Day 39 - Stranded

Puerto Varas to Castro
Cabañas Palafitos Los Pescadores    

We headed off early to drive to the island of Chiloe in thick fog and smog, caused by smoke from the wood fires used by most people in the area. We started off well, but after an hour or so we came to a complete stop. People were out of their cars, walking around, we weren't sure whether it was an caused by an accident, or perhaps something to do with the ferry to Chiloe.

After about half an hour the traffic started moving, but M had left the lights on when he stopped the car, so you guessed it .... stuck in a traffic jam with a flat battery. The traffic had only moved about 10 metres or so, so there was no room for a push start (which would have been easy with our tiny car), and moving to the emergency lane wasn't a great idea because drivers were using it to get to the exit road a couple of kilometres further on.

Luckily some other car drivers came to our aid with some jumper leads, we had plenty of time as we were told the road could be closed all day. It wasn't an accident as we had thought, the police close the road due to very poor visibility caused by the fog and smoke. It eventually took us two and a half hours to cover 5 kms, but finally the visibility improved and we made it to the ferry across to the island.

Seafood lunch anyone?

By the time we reached Ancud for a lunch stop it was a beautiful day. We walked around town, visited the museum, and then a picnic lunch at one of the piers just out of town where stalls were set up to sell fresh crabs and shellfish.

From there we drove to Castro where we had booked our accommodation for the next three nights, right on the water with a great view.

Day 38 - Rained in

Puerto Varas

Today we had planned to pick up the hire car we booked yesterday and drive around Lake Llanquihue, visiting the towns and Volcan Osorno on the way around. We woke during the night to the sound of heavy rain, and it was still raining come morning. We were due to pick up the car at 10am, by 9:30am the situation hadn't improved so we rang the rental agency and postponed the car. We ended up staying in our cute cabana for most of the day by the cosy wood fire.

We put the day to good use and did some forward planning, we got so carried away that by 5pm when the rain finally stopped we had almost planned a whole week in advance, which for us seems quite risky as plans can change so easily when you are under-prepared as we are.

We had postponed the rental car pickup to later in the day, as our plan now was to get going early tomorrow morning. The rain finally stopped around 5pm, so we managed to collect the car as well as do our grocery shopping without getting wet.

Day 37 - Bigfoot strikes again

San Carlos de Bariloche (Argentina) to Puerto Varas (Chile)          
Cabañas Bosque Sur 

A 7.30am bus this morning to cross the Argentina/Chile border for the third time - we don't think it will be the last, Chile is a long, narrow country and Patagonia straddles the border with Argentina, so in order to see all the best places you end up travelling back and forth. It was a lovely drive over the Andes, with great views of lakes, mountains and small resort towns. The farmland on the Chilean side definitely had an Aussie feel to it, not exactly sure why, perhaps it was look of the farmhouses, fences, and the occasional eucalyptus tree. At Puerto Montt we changed to a small local bus to take us to Puerto Varas, about 20km away on the shore of Lago Lanquihue.

After we arrived and settled in to our cabaña (which are found everywhere in Chile, they are essentially self contained cabins geared towards people holidaying with a car), we had a quick wander around town. It was a little cloudy, so from the jetty across the lake we couldn't see too much of the volcanoes in the distance, Osorno and Calbuco. Calbuco had last erupted less than a year ago, in April 2015.

There are two volcanoes under those clouds

First job of the afternoon was to rent a car for the next few days, the second was to buy K some shoes as the soles on her old pair had inexplicably disintegrated. The first part was easy, plenty of car rental places and reasonable rates. The second part though had some issues - in some shops the staff didn't seem too interested in selling shoes, the second was that most shops don't stock shoes any larger than a US 9. We finally managed to track down a size 10 pair, they seemed a little on the small side but as this was an emergency K bit the bullet and bought them .... fingers crossed!

Day 36 - Public transport finally mastered?

San Carlos de Bariloche

Today we finally managed to get to Cerro Castillo, known as the ski capital of South America. Waiting for the same bus as us was a fellow Australian from our Antarctic trip - an interesting but fairly common coincidence it seems.

From the ski town at the base of the mountain we caught a cable car then a chairlift as far as we could go, then wandered around and did some short walks from there. It was a great view from the top though the mountain up this high was mainly all rocks, it would have looked so amazing covered with snow.

No, we won't get sick of these views

For some reason the bus back to Bariloche didn't turn up as expected, so our hourly bus had turned into a two hourly one, making it a long afternoon as most of the ski town was closed - just a couple of shops and cafes. Just when we thought we had the public transport system sussed it made fools of us again!

Day 35 - Day Tripper, Sunday driver yeah!

