Big fish and Chair Lifts

We were awoken at the crack of dawn by a bunch of noisy travellers rising for their free breakfast as if it would be their last meal.

We agreed that our decision to move from this grotty hostel was correct when we sampled the free 'breakfast' which could've made a lifer in Broadmoor choose to go on hunger strike.

Even with Wi-Fi akin to 1998 dial-up, Lauren researched alternative residences and found the "Quillen Hotel" which seemed to be reasonable and boasted non-mouldy shower curtains and rooms that didn't smell like Walter White's crystal meth lab.

We took flight to the Quillen and Lauren negotiated like her life depended on it. We walked out on to the street high-fiving each other as she'd negotiated a small but lovely (and CLEAN) en suite room for just £2 a night more than we were paying at Hostel De Broadmoor.

The rest of the day was spent at travel agents working out what we wanted to do in Bariloche and then clearing out our stuff from the hostel and moving it to Quillen.

The major upside to staying in hostels is that you meet interesting people who are often travelling the same direction as you and you can share journeys together. For us, just as we thought, most people seem to be travelling South America North to South rather than the other way around as we are. This means they have often been to places we are just about to go to and have some great tips of what to do and what to avoid.

With this in mind, as we'd paid for a second night, we decided to join Patanuk Hostel's Wednesday night party before we stunt rolled out of the door un-noticed  to our new, shiny, odorless home for the next 5 nights.

We grabbed some beers and got chatting to Yap from Holland and, let's call him 'James' from the USA.

Yap was a 62 year old pre-retiree who was living the dream. A glider pilot who loved Tango and was travelling the worls. He really was a pleasure to chat with, especially for Lauren who teamed up with him to try and convince me to start dance lessons!

'James' however was a cancer survivor who ran a medical marijuana farm, had just finished a PHD where he got everyone else to do the work for him and owned a chain of incredibly successful hostels and offered Lauren a huge discount for the 'Honeymoon Suite' if she was nice to him. He was also a compulsive liar and incredibly drunk. 

As I said previously, you meet 'interesting' people when staying in hostels.

The live band that they had booked weren't due to start until 11pm so we called it a night around 10pm as we had an early start on Thursday.

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Thursday morning's alarm clock made me jump. It was the same alarm tone Lauren uses for the usual weekday get up so I vowed that needed to change as I stirred, still sleepy, but grateful that this was the first time in nearly a month that we'd needed to use an alarm for any reason.

Today's reason though was well worth it. We were off on a fishing trip!

Now, I understand that this wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea (including Lauren) but I've been fishing since 10 years old when I caught my first fish with a bamboo cane and a bent safety pin (I'm not even joking) from the Grand Union Canal. Right then I was hooked (excuse the pun).

We donned our fishing gear (green and grey, as camouflage as possible, for me, bright pink for Lauren) and jumped into the waiting 4x4 outside our hotel.

The Rio Limay (River Limay) looked beautiful as we approached it and we quickly jumped aboard our boat and were rowed to our first spot by Juan, our guide for the day. 

Me, rubbing my hands with glee at the start of the day

Juan rowed us downstream and anchored us just behind a tree in the middle of the river, where two streams met. He started refreshing my memory on fly fishing techniques and I started fishing.

Within 5 minutes I'd caught my first rainbow trout and in half an hour I'd caught 3 including this 2lb beauty:

Lauren meanwhile was fishing the other side of the boat:

My hot wife without her pink jacket on

The day was out of this world and we left completely satisfied and me, very red faced, as I forgot to put on sunscreen in the excitement of leaving for the river...

That evening we went to a local pub for happy hour and some cheap (but great) food and then wandered back to our hotel.

One major difference between South America and the UK is the way dogs are treated. In South America, Argentina especially, dogs are kept as pets but rarely inside the home. They're left to roam the streets, even in cities, day and night. Incredibly, we haven't seen any fatalities but we've seen some very near misses (why aren't they called 'near hits'?).

As we left the pub we were greeted by this gorgeous retriever cross who literally walked with us all the way to our hotel (nearly a mile).

Lauren fell in love with him, especially when we went inside the hotel and he stood outside the door waiting for us! 

She couldn't help herself and went and petted him some more!

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Friday we knew was going to be poor weather so we'd planned an admin and massage day!

We got loads done and even left time for am hour's massage to ease our aching muscles. At a fifth of the price of a UK massage, it felt even better!

After booking some excursions we headed back to Alfredo's steak house where we ordered a small rib eye, 'jugoso' each.

