Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Off to the end of the world...

Hola Amigos!

We abandoned Puerto Madryn for a town an hour south, hoping to be closer to Puento Tombo so that we could finally see the penguins. After a bit of deliberation, we decided that it was best to wait until Ushuaia, as we would be taking tours down there anyway, and why waste the cash? So we booked our 30 hour bus ride down to the end of the world, leaving today at 1pm and arriving tomorrow night at 7pm. WOW, it is gonna be interesting!

So since we arrived in Trelew, we settled into our hostel where we had a 6 bed dorm in a retrofitted garage. As our bed was closest to the garage door (still intact!) I was quite happy that I brought along my earplugs. I had also come down with a pretty wicked cold, so we decided to mainly lay low for a bit and try to recover so that I would be in good shape for trekking down south. On Sunday we made some feel good food for dinner, and kicked back with a book for the evening, hitting the sack early.

On Monday, we decided to sleep in, then take the bus 25 min. west to the Welsh village of Gaiman- settled 150 years ago, quite an ugly little town, but with a few historical houses and some all you can drink and eat teahouses! We hopped off the bus near a long railway tunnel that lead to town, so we walked in the pitch black while thinking about how it would be a perfect place to mug tourists. Luckily, we came away unscathed, and did a quick tour around the town. We saw the oldest house, still with some furniture and appliances, and then we went to the Parque Desfario, a park decorated entirely out of recycling and found objects. Bizarre, but kinda cool! We went to the tea house, where we were gorged on breads and cakes and pastries until we felt ill from the sugar. We were a bit disappointed that we were unable to test out the all-you-can-eat aspect of the place, but decided it was not worth getting sick over. So we headed out into the rain and hopped on the bus home.

Last night we cooked again, drank some Argie vino, and planned out what we want to do in Ushuaia. The most southernly town in the world, or so they claim. I'm sure some places would beg to differ, but still- this place is pretty far down there. Our bus will be driving to the end of Patagonia, cutting through Chile, and down through Tierra del Fuego. Icebergs and penguins galore! We are so excited to see such a different aspect of South America, and this will be something neither of us have ever come close to experiencing before. Yay!! We will keep you all updated once we find a reasonably priced internet cafe (as long as I don't end up falling into the ocean, in true Jen style!). We tried to update our pix from the past few days, but the forces are against us and it just wont work. Love to all, miss you, hope you are keeping to your New Years resolutions!! (Did anyone make the promise to themselves to comment on all our blogs, or send beer money every fortnight? ;) We kid, we kid. Love you guys, hasta luego!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looking forward to hearing all about the trip to south South America. Was great to talk yesterday xxx

Anonymous said...

tierra del fuego sounds so far,far away!!!!!hope ur cold is better and i hope u 2 win at the bingo on the bus!!!! extra beer money!! stay safe and have fun.....great talking to u both....thank you skype!!!!!love mom and dad. by the way airfares are really cheap rightnow. roundtrip newark LA 240$ for example

whitney said...

ok. im all caught up. and jealous. and the 4839028453903 pictures from the holidays are GREAT. love you!!!! xoxoxo