San Carlos de Bariloche

In previous years Bariloche has broken the world's largest Easter egg on Easter Sunday morning but unfortunately this year they broke with tradition and changed it to sharing hot chocolate in the afternoon - not really the same. Overall Easter has been quite different from what we expected, for what we thought would be a strongly catholic community in South America it's all been about the chocolate!

Once again we spent most of the morning trying to work out the transport system, we misjudged the location of where we thought we should pick up the bus to Cerro Castillo, so after waiting in the wrong place for a while we gave up and decided to take the easy option of the tourist bus to Cerro Otto.

We took the cable car up to the top, and after a wander around admiring the views we indulged in some yummy cake and coffee in the revolving restaurant.

That evening there was a concert in the town square, and as our apartment is in such a great location and the weather was so good, we just opened the window in our apartment and enjoyed dinner to the strains of a Beatles cover band. They were followed by a teen group that seemed to send the local girls into a frenzy, after they'd finished we watched out the window as the girls chased their tiny minivan (not much of a limo) down the street.

Day 34 - Missed Obama by that much!

San Carlos de Bariloche

We have a really nice airbnb apartment for four nights, and so far this is is the best place we have stayed in. The location is great, just near near the town centre, and the apartment is modern and spacious.

San Carlos de Bariloche is the chocolate capital of Argentina, with chocolate shops everywhere. We're in town for the National Chocolate Festival, held here every Easter. Today's main event was making the world's largest chocolate bar in the main street. Thousands of people lined the street to watched while molten chocolate was poured on a long table, spread and sprinkled with nuts, then left to cool, with music, speeches, entertainment and of course an appearance by the Chocolate Queen! The bar was then broken into chunks and given away to the crowd .... M went back for seconds of course.

Anyone for chocolate?

We spent most of the afternoon stuffing around trying to figure out the public bus system. It was sort of like Myki, but with its own quirks, in this case we only needed one card for the two of us, but it was hard finding a place that sold the cards. Once we finally had a card we caught the bus along the lake, and got off at Puerto Panuelo. After a quick look around the port we walked up to the five star Llao Llao resort, we decided we deserved a drink while we admired the view.

Obama was here

After we returned the hotel we discovered that Obama had been at Llao Llao for the afternoon just two days before - lucky we didn't try to drop by that day, we are sure the security wouldn't have let us in.

Day 33 - Fancy meeting you here

El Calafate to San Carlos de Bariloche

Time to kill today, our flight isn't until 4.30pm but we had to check out at 10.30am. As today is Good Friday we weren't sure what we'd find, the opening hours of shops in both Argentina and Chile haven't exactly been tourist friendly so far, with dead Sundays and aimless tourists looking for something to do when the shops and cafes are closed. However as El Calafate is very much a tourist town (with prices to match) we we had nothing to worry about.

It was a beautiful day so we sat out the front of a cafe with a hot chocolate and alfajores,  The wifi wasn't too good, but at least the sun was out and we used the time to do some more trip planning for after Easter.

Our flight to San Carlos de Bariloche was uneventful, although we were surprised to see someone from the Antarctica cruise on the flight. We thought we had stopped running into people but this guy was sitting across the aisle from us!

We finished the day with the great steak meal at a restaurant nearby - the food was so good that we booked a table there again for our last night in Bariloche on Easter Monday.

Day 32 - Scotch on the rocks

Perito Moreno Glacier

Without a car the options for visiting local attractions can be limiting, and in our case the thing we wanted to do could only be done as part of a tour. We had booked a "mini-trek" on the Perito Moreno glacier, only provided by one company in El Calafate.

We met our bus at 9am and then had to endure the hotel drive around to pick up more people .... some of whom weren't even ready yet. It was a little frustrating, especially considering that some of the hotels were closer to the office than we had to walk to get the bus!

We had been a little unsure about whether we were really up for another glacier visit after Antarctica, but we're glad we decided to go through with it. In Antarctica we weren't allowed to get too close to the glaciers, but here we had a great view and in addition this one calves quite often, we saw many chunks of ice fall into to water with loud booms echoing off the glacier as the ice hit the water.

The morning activity was viewing the glacier from the platforms built nearby (it moves about two metres per day in the centre, 40cm at the edges, not that we could notice), having lunch, then following the coastal trail to meet the bus. The bus then took us to a jetty, where we boarded a boat that took us to the beginning of the glacier trek by the edge of the glacier.

The trek involved us getting fitted with crampons, a quick lesson on how to walk, legs apart, knees bent going down hills, then we were off.  The top of the glacier was dirty in parts, but we were able to fill up our water bottles at some flowing streams of melting glacier ice, and the water was as you'd expect - clear, fresh and cold. After about an hour and a half of walking over the amazing ice landscape, we were treated to some chocolate and a glass of scotch on freshly crushed glacier ice - a great way to end the trek!

