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Hola amigos! I hope all is good in rainy UK!
Since our last blog, Chris and I have been to El Calafate and seen the Perito Moreno glacier. Hopefully you enjoyed the photos. We then travelled further south to the southernmost South American city of Ushuaia. For me, Ushuaia really marked a turning point in our travels. Up to this point, Chris and I had been travelling relatively luxuriously, staying in hotels with spas and the like, transfers and excursions already paid for and booked, without us having to really think or lift a finger. We also noticed that there were no European travellers staying in these places, mostly Brazilians and one lovely lady in particular, who tried to make conversation with Chris, in her pigeon English, about the Suez canal! (Turned out she was actually saying something about Swiss relatives or chocolates?! - God knows!) Anywho, we landed in Ushuaia without any transport or accommodation booked! Very exciting, as it was around 5pm in the evening, seriously windy, and I'm pretty sure I was "staaaaaaaarving"! So in my best Spanish, I asked a lovely taxi driver to recommend a hotel. In hindsight, he must have thought I was asking for a hostel, as we drove past some pretty lovely hotels on our way to a shady looking hostel! Luckily it was fully booked, but they directed us onto another place, which was just as scummy and also fully booked. At this point I'm starting to get a little concerned and I can see Chris twitching as he starts to think of the cab fare we're clocking up! The next place we stop at looks pretty much like someone's home, not a hostel, but there's a spare room with a private bathroom! It's oh-so-cheap and moreover, according to Chris' new and sparkling budget-tracking spreadsheet, we need to tighten our belts for a week or so... so we take it! Breakfast is also included... well, when I say "breakfast", it was more accurately toast and coffee. Maria was the non-English-speaking landlady of this fabulous establishment and I came to the conclusion that she's very much a morning person, unlike me! Every morning she would enthusiastically greet us with our toast and her accompanying commentary on the latest current affairs. From the migration problem in Mexico to how strict Chinese parents make their children work too hard for the "Olympics of tomorrow!" She was such a sweetie! Chris and I grew pretty fond of her over our 3 days with her - and our Spanish came on a treat! I learnt a few basic pronouns like "this" and "that" and "can I" and then pointed like a 5 year-old child to whichever object I needed but didn't know the Spanish for. I also frequently tried to look up the Spanish in my wonderful phrase book, but this proved unreliable. One afternoon, Chris and I needed to wash a few undies, so I looked up the Spanish for plug, as the sink in our bathroom was not already equipped. I found lovely Maria and tried to pronounce my new word. At first, she didn't understand, repeating various versions of the word I'm struggling with. Ensshufe? Inshufaaar? Enkufer? Enchuf? Enchufer! YES! Eventually we have success! But something's wrong. After our initial glee at understanding each other, she looks puzzled. She leads me to a corner in the room where there's a power socket, and says in Spanish what I imagine to be something like "You want a power socket? They're, kind of, all-around." Ah-ha, not that sort of plug, Maria! Anyway, I take her to a sink and she teaches me the Spanish for sink plug - tapon, which, Chris notices, much to his amusement, sounds a lot like tampon; that other well known plug!
Bit of a tangent there. Sorry about that! Basically, I hope you like the pictures from Ushuaia! We had a great time, getting involved in lots of outdoorsy type stuff! Our first day we took a boat trip through the Beagle Canal to the famous End-Of-The-World lighthouse, Fero, and saw the sea-lions and various birds. Very sadly, we didn't get to see any penguins. It turns out that the silly penguins go to Antarctica for winter and only to this part of South America for summer (October onwards). Strikes me they have that completely the wrong way around!! Can you imagine Antarctica in the WINTER! Someone ought to tell them to switch their plans around - would be a much easier life for them! We also learnt how to drive a husky dog-sledge. They were an entertaining bunch! Chris and I had a particularly gassy bunch of dogs driving our sledge, bear in mind that naturally, the sledge, with us on it, runs straight into their path of fumes - phew! We had to drive the dogs over a few rickety looking bridges, which was also very amusing for us and less so for the couple in front of us. Their dogs, seemingly, had a bit of a "thing" with bridges. Stopping to fight with each other only inches from the exceedingly narrow bridge, the sledge being nudged precariously close to the ditches/ rivers! Following that, we took a train ride through the national park of Tierra del Fuego, on the very old historic train that used to transport prisoners to work in the forests. A pretty harsh and unforgiving climate to say the least. As a side point, we have been very lucky with the wintery weather here. The only memorable exception to the rule being our first night in Ushuaia, when I actually thought we were going to be blown away over the rainbow to the land of Oz! Muchos viento!!
So that was pretty much our time in the gorgeous Patagonia region of Argentina! We could easily have taken another week to travel further up the coast to Puerto Madryn, but Buenos Aires (and warmer weather) was waiting! So, really sorry about blabbering on, but it's been great having all these crazy experiences and even greater to share them with you! It's also lovely, by the way, to read all your fabulous comments on our blogs and on our message board! I particularly liked Ayla's comments about my appearance after drinking one glass too many of wine! Chris was reading it and nodding! ... and by the way, regarding making me cry whilst skiing... Not quite! There was, however, one fantastically easy green run that Mr I've-Been-Skiing-Since-I-Was-5 crashed and burned at the end of!! Ha ha ha ha ha! I skied past with all the speed and grace I could muster and shouting "Ha ha! You fell on a green run!" He shouts after me as I race to the bottom "I haven't fallen! ... And it's not a green anymoooooore, ACTUALLY!!" Brilliant.
So hope to speak to you all soon. Take care. Loads of love, Emma and Chris x x x x x x
- comments
jenna Blaming it on the innocent dogs Christo....poor Em! Glad to hear you are giving the cheap-side a chance - less comfort zone, more tapon experience. xxxxxxxxx
james just sounds so awesome, when you get back Chris maybe you can do a budget spreadsheet for keren and i!! big love to you both
Selina Oh Emma, wonderful - thanks for sharing so much with us - I love all the "minor" details - including Christo's inability to admit his skiing was not up to speed!l Next time, I must remember to make a coffee first before I sit down to read you amazing blog! The kittens, alas, are still nameless - we just can't agree - I was hoping that by their behavior, names might suddenly become obvious - wrong! The girl is more adventurous - the boy cautious and squeaks a lot! Both are fast learners and very sociable - they "watch" TV with us, usually snuggled up inside some of our clothing! Your car was driven to Newbury last Thursday; Christo's car engine was run and all looking good - nearly one month down....5 to go! We are off to Canada on 28th Sept. for 2 weeks - did you know? So, not taking laptop so will be quiet, electronically, but nothing to worry about. Was the taxi fare horrendous or - as "good value" as your "spare room?!". When in Vancouver, I think I will try and steer Roger towards this kindof accomodation as all in all, flight was expensive as is the car hire....just hope McDonalds is available on the food-front!! Off now to play with the kittens agaibn. Loking forward, already, for your next blog. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Love to you both. xxx ps Roger has renewed my PC subscription -may do a quick maintenance trip, by car, to PG - 2 short October lets motivates us to go...