking at all! Instead you are picked up in a 4x4 and driven along unmade roads, mud tracks and along the lake shore until you reach the site where you will have lunch. Now that all sounds pretty straightforward, no? Well, they use 4x4´s for a reason - and that reason is the sheer joy the drivers gain from pushing the vehicles to their limits. We went up near vertical slopes, down near vertical slopes, along at impossible angles where the only thing I could see out of the passenger side window was the road. We went through mud so deep that it came up to the tops of the wheel arches and through water so deep it came up to the top of the bonnet. And we did all this without getting wet ourselves. It was amazing just how calm and competent the driver was (of course, he does this just about every day of the week) but he had a mischevious streak and pushed us as much as possible to get a reaction. I loved, loved, loved it. Remember I love rollercoasters and this was better than the best rollercoaster ever. On top of all this I had the front passenger seat (I don´t know how the hostel arranged this but it was reserved especially for me) so I got to see everything and take some photos.

For lunch we had a barbecue by the lakeside and while we were waiting for it to cook we all wandered off - and I saw a fox, I even managed to get a photo of it. Of course, this was slightly spoiled later when the fox came back a practically posed for us - it could smell the cooking food and was waiting for us to disappear - still, I saw it first.

We were supposed to go canoeing after lunch but the weather turned a bit off (very windy and squally rain) so that was cancelled (can´t you tell how heartbroken I am) and another rollercoaster 4x4 drive was substituted - Woohoo!

On another note, I´ve managed to catch a nasty cold (sore throat, temperature, blocked nose) but I´ve been to the pharmacist and I´ve got some kind of drug. I´m hoping it´s just that week two of the holiday illness that everyone gets. Whatever it is it isn´t going to stop me doing stuff - if I can teach like this I can 'trip' like this.

It´s ice Jim, but not as we know it

It´s early (for me) Thursday morning and I´m waiting for a taxi to take me to the airport where I´ll fly to the end of the world more commonly known as Ushuaia. I have 245 photos on my camera to upload!!! I hope there´s a fast connection down there.

I went to see some more glaciers yesterday via boat. We were surrounded by icebergs and even hit one. Not quite Titanic, but a lot of pole, rope and hook work was done to pull it on board so that we could continue and all I could think about was how nice a gin and tonic would be.

I´m also learning how to catnap - something I´ve never been any good at but absolutely vital when travelling - so I caught forty winks on the journey back and managed to miss the condor sitting on the banks of the river. Oh well, at least I´ve seen several of them in flight.

More soon my lovelies.

Ice, ice, baby

Hey, it´s christmas day and I´m in El Calafate. The sun is shining and I´m chilling out after drinking too much beer and champagne last night. The atmosphere is friendly and laidback. Yesterday I went to the Perito Moreno glacier the world´s only growning glacier (I think). To be honest I wasn´t expecting much exept a wall of ice but the warm day combined with no wind meant ideal conditions for calfing ie the glacier was dropping bits and pieces off itself left, right and centre. I saw three pretty big calfings and managed to photograph them all In fact I was directly in front of the calfings on two occasions - bloody spectacular. You don´t realise just how big the bits dropping off are until you feel the captain of the boat turn the bow to meet the oncoming wave - not quite 'A Perfect Storm' but decidedly wobbly. Photos will be on flickr soon (the internet is pretty slow in this part of the world and I don´t want to waste too much time in front of the computer.

Time moves in a different way here. The sun doesn´t set until 11pm and comes up again at 4.40am so the evenings are long and beautiful while the mornings are bright and sunny. And it´s hot, even with the constant wind, it´s hot. While we were on the boat yesterday we could feel the warm breeze coming down off the land until we were close to the ice-face when the breeze was cooler but once we turned back towards the shore the breeze got warm again. I am enjoying doing nothing and I´ve met some really nice people (another post).

To those of you who I didn't contact over christmas, I was thinking of you, in fact as I lay in bed last night I listed you and wished you happy christmas individually - maybe you feel an odd breeze at about 5am UK time/6am Italy time?

Happy....

Happy Christmas, happy hunnaka, happy kwanza to each and everyone of you.

I´m off to look at a glacier. Have fun (and I apologise for any spelling mistakes but it is only 7am).

Speed O Post III

Just a quick post to let you know I´m still alive. I´m in El Calafate and tomorrow I go to the glacier at Perito Moreno.

Camera
Since I last posted I´ve spent an immense amount of time in internet cafes trying to upload more photos. Specifically of the Petrified Forest just outside Sarmiento - some photos are there, more to follow.

Wind
Nobody told me the wind blows all the time in Patagonia. I haven´t had a still day since I arrived but the sun is shining so it evens itself out.

Timewasting
Over the last couple of days I´ve spent a lot of time waiting. Waiting for bus connections, waiting to buy tickets, waiting for people to stop queue jumping. A lot of waiting (and a real waste of time)

Railway Museum
While waiting in Comodoro I went to their Railway Museum. Very small but with some wonderful artifacts. I have a photo of me in the cabin of a steam engine (non-working) - eat your heart out Den.