Day 32 - Resting from what?

El Calafate

Today was really just a rest day, wandering around town and checking out the shops. El Calafate is pretty much a tourist town, so lots of chocolate shops, restaurants and "artesanias", which sell souvenir items of a local, crafty nature.

In the afternoon M went for a longer walk around town and by the edge the lake, and also up to the mirador located at one end of town.

Day 31 - Spending quality time at the border

Puerto Natales (Chile) to El Calafate (Argentina)

The bus station was swarming with trekkers when we rocked up arround 7:15am, many with what seem to be brand new hiking clothes and backpacks ready, to head to Torres del Paine. We've never seen so many people wearing North Face gear, and as it turns out the founder of North Face died in a kayaking accident in Southern Chile only last December. You can usually spot the Aussies - they're the ones wearing Kathmandu gear - including M!

Our bus trip today was north and back over the border to El Calafate in Argentina. The only way to get to the southernmost regions of Chile via land is via Argentina, as the Andes and the ice fields can't be crossed by normal means. This means border crossing are the norm, but they can be quite time consuming - today's entry into Argentina for our bus took at least an hour, there seemed to be just one guy on an old computer, looking up details over what was probably a slow network connection.

I saw this in El Calafate but I'm not sure what it represents, sorry.

We finally arrived in the tourist town of El Calafate, with the main drawcard being the Perito Merino glacier. We have planned for two full days here, and the weather forecast said the day after tomorrow was going to be the best day, As it turns out what we wanted to do here was booked out for tomorrow, so we think we've planned well .... we'll see!

Day 30 - Lakes, mountains, snow, waterfalls, icebergs

Puerto Natales and Torres Del Paine National Park

We hired a car for the day to visit the Torres del Paine National Park. The mountains are incredibly majestic, with the "torres" being the towers of of rock that give the park its name.

Even though it's the end of summer there was still plenty of snow on the mountains and the lakes were just beautiful, there were some nice waterfalls and we even saw icebergs that had calved from the glaciers in the park (though we've seen better icebergs, as you would expect!). At one stop we arrived at the same time as a horde of trekkers heading off to trek the W, which is the famous trekking route within the park - judging by the numbers it must be like a highway out there.

After visiting all the main vantage points and doing a couple of small walks within the park, we ended the day by visiting the cave of the Milodon, where the original  natives of the area had lived and a prehistoric sloth's remains were found. This sloth walked on all fours but there are lots of statues of him around town that depict him standing on his back legs -  probably because he looks much larger, scarier and impressive that way.

Day 29 - Sculpture watch

Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales

A more civilised 10am bus trip this morning and a much better quality bus saw us take the three hour trip to Puerto Natales. Many people come here to to see the penguins on Magdelena Island, but we feel after Antarctica we have seen enough penguins for quite a while. The more significant attraction accessed from here is the Torres del Paine National Park, with the famed "W" trek (as much as M would like to we are not hiking it!).

We spent the afternoon checking out the small town, and arranging car hire for tomorrow's visit to Torres del Paine. The walk along the waterfront was interesting - some interesting sculptures again, and the view was great, with snow visible on the mountains across the water.

The graffiti really complements the view, doesn't it?

We also indulged in some yummy hot chocolate and cake - there's never a shortage of those things in Patagonia!

Day 28 - Nice cemetery, and so close to town

Punta Arenas

Our airbnb was a room in someone's house - something we hadn't tried before now. The house was described as large but it wasn't that big, it seems the Chileans' idea of a large house may not be the same as ours! We were given a small bedroom for two nights, the owners seem to be people not long out of uni, nice enough, but used to student levels of cleanliness (that's not a compliment by the way). It's all good experience though - now we know we're not too keen to try a shared airbnb again!

Just one part of the cemetery in Punta Arenas

We spent the day wandering around the city seeing the sights. The cemetery was recommended to us and was well worth the visit, with well decorated tombs, mausoleums, and a number of interesting memorials. We wandered down by the waterfront with it's interesting sculptures, the port (which is also a departure point for Antarctic cruises), and up to the mirador (lookout), also picking up a bus ticket for the next stage of our trip along the way.

I think this is Magellan, but the inclusion of mermaids
tells me this is just an "artist's impression"

Day 27 - Onto the mainland and into a new country

Ushuaia (Argentina) to Punta Arenas (Chile)

A very early start today to be at the bus station by 4:40 am. Thankfully it hadn't snowed (which we thought might have happened) so the walk was easy. It seemed strange that the bus hadn't shown, and just before 5am a large ute and a people mover arrived. We were told that the city borders had been closed due to a strike. We had seen the strikers in town every day before heading to Antarctica, occupying part of the main street, but hadn't realised that the situation had escalated. The two vehicles were there to shuttle the waiting passengers to the other side of the picket line a few kilometres away.

