´The Emmas´or ´Las Emmas´ as we are now known... adventure begins!

Well on 25th of Feb I checked out of my hotel and into the Millhouse Hostel which was lovely and about ten times nicer than the hotel! After some searching me and Emma finally bumpeed into each other... her flight was delayed, mobile didnt work but luckily we both met in recption. After a quick shower off we went to do some exploring. I wanted to go shopping and get a couple of vest tops but once again the shops were closed! Everyday i have been here nearly! The shops shut on weekends! Rubbish! But we went to San Telma to look around the market and watch some street tango. Stopped for a quick drink and ended up staying in there all afternoon chatting.By the way today is Emmas birthday... she even got a few coruses of happy birthday from the hostel staff and a free bar of chocolate!

After a quick siesta I had arranged to meet some people from the tour group who were still around BA to help celebrate Emma´s Bday. Peter, Torben, Nahoo and the danish girls all met up and Torben said he knew a good bar in a plaza, got a cab there and it turned out to be next door to the one we spent all afternoon in! Oh well! Then some locals told us to go to the habour complex for better bars... it was hard to find somewhere as it was a sunday. So we got cabs to the harbour place which is very simular to the south bank/canery wharf. As we got out of the taxi a strange weather thing was happening. It was still really warm but gusts of dirt was blowing down the road, in a clean area, and everything was banging! Really warm wind!Then it started lightening but no thunder or rain! Really exciting! I love storms! All the bars were also shutting and it wasnt that late for SA. We found a cool one though, said goodbye to the danish girls first. We ended up having a good night, really get on with Peter, Torben and Nahoo and so did Emma. I secretly ordered her a big icecream cake with a candle and we all sang happy birthday! This took alot of arranging with the language barrier! The rain had started pelting it down (again) we stepped outside and within about 3 secs was compleltly soaked! (again). Me and Emma dropped Nahoo off, watched her from the taxi... go into the wrong apartment! then start searching in pelting rain for hers! Taxi man got her back in and it turned out it was a few blocks away!Honestly she is a nutter!

Up early the next day for our flight to El calafate, via Ushuia (wrong spelling) which is the southern most city in the world. Flight was fine, although they had forgot our vegi meal so we were starving. The air hostess and steward were so nice though they gace us some of there own pack up! Coz they felt guitly, bless them. When we stopped at Ushuia almost everyone got off so we just sat chatting to the staff on the plane, the lady had just started learning english so wanted to practice. Then with nearly the whole, reasonably large plane to ourselves off we went again. The 2nd flight was over an hour, over land and i didnt see one tree, house, animal any trace of life... odd. When we got dropped off it was so surreal, just a tiny building inthe middle of nowhere.

Got a mini bus to our hostel. throught he most Barren land. The hostel was fantastic with fab staff and private bathrooms etc, really clean and fantastic views! The town itself was nice enough, abit touristy i felt, wooden builings like switerland types... it reminded me of Zakapane (Wendy). Whenever the owner wanted us she would just shout ´The emmas´... the start of numurous people finding that hilourious!

The next day got picked up early andwent to Perito Moreno Glacier... you must have seen pis of this, it looks like a glacier coming out of a river... which i suppose it is! It is the most fantastic sight and one of the things I was really looking forward to! cannot expain the size, its one of the only advancing glaciers in the world and is part of the southern patagonia ice sheet... the third largest mass of ice in the world! The other two or Greenland and Antartica. The sound it makes too, like fireworks or gunshots, the creaking and breaking of the ice! We spent agea just staring at the Glacier then we caught a boat trip right in front of it which was amazing too! But the best bit was when we put on crampons and went for a 3 hour trek over it! That was just fantastic...like been in another world, you could look down ice holes and caverns and there were mini streams etc, and most of the ice has this blue colour... i dont know why exactly but I´m sure Ben or James will be able to explains that one as it´s something to do with Physics!?! That night we stayed in and cooked our own meal for the first time yet! You do actually get sick of eating out all the time.