Argentineans are renowned for their steak. They are also renowned for eating big steaks so, when we ordered 2 small steaks, the chef (who takes the order and delivers the food to the tables for Albertos) thought we were mad! However, a "small" steak is still 200g (about 8 ounces) which is bigger than most UK restaurants serve.

This steak was the best steak either of us have ever tasted so we made every effort (in Spanish) to tell the waiter who genuinely seemed really chuffed.

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After a lie in and some admin on Saturday we got the bus to Cerro Campanario, on the outskirts of the National Park.  They have a chair lift that goes to the top of the mountain.

The 360 degree sights were unbelievable!

Add you can see from Lauren's face, she was petrified of the chair lift!

Pictures don't do it justice

Get a room:

Selfie stick:

After this we headed back to Bariloche, found a gorgeous lakeside Cafe/bar serving local beer and started planning our next stop; Mendoza.

If you'd not noticed the trend; most of our activities contain either eating or drinking, often both!

From there, we collected our latest laundry load and went back to Alfredo's for more steak and then off to bed for another early start tomorrow, the start of our fourth week away! Ten to go!

Petite planes and horrible hostels

A bit behind with updates this week so you might get a few in short succession now!

Tuesday morning started with a trip to the local launderette (don't say we never give you enough detail!) and an extended breakfast in a cafe around the corner waiting for the laundry to be ready!

At 3pm we headed to the airport for our last minute flight to Bariloche.

We'd managed to book a flight at short notice with Lade airlines as it worked out only slightly more expensive than sitting on a bus for over 20 hours.... I'm sure you'd have done the same!

We were there 1 hour before departure (fine for a domestic flight) and yet the check in desk wasn't open & there were only 3 other people in the queue. It was weird for sure and I was more than a bit worried that I'd messed the online booking up as it was all in Spanish and I have to admit to guessing a fair bit of the stuff I was inputting!

However, 30 minutes before departure a middle aged Lade employee arrived, issued us all with a piece of paper that I'm sure they would call a ticket and ushered us towards security! The paper had no flight number and no chance of a seat number. I began stretching as I imagined we'd be peddling all the way to Bariloche!

5 minutes before take off, the same employee arrived at the gate and literally did a head count on the five of us (we'd all become quite united in what could easily have been our last ever flight) and personally led us down some stairs to the runway! I quickly asked (in Spanish) where the nearest toilet was and when his answer was "In Bariloche" I was certain that this was Mr Lade and he was not only the check in clerk and the gate attendant, he was going to fly us in his own 6 seater plane to Bariloche!

Fortunately I was wrong but only just. We were led to a small, old military plane, got onboard and sat wherever we liked. 

When we checked in, Mr Lade had very studiously weighed every bag twice, even our hand luggage (and one other passenger's spare waking boots) and this level of precision carried on when we all chose our seats.

The German couple who we'd discussed swapping notes to our loved ones with sat down next to each other and were quickly separated as he was about 6ft7 and 20 stone. He was very nicely asked if he wouldn't mind sitting on a special seat right in the middle of the plane! Apparently, if he sat one side or the other, the pilot would have to compensate for his weight! Luckily he was all muscle so was not offended, unlike me, who would've loved to have been asked to move for being a human muscle machine.

As it turned out, we weren't given parachutes, didn't have to pedal, navigate or hold the rudder and there was no need to write our messages to loved ones as the flight was pretty uneventful and we arrived in Bariloche on time. Our bags made it to the carousel before we did!

We got the bus to the town and walked a  mile or so to our next hostel, Patanuk.

This was, by far, the worst room we'd had so far, in fact, ever! The indescribable stench, dingy lighting and mouldy shower curtain were a little too much for us and we made a decision to look the next day for a different abode to abide within.

That evening, to cheer ourselves up we headed to the best steak restaurant in town according to Lauren's brother, Eliott who'd visited Bariloche a few years ago.

We were not disappointed and the rib eye steak cooked "jugoso" (juicy) washed down with a bottle of Malbec, was a welcome end to an interesting day.

Too cool for school

Sunday night was yet another first for us. Sleeping in bunk beds. It seems that you're never too old to argue who gets the top bunk, though this time the loser got the top as we were both too worried about falling out in the night!

Monday started with a hostel breakfast (we'll leave that there!) and a shower in the shared bathroom (it's not quite the Savoy) then a walk around the town of El Calafate. 

El Calafate town is really touristy with trinket shops and travel agents every other shop so we'd decided not to stay too long and just do what we wanted to do which was to visit Perito Moreno Glacier.