We made it onto the second of three trips, we were driven to just before the barricade, which was made of pallets and manned by strikers sitting around open fires. We then carried our luggage about 100 metres past the stranded trucks and cars to a waiting bus.

It took about an hour to move everyone onto the bus, so we finally started on our trip around 6am. The bus was incredible dirty, and basic, and without heating. When we reached Rio Grande we swapped into a slightly better bus, which then took us over the border into Chile. The route then took us to the ferry over the Straits of Magellan and onto the South American mainland. There was a shop on the ferry, for some reason all the locals queued up to buy hot dogs .... which explained the strange smell as we walked into the seating area on the ferry.

World's largest mobile hot dog stand

We finally arrived into Punta Arenas about 6pm, and caught a taxi to our airbnb accomodation.just outside the city centre.

Day 26 - Back on dry land

Ushuaia

This ship pulled in to the dock at Ushuaia early, so breakfast was on the ship while it cleared customs (looking for contraband penguins maybe?). We knew the trip was well and truly over when the view out the window at breakfast was a dock with trucks and cars, not rolling waves.

I was told my original caption for this was dumb, too bad, you've missed out on a real zinger!

It had snowed in Ushuaia overnight so the surrounding mountains looked a little different to when we had left, It was raining as we disembarked, so by the time we had made our way to our hotel near the centre of town, we were a little on the wet and cold side.

We spent the day wandering around town, drinking hot chocolate and catching up with the rest of the world via the internet, pretty much just filling in time until tomorrow where we had booked a 5am bus to start heading north.

Days 24 and 25 - Across the dreaded Drake

Drake Passage to Ushuaia

Heading back to Ushuaia, the two day trip across the Drake Passage was occupied with lectures, discussions about sea sickness drugs, and what we did on our holiday. Attendance at meals was a little down, as it seems some people were sticking to their beds due to sickness, or because there was too much food available and too little to do!

Apparently however the Drake was relatively kind to us, apart from a few people falling and one poor girl needing stitches for her hand being slammed in the bathroom door.

The last evening was finished off with Captain's cocktails and some photos of the trip were shown - we were thrilled to see a photo of the two of us sitting on a rock back in Paradise Bay.

There is a mixed feeling of sadness that our incredible, beautiful trip to a place we will never go to again is over, mixed with relief that we are escaping the confines of wake up calls, rigid meal times and menus, and a lack of freedom (and internet!).

Land ho!

.

Day 23 - No midget ponies but lots of angry fur seals

South Shetland Islands - Whaler’s Bay and Half Moon Island

Last excursion day today - so after this no more rugging up with all those layers to leave the ship, though we are now a lot quicker than we were at getting ready.

We woke up to find ourselves in the South Shetland Islands at Deception Bay, in the middle of a still active volcano. The land here was very different, black volcanic rock with just a dusting of snow, and lots of aggressive fur seals. Most of us ran the gauntlet of seals barking and threatening to bite us on each side of the path that had been set for us, K had one aggressively chase her (it's always her, remember the gorillas?), but she managed to avoid it. We had a good hike to a pinnacle with a nice view, dodged the fur seals to make it back to shore, and walked by the ruins of the old British Antarctic base that had been destroyed in a mudslide some years back. Interestingly there was also a small yacht moored in the bay - unusual to see other people, especially on a vessel so small.

Mudslides can be disastrous!

Our final excursion in the afternoon was to Half Moon Island and once again there were a lot of aggressive fur seals to try and navigate past without getting bitten as they claimed their territorial rights to the paths and areas we wanted to walk on. There were also colonies of Chinstrap penguins and one solitary Macaroni Penguin - we are all amused that we can now tell penguins apart. The general feeling is sadness that this is the end of Antarctica, already the landscape is quite different, gone are the fabulous icebergs, the dramatic peaks and glaciers.

"Hello Mr. Penguin". "Hello Mr. Seal".

Ahead of us is the dreaded Drake Passage. The crew introduce Sir Frances Drake as the man we all hate as he conjures up two days of potentially rough passage, so it's time to lock everything away in our cupboards and tie the chair in our cabin to the desk so it doesn't wake us up in middle night crashing to the floor as it has done in the past.

Day 22 - Photos by the hundreds

Antarctica - Jougle Point and Paradise Bay

Another 7.15am wake up call over the loudspeaker in our cabin - we've given up on ever being able to sleep in on this cruise!

