No One Eats Beaver in Argentina....

Firstly, here are our photos from Puerto Madryn, Trelew and Gaiman:



Also, from our wonderful bus trip and arriving in Ushuaia and The Prison:



From where we left off last time we spent Friday in the National Park of Tierra del Fuego. We embarked on 7 hours worth of hiking in the light rain that came at us horizontally due to the howling wind! However, we were nicely prepared and were not concerned with the weather but with the amazing landscape that surrrounded us.

The hike took us through forests, wooded glades, bogs and marshes, over, around and near enough under the volumous mountains of the area region. As we hiked we came across wild horses and foals, numerous odd looking birds and some truely wonderful scenery, even an amazing example of a beaver dam. We stopped to enjoy our lunch on a shale beach in a tiny bay on the Beagle Channel, looking out over some amazing mountains. We were making good time but still were in a little of a hurry to meet our lift back to civilization. After getting to our bus stop with a little time to spare we settled in to wait.... nothing appeared. So we decided to walk along the road to the last stop, we would surely be passed by our ride on the way and we could see more of the park. Well, we were passed by lots of mini-buses, none of which belonged to our company. We started to believe that we would have to wait or the last bus at 7pm, still 90 mins away. We continued to hike and arrived at the very end point of Route 3, the end of the last road in the Southern Hemisphere, the last bus stop. By now it was 6pm, and still no 5pm bus, as more time passed we were concocting ideas of foraging in the forest and using the disabled toilet as shelter for the night!!

As luck would have it, at 7pm on the dot, to the minute, our bus arrived, so cold, tired and weary, we headed back to the hostel for some hot food and a little vino. We got chatting to some folks at the hostel (One girl, Jo, is cycling from Tierra del Fuego, North, up through South America!) and went to bed a little later than expected, particularly as we had to be up at 730am the following day for our penguin tour. We finally forced ourselves to retire, only to find our dorm door jammed shut... the locking mechanism had frozen! Our early bed turned into a very late night as we tried to fix the door, cliumbed in and out of the window, and eventually solved the problem in the early hours with brute force, lots of sparks and an angle grinder! None of this, coupled with the wine, lead to a pleasant wake up just a few hours later.

As expected, we awoke a little groggy and a little late. After quick showers we hurried down to the marina where we hopped on another mini bus and started our tour. After a little doze the tour started and it turned out that our guide, a young local guy, was really very informative. We stopped along the way, getting out briefly to look at wind swept trees, bays and more. We even stopped to check out a beaver dam - here we learnt that, 40 odd years ago, the Government introduced 25 pairs of beavers in the area to populate and create a booming fur business. However it failed miserably due to thin coats and now the beavers are in the 100,000´s. In fact, for every beaver killed, a hunter receices roughly $25, however, in the words of our guide, "in Argentina, no one eats the beaver"!

We continued on our tour to the small settlement where the launch to the penguin island leaves from. We huddled in the tea room here for warmth until it was time to leave. The boat ride was short and we disembarked onto a beach that was filled with penguins, as were the surrounding waters. It was quite the sight and we were able to observe their funny waddle first hand! We were very fortunate as the babies had hatched only a month prior and despite their size, were really cute and fluffy! It was also suprising just how noisy a penguin can be! We were able to walk around the island with our guide for an hour, we had a wonderful time despite the freezing temperatures and a wind that will tear you limb from limb if you are not careful! We left the island satisfied, cold but smiling, and happy that we were able to march with the penguinos of Tierra del Fuego.

Upon arrival back to Ushuaia it was apparant that Jen wasn´t doing so well, we had forgotten the travel sickness pills and she was suffering. We went back to the hostel to pick up our bags. We had to move due to it being super full. Because Jen was in no state to be sharing a room with 4 strangers, we decided to bite the bullet and get a private room for the night. I left Jen to sleep and went to run some errands before returning to find her a little better, but not fit for anymore than hanging out with the TV on, something that we rarely get to do and is suprisingly nice! We got a pizza-to-go and settled in for the evening.

The following day, we had to move once again, back to a dorm and regular life! We had nothing planned for the day, it being a Sunday, so we caught up in our journals, read and prepared for our 5am bus journey the following day. We even managed to ship out the postcards we´ve been accumulating since Machu Picchu! We cooked, made lunch for the journey and went to bed as early as possible considering the Sun doesn´t go down until 11pm!

When we awoke at 430am the Sun was already rising! We went down to the bus station, boarded and settled in for 16hrs on a bus. Well, it was a little longer than that, we were delayed a couple times at the borders..... once because of me! I had forgotten about 2 apples in my bag and when they found them I was repremanded! I waited and waited until everyone else was on the bus and then they pulled me into an office, fortunatly no latex gloves appeared! After a little lecture, some paperwork and having to watch them incinerate my 2 apples (!!) I was free to go, pending an email to tell me my fate!

Anyway, a few more hours, a missed connection, another bus and a few more hours, we arrived here in Puerto Natales, tired, hungry, smelly and worse, ready for bed, at 10pm. We found a cheap hostel (no dorms in Chile - yay), got some good dinner and finally made it to bed. Today we are sorting out the situation here with the national park and planning our next few weeks, all based around the amazing hiking and trekking here in the Lake District!

With only a few more weeks till our rest stop in the UK, it feels like we´ve come so far. We miss everyone and can´t wait to see you all as soon as possible!

We will be posting more of the pix from our adventures as soon as possible, the computers here have stopped uploading... again!

Adios till next time.