We bought our bus tickets, bought some cheese, ham and crackers for our impromptu packed lunch and boarded the bus at 1pm.

Now, I really like surprises so I tend to avoid looking at pictures online of places i'm about to visit so that it's completely new and, well, a surprise! 

I think this behavior started when I was about 8 years old. I had always been told that, at Christmas, if you saw Santa delivering your presents, or got up before 7am, he would take them all away again. I'm pretty sure that this was my parents' way of making my sister and I go to bed on Christmas Eve AND STAY THERE! However, I am a light sleeper and 24th December 1982 was a bad night in the life of the youngest Brocklebank in the house. 

Around 11pm, a rustling noise from beside my bed startled me and, as I turned over to explore its source, my worst fear met me. Staring me straight in the face was a rather slim looking Father Christmas! His thin beard drew towards him as he gasped and I screamed in some kind of unplanned unison. As he ran away holding his bright red hood up, his hurried, retreating footsteps were somewhat muffled by an 8 year old's petrified cries for his mother! 

Within seconds, my Mum was there cuddling me and enquiring as to why I was crying. In between sobs and explanations I scoured the dark bedroom for any signs of presents left behind. Eventually, leaning against the Ivor The Engine wallpaper was a stocking, overflowing with presents! The tears stopped and after about 5 minutes, my Dad arrived, his hair in a mess and some weird white hairs hanging from his stubble. I didn't ask why it'd taken him so long to arrive. I wasn't bothered. I'd seen Santa AND lived to tell the tail AND I'd still got presents!

Yet again I digress.

After a 90 minute bus ride, we drove around a mountain bend and were faced with the most unusual, breathtaking sight I think I've ever seen. 

At the far end of the milky blue 'Lago Argentino' lake was what can only be described as a 60 metre cliff face made of ice rising from the water. This was the Perito Moreno Glacier!

This awesome sight was the first of literally hundreds of breathtaking "wow" moments during the next few hours.

The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the only glaciers in the world that is still growing. It increases in size by up to 2 metres a day even though blocks of ice are constantly falling from the various different faces into the milky blue lake below.

First, we took a one hour boat ride to within 30 meters of the East face of the glacier. The boat was not allowed to go any closer to the glacier because of the huge chunks of ice falling in the water, some as large as houses. That gives you some idea of the scale of this ice mountain.

It was phenomenal.

I simply couldn't get my head around it. Here we were in a boat floating on water which by definition had to be above zero degrees. However, rising 60 metres out of this water was an enormous, stunning ice sculpture which, by definition, had to be below zero degrees!

I'm sure the educated readers of our blog will easily be able to explain to me how and why this phenomenon happens but it will always remain a mystery in my mind and I think I'd like it to stay that way. 

We then walked for several hours along the network of metal walkways that had been constructed to give the best view points of various different angles of the glacier.

All through this trip it's been so tempting to take hundreds of photos to get ourselves a permanent, visual memory of that moment. However, we have talked about it and are determined to not worry about missing a photo if there's a risk of us missing the actual moment ourselves.  A moment that is meant just for our personal memories.

Although we did take some photos of the glacier, the precious memories of those special hours will live with both of us forever. At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, the Perito Moreno Glacier was the most stunning natural sight either of us had ever seen. 

These photos just don't do it justice but, if you ever get the chance to go, just do it.

It was completely silent apart from the occasional groans and cracks of the ice as the golden rays weakened the frozen cliff faces. Every few minutes a huge rumble, similar to the start of a thunder storm, would break the tranquility. People would gasp and quickly reach for their cameras as if they were cowboys reaching for their holsters at ten paces. A chunk of ice would fall away and descend like an avalanche into the freezing aqua coloured lake beneath it, followed by moans of despair as the disappointed travelers didn't hit record quick enough.

Through the different seasons the glacier changes in shape as rivers get blocked by fallen ice blocks the size of a building, then the rivers work their way through the fallen ice, creating beautifully sculpted natural ice tunnels. These then eventually fall down and the seasons start again. It truly is amazing.

This is a time lapse picture of the glacier over a calendar year (take time to zoom in):

We stood for hours just staring at the icy peaks, each one completely unique, each one glistening in the sunshine and glowing electric blue as the light passed through it.  As someone who believes in a Creator, I thanked God for this beautiful experience.

We didn't want to leave but, as all good things have to come to an end, we boarded the bus and headed back to El Calafate to eat at a restaurant a new travelling friends of ours, Nina, had suggested, "Pura Vida".

Lauren's Lamb and sweet potato bake

My beef stew served in a roasted pumpkin

We were not disappointed and went to our bunk beds with very large bellies and smiles to match.