We were ready to go onshore to Damoy Point, and we were ready and waiting at the gangway to get going, but the landing was suspended due to high winds and choppy seas. After going back to our cabins and removing all the clothing, about two minutes later they announced that a more sheltered location had been found .... figures! We rugged up again and headed to Jougla Point, which was close to the British base at Port Lockroy. There is normally a small shop there, but the staff had left just a few days ago for winter.

This guy doesn't mind the weather here

The bay had a whaling history and someone had gathered up many bones and fashioned a whale together. It was a cold and windy visit but we are in Antarctica after all!

After lunch we travelled on to the gloriously named Paradise Bay, by this time the weather had improved, and we were out on the front of the ship with the sun coming through and lighting up the most beautiful bay. By the time it was our turn to climb into the zodiac for our cruise the sun and sky were brilliant - Antarctica at its best! Everything was bright, sparkling and clear - the staff were telling us we were truly spoilt by the weather we were enjoying. After a cruise around the bay went on to the continental landing just by the closed Argentinian Base Brown, enjoying the breathtaking scenery and warmth.

Soaking up the sun

The adventurous ones (not us!) finished off the afternoon with the Polar Plunge, stripping to their bathers and running into the -1 degree icy waters - we cheered and took photos, while they subjected themselves to self induced hypothermia.

Almost everyone was a little late to dinner, as no-one could tear themselves away from the amazing sunset as we headed out of Paradise Bay. We had a lot of laughs over dinner as everyone compared the numbers of photos they had taken and we pretended to suggest that we would share them with each other, and categorise them as well (small icebergs, medium icebergs, large icebergs, etc.). None of us though managed the 3000 photos per hour that one of our guides told us a previous passenger had achieved! After dinner we went outside to take more photos of the amazing moon hung in the sky like out of a nursery rhyme.

Just one more photo ....

Day 21 - What a day (and place) to get married!

Antarctica - Detaille Island

We had crossed into the Polar Circle overnight, meaning we were south of 66°33′46.2 S, and officially in "The Antarctic".

Today's agenda was an excursion to Detaille Island, which had an abandoned British Antarctic Survey hut known as Base W. Unlike yesterday with its continual snow, the day gave us a postcard perfect blue sky, no wind and inches of powder snow to walk on. Today is also the day one of the couples on board were "married" - not officially, but exchanging vows in advance of their real wedding. We guess the Captain could have married them, but he's not allowed to leave the ship, and there wasn't anyone else there qualified.

The wedding pictures will be great!

The couple are from the US, and she had her wedding gown made in Melbourne after seeing one of our "celebrities" (and I use this term very loosely) wearing it on the internet! He was wearing a tux, both of them were in gumboots. They exchanged vows and rings and threw the bouquet into the crowd, but they were too scared to run for it in case they fell  over on the ice and into the knee deep powder snow. The snow here was every skiers' dream - powder everywhere!

The hut was abandoned in 1959 - as the supply ship couldn't get close enough due to ice, the men were ordered to leave immediately, so everything was left exactly as it was - bottles and tins of food, boots, sleeping bags, magazines - a real time capsule.

Another perfect day in Antarctica

We stayed on the island as long as we could to enjoy the perfect weather, but once on board as we had reached the southernmost point of our trip so we started to head north. Around 3pm we were called to the bridge to celebrate our crossing of the Polar Circle with a glass of champagne and much horn blowing by the Captain and crew.

Day 20 - One bra = One drink

Antarctica - Vernadsky Station and Valour Islands

This morning we were greeted by a thick layer of snow on the outside of the ship - definitely need all our layers today for the excursions. Getting ready for each trip takes time, but we're getting better - each trip we usually have a couple of layers of clothes, then our waterproof jackets and pants, two pairs of socks, gumboots, life jacket, hat and gloves.

Instead of getting on the Zodiac first and sitting in front, we tried to sit near the back, it can be freezing up front when the zodiac is at speed, and today the snow was steadily falling and the zodiacs already had a good covering of snow. This was unfortunate for K as her "waterproof" pants had a leak - meaning the longer they were wet the colder she felt.

We spent an hour or so cruising around the icebergs near the Ukrainian Antarctic Research Station at Vernadsky Base, before going into the station for a quick tour. This is the station where the hole in the ozone layer was discovered, and the dozen or so staff stay at the base for a year, April to April. The staff had radioed the ship earlier to ask if there were any Russian movies on board they could copy, and for whisky.

The station had a small gift shop called the Southernmost Souvenir Shop On the Earth and a largish bar with an assortment of bras hanging behind - a swap, free drinks for your bra to add to the collection. They were doing good trade with their post office, where you could send postcards home (via Kiev, after the April change over), and also get an Antarctica stamp in your passports.