On being alone
Before I started this I was worried about being surrounded by people all the time but having spent two days not in a hostel and therefore away from other backpackers, I come to realise just how much I need to have like-minded people around me. Thank god for hostels.

Swaying
I haven´t slept properly for two days and as I sit here I´m swaying. More soon.

Moving on

Today I´m moving on from Puerto Madryn to Comodoro Rivadavia, a place with no redeeming qualities according to the guidebook but the nearest bus stop to Sarmiento. And just outside Sarmiento is a petrified forest - and who can resist a petrified forest? I´ll only be in Comodoro for two nights so keep your fingers crossed that I can arrange a day trip to the petrified forest at short notice.

For those of you who don´t know how to check out the photos, you can go to www.flickr.com and search for Puerto Madryn but it´s easier to click on the flickr badge in the left hand column (just a little further down from this post).

Happy hunting

Jam today

Guess what I had for lunch today. Tagliatelli with runny jam. That wasn´t the plan but the waitress assured me that the tagliatelli with salsa agridulce was delicious. Now I know that salsa agridulce is sweet and sour sauce and now I know why there are very few sweet pasta dishes.

Still the ice-cream I had later more than compensated for it.

A few more details

I'm in the process of uploading my photos as I type. I haven't edited any of them so sometimes all you can see is a black line on the horizon. That's the whale. Click on the photos and magnify for a better shot. One day (when this trip is over) I'll go through the photos and pretty them up a bit (crop, resize, delete etc.) but for now it's a case of uploading and leaving them there as a permanant record. If you search carefully enough you'll even find a photo of me.

I have to say that, exciting as the whales were, I really loved the penguins - there were a pair who seemed to be posing for us - and the armidillos. I'd always thought of them as bid slow animals, a bit like an old fashioned vacuum cleaner but, in fact, they scuttle about at an incredible rate on their bowed-legs. Their armour plating is hard but they also have a lot of fine hairs which are incredibly soft.

I also saw the Elephant seals, big buggers and soooo noisy. It sounded like Sean after he'd had a curry.

The Hostel I'm staying in is very nice although it's been a bit of an adjustment for me. I've gone from living on my own to sharing a dorm with three other women, one of whom thinks nothing of rolling in at 2am and turning on the lights (we all got our revenge by contantly wandering in and out of the room this morning as she tried to catch up on her sleep), and from having my own kitchen to sharing with a million strangers some of whom think washing up means running their cutlery under a cold tap for a milisecond. I could go on about the different types of travellers I've encountered so far (and many of them are French) but I'll leave that for a rainy day (or one when I'm feeling evil).

Thar she blows!

I went on a trip today. A whale watching trip. With whales. Which I watched.

There were also penguins, Elephant seals, sealions, armidillos, guanacos, rhea, stormy petrols (I think), and buzzards.

I´ve taken a shed-load of photos which I hope to upload tomorrow.

Watch this space (and the whales)

Over and done with

My dears, how could I be so slack? It´s been two weeks since my last post, shame on me!

Firstly, thank you and welcome to all those who recently left comments - my lack of posts has nothing to do with that. It was nice to be contacted by a fellow Shiralee and if you leave your email address in the comments (not to be published) I´ll contact you directly.

Secondly, it´s all over. The reason for my long silence was a combination of a lack of oppotunity and a lack of privacy. The last two weeks at work were (almost) non-stop mind-numbing drudgework. Inventorying the books, electrical equipment, uncle Tom Cobbly and all. I did manage to get slightly sloshed on champagne and orange juice a couple of times and went out for a couple of nice meals to say goodbye to people. I will miss my colleagues but not Buenos Aires.

Finally, I´ve packed up and gone. The keys to the flat have been handed over and all my stuff gone. I´m actually in Puerto Madryn now after a relatively comfortable overnight bus ride. Tomorrow I´m off looking at wildlife so watch out for the photos.

Ciao lovelies

Sorting things out

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm sitting in an internet cafe. It is very strange. Yesterday I packed up my laptop and items of special significance and today they are flying back to the UK curtesy of my good friend Jayne, her partner David and their daughter Robyn.

In all honesty, I feel bereft without my computer. Even when I didn't have access to the internet, I still played on my computer, listened to music, typed out my thoughts and generally amused myself. Now there's just a big empty gap on the table (and in my psyche) where it used to be.

In addition, I've been sorting out all the paperwork I've collected over the last two years, bagging up the rubbish for recycling and sorting out my clothes to be passed onto some (un)lucky recipient. The flat is in total chaos - I've never seen it so messy but I am bringing it to order.

Next on my list is mending my clothes for the journey ahead. I'm only taking old clothes and they aren't in the best state of repair so out have come the needle and thread - it's something to do instead of being on-line.

I am feeling both excited and nervous. A little afraid of what I've let myself in for but I also know that if I don't do this I'll regret it forever.

More during the week.