Taxis, Planes and having a wee

Sunday morning started with us checking out of our guest house (we never did find out the name of the owner) and heading with all our bags, in a taxi, to the National Park "Tierra del Fuego".

Stood within the province of Tierra del Fuego, the park is a part of the subantarctic forest. It was the first shoreline national park to be established in Argentina back in 1960.

The 240sq mile park has dramatic scenery, with waterfalls, forests, mountains and glaciers. It boasts over 20 species of wild animal and over 90 birds and we were really fortunate to see quite a few!

Before leaving for South America, the furthest either of us would generally walk was from the house to the car and from the car to our respective offices.  Since arriving in New York on day one of our adventure, we've been walking miles every day which, is getting easier as we're getting fitter.

Our deal with the taxi driver was that he drove us to the best bits in the park and we'd get out and walk around the area, go back to the car and he'd drive us on to the next location. We had limited time before our flight so this was the best use of our time and was actually cheaper than taking the public bus, a train and another public bus which is the only other way of doing it! I'd love to get my hands on some of these antiquated Argentinean systems, add a bit of marketing (and common sense) and transform them into slick, easy to understand and financially viable process that benefits everyone.

The park was stunning, the weather was perfect; cold enough to need coats but sunny enough to feel warm. Having stayed in major cities so far, it was as if our lungs were jumping with joy at the beautiful, fresh mountain air.

We walked in 7 locations over 3 hours and loved every minute, enjoying the peace, tranquility and the gift we've been given of 3 months together exploring a part of the world neither of us knew anything about a few months ago.

Here's a few pictures:

The typical woodland paths we walked that link the lakes, mountains and stunning views together.

Selfie stick gets an outing on the beach of a gorgeous lake

Tiny stream cutting its way through the ground to the lake

Some of the birds we managed to photograph but we also saw eagles and all kinds of birds of prey

This Woodpecker was giving this tree a good seeing to. Not quite sure if he had a purpose other than vandalism

Our favorite spot of the day; An Andean Fox. They're about twice the size of our foxes

Once we'd finished in the park, we fell back in the taxi, exhausted but completely satisfied and smiling from ear to ear.

Even though our flight wasn't until 5:50pm, we'd asked the driver to drop us off at Ushuaia airport around 1:45pm as all the local airports here seem to have good, reliable Wi-Fi which is somehow lacking everywhere else in Argentina (and we had nowhere else to go)!

Our first surprise was that the airport was empty. I mean, there was no-one there at all apart from one lady behind the Aerolineas desk. We asked her if we could get on an earlier flight but it turned out that our flight, in 4 hours time, was the next flight leaving from the airport! No wonder it was quiet!

Our second surprise was that she allowed us to check our bags in! Normally they make you wait for 2 hours before the flight but we weren't going to argue. Any excuse to get rid of our large rucksacks!

We got some lunch, caught up on some finance and admin stuff (these trips don't organise themselves!) and generally waited around, passing the time for 4 hours..... or so we thought!

We are really relaxed when it comes to flying. What I mean by that is, we'll arrive with plenty of time to get the flight (Iguasu was a one off!) and then sit City side for as long as possible before we go air side as usually there's more to do, better cafes and, in the case of Argentina, free WiFi. We then go air side and sit at the departure gate until the last minute and then board the plane. We are usually the last people to board. Our thought process is, we have numbered seats (so no one's going to steal them) and we're going to be stuck in these seats unable to move for a good few hours so we'll make the most of our freedom!

Well, our 'freedom' was brought to an abrupt end when the screens started saying they were boarding our plane at 4:30pm (for a 5:50pm flight)!! 

Obviously we did what most travellers would do, we ignored them and leisurely walked through security at about 5pm and sat at the departure gate. Which was pretty much empty....

Within 30 seconds a member of staff approached us and asked us to board. Grumpy, we got up, muttering about sitting on a plane for 50 minutes longer than necessary but to our surprise, as soon as we had sat down, they shut the doors and pushed off! At 5:20pm we took off, 30 minutes before the time on our ticket! This was either an incredibly efficient airline or the pilot was on a promise!!

The only thing we could surmise was that, as it was such a small airport, they had much more flexibility on take off times. Therefore, if they gambled on everyone arriving early (which most people do), they would board early and get off early. The down side would be if one passenger was late, everyone would have to wait for them. Fortunately this was not the case and we arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule in Al Calafate, jumped in a bus and arrived at our third hostel of the trip.