It continued to snow all afternoon so M went on the zodiac wildlife spotting cruise on his own and managed to see the ubiquitous penguins, lots of Crabeater and Weddell seals and also had a close-ish encounter with a small group of humpback whales.  K stayed in the warmth and comfort of the ship's lounge but also managed to see two massive humpbacks up close that were swimming right next to the ship, blowing and flipping their fins and tails as she walked alongside them on a lower deck.

After all that we pulled up anchor to head out to the open sea to head north to the Polar Circle, this means its back to "one hand for the ship" time again. We had so enjoyed our smooth sailing, but it's back to a night of rough tossing and turning in our beds, fortunately with raised edges to stop us falling out.

Day 19 - Accosted by penguins

Antarctica - Port Charcot and Petermann Island

Once again were were woken by a cheery "Good Morning, Good Morning" at 7:15am - this is getting a bit annoying!

As we headed to our first landing point the ship navigated the Lemaire Channel, incredibly scenic as it is relatively narrow with icebergs of all shapes and sizes. The huge scale, colour and shapes of the mountains, glaciers and icebergs are breathtaking. It has to be the most beautiful place on earth, photos and TV can't show the sheer size and scale of the ice.

Were able to get onto the first zodiac for the landing this morning at Port Charcot, and there is something to be said for walking the fresh snow before it comes icy and wandering around before the rest of the passengers arrive. We hiked up to a cairn built by the first expedition to the site, and spotted out first Chinstrap penguin, easily spotted with a stripe like a helmet strap.

Follow the leader

During lunch we continued through the channel, past icebergs with seals lying in their floating water beds, humpback whales being very lazy, and of course numerous penguins. The icebergs have nothing on earth to be compared to they resemble massive, exquisite, intricate sculptures made by the most talented artists on earth with huge spectrum  of blues.

The second excursion was to Petermann Island, where once again we hiked to vantage points and admired the massive icebergs. K was accosted by two friendly penguins who decided to follow her and peck at her clothes and legs, ouch!

Mmm, are you food?

That evening there was a BBQ on the outer deck and free alcohol, which meant the day culminated in a friendly party atmosphere.

Day 18 - We never promised you a summer holiday

Antarctica - Foyn Harbour and Neko Harbour

A very different wake up this morning, the ship is still, it's a great feeling to be able to shower without hanging on with one hand. Up to this stage washing your hair (for those of us that have hair) had to be a sitting down affair. The temperature is now one degree, but the plus is that we saw hump back whales right outside our cabin window, and of course there are heaps of icebergs - we've reached Antarctica!

We rugged up to go on our first excursion which was a zodiac cruise. We all have a tag on the wall that we have to turn to red as we leave the ship and back to green when we return - it's a bit like clocking on and off at work.

Yes, it's cold

The zodiac cruise was excellent, as we whizzed around the icebergs checking out the sea lions and the Gentoo penguins on the shore.

The second excursion later in the day was our first land excursion in Neko Harbour. Here we hiked to a lovely vantage point, taking care to step over the penguin highways and always stopping to give the penguins right of way, There were hundreds of Gentoo penguins, sitting, standing, lying, squawking, or flapping their wings at each other.

The high point of our walk looked over a massive glacier that we were all hoping would crack (or calve, which is the correct term) but alas there was only a small crumbling.

He's not alone, there are about 100 more just outside the frame

The trip is very well organised with a debrief at the end each day which includes information on the plan for the next day, although it is always subject to change as it is weather and iceberg dependent. 

Day 17 - Contamination risk

Drake Passage

A better night's sleep tonight, you eventually get used to the rolling, so you could say we now have our sea legs, but we are also lucky that so far the wind has been mild so the sea is not too rough.
Our wake up call this morning told us that the outside temperature had dropped from 7 degrees yesterday to just 1 today.

The first lecture of the day was about the landings, how to behave with the wildlife, getting on and off the zodiacs (which are the boats used for landings), and the need to clean our boots before and after each excursion, to stop contamination from us but also to keep the smell of penguin poo off the ship. Later in the day we had to vacuum any clothing brought with us, once again to reduce the risk of contamination.

 Our first wildlife (other than birds) was spotted today, a pod of hour glass dolphins swam along side the ship for a short time, for us they were unusual as they are black and white in colour, not the grey dolphins we are used to.

Day 16 - One hand for the ship

Drake Passage

Each cabin on the ship has a speaker, so the 7:45am wake up call is a voice saying "Good morning, good morning".Then the fun started, trying to shower and dress with "one hand always for the ship" as they call it, as you should always have one hand free to hold on with. The bathroom was surprisingly good, with plenty of hot water - better than most of the places we've stayed in so far in South America.

The day passed quite quickly, as we had different talks and lectures on sea birds, penguins and geography, and combined with the constant and regular call for meals - breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner - it feels like being in school or on camp.