The next day was a free day as we had changed our plans so many times, we had no choice in the end but to stay! But we had to move hostels, luckily very near by, to a nearly as nice one! We got bikes which was a bit of a disater... gravel roads and no where to properly go! We had to go back to the shop a few time coz my seat kept lowering itself so my knees were near my chin! Once again ´the emmas´were been a pain and still amusing in name and actions everyone we met...but not on purpose. We tried to make it round the lake but it wasnt happening. So we took them back and went for a drink then a siesta! Which is when we thought the roof was gonna blow off it! there were such strong gales! But something did come of the day... I ATE CHICKEN!!! my first piece of meat for 16 YEARS! (sorry Helen) but i was so proud I even took a picture! It was only abit but still a start... not quite steak!

8am the next morning got on a rubbish bus for our 12 hour journey to Perito Moreno, the same name as the glacier but hundreds of miles away! The road was unpaved, it was like twelve hours driving in the front carpark (work people) only worse, on a bus with no Loo! It kept stopping but not very often and in the middle of nowhere... how the cafes make bussness is beyond me, the bus only goes on this route every other day and we hardly saw another car in two days! Its the infamous Ruta 40 by the way that runs almost all the length of SA! We thought that through Patagonia it would be gorgeous scenery but it was so dull! Just flat empty barren land for 12 hours! So after half an hour it was tedious. We saw the occassional LLama type animal but that was it! One of the toilet stops was just at the side of the Rio Chico river... i had to go in a bush I was so desparate!!! We even started having mirages in the end and getting excited when we saw another car! It was impossble to sleep coz of the bumps and we were right on the back row so it was worse.

We stayed at a hotel that the company pre arranged, it was cold, not very clean and friendly. Then the next morning set off on another 12hr trip to Bariloche (which was confusing as it said perito moreno on our tickets but it turned out to be the name of the bus station...i swear everything in this country is called that!)... same as yest only now the occassional LLama was replaced by the odd Ostrich. And they had the Crazy frog album on repeat for 6 hours! What a nightmare!!! We decided to get off the bus early at El Boson, so at least it was only a 10 hour ride. Lovely little town full of hipies and cool markets.Walked round for ages with our backpacks and finally found a hostel... horrible as it was! Didnt provide bedding, i havnt got sleeping bag so they brought me a dirty cover! Wasnt using that! So we had to go out and have a few drinks just to be able to sleep! Had a nice meal and a bottle of wine then thought we better have early ish night as we had market shopping to do in the morning and another bus ride to Bariloche. However on our way back to the hostel we heard music and ended up in this local disco, just around the corner! And before we knew it we were drunk and dancing like idiots... it was safe though and there were police at the door, which seems common in SA. Infact we ended up dancing with their Trungeons! Not probably the best thing to do (sisters again edit this for parents!) then we were singing on the dj´s mike... something like `Inglese coming at ya´...very embarrasing! but we staggered back to the cold dirty hostel and managed to sleep through right past check in! Then for the rest of the day I was sick and hungover and mad at myself for not been able to enjoy the market I had been looking forward to!

Bariloche... well our hostel here was fantastic! Will be quick about this place coz this is getting long! Amazing hostel, with a tree house and a slide! We had bunk beds and one of them was double bed!!!luxury. looked around the town and it is gorg, set on a lake, stunning views from our window and reminds me of Switzerland. The best chocolate and ice cream too. Good food. Slightly touristy.

