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Hello and happy new year from Ushuaia, the most southerly city in the world. Patagonia is fantastic. I don´t even know where to start but we are loving it
here.Since the last blog, we´ve travelled into Argentina, back into Chile and now back in Argentina again. The passport is a bit of a
mess. We´ve already covered 6,400 kilometres since Santiago on 22 December and now we´re just 1,000km from Antartica. Loads has
happened, here are some of the highlights…Hanging out in Bariloche in the Argentine Lake District, tasting the chocolate that
it´s famous for and going for a swim in the ice cold lake to work it off, plus the new experience of kayaking in a double canoe with pedals to work the rudder. In El Calafate, driving down the old estancia road used by the sheep farmers earlier this century when wool prices were higher to take their sheep to the
Atlantic coast for shipping to Europe. You can see the estancias from miles away - they´re the only places with trees (poplars to break the roaring summer winds); everything else is grass,
scrub and occasional hills. Now the estancias make as much money from tourism and are definitely on our list of places to visit when we have more time. New Year in the southern hemisphere - almost warm and almost light until midnight - hurrah!Then to the
Perito Moreno Glacier in the Los Glaciares National Park. You can get so close to it, by boat and on foot from viewing platforms , the top looks a bit like a lemon meringue from the pressure of the
ice and it is a brilliant blue when the sun catches it.We were lucky enough to see it calve - you have to be looking in the right place at the right time, by the time you hear the loud crash, the ice
is already in the lake creating ripples along it. The glacier is one of the few in the world actually to be advancing. Every few years it meets up with the mainland, peninsula on the other side
cutting Lago Argentina in half until the pressure of the water wears away at the ice eventually creating an arch that collapses to great effect for the visitors who wait for days for this moment. It
really was a stunning sight.After that three days in the Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Huge, twisted mountains and the famous
towers dominate the scenery, with walks all around them, boat trips and mountain biking. It was so beautiful and since it didn't get dark until midnight, you could sit out and enjoy the view all
night if it wasn´t for the 60kmph winds whipping round and threatening to take the tent out of the ground each night. The first day we did an 8 hour hike to the towers, up into a valley,
alongside the river, through forests and then across a boulder field in the driving snow - it gave us a taste of what real explorers have to contend with.One night in Punta Arenas, Chile´s southernmost city and enough time for dinner at one of the best restaurants so far - after a pisco sour with calafate
berries, the house drink, the menu included guanaco (like llama but bigger and at lower altitudes), hake, steak and Roquefort. Completely unexpected and a great way to spend the evening in a town
that as a port that certainly had its seedy side as well! Now Ushuaia, a busy port with cruise ships arriving and departing daily for the
Antarctic as well as container ships anchored off shore. Yesterday was a boat trip along the Beagle Channel, past sea lions, cormorants and ´The lighthouse at the end of the world ´ that
inspired Jules Verne, to a Magellanic penguin colony on one of the islands in the channel. The penguins were incredibly cute and photogenic of course, gradually getting less shy of our boat and
plucking up the courage to investigate it more. They would come up in groups, getting closer and closer, until one of them would spook and they would all dive back onto the beach as if a sea lion was
approaching.The sea, until that point had been very calm and great sailing, but on the way back the wind whipped up the waves, which smashed two of the front windows of the catamaran, and we limped
into port two hours behind schedule, many people looking a lot worse for wear and clutching sick bags. It makes you realise just how heroic, and lucky, FitzRoy, Darwin and others were when they found
this place, compared to the swells and winds of the southern ocean. I would not like to be climbing the rigging in yesterday´s seas, let alone anything more likely. And today is our last day unfortunately. We spent the morning spent hiking along the coast in the national park. Tomorrow we head up to Buenos Aires, five or six
longs days and free camping, punctuated by more marine life on the Valdes Peninsula. Rumour has it there is a restaurant serving 12 kinds of Patagonian lamb as well as calafate berry ice cream so
we´re off to find that now….More soonLaura
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