As the Drake crossing takes two days, all we saw today were some sea birds. The air was cold and the sea was a little up and down, but we still managed to walk around on deck and get some fresh air.

Next stop Antarctica

The other guests we've met so far are all extremely well travelled, it almost seems to be the "we've been everywhere else" trip. We met two 28 year olds today who with this trip will have been to all seven continents. There is also a surprising number of people in their late 20's/early 30's doing the trip on their own. Not as many couples as we expected, a fair amount of older single men and women, and a large group of mainly Dutch divers.

Day 15 - Setting Sail

Ushuaia to the Drake Passage 

The kind man that owned the place we have been staying at drove us with our luggage to the tour operator's office at 11am, and as we were due to board our ship at 4pm we needed to fill in some time. We arrived at the office and asked about the waterproof gear we had been told would be provided for our trip, it was all a bit of a muddle with no one seeming to know anything and us being sent back and forth between different offices to get gloves and pants, but eventually it was all sorted.

Nearly everything in Ushuaia is closed on a Sunday, and also closed between 1pm and 4pm every other day. The town is always teeming with tourists (in their shiny new outdoor gear)  - people from the huge cruise ships that drop in, hikers, skiers and of course people waiting to go on their Antarctic ship.

We spent most of the day in coffee shops taking advantage of their Internet to try and plan the next steps after the cruise, but we didn't get too far as the Internet is so flaky. Eventually the time came to leave, so we loaded up all our luggage and wet weather gear and headed down to the port. The first stop was the obligatory luggage scan, but security down here is very different to what we are used to, I'm not sure there is even someone looking at the screens half the time. We then headed to the gangway where we were met with the friendly staff who took our luggage on board for us.

Our cabin - more comfortable than it looks

Our cabin was cute and we were surprised that we managed to unpack everything we needed for the trip into what looked like quite limited space. We were then called for the mandatory safety talk and at the end were told to go back to our cabins, dress warmly, put on our life jackets and meet at the outside muster area for an emergency drill. After that it was hilarious, no one including us could find our cabins again, there was much laughter as we continually passed the same people in the corridors and we were all still lost. After the muster we were given a look into the life boats, very squeezy, long rows of seats with seat belts, fully enclosed (with no toilet either).

If all goes well this won't be required

Dinner was lovely with table service and then at 9pm we were called to the boot room to be fitted out with our special gumboots for the landings.

At about midnight we entered the notorious Drake Passage, lots of people had lined up to meet with the doctor and were now wearing little sea sickness patches behind their ears. For us sleep was a little difficult, with some rolling and lots of creaking from the bed furniture.

Day 14 - Getting Ready

Ushuaia

We did walk around town a bit today but didn't do anything too exciting, most of the day was spent preparing for the cruise .... hat and gloves bought - check, sea sickness tablets - check, wine to smuggle on - check, washing done - check, bus tickets bought to leave after the cruise - check.

We think we are ready for 2 weeks without internet, it might be a bit of a challenge, but we might also end up being be too seasick to care. Apparently the Drake Passage can be incredibly rough, and the wind had picked up today. In town we met some Americans whose ship was meant to go around Cape Horn tonight but as it's too rough they were in port for the night.

First place we've ever been where Australia is to the north!

Day 13 - Tassie in Ushuaia

Ushuaia

Today we had to return our rental car so we headed into town to fill the car up at the one and only petrol station in the central town area. The queues were always very long when we went past so we were happy to see there wasn't anyone there - there was a reason of course, they were receiving petrol so not able to sell any! We finally lined up and this is when we worked out why the queues are so long, not only is it the only station in town but is manned by one man only, who not only fills your tank but also takes your payment - what a system!

We visited the naval/prison museum, which was originally based on a prison in Tasmania, which had sections on animals, Antarctica, and prisons of the world, amongst other things. After that we did a bit of pre-Antarctica clothes shopping, as we were worried we didn't quite have the right gear for Antarctica (or even Patagonia). We had read that the prices are not much different to home, which was pretty much correct based on what we saw.

Unrestored prision wing at the museum

It's interesting walking around town and seeing other tourists, Ushuaia has to be the only place (apart from Mt Buller's Bourke St on a Sunday afternoon) where everyone walks around in brand new outdoor gear, parkas, and winter outfits, not a faded, dirty well worn piece of clothing was to be seen amongst the throngs of tourists.

After spending up on new hats, gloves and polar fleeces, we headed home for another night of our own home cooked dinner - we are trying hard to be frugal and so far it seems to be working.