One small issue we've had since being in South America is that every public place seems to have a completely different sign or letter on the door of toilets! In the UK there's a picture of a man or a woman and/or a "M" or an "F" for male or female.  Not so in South America. We've seen all manner of different letters and some pictures that frankly could be a Scotsman in traditional dress or a tomboy. For me this doesn't prove much of an issue as a simple "perdon" to a startled lady isn't embarrassing but for Lauren, the possibility of walking in on Francesco standing at a urinal 'inspecting the plumbing' has meant she'd rather risk bursting her bladder, or more likely the offer of, "you go first" will be uttered in such a way that it seems that she's being the subservient wife that she always is ;-)

Anyway, this was not a problem whatsoever when we arrived at our new resting place for the next 2 nights. Any faint hearted individuals might want to lol away now:

After a few local beers and more organising of transport, we headed for bed looking forward to our special trip the next day.

Have you got a pen Gwyn?

Saturday started with a leisurely breakfast at our guesthouse provided by our friendly host whose name we're still unsure of!

Around 10am we walked into the town to find out how & where we could book a couple of trips we wanted to go on.

Ushuaia town centre is a beautiful place. Colorful buildings stand side by side with a beautiful mountainous backdrop offering everything from skiing apparel through to ornate porcelain ornaments. Almost every shop, no matter their core trade, sells some kind of Penguin Merchandise. From woolly hats to placemats, you'll find it hard to leave Ushuaia without a black & white, non flying bird in your bag! Andy & Sarah Milligan would be in Penguin Heaven!!

It was our first mission to book a trip to see the Penguins, and that we did. 

After a reasonable lunch in the town we headed to Ushauia port and boarded Francesco, a catamaran destined for the Beagle Channel which separates Argentina from its neighbour, Chile.

We headed out on our 5 hour cruise past Fort William (the southern most Town in the world at the bottom of Chile) and stopped at the first island where we saw sea lions and Cormorants. Cormorants look very similar to Penguins but the big difference is that most Cormorants can fly and Penguins can't. I actually dispute this fact as I often threw my boring chocolate biscuit across the school dining room in a jealous rage when my friends had a Taxi, Mars Bar or even a Marathon (why did they bother changing the name to Snickers?). Anyway, I digress.

Sea Lions

Cormorants (Sea Lions in the foreground)

The channel had a stunning backdrop of snow capped mountains all along our journey. I wondered if the locals ever took this beautiful skyline for granted.

The Beagle Channel with Chile on the right and Attentions on the left:

Finally, after 2.5 hours at sea (well, in the Beagle Channel), we arrived at Martillo Island where we were greeted by dozens and dozens of Penguins!! 

Stood on his own amongst the dozens of other, smaller, Maguellanic Penguins was the only King Penguin on the island. His orange beak & feet made him stand out from the crowd and he stood there grooming himself as if he knew he was the most photographed Penguin on Martillo Island.

Apologies for the non close up picture, it was the best my iPhone could manage on max zoom!

People were bending themselves into shapes akin to a cross between a yoga position and a contortionist's grand finale just to get the best "selfie" with a photo-bombing penguin in the background. 

Luckily, i'd bought myself a "Selfie Stick" in New York and no-one here seemed to have ever seen one. Cue smug look.

It's basically a telescopic pole which safely cradles your phone and gives you a much better angle to take your selfie from. It connects to your phone by Bluetooth and a button on the handle allows you to take your photo. Hey presto, you're in 2014.

The boat docked at 8:30pm and we went for a early dinner (remember Argentineans don't bother coming out to eat until gone 10pm). Ushuaia has loads of excellent Seafood restaurants and as we're going to eat our own bodyweight in steak over the next few weeks, we thought we'd stick with seafood for the second night running. Grilled prawns and a huge fillet of Sea Bass. Delicious!

We took a 15 minute walk, uphill, back to our guesthouse and took a quick picture at exactly 10pm to prove how long the days are here!!

Just for the record, I am aware of how ridiculous I look in all these pictures, however, if you were on the edge of Antarctica with a shaved head, you'd do what was necessary to keep warm and fashion/pride would have to take a back seat!! Lauren, however, happens to rock the cute, 'cosy bear' look really well and even managed to get all color coordinated too!

Alternatively she could be a bank robber!!

So, early night now and up early to hike in the Tierra del Fuego National Park (the number 1 attraction in Ushuaia), then, a quick flight to our next destination in Patagonia; El Calafate.

Still loving hearing from you, so please do comment if you like reading the blog posts or just wanna say hi!

Loads of Argentinean love 

Gareth & Lauren