Lesley recommended canoping, which we did. It was a good day got picked up by two male guides, who didnt speak english and was taken to a lovely forest where they were zip wires through the trees. We got harnessed up it were like monkeys swinging throu the trees! Very scary but in a good way, the guides once again thought our names were amusing and gave us the new name of ¨Las Emmas¨! there were only the four of us in the whole place very serene. I was worried that they couldnbt give us clear instructions but it all turned out ok and we got by language wise. the worse bit was having to lower ourselve at the end from a tree, like abseiling , we had to hold our own weight (which is hard for me hee hee) I was scared of that bit but it was cool! I think it was 60 metres high? The guide showed off and came down head first. But the most scary bit for me was waiting for a cab back when we were surrounding by waps, it was a serious swarm and they couldnt understand why i was so scared! Those blasted creatures!

the day after we did more of the same, eating, wandering around then we caught a bus to Valdivia in Chile. We wanted to go to Pucon in Chile but it was hard to get there so we changed our route to Valdivia, everything happens for a reason. But we were abit upset. The bus was a good one, comfy and would take up 6 hours. When we got to the customs in Arg we had to get off the bus and sign all the forms then a dog got on and sniffed all our luggage... which always makes me paranoid! Then after half an hour on the bus over the Andes (foggy aand earpopping) we arrived at the Chilian border. We sighed a form on the bus but didnt really know what it was, a local couple next to us were trying to tell us something about our bags, we had brought loads of food and had a feast on route! We thought he said take it off the bus. So we did and all our bags had to go through the scanner. Emma put hers on and stupidly walked off, but the couple shouted her not to forget them! Then i heard a a commotion, with Emma in the middle and all the guards were pointing at her bag... the food bag! They were laughing and so were all the other passengers. Turns out the form we had sighed declared we had no fruit, cheese etc! And we had put a see through carrier bag through full of the stuff! At least they found it funny! What they didnt know is I managed to smuggle two illegal apples through! hee hee. We got back on the bus but had to wait there for an hour! Two off the passengers were having problems... we think it was drugs! But we didnt know for sure.

Valdivia... we arrived late coz of the drug smugglers! Stupidly again didnt have any Chilian Pesos and the bank at the station broken, jumped in a cab and after 7 ATMS we found a working one! Hostel was fine enough, had a six bed dorm to ourselves. Valdivia fantastic, university town and we could have stayed there for days but only had one night! Went out for nice food and the next day strolled around and got a boat trip, massive sea lions just sat right there at the side of the river. Big German population, they came here years ago to help with argriculture etc! They speak olde worlde german though, coz as the language advanced in germany it stayed the same here! We were gald we came here now though instead of Pucon coz it is so nice!

Met two nice Brazilian guys at breakfast, Juan and i cant remember his mates name! Turned out they were going at same time to Santiago as us but different bus but the same hostel, so we arranged to meet up with them there! An a very very very annoying American guy who i was so so so close to punching!

Got a fantastic night bus to Santiago, comfy and the attendent was for erm attentive! He came round and tucked us in with blankets before bed, drew all our curtains! not in a creepy way but he was so proud of his duties! Didnt sleep much though due to the most almighty snoring behind us! (Worse than you dad!).

Got to Santiago and Immediatly loved it, hostel amazing and the area too. Alot of people have said bad things to me about Chile but I love it (only two places i know) but i love it! The poepl are so friendly and its not that much more expensive. We went up some mountains and saw Santiagos answer to Christ the Redeemer! Virgin Mary the statue! but quite a poor comparison! Went on a scary Fenicular and cable car. That night we went out for some nice food in a beautiful courtyard and i had my first full chicken meal! Yipee! gorg aswell. A guy from our room called Jason, from Tazmania came with us. He´s a nice guy, then we met up with the Brazilians for a quick drink, Emma is going to stay with them for a couple of days as they are going the same way! One of them, Juan, is coming to Study at Warrick Uni (Wendy) to study Economics and then wants to work for poverty reduction for the UN! How cool is that! (he wasnt a fisherman or handsome though Phil! hee hee). then i went to bed as had to be up for 4:30 to catch my plane to Cusco Via Lima! Said goodbye to Emma, who is staying in Chile for abit, and felt ready to start the next phase of my trip! Adios Las Emmas! I now have a month to get from Cuzco to Santiago, through Bolivia... which isnt in a state of emergency where I am going (mum and dad)! Ive actually been here in Cusco a few days now but will save that for another time!

Hasta Luego!

Take Care Love Emma.xxx.