Day 12 - Fox on the run

Ushuaia

Desperate to enjoy the great weather we headed off to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. We dropped by the El FIn Del Mundo steam train and watched other tourists board the train, we had heard though that it wasn't worth the asking price of over US$50 for the trip, so didn't join them. We had our hire car anyway, which was costing us around $110 per day for a beaten up small car, it's a captive market down here

Not far into the park we picked up a female hitchhiker, its amazing how generous you feel when you are on holidays in a strange country. Our first stop was Ensenada Bay where we had our passports stamped with the End of the World/Ushuaia stamp, before picking up our hitchhiker again and driving to Puerto Arias. Here we took two beautiful walks and then drove on to  the Alakush cafe, where we checked out the interesting  exhibition regarding the indigenous people of the area. It is a very sad history and probably expressed quite well in the wording in one of the displays where the translation of the Spanish word to upset/annoy was that the natives were "pissed off"!

Get your passport stamps here

On the way out we saw a "rare"  Patagonian Culpeo Fox, that's what they say but it was waltzing around the middle of the road very tamely so not so sure about the rare bit.

Just another beautiful view

We headed back to town and checked in with the tour agency to see if our payment had made it through, the good news was that we had been upgraded on our cruise from a twin bed porthole to a twin bed window - not bad for a last minute booking!

As the weather for the past two days had been so incredible, with sun and beautiful blue skies, and the forecast for the next few days was cold and showery, we decided to push on and visit the Glacier Martial, it was about 5pm, but still a few hours of daylight left. Even though we have more days here in Ushuaia, we are cramming the park visits into two days because we are worried about the weather changing.

Nothing here is well signposted so we parked the car and set off up the steep hill, not knowing how far we had to go. After over an hour of steep uphill climbing we reached the "glacier" - really just a large patch of ice, Any secret ambitions that K has (had) to hike to Everest base camp have now been quashed!

Driving around Ushuaia is not too hard apart from the lack of signs indicating that you have turned into a one way street, on a few occasions we saw the oncoming traffic heading our way so we to frantically do a u-turn to avoid a head on.

Day 11 - El Fin Del Mundo

Ushuaia

We have five days until our cruise leaves, which is heaps of time in a small town like Ushuaia but the problem is that the weather is great at the moment but a change is coming, so we need to get moving and use the next couple of days for sightseeing before the weather changes on us. First order of business was to pay a deposit on the cruise, after which we rushed off to rent a car for the next two days to see the sights of Tierra del Fuego.

First trip is to the lakes area east of town, impossible to get lost as there's only one road in one road out - we are at El Fin Del Mundo (the end of the world) after all. We drove out of Ushuaia, up over the Andes via the Garibaldi Pass and down the other side. 

We eventually arrived at a small town of Tolhuin at the end of Lake Fagnano. The town itself didn't seem to offer much, so we kept driving through town to the lake's edge, and we ended up by chance at Hosteria Kaiken situated just on the shore of the lake. We sat in the restaurant while admiring the view and munching on empanadas, then went and sat outside for a while to enjoy the sun, before heading back into town.

Nice spot for lunch!

The towns around here seem to have a Swiss feel about them, not because of the landscape. more to do with the designs of the buildings, with the sloping A frame roofs for the snow and the wooden shuttered windows. 

Day 10 - Arrived at the End of the World

Buenos Aires to Ushuaia

An early start today for our four hour flight to Ushuaia, a noticeable difference to our other journeys on this trip was that everyone was carrying warm clothes and parkas - goodbye 30 degrees, hello 9.

We arrived into Ushuaia and were amazed and excited, now we feel like we are on a proper holiday, we are seeing things we truly have never seen before (sorry Punta del Este but we've seen beaches and resort towns before). Ushuaia has amazing mountains with snow still on them when it is summer, the clean crisp air of southern Tasmania and the feeling that only The End of the World can give you.

Ushuaia and Beagle Bay from near our apartment

We caught a taxi to our accommodation to find that no one was at home, after waiting for a while they arrived, they had been waiting at the airport for us, even though they didn't know which flight we were on. We do need to keep an eye out for that small town hospitality as we have been caught like that before.

We headed into town to explore on a glorious day, who said it was cold down here on the edge of the end of the world? We had a vague idea that we would like to take a cruise out to Antarctica but we had looked at the prices and they seemed a little steep, so our plan was to wait until we arrived here to see if we what was available. All the agencies were advertising last minute deals, we visited a few and walked into one to explain our situation. As it turns out, the agent was able to give us a price on one cruise in euro that was much better than the advertised $US price - in fact a saving of about US$1000 in total. It also left in a few days (meaning we just had to stay an extra night), it was twin share with a private bathroom, and was heading as far south as the polar circle. We went away to discuss over a coffee, and pretty quickly decided to go for it ... we'll never be back here again! 

After signing up for the cruise we went and did some shopping for dinner ... we'll have to get used to it as we don't think we'll be eating in restaurants very much from now on.......